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[[Category:New Reviews|Sport]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{Frontpage|isbn=Hurst_Norfolk|title=On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks|author=John Hurst|rating=4|genre=Art|summary=It was pure serendipity: after a five-hour drive, we were, annoyingly, left with an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have the keys to our holiday cottage. There was an art exhibition in the church hall, so we went in - and found a display of the most gorgeous pictures. I'd cheerfully have bought every one and hung them on our walls, but thought that I would have to make do with a couple of greetings cards when I saw ''On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks'' and I couldn't resist buying it.__NOTOC__}}{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Ignotofsky_Sport|title=Running Like A GirlWomen in Sport: Fifty Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win|author=Alexandra HeminsleyRachel Ignotofsky

|genre=SportChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=Running ''Women in Sport'' is awfulcoming to us just before the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February 2018. So starts HeminsleyIt celebrates a century and a half of the development of women's sport by looking at fifty of its highest achievers, covering sports as diverse as swimming, fencing, riding, skating, and much more. Think of a sport and a pioneering woman succeeding at it is probably in this book about runningsomewhere. And she's not wrongEach entry is a double-page spread with a brief biography and a striking portrait.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099558955</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Burrell_12|title=Who Invented Twelve Times To The Stepover? (And Other Crucial Football Conundrums)Max: One Man's Journey to, and Recollections of, Setting Twelve Verified World Records|author=Paul Simpson and Uli HesseStuart Burrell

|summary=In 1982The first of Stuart Burrell's world records, well, the first two, actually, as he's not a man to do things by halves, second division Charlton Athletic staged an unlikely transfer coup came about by signing former European Footballer of the Year Allan Simonsenaccident. If There had been a plan to raise some money for the thought of Children in Need Charity and quite late on the Danish superstar forsaking people who were to have been the glamour main attraction got a better offer and Burrell is not a man to let people down. What could be done to bring people in and raise some money? Most of us would have thought of Barcelona for south east London seemed unlikely then consider that Simonsen jumble sales and cake bakes, but Burrell had previously faked his own death during made a hobby of escapology and idea of a World Cup qualifiersponsored escape had life breathed into it. On 3 November 2002, he went for the Fastest Handcuff Escape world record and immediately afterwards Most Handcuffs Escaped in One Hour. Both were successful and more than £300 was raised for Children in Need.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250065</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Harry RedknappLandreth_Swell|title=Harry: My Autobiography|rating=4.5|genre=Sport|summary=Everybody with an interest in football knows who ''Harry'' is. The cover of his book won't tell you who he is, but if you're not in the know it's Harry Redknapp - football manager and for many of us, something of a national treasure. He's the manager who's seen it all, having started at rock bottom - a 70s Portakabin at Oxford City - and risen to the heights of managing Tottenham Hotspur in the Premiership. At the same time he was the popular choice for the England Manager's job when Capello threw in the towel. It's fair to say that Harry has lived his football life to the full and anyone buying this book will get their money's worth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091917875</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSwell |author=Jim White|title=Premier League: A History in 10 MatchesJenny Landreth|rating=4.5

|summary=I go back to the days when the pinnacle love Jenny's own description of footballing achievement was to be in Division 1, but the stadia her book as a waterbiography and the stands were downmarketI love her encouragement that we should each write our own. Standing - pushing, shoving and fighting - was This is more than just (I say ''just''!) a recollection of the norm and author's own encounters with water; it wasn't s also a history of women's fight for the place for a family outingright to swim. You could get into a match for less than a fiver and top footballers earned less than four times the average wageThat sounds absurd until you start reading about it, then it becomes serious. All that changed in 1993 with the birth Not too serious though – because Jenny Landreth is clearly a lover of the Premier Leagueabsurd. This was the brainchild Not a lover of book blurbs myself, I do always seek to give a shout- amongst others out to those who get it dead right: in this case, I'm definitely with Alexandra Heminsley's ''giggles- [[:Category:Greg Dyke|Greg Dyke]] who saw the potential for turning football at the highest level into a business. Twenty one years on -the top footballers earn more than thirty five times the average wage-commute funny''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781854300</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|title=Twirlymen: The Unlikley History of Cricket's Greatest Spin Bowlers|author=Amol RajanFrontpage|ratingisbn=3.5|genre=Sport|summary=Although they may lack the bang and bluster of the fast bowlers, the three leading wicket takers of all time in Test cricket are all spinners. They may look calmer in their run ups and action, but the effect they put on the ball can be incredible. Rather than blasting a batsman out, they bamboozle them. That's why Amol Rajan thinks them deserving of a book all of their own, and ''Twirlymen'' is the result of that belief.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224083252</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John D BarrowOakeshott_Derby|title=Mathletics|rating=3.5|genre=Sport|summary=As a sports fan and a maths teacher, I was thrilled A Guide to get the chance Classics: Or How to read a book which claims to give us 'surprising and enlightening insights into the world of sports'. This is rather a frustrating read because it seems to have got the balance wrong in many cases. There are some chapters which are so short as to be barely worth reading – one merely points out that while humans can’t run as fast as cheetahs or perform gymnastics as amazing as that of a monkey, we’re better all-rounders than any other animal. This is true, but hardly seems worth wasting a page on, it’s so obvious. Then there are other chapters, like the interesting one detailing the points scoring system in the decathlon, which are good but could have been much better given more space. The decathlon one is a prime example of this – it’s five pages, so one of the book’s longer sections, but could surely have been excellent if it had gone into more detail. I can’t help thinking that dropping half of Pick the sections and doubling the other half in length might have been the way to go here.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099584239</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDerby Winner|author=Gavin Mortimer|title=A History of Cricket in 100 ObjectsGuy Griffith and Michael Oakeshott

|summary=[[A History It's not often that you get a glimpse into the personal, youthful interests of one of Football in 100 Objects by Gavin Mortimer|A History the greatest Conservative philosophers of Football in 100 Objects]] was a brave attemptthe twentieth century, but was slightly let down ''A Guide to the Classics'' co-authored by being Michael Oakeshott is a little too clinicallight-hearted look at how to pick the Derby winner. Being a game imbued with passion, the book lacked this which took some of the edge off Originally written in 1936 it. Cricketis, whilst inspiring passion amongst devoteesamazingly, has a slightly more laid back following; one that may work better in this formatas relevant today as it was then. That saidIn fact, being a game that has been played for five centuries, narrowing it down to just 100 objects is no less an undertaking than for footballthe techniques and analysis employed by the authors were way ahead of their time and have only come into general use relatively recently.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846689406</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen RocheGibbons_Game|title=Born to Ride: The Autobiography of Stephen RocheBeautiful Game|author=Alan Gibbons

|summary=With Football is all the revelations about its colours. And even if I write in the systemised doping culture surrounding Lance Armstrong's season when one team in blue knocks another team in blue from the 1990sthrone of English football, it was interesting 's common knowledge that red is the more successful colour to read a story wear. But is that flame red? Blood red? The red of the Sun cover banner when it falsely declared 96 Liverpool FC fans were fatally caught up in a time before cycling was embroiled in tragedy – and that it had been one drugs scandal after another. Although perhaps not as memorable as Armstrongof their own making? And while we's careerre on about colour, Stephen Roche's will hold a place where were the people of colour in football in cycling history for 1987, when he became only the second man olden days? There are so many darker sides to win the Tour de France, the Giro Dfootball'Italia and the World Championships in the same season. A quarter of a century after that remarkable feat, Roche has produced his autobiography, s history it''Born s enough to Ride''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224091905</amazonuk>make a young lad question the whole game…

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gavin MortimerAskwith_Today|title=A History of Football in 100 ObjectsToday We Die a Little: Emil Zatopek, Olympic Legend to Cold War Hero|author=Richard Askwith

|summary=Given how long it's been played and how many books have been written about itAs a runner myself, any new history I often look for sources of football needs to have some kind of hook to make it stand outinspiration. Gavin Mortimer may have found thatTraining is rewarding, by presenting his history as ''A History of Football in 100 Objects''. This prompts the but every so often a day comes along when I question as to whether the whole of football could be reduced down to a mere century of objects. But then, if [[From 0 to Infinity in 26 Centuries by Chris Waring]] can make a history of maths it is all worth reading, I guess anything is possible.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250618</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Martin Kelner|title=Sit Down and Cheer: A History of Sport on TV|rating=4|genre=Sport|summary=Like many English sports fans, the majority of the calories I burn are used up by shouting at the TV and occasionally going to the shops for more beer and crisps. Sports books tend to be about the sport itself it or biographies of those who expended great effort to reach the top of their chosen sportnot. But in Martin Kelner's 'Sit Down and Cheer: A History of Sport on TV', there Zatopek proves that is finally a book for the less energetic among us.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140812923X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Clare Balding|title=My Animals and Other Family|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Clare Balding was born into a racing family - her father, Ianindeed, was the trainer of Mill Reef who won the Derby in 1971, the same year that Clare was born. Whilst her father would never forget the year that his horse won the Derby he would usually fail to remember that all worth it was also the year of his daughter's birth. Horses came first and they were the priority in Ian Balding's life: the family had to adjust accordingly. He was a gifted and successful trainer who understood the animals in put copious amounts of effort into his care and his recordtraining, including Mill Reef's Derby success speaks for itself. Clare's childhood was separate from the life of the racing stable but she inherited her family's love of animals.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670921467</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Richard Fitzpatrick|title=El Clasico - Barcelona v Real Madrid: Football's Greatest Rivalry|rating=4.5|genre=Sport|summary=Nothing divides opinion quite like football and no-one expresses their joy and disappointment like football fans. For many fans, the most important matches number of their entire season are the ones against their local rivals; the derby matches. English football has races he won over his career as a number of these, but only the matches between Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain have elevated themselves above mere derby status and earned their own name: ''El Clásico'' – the Classic.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408158795</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=The Secret Footballer|title=I Am The Secret Footballer: Lifting The Lid On The Beautiful Game|rating=4.5|genre=Sport|summary=In professional athlete clearly shows the 2012 Olympic Games the UK delighted in the skills shown by our athletes. We were - naturally - pleased by the medals, but what impressed was the training and dedication results of people who were frequently fitting what they did around the day job or study. For the most part they weren't reaping much in the way of financial rewards from what they did - but they shone. The exceptions were the footballers. I forget (and that might well be Freudian) ''exactly'' who beat us, but I doubt that there are many people pleased by the show they made. It's now the beginning of the Premier League season and ''I Am the Secret Footballer'' has arrived at the perfect momentit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0852653085</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan Tyers and BeachPavey_Mum|title=I Kick Therefore I am: The Little Book of Premier League WisdomThis Mum Runs|author=Jo Pavey

|summary=You remember Ronnie Matthews, don't you? He's I am something of a self-confessed running addict: I think nothing of hitting the footballer who celebrated his one – and so far, only – international match by booing his way through the Faroe Islands' national anthem, then getting a red card roads for chatting up the lineswoman. He still thinks he contributed well to 50 miles a vital friendlyweek, however. He's the player whose career in piddling his way through continuously lesser and lesser clubs spend much of my time searching for far too long has only been matched in the recent game by Steve Claridge. And still he's bucking the trend – he's the only author smart enough races to realise that four-hundred page, ghost-written biogs are unnecessary, for he's crammed run all his life, career, philosophy and response to Twitter into an hour's read.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408832763</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Leo McKinstry|title=Jack Hobbs: England's Greatest Cricketer|rating=5|genre=Sport|summary=Back in over the early 1920s, there were only three Test cricket playing nations; England, Australia and South Africacountry. In the summer of 2012That is, both nations have been on tour; Australia recently beaten comprehensively at one day cricket and South Africa about to start until I wound up with a test series to determine the best Test nation in the world. Given that history is repeating itselfpersistent sports injury, it seems appropriate that hung up my running shoes for nearly a new biography of Jack Hobbsyear, England's greatest run scorer and a man who repeatedly blunted switched the bowling attacks of both nations, should become available now.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224083309</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Beth Raymer|title=Lay the Favourite: A True Story about Playing road to Win in the Gambling Underworld|rating=4pool.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=It was a dream which brought Beth Raymer to Las Vegas, but At the reality was that she ended up waiting tables in a low-end diner and living in a distinctly unsavoury motel. A chance meeting brought her into contact with Dink, time I thought nothing could alleviate the self-styled king misery of the citynot being able to run; but now I wish I had had Jo Pavey's sports betting and she moved into what was very much a manautobiography, ''This Mum Runs's world - of high-stakes gambling and a lot of people you wouldn't necessarily want your daughter , to know. This is keep me company because the story elite athlete’s account of how Beth learned the trade Olympics, injury, family, and moved into the world life, in general, falls nothing short of the big money where gambling regulations don't apply. Being sharp was what it was all aboutinspirational.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555395</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul WatsonLee_Lean|title=Up Pohnpei: A quest to reclaim the soul of football by leading the world's ultimate underdogs to gloryLean Gains|author=Jonathan S Lee

|summary=Idon'm t often begin a book by telling you what it ''isn't'' but in this case I think it's important. If you're a huge fan of both football and reading, so fairly sedentary person or a book about football is always likely casual sportsman or woman looking to appeal to me as shed a few pounds then you won't get the best way out of combining the twothis book. Recently, You'll find some good advice about diet but I've read books set at the pinnacle m afraid that much of the game in [[Life with Sir Alex: A Fan's Story of Ferguson's 25 Years at Manchester United by Will Tidey]] and about one man's struggle to bring football it is going to go over your head. Of course you could always take up a foreign land in [[Bamboo Goalposts by Rowan Simons]]sport seriously... On the other hand, if you ''Upare'' a serious sportsman then you could find that the advice in ''PohnpeiLean Gains'' is firmly in could lift you up to the latter category, treading very similar ground to Simons' booknext level of performance.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668501X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Will TideyLong_Mock|title=Life with Sir Alex: A Fan's Story of Ferguson's 25 Years at Manchester UnitedThe Mock Olympian|author=Michael Long

|summary=In his 25 years It started with an idle conversation just before the 2012 London Olympics: Michael Long's friend Sarah gave him a book as manager part of Manchester United Football Club, Sir Alex Ferguson has won everything, most of them more than oncehis birthday present. HeIt was Time Out's taken his team guide to the top history of English football with some lavish purchases, some expert man management the Olympics and a ruthless dedication to his club and his players. Depending which side it covered each of the fence you sit on, this has made him either summer Olympics in chronological order from the inaugural games in Athens in 1896. Sarah's boyfriend James commented that with all the most popularrunning Michael did, or he'd probably have run in most hatedof the Olympic cities. Although Long had done a goodly number of runs, man bike rides and triathlons he'd only competed in English footballtwo of the twenty-three cities - London and Athens. INow most of us would have left it at that, but that'm in s not the latter groupMichael Long you're going to come to know and love. IHe saw it as a challenge and what'm a Liverpool fans more, he blogged about it and then wrote this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408149516</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark KreidlerRoberts_Home|title=The Voodoo Wave - Inside a Season of Triumph Home and Tumult at Maverick'sAway|author=Dave Roberts

|summary=Maverick's For most football fans, non-league clubs (that is one of the biggest, nastiest, jaw droppingly huge waves in teams who play outside the Pacific Ocean and as such has become something top four divisions of English football) are like a Mecca for the worlddistant relative fallen on hard times; you's top surfersre vaguely aware of their existence but have no particular wish to visit them. Situated off the coast of Northern California its freezing cold conditions make it Apart from a far cry from the sun drenched breaks few weeks in Hawaiiearly January, Mexico and South Africa with when the odd non-league club reaches the number third round of surfers adequately qualified (the FA cup and fearless enough) to take embarks on a spot of giant-killing, the cliff lower leagues receive almost no attention outside their small groups of devoted supporters. So what's it like drops probably numbering less than 100to support a non-league team? Enter Dave Roberts, a fan of Bromley FC who are currently plying their trade in the Vanarama National League – the fifth tier of English football.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393065359<In ''Home and Away'', Dave documents the highs and lows of travelling the country watching Bromley during the 2015/amazonuk>2016 season.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian RidleyMcgrath_Darley|title=ThereMr Darley's Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A Golden Sky: How 20 years History of the Premier League has changed football foreverRacing in 25 Horses|author=Christopher McGrath

|summary=Twenty All thoroughbred racehorses are descended from one of just three stallions which came to England about three hundred years ago the Premier League was founded; The Byerley Turk, changing English football irreversiblyThe Darley Arabian and The Godolphin Arabian. Also 20 years ago, journalist Ian Ridley wrote the classic ''Season In The Cold'', last century or so has seen a snapshot of decline in the game at lines from the time. Since then, clubs have risen first and fallenlast of these stallions, players have become legends, and Ridley himself has become chairman to the extent that some 95% of all thoroughbreds worldwide - not one but two nonjust in England -league clubs – first Weymouthare descended from The Darley Arabian, which was originally bought in Aleppo from 2003-2004 (Bedouin tribesmen and again briefly shipped to Yorkshire in 2009) and more recently St Albans City. In this stunning follow-up to Season In The Cold1704, by Thomas Darley, who died, Ridley explore the effect that the changes in the sport have had at all levelsdifficult financial circumstances before he could follow his horse home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408130408</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Goldblatt and Johnny ActonMills_Top|title=How to Watch the Olympics: Scores and laws, heroes and zeros – an instant initiation to every sportTop Of The League|author=Andrea Mills|rating=43.5

|summary=Are you planning an Olympic telefest for a few weeks in July 2012? Football is known as the beautiful game and when I was younger I kind of believed this. Are you one of the lucky people who have tickets I would spend my free time playing Heads and Volleys with my mates and then go home to their chosen events? Or are you one of those many people who are genuinely confused by try and complete my Panini sticker album. There was even the rules, or halcyon days when Blackburn Rovers won the scoring and who would like to know a little more so that they can understand what it's all about? title. If soAs I have grown older, you should look no furthermy cynicism has grown too. We have Leicester may be champions, but the book day I feel that a group of multimillionaires beating a group of slightly richer multimillionaires is a win for youthe everyman, will be a sad one. Whether youPerhaps the love of football still burns bright in the youth of today? 're heading for London or going no further than 'Top Of the television we have League'' certainly hopes so as it is full of facts and figures all about the background to the sportsball they call foot.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684757</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kevin MitchellBradbury_Walks|title=Jacobs Beach: The Mob, the Garden, and the Golden Age of BoxingUnforgettable Walks|author=Julia Bradbury|rating=54

|summary=Despite not being I've long been a particular fan of Julia Bradbury's walking programmes on television - I credit her with sparking my own interest in walking - so the sport news that there would shortly be another series of boxing, Kevin Mitchellprogrammes and a book to accompany the series was music to my ears. This time she's looking at Britain's compelling knowledge of best walks with a view and she roams through Dorset, the Cotswolds, Anglesey, the Yorkshire Dales, the Lakes, Cumbria, the personalities involved in South Downs and the fight game Peak District. Unless you're in the 20th centuryScotland there's something reasonably close to just about everyone, coupled with a staccato writing style which got my attention quickly and kept it to good spread around all points of the very last page, meant this book actually rose far above my expectationscompass.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224075098</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Scott Murray and Simon FarnabyMartin_When|title=The Phantom of The Open: Maurice FlitcroftWhen You Dead, the World's Worst GolferYou Dead|author=Guy Martin|rating=4.5

|summary=Maurice Flitcroft was forty six It's a little depressing when he played a 34-year-old is publishing his first round of golf. Most golfers start on the local course second autobiography, but that's what this book is, and hack around until they develop some skill. Not Maurice. That wasnMartin proves he't his way. He borrowed some books s certainly not short on golf from the library and decided that he was going to enter the Open. Yes – the Openmaterial. No starting at the bottom and working his way up – Maurice went straight The author, for the big one. He ran up those of you who don't know, is a score of 121 mechanic who dabbles in TV presenting and the R&A (thatmotorcycle racing, though it's Royal and Ancient if you're not the latter for which he will be most well-known. As an F1 widow to a golf fan) went ballistic. It boy who likes all things fast, I thought he might be said that they lacked a sense of humour but golf at like this level is a serious game book and Maurice was banned for lifeso, perhaps unusually, I chose it with someone else in mind but made myself read it first.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224083171</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Susan CaseyMccoy_Winner|title=The WaveWinner: In Pursuit of the Oceans' Greatest FuriesMy Racing Life|author=A P McCoy

|summary=They're powerful enough to capsize unsinkable shipsIn any walk of life, wrench oil rigs from there are people who are universally known by their moorings first names alone. In flat racing, everyone knows who 'Frankie' is and can destroy vast swathes in National Hunt, you need to say no more than 'A.P.' Legend is an over-used word but not when it comes to the achievements of coastal regions, flattening everything in their path Tony 'A.P.' McCoy. He's been champion jockey an unprecedented twenty times and killing thousands his career record of people in the process4,348 wins may never be beaten. So what is In fact, it 's tempting to say that makes some menit will ''never'' be beaten. He's won the Grand National, the Irish Grand National, two Cheltenham Gold Cups and it is mostly menwon the Champion Hurdle three times. Unusually for a jockey, go in search he's also been BBC Sports Personality of these oceanic monsters? That is what Susan Casey tries to find out in the Year. He achieved all this engaging, often awe inspiring and sometimes terrifying look at by the world age of big wave surfingforty one when he retired from racing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099531763</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anthony Bateman and Jeff Hill (Editors)Krien_Night|title=The Cambridge Companion Night Games: A Journey to Cricketthe Dark Side of Sport|author=Anna Krien

|summary=Cricket has an international reach which can be rivaled Mere mortals relax by few other team sportshaving a game of footy of a weekend and a couple of drinks, and this book but what does a professional sportsman do to cut loose? What do they do when they go out en masse? Investigative journalist Anna Krien looks at a rape trial of an Australian Rules footballer, just into his twenties and follows the history case as it goes to court, interviewing some of those directly or indirectly involved and digressing into related areas. In deference to the fact that the game going from England around woman had automatic anonymity, she's chosen to give the man who was charged the world name of 'Justin Dyer' in an attempt to level the other major Test-playing nationsfield, so to speak. While it's packed full of initially rather dauntingly dense prose, none of You could Google the 17 chapters are particularly long – most weighing in at a little under 20 pages – facts and come up with the writing styles correct name, but this isn't a book of all gossip about particular people. It's an investigation of the various authors are very accessiblea culture which has increasingly treated women as sexual commodities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0521167876</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Victoria CorenScott_Born|title=For Richer, For Poorer: Confessions of a Player|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Some things are in the blood. For Victoria Coren it was cards. As a child she and brother Giles were taught to play Blackjack by their grandfather. He called it Pontoon but the most valuable lesson was that grandfather was ''always'' the dealer and ''always'' the winner. Giles played Poker but wasn't really a gambler. Victoria was one of life's risk-takers and she leant to the more adventurous side of her father's family. She was unhappy at school, preferring the company of her brother's straight-talking friends Born to the bitchy all-girl atmosphere at school. In the intervening twenty years she's won a million dollars, but for her it's never been about the money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847672930</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewRumble|author=Tom Fordyce and Ben Dirs|title=We Could be Heroes: One Van, Two Blokes and Twelve World ChampionshipsJeff Scott|rating=54

|summary=Meet Ben Dirs''Rumble''. Apart from having one It's an odd word, isn't it, with that sense of the most unfortunate names on record, he’s a fairly laid-back guy whose daily breakfast consists noise like thunder (or even of two cigarettes. Compared to Dirs, his BBC colleague Tom Fordyce – a keen amateur triathlete – looks like Daley Thompson in his prime. But Tom’s ambition motorcycle engine) ''and'' of winning a worldchampionship is still completely unachievable, surely? You don’t go from BBC blogger to 100m champion, football World Cup winner, or even street fight between rival gangs. Author Jeff Scott has picked the number 1 snooker player on Earth, after all. On perfect title for his journey around various speedway venues looking at those occasions when the other handcombination of brakeless bikes, there are some more obscure Championships out there… could these two unlikely heroes make their dreams come trueadrenalin, ridiculous speeds and be recognised as not a lot of space explode into a confrontation on or off the best shin kickers in the world? Not if Rory McGrath has anything to do with track. It's hardly surprising that it! In addition to the Cotswold Olympicks and their shinhappens -kickingin fact, Dirs and Fordyce try snail racing, wife carrying, nettle eating, and many it's surprising that it doesn't happen more weird often given the competitive nature of the sport and wonderful events. The only thing they have in common is the humour which diva-like qualities of some of the pair see in all of themtop riders.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230736157</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Jakob Lovstad|title=Going Mental: Reaching Your Goals in Business and Sports - Full Contact NLP Coaching from a Full Contact Fighter|rating=4|genre=Sport|summary=Some books seem determined to put you off. Unless it's literary fiction 'Going Mental' suggests something that I've gone to great lengths to avoid. The man Move on the cover is bald, bloodied and apparently screaming. I've been avoiding men like that too. '…not for the soft and sensitive!' it says and whilst I wouldn't describe myself as either I do wonder whether allowing Jakob Lovstad to mess with my head is the wisest thing I've ever done. When I realise that he's a cage fighter I'm ready to run. What has that got to do with my business? Because that's what this book is about – reaching your goals in business and sports.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685588</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Teens Reviews]]