Playing the Moldovans at Tennis by Tony Hawks

Playing the Moldovans at Tennis Reviews

• 
  Tonya Sh

  Wonderful reading! I am Moldovan, and at times it actually hurt to read some things, and sometimes I wanted to scream "That's not true!", but as a matter of fact - a lot of things in this book ARE true... Though it was written some time in the end of 90's as I undersand, and things are much better here now (at least we have lights in the streets now!), but a lot of things about mentality of Moldovans never changed...
  
  This would probably be interesting to read both for foreigners going to Moldova, or those who have spent some time there already, and would definitely recognize quite a lot of situations described.
  
  Despite of quite a bit of misery described, it also adds much positivism and even optimism! Would recommend with confidence to a lot of my friends.
• 
  Thomas Hübner

  
  http://www.mytwostotinki.com/?p=3511
  
  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. There are indeed a few quite interesting authors whose translated books I will feature here in the future. 
  
  Today I am writing a few lines about a rather humorous book by the British comedian Tony Hawks: Playing the Moldovans at Tennis. At the beginning is an eccentric wager: Tony is betting with a friend (after they watched the Moldovan football team in TV losing against England) that he can beat every member of the Moldovan National team in tennis. (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!)
  
  "All I knew about Moldova was the names of eleven men printed on the inside back page of my newspaper. None of them sounded to me sounded like they were any good at tennis..." 
  
  So, the bizarre quest is simply: tracking down the country's football team, challenging them one by one to play tennis with him - and win! (Maybe I should mention that the loser of the bet is supposed to sing the Moldovan National anthem on a crowded street in London - with his pants down...) 
  
  What follows is the hilarious report of Tony's adventures mainly in Moldova, with a visit in Northern Ireland (where the football team has a match that would give Tony the opportunity to challenge some players he hadn't met yet.) and an exciting trip to Nazareth where things seem to go wrong for Tony... 
  
  The guiding principle of the book, the tracking down of eleven football players reminded me of course a bit of The Twelve Chairs. There is plenty of action, unexpected turns of fate, meetings with the Moldovan underworld, gypsies, and every day challenges such as power cuts, huge manholes in the almost unlit streets of the capital Chisinau, adventures in the public transport, but also encounters with plenty of helpful people, especially his guest family with which Tony created a bond of friendship for life. 
  
  A good part of the humour of the book is based on the clash of culture between an over-optimistic Englishman and a local population who seem to be a bit reserved and not particularly surprised about Tony's plan. In a country where almost everyone is focused on surviving the next day, that is probably not surprising. (The book was published in 2000, but things have not changed a lot and Moldova is still the poorest country in Europe.) 
  
  Usually, I am a bit reserved regarding the genre "Humorous Travel Books". Too frequently, the humour in the book is of a condescending and disrespectful nature; the content of this kind of books can be described as "Foreigner from a wealthy Western country travels to a poor country about which he doesn't know anything and doesn't want to learn anything, with the sole purpose to poke fun at the hapless and primitive natives, in order to entertain other prejudiced and obnoxious foreigners from wealthy Western countries." The travel prose of AA Gill and some other hacks belongs to that category. I don't like that at all.
  
  Fortunately, Tony Hawks is a different kind of person. His humour is self-depreciating, and he is genuinely interested in getting to know and understand the Moldovans. He is even questioning if he is doing the right thing with his bizarre adventure, which seems to him rather frivolous as time is passing, considering the living conditions of everyone around him. 
  
  Of course I am not telling you here if Tony was successful and was really able to beat all players. You have to read it by yourself, and I can assure you, it is a very entertaining book. And since there not many books about Moldova, it is still a must-read for anyone who travels there. 
  
  50% of the royalties of this book go into a fund that supports a local children's health centre in Chisinau, the Tony Hawks Centre. Tony is still traveling regularly to Moldova and is doing additional fundraising for the good cause. If you want to learn more about the Tony Hawks Centre, or about Voinicel, another NGO in Chisinau that supports children with special needs and their parents, visit their respective websites. And maybe you consider also if you can make a donation - it is for a good cause!
• 
  Vio

  Super funny and moving book, really. I wanted to give it 4* this time, but why. I'm sticking with the 5*.
  
  I don't think this book is about tennis*, if this is what you were wondering. You don't need to know any rules in order to be able to follow the adventures of Tony through half of the world.
  
  I can imagine to be willing to read this book another time *again*. According to my memory and goodreads, I already read it twice in German, but, but! since I don't have the recollection of a second year, I am going to stay with: read twice, once in 2007 in German, once in 2019 in English.
  
  Who's having the Romanian edition please? :)
  
  *maybe 20 pages evolving around tennis, from 250.
• 
  Igor Guzun

  Ce carte minunată ai scris, Tony Hawks!
  
  „Tenis cu moldovenii” (ediția a doua, cu un epilog al autorului, Cartier, 2014) este o carte în care râzi și apoi suspini. > >
  goo.gl/qjv3gB
  
  Este o carte în care, citindu-o, ți se face ciudă că unele previziuni sumbre s-au împlinit deja. „Străzile erau largi, mărginite de copaci, iar traficul, deși constant, se desfășura fluid. Mă întrebam cam peste câtă vreme aceste străzi vor fi blocate?” Sunt deja, Tony, de mult timp și bineînțeles știi asta. Nu sunt convins încă dacă „multele anomalii ale acestei țări” au devenit astăzi mai puține.
  
  Dar e bine că măcar ceva s-a schimbat. „Mi se părea că întunericul era mai întunecat aici, în Moldova”. Sau nu?
  
  Cu siguranță că acum nu este așa „faptul că un actor de comedie din Anglia a venit în Moldova ca să încerce să-i bată la tenis pe fotbaliștii din echipa națională a Moldovei nu este o știre de presă”.
  
  Am regăsit-o în cartea lui Tony Hawks pe Corina, „elegantă și frumoasă”, cea cu „o voce feminină plăpândă”. În plus, „grijulie, circumspectă, controlând totul”.
  
  Este aici și Iulian, cel cu „maniere elegante și cu o față plăcută când zâmbea”. Și Emil, pe atunci George Harrison în trupa „The Flying Postmen”. Și Leonid, ziaristul sportiv care „părea să posede cunoștințe enciclopedice despre fotbalul din Moldova”.
  
  Sunt atâția oameni și atâtea lucruri din Moldova încât, uneori, nici nu știu dacă această carte este de proză documentată, foarte dramatică, sau ficțiune.
  
  Îmi pare însă că acest lucru este adevărat. „Prima dată când am devenit vulnerabil și avem mare nevoie de ajutor. La așa ceva moldovenii reacționează!”
  
  Îți mulțumesc, Tony, pentru că m-ai făcut cu această carte a ta să râd și să oftez.
  
  Și pentru contribuția ta din Moldova la faptul că „oamenii cu orice fel de dizabilitate trebuie să fie respectați de către societatea în mijlocul căreia trăiesc și să aibă dreptul la o viață pe cât e posibil normală și satisfăcătoare”.
  
  Corina a mărturisit la finalul cărții: „Tony, vreau să-ți spun că sunt fericită pentru tine”.
  
  Ce vreau să-ți spun eu la sfârșitul acestor note de lectură?
  
  Că și eu cred, la fel ca tine, că „dacă gândești pozitiv, poți face ca lucrurile să se întâmple”. Nu ți-am spus asta, în 2013, pe scenă la TEDxChișinău, unde am fost amândoi speakeri, pentru că nu îți citisem cartea încă.
  
  Acum, când încă sunt emoționat după ce am citit „Tenis cu moldovenii”, cred că, de fapt, cartea ta, Tony, este tony-fiantă.
  
  Cu proprietăți de întărire.
  
  Pentru Moldova și pentru oamenii ei. > >
  goo.gl/qjv3gB
  
• 
  Mary

  I don't recommend reading this book in a public place. There are so many moments in there that made me laugh out loud resulting in strange looks from the people around me. It was such an enjoyable read and would recommend it to anyone looking for something light hearted to cheer them up
• 
  Robin

  After "Round Ireland with a Fridge," I knew I had to read everything by Tony. This book is the result of another bar bet and also hilarious.
• 
  Sportyrod

  Excellent concept: a few drinks, watching the soccer, you’re good at tennis, could you beat the Moldovan soccer team at your own sport? If not, you have to strip naked to their anthem.
  
  The author has a lot of drive to organise a trip there and push his way into some matches against the players. Half way in, I was kinda barracking for him to succeed however as got a bit closer to meeting the players I was put off by a couple of things. 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? I felt really bad for the players and other people he met or encountered because he says some nasty things about them: bald, fat, bad teeth, full of it and then goes on to mock their poor tennis performances. He does praise them afterwards (which makes it ok?). He also reflects on some nice things which is nice. So I feel a bit conflicted.
  
  I did learn a fair bit about the Moldovan experience which was good for my around the world reading challenge. I might have rated the book a 3 if it had been kinder. 2.5 star rating if possible.
• 
  Jen

  I found myself laughing out loud while reading this book. I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes travel memoirs and has a good sense of humor.
  
  In preparing for my trip to Chisinau, Moldova I was desperate to find anything on Moldova. 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. Most books available are more academic histories. While I love history more than most (I'd better since I am still paying off my student loans) I still wanted something more accessable. Several readers on Amazaon.com recommended this book over others for being both hilarious and insightful.
  
  This book is spot on in its descriptions of life and culture in Moldova. The whole time I was there I struggled to put my observations and feelings into word, and Hawks did it perfectly and humorously. Even for those with no interest in going to Moldova - it is a fun and quick read.
• 
  Bill

  A nice light, entertaining read. The story follows English comedian to Moldova, Northern Ireland and Israel as he tries to win a bet with his friend Arthur. The bet is that Tony will beat the Moldovan national footie team at tennis, all 11 players. The loser of the bet will sing the Moldovan national anthem, naked on the High Street. Tony's experiences in Moldova are quite interesting; his attempts to contact the players and teams to set up the tennis matches, his feelings about Moldova, his thoughts on the lovely family with which he stays while in Moldova. It's the briefest of insights, but I found it all very interesting. He then must follow the National team to their match in Northern Ireland to try to play 3 players he missed while in Moldova and then to Israel to meet the final player. Does Tony win the bet? Well, you will have to read to find out. Entertaining story, generally a fun read.
• 
  Solodchi Andreea

  Tony Hawks, un actor de comedie din Anglia şi un bărbat excentric ce adoră provocările neobişnuite, e legat de Moldova printr-un pariu. Misiunea sa bizară e să găsească membrii echipei naționale de fotbal şi să-i convingă să joace tenis cu el.
  Cartea e presărată de umor, de adevăruri dureroase şi previziuni sumbre.
• 
  Jaseena AL

  Humour at it's best !!
• 
  Danièle

  A delightful book. Tony makes a bet that he can beat the entire Moldovan football team at tennis. The actual challenge turns out to be finding the players in the first place. Tony tells his story with a lot of humour, but there is also a lot of room for reflection about the situation in Moldova. Although Tony's bet is pretty senseless, his determination inspires a Moldovan teenager, which is by far the most touching thing in the book.
• 
  Brian James

  I'd never heard of Tony Hawks before reading it on my brothers recommendation. An obscure drunken bet seen through to the end, it's funny with a few wonderfully pragmatic experiences of Moldova thrown in. A must read in your next trip to Moldova - or when you need a need a little more smiling in your life!
• 
  Stasia

  I was living in Moldova as a Peace Corps volunteer when I read this book. Really quite funny. If you want to learn a little something about post-soviet Moldova, it's a great read. And did I mention funny?
• 
  Trina

  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...
• 
  Dane Cobain

  Tony Hawks is basically the forerunner of all of those wacky comedians who go around doing weird challenges for bets. As someone who grew up with Dave Gorman’s Important Astrology Experiment, I’ve always found it interesting to read Hawks because I guess he must have been an influence on some of the people who influenced me.
  
  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. It’s kind of a pointless thing to do, especially for the £100 that Hawks stood to win, but it’s as good a reason to go on an adventure as any.
  
  It’s a fun and an entertaining little read, as Hawks often is, although I don’t think it’s one that I’ll find myself thinking about too deeply in the months and years to come. With that said, reading him writing about Moldova, which was also occupied by the Soviet Union, reminded me of my trip to Latvia.
  
  And of course, at a time when the world is in lockdown and it’s not exactly easy to travel from country to country, it was nice to get out of the house, so to speak. So if I’m honest, I’d have to recommend it to people just for that. It’s a little bit of sunshine when life is tough.
• 
  Rich Marx

  Reading this book proved quite an adventure for me. I originally bought it as a gift for my daughter about eight years ago knowing I would eventually get to read it. As planned, she did not read it right away, so I started it about seven years ago. Despite it being highly entertaining, I did not finish it until this year. I really enjoyed learning about Moldovan culture and met people from there recently. My daughter still has not read it!
• 
  Owen McArdle

  The book took a bit of time to get going but was incredibly entertaining by the end. It centres on a zany bet: to play and beat the Moldovan football team (well, a particular starting XI against England in the late 1990s) at tennis. I'm not entirely sure that I ever figured out why.
  
  And so we are taken to Moldova around the turn of the millennium, and spend most of the book immersed in precisely how grim the 90s were in the former Soviet Union as it transitioned to a proper market economy. From these descriptions to the final scene outside a Woolworths, the book feels dated now, but in a way that's quite charming and has given me an unexpected wish to go and see what Chisinau is like 20+ years later.
  
  Then the end of the book is a bit of a blur, as the author somehow ends up going to Coleraine and then to Nazareth. It's probably a good idea to not try our patience and cut to the chase there though, and then the setup at the end adds a perfect bit of drama, should anyone fancy making this into a film!
• 
  ✨j e s s | XXII | Night Court🌓

  So I was actually given this book by my boyfriend who is, funnily enough, Corina’s son! (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! I loved this book and it will be happily passed through my family.
• 
  Babak Fakhamzadeh

  Still riding the wave of books on guerilla tourism and gonzo journalism, Hawks was ahead of the curve with his
  Round Ireland with a Fridge from 2000 as well as this book which was published shortly after, in 2001, though set, mostly, in 1998.
  
  Peter Moore is another example of similar literature, though perhaps one of the best ones is
  Daniel Kalder's
  Lost Cosmonaut: Observations of an Anti-Tourist.
  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.
  
  Following a bet with a friend after watching the Moldovan national soccer team play England, Hawks sets out to beat all players at tennis, mostly in Moldova, but also being forced to visit Israel and Northern Ireland. Hawks' style is funny and readable, but for his, at the time, 38 years, also feels rather naive in relation to his experiences in this former Soviet Republic.
• 
  Katherine

  This book is in with travel books but for me it is more a humorous account of a journey rather than a travel book.
  
  If you read this expecting to find out a lot about Moldova you will probably be disappointed but if you read it as an amusing tale then you will find this funny.
  
  It is not as good as his first book Round Ireland with a Fridge but he is in a country with people who have very different personalities to those in Ireland due to the circumstances they were living in at the time the book is written.
  
  Tony takes on a bet to play the Moldovan football team at tennis with the loser having to sing the Moldovian National Anthem naked in his local high street.
  
  The book follows his journey in meeting all the players and playing tennis with them - a journey that is not an easy one due to the nature of Moldova.
  
  I enjoyed this book and it would make a good read while waiting in an airport.