Book Review: The Rivals Game by Douglas Beattie

If you've ever read Four Four Two's regular feature More Than A Game, then there's no doubt that you'll love this book. For the premise behind it is similar: take two clubs where there's a derby and look at what makes games between them particularly fierce.

This isn't as easy a thing as one might think. Objectivity is essential as otherwise you might soon find yourself faced with angry fans of this or that club who feel that you've put them in a bad light.

It is, therefore, a major credit to Douglas Beattie that he pulls this off extremely well. The historical aspects that lead to the rivalry of each derby are looked - indeed this is historical basis is the strength of this book - yet it is interlaced with comments from those who have an attachment to either one of the teams as well as the author's personal experiences from watching the games.

The only criticism that I can lay on 'The Rivals Game' is on its cover design. For some reason they've gone for a shot of fans fighting in order to, I'm assuming here, portray the fierce nature of these games. Given that fighting is rarely mentioned in these books and certainly not glorified it is a strange and frankly offputting choice.

If I really wanted to be pedantic, - could say that he should have looked at relatively smaller derbies, the Bristol one for instance or else that between Blackburn and Burnley. That would have given the book a more rounded feel then simply a look at the major derbies.

Yet that's nitpicking because overall this is a good job and one that, who knows, might lead at a follow up book that takes in European derbies.

Looking for something to read during the summer? Why not take a look at our book reviews.