This Sporting Life

[callmemadam]

image from Project Gutenberg

Over on the Cornflower blog today, Mr Cornflower reviews what sounds a very interesting book about cricket. It’s Peter Pan’s First XI, about an amateur cricket team put together by J M Barrie. I’ll have to see if I can get it from the library.

The post set me wondering about sport as it appears in fiction. I like to read about cricket in books and one of my favourite cricket scenes is the one in Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L Sayers. There’s the famous match in England, their England by A G Macdonell and a lot of cricket in P G Wodehouse’s Mike and Psmith books.

This is all preaching to the converted. I don’t like football yet Nick Hornby wrote so well about it in Fever Pitch that I finished the book. So I’m asking: has an author made you interested in a sport you don’t otherwise care about? Where is the Fever Pitch of lawn tennis? Recommendations welcomed.

Comments

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

I can't bear cricket in real life but I do love it in fiction. As well as Murder Must Advertise, there is of course the wonderful Cricket Term in which Nicola invokes the spirit of Mr Talboys to take the final wicket. And I must admit that I didn't care for the book but I do remember writing an essay about the cricket match in The Go-Between.

[lizarfau.livejournal.com]

I loathe American sports, but have found a couple of baseball and basketball movies really enjoyable. (Not books, I know, but ... )

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

The golf match in Goldfinger!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I thought someone would mention The Cricket Term!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen many sporty films but enjoyed Cool Runnings.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

It takes a lot to make golf interesting. There's Wodehouse again, of course.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

I've never played golf, but became captivated in my teens by The Clicking of Cuthbert - which reminds me that I'm not sure where my copy is - off to look for it