Dopes duped by dishonest diva shock
Sideliner was amused to hear that a woman called Beyonce had been generally chastised because she had the temerity to mime rather than sing the American national anthem in advance of what our colonial cousins like to call the Super Bowl. That someone associated with American Football, which is an ersatz game played only in America or by dopey ‘would-like-to-be’ Americans with rules which allow the game to stop for commercial breaks and has so many people involved that sweating can only be a function of the padded suits they wear or the drugs they take because it can not be from athletic exertion, has taken exception to a faux anthem is nigh on as laughable as Nick Clegg mapping out his future in politics.
Dragon on and on
And on the subject of national anthems, how much more tawdry can the Welsh make the pre-game folderol at their Mile End stadium? The tedium of their perpetual hymning laced only by the saccharine maunderings of the terminally twee Max Boyce long made coverage from England’s westernmost region (sorry Cornwall, you don’t count) almost unbearable, especially if the game was then ‘commentated’ on by Jonathan Davies, a man whose shoulder carries a chip only slightly smaller than the mote in his eye; but now they have added parachuters, over-large Roman candles and endless children. The effect is to make the whole soi-disant nation look and sound as if it were whistling in the dark to keep its spirits up, which it may well be doing when the white orcs of England journey down the M4 in a week or so.
LOCOG database ‘legacy’ claim exposed
It takes a lot to awaken the director of a county sports partnership and even more to then get her or him to be critical of any of the other components of the sporting establishment but the fanfare accompanying LOCOG’s announcement that they are letting Sport England have their database has disturbed one of the 49 old farts who hold the county sports partnership (CSP) reins. He (we’ll narrow it down just a little) did not ask to be named so we’ll just give you the gist of his comments, which went something like: “On what planet is releasing that data six months after the Games finished ‘legacy’? Those 5.4 million names should have been available from day one.” It is not often Sidey sees eye to eye with anyone from the CSP demi-monde – other than the necessity of forty winks after lunch – but here we are in accord.
CIMSPA’s managerial monkey business
Recent critics of The Leisure Review have made the case that the magazine has become too insular, choosing to focus on the tried-and-tested and humdrum aspects of the sport, leisure and culture industry rather than explore new horizons. All too often we appear, apparently, to be too much part of the industry we seek to subvert. In response we would aver that our aim is to support the sector, not subvert it, and that mostly we do still try to find something new to say about the same old things or something new to say the same sort of things about. And we do try to stay away from the usual suspects, often looking away when their ‘newsletters’ come in lest we fill Row Z twice over with just one agency’s output (you know who you are, Jenny darling). But – and you knew there was going to be a ‘but’ – the palavers at CIMSPA have to be reported by someone and this duty seems to fall to us. They now have two new levels of membership (you can be a “Chartered Member” or a “Chartered Fellow” if you can afford it) but we’ll focus on their “leadership”, which has changed. Whichever way it happened – we can only think of removed or stepped down of his own volition as possible options – Miles Templeman has left the chrome-and-glass building in a lay-by just off the M1 that serves as the CIMSPAHQ. Sideliner has been singing snatches of a ditty made popular by the New Christy Minstrels which goes: “Three wheels on my wagon…” We rather fear the Cherokees are circling.
Cue Rolf
Meanwhile, as one sun dips another struggles over the horizon with something called the UK Sports Coaches Association rising in the east of the sector. On close inspection it seems this is currently just an idea wrapped in an aspiration wrapped in a Linkedin discussion (at http://linkd.in/XyWsnU) but with 400,000 committed coaches practising, and hopefully getting better, in the UK the suggestion that they should have a voice in the system is surely not one any right-minded agency or individual would abjure?
Strolling rather than striding
With physical activity such a key issue in this industry and beyond it is great to hear that the Walking for Health programme is in such good hands. You may or may not recall that the Ramblers took over the management of the scheme in October and promised significant changes; improvements even. As yet we still wait to learn how trainers can be trained and local schemes developed but, being walkers ourselves, we know better than to rush. It was buoying earlier this month to learn that “soon” we would see some significant developments, namely “a new visual identity for Walking for Health, including a new logo and additional visual elements like icons, phrases and photography. We’ll also have a new font, new colours and a new way of talking”. As the young folk say: “Yay!” Would it colour your interpretation of this news if we told you that the October mentioned above is October 2011? We thought so.
Sideliner
Row Z
The view from the back of the stand
