Stafford, Ian (1999), 'Play grounds of the gods,' Random House Australia, Milsons Point, NSW, Australia
Paperback = 256 pages
Condition = Fair secondhand
An ordinary bloke takes on the world's sporting best.
At age 34 award-winning reporter Ian Stafford realized that if he was ever going to live out his sporting fantasies of competing with the world's best, pitting his skills against theirs, he had to do it before he got any older. So he did. He spent a week training and playing on their own turf with the world's best cricketers (Australia), best soccer team (Brazil's Flamengo), best squash player (Pakistan's Jansher Khan), best runners (the Kenyan Olympic team), best rugby players (the Springboks), best rowers, (the British Olympic team) and the best light-heavyweight boxer (America's Roy Jones Jnr).
No-one spared Ian: Roy Jones threw real punches at him. He had to shoot for goals against the game's best keepers, and had to row as many kilometers each day as the Olympians. Throughout his (self-chosen) ordeals Ian kept his sense of humour, and 'Playgrounds of the Gods' is the fulfilment of his sporting fantasy, as funny as it is awe-inspiring: the ideal book for the armchair champion in every home.
