Stupendous Sports: Fantastic Football

Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description

Mae'r gyfrol Fantastic Football yn dal ysbryd y gêm brydferth a'i rheolau mewn arddull ddoniol. Trafodir hanes pêl-droed, dyfodol y gêm yn cynnwys y twf yng ngêm y merched ynghyd â phwysigrwydd amrywiaeth o fewn y gamp. Cynhwysir hefyd adran ymarferol am safleoedd chwaraewyr, sgiliau a thriciau.

Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description

Hilarious, but factually correct, Fantastic Football is about the spirit of the beautiful game as much as rules. Covering the history of football, the future of the game including the rise in women's football as well as the importance of diversity, it also features a practical section on player positions, skills and tricks.

Dosbarthu

Byddwn yn dosbarthu eitemau sydd mewn stoc o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith, fel arfer drwy Royal Mail Tracked 48. Ar gyfer archebion o flaen llaw, byddwn yn dosbarthu’r eitem o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith ar ôl ei derbyn gan ein cyflenwr.

Dispatch

In-stock items will be dispatched within 3 business days, usually by Royal Mail Tracked 48. For pre-orders, we’ll dispatch within 3 business days of receiving the item from our supplier.

Bywgraffiad yr Awdur / Author Biography

When Robin Bennett grew up, he thought he wanted to be a cavalry officer until everyone else realised that putting him in charge of a tank was a very bad idea. He then became an assistant gravedigger in London. After that he had a career frantically starting businesses (everything from dog-sitting to cigars, tuition to translation)... until finally settling down to write improbable stories to keep his children from killing each other on long car journeys. Robin plays most sports. Poorly.

Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review

As any credible soccer anorak knows, the most important requirement in the making of a footballer is timing. And Robin Bennett, only a few weeks prior to football’s premier competition, has timed this homage to the beautiful game perfectly. It was the late, great Bill Shankley who once stated that football was not a matter of life and death. No, said Shanks, it was far more important than that. But Robin Bennett, in this rip-roaring compendium of facts and figures, has managed to combine football and fun. In so doing he has managed to encapsulate everything that is good about soccer, its history, both its past, and its present, as well as its future. More importantly, he has captured its spirit. Did you realise, for instance, that football has 250 million players in over 200 countries and is followed by 3.5 million fans throughout the world? In fact, there are only 35 countries that do not have soccer as their number one sport. And Wales is listed among them. Wales, apparently, is one of five rugby nations. A debatable ‘fact’ that! The premier sport in Bhutan, incidentally, is archery. This is a book that will always be at my elbow. Turn at random to any page and you will not be disappointed. Did you know that Newport County keeper Tom King once scored a goal with a punt that travelled 315 feet? No, I thought not. And the longest headed goal travelled just over 190 feet. It was scored by Norway’s Jone Samuelsen playing for Tromso. Bennett explores and dissects every aspect of the game, from the length and breadth of pitches to the secrets of the scorpion kick. And from the book’s kick-off it is utterly captivating. Firstly it notes that football seems to have been around forever. Or at least from the Stone Age, when kicking what was available – mostly round stones – was, perhaps, tried out by bored velociraptors or sporty mastodons. Evidence, however, suggests that it was first played as a game called Cuju in China more than 2,000 years ago. Such an opening demands more reading, and interspersed with Matt Cherry’s cartoons, this is a must. The blurb on the cover encapsulates the contents: ‘I can confirm that Fantastic Football contains the three greatest Fs – football, fun facts and flippin’ hilarious jokes.’ As a rabid football fan I will add another F – it is simply Fan-tabulous!