SPORTS BOOKS: Mary Hanniganfinds that, given the year that's in it, fans of the oval ball have a surfeit of choice on the shelves
IF YOU’RE still trying to catch up on your sporting reading from 2008, then a new bundle of offerings from the last 12 months won’t help reduce the backlog, not least if rugby is your tipple.
Considering the year that was in it, it's hardly surprising the sport inspired many a tome, and two of them – Grand Slam: How Ireland Achieved Rugby Greatness, by Alan English (Penguin Ireland), and Never Die Wondering, by Eddie O'Sullivan with Vincent Hogan (Random House Press), made the shortlist for the William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year.
English, editor of the Limerick Leader, spoke with members of the Irish squad and coaching staff for his book, which is beautifully illustrated by Billy Stickland's photographs, in which they talk about the background to the 2009 Six Nations, including the disappointment of the 2007 World Cup, before reflecting on the key moments in each of the five triumphs.
(We would never, needless to say, be so vulgar as to mention The Irish Times'very own Grand Slam 2009at this juncture, the one that features exquisite penmanship from, among others, Gerry Thornley, Liam Toland, John O'Sullivan, Johnny Watterson and Gavin Cummiskey, and rather superb photography. It may well be a delightful record of the campaign, but it simply isn't for us to say.)
Sportsfile, meanwhile, brought out a handsome pictorial record of the campaign, a 128-page hardback entitled Ireland's Grand Slam Season, which features the work of the agency's photographers and the words of Denis Walsh.
Declan Kidney's predecessor, Eddie O'Sullivan, had his say this year on his six-and-a-half-year reign as Irish coach in his autobiography, written with Hogan, the Irish Independent'schief sports writer. The low of the 2007 World Cup features prominently, naturally enough, as do reflections on the three Triple Crowns won during his time in charge and his thoughts on his critics in the media, among them RTÉ's rugby panel.
Barry Coughlan's Rags to Riches: The Story of Munster Rugbyis, as the title might suggest, a detailed chronicle of the history of the game in the province, assisted by the reminiscing of Munster legends such as Noel Murphy, Tom Kiernan, Moss Keane, Keith Wood and Paul O'Connell.
Away from rugby, another of the contenders for the Irish Book of the Year award was Kieran Shannon's Hanging from the Rafters, an account of the surge in popularity of basketball in Ireland in the 1980s and the impact of the arrival of players from the US.
The book features interviews with almost 80 characters who played a role in the sport’s growth, many with intriguing stories to tell, examines some of the fierce rivalries that developed between clubs and, for good measure, provides a detailed records section.
Again, as in our rugby round-up, ethics prevent us from mentioning a book by our Racing Correspondent Brian O'Connor, whose quite splendid Kings of the Saddle, which features portraits of 12 of the finest Irish jockeys, six from Flat racing and six from National Hunt, is available in all good bookshops now.
So we'll move on to Dermot Weld's Vintage Crop: Against All Odds. It is the story of the trainer's extraordinary triumph at the 1993 Melbourne Cup, a feat that had previously been viewed as nigh on impossible with a horse from the Northern Hemisphere.
Weld also makes an appearance in Anne Holland's In the Blood – Irish Racing Dynasties, a history and study of the great names in the sport and the connections between so many of them.
Meanwhile, Tales of the Dogs: A Celebration of the Irish and Their Greyhounds, by John Martin, is a truly comprehensive history of the other much-loved four-legged sport in Ireland.
It proved to be a year of extreme highs and lows for Bernard Dunne, and those experiences are summed up in the title of Barry Flynn's biography of the former world boxing champion, The Ecstasy and the Agony.
Another biography won Britain's Sports Book of the Year, Duncan Hamilton's account of the life of English cricketer Harold Larwood: The Authorised Biography of the World's Fastest Bowler, best remembered for his role in the infamous Bodyline Ashes series in the 1930s.
Also on the shortlist for the British award were Ian Hawkey's history of African football, Feet of the Chameleon; Rick Broadbent's Ring of Fire, on Valentino Rossi and MotoGP; John Daniell's Confessions of a Rugby Mercenary, in which the New Zealander recounts his playing days with Montpellier; Nicolas Clee's Eclipse, the extraordinary story of the 18th century horse who sired substantially more than his fair share of champions; and Graham Joyce's Simple Goalkeeping Made Spectacular, the memoirs of a hapless chap stuck between the posts, whether he wanted to be there or not.
While Serena Williams unleashed her autobiography, Queen of the Court, in 2009, Andre Agassi's Open was, undoubtedly, the tennis book of the year.
Unusually enough for the genre, it is a revealing and at times startling account of his life and career; his much publicised admission about drug use is considerably less shocking than the story of his childhood once his obsessive and violent father realised his son had talent.
At the other end of the "talent" scale, by his admission, is John Richardson, whose mission to go from being a below average club golfer to a semi-useful one in 12 months is recorded in Dream On: One Hacker's Challenge to Break Par in a Year.
The title of the book is taken from the response of Sam Torrance when he heard about Richardson’s goal.
Fallen Angel: The Passion of Fausto Coppi, by William Fotheringham, tells the remarkable story of the Italian who was the first man to win the Tour de France and Tour of Italy in the same year. Once he "strayed" in his personal life, though, Coppi went, quite literally, from hero to zero for most of his former admirers in 1950s Italy. He died at the age of 40 after contracting malaria while racing in Africa.
Finally, always worth adding to the must-buy list at this time of year is the Best American Sports Writingbook, the annual and long-established collection of the finest work of the finest sports journalists in the US.
