Good Sports!

First published in 1992 as Good Sports! A Bag of Sports Stories, this is an excellent collection of stories to entertain sports fans. Unlike some sports based fiction, the stories are not predictable nor are the characters stereotyped. Mainstream sports - football, tennis, rounders, cricket and swimming - are covered but there are also tales about trampolining, ice-skating and skateboard. Authors in Bradman's collection include Jean Ure with 'Back Home', Malorie Blackman with a sensitively written story about a girl suffering from Sickle Cell, and Jan Mark with 'Left Foot Forward.' Rob Childs' soccer contribution, 'Who's in Goal?', contains a final twist with echoes of Gene Kemp's Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler, whilst Judith Hemington's 'Double-booked' sees its central character Sanjay in a dilemma over a family wedding which clashes with a cricket match. All authors included show a clear technical grasp of the sports covered without alienating the non-expert reader.