BOOK REVIEW – Funniest Sporting Moments, by David Boon

Published by Allen & Unwin, 21 November 2012
Rrp AUD$19.99
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
6/10

Aussie cricket legend and famed larrikin Boony delivers a collection of his funniest sporting mishaps and moments in this witty and amusing almanac.

Featuring quotes from soccer, baseball, football, rugby, golf and cricket as well as some miscellaneous gems, and with most of the stories about a page long, it’s a great little book to keep on hand to snatch a few pages of when you have a moment.

Personally, I kept it in the loo until our guests were giggling too much and spending rather a long time in there…

One favourite cricketing story recalls Warwick Armstrong, playing for Australia in the early twentieth century.  Armstrong was “the biggest thing in Australian cricket,” at the time, “Six foot three and around 140 kilograms, the big bloke smoked, drank and sweated so much that a puddle of perspiration often formed at the crease.”  Boon tells us of the time he was fielding on the boundary on a hot day in Hampshire, and a little boy hovered behind his every move.  Kindly offering to sign the boy’s autograph book, he was told “I ain’t got on.”  “Then what do you want?” asked the man dubbed the Big Ship by his teammates and fans? “Please, sir, you are the only decent bit of shade in the place.”

Category: Book Reviews