A Yorkshire Tragedy The Rise and Fall of a Sporting Powerhouse

There are currently no Yorkshire teams in the Premier League; several of them have lurched from financial disaster to despair, tumbling down the divisions. The world-famous Headingley is no longer an Ashes test ground. Attendances at rugby league matches are falling. For the past three decades something has been missing from British sport. For some it has lost its heart and soul. This book's argument is that it has lost its Yorkshireness, which possibly amounts to the same thing. The 1980s, which were bookended by the capture of the Yorkshire Ripper and the Hillsborough disaster, were a tragedy for Yorkshire and its sporting teams. The collapse of the county's industries led to the ebbing of its power in three sports: football, cricket and rugby league. In this mercurial, post-industrial age, the biggest county in England remains a symbol of what sport has lost. A Yorkshire Tragedy is a lament for a disappearing world but also a celebration of the buoyancy that remains at the heart of the county's sporting identity. Extensively researched, and featuring many interviews with the decade's sportsmen, managers, miners, fans and local politicians, it casts a new light on an era that read the last rites for Yorkshire's - and the country's - collective, working-class culture.