Sporting Chancer: One Man's Journey to Take On the World
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Sporting Chancer: One Man's Journey to Take On the World (Know the Score) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Review
**Shortlisted for the Best New Writer at the 2012 British Sports Book Awards**
"Ed Hawkins, the raffish gambling "expert", if there is such a thing, and sometime contributor to this newspaper, has a book out. Shock news: it's not at all bad." --Evening Standard
"A hilarious solo journey of a dry-humoured Englishman trying to come to terms with the Australian psyche, out-of-control English cricket fans and the unique characteristics of the different places he visits whilst doing his best to reach his pre-trip target of betting winnings. This is a superb book and as ever with Ed, I'm anything but surprised." --Betfair
"Ed Hawkins, the raffish gambling "expert", if there is such a thing, and sometime contributor to this newspaper, has a book out. Shock news: it's not at all bad." --Evening Standard
"A hilarious solo journey of a dry-humoured Englishman trying to come to terms with the Australian psyche, out-of-control English cricket fans and the unique characteristics of the different places he visits whilst doing his best to reach his pre-trip target of betting winnings. This is a superb book and as ever with Ed, I'm anything but surprised." --Betfair
Product Description
Ed Hawkins grew up around gambling. Instead of going to school, he followed his father, a horseracing journalist, around the courses of the UK. The frantic betting ring was his maths class and the press box, thick with the fug of cigarette smoke and expletives, his English lesson. While dad filed copy late on in to the night from some obscure racing outpost, the young Hawkins trawled the empty bookmaker pitches, searching for the errant fiver. From an early age he learnt that bookies never gave anything away. So when he found himself out of work after taking a misguided gamble on his career, he took another: by deciding to wager his way around the globe. Initially gambling his way across Australia meeting triumph and disaster - selling possessions when cash got tight in Melbourne after a disastrous night in one of the largest casinos in the world - with witty self-deprecation, Hawkins returns home relatively unscathed. However, the life of the Ordinary Joe soon has him twitching for the road again. Setting himself three challenges to see if he can get that life-changing win, the fun never runs out - unlike the funds. He embarrasses himself playing poker with Hollywood's finest at the World Series in Las Vegas, challenges world champion Phil Taylor to a game of darts, wastes dollars on rooster fighting with Britney Spears' babysitter in Louisiana and fleeces pensioners on planes. Hawkins tries anything to stay afloat, culminating in a trip to a Glasgow bingo hall to try to land the odds that stare back at him in the mirror after being diagnosed with a rare illness.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Found this very entertaining and funny, a great account of what is a very ballsy idea, to live off gambling profits even for a few months, and Hawkins description of the ups and downs makes for a real page turner.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Just a great concept for a travel book. The demands Hawkins places on himself means he travels in the purest sense. He is forced to live off scraps and his wits whist mixing with interesting people in interesting places. Great escapist reading. Wouldn't be surprised to see this turned into a film or tv doc.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Loved this book, right from the start when he places the first bet on a greyhound at the Stow, to Singapore (try reading the "its more exciting with horses" article without cracking up with laughter!) to Australia where you meet Wayne and the stolen phone through to USA -via perving at a flight attendant while talking to a deaf brummie - where you go cock fighting and meet a homeless guy who he makes a bet with "I'm off it pete!" right back to Scotland doing bingo with free chips and gravy and a psycho taxi driver.
Very funny book with a lot of intelligent and funny comments in between.Buy it you'll love it
Very funny book with a lot of intelligent and funny comments in between.Buy it you'll love it
Most Recent Customer Reviews
It's just not very interesting.
I've not got anything constructive to say. I found it a bit boring and found myself starting at the end of each chapter in an attempt to see if he won anything. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. Peter Davies
Great read for gamblers and non gamblers alike
I have long since been fascinated with everything to do with gambling: the industry, the psychology, the excitement and even the inevitable bouts of dispair. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Nick
Cracking read
I'm no gambler - my personality is way too addictive - but I really enjoyed this book from start to finish. Really enlightening on a world I knew little or nothing about. Read more
Published 11 months ago by simonh
fantastic read
This book is a great look into a life of gaming I wish I knew more about.
It is written in a casual manner which makes it easily accessible to someone like me, as well as, I'm... Read more
It is written in a casual manner which makes it easily accessible to someone like me, as well as, I'm... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mr Monty Monteith
Cricket shops, video poker and thugs
Hats off to Ed Hawkins and Know The Score for writing and publishing this very off-beat book.
The story in brief: Ed Hawkins loses his job as a racing tipster. Read more
The story in brief: Ed Hawkins loses his job as a racing tipster. Read more
Published 11 months ago by P. S. Eade
Top Notch
The book was everything I thought it would be...plus more. Very well written with a fair bit of humour in it. Top work mate, Loved it.
Published 11 months ago by Andrew Fraser
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
