New book about football

[john.turnstiles]

Round the Turnstiles
Football Travels
by Mick Escott
119 Grounds in 45 Years
Foreword by Attila the Stockbroker
Illustrations by Alex Bunn
£14.95 ISBN 9781842890134.

Hello fans

I thought you’d be interested in Round the Turnstiles, a book about live football that I have recently published, partly because Brighton and Hove Albion features in it. The book has been arousing quite a lot of interest since it came off the press.

More details are available from the Pomegranate Books website (see below) and you can sample an extract online at:

http://www.pomegranatebooks.co.uk/Turnstiles_extract.html

Copies can be purchased direct from

www.pomegranatebooks.co.uk

,
or through good bookshops.

I’d be interested in any feedback you may have to offer.

John Adler

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

What is the Brighton part about...

This bit is nicked from your publishers site you linked above;

Extract from Round the Turnstiles, Chapter Five
Romance and Residences
The Notts, The Potteries, The Villa, The Bristols, The Grecians

4. The Bristols
If you go back in time Rovers would have been in Gloucestershire and City in Somerset, though for local government purposes the place has gone through a number of labelling amendments – in recent history as the main ingredient of the much-loathed County of Avon (Avon and Somerset Police survives as a force, perhaps to provoke animosity towards them). Before then and since, it has been the discrete ‘City and County of Bristol’. Strangely, some of what is understood as ‘Bristol’, the place with a population of half a million in continuous urban development, is now in the district of South Gloucestershire, and more of it is in North Somerset. This is in common with other major cities, where there is a mismatch between local authority boundaries, population distribution and day-to-day interpretation of what a place means. Meanwhile many are surprised to discover that Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is based in the suburb of Ashley Down, a stone’s throw from the Memorial Stadium, Rovers’ long-term domicile and the home for much longer of Bristol Rugby club, subsequently to be renamed the ‘Shoguns’. ‘How common,’ said The Dude ‘we are now Bristol Rugby, plain and simple’ after the club followed Bath’s obvious model in 2006. Yes. Rovers had bought out Rugby in 1998. They have since shared the ground, whose conversion into a new 18,500 stadium finally got the go-ahead in early 2008, allowing the rebuilding to start after the 2007-08 season, your last chance to stand on terraces on three sides of the ground. Rugby programmes there were above the going rate, at £3. Admission was £20, but this was in Rugby Union’s top tier, 2008 vintage.
The Gasheads’ vitriol is focused on City, and vice versa, and no other team, exemplified in the mass reaction to half-time scores. By and large the team ...
The Gas
Bristol Rovers 1 Oxford United 1 Division III (4), 13/9/05, Memorial Stadium

Nelson, visiting from Florida, was entertained regally to a liquid foretaste of pints at the Wellington before and 90 minutes (plus six) at the Memorial Ground on a fine Tuesday evening. Rovers’ home and Oxford’s away records were identical: 0-1-2, so they could both have done with a win. The guest found it a ‘homey’, local atmosphere. The pies (chicken and mushroom for me, a pasty, the punters’ favourite, for him) in the enclave were tasty and the half-time majorettes, The Blue Flames, amusing in a gentle way...

The first official blew the whistle at 7.45pm and off we wafted, absorbed into the unfolding drama. Into the game forward Richard Walker suffered scorn and, with two notional fingers erect, eventually scored the only home goal. But the crowd was fickle, honouring him with ‘Richard Walker boom boom boom.’ The statistics showed that he was second-highest scorer in 2004-05 with 10 in the League and four in cup games, and the best ratio, ahead of shooting star Junior Agogo. More like ‘Aggro’ a year later during the unhappy process of his departure to top Third Division outfit Nottingham Forest (most expensive, biggest gates by far and early pacesetters, doubtless to be further helped by the inestimable Junior). So far in 2005-06 the tally was Agogo 6 Walker 2, both having appeared in all eight games.
Rovers did extraordinarily well for away support. They took 988 to Barnet for the opening game, and 1,521 to the more convenient Torquay, with significant effect, perhaps, as they came away with a 3-2 win. But then the Gulls did sink to the bottom ...

 

[surrey jim]

What is the Brighton part about...

brighton fan i assume

from here: http://www.pomegranatebooks.co.uk/Turnstiles.html

When Mick Escott went to his first game at the Goldstone Ground, Hove, on Boxing Day 1963, little did he realize that 45 years later he would have visited all 92 grounds in the English League, and more. This is a mammoth journey, written with verve, wit and passion....

*an extract*

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

brighton fan i assume

from here: http://www.pomegranatebooks.co.uk/Turnstiles.html

*an extract*

Yes sounds like it all starts at the Goldstone, cheers for that.

 

[Storer68]

Sounds like another "look at me, I've been to all 92 clubs and watched a lot of shite games" type


Pomegranate
BOOKS

Round the Turnstiles
by Mick Escott
A Highly Original New Book About Live Football

When Mick Escott went to his first game at the Goldstone Ground, Hove, on Boxing Day
1963, little did he realize that 45 years later he would have visited all 92 grounds in the
English League, and more. This new book is not only an account of his monumental
journey, but much more.
Written with verve, wit and passion, Round the Turnstiles is a vivid description of towns,
grounds, teams great and small, supporters, pubs, pie stalls and above all the cultures of
the enormous range of clubs visited. In so doing, it brings to life a feature of British sport
that is largely unfamiliar to many fans Ð football as a live spectator sport. In Round the
Turnstiles, Mick Escott paints a portrait of the beautiful game that is highly personal but
impressive in its scope, conveying much that is inevitably absent from media reports in
an age dominated by TV.
Essential reading for football enthusiasts, its understanding of the game and numerous
accounts of matches, from Fourth Division encounters in small towns to major
internationals, is impressive.
The book includes a comprehensive index and appendices tracing the history of a range
of clubs over the course of almost a century.
Among the array of teams featured, special attention is given to Bristol City and Bristol
Rovers, as well as Aston Villa, Exeter City, Brighton and the Potteries teams Ð Stoke City
and Port Vale, reflecting the author's longstanding attachment to these teams.
When he is not travelling to the furthermost reaches of England, battling with turnstiles,
Mick Escott is a freelance arts administrator. Born in Devon, he started his career at the
Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent. He now lives in Bristol.
For an extract from Round the Turnstiles please visit:
Welcome to Adobe GoLive 5

Round the Turnstiles by Mick Escott. £14.95. ISBN 978-1-84289-013-4
Publ. Pomegranate Books,

 

[Dave the OAP]

dont be such a misery Storer!

 

[Gazwag]

brighton fan i assume

from here: http://www.pomegranatebooks.co.uk/Turnstiles.html

*an extract*

His first game was at Goldstone Ground v Exeter, I'd guess he was an Exeter fans in the away end as he was born in Devon

 

[surrey jim]

His first game was at Goldstone Ground v Exeter, I'd guess he was an Exeter fans in the away end as he was born in Devon

didnt see that bit