Off Centre Circle- Press Release

Click here to purchase OFF CENTRE CIRCLE by Ger McCarthy


OFF CENTRE CIRCLE PRESS RELEASE
Evening Echo Publications 2009

Evening Echo Publications (Cork) Ltd is pleased to announce the launch of a new exciting title entitled Off Centre Circle By Ger McCarthy

Gerard McCarthy is 35 years old and lives with his wife Úna and daughter Caoilin in Clonakilty, West Cork, Ireland. He is a regular soccer contributor to the Evening Echo newspaper.

In 2008, yielding at last to the urgings of fellow players, referees, supporters, doctors and complete strangers, he once again announced his retirement from active playing duties following an amateur soccer career that spanned more than a decade.

The 2009 amateur soccer campaign represented his fifth consecutive year of coming out of retirement. He has since decided to take part in an Over-33s outdoor summer soccer tournament, an Over-35s winter indoor soccer competition, and make an appearance at pre-season training ahead of the 2010 West Cork soccer league.

During the course of completing this book the author sustained a dislocated shoulder, a torn muscle tendon as well as two dislocated and fractured fingers. His body aches like never before, yet he can’t wait for the new season to start.


Off Centre Circle is a witty account of life in the junior soccer leagues. The story is based in West Cork, Ireland, but it represents amateur soccer in all the countries of the world that are affiliated to FIFA. There are no superstars in junior soccer, but there are heroes and villains. The glamour of a Milan derby might attract the rich and famous to the San Siro, but can it capture the rivalry, discord and sheer antagonism of a clash between Clonakilty and Bantry Gunners with vital league points at stake?

Born and raised in Cork, the author recounts early memories of watching Match of the Day, playing Subbuteo, reading Roy of the Rovers comics and travelling to support his beloved Cork City in the Shed end of Turner’s Cross, chanting and singing with the home fans.

The book also covers the author’s early years playing Under-18 soccer, breaking into the local junior team for the first time and then fainting. Playing matches on the side of mountains with cow dung dotted around the pitch, going toe-to-toe with Vinny Jones on the Late Late Show and helping his local club rise from the bottom tier of the West Cork League to eventual Beamish Cup glory.

Anyone who has ever laced a pair of boots on the side of the road and marched on to a muddy pitch (after a night on the beer) to represent their local soccer club will forge an immediate connection with the stories and characters detailed in the book.

Click here to purchase OFF CENTRE CIRCLE by Ger McCarthy

Extract from 'Off Centre Circle' by Ger McCarthy

Click here to purchase OFF CENTRE CIRCLE by Ger McCarthy

The following is an extract from the book entitled 'Off Centre Circle' written by Ger. McCarthy about a lifetime spent toiling in the amateur soccer leagues of Ireland.


Chapter 14
Dislocation From Reality

It’s roughly three am according to the cracked face of the clock hanging on the wall as I wearily struggle to open my heavy eyes. I have to re-adjust for a split-second before realising that there is an oxygen mask covering my mouth. I motion my right hand to remove the mask only to find my arm strapped tightly over my right shoulder and across my chest keeping my elbow at a forty-five degree angle.

The sharpness of the pain through my arm startles me and I scramble my left hand to remove the mask and make sense of my surroundings. There are nurses and doctors squeezing past one another in every direction in an overcrowded hallway. An intercom crackles overhead asking Doctor Somebody-or-Other to report to the Accident and Emergency ward as soon as possible. The paint on the walls are peeling and my bed is uncomfortable.

The slightest movement causes the wheels underneath my gurney to shake ever so slightly and I fear any sudden movements will send me rolling down the hallway. Taking in this utterly chaotic scene for a few moments is a bit disconcerting until it finally dawns on me that I must still be in the Accident and Emergency area of Cork University hospital.

A loud voice from across the crowded hall grabs my attention:

- “Jaysus but you were in some pain there boy!”

- “Sorry?”

- “When they wheeled you in earlier on there. Christ you were kicking and screaming up an awful fuss.”

- “Sorry, but how do you mean?”

- “Ah your shoulder boy. Dirty bastard of a thing. Horrible injury to have. Did it myself a few years back. Never the same after it.”

- “I did my shoulder? Oh feck so that’s what the pain is.”

- “Pain? Jaysus you sounded like you had been shot. Gave the doctors and nurses awful grief altogether. Took three of them to hold you down in the end…”

- “WHAT?”


An angelic nurse, with a beautiful smiling face, approaches my gurney and enquires as to the well being of Mr McCarthy and what state his shoulder is now in. I mumble some sort of an answer and she asks if I would like anything for the pain. I bravely decline but ask how long I have been here and what exactly is wrong with my arm. The nurse proceeds to outline how I managed to completely separate my right shoulder from its socket and had to be brought to Cork University Hospital via ambulance to have it re-attached.

A doctor will be along as soon as the chaos in the Accident and Emergency ward settles down. It is the regular crazy Friday night Saturday morning shift after all. All this information is too much to take in and the nurse advises me to lie still and try and get some rest while she goes off to find my wife. She gently places the oxygen mask around my nose and mouth. Hours of screaming and constant pain have taken their toll and I slowly begin to drift off once again.

The last person I think of before the blackness descends is Tony Cascarino. Tony – fecking - Cascarino? Christ, I must be on some heavy amount of drugs…


Off Centre Circle is available to buy on Amazon for 12.99
Click here to purchase OFF CENTRE CIRCLE by Ger McCarthy