A to Z of Sport: The Compendium of Sporting Knowledge [Hardcover]

 

 

Create your own review

Broad in its scope, this book attempts to say something about every sport the author could think of, while giving the greatest coverage to sports that Brits regard as important. Before assessing the book in greater detail, let's look at which sports are covered, what they are listed under and how many pages they each get. Note that tennis is listed under lawn tennis, while track and field is listed under athletics. There are different sports called football. Soccer is listed under football - association, while the American sport is listed under American football. Hockey is another ambiguous term, but the sport played on ice is listed under ice hockey, while field hockey is listed simply as hockey. Billiards and pool appear in the snooker pages. Yachting comes under sailing.

Sports covered (number of pages in parentheses) are the Athens Olympics (18), adventure racing (2), air racing (1), American football (14), archery (4), athletics (62), Australian rules football (3), badminton (9), bandy (1), baseball (12), basketball (11), baton twirling (1), bobsleigh (9), bocce (1), boomerang (2), boules (1), bowls (3), boxing (29), canoeing (7), coursing (1), cricket (33), croquet (3), curling (1), cycling (21), darts (2), duckpins (1), equestrianism (7), Eton wall game (1), fencing (5), five-pin bowling (1), fives (1), football - association (85), Gaelic football (2), goalball (1), golf (18), greyhound racing (7), gymnastics (12), handball (3), hockey (5), horseracing (39), hurling (1), ice hockey (13), ice skating (10), jan alai (1), judo (13), kabaddi (1), karate (1), kendo (1), kickboxing (1), korfball (1), lacrosse (2), lawn tennis (13), marbles (1), modern pentathlon (2), motorcycling (29) motor racing (11), muay Thai (1), netball (1), orienteering (2), paddle tennis (1), paddleball (1), pigeon racing (1), polo (1), powerboat racing (2), rackets (1), real tennis (1), roller skating (1), rowing (27), rugby league (15), rugby union (25), sailing (7), shooting (8), skiing (18), snooker, billiards and pool (17), squash (1), sumo (2), surfing (1), swimming (17), table tennis (8), tenpin bowling (1), trampolining (2), volleyball (2), water polo (1), weightlifting (4), world's strongest man (1), world superstars (1) and wrestling (11). Note that where only one page is used, it may be a full page or less than half a page.

The most surprising omission is rounders, which doesn't even get mentioned under baseball. Less surprising but still disappointing is the omission of camel racing. Still, even this book can't include everything, but there are several sports here that I've never heard of. You may question the inclusion of darts, marbles and snooker. Are they really sports? If so, why was chess omitted? At world championship level, chess requires a high level of physical fitness even though it is essentially a mind game. Yes, that surprises a lot of people.

For each major sport covered, there are lists of winners, brief descriptions of top stars and other useful information. Please note that results cover the period to summer 2004.

Of the major sports, I was surprised that motor racing only got 11 pages, mainly about Formula One with only scant mention of rallying, touring cars, NASCAR and Le Mans. yet motorcycling got 25 pages covering many variations from speedway to road racing.

I was pleased with the quantity of coverage of my beloved horseracing, though it is limited to flat racing and jumping. Harness racing (except for a brief mention), quarter horses and point to points are not covered. There are brief biographies for a selection of horses, jockeys, trainers and owners, loaded in favor of, but by no means limited to, those who became famous in Britain. I noticed plenty of American people and horses listed, certainly more than I expected. However, the lists of winners are limited to English races with the sole exception of the Arc. Details of every British and Irish racecourse that was open in 2004 are provided including web sites, e-mail and postal addresses with telephone numbers. The section ends with a few pages of general information.

I was surprised at the seemingly generous coverage given to cycling and rowing, although their pages mostly contain lists of winners. They no doubt owe their coverage to the success of British Olympic cyclists and rowers up to 2004. The more recent 2008 Olympics was even better for these sports.

Elsewhere, you'll find the winners of the four major golf championships from their inception (though women's golf is not covered), as well as the winners of the four major tennis championships from their inception, for both men and women. Doubles results (without the mixed) are included for Wimbledon and the US Open.

The coverage given to cricket, boxing, rugby league, rugby union and athletics is solid as I'd expect, but football (soccer) inevitably gets by far the most pages. There are the usual lists of winners, but the biographies take up most of this section. There is a list of English and Scottish league clubs, complete with their nicknames, but no addresses of any kind.

With so much information to pack in, the typeface is smaller than ideal. If that bothers you, use a magnifying glass to help you read it. Other than that, this is a great book for anybody who is at least a little interested in a wide variety of sports, as I am. For those sports that you are particularly interested in, buy books about those sports.

As a betting man i particularly like the horseracing and greyhound racing chapters. Not only are there lots of biographies of jockeys, trainers, owners, horses and dogs, but also comprehensive details about all horseracing and greyhound tracks. The results are also comprehensive and it is really good to find that not only the usual Classic races but also the Arc, National, Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle winners have been included in both sections. My other great love is football but this section is so huge i haven't had the chance to read it all yet but most of my favourite players are in and many that i have never heard of but am enjoying reading about. I can't say i have heard of a lot of the minor sports but i suppose they had to be included as they will no doubt be interesting to someone. I read the Olympic Games report at the front of the book and was astounded that someone had won eight gold medals in rowing............blimey and we think Sir Steve Redgrave is special.

I bought the book as a Christmas present for my husband as he is a big fan of the A to Z of almost Everything. I have to admit no real interest in sport but the book is outstanding. I had never heard of Bandy, Boules, Bocci, Duckpins, Goalball, Kabaddi or Paddleball but all the mainstream sports are covered brilliantly. We both play in a Dublin quiz league and football questions are the order of the day and this is the only section i have read so far but the information is awe-inspiring. There are biographies of every conceivable footballer who aspired to any greatness and i particularly loved the Roy Race entry (have to admit it fooled me for a while until the penny dropped!). I am sure this must be the best in-depth sports book and it very cleverly includes all the results of Olympics (including a very comprehensive coverage of Athens 2004) and World Championships to satisfy all the anoraks out there. Well done Mr Montague another best-seller i am certain.

Maeve Geddon

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 4 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

 

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good reference book
A very comprensive sport reference book, with plenty of information and facts and figure's about neally all you need to now about practually every sport. Read more

Published 19 months ago by Ben Nicholson

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 4 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

Search Listmania!