Scratching Shed Publishing

From the making of Melinda Messenger to the dramatic rescue of England’s most over-achieving football club Doncaster Rovers, entrepreneur, pioneer and self-made millionaire John Ryan continues to live his dream. Raised on a modest council estate, Ryan was a driving force in the transformation of cosmetic surgery from controversial luxury to one of Britain’s fastest-expanding industries. As such, he helped to put smiles on thousands of female faces and has seen more breasts than the editor of The Sun. And, remarkably, he did it all in order to fulfil a promise to become the most successful chairman in the history of a football club that had, at best, long been the butt of jokes and, at worst, on the verge of extinction. In typically amusing and endearingly honest style, John Ryan reveals how seeing beyond hugely difficult circumstances has been key to almost unprecedented success in two very different fields; along with creating his own personal paradise. Laced with genuine, heart-warming tributes from some of the biggest names in the beautiful game, Ryan pulls no punches with his forthright views on a sport in which the gulf between players and fans grows almost daily. His message will resonate with the thoughts of huge numbers of supporters throughout the land who worry where the game is leading. Dare to Dream carries a special health warning: it may make you fall back in love with football – and life!

Mr Rugby Leigh is the autobiography of Tommy Sale, a rugby league hero, who has devoted more than 80 years of his life to the sport – as a player, coach, administrator and fan. Since his initial involvement as a scoreboard operator for his beloved Leigh at the age of 10, Tommy’s enthusiasm for the 13-a-side code has rarely wavered. He broke into Leigh’s first team as a 20-year-old and became their first post-War captain. Away from the playing action, he spent month after back-breaking month overseeing the construction of the club’s former stadium, Hilton Park. And that dedication continued after retirement when, among a string of other roles, he triggered an audacious bid for all-time great Alex Murphy. Tommy Sale has remained at the heart of the Leigh club into his nineties. He still serves diligently as timekeeper and president. Only the Second World War interrupted Tommy’s love affair with rugby league, and his time at Leigh is punctuated only by a brief stint at Warrington and one glorious, career-defining spell at Widnes. Yet this is a story about much more than rugby. It tells of how one man can go from humble beginnings to being a pillar of society. Tommy Sale overcame an abusive father, survived the horrors of war and suffered intense personal tragedy. He has been a shopkeeper, council official, teacher and headmaster. Told with characteristic warmth and modesty, Mr Rugby Leigh celebrates the life of a rugby league legend.

Down and Under reviewed in the Independent – Sunday 14 February 2010 By Simon Redfern When it comes to World Cups, rugby league has a long way to go before it can compete with the football equivalent in capturing the imagination of the British public. But the 13-a-side version has its charms, especially if you approach it with an open mind and a well-developed thirst, as did Dave Hadfield of this parish when attending the 2008 tournament in Australia. While events on the pitch get due mention, the real charm lies in Hadfield’s Bill Brysonesque take on the people and places he encounters along the way. His mantra is “Don’t let the rugby spoil the trip,” which is just as well given England’s dismal performances, and he clearly loves Oz. Whether discoursing on the fine distinctions between hoons, larrikins and bogans in the pantheon of Australian layabouts or musing on the country’s unique beer measures, he is an amusing companion, the kind of bloke you’d actively seek out in a pub rather than avoid. Cheers for the book, Dave; the next schooner of grog is on me.

The idea for XIII Winters, as its editor, Dave Hadfield, freely admitted upon its original publication, was pinched from Nick Hornby’s My Favourite Year – with which it had one contributor in common. Hornby’s tome was a collection of essays by writers and fans about a favourite year following their favourite football team. In XIII Winters, Dave Hadfield set out to do the very same thing with rugby league and succeeded absolutely. Published by Mainstream in association with Open Rugby magazine, XIII Winters boasted chapters by the likes of Harry Edgar, Martin and Simon Kelner, Huw Richards, and the soon-to-be Rugby Football League boss Neil Tunnicliffe, among others. Its writers may not have realised it at the time but, in the mid-1990s, when a switch to summer was just around the corner, rugby league’s long-standing association with the depths of the English winter would soon be lost, presumably forever. Indeed, such was the chord struck by XIII Winters that Hadfield & Co followed it up with XIII Worlds, an equally lively celebration of rugby league’s often maligned international dimension. Although not as big a seller as its predecessor, subsequent events and the passing of the years have rendered this entertaining, witty and often overlooked collection worthy of reappraisal. So here they are – brought together for the first time in a single volume as part of the Rugby League Classics series. Complete with a brand new introduction, penned by Dave Hadfield himself, XIII Worlds, XIII Winters represents a clear high-water mark in the development of quality rugby league literature.

A gentleman to his bootstraps, Eric Ashton was renowned for fighting fair and with flair. Blessed with matinee idol looks, he despatched opponents with consumate and deadly skill; in his case via a perfectly-judged hand-off or bewildering scissor-move pass. In Glory In The Centre Spot, his autobiography, first published in 1966 and until now long out of print, the man himself reveals how, after being turned down by his beloved hometown Saints, he went on to form a devastating threequarter partnership with Welsh wing wizard Billy Boston at Wigan’s Central Park. After arriving in 1955, Ashton would captain Wigan for twelve seasons – and win three Challenge Cups among a host of other domestic honours. He captained Great Britain and earned twenty-six caps in an era when the Lions were a powerful international force. Indeed, he led Great Britain to World Cup victory in 1960 and went on the victorious 1958 and 1962 tours of Australia, latterly as captain. Here, in the third in a series of republished Rugby League Classics, his story is retold, accompanied this time by a brand new introduction from BBC commentator Ray French, Ashton’s long-time friend and colleague. An array of photographs and assorted appendices are also included, along with an afterword in which a successful future coaching career and fifteen subsequent years on the board of St Helens are outlined. Eric Ashton MBE died, aged 73, in March 2008. Glory In The Centre Spot is a fitting monument to a man who brought style and grace to the toughest team sport on the planet.