FRAGMENTS OF IDOLATRY
From Crusoe to Kid Berg
David Foot
What makes a sporting hero? What is it about some sports men and women that leads us to be captivated by them, even to the point of idolatry?
David Foot has reported on sport for local and national newspapers for over fifty years, and in this delightful book he picks out twelve characters who have caught his imagination.
Eight are cricketers: from the master craftsman Tom Cartwright, a lifelong socialist, to the pastoral Reg Sinfield, still mending neighbours’ roofs in his eighties; from the genial Maurice Tremlett, who never quite fulfilled the promise of his fairy-tale debut, to the brilliant Raymond Robertson-Glasgow, who became one of cricket’s greatest writers but whose ‘black dog’ depressions led him to take his own life.
There is the Jewish boxer Kid Berg, from London’s East End; the football manager Alec Stock, whose F.A. Cup glory with Yeovil launched a long and memorable career; the Welsh rugby coach Carwyn James, an inspirational genius and a lonely outsider; and the writer Alan Gibson, a mercurial talent who lost his way.
They have caught his imagination as much for their idiosyncrasy of character as for their achievements, and in this book he reflects on his relationship with each of them.
It is a beautifully written collection. After a few pages in the company of David Foot, we feel we know each one of his subjects personally - and why he admires them.