Fever Pitch

Fever Pitch
Author: Nick Hornby
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 273
Release: 1998-03-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1440673047

“Whether you are interested in football or not, this is tears-running-down-your-face funny, read-bits-out-loud-to-complete-strangers funny, but also highly perceptive and honest about Hornby’s obsession and the state of the game.” —GQ A brilliant memoir from the beloved, bestselling author of Dickens and Prince, Funny Girl, and High Fidelity. In America, it is soccer. But in Great Britain, it is the real football. No pads, no prayers, no prisoners. And that’s before the players even take the field. Nick Hornby has been a football fan since the moment he was conceived. Call it predestiny. Or call it preschool. Fever Pitch is his tribute to a lifelong obsession. Part autobiography, part comedy, part incisive analysis of insanity, Hornby’s award-winning memoir captures the fever pitch of fandom—its agony and ecstasy, its community, its defining role in thousands of young men’s coming-of-age stories. Fever Pitch is one for the home team. But above all, it is one for everyone who knows what it really means to have a losing season.

Fever Pitch

Fever Pitch
Author: Nick Hornby
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2005-05-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0141926546

*WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR* Fever Pitch is Nick Hornby's million-copy-selling, award-winnning football classic 'A spanking 7-0 away win of a football book. . . inventive, honest, funny, heroic, charming' Independent For many people watching football is mere entertainment, to some it's more like a ritual; but to others, its highs and lows provide a narrative to life itself. But, for Nick Hornby, his devotion to the game has provided one of few constants in a life where the meaningful things - like growing up, leaving home and forming relationships, both parental and romantic - have rarely been as simple or as uncomplicated as his love for Arsenal. Brimming with wit and honesty, Fever Pitch, catches perfectly what it really means to be a football fan - and in doing so, what it means to be a man. 'Hornby has put his finger on truths that have been unspoken for generations' Irish Times 'Funny, wise and true' Roddy Doyle

The Grade Cricketer

The Grade Cricketer
Author: Dave Edwards
Publisher: Melbourne Books
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2018-09-01
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 1922129895

Welcome to the world of The Grade Cricketer. Described as the most original voice in cricket, The Grade Cricketer represents the fading hopes and dreams of every ageing amateur sportsman. In this tell-all 'autobiography', The Grade Cricketer describes his cricketing career with unflinching honesty and plenty of humour, in turn providing insights into the hyper-masculine cricket 'dressing room'. This one-time junior prodigy is now experiencing the lean, increasingly existential years of adult cricket. Here, he learns quickly that one will need more than just runs and wickets to make it in the alpha-dominated grade cricket jungle, where blokes like Nuggsy, Bruiser, Deeks and Robbo reign supreme. Through it all, The Grade Cricketer lays bare his deepest insecurities - his relationship with Dad, his fleeting romances outside the cricket club - and, in turn, we witness a gentle maturation; a slow realisation that perhaps, just maybe, there is more to life than hitting 50 not out in third grade and enjoying a few celebratory beers afterwards. Or is there? * * * The Grade Cricketer book is based upon the popular Twitter account, @gradecricketer, which has received critical acclaim for its frighteningly honest portrayal of amateur cricket. Now, the time has finally come for this middling amateur sportsman to tell his story in full. 'The Grade Cricketer is the finest tribute to a sport since Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, and the best cricket book in yonks. It's belly-laughing funny but it's also a hymn to the grand and complex game delivered with a narrative pace and ability I'm afraid most Test players don't have. For anyone who ever dreamed of excelling at a sport but never quite made it but still gave it your life, this is the story. A great read!' - Tom Keneally AO.

The Grade Cricketer: Tea and No Sympathy

The Grade Cricketer: Tea and No Sympathy
Author: Dave Edwards
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2017-10-25
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1760639680

The brilliantly funny new novel featuring The Grade Cricketer, hero of the bestselling cult classic The Grade Cricketer. 'A sequel to The Grade Cricketer? It's like junk time in a second innings - something you just have to be part of.' Gideon Haigh. Is life without cricket worth living? It's a question asked and answered by the Grade Cricketer, as he faces a cricket-free future after a devious plan goes horribly wrong. Hilarious, ridiculous and completely true to life to anyone who's ever spent time in a dressing room, Tea and No Sympathy takes us on a skeweringly funny sporting misadventure through the world of grade cricket and the flawed, damaged and occasionally appalling people who play it, from the creators of the bestselling novel The Grade Cricketer. Praise for The Grade Cricketer: 'The Grade Cricketer is the finest tribute to a sport since Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, and the best cricket book in yonks. It's belly-laughing funny but it's also a hymn to the grand and complex game delivered with a narrative pace and ability I'm afraid most Test players don't have. For anyone who ever dreamed of excelling at a sport but never quite made it but still gave it your life, this is the story. A great read!' Tom Keneally 'The Grade Cricketer has taken us so far inside a district club dressing room that you feel like a locker. Ligaments could not be closer to the bone than some of his observations.' Kerry O'Keeffe 'The Grade Cricketer is strange and, I suspect, brilliant'. Wisden

Moving the Goalposts

Moving the Goalposts
Author: Martin Polley
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2002-09-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134766882

Martin Polley provides a survey of sport in Britain since 1945 and examines sport's place in British culture. He discusses issues of class, gender, race, commerce and politics, as well as analysing contemporary sport.

Cricket and the Law

Cricket and the Law
Author: David Fraser
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2004-03-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1135773378

Cricket, law and the meaning of life ... In a readable, informed and absorbing discussion of cricket’s defining controversies – bodyline, chucking, ball-tampering, sledging, walking and the use of technology, among many others – David Fraser explores the ambiguities of law and social order in cricket. Cricket and the Law charts the interrelationship between cricket and legal theory – between the law of the game and the law of our lives – and demonstrates how cricket’s cultural conventions can escape the confines of the game to carry far broader social meanings. This engaging study will be enjoyed by lawyers, students of culture and cricket lovers everywhere.

Cricket in America, 1710-2000

Cricket in America, 1710-2000
Author: P. David Sentance
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2006-03-02
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0786420405

Cricket was played in Virginia in 1710 and was enjoyed on Georgia plantations in 1737. Teams representing New York and Philadelphia faced each other as early as 1838. By 1865, Philadelphia was considered the best cricket-playing city in the United States, competing against Canadian, English and Australian teams from 1890 to 1920. This 30 year span was essential to the formation of America's sports identity--and by its end, while the sport of baseball drew increasing attention, the game of cricket moved from being the game of America's aristocrats to a safe haven for America's nonwhite immigrants who were excluded from baseball because of Jim Crow laws. Here, the game's unique multi-ethnic, religious and cultural tradition in the United States is fully explored. The author explains cricket's ties to the beginnings of baseball and covers the ways in which the game continues to play an important role in America's inner cities.

Sachin, Born to Bat

Sachin, Born to Bat
Author: Khalid A. H. Ansari
Publisher: Jaico Publishing House
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 8184953003

SECOND EDITION The Journey of Cricket’s Ultimate Centurion INTRODUCTION BY SACHIN TENDULKAR Includes four colour rare photos. Sachin: Born to Bat by veteran journalist Khalid A-H Ansari and edited by Clayton Murzello is a unique ode to contemporary cricket’s finest batsman. Despatches to MiD DAY, one of Asia’s leading newspapers, from some of the world’s most famous names in cricket writing – Ayaz Memon, Harsha Bhogle, Ian Chappell, Mike Coward, Peter Roebuck and other luminaries – grace the pages of this book. Tributes from cricket’s most famous personalities including Tendulkar’s Team India teammates and coaches make this publication invaluable in helping cricket enthusiasts understand what makes Sachin the peerless champion he is. The book also captures critical moments of Tendulkar’s wondrous cricketing career from photographers who have followed him throughout his distinguished career. Until his recent retirement, Padma Shri Khalid A-H Ansari was the guiding force of MiD DAY Infomedia Ltd which publishes the newspaper (in two languages from Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and Pune), the Inquilab Daily and other publications. He was publisher of the magazine Sportsweek, which he started in 1968 to champion the cause of Indian sport and sportsmen until 1989, when he took up an assignment abroad. The author of three earlier books, he covered the Kargil war in 1999, the NAM conference in Harare and the CHOGM summit in the Bahamas. He was also a member of the Indian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in 1989 and published the Earth Times, the official paper for the 1994 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. He has the distinction of having covered nine Olympic Games going back to Munich ’72 and is a recipient of several honours and awards. Clayton Murzello is MiD DAY’s Group Sports Editor and has been a journalist since 1988. He is a recipient of two Sports Journalists Federation of India (SJFI) awards for excellence in journalism. He has co-authored a book on cricket anecdotes with former Test cricketer Sandeep Patil.

Not Quite Cricket

Not Quite Cricket
Author: Pradeep Magazine
Publisher: Penguin Books India
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2007-04
Genre: Bookmakers (Gambling)
ISBN: 9780143103226

A Revealing, In-Depth Account Of The Nexus Between The World S Top Cricketers And Bookmakers. On 17 March 2007, The Much-Fancied Pakistan Team Crashed Out Of The Cricket World Cup After A Surprise Defeat To Minnows Ireland. Even As Disappointed Fans Reacted With Anger And Dismay, Rumour Mills Began Working Overtime, Insinuating The Involvement Of Bookmakers In The Unexpected Result, And Hinting At Match-Fixing. Speculation Reached A Fever Pitch When, The Day After, Pakistan Coach Bob Woolmer Was Found Murdered In His Hotel Room. Sources Alleged That The Hand Of The Subcontinental Betting Mafia Was Behind The Attack On Woolmer, And Pointed To The Billions Of Dollars That May Be At Stake When A Match Is Thrown . This Recent Episode Is Only The Latest In A String Of Incidents Involving The World S Top Cricketers. In Recent Years, The Indian Subcontinent Has Emerged As Perhaps The Most Lucrative Arena In Which World Cricket Is Played, Not Least Because Of The Enormous Sums Wagered On The Outcome Of Every Match. Fired By A Chance Encounter With A Bookie In The Caribbean, Top Indian Cricket Writer Pradeep Magazine Set Himself The Task Of Finding Out Exactly How The Shadowy World Of Betting And Match-Fixing Works. He Interviewed Players, Journalists, Cricketing Officials, And Even Posed As An Informer For A Bookmaker For A While. What Emerged In The Course Of His Inquiry Was A Story Of Divided Loyalties And Carefully Camouflaged Half-Truths, Of Players Who Actively Participated In Match-Fixing And Others Who Colluded With Them. He Found That The Money Trail Snakes Its Way Into Every Part Of The Game In The Subcontinent, And Thence To The World. This New And Revised Edition Of This Best-Selling Book Brings The Shocking Story Of Betting Scams And Match-Fixing In International Cricket Up To The Present, And Indicates How Strong The Bookie Cricketer Ties May Be Even Today.