The guiding principle of the book, the tracking down of eleven football players reminded me of course a bit of The Twelve Chairs. In March 2011 Tony travelled to Japan to appear at the Okinawa International Film Festival where Round Ireland with a Fridge was nominated for Best Comedy.

Playing the Moldovans at Tennis - Penguin Books UK Playing the Moldovans at Tennis - Penguin Books UK

Comedian Tony Hawks challenges to individual tennis matches all 11 of the Moldovan footballers who lost to England, 4-0. Tony Hawks, un actor de comedie din Anglia şi un bărbat excentric ce adoră provocările neobişnuite, e legat de Moldova printr-un pariu. As anyone that succeeds with making a living out of something he doesn't have a clue about, he does not try to behave like he is an expert, he chooses a subject most other people don't have a clue about either and of course it does not hurt that he has a great humor and a lot of good spirit.Seeing as most people don't know where Moldova is or that it even exists (I didn't until I was assigned the trip) I shouldn't be so shocked. The reason why his travelouge is not great as Bissel's, is exactly because he does not even try to get a clue about the subject before he started writing. Adapted from the best-selling book of the same name, Playing the Moldovans at Tennis is the true story of an Englishman's lesson that real victory is found in the most unexpected places. Perhaps thankfully so, the genre recently seems to have abated in popularity, perhaps because the world is now so interconnected, there is less and less tourism possible to be guerilla about. The baby mentioned in the novel) she is one of the loveliest people you’ll ever meet and I’m glad this comes forward in the book!

Playing the Moldovans at Tennis - Softcover - AbeBooks Playing the Moldovans at Tennis - Softcover - AbeBooks

In this book, he follows on from the adventure he wrote about in Round Ireland with a Fridge with a trip to Moldova in which he attempted to beat the entire Moldovan national football team at tennis. With that said, reading him writing about Moldova, which was also occupied by the Soviet Union, reminded me of my trip to Latvia. It should be mentioned that a short time before his Moldovan adventure he won a bet that included his traveling around Ireland - with a fridge!Although this book is done on a fairly silly bet--whether he can beat the entire Moldovan soccer team at tennis--it does provide a unique look at Moldova and Transnistria which got out from under the Soviet thumb in the 1990s only to be once again up for grabs by Russia it seems. Since I am right now living and working in the Republic of Moldova, it will come probably not as a surprise to you, dear readers, when I am trying to get my hands on any books written by Moldovan authors that are translated in a language that I am able to read.

Playing the Moldovans at Tennis (2012) - IMDb

The funny moments are rarer than in “…Fridge”, but there’s some real laugh out loud moments, although even they seem to reflect the Moldovan way of life in that they appear more frequently both before and after he’s been to the country and less so whilst he’s there.I could possibly misunderstand the British sense of humour but if you’re going to someone else’s country and they are doing you a favour as part of a bet, shouldn’t you be grateful?