The last amateurs - Mark de Rond

I'm not sure how recently this book was published, but I read it this week. I wasn't expecting much, to be honest........just a bit of undemanding sporting reportage with a happy ending (for the light blues. Who are always the goodies). I certainly wasn't exoecting it to be as involving as Dan Topolski's 'True Blue' - but, turns out I underestimated, big time.

It's a simple enough premis, one which has been used loads of times before in sporting books (most notably, for me, by Pete Davies in 'All Played Out', 'I lost my heart to the Belles' and 'Mad Dogs and English Women'):
1. Pick a team, any team
2. Follow them for a defined period of time, preferably one in which they are trying to win something special - a championship, a world cup, a historic race
3. Write about it in such a way that fans and oter interested parties can really feel like they were there, and understand what the sporting heros went through.....

It doesn't always work, but when done well (and Davies has used the same technique in books about politics and, um, the flu virus) I really enjoy this type of book. Undemanding? Well, yes. But uninteresting? Nope.

For me, the key thing about this book was observing Mark de Rond's transformation from outsider to - well, not team member, he was never that, obviously, but he was certainly well in the circle of trust from relatively early on - clearly the fact that he was present when the rowers were experiencing their lowest moments physically and mentally helped him to be accepted by the group - to the point that he became their facilitator and touchy-feely man. I wonder if this actually had an impact on how much he felt able to tell the reader - once inside the circle of trust, he was no longer an objective chronicler. Certainly despite the scope for sturm und drang around the issue of team selection and particularly the selection of the cox (the original first choice was unceremoniously dumped), there isn't much.....exposure. So, while it is very engaging, at the end, you haven't actually learned much. Still, I enjoyed it. Which is the main thing, from my perspective!

And as we're on the topic of books about sport:

1. The damned united
2. All played out
3. Gladys Protheroe: Football Genius
4. I lost my heart to the Belles
5. Mad Dogs and English Women
6. Heroes and Villains
7. Penguins stopped play