Sports Books Blog

I hadn’t got John Inverdale down as a satirist. He seems the sort of bloke you’d like to have a drink with; the sort who knows his sport and doesn’t mind telling you; the sort who impresses you with his knowledge until, that is, he strays into an area you know quite a bit about. Read the rest of this entry »

I wasn’t going to blog about the World Cup: England’s dire displays have been ruminated over at length and everyone seems to think Spain deserved to win. Which they did.

But here goes. It seems I am in a minority of one in not being entirely smitten by Spain’s style of football (which also applies to that of Arsenal and Barcelona.) When they play at high speed and get their angles right they are breathtaking to watch. Read the rest of this entry »

Just returned from the London Book Fair which was a very strange experience. The volcanic ash cloud from Iceland kept most foreign exhibitors away and meant that most people suffered like I did from appointments being cancelled. Read the rest of this entry »

I didn’t back Don’t Push It in the National on Saturday but I could not have been more thrilled when the horse won the race and relegated my choices to third and fourth. The reason is obvious. Read the rest of this entry »

I spent the weekend at the Independent Publishers Guild annual conference (still bugs me that there is no apostrophe in the title) in Windsor at the weekend. I hadn’t been there since I worked there in the early nineties. It’s changed a bit. Read the rest of this entry »

I am not a Luddite, far from it. I have a Blackberry (whatever did I do before?), a shiny new iPod (although after loading my entire CD collection I still have 145GB of memory left), a MacBook pro, two other big Macs, various back up devices, a digital camera, a Humax FreeSat box – the sort of modern paraphernalia that a chap cannot do without. Read the rest of this entry »

Forgive me Father for it is a long time since my last blog. In fact this is the first since November so if there are any readers left, my apologies. Read the rest of this entry »

Oh dear this blog has to be another obituary. First David Burnside, now Margaret Potts, wife of the legendary manager who took Burnley to the League title in 1960. It should be less of a surprise. David was only 69 and Margaret was 86. But it isn’t. Margaret seemed indefatigable. Read the rest of this entry »

I went to a big football match yesterday – Everton v Aston Villa – and I found all sorts of strange emotions returning. I don’t go to football much these days; that was only the second time in a year, partly because I’m not so much in love with the game any more. Once I was obsessed with it. I knew every little last and lost fact. Read the rest of this entry »

Back from Frankfurt, knackered as usual. For SportsBooks it was a great fair but brought back down to earth on the Sunday morning when I had a phone call to tell me David Burnside was dead.

I met David only the once although I saw him play many times. For those of you without my anorak tendencies when it comes to sport I will tell you that he was an inside forward with West Brom, Wolves, Plymouth and Southampton. Read the rest of this entry »