Laptop Dancing and the Nanny Goat Mambo : A Sports Writer's Year

Tom Humphries is a sports journalist, who works for The Irish Times. He was born in London, but grew up in Dublin. "Laptop Dancing and the Nanny Goat Mambo" is his second book, and it follows his working life in 2002. Knowing the year's sporting calender, he'd have had some idea how busy things were going to be for him - but he wouldn't have expected things to have worked out just as they did... As it turns out, it was the Irish soccer team's involvement in the World Cup that dominated the year. Well, maybe not exactly...the Saipan Incident, and its fallout, came to dominate Ireland's sporting year - and Humphries himself can claim the credit for that ! Ireland's team captain leading up to the finals was Roy Keane, considered by many to be the country's greatest ever player. While soccer is a team sport, Ireland simply wouldn't have been capable of qualifying for the Finals without him. The events that led up to the World Cup Finals that year, however, clearly left him feeling disillusioned with the international set-up. The FAI (the organisation in charge of Irish soccer) and Mick McCarthy (the team's manager) had decided that Saipan - an island in the Pacific - would be used as the pre-tournament base. After all, it had a very nice hotel - and the lack of a football pitch on the island at the time of the visit mustn't have been noticed. Unfortunately, when the team arrived, they discovered the FAI had forgotten to pack the soccer balls or training gear - which, obviously, made training a little difficult. Furthermore, Keane, as captain, wasn't too impressed with the attitude of some of his team-mates. (For example, while allegedly preparing for the Finals, the rest of the squad had spent an entire night drinking with the Irish journalists in a nearby English pub). Furthermore, when the training equipment finally arrived, he was unhappy that some were allowed to skip the scheduled training sessions. Keane gave two interviews in Saipan - one was with Humphries, and it was this that sparked the 'Saipan Incident'. While there was nothing in the interview with Humphries that should have come as any great surprise - or caused any great bother - McCarthy called a team meeting, kicked off an argument with Keane and then sent his team captain home. The buildup to and the fallout from the incident makes for compulsive reading - and, bluntly, McCarthy comes off badly from start to finish. Humphries felt McCarthy was too paranoid about speaking to the media - something, he suspected, may have dated back to McCarthy's playing career. (McCarthy had been described at one point as being "slower than a wet week in Barnsley." He was subsequently challenged by a journalist to a race...and lost it). However, where McCarthy seemed to spend his time running away from Irish journalists, he seemed happy enough to go running after English journalists. (Interestingly, the other interview Keane gave also caused a little bother. Paul Kimmage - who, along with David Wa

Humphries has a wonderful way with words. The Irish Times sports columnist has produced a humorous and highly readable collection from his travails through the sporting world in which he is never afraid to poke fun at his own knowledge, or lack of it, in situations when it is warranted. Highly enjohable.