Today I’m closing the blog tour for More Than A Game, along with Christina Philippou and BooksChatter, courtesy of Rachel’s Random Resources.
About the Book
Sabina Park Rangers is the first team of black players to reach the final of the Watney’s Challenge Cup. But coach Horace McIntosh has more selection problems than most. The First Division champions want to sign one of his best players – and right up until the day of the match he is uncertain that he will have a team for the biggest game in the club’s history because of arrests, a scam and an atmosphere of impending violence.
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Extract
‘Hey,’ a bored and irritable cop called to him from the front seat of the van, ‘when are you black bastards going to have a go, eh? Fancy yourself do you, you black bastard.’ Uncomfortable and sweaty balls can do that to a man. Courtney pulled a puzzled face as he pawed at his short dreads that his Trinidadian father detested (as a minority within a minority, Lancelot Wright thought his son’s hair and speech had been too influenced by Jamaicans.) Smirking to himself, Courtney flexed one of his large biceps at the cops and walked on. Like a lot of the guys he knew, Courtney was at a stage in his life in which he definitely didn’t talk to cops unless he had to – and especially if he was outnumbered and they were ready for a ruck. He knew only too well what it was like for one person to take on a dozen men. It wasn’t like the kung fu films he enjoyed at the Colosseum cinema on Friday nights in which the gang of thugs had the good grace to attack the hero one at the time. In real life the bastards piled in from all directions: Courtney’s own experience of this cowardly tactic came three years before, when he was set upon on his way to the Molinuex and beaten by a gang of Wolves’ supporters. They came at him from behind and he was left badly injured and then, to cap it all, he was the only one arrested for affray (although the charges were later dropped.) Courtney never went to another Wolves game. In his time watching matches, he’d had to tell people around him to quit the ‘nigger’ chants every time a black player got a touch of the ball. He had also, on occasion, gone down to the areas in the stand where spectators threw bananas onto the pitch. He was prepared to put up with all that aggravation – but the fact that he had been set upon by people who were supporting the same team made him think about spending his time playing, rather than watching, football.
About the Author
Ralph Robb was born and raised in the industrial town of Wolverhampton, England, and now lives in Ontario, Canada with his wife, two cats and a dog. A proud father of four, Robb works as an engineering technician and loves rugby, martial arts and of course a good book. His world is balanced by his obsession with comic books, quality TV, global events and the great outdoors.
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