Bookie prize contender Proud named on longlist for British Sports Book Awards 2015

Organisers of the British Sports Book Awards have revealed a longlist for the autobiography category for the 2015 awards.

It is a 10-book selection that somewhat bows towards the market, with the pre-Christmas bestsellers well represented, among them the controversial autumn blockbusters from former Manchester United captain Roy Keane and exiled England cricketer Kevin Pietersen.

The hugely popular autobiography of motorcyclist Guy Martin and the just-released life story of Indian cricket great Sachin Tendulkar also make the list, along with those of cyclists Nicola Cooke and Chris Froome, footballer Rio Ferdinand and golfer Ian Poulter.

From the world of rugby, the autobiographies of former Ireland and Lions captain Brian O'Driscoll and Welsh star Gareth Thomas, whose life story Proud is also on the shortlist for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, to be announced later this month.

Proud was ghosted by Michael Calvin, who won last year's overall Book of the Year award for The Nowhere Men, his fascinating story of the world of football's talent scouts.

Now in its 13th year, the British Sports Book Awards recognises the best sports writing across a number of categories.  As well as the autobiography of the year there will also be awards for the biography of the year and for the best books from the fields of football, cricket, rugby, horse racing and cycling, plus prizes for best illustrated book and a special category that rewards the best new writer.

The winners of all awards will be announced at a prestigious ceremony at Lord’s Cricket Ground, London next May, hosted by Jonathan Agnew.

The complete longlist for the 2015 autobiography of the year is as follows:

The Breakaway: My Story, by Nicole Cooke (Simon & Schuster)
#2sides: My Autobiography, by Rio Ferdinand (Blink Publishing)
The Climb, by Chris Froome (Penguin)
The Second Half, by Roy Keane with Roddy Doyle (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Guy Martin: My Autobiography, by Guy Martin (Virgin Books)
The Test: My Autobiography, by Brian O’Driscoll (Penguin)
KP: The Autobiography, by Kevin Petersen (Sphere)
No Limits: My Autobiography, by Ian Poulter (Quercus)
Playing it My Way: My Autobiography, by Sachin Tendulkar (Hodder & Stoughton)
Proud: My Autobiography, by Gareth Thomas (Ebury)

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The Masters 1996: How ruthless Faldo hunted down the floundering Shark

The history of the US Masters is a catalogue of great sporting moments. Think of Gary Player's victory from eight shots off the pace going into the final day in 1978, the great Jack Nicklaus charge to win in 1986, Augusta's own Larry Hogan Mize winning a sudden-death play-off in 1987, Tiger Woods announcing himself to the world with a stunning victory by 12 shots in 1997; or, more recently, Bubba Watson's amazing shot out of the trees on to the green at the second extra hole in 2012, setting up an extraordinary win. 

There are many more. But none, perhaps, to match the drama of 1996, the year of what was labelled as one of the greatest chokes in the history of sport, let alone golf, when Greg Norman, The Great White Shark, had a six-shot lead going into the final round, bigger than anyone had enjoyed since the Masters was first contested, yet somehow contrived to let it slip away.

As disaster stalked him through every step, Norman shot a 78 against Nick Faldo's 67, his seemingly impregnable lead turned into a five-shot deficit.  By the time it was all over, a crowd that had expected to witness a joyous victory parade to celebrate Norman's 16-year quest for the right to wear the green jacket instead resembled mourners at a funeral, afraid to look him in the eye as he passed them on the fairway or stepped up on to the green.

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Faldo sank a 15-foot birdie putt at the 18th, which in other circumstances would have been a glorious crowning moment.  But even Faldo, a man with a reputation for cold, ruthless professionalism, a man with troubles of his own as he negotiated an expensive, high-profile divorce, could not detach himself from his opponent's pain.  On retrieving his ball from the cup, he gathered the Shark in a hug and, as if he were an executioner suddenly filled with remorse, apologised for winning.

It is an iconic moment that has revisited in a new book by the golf writer Andy Farrell, who analyses the final round hole by hole in Faldo/Norman: The 1996 Masters - A Duel That Defined an Era.

Norman's emotional turmoil is lived out again as Farrell peers into the psyche of both players, already well established adversaries in a long-standing rivalry.  His portraits of the pair are accompanied by first-hand accounts from the day and the opinons of expert witnesses, exploring every nuance of the unfolding action.

Faldo/Norman: The 1996 Masters - A Duel That Defined an Era (Elliott & Thompson) is available from Amazon, Waterstones and WHSmith.

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Bobby's Open - the story of Bobby Jones and his epic 1926 Open Championship victory is Sports Book of the Year for 2013

Bobby’s Open: Mr Jones and the Golf Shot that Defined a Legend by Steven Reid has won The Times Sports Book of the Year in association with The British Sports Book Awards following a public online vote.

Reid’s book, published by Icon Books, won the Best Golf Book award category at the recent British Sports Book Awards and with the winners from eight other categories formed a shortlist for the overall Sports Book of the Year. 

Around 3,400 public votes were registered, with Reid’s book receiving over 45% of the total votes.

Bobby’s Open tells the compelling story of one of golf’s most celebrated players, Bobby Jones, with specific focus on The Open Championship in 1926 when he took on Walter Hagen and Harry Vardon in one of the all-time classic sporting encounters.

John Hopkins, former Golf Correspondent of The Times and head of the golf judges, said: “Bobby Jones in golf is a bit like Richard Wagner in music, an heroic figure about whom a great deal has been written down the years. This means that the Jones seam has been well mined. Steven Reid’s trick is to have unearthed some new information which he has leavened with material that was known and presented it all in a thoughtful and thought provoking way.”

Richard Whitehead, an Assistant Editor at The Times, added: “We’re delighted that such a wonderful work of sports history has been voted Times Sports Book of the Year. Steven Reid’s book certainly had stiff competition but it is a very worthy winner. I’m sure Bobby Jones would have been delighted, too.”

British Sports Book Awards - The Winners

The full shortlists

Bobby's Open: Mr. Jones and the Golf Shot That Defined a Legend

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Broadbent, Haigh and Finn among eight writers honoured at British Sports Book Awards - and how you can vote for the best of the best

Congratulations to Rick Broadbent, Gideon Haigh, David Walsh, Julian Muscat, Graham Hunter, Adharanand Finn, Steven Reid and Stephen Cooper -- eight fine authors who scooped the writing prizes at the British Sports Book Awards.

Broadbent, best known as the athletics correspondent of The Times (and the ghost of Jessica Ennis's autobiography), won the motorsports category for That Near-Death Thing, his excellent work on the Isle of Man TT Races seen through the eyes of four riders.  Murray Walker's accolade says it all: "Nobody has succeeded in capturing the spirit of the greatest Motor Sport event with a fraction of the success that Broadbent has."

No surprise that the Australian writer Haigh claimed the cricket category prize for On Warne, his analysis of Australia's great leg spinner as a cricketer and a person.  Haigh rarely seems to write a duff sentence, let alone an ordinary book.  This one is a series of beautifully crafted essays examining Warne's life from different angles.

After Tyler Hamilton won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award last autumn partly on the basis that his book The Secret Race changed the sport of cycling, detailing his role in the downfall of his former teammate, Lance Armstrong, it is no surprise that Sunday Times journalist David Walsh should win the autobiography/biography prize for Seven Deadly Sins, the full chronicle of his quest to establish the truth about the disgraced American rider's cheating.

Graham Hunter, the Scottish journalist based in Spain, took the best football book award for Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World, which goes behind the success of Messi, Iniesta, Xavi and the rest of Barcelona's brilliant team to reveal how the Catalan side evolved into one of the best the world has seen.

The best horseracing book was judged to be Julian Muscat's Her Majesty's Pleasure, in which the Racing Post journalist paints a revealing portrait of The Queen via the company in which she is said to feel most at ease, among the racing community.   Members of what might be termed the royal circle tend to be guarded about what they reveal but Muscat's interviewees offered some candid anecdotes.

Stephen Cooper took the award for best rugby book for The Final Whistle, his fascinating story of 15 Rosslyn Park rugby players killed in the First World War, while Adharanand Finn was named best new writer for his entertaining Running With the Kenyans, in which he sought to discover the secrets of the world's greatest distance runners.

The golf prize was won by Steven Reid, the historian of Royal Lytham and St Anne's golf club for Bobby's Open, the story of the American golfer Bobby Jones, who played as an amateur and is the only player to have won the Grand Slam of US and British amateur championships, the Open and the US Open in the same calendar year (1930).

One of the winning titles will be named as The Times Sports Book of the Year, to be determined by a public online vote, which closes at midnight on June 7, 2013.  You can vote by visiting www.britishsportsbookawards.co.uk. 

The awards presentations at Lord's cricket ground also featured a special tribute to the late Christopher Martin-Jenkins, the journalist, author and commentator, whose widow, Judy, accepted an award for Outstanding Contribution to Sports Writing on his CMJ's behalf.

The full list of winners is as follows:

Best New Writer

Running with the Kenyans: Discovering the Secrets of the Fastest People on Earth, by Adharanand Finn (Faber and Faber)

Best Autobiography / Biography (in association with The Times)

Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong, by David Walsh (Simon & Schuster)

Best Cricket Book (in association with Littlehampton Book Services)

On Warne, by Gideon Haigh (Simon & Schuster)

Best Football Book (in association with Lycamobile)

Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World, by Graham Hunter (BackPage Press)

Best Golf Book (in association with St Andrews – Old Course Hotel Golf Resort & Spa and Hamilton Grand)

Bobby's Open: Mr. Jones and the Golf Shot That Defined a Legend, by Steven Reid (Icon Books)

Best Horseracing Book (in association with Ladbrokes)

Her Majesty's Pleasure: How Horseracing Enthrals the Queen, by Julian Muscat (Racing Post Books)

Best Rugby Book (in association with BT Sport)

The Final Whistle: The Great War in Fifteen Players, by Stephen Cooper (The History Press)

Best Motorsports Book (in association with Arbuthnot Latham)

That Near Death Thing: Inside the TT - Most Dangerous Race in the World, by Rick Broadbent (Orion)

Best Illustrated Book (in association with Getty Images)

21 Days to Glory: The Official Team Sky Book of the 2012 Tour de France, by Team Sky and Dave Brailsford (HarperCollins)

Outstanding Contribution to Sports Writing

Christopher Martin-Jenkins

Best Publicity Award (in association with PPC)

Be Careful What You Wish For, by Simon Jordan – Bethan Jones (Yellow Jersey Press)

Sports Book Retailer of the Year (in association with Simon & Schuster)

Foyles

For more information and to buy, click on the links.

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Best golf books: a Sports Bookshelf top 10 of the most popular books about golf, including a new history of the Ryder Cup

Did you love the Ryder Cup? Are you already a committed golf fan, or did the great comeback in Medinah open up a new dimension to your sporting fascinations?

Golf has traditionally been a source of good reading for sports fans, and no sport offers a greater proliferation of instructional guides for the enthusiastic amateur.

Here is The Sports Bookshelf's potted guide to 10 of today's most popular golf books. Click on the picture or text links for more information and to buy.

Out of Bounds: Legendary Tales From the 19th Hole, by Sam Torrance (Simon & Schuster)

Sam Torrance, Scottish golfing legend, veteran of eight Ryder Cups, sank the winning put as Europe ended 28 years of US dominance at The Belfry in 1985 and returned to the Midlands course as winning captain in 2002. A natural raconteur, Sam has a fund of insights and anecdotes, some hilarious, some eyebrow-raising. In this new book, he divulges tall tales from the great, the good and the not-so-good in the world of golf, from Ryder Cup clinching moments to what really goes on in the clubhouse bar.

The Big Miss: My Years Coaching Tiger Woods, by Hank Haney (Crown Archteype)

Hank Haney was swing coach to Tiger Woods for six years until their relationship broke down acrimoniously in 2010.  During those years the supremely gifted golfer collected six major championships only to fall from grace over a series of scandals in his personal life.  Haney had the chance to observe Woods in nearly every circumstance: at tournaments, on the practice range, over meals, with his wife, Elin, and relaxing with friends.  This is his candid account of what he saw.

Ben Hogan's Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, by Ben Hogan and Herbert Warren Wind (Crown Archetypes)

Ben Hogan, one of the greatest golfers in the history of the sport, believed that any golfer with average coordination can learn to break 80 - if they applied themselves patiently and intelligently. This classic book sets out the fundamental skills that Hogan argued were essential for a golfer to make his or her game work -- from tee to green, whether an amateur or a professional. Supported by clear illustrations, Hogan's Five Lessons has become a must-have reference.

The Ryder Cup: The Complete History of Golf's Greatest Competition, by Nick Callow (Carlton Books)

Published on the eve of the Medinah contest, this is the beautifully illustrated complete story of the Ryder Cup, from the tournament's launch in 1927 when Great Britain played the USA for a trophy provided by Samuel Ryder, a Hertfordshire seed merchant, through the post-war dominance of the US team, to the titanic, knife-edge struggles of the modern day.  Author Nick Callow recalls each Ryder Cup, along with the great players and pairings, the captains and the courses that have created its special history.

The Timeless Swing by Tom Watson and Nick Seitz (Simon & Schuster)

Tom Watson, five times winner of the Open, was known as a shotmaker's shotmaker, a master of any shot under any conditions, and the finest foul-weather golfer of all time. Watson relied on a swing that has stood the test of time as an unmatched model of good mechanics, rhythm and repeatability. In The Timeless Swing, Watson offers a lifetime's worth of wisdom and insight into the game of golf, showing how to become a better player at any age, distilling the most important lessons to help any golfer improve his or her swing.

Every Shot I Take: Lessons Learned about Golf, Life and a Father's Love, by Davis Love III (Simon & Schuster)

US Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III was encouraged by his father, Davis Love Jr, to put in the time to learn and understand the physical and mental components of the game that turn a golfer into a champion. In Every Shot I Take, he shares the lessons he learned about how to play golf with power, with skill, and with joy. Those classic lessons range widely, from the psychological to the physical and include Love's Ten Commandments of Putting.

Monty: The Autobiography, by Colin Montgomerie (Orion)

Colin Montgomerie, who was ranked Europe's number one golfer for an unparalleled seven years in a row and won the European Order of Merit eight times, is best known for his amazing contributions to the European Ryder Cup team - eight times as a player undefeated in singles and, most recently, as the victorious 2010 European captain.  Montgomerie's autobiography is the story of both a prodigious talent and complex personality and a quest to achieve personal and professional balance.

The Unstoppable Golfer, by Dr Bob Rotella (Simon & Schuster)

More than two-thirds of the shots a golfer makes are short ones: putts, chips, and pitches. Whether a golfer wants to win the Masters or just five pounds from his mates on Saturday morning, the little shots are the ones that make the difference. In The Unstoppable Golfer, coaching guru Bob Rotella, who has worked with stars such as Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell, teaches readers how to use their minds to master the short game, by achieving a calm state of mind in which the focus is only one thing -- the hole.

501 Excuses for a Bad Golf Shot, by Justin Exner (Sourcebooks)

1. A drop of sweat fell in my eye, and I missed the ball. 2. I stubbed my toe on the base of my bed, now I can't wear my golf shoes. 3. I've only played with these clubs twice. 4. My rain suit is too tight and I can't swing my club smoothly. 5. The tee was leaning too far forward.  Anyone can hit a great shot and brag; the challenge is to shank a tee shot and still make your mates laugh. This hilarious book will tickle any golfer, though you need not be a golf enthusiast to enjoy it. A must for the 19th hole.

A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the PGA Tour, by John Feinstein (Sphere)

American sports writer John Feinstein borrowed the line often attributed, probably incorrectly, to Mark Twain as the title for his behind-the-scenes account of an unusually turbulent year in the punishingly competitive world of the US professional golf, one that began with the tense US victory in the 1993 Ryder Cup at The Belfry. It has become a classic, both for its revealing portraits of the leading golfers of the time, particularly Nick Price, Tom Watson, Greg Norman and then rising star Paul Azinger, and for the way the author highlighted the pressures of a high-profile sport with virtually no off-season and the psychological impact those pressures make in a game in which a player's biggest opponent is invariably himself.

Some new golf books...

• Dave Pelz's Putting Games: The More You Play, the Better You Putt
• Bedside Golf, by Peter Alliss (paperback edition)
• Unconscious Scoring: Dave Stockton's Guide to Saving Shots Around the Green
• Strength Training for Golfers, by John Little
• David Graham: From Ridicule to Acclaim, by Russell James
• 1001 Golf Holes You Must Play Before You Die (paperback edition), edited by Jeff Barr

And coming soon...

• The Open Championship 2012: The Official Story, by the Royal and Ancient
• The Golfer's Bucket List, by Gary Player
• An Open Book: My Autobiography, by Darren Clarke
• The Irish Majors, by Philip Reid

Browse more golf books at The Sports Bookshelf Shop

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