A comprehensive, informative, & entertaining account of Ireland's fourth Gaelic game. This sport continues to gain popularity in the U.S.

200 years ago handball was a national obsession. People travelled to watch matches and won or lost fortunes through illegal gambling. Welsh player/official Kevin Dicks' meticulous research traces the long history of this folk sport from its medieval churchyard roots, through its glory years in the 18th and 19th centuries to its modernisation today. Over 60 images.

Hitting a ball with the hand (Handball) is the oldest sport known to mankind. It has been almost 100 years since handball was introduced as an intramural sport at Texas A&M. This book connects a tie to those who helped handball along the way even before handball became a sport there and takes the reader through the years to the spring of 2022. Part of the history of handball is told in personal stories from those who have played at Texas A&M and the impact handball had on their lives and their lifetime achievements. Another part of the history includes a history of the Texas A&M courts, coaches, and Intramural Directors. With a rich history that has produced 26 players who have reached the All- American level and some who went on to become the world’s best, this story needed to be recorded.

Killshot Tate Coldiron, in his early fifties, with a Jack Daniel's Green habit and two withered legs, has his car break down in Rochester, NY on his way to handball tournament in Cleveland. A former championship handball player; whose legs were broken 25 years earlier for hustling the wrong opponent; Coldiron has survived since by playing match games for money. Coldiron hustles a local player for a few bucks, in doing so seeing potential in the raw, but talented Barry West. He makes West an offer to train him and take him on the road to play match games for money against the best players in the country. West, tired of his job and life in Rochester, and with support from his girlfriend, Susan, agrees. Following a rigorous training period, during which Coldiron transforms his young prot�g� into a superior handball player, the two go on the road. Barry West puts together a fabulous string of victories, bringing in tens of thousands of dollars. However, Coldiron's handball student resorts to doing anything to win, including hitting other players with the ball that travels over a hundred miles per hour. And West's need to win at any cost supersedes his love for Susan, and his allegiance to Coldiron. After West maims a few more players-including some of Coldiron's old handball friends-Tate, guided by his love for the purity of the game, decides he must take West out. He is forced to destroy the winning machine he created. It all comes down to one explosive and exciting match. It is winner takes all; a matter of love, life, and death.

'Yes!' yelled Stefan. He threw his arms up in the air. 'Game, set and match to me! But there was no one else to cheer him on. Stefan has winning racquet skills. But will he ever play a real game of tennis?

A Year in Retirement is a fictionalized memoir covering the year after a 61-year old leaves his civil service job after 27 years. It depicts his experiences in dealing with the question: So youre retired; what do you do now? It shows that some things change in retirement while others dont. It shows that retirement can be a little scary, but that it can also be rewarding. The authors purpose was, first, having published three collections of short stories in each of the past three years, to write a longer piece; and, secondly, to put into it all of the things hes learned about dealing with being retired. As it turned out, this wasnt too much, but he hopes the book will be somewhat instructive as well as entertaining. The author is still writing short stories; at this time, hes had a little over 200 stories published, most of them in the online magazines he discovered four or five years ago. In addition to A Year in Retirement, hes included in this book 25 short stories that have been published but not collected before.

Modern Sports around the World focuses on the history, geography, sociology, economics, and technological advancements of 50 sports played from India to Ireland. Sports have become an international spectacle that influences nations' foreign policy, world economies, and regional morale. Hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake as governments and multinational corporations rush to make sure they have a place at the table. And yet, sports come from humble beginnings. We are fascinated by who can run the fastest, lift the most weight, jump the highest, swim the farthest, and act with the most precision. The history of sports is the history of the world. Modern Sports around the World examines 50 of the world's most popular sports. Each chapter features one sport and details that sport's origins, global migration, economic forces, media influences, political environment, pop-culture inspirations, scandalous moments, and key individuals. Sports history is a tapestry of sociological variables; Modern Sports around the World weaves them together to create a unique history book that explains not only where humanity has been, but where it might be going.

Spanning the wide world of sports, this volume is packed with every conceivable fact that anyone would possibly want to know about nearly 300 sports, including history and practice worldwide.