|
 Whilst many take advantage of the close season break to recuperate and re-familiarise themselves with family members, Borough PA announcer and former web-master David Bauckham has been busier than ever.
Not content with completely redesigning and updating his popular Nomad-Online website, David has also set up his own ‘Publishing House’ with the aim of self-publishing his latest book project.
‘A Season Of Sussex Soccer’ is a collaboration with fellow non-League enthusiast and photographer Terry Buckman and, as the title suggests, will tell the story of the 2007/08 football season across Sussex with the aim of featuring all clubs from Brighton & Hove Albion down to Division Three of the County League, and few more besides.
Following the success of ‘The Non League Football Grounds of Sussex’ (2003) and ‘Dugouts’ (2006), this will be David’s third book (the fifth if two earlier collaborations with Sports’ programme editor Mike Spooner are taken into account) but despite praise heaped on ‘Dugouts’ in particular, which has sold around 10,000 copies, David realised that he could not rely on a mainstream publisher to get his latest project into print: “I was incredibly lucky to find a publisher willing to take a chance with Dugouts, but the publishing game is very tough and I knew that if I wanted to get this project off the ground, I would have to do it myself from start to finish”.
A long search for a printer able to produce a high quality full colour book, yet in relatively small quantities at a competitive price, led David to King’s Lynn and, with everything in place, all he now requires are the funds to pay for the publication costs. “The book will be a full colour soft cover publication of 128 pages, which I hope will retail at around £12.50”. “During the season Terry and I will be travelling all over the county and taking photographs and gradually assembling the book, which we hope to have ready by early May 2008”. “However, in order to get it into print, we need 300 people to pay £10 and pre-order a copy; for this they can also have their name printed in the book – if we don’t get enough orders, the book won’t be printed and all money received will be refunded.”
The book has the full support of the Sussex County FA and David is confident that the book will be printed, although as a strictly limited edition he is hoping that prospective purchasers will take advantage of the pre-order offer.
Does this mean that he will not be attending any Borough away games this season? “Apart from trips to Bognor and Lewes, the answer is sadly ‘no’… however, I could certainly be tempted out of the county for a FA Cup 3rd Round tie at Old Trafford; let’s just hope it’s Borough, whilst a Wembley appearance in the FA Trophy or Vase for a Sussex club would also be nice!”.
More information about ‘A Season of Sussex Soccer’ including how to pre-order a copy can be found on the Centre Circle Publishing website: www.ccpub.co.uk Order forms are also available in the Sports’ Shop or from David in the PA Box.
‘Nomad-Online’, featuring the complete Sussex Non League Club Directory is at www.nomad-online.co.uk whilst Terry Buckman’s ‘LittlehampDon’ website is at www.littlehampdon.co.uk
|
