Sport - Almost everything you ever wanted to know - Tim Harris

Yellow Jersey Press ISBN: 0224080202 (Released October 2007) Buy It Now

Make no mistake about it, this is a huge book! Tim Harris having worked in advertising for some 15 years wrote the book on the back of an argument in a pub. The question ? Why do football shirts tend to be striped and rugby shirts hooped. This led him to an obsession with strange stories and oddities behind the many games we love.

The book as I have already mentioned is a monster, spanning in excess of 900 pages the book is crammed packed with amazing anecdotes and stories that will leave you wanting more. Due to its size and style, the book is more of a dip in, dip out when the mood takes you or you want to know more about a particular event. Harris tries to explain how the modern world of sport has developed in the last 3000 years, no mean feat!

The book is beautifully presented and the paper of a high glossy standard not found in many books these days. The book is split into eight sections namely Field of Screams, Nice Guys Finish Seventh, Kit and Kaboodle, Pills and Thrills, Horsepower, Show Me The Money, Playing Politics and finally Hold The Back Page.

Given that the books spans 3000 odd years it is of no great surprise that it begins with the ancient Greeks, their stadia and the fact that they seemed to invent everything !! Harris relies on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey for his Greek sources citing Odysseus and Ajax racing on foot before Ajax fell head first into a cowpat! Surely there's a sport there too? ! He describes in detail how the Greek stadium at Olympia grew due to the pressure from the public wanting to watch the events and as soon as a stadium was completed, it had to be expanded die to the popularity of viewing sporting events.

As the section develops through the ages from the Greeks to the Romans and Tudors to the modern era, Harris delivers the information in a witty no nonsense style and effortlessly keeps the reader engrossed in the fact and figures that ooze from page to page. In 1863 the FA published the first set of rules and there was a great need for football pitches. The following year only one club existed in Birmingham but the explosion of interest in the game saw that number expand to over 150 in six years. We all know how that has developed in the last century !

Performance enhancing drugs and the use of in sport has always been a contentious subject and something Harris deals with in the third section of the book. Not only does he talk about Steroids, ephedrine and betablockers but he casts his eye on Alcohol, nicotine and caffeine to some a much more dangerous drug and obsession. Did you know the first drug related death in sport is attributed to Arthur Linton during the Bordeaux to Paris cycle race in 1896? He was a world champion from Aberdare, Wales and in fact didn't die until two month after the race concluded! Harris explains in greater detail in the book!

Not wishing to gloss over the remaining sections, or chapters if you will but I would be here all day if I listed an in-depth account of them all. Take it as read that each section is magnificent in its quality. The final section deals with the press, love them or loathe them, the media throughout the ages have played a big part in advancing sport. In the early days there was no paper reporting, no written word rather word of mouth. This developed slowly and by the late 17th century the first newspapers were evident. Alfred Harmsworth published the first Daily Mail in May 1896 and sport was reported in greater detail from that point on.

We have now moved to the internet where reporting occurs not in daily form but minute by minute, second by second. We can now following a tennis match shot by shot, football live by text or audio commentary and a variety of sports in a similar manner. Despite the title being “Almost everything.....” I honestly can't think of a topic that isn't covered !!!!

This is a phenomenal achievement and a credit to Harris. I wonder if there will be a sequel ! Highly recommended, the book is an invaluable resource to everything that is sport. Buy The Book

Back to Book Review Index

334notout.com blog: Deep Fine Leg - Latest Posts