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Sporting Moustaches
Thirteen tall tales about the role facial hair has played in athletics and competition over the years, Sporting Moustaches puts the “ache” in “moustache.” Whiskers are wrapped around sticks, bats, clubs, paddles, chess pieces, and shotglasses, woven into ropes, nets, arrow strings, and even other whiskers. The stories touch on the idea of the playoff beard, superstitions, Movember, The Cleveland Curse, mid-20th century American values eschewing all but the clean shaven, and how in the 1978 Chess World Championship the opponents accused each other of using psychic powers. There are of course more than a few allusions to Burt Reynolds. Packed with puns and pop culture references galore, Sporting Moustaches is a tribute to those who kept their head in the game.
192 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 9, 2024
I think we can all agree that having a moustache makes you look very manly and doing sports is also very manly, therefore using maths this has to be the manliest book ever written…I’m only a little disappointed it wasn’t made out of hair…unless trees were cut down by moustachioed men to make the paper for this book? All my favourite sports have been included, archery, drinking competitions, chess and the three-legged race.
I know that these were just tall tales but I got immense satisfaction imagining they were real, the way each sportsman overcomes the odds to reach the pinnacle of his profession could so easily be made into a movie. I always think that creating names for your characters has to be one of the hardest parts and Stone is very inventive with his names, favourites here were Cheeks Redbourne and Jason Jaspers (obvs named after me and my facial hair). Stone has an easy going sense of humour that isn’t in your face or over the top, he can get the reader smiling early on and with a steady stream of wit he can keep that smile going until the end of the story. Each story here is fun, all are based well in the past, I reckon we don’t hear about chess pieces being moved by moustache these days cos the world has gone crazy with health & safety.
Favourite story has to be the three-legged race, had me wincing in pain throughout but was still a fun love story. This book has the potential of falling into the trap of being repetitive with the limited subject matter, facial hair and sports, but Stone has an imagination that easily overcame this issue, each story feels fresh and not once did I think I had read something similar already. This was a fun collection and far different to previous Stone books that I have read, I can easily recommend this and owning facial hair is not a requirement.
In conclusion this book is Tom Selleck in Mr. Baseball.
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2024...
I know that these were just tall tales but I got immense satisfaction imagining they were real, the way each sportsman overcomes the odds to reach the pinnacle of his profession could so easily be made into a movie. I always think that creating names for your characters has to be one of the hardest parts and Stone is very inventive with his names, favourites here were Cheeks Redbourne and Jason Jaspers (obvs named after me and my facial hair). Stone has an easy going sense of humour that isn’t in your face or over the top, he can get the reader smiling early on and with a steady stream of wit he can keep that smile going until the end of the story. Each story here is fun, all are based well in the past, I reckon we don’t hear about chess pieces being moved by moustache these days cos the world has gone crazy with health & safety.
Favourite story has to be the three-legged race, had me wincing in pain throughout but was still a fun love story. This book has the potential of falling into the trap of being repetitive with the limited subject matter, facial hair and sports, but Stone has an imagination that easily overcame this issue, each story feels fresh and not once did I think I had read something similar already. This was a fun collection and far different to previous Stone books that I have read, I can easily recommend this and owning facial hair is not a requirement.
In conclusion this book is Tom Selleck in Mr. Baseball.
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2024...
June 28, 2024
Sporting Moustaches is Aug Stone’s fourth book, his first collection of short stories following almost immediately on the heels of The Ballad of Buttery Cake Ass, his novel about the haphazard fortunes of a haphazard band (reviewed here, 13th book down: https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...
). Sporting collects a baker’s dozen tall tales (think urban legends) illustrating the dramatic role moustaches have played in the history of various sports. No goatees, mutton chops, or beards, just pure ‘stachety.
Wrapped around the hand of a hockey stick, a player’s chest-length moustache gives him extra stick-handling prowess. Waxed into wide curls, a baseball player’s moustache increases his confidence and RBI with every inch it grows. There are chess matches and tugs of war (in which moustaches are tied to a rope pulled by the competitors’ faces), badminton, archery, and more. There is love and heartache, vengeance, nefarious plotting, and an awful lot of competitions whose rules say nothing about mustachioed assistance. Stone hasn’t lost his fondness for puns and silly names based on the names of famous people, as shown in Ballad, and his stories’ taut storylines keep the action and dialogue more focused than the relatively baggier Ballad, indicating a quickly developing talent.
). Sporting collects a baker’s dozen tall tales (think urban legends) illustrating the dramatic role moustaches have played in the history of various sports. No goatees, mutton chops, or beards, just pure ‘stachety.
Wrapped around the hand of a hockey stick, a player’s chest-length moustache gives him extra stick-handling prowess. Waxed into wide curls, a baseball player’s moustache increases his confidence and RBI with every inch it grows. There are chess matches and tugs of war (in which moustaches are tied to a rope pulled by the competitors’ faces), badminton, archery, and more. There is love and heartache, vengeance, nefarious plotting, and an awful lot of competitions whose rules say nothing about mustachioed assistance. Stone hasn’t lost his fondness for puns and silly names based on the names of famous people, as shown in Ballad, and his stories’ taut storylines keep the action and dialogue more focused than the relatively baggier Ballad, indicating a quickly developing talent.
November 11, 2025
I wanted to like this more than I did, sadly. There are so, so many fun turns of phrase, puns, and silly moments throughout. I loved the first several stories, but after a while, I think there just isn't enough variation in the tales. Even if the sports are different, the humor is the same. It works so much early, but by the end, I was wanting more variation.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews