Scratching Shed Publishing

John Coffey is New Zealand’s most experienced rugby league writer, having covered more than 100 Test matches during 44 years with The Press newspaper in Christchurch and as a touring New Zealand Press Association correspondent. His previous books have included Canterbury XIII (1987), Modern Rugby League Greats (1991), Being Frank, the Frank Endacott Story (2002), and major publications to mark the centenaries of the Kiwis (2007), New Zealand Maori Rugby League (2008) and Auckland Rugby League (2009).

BBC Radio Lancashire sports broadcaster Ian Chisnall was determined that a record of the journey should be made. After hours of documenting the details week by week this, The Best Trip, is his take. From being top of the Premier League until 7.30pm on the opening day, through to the nerve jangling ‘Survival Sunday’ at the end of May, this book chronicles the highs and lows of a truly exceptional campaign. It includes quotes from the broadcastable post-match interviews with inimitable Tangerine’s manager Ian Holloway and many of the clips that could never have made it to the airwaves. There’s the inside track on the transfer window drama and a whole range of emotions as the season sparked and then stumbled. Find out what the gaffer really said to Prince William, who sent the club a letter after enjoying his visit to the match against Wolves. The Best Trip is a unique account of a remarkable season.

Teeman also has a high profile in Europe, where his deep knowledge of EEC law enabled him to negotiate deals with Italian football clubs for the likes of Liam Brady and Joe Jordan. In the UK he was involved in famous court cases like the Billy Bremner libel suit against the Sunday People which resulted in record libel damages; a plot to kill President Nkrumah of Ghana; and the Leeds police trial surrounding the alleged killing of David Oluwale which, 30 years after the event, continues to haunt those involved. Teeman is also a former President of the Rugby Football League with a wealth of rugby league-related anecdotes to share. Do not miss this riveting read.

Along with this, it covers Royal Ascot at York and the St Leger at York 1945 and 2006. Also examined are track and stand developments through the years and a look forward to what the future may have in store. The book is lavishly illustrated with pictures from York Racecourse and the archives of The Press and Yorkshire Evening Press. York’s Great Races offers a unique focus on the horses who have ensured York’s place in turf history and reputation at the centre of the sport of kings. Paperback, 256 pages.

Border City Blues is the previously untold story of rugby league football in the proud Cumbrian city of Carlisle. Author Alan Tucker – a former chairman of the club – shares his inside view of the highs and lows and ups and downs of life in English rugby league’s most northerly outpost. Complete with an introduction by the New Zealand rugby league legend Dean Bell, the bulk of the book is a season-by-season account of the city’s longest-surviving professional outfit, Carlisle Border Raiders. From their birth in the early-1980s to ‘merger’ with Barrow in 1997, it is a dramatic story of struggle against the odds and a faithfully produced insight into just what it takes to get a new sport up and running in often quite unsympathetic territory. Added to this is a detailed statistical analysis of every season in the Border Raiders’ existence, including league tables, match-by-match records and individual player contributions. Border City Blues also takes care to acknowledge the history of amateur rugby league in Carlisle, courtesy of the city’s junior, ladies and open-age teams. And it brings the story right up to date with the post-1997 launch of the Carlisle Centurions summer conference set-up. The book also provides short histories of the city’s original thirteen-a-side club, Carlisle City, who flared briefly in 1928; and the amateur side of the same name in 1950-52. All in all, this is a valuable and timely addition to the rugby league bookshelves that no treasurer of sporting heritage should be without.