Shoey the Lionheart

Mick Shoebottom was the type of play every Rugby League side wants in its ranks. Tough, durable, fast, skilful and with an incredible will to win, he was the ultimate players' player in the toughest of team sports. Hunslet-born, he was an integral part of the great Leeds side which swept all before them in the late 1960s and early '70s, becoming the first and only player in the code's history to represent his country in Test matches in four different starting positions, such was his value and versatility. A key member of the last Great Britain side to win the Ashes in Australia in 1970, he went on two tours and won every domestic medal available until tragedy struck and he was grievously injured scoring perhaps the most infamous try witnessed at his beloved Headingley. This is the story of his remarkable career, illustrated with around 100 images and mementoes taken from his scrapbooks and featuring reminiscences from a number of his former teammates. The sixth book written about the Leeds club by Phil Caplan and with a foreword by Alan Smith and John Atkinson, it commemorates what would have been the sixtieth birthday of one of Rugby League's true greats.