Mike Bradbury Explores LOST TEAMS OF THE MIDLANDS

Association Football did not just appear with the creation of the Football Association in 1863, for the sport already existed centuries ago, when leather and rag balls were kicked about by ruffians of towns and villages, often as a smoke-screen or a prelude for a jolly good brawl. The true origins of the time-honored sport are explored by author Mike Bradbury in his new book, which takes readers back in time to discover the "Lost Teams of the Midlands."

In Victorian times, the common people from all over the Midlands would chase after a stuffed leather football, sometimes from dawn till dusk, from one end of town to the other. Football, in all its various forms, was the game of the people. Centuries later, in England's universities and public schools, the game was brought under a unified set of rules by middle - and upper-class young men who formed exclusive football clubs for their fellows and tried to keep the Association game between themselves. Back in the Midlands, however, pioneering men started football teams for the working-class society, and within a decade, there were hundreds of such teams from Worcester to Sheffield. Football had been given back to the common man.

Bradbury's book gives an insight into over sixty small clubs who were the mainstay of organised football across the Midlands during the Victorian era, from the embryonic 1860s to beyond professionalism in the 1890s. Many new details and photographs are being published for the first time, as the author travels all over the eight counties of the Midlands to find the lost grounds and the "Lost Teams of the Midlands."

For more information on this book, interested parties may log on to http://www.XlibrisPublishing.co.uk.

About the Author
Mike Bradbury recently retired after spending thirty years as a local government officer with Birmingham City Council. A lifelong interest in all things Victorian has led to the research into this book. Bradbury is also a musician and has played keyboards on eight albums since 2001. He is a member of the Lewis Carroll Society, and his other interests include Pre-Raphaelite art and railways.

Lost Teams of the Midlands * by Mike Bradbury
Publication Date: October 22, 2013
Trade Paperback; £16.99; 450 pages; 978-1-4836-9529-7
Trade Hardback; £26.99; 450 pages; 978-1-4836-9530-3
Ebook; £3.99; 978-1-4836-9531-0

Members of the media who wish to review this book may request a complimentary paperback copy by contacting the publisher at 800-056-3182. To purchase copies of the book for resale, please fax Xlibris at 44-203-006-8880 or call 800-056-3182.

For more information, contact Xlibris at 800-056-3182 or on the web at http://www.XlibrisPublishing.co.uk.

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