Coffee Table Book of: The Sport of Handball (Hardcover)

Description

Coffee Table Book of: The Sport of Handball is a large format book of handball, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: the ball and its resin, the goal and its net, the lines of the court, halls and outdoor courts standing empty, the kit being made and cared for, the old outdoor game, and a few players seen far off in plain dark clothing.

The kit is laid out plain: a ball of stitched panels and a smaller one beside it, a tub of amber resin and a ball smeared with it, court shoes with gum soles, knee pads, long padded trousers, a whistle with a yellow card and a red card, a pump with its needle, a roll of tape and a mesh bag of balls. The court is seen close: a ball resting on the curved six metre line, the broken free throw line, the short penalty line, a ball in the corner of a knotted net and the goal area seen from directly above.

The making follows panels cut for a ball and a cover stitched by hand, a goal post painted in red bands between strips of tape, long aluminium tubes for frames, a net mended knot by knot, a white line painted on a maple floor, a floor sealed, swept and scraped clean of resin, and the sticky sap of the pine that rosin comes from. The past runs from an old leather ball laced shut and canvas plimsolls to an old wooden goal in long grass, a rusting iron frame, a line marking cart and a bucket of lime beside a grass field.

Short notes run through the book, on the rules and how the game is played, the ball, goal, court and kit and how they are made, and the history of the sport: cones set out in a zigzag train the quick sidesteps a defender needs to stay in front, at half time the teams leave the court to rest and plan the second half, women play with a smaller, lighter ball than men, and young players with smaller ones still, and the 6 metre line belongs to the goal area, so a foot on the line counts as inside.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a hardcover with the art printed on the case.