Sport & Games

5000-1: THE LEICESTER CITY STORY

by Rob Tanner

read by Leighton Pugh

running time 7hrs 30mins

The inside story of Leicester City’s triumph on winning the Premier League in May 2016, to ecstatic celebrations in the city and around the world. The team, under Claudio Ranieri’s inspired leadership, became the most unlikely champions in football history.

AFTER EXTRA TIME AND PENALTIES

by Mike Ingham

read by Mike Ingham

running time 7hrs 30mins

BBC Football correspondent, Mike Ingham, MBE, shares a candid, comprehensive, and sometimes, controversial account of how the world of broadcasting and football changed beyond recognition throughout his career. He recalls England's campaigns in tournaments over the last half century with a detailed and eyewitness account of what the atmosphere was really like over the years behind the scenes in the England camp.

BAGHDAD FC: IRAQ'S FOOTBALL STORY (X Rated)

by Simon Freeman

read by Bob Rollett

running time 10hrs 20mins

This is an account of how the game of football turned ugly in Saddam's Iraq. A tale of human strengths, failings and resilience. Saddam's crazed and evil eldest son emerges as a villain of demonic proportions. If he could treat national heroes this grotesquely what hope was there for the ordinary Iraqi? X rated, contains graphic violence.

CALLING THE SHOTS: THE CAPTAIN'S STORY

by Michael Vaughan

read by Richard Worland

running time 5hrs 38mins

England cricket captain Michael Vaughan delivers an account of his two years at the helm. He focuses on leadership, his approach to captaincy and his decision-making and man management strategies. He also includes a full analysis of the 2005 Ashes series.

THE DAMNED UTD (X Rated)

by David Peace

read by Bob Rollett

running time 12hrs 44mins

Controversial football manager Brian Clough, is on his way to take over at the country's most successful, and most reviled, football club: Leeds United. The battle he faces there will make or break the club - or him. This novel tells the story of a world characterised by fear of failure and hunger for success set in the bleak heart of the 1970s. X rated, contains offensive language.

ENGLAND: THE BIOGRAPHY: THE STORY OF BRITISH CRICKET 1877-2018

by Simon Wilde

read by Jeremy Neville

running time 16hrs

It is 140 years since England first played Test match cricket and, for much of that time, it has struggled to perform to the best of its capabilities. It was only in the 1990s that Team England began to receive the best possible support from an ever-increasing backroom team. As England play their 1000th Test, this is an insight into the ups and downs of their story.

THE FINAL INNINGS

by Christopher Sandford

read by Fred Parker

running time 12hrs

The declaration of war against Germany in 1939 brought an end to the Golden Age of English cricket. Using unpublished letters, diaries and memoirs, Christopher Sandford recreates that last summer. Few English cricket teams began their first post-war season without holding memorial ceremonies for the men they had lost: He pays homage not only to these men, but to the lost innocence, heroism and human endurance of the age.

GET HER OFF THE PITCH!

by Lynne Truss

read by Lynne Truss

running time 8hrs

Lynne Truss spent four years as sports writer for The Times and here she gives us a perceptive and very funny insight on being a woman in a traditionally male-dominated world.

THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD CUP

by Brian Glanville

read by Bob Wilson

running time 5hrs

Brian Glanville's dramatic history of the world's most famous football tournament has become the most authoritative guide to the World Cup. Since the very first World Cup in Uruguay in 1930, his classic account is a vivid celebration of the great players and legendary matches in the competition - as well as a bold attack on those who have mismanaged the 'beautiful game'.

INTERESTING: MY BIOGRAPHY

by Steve Davis

read by Fred Parker

running time 14hrs

Steve Davis was just a rookie from south London, learning how to play from an old book his snooker-obsessed father had given him, when an encounter with Barry Hearn changed his life forever. By the eighties, Steve had helped transform a previously shady sport into a national obsession. His memoir tells of the intrigue behind the scenes and the personal psychology and sacrifice that is required to stay at the top of such an exacting sport.

JOG ON: HOW RUNNING SAVED MY LIFE

by Bella Mackie

read by Bella Mackie

running time 6hrs 30mins

Divorced and struggling with deep-rooted mental health problems, Bella Mackie could barely find the strength to get off the sofa, let alone piece her life back together. Until one day she pulled on a pair of trainers and went for a run. Before she knew it, her mood was lifting for the first time in years. Her motivational story will encourage you to say ‘jog on’ to your problems and get your life back on track – no matter how small those first steps may be.

KEN JONES: BOOTS AND SPIKES

by Steve Lewis

read by John Evans

running time 11hrs

Ken Jones was a former British Lions, Wales and Newport wing as well as a sprinter good enough to win an Olympic silver medal. He was the Welsh sprint champion for seven consecutive years, using that pace on the rugby field to score 146 tries in 293 games for Newport, captaining the side in 1950–51 and 1953–54.

LANTERNE ROUGE: THE LAST MAN IN THE TOUR DE FRANCE

by Max Leonard

read by Ben Seymour

running time 10hrs 15mins

If you complete a bike race of over 3,000 kilometres in the slowest time, should you be branded the loser? Lanterne Rouge flips the Tour de France on its head and examines the stories of the riders who don’t win the trophy, and forces us to re-examine the meaning of success, failure and the very nature of sport.

MORE BLOOD, SWEAT AND BEERS: WORLD CUP RUGBY TALES

by Lawrence Dallaglio

read by Mike Duffin

running time 8hrs 30mins

World Cup-winning rugby legend Lawrence Dallaglio shares his favourite stories from his time at International rugby's greatest tournament. With razor-sharp wit and good humour he lets the reader behind the closed doors of the tournament, to see what happens on and off the pitch when the cameras aren't looking.

NEWCASTLE UNITED ON THIS DAY

by David Potter

read by John Hobday

running time 5hrs 30mins

David Potter revisits all the most magical and memorable moments from the club's glorious past, mixing in a maelstrom of quirky anecdotes and legendary characters to produce an irresistibly dippable diary of Magpies history - with an entry for every day of the year.

THE OLYMPICS' STRANGEST MOMENTS

by Geoff Tibballs

read by Roger Stephens

running time 8hrs 30mins

To mark the 2012 Olympics in London, this book recounts the bizarre, controversial, inept, heroic and plain unlucky moments from the first modern games in 1896 to the glories of Beijing, 2008.

PASSING THE TORCH: SPORTSWOMEN WHO INSPIRE

by Mary Peters (editor)

read by Kay Morrison

running time 6hrs 30mins

Former pentathlete, Lady Mary Peters, has inspired a generation of athletes, ensuring her passion for sport has passed down to young people for many years to come. She initiated this series of interviews with sportswomen across a variety of disciplines. It gives a lively insight into their initial motivation, the highs and lows of competing, the physical and mental benefits of exercise and the camaraderie of female sport.

RUNNING BLIND: AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW OF THE LONDON MARATHON

by Simon Webb

read by Fred Parker

running time 8hrs 15mins

When blind runner Simon Webb was training for his first London marathon, aware that he wouldn’t be able to admire the sights of the city, he researched a few facts about some of the points of interest around the 26.2 mile course. He focuses on London’s history, culture and sport, people and pubs – lots of pubs.

SPIRIT OF STOKE MANDEVILLE: THE STORY OF SIR LUDWIG GUTTMANN

by Susan Goodman

read by Clare Francis

running time 6hrs 30mins

Sir Ludwig Guttmann, CBE is best known as the founder of the Paralympic Games. It is thanks largely to him that, from a small archery competition in 1948 involving 16 paralysed British war veterans, evolved a major international sporting event featuring elite athletes with all kinds of disabilities. Guttmann introduced a whole new approach to the way tetraplegic and paraplegic patients were treated from the initial stages of injury until final resettlement.

THANKS, JOHNNERS

by Jonathan Agnew

read by Jonathan Agnew

running time 7hrs 54mins

Jonathan Agnew, known to his legions of Test Match Special fans as 'Aggers', has at long last written a warm and witty personal tribute to his late colleague Brian Johnston, universally known as 'Johnners'. With an introduction by Stephen Fry.

UNBROKEN: MY STORY OF SURVIVAL FROM 7/7 BOMBINGS TO PARALYMPIC SUCCESS

by Martine Wright

read by Ann Stutz

running time 8hrs

Martine Wright lost both of her legs in the 7/7 bomb attacks. Not only did she survive her horrific injuries but she went on to play in Great Britain's seated volleyball team at the Paralympics, 2012. Martine continues to change the lives of those around her as a charity fundraiser and inspirational speaker.

VILLAGE CRICKET

by Tim Heald

read by Bob Rollett

running time 8hrs 15mins

At an annual cricket dinner, Tim Heald found himself wondering about cricket as a defining feature of English village life. To explore his thesis he travelled from Cornwall to Lancashire, from Kent to Sussex and even to Lords. He pored over Wisden, and even came out of retirement to play again.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT CRICKET

by Sandy Balfour

read by Clive Mantle

running time 8hrs 55mins

This beginner's guide to cricket is a love letter addressed both to those who utterly fail to understand it and to those who need reminding why they fell in love in the first place. What unfolds is wonderfully observed, very funny and as much about fathers and daughters, and love and life, as it is about cricket.