When I picked up a copy of The Coping Stone at author Paul Nicholls’ maiden book launch at Gleebooks in Sydney, despite having been told all about it in the fascinating discussion with Dr Ian Syson, I still didn’t really have a grasp of what I was getting myself into. The book, a magnificent square format going against the grain of keeping printing costs down, was definitely something that would be noticeable, sitting atop the pile of books on my bedside table. Eventually, after dipping my toes in a couple of times with tired eyes, I put the book in my bag when I was heading to Perth for the Matildas’ opening match of the Women’s Asian Cup, and that’s when I got into it on the return journey. A good few weeks later, it accompanied me to North America for the World Cup and I was by now over halfway through it, but it wasn’t until October that I finally picked up the book and made sure I brought it to its conclusion. This is not really a classic story, you see, it is a timeline of an incredible three months of international football from over a hundred years ago when Australia welcomed England for a test series for the very first time. So, there was no pressure to keep the characters fresh in my mind; I could simply restart after a few weeks away from the book and I’d quickly remember the names of the players and remember where we were up to.
But a story it certainly is. And if you’re familiar with that Netflix series that came out when Covid started, The English Game, with the grumpy Scottish footballer Fergus Suter who became the first professional player, you’ll be part-way to understanding just how this book works. We first learn just how long it took for England to send a representative side to play Australia, and we also get a feel for how big an undertaking this was – a three month, 25-game tour with a threadbare squad following straight after a season and a long journey down under. The name Stan Seymour stood out to me as a member of the touring England team; being a Newcastle United fan, his name, shared with his son, is synonymous with the club, the name having been a player, a manager and a chairman of the proud club through good times and bad. Australia’s hero in the book is Judy Masters, from the football-crazy Illawarra mining region of New South Wales, and the writing gives an insight into the lives of the players, not just the facts and figures of the incredible schedule of fixtures that took place across the country.
What really stands out though is the match action. Setting the scene for each game, we get to know the conditions, the state of the field, the atmosphere, and once the action starts, we are taken through each game as though author Paul Nicholls was there himself in person. He’s certainly not that old! But where the source material would presumably give him the venue, the scorers, the team lists and perhaps a high-level paragraph of the occasion, his prose for each match report goes into the detail. This is fiction sprinkled with facts, or the other way around depending on where your level of cynicism lives, and my goodness, it works! Nobody would know if Tom Thompson sprayed a 40-yard pass out to the left wing; who would remember Jack Elkes thundering into a tackle with goalkeeper George Cartwright? A penalty miss or a spectacular save would have never been documented, I presume, but the author somehow brings it to life and makes us believe that the game of football of 100 years ago is quite close to the modern game in flow and excitement.
So, not only do we have the scene set and the football action described with such unlikely detail, but we get the feelings and sentiments of the players as they embark on their gruelling tour of Australia.
England’s record in the 25-game tour was unbelievable but factually correct – by the last few games I was hoping that Australia would finally get a result, and they would come very close. There are some thought-provoking lines in the book too, that make us realise that the same issues of vying with other codes that existed one hundred years ago are still the issues of today; and watching football at an oval is rubbish! The England camp’s refusal to allow substitutions was a constant frustration through the book, to the point where I seriously wanted an England player to be crocked and the England coaches to change their tune and come grovelling for the opportunity to swap their player.
So, what are you going to get reading this book? You’re going to be transported back to a time when everything was so much more logistically difficult, rules were unbreakable, footballs were heavy and people loved a live event as much as they loved their country. You’ll be entertained with football action from an era where no commentary would have existed, written or verbal, and you will marvel at the feats of the English team who came to Australia and left with an impeccable record despite playing on surfaces of varying quality and going toe-to-toe with Australia’s best footballers in a congested fixture list.
Well done Paul on a ground-breaking book. Who am I to question the football action? We know it was a real game, we know the facts, the scorers, the weather. But do we know how the game ebbed and flowed and kept the crowd entertained? We do now.
The Coping Stone is available through Fair Play Publishing and from any online bookstore worth its salt. Thanks for reading; hopefully there’ll be a Texi Smith novel out next year. It has been a while!