Played in Liverpool

Author:

By Ray Physick

Format:

Paperback

Availability:

In print, usually dispatched within 3-4 days.

Price:

£14.99

Tagged with:

General Sport, Played in Britain Series, Liverpool

Member Reviews

• Login or join us to post the first review!

You Can

• Send to a friend
• Contact us about this item

Further Details

• Published: 1st Jun 2007
• ISBN: 1850749906
• Pages: 192

From the Publisher:

Becher's Brook at Aintree, the Kop at Anfield, the Royal Liverpool golf course at Hoylake - just three hallowed landmarks on the map of international sport. But sporting heritage on Merseyside permeates the entire region and its unique cultural legacy.

In Played in Liverpool, the seventh of English Heritage's groundbreaking Played in Britain series, social historian Ray Physick guides the reader on an intimate tour of the city's lesser known sporting treasures; from the site of the 19th century Liverpool Olympics on Mount Vernon and the dockside location of Britain's first municipal swimming baths, to the footballing giants of Liverpool and Everton, confronting each other across the expanse of Stanley Park.

It was in Liverpool that a canny city engineer designed football’s original goal nets in the early 1890s. Vast offices belonging to the likes of Littlewoods and Vernons housed the headquarters of the British football pools industry. At Goodison Park we learn about the origins of the Toffee Lady, dispenser of sweets to the Everton faithful before every match. In Birkenhead Park, the first municipal park in Britain, we visit possibly the nation's oldest cricket pavilion.

Among the old gymnasiums of Little Italy and the Victorian Lads Clubs of Toxteth – the famous Florrie Institute – lie the seeds of a thriving, bruising boxing scene. On the River Mersey we sail in the wake of intrepid swimmers and rowers. On the Wirral coast and on the links leading from the Liverpool docks to the refined seaside resort of Southport we visit Art Deco golf clubhouses and suburban bowls clubs. At Port Sunlight Village stands the stadium made famous by the film Chariots of Fire, while in a city centre factory sits a unique treasure trove of billiards and snooker memorabilia, the Norman Clare Collection. There's also a spot of American baseball in Bootle, and the first ever published plans of the famous Anfield Kop from 1928.

The Cavern Club, that ferry across the Mersey, and Scouse humour have long been celebrated in popular British culture. Now, as Liverpool prepares to act as City of Culture for 2008, it's time to reveal its sporting secrets. This is a book full of delightful surprises and quirky details, many of which are little known, even within the Liverpool area. So hold on to your bobble hats for a story that has never been told...