With odds of 4/1, Walsh’s book, which chronicled the journalist’s much-lauded fight to expose Lance Armstrong as a serial drug cheat, tops an impressive list of eight shortlisted authors in the Autobiography / Biography category. Other notable names include, Lord Sebastian Coe – at 5/1 for Running My Life, Ian Thorpe – at 5/1 for This is Me, and Sir Bradley Wiggins – at 6/1 for My Time.

With William Fotheringham’s book, Merckx: Half Man Half Bike joining Walsh among the shortlisted names, the Autobiography / Biography category reflects cycling’s continued rise to prominence.

Also in the Autobiography / Biography category are, Duncan Hamilton – at 6/1 for The Footballer Who Could Fly, Simon Jordan – at 10/1 for Be Careful What You Wish For, and Darren Clarke – at 12/1 for An Open Book.

Commenting on his shortlist nomination, Sir Bradley Wiggins, said: “I am really pleased to be included on the shortlist for the British Sports Book Awards along with such established writers. 2012 was an incredible year for sport and it’s great to know that the book has been well received.”

Ladbrokes, a sponsor of the British Sports Book Awards, is offering the odds.

As a celebration of the very best in sports writing, the accolade from the British Sports Book Awards will be a fitting posthumous tribute to Christopher Martin-Jenkins (‘CMJ’) who was admired across both the world of sports journalism and by the cricket stars whom he wrote about.

During his distinguished career, CMJ held some of the biggest posts in the game, including cricket correspondent of the BBC, cricket correspondent of The Daily Telegraph and The Times, and president of the MCC.

Accepting the award on his behalf at the event will be his wife, Judy Martin-Jenkins. His book, CMJ: A Cricketing Life, has also been shortlisted in the Cricket Book of the Year category. This category is one of nine awards categories representing the most high profile sports in the UK with the winners announced at the 11th annual British Sports Book Awards, to be staged at Lord’s Cricket Ground on 21 May.

David Willis, Chairman of the BSBA, said: “CMJ was a colossus of the cricket world. He was the ultimate writer and commentator, a professional whose passion for the game earned him an unrivalled respect by his peers and an admiration from cricketers at all levels and fans around the world. We are delighted to be able to honour him with the Outstanding Contribution to Sports Writing award.”

Nine award categories representing the most high profile sports in the UK will be contested by 56 shortlisted authors at the 11th annual British Sports Book Awards, which will be staged at Lord’s Cricket Ground on 21 May.

Alongside Coe (Running my Life) and Wiggins (My Time) in the hotly contested Autobiography / Biography category are the award-winning Sunday Times journalist and author David Walsh (Seven Deadly Sins) and five-time Olympic gold medallist swimmer Ian Thorpe (This is Me).
Other names who made the headlines both from behind and in front of the cameras in 2012 and who also make the shortlists include Team Sky and Dave Brailsford (21 Days to Glory) in the Illustrated category and Clare Balding (My Animals and Other Family) in the Horse Racing Book of the Year category.

After the individual category winners have been announced on 21 May, each of them will then be promoted in a media and retail campaign before an online public vote will determine the Overall British Sports Book of the Year. The public vote will held on the official website – www.britishsportsbookawards.co.uk.

Speaking about his shortlist nomination, Sebastian Coe, commented: “Who said sport is not serious. I am very flattered to be included in a list of such serious contributions.

“The last few years have been momentous for British sport so I’m delighted to be a part of an occasion that looks back and celebrates these phenomenal achievements.”

Full List of Shortlisted Nominees:

Best New Writer
Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World by Graham Hunter
Beautiful Brutality: The Family Ties at the Heart of Boxing by Adam Smith
Run Wild by Boff Whalley
Running with the Kenyans: Discovering the secrets of the fastest people on earth by Adharanand Finn
Shot and a Ghost: A Year in the Brutal World of Professional Squash by James Willstrop
Sit Down and Cheer: A history of sport on TV by Martin Kelner

Autobiography / Biography
An Open Book by Darren Clarke
Be Careful What You Wish For by Simon Jordan
Merckx: Half Man Half Bike by William Fotheringham
My Time by Bradley Wiggins
Running My Life by Seb Coe
Seven Deadly Sins by David Walsh
The Footballer Who Could Fly by Duncan Hamilton
This Is Me by Ian Thorpe

Cricket Book of the Year
CMJ: A Cricketing Life by Christopher Martin-Jenkins
Gentlemen & Players by Charles Williams
On Warne by Gideon Haigh
The Plan: How Fletcher and Flower Transformed English Cricket by Steve James
The Valiant Cricketer – The Biography of Trevor Bailey by Alan Hill
We’ll Get ’Em in Sequins: Manliness, Yorkshire cricket and the century that changed everything by Max Davidson

Football Book of the Year
Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World by Graham Hunter
Be Careful What You Wish For by Simon Jordan
Does Your Rabbi Know You’re Here: The Story oF English Football’s Forgotten Tribe by Anthony Clavane
Pep Guardiola by Guillem Balague
Richer Than God: Manchester City, Moderrn Football and Growing UP by David Conn
The Outsider by Jonathan Wilson

Rugby Book of the Year
Behind the Lions: Playing Rugby for the British & Irish Lions by Stephen Jones, Tom English, Nick Cain and David Barnes
Brent Pope: If You Really Knew Me by Brent Pope & Kevin MacDermot
My Life As a Hooker by Steven Gauge
The Final Whistle: The Great War in Fifteen Players by Stephen Cooper
The Outsider by Geordan Murphy
Who Beat the All Blacks? by Alun Gibbard

Motorsports Book of the Year
My Chequered Career: Thirty-five years of televising motorsport by Steve Rider
Team Lotus: My View from the Pit Wall by Peter Warr
That Near Death Thing by Rick Broadbent
Formula 1: All the Races: The World Championship story race by race: 1950-2012 by Roger Smith
Lotus 72 Owners’ Manual by Ian Wagstaff
I Just Made the Tea by Di Spires and Bernard Ferguson

Horse Racing Book of the Year
A Weight Off My Mind by Richard Hughes with Lee Mottershead
Clive Brittain: The Smiling Pioneer by Robin Oakley
Her Majesty’s Pleasure by Julian Muscat
My Animals and Other Family by Clare Balding
Racing Crazy by David Ashforth
When Horse Racing was Horse Racing by Adam Powley

Golf Book of the Year
Out of Bounds by Sam Torrance
An Open Book by Darren Clarke
Miracle at Medinah by Oliver Holt
Bobby’s Open: Mr Jones and the Golf Shot that Defined a Legend by Steven Reid
Seve: Golf’s Flawed Genius by Robert Green
The Bible of Golf by Skellett & Weitzman

Illustrated
21 Days to Glory by Team Sky and Dave Brailsford
A Swing for Life by Nick Faldo
Bike! A Tribute to the World’s Greatest Cycling Designers by Richard Moore & Daniel Benson
Coppi: Inside the legend of the campionissimo by Herbie Sykes
Frankel: The Wonder Horse by edited by Andrew Pennington
The Glory Glory Nights by Martin Cloake and Adam Powley

Publicity Award
Be Careful What You Wish For by Simon Jordan – Bethan Jones
Between the Lines by Victoria Pendleton with Donald McRae by Caroline March
Running My Life by Sebastian Coe – Karen Geary
The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton – Alison Barrow
Tom Daley: My Story by Tom Daley – Jo Wickham
Unbelievable by Jessica Ennis – Eleni Lawrence and Lucy Zilberkweit

Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson by Paul Kimmage published by Simon & Schuster has been announced as the British Sports Book Awards ‘Sports Book of the Year‘ as a result of a public online vote at www.britishsportsbookawards.co.uk

The winning titles in each category from the British Sports Book Awards made up a shortlist to find the best overall sports book of the year – the public have been voting on the official website since 22nd May to select a winner.

Winner of best biography at the recent British Sports Book Awards ceremony Engage is the shocking and moving story of Matt Hampson, the rugby player who dislocated his neck and was paralysed in an England training session, and how he readjusted to everyday life after the accident.

‘At the heart of Engage is a remarkable and inspiring story….You have to overcome that thought of; do I really want to read that – yes you do! It’s outstandingly written and a life affirming book’- Mick Dennis, Chair of the BSBA Sports Biography of the Year Judging Panel

Commenting on the win author Paul Kimmage says: “The writing of Engage is easily the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. It is also the most satisfying. It’s a great honour to win from such a strong shortlist of books but the real buzz is being able to share this award with Matt, a great friend and the most courageous and inspiring person I’ve ever met.”

Matt is also thrilled with the win and commented: “The response we have received from all walks of life since the release of Engage has been overwhelming. We are delighted to receive this award, especially as it was voted for by the general public. Paul and I hope Engage will continue to inspire and touch many more people.”

Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson by Paul Kimmage published by Simon & Schuster is out now in paperback and available to download as an ebook.

For press enquiries and to arrange interviews with Paul Kimmage and Matt Hampson please contact Rachel Nicholson, rachelnicholson@mac.com, 07912 899 588

Q Back in 1992, did you ever envisage such phenomenal success for a footie memoir which would go on to sell over a million copies, achieve cult status and break the mould for sports books?

A Well I was pretty sure I was on to something, something that was exclusively my own, where nothing was off limits. If I could capture the relationship between the crowd and the game, the terraces and the pitch, I thought such a book might find an audience. I felt I could represent the typical fan and that really hadn’t been done before.

Q So how easy was it for you to convince a publisher to see it your way? Publishers don’t always share writers’ light-bulb moments?

A Easier than I’d dared to imagine. A number of publishers seemed to like the book but a brilliant editor at Gollancz loved it and just “got” the idea of the book straight away. Liz Knights was the perfect sort of editor who understands what you’re trying to do, sees the opening and just lets you get on with it without wanting to make changes all over the place. Sadly, she died of cancer at forty-one, four years after the book was published.

Q Soccer fans of our generation will remember just how awful football books once were, all those hack hagiographies and boring annuals which found their way into your Christmas stocking. With Fever Pitch were you consciously trying to break the mould?

A I’ve always been obsessed with American popular culture, books, music, film and sport. And what I like about it is the democratic spirit that allows everything in, unlike here in the UK where you are expected to know your place and do what you’re supposed to be good at. In American nobody finds it strange that a great writer like John Updike should write about golf. There was also this British notion that some sports produced great books while others didn’t. Fishing, racing, cricket and golf mostly but why not football? And there were some great books on football, like Pete Davies’ All Played Out, about the 1990 World Cup which certainly helped me get Fever Pitch published. Also Eamon Dunphy’s Only A Game, Hunter Davies’ The Glory Game and Simon Kuper’s Football Against the Enemy all of which I admired.

Q So was Fever Pitch the game-changer in British sports writing?

A I don’t know about that but publishers always take note of successful ideas and so do writers. There have been a lot similar books published since then I suppose; some good ones and some not so good I hear but if I opened any doors for others that’s fine.

Q Re-reading the book one is struck by the bygone footballing era it describes, because Fever Pitch antedates most of the big modern developments: all-seater stadia, the SKY/Premiership revolution, the Rise of The Oligarchs and the mass influx of foreign players. Manchester Utd have won twelve league titles post-Fever Pitch, for heaven’s sake. How do you feel reading it now?

A I rarely re-read any of my books but yes, as I’ve said before, I think more has changed in the twenty years since the book came out than in the previous hundred and many of these changes haven’t been for the better. I mean, you can see how the age demographic has changed. The crowds are much older because many youngsters can no longer afford the ticket prices. You would be mad to get nostalgic for the days when you were part of a solid mass of bodies lurching down the terracing. You forget how close to real danger fans were at times. It’s a wonder Heysel and Hillsborough situations didn’t develop more often. So while it’s easy to complain about prawn sandwiches and corporate boxes, watching football has become much safer at least. You mentioned “the great smell of brute”, the phrase I used in the book to describe the sense of menace in the old crowds, well you wouldn’t miss that either.

Q What about The Gunners? Surely that’s the biggest cultural change since the book was written. Back then you called Arsenal “boring and lucky and dirty and petulant and rich and mean.” Once the team every neutral loved to hate, Arsenal have become the team every neutral loves to love. How weird is that?

A That’s how it seemed at the time but the last twenty years have really been the best of our lifetimes. We’ve seen fantastic football, and we’ve seen our team win a lot of trophies, not in the last seven years, but the spending power of the oligarchs has made life very difficult for Arsenal. We are still great to watch I think. I can remember a 1995 FA Cup defeat to Milwall where we fielded a midfield of Parlour, Jensen, Hillier and Morrow. Within a handful of years, instead of those guys, we had Vieira, Petit, Ljungberg and Pires in the midfield so that’s the scale of the change and Arsene deserves huge credit for all of that.

Q Are you close to the manager?

A Obviously the book changed my relationship to the club. I know a lot of people involved with the club and I would be on nodding terms with Arsene Wenger but no, not close. I mean, I could probably call in tickets if I really needed them but I’m still a season ticket-holder, still live in the borough of Islington and never miss a home game with my wife and two sons who are also Arsenal fanatics.

Q You have said that Fever Pitch was an attempt to gain some kind of an angle on your obsession do does the fever still burn as fiercely as ever?

A Holidays still have to be planned around the fixtures list so in that sense yes, it does. But you see things differently twenty years on and you’re going to watch matches as a family. Last year, I took the boys to the Carling Cup Final and they were just devastated when we lost to Birmingham. I remember when my dad took me to the 1969 League Cup Final against Swindon, my first time at Wembley when, again, Arsenal lost late on and I was just as devastated. I bolted for the exits and when dad caught up with me he gave me a stern lecture on the value of sportsmanship which didn’t help my mood. I hope I handled the boys’ disappointment better but it’s hard to know.

Q How optimistic are you about the possibility of a resurgence at Arsenal?

A Watching Arsenal in the last twenty years has been a wonderful blessing, especially for someone who experienced the “boring boring Arsenal” years first-hand but the money pouring into the big clubs had complicated things for Arsenal. I don’t think we can go on consoling ourselves with the belief that third or fourth place is Just Like Winning a Trophy because it’s not. I also worry about keeping our best players when the wages on offer elsewhere are bound to influence them but you have to give Arsene Wenger credit for sticking to his basic philosophy. The other top teams haven’t been fantastic this year so yes, I remain optimistic.

Q Are you ever tempted to bring the story full-circle in a sequel volume to Fever Pitch? Do you get asked to do it?

A Yes, it’s been suggested but no, I haven’t been tempted because sequels are very rarely a good idea. I also know people at the club now and it would be difficult to get the necessary perspective and the book was all about a fan’s perspective. So no, no sequels.

Q Finally, looking back, how do you view the effects which Fever Pitch had on your career? Oftentimes, we hear artists lamenting the difficulties imposed by runaway first successes, the whole one-hit wonder, second-book syndrome thing. So, Fever Pitch, albatross or advantage?

A Definitely not an albatross, quite the opposite. It was brilliant for me. Doors started opening. I might never have got to do what I did subsequently without that big break-through. Writing fiction is totally different, of course; with nonfiction you know what happens next! But Fever Pitch helped me to become a novelist which is what I wanted to be in the first place.

Paul Kimmage won the best biography of the year award for ‘Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson’ in a strong field that included Ronald Reng’s ‘A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke’ and David Millar’s ‘Racing Through The Dark’. In an emotional acceptance speech Matt Hampson said that he was ‘gobsmacked’ and speechless to win and added that it was fantastic to be at the awards and to be recognised for the book. Paul Kimmage played tribute to Matt Hampson’s incredible spirit saying that he was an amazing person who had been faced with the choice ‘to get busy living or get busy dying – Matt chose to get busy living.’

Nick Hornby was at The Savoy to receive his award for his Outstanding Contribution to Sports Writing. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of ‘Fever Pitch’ he remembered that he had first gone to Arsenal on his own 40 years ago and that it had cost him 15p. He lamented that sport now costs too much for kids to go to and urged that if we want to continue to breed fans and writers then sport needs to be made cheaper.

Other winners included Ronald Reng winner of Best Football Book of the year for his biography of Robert Enke. Alastair Hignell winner of Best Rugby Book for his inspiring autobiography ‘Higgy: Matches, Microphones and MS’ and Chris Waters who won Best Cricket Book of the year for his biography of Fred Trueman.

All winning books will now be entered into a public online vote to find the best overall sports book of the year. The vote opens at 10am on Tuesday 22nd May and runs until 10th June, the winner will be announced on 11th June. To vote go to: www.britishsportsbookawards.co.uk. Full list of winners below.

Guests on the night included: Graeme Swann, Clare Tomlinson, Paul Nicholls, Stan Collymore, Manish Bhasin, Sam Warburton, Ian Roberston, Brough Scott, David Millar, Darren Gough, Alison Mitchell.

Watch out for the British Sports Book Awards on TV this weekend – highlights from the night will be shown on Sky Sports on 25th and 26th May presented by Natalie Pinkham and Rishi Persad:

25/05/12 18:30 Sky Sports 4 Digital Sky Sports 4 HD
25/05/12 21:00 Sky Sports 3 Digital Sky Sports 3 HD
26/05/12 02:00 Sky Sports 3 Digital Sky Sports 3 HD
26/05/12 07:00 Sky Sports 3 Digital Sky Sports 3 HD
26/05/12 10:00 Sky Sports 2 Digital Sky Sports 2 HD

BSBA WINNERS 2012
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO SPORTS WRITING – Nick Hornby
BEST AUTOBIOGRAPHY/ BIOGRAPHY – Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson – Paul Kimmage
BEST CRICKET BOOK – Fred Trueman: The Authorised Biography – Chris Waters

BEST FOOTBALL BOOK – A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke – Ronald Reng

BEST GOLF BOOK – The 100 Greatest Ever Golfers – Andy Farrell

BEST HORSE RACING BOOK – Beyond the Frame: Great Racing Photographs – Edward Whitaker

BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK – Wimbledon: Visions of the Championships – Bob Martin & Ian Hewitt

BEST MOTORSPORT BOOK – Ultimate E-type: The Competition Cars – Philip Porter

BEST NEW WRITER – The Ghost Runner: The Tragedy of the Man They Couldn’t Stop – Bill Jones

BEST RUGBY BOOK – Higgy: Matches, Microphones and MS – Alastair Hignell

BEST PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN FOR A SPORTS BOOK – Clare Drysdale for Run! 26.2 Stories of Blisters and Bliss by Dean Karnazes

BEST RETAILER – Waterstones
For further details, press enquiries and to request interviews with winning authors please contact Rachel Nicholson, rachelnicholson@mac.com, 07912 899 588.

A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke by Ronald Reng (Yellow Jersey) 5/1

Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson by Paul Kimmage (Simon & Schuster) 4/1

How Not To Be A Professional Footballer by Paul Merson (HarperSport) 14/1

Jonny: My Autobiography by Jonny Wilkinson (Headline) 5/1

Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar by David Millar (Orion) 3/1

Red: My Autobiography by Gary Neville (Bantam Press) 6/1

Taking A Punt On My Life by Willie Thorne (Vision Sports Publishing) 20/1

The Breaks Are Off by Graeme Swann (Hodder & Stoughton) 7/1

Ladbrokes – ‘The odds suggest it’s closer this year than ever before. We can’t rule out a single book – including the outsiders.’
The retailers shortlisted and in the running for Sports Books Retailer of the Year are also announced:

Amazon.co.uk
Foyles
Waterstones
WHSmith

The !0th annual British Sports Book Awards will be held at The Savoy Hotel, London on Monday 21st May. For the first time in the awards history the event will be filmed and a 30 minute highlights programme will be broadcast across Sky Sports TV throughout the weekend of 25th/26th May.

25/05/12 18:30 Sky Sports 4 Digital Sky Sports 4 HD
25/05/12 21:00 Sky Sports 3 Digital Sky Sports 3 HD
26/05/12 02:00 Sky Sports 3 Digital Sky Sports 3 HD
26/05/12 07:00 Sky Sports 3 Digital Sky Sports 3 HD
26/05/12 10:00 Sky Sports 2 Digital Sky Sports 2 HD

Two new categories join the sporting line up this year with awards for Golf Book of the Year and Motorsport Book of the Year. Nick Hornby will also be presented with an award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Sports Writing’ twenty years on from the publication of ‘Fever Pitch’.

The winners of the 10th Annual British Sports Book Awards will be announced at a black tie dinner at The Savoy Hotel in London on 21st May. All category winners will then be entered into an online public vote to find the Overall British Sports Book of the Year. Each winning title will be promoted in a media and retail campaign in the run up to Father’s Day. The public vote will held on the official website – www.britishsportsbookawards.co.uk – the overall winner will be announced on 11th June.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the awards, the organisers are negotiating for highlights from the awards ceremony to be televised on SkySportsTV in an exciting programme full of sports stars and book award winners. It is anticipated that a 30 minute programme will be shown on Friday 25th May then repeated throughout the weekend of 26th/27th May. The ceremony and programme will be hosted by Natalie Pinkham (SkySports TV) and Rishi Persad (BBC TV Sport).

Click here for full shortlists.

Sponsors of the 10th Annual British Sports Book Awards include: Ladbrokes, The Times, Butler Tanner and Dennis, Little Hampton Book Services, Stoke Park, Foundation for Sport and the Arts, Simon & Schuster, Getty Images, Artbuthnot Latham.

For press enquiries please contact: Rachel Nicholson – rachel@britishsportsbookawards.co.uk – 07912 899 588

To book a table or your place at the dinner on 21st May please contact Omar Khan – omar@khanconsulting.co.uk

David Willis, Chairman of the British Sports Book Awards, is delighted to announce a special award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Sports Writing’ that will be presented this year to Nick Hornby, author of the ground-breaking memoir ‘Fever Pitch’.

“The tenth anniversary of the British Sports Book Awards in 2012 also marks the twentieth anniversary of Nick Hornby’s memoir ‘Fever Pitch’ which altered perceptions about the value and importance of sport in relationships and within society as a whole. It emphasised that supporting a football team could have psychological and social benefits to both individuals and communities and demonstrated that being a sports fan is good for us.” – David Willis

Nick Hornby will be at the dinner on 21st May to accept his award and has issued this statement:

“When you write a book, you can only really hope that people read it and like it, and that it stays around for as long as possible. ‘Fever Pitch’ is now twenty years old, and it means a lot to me that those who care about sports literature want to recognise it in this way.”

Two new category awards will also be added this year – for the best Golf and MotorSport books of the year joining existing awards for best football, cricket, rugby and horse racing books. The best illustrated book, best new writer and best biography awards will also be presented on 21st May.

Returning sponsors supporting the awards this year are: The Times, Ladbrokes, Foundation for Sport and the Arts, Butler Tanner & Dennis, Getty Images, Littlehampton Book Services and Simon & Schuster.
For press enquiries please contact: Rachel Nicholson – rachel@britishsportsbookawards.com – 07912 899 588

To book a table or your place at the dinner on 21st May please contact Omar Khan – omar@britishsportsbookawards.com

Nick Hornby photo: Sigrid Estrada