The Sports Bookshelf

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

Mike Tyson is regarded by some students of boxing as the last of the great heavyweight champions, the winner of 50 fights, a boxer of such power and ferocity that 44 of his victories were by knockout.  The youngest heavyweight world champion of all time when he defeated Trevor Berbick to win the WBC heavyweight crown, he triumphed in 12 world title fights and is the only man to successfully unify the WBC, WBA and IBF titles. Yet he is remembered as much for what happened on the night of June 28, 1997, in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, when Tyson and Evander Holyfield clashed in a rematch of the WBA title fight Holyfield had won the previous November. It would become the most infamous fight in boxing history, bringing the disqualification of the former undisputed world number one for biting each of Holyfield's ears. Now New York Post sports columnist George Willis has written a book that explores the fight, the background to it and what happened on the night in forensic deta

Craig Bellamy was going to call his autobiography Playing With Fire until he realised it wasn't exactly original. He plumped instead for GoodFella , a word taken from the lexicon of the New York mafia to describe a fully-fledged gangster, immortalised in Martin Scorcese's 1990 mob saga, GoodFellas. The book cover shamelessly steals the typeface from the movie poster, behind which Bellamy, moodily photographed in black and white, fixes you with a menacing stare. The book has a lot to live up to, therefore, before you read even a single page, compelling Bellamy to tell all the tales from a life in which he seems always to have been close to the edge.  The Welsh striker is no gangster but has been involved in violent incidents in football and is familiar with the inside of a courtroom, although none of the assault charges brought against him has led to conviction. He is also a man with opinions he tends not to keep to himself and in sharing those Craig Bellamy: GoodFella

With the latest battle for the Ashes little more than a month away, the cricket book market welcomes a number of new titles, headed by Sky TV star David 'Bumble' Lloyd's latest collection of anecdotes and observations from the quirkiest voice in cricket. Bumble has seen cricket from just about every angle -- player, coach, umpire and commentator -- and the collection of sideways views and hilarious stories that made up Start the Car: The World According to Bumble thrust Accrington's favourite son into the bestseller lists. Now, just in time for England's Test cricket showdown with Australia, he follows up with The Ashes According to Bumble , which continues in the same vein, with a special accent on the biggest rivalry in the game. Publishers HarperSport promise "a whole new cricket bag full of yarns from his years on the pitch and in the commentary box...more tales of Bumble’s time rubbing shoulders (and chinking glasses) with the great (as well as n

Sir Alex Ferguson was not known for shying away from confrontation during his reign as Manchester United's manager and anyone who offended him by deed or word tended sooner or later to feel the hot blast of his wrath. Yet even he would acknowledge the need to bow to diplomacy at certain times, while the threat of fines or sanctions from the Football Association persuaded him to bite his tongue on others. Now that he is no longer an active manager, however, Fergie is free to let rip against anyone who has incurred his displeasure without fear of the consequences.  Publishers Hodder and Stoughton clearly hope he take his retirement as the cue to release the shackles - they have paid him an advance of £2 million, according to reports, to reveal all in a new autobiography to be published in the autumn. Sir Alex verbally agreed to write the book three years ago and Daily Telegraph journalist Paul Hayward is the man entrusted with faithfully reproducing Fergie's views on a