By Paul Nicholls

The Coping Stone

$34.99
$34.99

30 May 2025

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The Coping Stone—The First English Soccer Tour of Australia 1925 tells the little-known but fascinating story of how soccer fought for survival — and acceptance — in early 20th-century Australia.

In a sporting landscape dominated by rugby and Australian Rules, football was kept alive in the mining towns of New South Wales and Queensland, fuelled by the passion of working-class migrants. 

Through the intertwined lives of miner-turned-international 'Judy' Masters, young Australian administrator Syd Storey, a traditional English administrator John Lewis, and visiting Arsenal player Tom Whittaker, Paul Nicholls brings to life a time when the world’s most popular sport struggled for legitimacy in a country where it was seen as a foreign game. From the trenches of the Western Front to the coalfields of the Illawarra and the packed grounds of Sydney, this is a story of resilience, ambition, and the long journey to secure the "coping stone" — a historic tour by an English team that promised to cement football’s place in the Australian sporting landscape.

Set against the backdrop of the roaring twenties, and featuring a gun-toting hotel manager, a breakaway professional league and a mysterious robbery, The Coping Stone is an extraordinary tale of the first English soccer tour of Australia.  

More Information

  • Format: Softcover
  • Published: May 2025
  • ISBN:  978-1-923236-07-03
  • ISBN: 978-1-923236-08-0 (ePub)
  • Weight: 0.4kg
  • Size:  216mm x 216mm
  • Pages:  160 (TBC) including colour images
  • Imprint: Fair Play Publishing

About Author

Paul Nicholls is a writer from Sydney with a passion for the history and culture of sport.

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$34.99
$34.99
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