MY TOP THREE: EWAN FLYNN

Pitch Publishing is a fantastic imprint.
They do all the great Got, Not Got series
and plenty of other retro sports titles.

James Brown, The Late Tackle, talkSPORT

Pitch Publishing show the way for enterprising
sports book publishers and remains a beacon
of hope for sports authors aspiring or established.

The Sports Bookshelf.com

Pitch Publishing, an outfit whose "pitch perfect"
commissioning of boxing material stands
as a rebuke to more established houses

Boxing Monthly

Pitch capture the real spirit of sport with entertaining
and clever ideas. They work out what the aficionado
would want to read, then deliver it with great verve.

Paul Hayward, The Daily Telegraph

Pitch have enabled me to write in the ways I enjoy most.
Their production support is superb, delivering eye-catching
designs, attentive proof-reading, energetic marketing and helpful advice.

Tim Quelch, Good Old Sussex by the Sea, Orient to the Emirates, Underdog!

Pitch are willing to back out-of-the-blue and innovative
ideas and turn them into viable, entertaining books.
They do so with great presentation and editorial flair.

Justin Parkinson, Then Came Massacre

Pitch saw the potential in my story, used their expertise
to polish it, published it and helped inspire thousands
around the world to get into the sport of triathlon.

Andy Holgate, Can’t Swim, Can’t Ride, Can’t Run & Can't Sleep, Can't Train, Can't Stop

The process of working with Pitch to produce Picking up the Threads
was enjoyable and rewarding, with the final edition surpassing
expectations and becoming a resounding success.

John Chandler, Picking up the Threads

Pitch will take a chance on books that other publishers won't
and realise that interest in football extends beyond the
Premier League and the top 20 countries in the FIFA rankings.

Steve Menary, Outcasts!

Pitch have the vision to look beyond the obvious,
seeking out interesting ideas and subjects and
matching them with the right target audience.

David Tossell, Tony Greig, The Great English Final, Grovel!, Natural

Pitch have been an absolute joy to work with,
contributing their passion, expertise, knowledge
and experience to help produce a brilliant book.

Sam Pilger, Ashes Match of My Life

Pitch took our original concept and further enhanced it,
using their knowledge, experience and expertise, and helped
make Got, Not Got one of the football books of the year for 2011.

Derek Hammond, Got, Not Got series of books

Pitch bought into the concept of development through football,
channeling profits and proceeds from Eleven into helping
some of the most disadvantaged young people in the world.

Steve Fleming, Eleven

In the highly competitive world of sport publishing,
Pitch have consistently demonstrated the happy
knack of spotting, nurturing and promoting winners.

Neil Dunkin, Anfield of Dreams

10 Apr

MY TOP THREE: EWAN FLYNN

With several our eBook prices cut, we are asking authors to nominate their three favourite Pitch titles.

Picking up the baton fromTalkSPORT Drive Time host Adrian Durham, is Ewan Flynn author of We Are Sunday League.

He came to us on the recommendation of sports writer and Guardian scribe Don McRae, who loved a draft of Ewan's debut book.

Ewan picks three football titles: one set in the north-west, one on the hobby of sticker collecting and one on his beloved Tottenham Hotspur. Here are his picks and the reasons why.

The Overcoat Men by Mark Hodkinson: brilliantly written. The opening describing the Town of Rochdale is incredibly moving. I've never been there and know nothing about the club but instantly felt connected to the town and its people. The story of the club and how it was saved by good citizens will need to be replicated many times over for football as we know it in the lower leagues to survive after this crisis.

Stuck On You by Greg Lansdowne: Maxwell vs Murdoch and football stickers, what's not to like!

The Team that Dared to Do by Gerry Francis and Chris Slegg: I was 13 when Jurgen Klinsmann came to Spurs. I remember exactly where I was when his signing was announced. I needed double verification from Ceefax and Teletext before I'd dare to believe it. Wonderful to read the inside story of a team that made me so happy and that being typical Spurs ultimately balls'd it up when it counted.

As for my favourite ever sportsbook?

Friday Night Lights by Buzz Bissinger. I dedicated my book to him having never met the man.

Reading it – the story of a high school American football team playing in the late 1980s, a sport I have little interest in and a place I know nothing about – brought me to tears several times and inspired me to write We Are Sunday League.

Friday Night Lights showed me that great sports writing doesn't need to be about the most famous or talented, or even about teams that win - in fact often the opposite is true.

We Are Sunday League is a real-life story of Sunday football in north London, a bittersweet journey through muddy pitches, injury, dreams and disappointments.

The Wizards FC was a team of former schoolfriends who - with the help of a few star ringers - slogged their way through mud, skinheads and Staffordshire bull terriers to win the Edmonton Sunday League.

Team captain Ewan Flynn brings alive a world of young men giving it their all on sloping pitches a million miles from the glamour of the Premier League, and officials who volunteer to maintain some sort of order.

Along the way he charts the bittersweet stories of mates who brought success to the Wizards, despite suffering disappointment in their own all-too-brief professional football careers.

It's a sometimes farcical, sometimes tragic tale of growing up in north London: family tensions, friendship, being a man, and seeing where your dreams can take you - even a Roy-of-the-Rovers rise to captaining your country against the world champions.

Injuries on the pitch led the writer to many encounters with the surgeon's knife in order to keep playing. He shows how once football has you, it never lets you go.