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Scratching Shed Publishing

Sport

13 Inspirations – The Guiding Lights of Rugby League

Edited by Tony Hannan. Foreword by Kevin Sinfield MBE.

13 Inspirations is a lively collection of essays by many of the leading writers and personalities in rugby league. With proceeds going to Rugby League Cares – a charity devoted to ensuring the welfare of the game’s wider community – it tells 13 fascinating stories about 13 of rugby league’s most inspirational personalities.

From the early days of the Northern Union, icons like Albert Baskerville and Lance Todd spring to life. From more recent history, heroes like Mike Gregory, Steve Prescott MBE and Darren Lockyer feature. And from modern-day Super League come Adrian Morley, Jamie Peacock MBE and others.

Edited by Tony Hannan with a foreword by Kevin Sinfield MBE, and including contributions from Jamie-Jones Buchanan, Jon Wilkin, Dave Hadfield and Brian Noble among a host of authorities on the sport, 13 Inspirations celebrates the game’s guiding lights in a way that no one who cares for rugby league will want to miss.

Rugby League Cares – Supporting rugby league’s broad community. Past, present and future.

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Different Class – The Story of Schools Rugby League

By Phil Caplan and Ron England

With a foreword by Neil Fox MBE

Around the turn of the 20th century, schools rugby league was formalised. Compiled from a nationwide archive, Different Class puts a long and illustrious history in context, capturing its flavour with an array of colourful contributions.

Examining the communities from which it sprang, neighbourhood rivalries, prevailing social conditions, stories of overcoming great odds and trips into the unknown, it traces the pioneering spirit that has characterised the schools game, and the role played by teachers as mentors and inspiring personalities.

Mixing fact and anecdote, the book contains a wealth of reminiscences from some who went on to become superstars of the sport, alongside those for whom the school playing field was their zenith.

 

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Through Adversity – The Fight for Rugby League in the RAF

By Damian Clayton, with Daniel Abrahams

Includes forewords by Kevin Sinfield and Paul Sculthorpe

Through Adversity is the story of Damian Clayton MBE, whose relentless pursuit of the rugby league dream has seen him brush shoulders with royalty, tour the world, receive a gong in 2008 and be voted Combined Services Sports Official of the Year.

Despite having long since achieved his main goal – to see his beloved rugby league recognised officially by the Armed Forces – the inspirational Royal Air Force Flight Sergeant continues to give his all to the sport he loves.

Clayton, the RAF’s ‘Mr Rugby League’, has been on a long journey. Since 1992 he has worked tirelessly to ensure the sport he has graced as player, administrator and coach is given the same official recognition that dozens of other sports that military personnel take part in – such as football, cricket and tennis – take for granted.

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In the 1980s, military sport in the UK was run on traditional lines. Rugby league was not recognised, even if many within the services yearned to play it. One man changed all that. Damian Clayton, a young airman from West Yorkshire, did not (and still does not) take no for an answer. Battling against incredible odds, his passion for the game, ability on the pitch, organisation and persuasion skills were matched by grit, determination, a bit of cheek and the odd bit of low cunning. What’s more, he succeeded. Over one thousand servicemen and women now play rugby league in all three Services. Through Adversity highlights the highs and lows, the thrills and spills of the journey. The UK Armed Forces were Services World Cup Champions from 2008 to 2013; in the UK the relationship between military players and officials is exceptional. This unity of effort and purpose is exemplified by the force of nature that is Damian Clayton. I commend this book to anyone who is interested in success against the odds and a ripping good yarn! Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach KCB CBE ADC BA MPhil DTech DLitt FRAeS RAF, Vice Chief of The Defence Staff

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Bantams over Wembley

By Dave Fletcher – with a foreword by Gary Jones

Thrilling. Historic. Momentous. For the faithful supporters of Bradford City Football Club, the season 2012-13 proved to be all of that and more.
Promotion from League Two was always the number one priority for a team that had not so very long ago flirted with the Football League trapdoor. Yet for much of a topsy-turvy campaign, a crucial end-of-season play-off spot hoved tantalisingly in and out of view.
Wembley, though, was very much on the horizon – and not once, as it turned out, but an unprecedented twice!
City’s first visit came courtesy of some outstanding performances against Premier League opposition in the Capital One Cup. Among the victims, a full-strength Arsenal, Wigan and Aston Villa, over two legs.
And finally there was indeed the League Two play-off final itself, which the Bantams – driven on by inspirational manager Phil Parkinson – scrapped their way into via an amazing late-season run of form.
It was an astonishing backs-to-the-wall story that BBC Leeds commentator and Bantams lucky charm Dave Fletcher was on hand to cover every step of the way. And that in his first year covering the club!
With a foreword by skipper Gary Jones – who twice led City out onto the hallowed turf – Bantams Over Wembley is the perfect keepsake of a perfect football season.

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Headingley Ghosts

A Collection of Yorkshire Cricket Tragedies

By Mick Pope

Lest we forget … on the 150th anniversary of Yorkshire cricket:

They shared three common threads – Yorkshire, cricket and tragedy
Compiled by Yorkshire cricket writer and researcher Mick Pope, Headingley Ghosts is a dark collection of over 60 Yorkshire cricket biographies, spanning more than 180 years of the game in the county.
From the Sheffield pioneers of the 1820s to the modern tragedy of David Bairstow, this haunting book – through original research and a wide selection of rare images – recalls what became of these tragic Yorkshire cricketers beyond the boundary.
They died young, they died old; they died in obscurity; they died in poverty; they died on the road, in the air and on the rail track; they died by their own hand; they died in war and they died fighting sickness – collectively they are Headingley Ghosts.

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