Contenders for William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year are announced

The contenders for this year's William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year Award were announced today. There are 23 books in this year's long list for award with the winner being announced in early December

Being Olympic year there are five athletics books in contention for the award. Of those five two were penned by a couple of Ireland's running greats; Sonia O'Sullivan and Eamonn Coghlan, with both documenting their lives on and off the track.

Gaelic Games is also a dominant sport in this year's contenders with four books up for the award. These include an autobiography of famed GAA referee Paddy Russell, "Final Whistle", and a look at some of the greats of Gaelic Games who hailed from Connacht in "The Best of the West" by John Scally.

Horse racing will be well represented in the award again this year. Declan Colley looks at the life of Mouse Morris in "Mouse Morris - His extraordinary racing life", while Mick Fitzgerald's autobiography, "Better than Sex", should also prove to be a strong contender.

Rugby fans will also be interested to see two of Ireland's most successful players represented in this year's competition. Anthony Foley's "Axel, A Memoir", looks back at Ireland's most capped player and one of the games most respected competitors. Ronan O'Gara also documents his life in "My Autobiography", which looks at his career with Munster and Ireland to date and also his life off the pitch.

With such a range of sports represented this year there is something for everyone and Tony Kenny, PR Manager for William Hill in Ireland, believes the standard is extremely high again this year. "We're absolutely thrilled with the selection of books that have made the long list" He continued "There are some very strong entries for this year's award and it will be fascinating to see who our judging panel select as the overall winner"

This is the third year of the William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year Award. The inaugural award was won by Paul McGrath with Vincent Hogan for Paul's autobiography "Back from the Brink". Last year's award was won by Trevor Brennan with Gerry Thornley for "Heart and Soul", which documented Trevor's highs and lows through his rugby career in Ireland and France.

This year the public will also get a chance to have their say in the award. You can vote for your favourite book on www.irishsportsbookoftheyear.com . The book that receives the highest number of public votes will be the public choice and it will be added to the votes of the eleven judges in determining the William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year for 2008.

This year's judging panel is made up of eleven of Ireland's best sports commentators and experts. The panel includes RTE rugby pundit and Newstalk presenter George Hook, RTE's Eamon Dunphy, Today FM and TV3 presenter Matt Cooper and Setanta Sports' Paul Dempsey. For more information on this year's William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year log on to www.irishsportsbookoftheyear.com

William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year 2008 - Long List

• The Irishman Who Ran for England by Jim Hogan
  
• Foul Play by Joe Humphries
  
• Dick Fitzgerald: King in a Kingdom of Kings by Tom Looney
  
• Trappatoni - A Life in Football by Egon Theiner and Elisabeth Schlammerl
  
• Crashed and Byrned by Tommy Byrne with Mark Hughes
  
• Sonia - My Story by Sonia O'Sullivan with Tom Humphries
  
• Final Whistle - The Paddy Russell Story by Paddy Russell with Jackie Cahill
  
• House of Pain - Through the Rooms of Mayo Football by Keith Duggan
  
• Chairman of the Boards Master of the Mile by Eamonn Coghlan with George Kimball
  
• My Autobiography by Ronan O'Gara with Denis Walsh
  
• The Best of the West - GAA greats of Connacht by John Scally
  
• Sport and Society in Victorian Ireland by Tom Hunt
  
• Mouse Morris - His Extraordinary Racing Life by Declan Colley
  
• Three Kings - The Battle for Hurling Supremacy by Ralph Riegel
  
• Hurling - The Warrior Game by Diarmuid O'Flynn
  
• Faster, Higher, Stronger by Lindie Naughton and Johnny Watterson
  
• The Grand National - The Irish at Aintree by Anne Holland
  
• Green Wickets - Ireland's Adventures at the 2007 Cricket World Cup by Ed Leahy
• Ireland's Olympians - Beijing and Beyond by Niall O'Flynn
  
• Touching Greatness by Dermot Gillecce
  
• Better than Sex by Mick Fitzgerald with Donn McClean
  
• Reading the Green - The Inside Line on the Irish in the Ryder Cup by PJ Browne
  
• Axel, A Memoir by Anthony Foley
  

William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year - Judging Panel

• Declan McBennett - Sports Editor, RTÉ TV News
  
• Kieran Holden - Sports Editor, TV3
  
• Deric Henderson - Ireland Editor, Press Association
  
• Jerry O'Sullivan - Sports Editor, Newstalk
  
• Matt Cooper - Broadcaster, Today FM and TV3
  
• George Hook - Broadcaster and Rugby Analyst, Newstalk and RTÉ
  
• Eamon Dunphy - Broadcaster and Journalist, RTÉ
  
• Adrian Logan - Sports Editor, UTV
  
• Paul Dempsey - Broadcaster, Setanta Sports
  
• Robbie Irwin - Broadcaster and Journalist, RTÉ
  
• Gerry Thornley - Journalist, Irish Times and winner of William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year 2007