The Leisure Review: high ground

High Ground edition 6; dateline 2 June 2011

Game over or game on?

There was something of a stunned silence up here in Scotland after the election results came in. MacSidey’s predictions of a close contest proved to be misinformed optimism on the scale of Fergie before a Champions League final. We’ll stick with the analogy for a wee minute. Labour (in the red jerseys), although perhaps not the vintage side of old, were still looking like contenders pre-match. In the actual game, however, it was the SNP that did a Barca, sweeping all before them but in a tide of yellow instead of claret and blue. Alex ‘Pep’ Salmond presided over an unbelievable political victory, winning an overall majority in the Scottish parliament, something that the original designers of the legislature actually planned to be near impossible, taking a majority of first-past-the-post seats, coming first in 71 out of the 73 regional seats, recording a whopping slice of the votes cast and a getting a thumping great mandate for its policies.

So it might be worth having another look at some of their ideas for sport in the manifesto a little further into the life of the new government but, suffice it say, with no mention of abolishing SportScotland this time around, you could hear the sigh of relief from the national sports development agency’s new Glasgow HQ without putting a glass tumbler against the wall.

Going back to the Barca comparison, there are ‘commonalities’. Here is a club side which represents a federalised region of Spain that has a great deal of autonomy but retains a strong voice for becoming an independent state. Catalunyans often say they are envious of Scotland having its own football team, and even the recent coming together of Spain as a force in world football hasn’t diminished this entirely; and for some Catalans not at all. Only a few years ago Alex Salmond was being pilloried for suggesting that Scotland field its own Olympic team at London 2012 as had happened in the distant past. Given there is going to be a referendum within the five years of this parliamentary term on Scotland moving to independence, the ridicule poured on the idea of Scottish Olympic teams by sports administrators now seems faintly ridiculous in itself. Many may find themselves shaken out of their comfort zones over the forthcoming years.

Friend of TLR Margo MacDonald MSP (yes she was voted in again) was on Newsnight Scotland being asked what an independent Scotland would be like and whether border posts and compulsory porridge eating would be on the cards. “Dinnae be daft,” she told the broadcaster. “There will be no border posts...” [Editorial correction from a previous High Ground column: we showed a picture of two spoons when it should have been a spoon and a spurtle. We tried to get a super injunction on this but the spellchecker on Twitter is lacking a bit on the old Scots lingo].

So it will be compulsory shinty, curling and elephant polo from now on up here because if it is there’s three world golds in the bag already (check out our record in the Elephant Polo incidentally). Listen, if it’s good enough for Barack’s USA it is well good enough for ‘Scotchland’. Think baseball World Series.

The managing editor wanted something on the Scottish sports development conference where the big story was the election result from the day before. Way up north in sunny Aviemore deep in the Highlands, the small but hardy bunch of volunteers from across the Scottish sports sector once again did a sterling job organising – in their own time – a conference for their peers. Supported by SportScotland, and with commensurately high levels of branding, the conference was tagged Working Together – Driving our Legacy and had at its core the aim of coalescing (what?) the theme of legacies of major events, namely London 2012, Glasgow 2014 and, for the Lanarkshire contingent, the 2011 International Children’s Games. Those of you resident south of the border and involved in grassroots community sport will have probably done this one to death already what with London and all, but, hey anything you can do.

Day one got off to a challenging start when one of the keynote speakers, Eamonn O’Rourke from Manchester, called off due to starting a new job on the same day. The enterprising organising committee arranged for a Blue Peter-style “here’s one I prepared earlier” video presentation. All was going well until the slides and voice synching went wonky donkey. Actually, I’ve seen that happen to live speakers as well so it was all very realistic.

Earlier, SportScotland supremo (ie CEO) Stewart Harris got the conference off to a relaxed start with a mix of professional and personal offerings about sport, legacy and life in general. He informed those who don’t already know that he is still a basketball coach (six feet-plus, big hands, says “guys” a lot – who’d have guessed) and was a PE teacher (you can tell that too because, as a coach, he can’t always access the school he uses for club training). Fair play to the big fella; that’s all true so he is saying it like it is. Been on a fair amount of senior leadership training courses too, I’ll venture.

An on-stage, comfy-chair, interactive panel session followed looking at legacy form the perspectives of people from different parts of the sector – national agency service head, university sport, voluntary governing body sport, and good ol’ local government sport (and an in-house version at that).

What appeared to come out of that session is that the ground troops are looking for assistance and some direction from Big Sport in terms of what exactly a legacy is, what it looks like and how will they know it if it turns up. Most importantly, will it help keep them in gainful employment? There seemed to be lots of answers and none at all; in other words “Legacy is what you make it.” (Please note any reference to Talk Talk is to the band not the telephone company). MacSidey is just waiting for legacy consultants to materialise up here. I bet they are on their way already as 2012 gets closer.

Definition of legacy? Something handed down by a predecessor. Bet that’s helped you all then, eh?

After more head scratching and a wee bit of navel gazing, the delegates poured into sessions like “How Good is our Service?” and “Monitoring and evaluation in sports development”. You know sports development officers: they can get really into that stuff even after a good Highland lunch. Once these sessions were rounded-up there was opportunity to “kick back” before “kicking on” and the real networking over dinner and “networking” began. This is where the proper exchanges of view can take place, at least for those who don’t wish to indulge in the soon-to-be-Olympic sport of trying to position your next move in the job market.

More workshops and presentations the next day, topped off by an inspirational speaker in the form of quadriplegic sailor, Geoff Holt MBE. Yet again the conference organisers picked a belter to finish off the two days and send delegates homeward tae think again. While you have to hand huge plaudits to the volunteers who deliver the conference for their commitment and hard work it is hard not to wish that sometimes, just once in a while, they would hark back to the good old days when the event spoke to and for the rank and file sports development officer and not from and for national agencies and c-suite executives. And as for MacSidey driving a legacy, the Subaru AWD is perfect for the High Ground all year round, thank you.

Final thought: if Barca are the best on the planet and they are full of wee guys, and Scotland is famous for having loads of wee guys, why does the Scottish FA and Scottish youth football in general still insist on living the catchphrase, “You’re too wee son” and keep slavishly seeking six foot-plus players for development? Time to wake up and smell the Cava?

MacSideliner