Sheffield Library’s do a lot to promote football history in Sheffield and involve the community along the way. As well as having a good depth in books about football both in the general and reference library and a very helpful team to help you they also offer other services to help many who may be lonely, fighting depression or dementia through sport.

Sporting Memories Group

They have set up sporting memories groups in 5 libraries to help older people unlock  sporting memories  whether they be football, cricket, swimming, Olympics etc. Regular sessions are now held at, Crystal Peaks, Ecclesall, Firth Park, Stocksbridge and Central libraries and they have been a great hit often with full groups and a waiting list of people wanting to go along.

Walking Tour App

Another initiative is the ‘Walking Tour App’ of the places that give Sheffield a rightful voice in saying it is the ‘Home of Football’.

The best way to describe the App is how the Library themselves describe it.

“Between 1857 and 1889 Sheffield had 95 football clubs and the app explores locations associated with these early clubs and the development of the modern game. While visiting ten stops over the 4.7 mile walk you will be introduced to the places and people that made Sheffield the home of Association football.

The app includes audio commentaries, so you can listen as you walk or simply sit and enjoy in your armchair from anywhere in the world.

As you reach key points along the walk content in the app will be triggered automatically. You can also follow your location on an 1855 map, giving you a sense of what Sheffield was like at that time.”

http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/homeoffootball

It will be something I’m sure I will do on a visit to Sheffield in the future.

Sheffield Football Treasures

On the 25th October the Central Library put on a day between 10.30 and 2.30 when you could visit them and see some of the treasures that are in Sheffield that show off its football history credentials. There were displays and talks by many groups showing and explaining the history of the game.

 

Some photos are from Sheffield Library’s Twitter page.

There were as well as the FA Cup some of the local cups first played for in Sheffield and perhaps more important with regards the history of the game at its outset.

 

This support for Sport locally is just one of the ways that Sheffield Library’s are keeping on top of the league and encouraging people to use this amazing resource.

 

 

It is fifty years since the iconic, social commentary film’ Kes’ was filmed in Barnsley using many local people, dialect and locations. This gritty sometimes bleak film was based on a book by Barry Hines (Kestrel for a Knave .1968) and Directed by Ken Loach whose 2016 film ‘I. Daniel Blake’ still shows he can capture aspects of life often not seen or appreciated in all parts and strata of society.

I was able to re-live watching the film through ‘Off The Shelf’ which in its own words is: “Off the Shelf is one of the largest and most accessible literary festivals in the UK. Every year we bring the biggest names in literature and the arts to Sheffield.”  

The film is about Billy Casper a teenage growing up in Barnsley and just about to leave school. Being brought up by his single parent mum with his step brother he has become disengaged with school and what he might do in the future if he is not to follow others down the pit. He finds fulfilment, excitement and learning through bringing up a Kestrel and teaching it to fly to him.

The social commentary of the film is still relevant today with disengaged teenagers stuck in non-fulfilling school days and job prospects to follow. The cane was the go to means of control then as is exclusion today.

The football scene with Brian Glover playing the games teacher (Mr Sugden) is a must watch for all football fans. The picking of teams is classic with the one left, Billy Casper being put in goal in Brian’s team. This is after he tries to get out of games but has to wear the largest shorts you have seen.

The game is played in rain and mud with the games teacher treating it like a top game as he tries to dominate the play through brute force and his whistle. He turns it into a Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur fantasy and creates a twice taken penalty to level the scores. This does not work however as the opposition score in the last minute as Billy dives theatrically the wrong way.

Billy is then bullied into taking a shower despite having no towel and humiliated in front of his peers.

A fantastic scene and film from Ken Loach.

‘Above Head Height’ written by James Brown, published by Quercus in 2017.

Bought from Archway Bookshop in Axminster £8.99.

 

Above Head Height is a book that takes you through James Brown’s football life from playing football on the streets, local parks and school fields in Headingley, Leeds to many five, eight and varying a side games all over the world but mainly in his adopted London home.

It is about camaraderie between players who turn up each week through a special bond of commitment, friendship and knowing each others skill level  but often not knowing anything about their after game life. Apart from the games, a nod as you pass in the street can often be the only other contact with the players.

There are some great descriptions of the kit, it’s storage and the arena’s that James has played on. He also comments on the rules and how they should be changed and the goals that are remembered for life. How you can be Messi, Ronaldo or Kane for a brief moment and how age dictates changes to your fitness level and style.

The book is also an insight into the history of the growth of five a side football into a multi million pound industry that has flowered and has to some degree replaced Sunday football as a mates sport because it is played 24/7 somewhere in the UK to suit our busy lives.

James also explains how football, particularly five a side, has been a constant in his life seeing him through addictions and relationship break ups. It is best to put Jame’s life in context by quoting the short biopic on the back cover of the book: ‘James Brown worked on the NME, founded Loaded, Jack and Leeds, Leeds magazines, and was Editor-in-Chief of British CQ. He is a media entrepreneur, journalist and hosts a weekly show on TalkSport. He is now down to three matches a week.’

What is moving and very personal is the writing about the death of James Kyllo who was a constant in his Five a side life, the one who booked the pitches, organised the teams provided the statistics. The glue that for a long period of time kept them together and it is reminiscent of  ‘We are Sunday League’ previously reviewed. The world needs James Kyllo’s.

This was a great book that caught my imagination and emotions.

 

 

 

A chance visit to Harewood House between Leeds and Harrogate brought me to a house just off the main car park full of second hand books, a must for all book lovers to browse. There on the shelves in the sports section was an intriguing title, ‘Coal, Goals and Ashes’ written by David Waddington and first published by Route of Pontefract in 2013. The £2 price was a steal and I had to stop reading another book to get started.

The books sub title ‘Fryston Colliery’s Pursuit of the West Riding County FA Challenge Cup was a bit of a give away but that was only the wrapper to the main event.

David Waddington is the son of the Fryston captain who led the team to its only ever win of the cup in 1963. For Fryston Colliery Welfare to win the West Riding FA County Challenge Cup was a feat akin to a Division 2 team winning the FA Cup.

The book is not just about football but an extraordinary social history of mining, village life and people. It was published in 2013 to mark the 50th anniversary of the feat and unfortunately not likely to be achieved again now that the club has disbanded.

Fryston Colliery was founded in the 1870’s and the first mention of a football team was approximately 20 years later. There were many struggles between owners and miners but the pit owners had the upper hand as they owned the houses the miners lived in. Early strikes were met with evictions of the families and a new band of workers with their families imported from Staffordshire. This was devastating for the locals but it did have a major impact on the development of the football team.

The author has used many extracts from local newspapers to gain authenticity and interviews with past players and their families to bring the book to life.

Mention of the Bevin Boys who worked down the mines in World War 2 is particularly interesting and their involvement with the history of Fryston such as Len Shackleton, Ron Greenwood and others.

Many of the cup finals that Fryston played in were at Wheldon Road now home to Castleford Tigers Rugby League team and Rugby League was a strong local draw for youngsters to play rather than football. One local cup final at Easter 1927 had an attendance of 2000.

Fryston finally achieved their ambition in 1963 but like many works teams are no longer playing. The books achievement is to show that football is not just about kicking a ball but skill, individualism, friendship, teamwork, adversity and passion.

A great Read.

 

 

 

Your at the airport and you remember that you only have 10 pages of your current book left and you haven’t brought another with you so as to beat Ryanair’s add on’s, you panic and head to W H Smiths because two weeks without a book is a major disaster.
A quick browse throws up no football books so you will have to give up your sequence of a football book followed by something else and back to football. Tension is rising and you need to be heading for the gate. Your wife passes you a book and says you’ll enjoy that one and a quick glance means you can’t make up your mind or refuse.
The book Prisoners of Geography, written by Tim Marshall on how geography has shaped the politics of the world and it’s largest nations turns out to be one of the best written and interesting books read for a while.

So back home and looking for the next book I notice on my shelf of charity shop unread football books a book by the same author, £2.99 from Oxfam, “Dirty Northern B*st*rds!”, published by Elliot and Thompson Limited, 2014.

The style of writing was the same but the third chapter seemed to drag and I became a bit bored. However the next two chapters came alive and I was looking for more by the time I had finished. The humour of Football chants and songs came through as well as putting in context some of the now politically correct condemnation of earlier songs. It showed that football fans have evolved at the same pace as society with regards racism, homophobia and swearing. The stereotyping of Football fans portrayed by some are shown to be caricatures of a past age.
This was a delight to read and I will look out for others by the Author as these on diverse subjects enthralled me and kept my attention.

Paperback edition Published 2011 by Transworld Publishers (A Random House Group Company)– First Published in Great Britain by Bantam Press.

Written By Dave Roberts

This was a book about Dave Roberts life, football habits and his over 1000 football programme collection.

Being forced to choose only 32 due to space for shipment to a new life in the USA he recounts the games or the reason he came by the programmes. Each programme explains his hopes and fears in life, his rise in the advertising industry and his happiness and despair in building a new family in New Zealand and the hopelessness in seeing it all crash around him.

Football is a passion and obsession that helps and hinders him in life but throughout is a love of family and friends that wins through in the end.

I wouldn’t want to spoil this book for anyone else by going into more detail but can fully recommend it.

All those who will be voting in June as to whether to stop the obligation of the EFL clubs to issue a programme for each game should read this book first. Perhaps digitisation of the world has removed the need for programmes, I would suggest that they add to the experience.

At my recent visit to Granada CF I had the choice of a free 32 page programme that included the Managers View, team pictures, plenty of stats, home and visiting team line ups and articles on the women’s and youth teams. All paid for by the advertising.

My Spanish is non-existent but the programme added to a great night of football.

 

 

 

Paperback edition Published 1997 by Indigo – Re issued by Phoenix 2001

Edited by Nicholas Royle

I’m sure you remember that book you start reading and wish you would have stopped after the first few pages. This is one of those books and is made up of short stories that draw you in and on to the next one in hope that you will find a gem to justify you buying the book and committing the time.

The front cover picture and back cover reviews attracted me in a charity shop but it should have been left there.

There was some good humour and perhaps I am being too harsh on the very talented writers but it was just not for me. It will be donated back to a charity shop but even then I worry about inflicting it on someone else.

Forza Italia – The Fall and Rise of Italian Football

Written by Paddy Agnew, Published by Random House Group’ 2007 edition.

This book tells of Paddy Agnew’s journey as a commentator on things Italian, mainly Football from his arrival in December 1985 to mid 2007.

He arrived in Rome with his girlfriend Dympna not knowing the language and initially depending on her small income until he became established. Eventually moving out of ‘The Eternal City’ to a village north of the capital where he still lives with his wife Dympna and their daughter Róisín.

It tells of how he was initially taken advantage of and given the run around by differing people but was determined to get established and get to understand the very soul of Italian Football and how it shapes their society and how the Italian way shapes it.

Paddy has carved out a career in journalism and become a go to authority on the Italian Football scene. He initially worked freelance and for the Irish Times from 1986 until autumn 2017. He has also reported successfully for RTE, ESPNTV, Newstalk 106, the BBC World Service, Reuters, Talksport and World Soccer Magazine for whom he posts regularly.

With a varied palate of reporting on the Vatican, the Mafia and the intrigues of Serie ‘A’ football he has never had a dull moment.

The book tells how he has fallen in love with the Italian game, all its twists and turns, ups and downs. The corruption scandals, the individuals who run, manage the game and the judiciary who have exposed the wrong doings are all there to give you the information to make up your own mind on the Italian way.

This book does not get into the deep feelings of the Italian fans like Tim Parks’ ‘A Season With Verona’ but it does give a great depth of information and thought into the way in which the upper echelons ran the game in the period of the book.

As a historical piece of this era it is very concise and to understand Italian Football of today it is a must to read.

 

If you have ever played Sunday league Football you will enjoy the book I have just read ‘We are Sunday League’.

Written by Ewan Flynn and published in 2017 by Pitch Publishing it tells of the rise and fall of Wizards FC as they race to the top of North London Sunday football as members of Edmonton and District Sunday Football League.

Every Sunday League player and organiser will recognise the dirty kits, hard frosted grounds, taking down the nets, the communal changing rooms, muddy boots, praying for at least eleven of you team to turn up and the on field antics of superstars.

The book also charts the start and demise of the club as mates grow older and their circumstances change, but it makes you recall the friendships made and lost. Wizards were blessed with success but many of us that turned out were for teams that didn’t win every week and sometimes were on the end of a drubbing from the runaway league leaders.

Ewan has also given a great insight into organising the club, the dedication of the league officials and a fascinating section on referee’s.

A book worth reading to remind you of your own Sunday League career or by loved ones who couldn’t quite understand why getting up early on Sunday’s was OK but during the week it was a chore.

‘Pay on the gate’, something rarely heard at a football match, with the ticketing companies and clubs trying to ensure fan segregation, reduce the need to handle cash and reduce the number of employees.

This blog will present match visits and some unusual facts and information to try to increase everyone’s enjoyment of this amazing game.

Firstly I need to declare my interests, St Albans City, Watford and Aston Villa.

St Albans we’re the first team I ever watched and followed only to defect to the neatest professional club Watford and for the last 30 years Aston Villa satisfying the desire of my son to see David Platt play. Throughout this time there have been some great highs and despairing lows but football has provided some brilliant experiences and warm feelings of belonging to a community of fans.