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The Birth of Headingley Stadium

by John Beckett

The accepted view of the acquisition of the land that became Headingley Stadium – the preeminent sporting venue in England at the time – is that it was bought at an auction of the Cardigan Estates in 1888. Former history teacher and legal expert John Beckett examines the evidence and context of events to come up with an alternative explanation.

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Never the Easy Option – The Gareth Ellis Story

The Gareth Ellis Story – with Vince Groak

A shy, introverted rugby league-loving boy conquered the sport on both sides of the world, reaching the summit of the game while continually doubting himself.
Always prepared to work the hardest to achieve his goals, four times he faced life-changing decisions; to leave Wakefield, who gave him his start; depart from Leeds, when part of the club’s ‘golden generation’; turn his back on the NRL while at Wests Tigers, despite being the club’s player of the year on three consecutive occasions; and to choose Hull FC on his return to Super League.
On each occasion, as he reveals in candid detail, he never took the easy option. This book is the story of his glorious career, including the brave decision to come out of retirement in 2019.
Unashamedly open and honest, Ellis defines the nebulous concept ‘club culture’; reflects on his sacrifices to become one of the game’s most revered talents; how the international game – where he won 38 caps – must be improved; and reiterates that his sole aim in over 480 career appearances was to be the kind of player that others wanted beside them.
Never The Easy Option offers rare insight into what it takes to be a professional sportsman.

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Salford Red Devils 150

A Comprehensive Record 1873-2022

By Graham Morris

Salford Red Devils are one of Rugby League’s most celebrated clubs, claiming a history going back to 1873. During the 150 years since, it has claimed numerous honours including six championship successes and eight Challenge Cup final appearances, four of them at Wembley. In 1934, the team achieved legendary status when touring France, their adventurous attacking play earning the accolade Les Diables Rouges – the Red Devils, a sobriquet officially appended in 2014.

Some of rugby’s most most revered names have worn the famed red jersey including Harry Eagles, who played in every match of the inaugural British rugby tour to Australasia in 1888; Welsh greats Gus Risman and David Watkins, both of whom are included in Rugby League’s Hall of Fame; and Jimmy Lomas and Chris Hesketh who – along with Risman – share the honour of captaining a Great Britain touring side. The club continues to produce exciting, entertaining rugby, evidenced by recent prestigious Man of Steel awards to half-backs Jackson Hastings and Brodie Croft.

Rugby League historian Graham Morris pays due homage to all of Salford’s heroes, past and present, via a comprehensive and wide-reaching set of facts and figures covering every match and every player known to have represented the club since its formation. Backed by over 80 superb photographs and images, several in colour, this is the perfect reference book for Salford Red Devils supporters and Rugby League fans in general.

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Wrestling in Honey

The Selected Writings of Martin Kelner

With an introduction by Gary Lineker

‘By popular demand’ is one of those phrases like ‘we must do lunch’ and ‘your delivery will arrive between 9.00am and 10.00am’ that we have learned to take with a pinch of salt.
But in the case of the pieces in this book it is arguably true.

Admittedly, we only have the author’s word for it, but he swears that barely a week goes by – okay, a fortnight – without him receiving an email or a Tweet asking why an adoring public can’t enjoy his gimlet-eyed take on broadcast sport and addiction to half-remembered street jokes in the press or online these days.

The answer is that the current broadcasting landscape means we are all streaming madly or scrolling through our phones at different times, meaning a joke about the late football commentator John Motson’s jacket, which might have played to an appreciative audience of millions a decade ago, might now evince no more than a puzzled frown.

However, on rescuing these pieces from the dustbin of history – Martin’s laptop actually – there seemed merit in the view that a half-decent joke is a half-decent joke whenever it’s told. We think there are a few in this collection.

Where possible we have tried to supply a bit of context, and there are fragments of memoir too, previously unpublished, for anyone interested in the author’s ‘journey’ – as publishers seem contractually obliged to call everybody’s life these days.

We need a laugh in these difficult times – unless there’s been a recent economic miracle, in which case disregard. The good news is that age has not withered those in this long-awaited volume, nor custom staled their not quite infinite variety.

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Who Framed William Webb Ellis?

(…and other puzzles in rugby history)

By Tony Collins

Did a schoolboy named William Webb Ellis really invent rugby two hundred years ago in 1823?
It’s a myth – but has always been a major part of the game, emerging in the culture wars that led to rugby’s great split of 1895.
The debate between league and union is endless. Which rugby code can claim to be the authentic version? Who has rightful claim to the original British Lions? Why did rugby league become the dominant code in Australia? How come it isn’t the premier code in Wales?
There are endless puzzles on the pitch too. Why does union follow football and have a throw-in? What’s the role of the drop-goal in the modern age? And what are the reasons for the decline of scrums?
In Who Framed William Webb Ellis?, award-winning professor of history Tony Collins uncovers and explains these and many more such enigmas surrounding rugby.
He reveals, for example, that rugby was once far more popular than football, that Manchester was a hotbed of the oval ball, and that Leeds United owes its existence to a rugby league club.
So what did happen that meant soccer and not rugby ultimately became the world game?
Based on episodes of his Rugby Reloaded podcast, Collins also explores the culture of rugby, and looks at Tom Brown’s School Days, the 19th-century equivalent of Harry Potter, 1960s kitchen sink movie classic This Sporting Life, the mysterious ‘Battle of the Roses’ painting, and even a Sherlock Holmes detective story.
If you’ve ever had a question about rugby history, then this is the book you need to read.

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