Somebody Stole My Game Chris Laidlaw HodderMoa, $39.99, ISBN 9781869711924 The Awa Book of New Zealand Sports Writing Harry Ricketts (ed) Awa Press, $40.00, ISBN 9780958291620 These two books complement each other, and their paths criss-cross. In Somebody Stole My…
Conquerors of Time Lynn McConnell SportsBooks, UK£10.00, ISBN 9781899807888 January 5 was the centenary of the birth of Jack Lovelock. A cake was cut at Timaru Boys’ High School, and a plaque was unveiled at his unlikely birthplace, the literally-named…
From Poverty Bay to Broadway: The Story Of Tom Heeney Lydia Monin Hodder Moa, $39.99, ISBN 9781869711252 You play rugby and a host of other sports that have a greater or lesser degree of body contact in them. But you…
Against the Odds: Matt Te Pou and Maori Rugby Matt Te Pou and Matt McIlraith Huia, $40.00, ISBN 1869692519 In the early winter of 1952 a frisson spread around the campus of St Patrick’s College, Silverstream: a brilliant young Maori…
How to Catch a Cricket Match Harry Ricketts Awa Press, $24.99, ISBN 9780958662903 Harry Ricketts’ game plan is simple. He and a Victoria University colleague, Tony (like a character in a Russian novel he has no surname but a defining…
John Wright’s Indian Summers John Wright with Sharda Ugra and Paul Thomas Hodder Moa Beckett, $49.99, ISBN 9781869710620 In a sport largely populated by talented solipsists, former New Zealand captain John Wright has always stood out within cricket for his…
Inside Anton Oliver with Brian Turner Hodder Moa, $49.99, ISBN 1869589912 The Winter Game: Rediscovering the Passion of Rugby Todd R Nicholls Mainstream Publishing, $49.95, ISBN 1840189150 The New Zealand book trade has long had a vested interest in demythologising…
Anthony Wilding: A Sporting Life Len and Shelley Richardson Canterbury University Press, $49.95, ISBN 187725701X New Zealand seems to produce a sports champion of world significance every year or two these days: Rob Waddell, Sarah Ulmer, Michael Campbell, Hamish Carter,…
A Tramper’s Journey Mark Pickering Craig Potton Publishing, $29.99, ISBN 1877333174 Ride: The Story of Cycling in New Zealand The Kennett Brothers The Kennett Brothers, $39.95, ISBN 095834907X Just this week, someone I know who cannot bear to be more…
Tackling Rugby Myths: Rugby and New Zealand Society 1854-2004 ed Greg Ryan University of Otago Press, $39.95, ISBN 1877276979 It was Voltaire, who, not without a dash of cynicism, declared that all history is but myth that time has rendered…