WORLD’S RICHEST SPORTS BOOK PRIZE LONG LIST REVEALED

A BOOKIE’S DOZEN

13 titles have been long listed for the £25,000 William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2009, the richest award of its type anywhere in the world.

Now in its 21st year, the prestigious prize, won last year by England cricketer, Marcus Trescothick’s ‘Coming Back To Me’, will be fought out by titles celebrating boxing, horse racing, football, motorsport, rugby, tennis - and the World Shin-Kicking Championships!

‘EVERY one of the 13 long listed titles would be a worthy winner, and I don’t envy our judges the task of whittling down the field to a short-list, let alone the ultimate winner.’ Said founder of the award , Hill’s Media Relations Director, Graham Sharpe.

LONG LISTED TITLES:

AUCLAIR, Philippe: ‘Cantona: The Rebel who would be King’ (Macmillan)

BROADBENT, Rick ‘Ring of Fire: The inside story of Valentino Rossi and MotoGP’ (Bantam)

CLEE, Nicholas ‘Eclipse: Story of the Rogue, the Madam, the Horse that changed Racing’ (Bantam)

DANIELL, John ‘Confessions of a Rugby Mercenary’ (Ebury)

FORDYCE, Tom//DIRS, Ben ‘We Could Be Heroes:Two Blokes, one van, 12 world championships’(Macmillan)

HAMILTON, Duncan’ Harold Larwood; The world’s fastest bowler’ (Quercus)

HAWKEY, Ian ’Feet of the Chameleon: The story of African football’ (Portico)

HENDERSON, Jon’ The Last Champion: The life of Fred Perry’ (Yellow Jersey Press)

HOTTEN, Jon ’The Years of the Locust: A true story of murder, money and mayhem in the last age of boxing’ Yellow Jersey Press

JOYCE, Graham ‘Simple Goalkeeping Made Spectacular’ (Mainstream)

KUPER, Simon//SZYMANSKI, Stefan ‘Why England Lose - And Other Curious Football Phenomena Explained’ (Harper)

MITCHELL, Kevin ’Jacob’s Beach: The Mob, The Garden and the Golden Age of Boxing’(Yellow Jersey Press)

TRUSS, Lynne ‘Get Her Off The Pitch: How Sport took over my Life’ (4th Estate)