{ "item_title" : "The Coping Stone", "item_author" : [" Paul Nicholls "], "item_description" : "The Coping Stone-The First English Soccer Tour of Australia 1925 tells the little-known but fascinating story of how soccer fought for survival - and acceptance - in early 20th-century Australia.In a sporting landscape dominated by rugby and Australian Rules, football was kept alive in the mining towns of New South Wales and Queensland, fuelled by the passion of working-class migrants.Through the intertwined lives of miner-turned-international 'Judy' Masters, young Australian administrator Syd Storey, a traditional English administrator John Lewis, and visiting Arsenal player Tom Whittaker, Paul Nicholls brings to life a time when the world's most popular sport struggled for legitimacy in a country where it was seen as a foreign game. From the trenches of the Western Front to the coalfields of the Illawarra and the packed grounds of Sydney, this is a story of resilience, ambition, and the long journey to secure the coping stone - a historic tour by an English team that promised to cement football's place in the Australian sporting landscape.Set against the backdrop of the roaring twenties, and featuring a gun-toting hotel manager, a breakaway professional league and a mysterious robbery, The Coping Stone is an extraordinary tale of the first English soccer tour of Australia.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers2.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/92/323/607/1923236075_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "23.99", "online_price" : "23.99", "our_price" : "23.99", "club_price" : "23.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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