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Post by dem bones on Oct 16, 2011 20:58:41 GMT
Stephen King - Blockade Billy (Hodder & Stoughton, 2008) Glen Orbit Blockade Billy MoralityBlurb From New York Times best-selling author Stephen King comes the haunting story of Blockade Billy, the greatest Major League baseball player to be erased from the game. Even the most die-hard baseball fans don't know the true story of William 'Blockade Billy' Blakely. He may have been the greatest player the game has ever seen, but today no one remembers his name. He was the first - and only - player to have his existence completely removed from the record books. Even his team is long forgotten, barely a footnote in the game's history.
Every effort was made to erase any evidence that William Blakely played professional baseball, and with good reason. Blockade Billy had a secret darker than any pill or injection that might cause a scandal in sports today. His secret was much, much worse ... and only Stephen King, the most gifted storyteller of our age, can reveal the truth to the world, once and for all."KILL THE UMP! KILL THE UMP!"Told to "Mr. King" by George 'Granny' Grantham, an old pro now residing in a nursing home, Blockade Billy concerns the fortunes of terminal no hopers the New Jersey Titans during the 1957 baseball season. Short of players, coach Jersey Joe DiPunno signs an Iowa farm-boy, Billy Blakely, from amateur outfit The Davenport Cornhackers. It turns out an inspired move. Billy ain't quite right in the head - legacy of his upbringing in a Christian orphanage which, according to Granny, was "Hell on earth" - but he's blessed of a natural ability, cunning when he needs to be, and the fans warm to him from the off. Even the team's star player, Danny Dusen likes Billy, calls him his lucky charm, and Danny Dusen ain't in the habit of liking anyone. Weird thing is, the kid always wears a sticking plaster on his finger. As the season grinds on, the Titans win more games than they lose and Dusey's closing in on some kind of record. But then a dreadful revelation and a non-social visit from the police to the team's dressing room spells the end .... For the first sixty pages it's Boys Own with swearing before King shifts gear and horrors things up some. Not being a baseball (UK: rounders ) fan, much of the jargon is pitched way above my head and, as a consequence, at times it was difficult to follow, just as i guess Richard Stains's No Such Thing As A Friendly might be particularly hard going for an American reader? King being an unashamed admirer of Graham 'Ghastly' Ingels' notorious EC comic strip Foul Play, i was hoping for something in a similarly gruesome vein, but this is more quietly compelling than laugh out loud gross (for that, i'd recommend Frank King's Southpaw). But it still had me hooked to finish the eighty pages in one hit - the print is on the large side - and i'm confident Morality will finish the job.
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Post by dem bones on May 25, 2012 7:53:00 GMT
Vault - we're giving 'em away! etc. Was hoping to turn up a copy of Michael Hastings' short The Haunted Tennis Court, basis for the 1984 'Hammer House Of Mystery & Suspense episode', Tennis Court, but no luck with that, so here's Jessica Atterbury's Little Eddie's Big Game, "A true story of the day Grandpa went to bat for his grandson and became a home run!", from the Roger Elwood-edited Official Munsters Magazine, (Vol 1 No 1, Twin Hits Inc., 1965). 'Enjoy' just doesn't seem appropriate in the circumstances. Attachments:
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Post by dem bones on Jul 26, 2012 6:52:02 GMT
Stephen King - Morality: Nothing to do with sport (and yet, in view of the corporate hijacking of the "people"s olymp*cs, somehow strangely appropriate), included here as it's the other story from Blockade Billy. Struggling author Chad and wife Nora, a private nurse, can ease their money woes if only she will agree to her wealthy invalid patient, the Reverend Winston's indecent proposal. The old boy has decided it's time he indulged in some vicarious sin and he's willing to pay Nora a fortune if she'll only step up to a child in the park and punch him or her full in the face. Obviously, he'll want the magic moment captured on film.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 24, 2012 10:36:57 GMT
Craig Herbertson - A Game of Billiards: A grudge match between the appalling Captain Petronius who will never see front line duty in his career and battle-hardened Captain Boyd, respected by the Sepoys as one of their own. Like a Boys Own adventure gone very, very wrong. At just the three pages, an ideal taster for the recently published The Heaven Makers And Other Gruesome Tales. A Game Of Billiards first appeared in Benedict J. and V. C. Jones (ed's) Tales From The Smoking Room (Hand of Danjou Press, 2009) and resurfaced on the inaugural Vault Advent Calendar the following year, meaning you can READ IT HEREVincent Price. Playing football. In a habit. Eleven-year-old Stanley Peterson is transformed into the great Lazlo, City's mystery signing from nowhere, to steer them clear of the relegation trapdoor in Terence Blacker's football chiller, The Transfer, one of a number of YA "soccer"- supernatural crossovers. Murder Ink lists several sporting crime novels, including these football themed mysteries. Leonard Gribble - The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1939) Peter Handke - The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1970) Maurice Procter - Rogue Running (1966) Julian Symons - The Plot Against Hugo Ryder (1973)
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Post by dem bones on Feb 2, 2013 14:47:07 GMT
Marion Bondage Franklin Marsh - The Wicket Man: ( Filthy Creations, Jan 2013). A gentle afternoon's cricket on the village green. The glorious slap of leather on willow. Old duffers in deckchair sipping G &T's. The endeavours of both teams applauded in equal measure. That satisfying sizzle of human flesh and the screams of the tortured ..... A shorp, sharp 'Cricket is Mass Murder' outing from the master of the macabre!
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Post by dem bones on Apr 9, 2013 7:43:11 GMT
Another Football interlude .... The Wealdstone Raider live at $hitehawk FC, 9th March 2013 (click HERE for 13 seconds of class) Kim Newman - SQPR: ( interzone, May 1992: The Original Dr Shade and Other Stories, 1994)). Derek Leech, all-powerful media mogul and king-maker, continues his quest for entire world domination by liberating English football from it's traditional working class roots and reinventing it as a £ multi-billion industry in keeping with the American super-bowl model. The football league is systematically destroyed to replaced by an all-new, family friendly bloodbath marketed as the world series. Roy Robartes (nee Race), manager of unfashionable Super Queens Parl Rovers, fondly remembers how it used to be during his playing career and instils a sense of traditional values in his unfancied team. They even spurn the glitzy Rollerball fancy dress affected by their opponents in favour of shirt, shorts and socks. Under Robartes' guidance, SQPR embark on an improbable cup run that takes them all the way to the final at the Docklands Super Arena to face the all-conquering Pythons and their ultra-violent enforcer Simon 'Splodge' Hodges (Vinnie Jones minus the flashes of ability). A broken leg put paid to Roy's playing days and he's been in decline ever since. Baldness, a well-publicised battle with the bottle and a tempestuous relationship with his glamorous wife Gitainne (a former Eurovision Song Contest flat-liner) have left their scars. At his lowest ebb, desperate to re-establish their star status, he and the love of his life "tag-mud wrestled Jimmy Savile and Anelka Rice for homeless children." SQPR are his last shot at redemption, but with the entire might of Leech's organisation adopting underhand methods to facilitate a Pythons victory, can Roy's boys pull off the greatest giant killing in the history of the game? One things for certain: whatever the outcome, Leech and The Daily Comet will come up stinking of roses as always. In his afterword to SQPR, Kim Newman writes: "I've never really been interested in football (much less comics about football), but I find that you can't be male and British without having an opinion on the national game." Five years later, he came up with a second ostensibly football-themed story, The Germans Won for Nicholas Royle's A Book Of Two Halves (Indigo, 1997). Royle even credits Newman with providing the idea for the anthology.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Apr 9, 2013 13:54:19 GMT
I'd offer my 'Big Cup, Wee Cup' tale but its probably the least horrific in the collection unless you're a mad keen Christian. Sadly, I am now tentatively starting to look out for Wealdstone FC results. As if I thought supporting Hearts wasn't painful enough.
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Post by mattofthespurs on Apr 9, 2013 18:02:51 GMT
Following Spurs these days is enough horror in sport as I can take. Thank you very much.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 16, 2014 6:31:52 GMT
Sport is supernaturalMark Valentine (ed.) - Haunted Pavilions (Mark Valentine, August 1992) ColinLangeveld Cover image via: Goodreads. Many thanks to the original scanner. Mark Valentine - Introduction
David G. Rowlands - What’s in a Name? C. P. Langeveld - The Demonic Bowler Lynn M. Cochrane - Playing Gracefully Jonathan Wood - Eleventh Man Not...? Keith Jones - Night Watchman R. B. Russell - The Holy Game of Cricket Pauline E. Dungate - The Annual Cricket Match John Gale - The Green Lady Pavilion Mark Valentine - Twilight at Little Brydon Cricket ClubTwenty-two years after the event, word reaches us that Mark Valentine compiled, edited and published an anthology of creepy cricket-themed stories in a limited edition (111 copies). The only other thing I know about this booklet is that the cover artwork was by Colin P. Langeveld, unlike the two illustrations accompanying this stub post which almost certainly were not. Does anybody out there have a copy? Is it as good as the line-up suggests?
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Aug 16, 2014 10:13:49 GMT
Love thse cricket covers. Didn't realize that there were 43 books in the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series. thank goodness I only quite liked them as a kid or I'd need to have them all.
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Post by mcannon on Aug 16, 2014 11:06:21 GMT
Sport is supernatural>>Mark Valentine (ed.) - Haunted Pavilions (Mark Valentine, August 1992) Mark Valentine - Introduction
David G. Rowlands - What’s in a Name? C. P. Langeveld - The Demonic Bowler Lynn M. Cochrane - Playing Gracefully Jonathan Wood - Eleventh Man Not...? Keith Jones - Night Watchman R. B. Russell - The Holy Game of Cricket Pauline E. Dungate - The Annual Cricket Match John Gale - The Green Lady Pavilion Mark Valentine - Twilight at Little Brydon Cricket ClubTwenty-two years after the event, word reaches us that Mark Valentine compiled, edited and published an anthology of creepy cricket-themed stories in a limited edition (111 copies). >> Surely an edition of 87 - 'The Devil's Number" in cricket scoring - would have been more appropriate? Late 19th Century Australian cricketer Fred Spofforth was nicknamed "The Demon Bowler", but as far as i know, no actual supernatural activities were ever ascribed to him.... Such niggles aside, I'd love to see a new edition of this anthology! Perhaps Wisden might oblige?
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Post by Shrink Proof on Aug 17, 2014 10:51:20 GMT
Such niggles aside, I'd love to see a new edition of this anthology! Perhaps Wisden might oblige? If they do it should also include Gary Fry's "Night Watchman", as featured in "Supernatural Tales 16" - creepy stuff and, appropriately for a cricketing tale, set in Yorkshire...
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Post by dem bones on Aug 18, 2014 6:41:39 GMT
Such niggles aside, I'd love to see a new edition of this anthology! Perhaps Wisden might oblige? If they do it should also include Gary Fry's "Night Watchman", as featured in "Supernatural Tales 16" - creepy stuff and, appropriately for a cricketing tale, set in Yorkshire... To which we can add Lord Dunsany's Autumn Cricket, Daphne Froome's Last Innings, J. B. Crooks' Kept In and Franklin Marsh's grisly The Wicket Man. Any reprint will have to be an expanded omnibus edition.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 7, 2015 17:24:26 GMT
Mark Valentine's Ghosts & Croquet? I'm not sure if anything came of it, but found this snippet in Rosemary Pardoe's 'Small Press' column for Ghost Story Society Newsletter #12, Feb. 1992. "Mark Valentine .... is looking for ghostly croquet stories to include in a follow-up booklet to the practically out-of-print cricketing booklet, Haunted Pavilions." Well I'd be up for a copy.
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Post by dem bones on Feb 23, 2015 8:13:20 GMT
Bill Naughton - The Goalkeeper's Revenge (Puffin, 1968: Originally Harrap, 1961) How about "Spit Nolan" by Bill Naughton, from his marvellous children's stories collection "The Goalkeeper's Revenge"? All about the time-honoured sport of go-kart racing. It's not supernatural, but it's got one hell of a grim, and haunting, ending... It's a pretty neat collection. Any book which can go from the low comedy of the marvellous "Seventeen Oranges" straight into the "Spit Nolan" yarn and carry it off gets my vote. Naughton is refreshingly unpatronising, and "Spit Nolan" really does stick in the mind. Tears and shudders at the ending, I assure you. The stories are all very much "slice-of-life" stuff - as I said, not supernatural at all - but well worth the reading. The library drew a blank, but landed a nice pre-battered copy for 50p at yesterday's market. Spit Nolan: Spit's the local kid with one lung and is not expected to live long, but this hasn't prevented him from beating all comers in the cart races down a steep hillside road known as Cemetery Brew. When Leslie Duckett shows up with his marvellous new customised trolley Spit finally has a serious challenger. And so to the big race, the Edgam (named in honour of a girl Spit met during a stay in Southport Sanatorium) versus The British Queen (named in honour of Duckett senior's pub). A well-meaning supporter hands Spit a yellow rose plucked from the cemetery. Spit chides him that its bad luck to steal from the dead but wears it anyway. As you'll be aware from Oatcake's post, it doesn't end on a happy note. The Goalkeeper's Revenge: Nothing supernatural about the title story either unless you include 'daft' Sim Dalt's invincibility from the penalty spot. Sim's one joy in life is keeping goal and he's remarkably good at it. But then he's packed off the the Clinic Street Special School. The coach wants him to play on until the end of the season, but Bob Thropper, school bully and captain of the Scuttle Street football team, won't have a barmy kid in his team, especially a gifted one, and has him banished from the squad. Sim gives fair warning that one day he'll make him eat his words. Bob Thropper grows up to be a professional footballer with mighty Hummerton F.C. where he's idolised for his unstoppable thunderbolts. Sim takes work at Brunts Amusement Park where the 'Beat The Goalie' challenge fast becomes the main attraction. One night, following a cup victory and celebratory drinks, the triumphant Hummerton side turn up en masse and Thropper is not one to spurn a golden opportunity to again humiliate Sim. You'd put money on the outcome of the shoot out, but Daft Dalt's revenge is not yet complete.
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