In Played in Birmingham, the fourth book in the Played in Britain series, Steve Beauchampe takes the reader on a fascinating trail around the historic sites that have put 'the city of a thousand trades' on the international sporting map. The likes of Villa Park, The National Indoor Arena and Edgbaston Cricket Ground will be familiar to many; less so the back garden of a house in Edgbaston, 'the Belgravia of Birmingham', where the first ever experimental game of lawn tennis is believed to have taken place between a magistrates clerk and a Spaniard on a croquet lawn. Nearby lies the Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Society, the world's oldest lawn tennis club, founded in 1860. Even older, in the grounds of a Sutton Coldfield golf club, lies the remains of a medieval cockpit. Birmingham possesses several wonderful sports-related buildings, not least the magnificent athletics pavilion of the Cadbury chocolate company in Bournville, built in 1902, and the superb Balsall Health swimming baths on Moseley Road, dating from 1907. Woodcock Street baths, now part of Aston University, opened in 1860, is thought to house the oldest operational swimming pool in Britain. On a back street in Hockley, we find the spot where the world's first Football League was formed in 1888 by a Scottish draper and, in the nearby Jewellery Quarter, several long established 'metal bashers' who turned out literally thousands of medals and cups for the growing numbers of Victorian and Edwardian sports clubs and tournaments, both amateur and professional. Among the artefacts 'Made in Birmingham' are boxing's famous Lonsdale Belts and, from the works of J Hudson & Co, the world renowned Acme Thunderer referee's whistle. Delving deep into the billiard halls, dog tracks and forgotten racecourses of England's industrial hub, Played in Birmingham offers fascinating new insights into a much neglected part of our nation's cultural heritage, and forms a worthy addition to this much talked about new series.