Best Autobiography - Beware of the Dog - Brian Moore (Simon and Schuster)
Brian Moore, or 'Pitbull' as he came to be known during nearly a decade
at the heart of the England rugby team's pack, established himself as
one of the game's original hard men at a time when rugby was still an
amateur sport. Since his retirement, he has earned a reputation as an
equally uncompromising commentator, never afraid to tell it as he sees
it and lash out at the money men and professionals that have made rugby
into such a different beast. Yet, for all his bullishness on and off the
pitch, there also appears a more unconventional, complicated side to
the man. A solicitor by trade, Moore's love of fine wine, career
experience as a manicurist and preference for reading Shakespeare in the
dressing room before games, mark him out as anything but the
stereotypical rugby player and in Beware of the Dog Moore lays open with
astounding frankness the shocking events, both personal and
professional, that have gone towards shaping him over the years.
Presenting an unparalleled insight into the mind of one of British
rugby's greatest players and characters, Beware of the Dog is a uniquely
engaging and upfront sporting memoir.
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Best Biography - Trautmann's Journey - Catrine Clay (Yellow Jersey Press)
Every football fan knows the legend of Bert Trautmann. Fifteen
minutes from the end of the 1956 FA Cup Final, Trautmann – the
goalkeeper for Manchester City – falls spectacularly mid-tackle. He
continues to play on to the end of the game, ensuring Manchester City
win the cup. An X-ray later reveals a broken neck.
But there is more to this legend than a plucky goalkeeper. Bert Trautmann was born Bernhardt Trautmann in Germany in 1923. Brought up in a country already in the grip of National Socialism, he joined the Hitler Youth at the age of ten and went to fight for the Vaterland when he was seventeen. Despite enduring inconceivable hardships in the name of war, Trautmann continued to believe wholeheartedly in the cause. Until one day he stumbled into enemy territory to be greeted by the words, ‘Fancy a cup of tea, Fritz?’
What follows is an extraordinary
story of transformation. Bernhardt – a Nazi living in a POW camp in
Cheshire – becomes Bert. From an amateur footballer working on a bomb
disposal unit in Liverpool, to celebrated Manchester City goalkeeper
adored by thousands, Catrine Clay charts Trautmann’s conversion from
Hitler Youth star to all-England football hero, mirroring Europe’s own
journey through the horrors of war to a fragile post-war peace.
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Best Sports Book Retailer - WHSmith
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Best Football Book - Promised Land - Anthony Clavane (Yellow Jersey Press)
Anthony Clavane loves Leeds – certainly the football club, but also
the city, and the tribes that make it. Now that he is an exile in the
South, his frequent pilgrimages to the stadium speak for themselves. But
he no less loves the rarely-glimpsed back-streets of his youth; and
even has a feel for the long-gone slums where his ancestors once
settled. Leeds is his promised land; idealised and unreachable, yet
still it defines him.
This is a book about football.
It's about unconditional love for a club, even when it doesn’t always
seem to love you back. But it is also a book about much more than that.
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Best Cricket Book - Slipless in Settle - Harry Pearson (Little, Brown)
Slipless in Settle is a sentimental journey around club cricket in the
north of England, a world far removed from the cliched
lengthening-shadows-on-the-village-green image of the summer game. This
is hardcore cricket played in former pit villages and mill towns, places
with names that sound like 1930s comedians, places that look straight
out of The League of Gentlemen, because they are where it was filmed. It
is about the little clubs that have, down the years, produced some of
the greatest players Britain has ever seen, and at one time spent a
fortune on importing the biggest names in the international game to
boost their battle for local supremacy. Slipless in Settle is a warm,
affectionate and outrageously funny sporting odyssey in which Andrew
Flintoff and Learie Constantine rub shoulders with Asbo-tag-wearing
all-rounders, there's hot-pot pie and mushy peas at the tea bar, two
types of mild in the clubhouse, and a batsman is banned for a month for
wearing a fireman's helmet when going out to face Joel Garner ...
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Best Rugby Book - The Grudge - Tom English (Yellow Jersey Press)
Murrayfield, the Calcutta Cup, March 1990. England vs. Scotland –
winner-takes-all for the Five Nations Grand Slam, the biggest prize in
northern hemisphere rugby. Will Carling’s England are the very
embodiment of Margaret Thatcher's Britain – snarling, brutish and
all-conquering. Scotland are the underdogs – second-class citizens from a
land that’s become the testing ground for the most unpopular tax in
living memory: Thatcher’s Poll Tax. In Edinburgh, nationalism is rising
high – what happens in the stadium will resound far beyond the pitch.
The Grudge brilliantly recaptures a day that has gone down in history when a rugby match became more than a game. This is the real story of an extraordinary conflict, told with astounding insight and unprecedented access to key players, coaches and supporters on both sides (Will Carling, Ian McGeechan, Brian Moore and the rest). Tom English has produced a gripping account of a titanic struggle that thrusts the reader right into the heart of the action. Game on.
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Best Racing Book - The Story of Your Life - James Lambie (Matador)
The intriguing story and turbulent history of a paper Charles Dickens
praised for its 'range of information and profundity of knowledge', and
which Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, simply endorsed with the
remark: 'Of course I read The Sporting Life'. It was the Queen Mother's
love of horseracing that made her such an avid reader of the Life and
coverage of that sport forms the core of this book, but there is so much
more to fascinate the reader including eyewitness accounts of the first
fight for the heavyweight championship of the world and Captain Webb's
heroic Channel swim of 1875. Highlights in the history of cricket,
football and rugby are also featured, while chapters on coursing and
greyhound racing rank alongside surreal reports on ratting contests and
songbird singing competitions. And for 30 years Tommy Wisdom made his
motoring reports unique by competing against the best at Brooklands, Le
Mans and in many Monte Carlo rallies, while Henry Longhurst's golfing
column was simply the best. The paper's strident campaigns for racing
reforms are also chronicled along with its coverage of major news
stories, from Fred Archer's shocking suicide to its own untimely demise.
Its travails in the law courts are documented from its first year, when
it was forced to change its title, to its last, when it had to pay
libel damages to the training team of Lynda and Jack Ramsden and their
jockey, Kieren Fallon. A higher price was paid by its French
correspondent who was killed in a duel over an article he had written,
while the terrible toll the First World War took on the nation's
sporting heroes is catalogued by the Life's embedded army correspondent,
against a background of political bungling that is being repeated
today.
Best Illustrated Title - '61 The Spurs Double - Doug Cheeseman, Martin Cloake and Adam Powley (Tottenham Hotspur FC /Vision Sports Publishing)
This stunning officially endorsed coffee table book commemorates the
50th anniversary of Tottenham Hotspur's famous League and Cup Double in
1961 the first 'Double' achieved in the modern era of football.
Beautifully presented within its own real-cloth slipcase adorned in
silver with the book's title and the iconic badge worn by the team
during this historic season, this lavish collector's item showcases
previously unseen behind-the-scenes photographs and memorabilia and
tells the story of the season through original newspaper cuttings,
tickets and match programmes.
This outstanding volume has been
put together by the editorial team behind the Spurs Opus. Created with
the full co-operation of leading figures, including star player Cliff
Jones, and the official approval of Tottenham Hotspur FC (coupled with
unique access to the historical archives at White Hart Lane), this
sensational publication is the focal point of the club's 1960/61
celebrations which began at the start of the 2010-11 season.
The
1961 Double was truly a remarkable feat given the competition the team
faced that year. Unlike the current football scene anyone of 10 teams
had a shot at winning the league, and every top-flight team fancied
their chances of winning the FA Cup! Great entertainers, and led by the
great Danny Blanchflower, Spurs won their first 11 league games a record
that stands to this day.
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Best Publicity Campaign - It's All About the Bike - Robert Penn - (Particular Books) - Campaign by Mari Yamazaki
The bicycle is one of mankind’s greatest inventions – and the most
popular form of transport in history. Robert Penn has ridden one most
days of his adult life. In his late 20s, he pedalled 40,000 kilometres
around the world. Yet, like cyclists everywhere, the utilitarian bikes
he currently owns don’t even hint at this devotion. Robert needs a new
bike, a bespoke machine that reflects how he feels when he’s riding it –
like an ordinary man touching the gods.
It's All About the Bike is the story of a journey to design and build a dream bike. En route, Robert explores the culture, science and history of the bicycle. From Stoke-on-Trent, where an artisan hand builds his frame, to California, home of the mountain bike, where Robert tracks down the perfect wheels, via Portland, Milan and Coventry, birthplace of the modern bicycle, this is the narrative of our love affair with cycling. It’s a tale of perfect components – parts that set the standard in reliability, craftsmanship and beauty. It tells how the bicycle has changed the course of human history, from the invention of the ‘people’s nag’ to its role in the emancipation of women, and from the engineering marvel of the tangent-spoked wheel to the enduring allure of the Tour de France. It’s the story of why we ride, and why this simple machine remains central to life today.
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Best New Writer - Bounce - Matthew Syed - (Fourth Estate)
Everyone knows that David Beckham crosses the ball better than anyone
else and that Tiger Woods never "chokes". But what are the hidden
factors which allow the most successful sports stars to rise above their
competitors – and are they shared by virtuosos in other fields?
In Bounce Matthew Syed - an award-winning Times columnist and three-time Commonwealth table-tennis champion - reveals what really lies behind world-beating achievement in sport, and other walks of life besides. The answers - taking in the latest in neuroscience, psychology and economics - will change the way we look at sports stars and revolutionise our ideas about what it takes to become the best.
From the upbringing of Mozart to the mindset of Mohammed Ali - via the recruitment policies of Enron - Bounce weaves together fascinating stories and telling insights and statistics into a wonderfully thought-provoking read. Bounce looks at big questions - such as the real nature of talent, what kind of practice actually works, how to achieve motivation, drugs in both sport and life, and whether black people really are faster runners.
Along the way Matthew talks to a Hungarian father whose educational theories saw his daughters become three of the best chess players of all time, meets a female East German athlete who became a man, and explains why one small street in Reading - his own - has produced more top table-tennis players than the rest of Britain put together. Fresh, ground-breaking and tackling subjects with broad appeal, Bounce is sure to be one of the most talked about books of the year.
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