After the Final Whistle

Author: Stephen Cooper
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750965665
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Book Description
As Britain’s Empire went to war in August 1914, rugby players were the first to volunteer. They led from the front and paid a disproportionate price. In 1919, a grateful Mother Country hosted a rugby tournament: sevens teams at eight venues, playing 17 matches to declare a first ‘world champion’. There had never been an international team tournament like it. For the first time teams from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Britain and France were assembled in one place. Rugby held the first ever ‘World Cup’. It was a moment of triumph, a celebration of military victory, of Commonwealth and Allied unity, and of rugby values, moral and physical. In 2015 the tournament returns to England as the world remembers the Centenary of the Great War. Values of teamwork, respect, discipline were forged and tested in war – and enjoyment of rugby helped men through it. With a foreword by Jason Leonard, this is the story of rugby’s journey through the First World War to its first World Cup, and how those values endure today. 'After The Final Whistle' is shortlisted for the 2016 Cross Sports Book of the Year award.

The Final Whistle

Author: Stephen Cooper
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 075248124X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Book Description
WINNER OF THE BRITISH SPORT BOOK AWARDS - RUGBY BOOK OF THE YEAR This is the story of 15 men killed in the Great War. All played rugby for one London club; none lived to hear the final whistle. Rugby brought them together; rugby led the rush to war. They came from Britain and the Empire to fight in every theatre and service, among them a poet, playwright and perfumer. Some were decorated and died heroically; others fought and fell quietly. Together their stories paint a portrait in miniature of the entire War. The Final Whistle plays tribute to the pivotal role rugby played in the Great War by following the poignant stories of fifteen men who played for Rosslyn Park, London. They came from diverse backgrounds, with players from Australia, Ceylon, Wales and South Africa, but they were united by their love of the game and their courage in the face of war. From the mystery of a missing memorial, Cooper's meticulous research has uncovered the story of these men and captured their lives, from their vanished Edwardian youth and vigour, to the war they fought and how they died. One London club; none lived to hear the final whistle. Rugby brought them together; rugby led the rush to war. They came from Britain and the Empire to fight in every theatre and service, among them a poet, playwright and perfumer. Some were decorated and died heroically; others fought and fell quietly. Together their stories paint a portrait in miniature of the entire War. The Final Whistle plays tribute to the pivotal role rugby played in the Great War by following the poignant stories of fifteen men who played for Rosslyn Park, London. They came from diverse backgrounds, with players from Australia, Ceylon, Wales and South Africa, but they were united by their love of the game and their courage in the face of war. From the mystery of a missing memorial, Cooper's meticulous research has uncovered the story of these men and captured their lives, from their vanished Edwardian youth and vigour, to the war they fought and how they died.

Jamie Johnson 6: Final Whistle

Author: Dan Freedman
Publisher: Scholastic UK
ISBN: 1407143948
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 188

Book Description
After near-victory in the World Cup, Jamie has landed his ultimate dream job. But when disaster strikes, are his days of football glory about to become a distant memory?

The Linguistics of Football

Author: Eva Lavric
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3823363980
Category : Communication in sports
Languages : en
Pages : 426

Book Description

Daily Graphic

Author: Elvis Aryeh
Publisher: Graphic Communications Group
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 16

Book Description

The Highlights

Author: Frank Keating
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 1783350202
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 227

Book Description
Frank Keating's work adorned the Guardian for four decades from 1973 until shortly before his death in early 2013. In his heyday Keating's fizzing wordplay and sheer joie de vivre thrilled readers. They saw him not just as a journalist but as a fan who shared their own delight in sport for its own sake and in the stars who made it watchable. He also had a special rapport with many of the greats such as Barry John and Ian Botham. From the 1970s to the 1990s he attended nearly all the great sporting events. Later he became a nostalgist with a matchless gift for bringing the past to life. But his happy, rosy, sunlit view of sport was always subject to magnificent outbreaks of literary bad temper, especially when confronted by committee-room idiots and officious gatemen. The Highlights includes much of his best writing in the Guardian on a huge range of sport plus extracts from his work elsewhere, including The Observer, The Oldie and The Spectator - and from his books, including the autobiography Half-Time Whistle and his classic account of the 1980-81 England tour of the Caribbean, Another Bloody Day in Paradise. Edited by his friend and colleague Matthew Engel, The Highlights is a lasting record of the work of a very special writer.

Becoming a Lion

Author: Johnny Sexton
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 1844883175
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
Johnny Sexton - the man who pulled the strings for the Lions - gives an intimate insight into the rugby life in Becoming a Lion. With three Heineken Cups and one British and Irish Lions tour victory under his belt, Johnny Sexton is by some distance the leading fly-half in the northern hemisphere. Over the course of the Lions' first victorious Test series in sixteen years, Sexton was the man pulling the strings. His try in the third test was the decisive blow, and his joyous celebrations after scoring were echoed in homes across Britain and Ireland. Becoming a Lion is an intimate portrait of life at the highest levels of the professional game - at Leinster, with Ireland, and on tour with the Lions. 'Bracing and fascinating in equal measure' Malachy Clerkin, Irish Times 'Riveting ... Opens a remarkable window into the stresses, hurts and insecurities of a professional life in rugby' Vincent Hogan, Irish Independent 'Captures all the jagged edges that make Sexton one of Irish sport's most compelling characters' Sunday Times 'Sets a great benchmark for sports autobiographies, given that it is so honest' Matt Cooper, Today FM 'Engrossing' Rugby World Ireland 'If you crave an insight into the life of a professional rugby player ... Becoming a Lion is a must' Donal Lenihan, Irish Examiner 'Intensely revealing' Irish Daily Mail

Unbeatable

Author: Eric Haughan
Publisher: The O'Brien Press Ltd
ISBN: 1788495489
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Book Description
In August 2014, Jim Gavin's Dubs seemed unstoppable. They were playing football at a level not seen in years – overwhelming opposition and seemingly growing stronger with every game. Nobody saw it coming: Donegal's beautifully timed semi-final ambush. The Ulstermen laid bare a chink in the Sky Blues' armour; a tactical hole which Gavin immediately set about filling. Dublin would not lose a championship game again for 2,540 days ... Eric Haughan deep-dives into Dublin's seven years in footballing nirvana, an era of dominance and drama in which Gaelic football changed forever. Reviewing crucial matches and speaking to players and backroom staff, he pieces together the story of arguably the greatest side the game has ever seen ... and the teams who tried to catch them.

Red or Dead

Author: David Peace
Publisher: Melville House
ISBN: 1612193692
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 738

Book Description
A New York Times Editors' Choice "[T]he stuff of great literature." —The New York Times | "Red or Dead is a winner." —The Washington Post The place where the swinging sixties started – Liverpool, England, birthplace of the Beatles – wasn’t so swinging. Amid industrial blight and a bad economy, the port town’s shipping industry was going bust and there was widespread unemployment, with no assistance from a government tightening its belt. Even the Beatles moved to London. Into these hard times walked Bill Shankly, a former Scottish coal miner who took over the city’s perpetually last-place soccer team. He had a straightforward work ethic and a favorite song – a silly pop song done by a local band, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Soon he would have entire stadiums singing along, tens of thousands of people all dressed in the team color red . . . as Liverpool began to win . . . And soon, too, there was something else those thousands of people would chant as one: Shank-lee, Shank-lee . . . In Red or Dead, the acclaimed writer David Peace tells the stirring story of the real-life working-class hero who lifted the spirits of an entire city in turbulent times. But Red or Dead is more than a fictional biography of a real man, and more than a thrilling novel about sports. It is an epic novel that transcends those categories, until there’s nothing left to call it but – as many of the world’s leading newspapers already have – a masterpiece.

Ken McGrath

Author: Ken McGrath
Publisher: Black & White Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1785301039
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 247

Book Description
Ken McGrath is an icon in Waterford and beyond. He won three All-Star hurling awards and embodied the defiance and panache that re-established his county as a hurling superpower. And in a career marked with skill and bravery in equal measure, Ken McGrath has overcome serious injuries to produce match-winning performances. But a dazzling playing career is only half the story. In the firestorm of the downturn McGrath lost his sports shop. Then he was stricken with a brain haemorrhage and later, after months of uncertainty in hospital, he was diagnosed with a heart problem which necessitated life-saving surgery. And it is a measure of the esteem in which he’s held that one summer’s evening, at Walsh Park, almost ten thousand supporters attended a benefit game to show their appreciation for one of the greatest-ever hurlers. Hand On Heart tells the tales of the great rivalries with Cork and Kilkenny, championship wins with Mount Sion and the on-field controversies that had everyone talking. It’s also the extraordinary and inspiring story of how Ken McGrath overcame serious illness after an incredible fight for life. As both a sporting and a human story, Hand On Heart is a truly remarkable and uplifting read.