VIC MARKS

Chris Waters of the Yorkshire Post has a burgeoning reputation as an author. Following his much-lauded biography of Fred Trueman he has produced 10 for 10 (Wisden), the story of Hedley Verity and his great bowling feat at Headingley against Nottinghamshire in 1932. Verity may not have been as colourful a character as Trueman – and therefore not so easy to write about – but his achievements for Yorkshire are as phenomenal as Fred’s. Verity died at the age of 38 in the second world war. In Christopher Sandford’s The Final Over: The Cricketers of Summer 1914 (The History Press) the cricketers who gave their lives in the first world war are remembered, including another prolific left-arm spinner, the violin-playing Colin Blythe of Kent. The “Golden Age” of English cricket could not have come to a more abrupt and tragic end. The assumption is that everyone has had enough of the Kevin Pietersen saga for the moment. If not there are probably still a few copies of KP: The Autobiography (Sphere) left plus Simon Wilde’s sympathetic portrait On Pietersen (Simon & Schuster).

EDDIE BUTLER

The trouble with undertaking a series of extreme challenges is that there is a limit to how many manifestations of exhaustion and numbness a reader can take without feeling a little exhausted and numb. You can repeat the line about this being absolutely the most knackering climb ever (since the last one a chapter back) until you are literally blue in the face, but it sorts of invites the question: so why do it? Fortunately, Beyond the Horizon: Extreme Adventures at the Edge of the World (Sphere) is about Richard Parks, who seems to spend a lot of time asking himself the very same question. And the former rugby player is much more interesting in his inner space than on the vast tracts of icy menace. Not that the ferocity of Denali, the growing likelihood that he will lose at least a toe to frostbite, or the threat of terrorist attacks on Mount Elbrus don’t generate a certain dramatic tension in their own right. But the inner struggle to find something to do after a career in professional sport cut short – but not by much for a flanker in his 30s – is more interesting. The answer, if there is one, has something to do with deliberately surrendering to a potentially lethal addiction. My Observer colleague Michael Aylwin has done a fine job entering the mind of a psycho, and an even better one of getting the world’s most restless adventurer to sit down for five minutes to tell him all about it.

WILLIAM FOTHERINGHAM

These are boom times for cycling and a constant flow of ever more diverse reading matter is just one happy spin-off. For a truly luscious souvenir of this year, I’d go for Two Days in Yorkshire (Pan y Agua Velo), a photographic account of the Tour de France’s Grand Départ compiled by Simon Wilkinson; for controversy, Nicole Cooke’s autobiography The Breakaway (Simon & Schuster); for imagination Richard Moore’s Etape (HarperSport), which revisits the men behind some of the most dramatic, evocative and controversial stages in Tour de France history. Elsewhere, the former soigneur Emma O’Reilly’s memoir The Race to Truth (Bantam Press) offered fresh insights into the Lance Armstrong story from a player who was neither campaigner nor cyclist but someone stuck in the middle; The Cycling Anthology (Yellow Jersey), now in its fifth edition, remains unique in its mission to give writers a platform, and Ellis Bacon’s Great British Cycling (Bantam Press) traces the mixed fortunes of the sport on these shores and happily revisits forgotten greats such as Beryl Burton.

JACOB STEINBERG

Away from the headline-grabbing stories about his departure from Manchester United and his views on Sir Alex Ferguson, what made Roy Keane’s second autobiography, The Second Half (W&N), engaging was his willingness to examine his flaws. Ghostwritten by Roddy Doyle, Keane does not hold back as he explores the successes and failures of his managerial career and what makes him so prone to self-sabotage. Pep Confidential (Arena Sport) also offers a fine insight into the strains of management. Martí Perarnau was given unrivalled access to follow Pep Guardiola during his first season at Bayern Munich and discover what makes one of the best managers in the world tick. One for students of the game.

Rob Smyth’s Danish Dynamite: The Story of Football’s Greatest Cult Team (Bloomsbury), written with Mike Gibbons and Lars Eriksen, is about the Denmark team of the 1980s and it is well worth a read. A niche subject but few writers can bring a story to life as skilfully as Smyth.

KEVIN MITCHELL

Scream: The Tyson Tapes, by Jonathan Rendall (Short Books). In this short book, recovered and nurtured after his death by my erstwhile colleague Richard Williams, Jonny Rendall combines his love of fiction with the actuality of recorded interviews, a potential calamitous assignment in the hands of someone who sometimes regarded facts (not to mention deadlines) as impediments to a good story. Here he puts himself inside the head of Mike Tyson, which is a scary place to be, and weaves a gripping narrative through the contemporary observations and recollections of others. Sometimes the accounts of events conflict – notably those of his early mentors Teddy Atlas and Kevin Rooney – but those seeming anomalies only serve to encourage the view that Jonny finally stared truth in the face and embraced it, rather than bend it to his needs. Jonny, a friend, wrote a couple of terrific books, about boxing and gambling; this posthumous addition elegantly rounds out his contribution to sportswriting.

EWAN MURRAY

Iain Carter is best known in golfing circles as the authoritative voice behind Five Live’s coverage of the sport. Carter proved he has a further and impressive string to his bow with the writing of Showdown (Elliott & Thompson), a forensic examination of the Ryder Cup meeting of Europe and the United States at Gleneagles. A book about the event would have been undeniably dull, given the comfortable nature of Europe’s latest win. Instead, Carter wonderfully and accurately chronicles the entire Ryder Cup story from captaincy selection to the sinking of the final putt in Perthshire. He encapsulates everything the contest involves, mainly by interviewing every key protagonist. This offers an attention to detail that replicates that of the successful European captain, Paul McGinley. In golfing biography terms, Ian Poulter’s No Limits (Quercus) has proved the pick of 2014. Poulter displays the forthright approach that makes him such an appealing character. His story, about as close as you will find to rags to riches in this era, should provide inspiration.

CHRIS COOK

It is too early to start talking about Tony McCoy, the perennial champion jump jockey, in the past tense; he continues to ride at the age of 40, despite the contusions, abrasions, lacerations and hospitalisations of the past two decades. So there is possibly something a shade premature about McCoy: In the Frame (Racing Post), a collection of photographs from his record-breaking career. But this is a splendid book that ought to be treasured by any fan of jump racing. One of the great sporting careers deserves to be recorded by a comparable talent and McCoy has been well rewarded for giving such excellent access over the years to Edward Whitaker, the Racing Post’s longstanding snapper, recently named racing’s Photographer of the Year for an unprecedented sixth time. “It’s rather a shame that the best pictures of McCoy are when he’s either battered or covered in mud,” Whitaker told me. But then we all know what a winning jockey looks like. Whitaker’s shot of a young McCoy examining some nasty facial damage in his bathroom mirror is especially haunting. Anyone who ever backed one of his 4,000 winners should take time to contemplate this collection of moments triumphant and painful.

OWEN GIBSON

The initial furious reaction from some West Ham followers to the pre-publicity suggested Matt Dickinson’s Bobby Moore: The Man in Full, with its forensic approach, was about to make him about as popular as the hunter who raised his shotgun sights to Bambi. But the book in full more than justifies the subtitle, expertly and sensitively peeling back the layers of one of our best ever footballers to illuminate the man beneath.

That is quite an achievement given that some of those who spent the most time with him admit they hardly knew him at all. In some ways the first footballer of the celebrity age and in others a product of his 1950s upbringing, Moore emerges as a man whose assurance on and off the pitch hid considerable turmoil beneath.

By the end, it has also become a rumination on the nature of the modern sporting celebrity and our craving to put them on pedestal. Highly recommended.

BEST OF THE REST

In a better than average year for sport books David Goldblatt’s The Game Of Our Lives stood out for his analysis of the state of modern English football and how it got there, his conclusions insightful and troubling. Anna Krien’s Night Games, the winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, is also troubling, but her account of sexual assault and male team culture is powerful and honest writing. She was courageous to take on such subject matter, as was Gareth Thomas whose coming-out memoir, Proud, was as readable and moving as it was superior to the usual biogs. Of which there were a surprising number of decent entries this year, Andrea Pirlo, Geoffrey Boycott and Sachin Tendulkar all weighing in with very decent reads. Finally, for a visual treat, cricket fans will love the Andrew Strauss-compiled Lord’s A Celebration in Pictures (although possibly not the £50 price), while there’s a unique take on F1 in Zoom: Personal Images and Insights from the Stars of F1, unusual shots taken by drivers and team principals across the year, with proceeds going to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for children.