By PHILIP BARKER Long before The Athletic, there was the ‘Athletic News’, essential reading for sports fans on either side of the first wo…
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Category: Books and reviews
No superlatives spared for Bobby Robson but ‘media mob’ take a battering
By PATRICK COLLINS, SJA President England lost a football match, and the usual suspects formed an orderly queue. Roy Keane – he of the tender heart …
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Football Annual goes marching on, right on time
By ERIC BROWN Just 25 days elapsed between the last major event of a uniquely damaged season and the thud on my doormat announcing arrival of football…
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Where fact meets fiction; love of Leeds sparks The Damned City
By TOM CLARKE Leeds have recruited a manager full of self-belief and new ideas, some of them controversial, with one clear mission: make us an importa…
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Veteran cricket journalist reveals Brian Close treasure trove of letters
By ROB STEWART Veteran cricket journalist David Warner has rolled back the years with an extraordinary book about English sporting icon Brian Close.&n…
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Diary of a season and with a happy ending – perfect timing for Wycombe Wanderers
They say timing is everything and that is certainly true for a new book on the fortunes of Wycombe Wanderers. SJA President PATRICK COLLINS reviews Cl…
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How sport tried to play on in WW 2 as the air raid sirens sounded
By ERIC BROWN With British sport trying to cope during the current Covid-19 pandemic, award-winning author Anton Rippon has gone back 80 years to high…
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Blood and Circuses ‘a fascinating yet nightmarish journey into the wild east’
PHILIP BARKER reviews Blood and Circuses, the story of what happened to football in the former Soviet Bloc after the cold war ended Robert O’Connor …
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Breath of sadness…Ian Ridley’s moving tribute to his late wife Vikki Orvice
By SJA President PATRICK COLLINS Vikki Orvice was an outstanding sports journalist. She was feisty, resourceful and utterly professional. She had a pa…
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Henderson laments what could be the end of county cricket
Rambling around former favourite cricket venues turned out to be a depressing journey for Michael Henderson who recounts his trip in a new book review…
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