New Book Features West Auckland New Statue

A STATUE commemorating the team of North miners who won the first football World Cup features in a new book that pays tribute to Britain’s greatest sporting statues.The monument, on the village green at West Auckland, in County Durham, was unveiled last month to belatedly mark the centenary of the amateur side’s triumph in the first significant international club competition.

The team travelled to Italy to win the Sir Thomas Lipton trophy, in 1909, and two years later retained the trophy, which due to the high profile teams it attracted was dubbed the first World Cup.

The statue, designed by Nigel Boonham, now features Immortals of British Sports: A Celebration of Britain’s Sporting History Through Sculpture by writer Ian Hewitt and photographer Sampson Lloyd.

Mr Hewitt said: “A statue is, of course, just one tangible way of commemorating an individual or event.

“It expresses, though, an importance and emotion which we reserve for the truly exceptional.

“A well-designed sculpture or memorial, capturing an individual characteristic, can also add a distinctive and lasting dimension to our memory.”

The book, priced £25, features more than 200 pictures alongside the stories about how the sporting heroes cast their legacies.

http://www.immortalsofbritishsport.com/