Game of Throw-ins

By: Ross O'Carroll-Kelly

Narrated by: Rory Nolan

Brought to you by Penguin.

I was a rugby player with a great future behind me. A 35-year-old father-of-five with an expanding waistline, who was trying to survive the bloody battlefield we call life.

My son was locked in a violent turf war with a rival Love/Hate tour operator, my daughter was in love with a boy who looked like Justin Bieber, and my old dear was about to walk up the aisle with a 92-year-old billionaire who thought it was still 1936.

I was, like, staring down the barrel of middle age with the contentment of knowing that I was the greatest Irish rugby player who no one in Ireland had ever actually heard of. Until a chance conversation with an old Jesuit missionary made me realize that it wasn't enough.

I was guided, as if by GPS, to a muddy field in - let's be honest - Ballybrack. And there I finally discovered my destiny - to keep a struggling Seapoint team in Division 2B of the All Ireland League.

Or die trying.

'Ireland's finest comic creation since Father Ted' Hot Press

'Hides a heart of darkness beneath the layers of craic and great gas and great story-telling and human warmth. Ross O'Carroll-Kelly is Ireland!' Irish Times

'A cracking and hilariously witty read' Irish Independent

'Book after book, Ross O'Carroll-Kelly delivers the goods ... Howard is in a league of his own' Sunday Business Post

© Ross O'Carroll-Kelly 2016 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Critic reviews

Our nation's great satirist ... the most sustained feat of comic writing in Irish literature

A national treasure

Snortingly funny one-liners ... there's plenty of gas left in the Ross tank

Side-achingly funny

Absolutely hilarious!

The story is absolutely hilarious. The narrator does a fantastic job with all the voices, accents and inflections. Entertaining from start to finish. Listened to it in two days. Couldn’t stop!

Wonderful stuff

Great book which is much enhanced by absolutely top-class narration. You need some local knowledge to fully appreciate it though.

The story and the narrator

The story is so entertaining that it’s impossible to put down. Paul Howard is a master of satire and also of inspirational writing. I felt so inspired by some of the speeches that Ross says when he’s back at rugby training. The narrator is also in my top 3 of all the books that I’ve heard over 15 years of audible and hundreds of books. I just hope that the earlier books in the series are issued as audiobooks as I’ve just one more to listen to now and I’m not sure if anyone out there can write as well as Paul