Giving Stratford a Sporting Chance

Looming large on the horizon – the Olympic Stadium

If I wasn't ridiculously excited enough about the Olympics, then my visit today to the Olympic Park served to do the trick. I decided to walk the four miles from Liverpool Street Station to Stratford to get an idea of the local area.
It is economically deprived, the housing is shabby, shops are boarded up and the whole area from Bethnal Green to Stratford has a tired feel. That said, there is a cultural mix of people and a sense that change may be just around the corner. And, indeed it is. A stones throw from the social poverty a glittering showpiece is slowly growing. The Olympic Stadium, the Amish Kapoor monument, the Aquatics Centre, the velodrome - they are all becoming iconic sights on the east London horizon.
At the same time, the ODA design team have put a lot of thought into the bigger picture. The road, rail and waterways transport system will allow a new ease of accessibility to the east end. The miles of walking and cycle paths hits the governments active people agenda. The acres of grassland, meadows and wetlands create a green haven and 4,000 new trees will add to the landscape.
Economically, new, affordable housing, alongside new private housing, a new school and the huge Westfield shoppin centre will all stimulate employment, training and the local economy.
As a sports fan I was blown away by the facilities, as a person who loves London, I cannot wait to revisit the walk from Liverpool Street to Stratford in a few years time and marvel at the difference this legacy will have left. Well done to John Hopkins and his team for having this vision.

Boules rules!

A friendly game of boules after work, a few pints of real ale and a supper of sausage and chips. There are few sports that are more suited to the quintessentially rosy view of English life than this.

I went to my first game of boules last week, and it lived up to all expectations. The game was a league match between the Blue Lion at Hardwick and the Lamb and Fleece at Horningsea. The home pub, the Lamb and Fleece, was quaint, local and friendly. The competitors were quirky and from a range of backgrounds, and the competition itself was hard fought, with just a hint of steel around the edges.

For those new to the game here is a quick fire summary of the rules.

Two teams of six compete. The team is divided in two for the first round, so three people from each team compete, throwing two boules each. The first team to accrue 13 points wins that round. The cochonnet, or cloche in local dialiect, is thrown a distance of between 6 to 10 metres from the throwing circle. The teams then try to get their boules as close to the cloche as possible. Whoever throws the closest holds the initiative and the other team have to try to get a boule closer. When all the boules are thrown, points are added up. A point for the team with the boule closest, but if the next nearest boule belongs to the opposition then only the one point is scored. If one team has a number of boules closest to the cloche with no boule from the opposition then the leading team gets points corresponding to the boules near the cloche (I hope that makes sense!)

The second round of the game involves the teams splitting into three pairs. They follow the same process but throw three boules each. The final score is tallied in sets won, with five sets played in total.

So, the rules firmly established, let me describe the evening.

As people turn up at the pub there is a laconic air about the early arrivals. No-one wants to appear too keen. Drinks are ordered and the teams carefully eye the opposition up. On this occasion Phil was skipper of the visiting team, a duty he was clearly taking very seriously. One of his team was making her debut so Phil took her through the rules, emphasising that 'the cloche can not be thrown out of the area – that will mean the game is dead.' The debutante, who was clearly more than capable of keeping the cloche in the area humoured her skipper and nodded sagely.

By now one or two members of both teams were rather sheepishly making their way out of the pub to grab a quick practice throw. This was laughed off, because no-one could be seen to be taking this seriously. As more people made their way out, the practice became more serious, until, unable to resist, one of the team members gave a coaching tip. That was it – the match had tipped into competitiveness.

Dave, one of the visiting team had still not thrown a practice boule. This was clearly worrying skipper Phil, who followed him around the pub garden with a boule in his hand. Finally Dave gave in and threw a practice boule. All was okay, Phil visibly relaxed and Dave smiled ruefully, his cool cover disintegrating.

The home team had a worry. Baz was drunk. The youngest team member had been out for a day of drinking with his mate, Jeff. The pair were clearly in their team's bad books and Michelle, five months pregnant thrust the cloche into Baz's hand with a look that clearly defied him to throw erratically. Luckily for Baz, his cloche landed with unerring accuracy and his first boule followed, landing just centimetres from its target.

As the dusk fell, the sun at the back of the pub went down in a blaze of red. The Cambridgeshire skies were a picture and a fabulous backdrop to this most English of evenings. It is ironic that boules is a french import, but it is one, along with brie and garlic, that we have adopted enthusiastically.

The match took three hours and it was past 11 when the final scores were marked and both teams shook hands. The home team had won convincingly, which didn't please Phil, but his newest team member had thrown well, his oldest player had enjoyed six points of ale and was in full flow with stories about the local postman, Dave had played well despite his reluctance to practice and the plates of sausage and chips were beckoning.

Roll on the next match

IMSPA leads the way in slimming down sport

Last week (4 May) I went to the House of Commons to report on the granting of chartered status to the Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity. While members of this Institute will rightly celebrate gaining chartered status and the new level of professionalism this gives people working in this sector, I think the move actually heralded a more fundamental reason for celebration - the rationalisation of sports management in this country.

IMSPA was born out of an amalgamation of the Institute of Sport and Recreation Management and the Institute for Sport, Parks and Leisure. These bodies in turn were originally known as ILAM and NASD. Just writing those two sentences made me sweat!

But then look at sports organisation in this country and this sort of mish-mash and duplication is mirrored all over the sporting landscape. Sport England, UK Sport, the Youth Sports Trust, the Sport and Recreation Alliance, the British Olympic Association, County Sports Partnerships etc etc. the list of bodies involved in sport is endless, and in fact each body in its own way does a valuable job BUT there is overlap and confusion. For this reason IMSPA is to be congratulated on putting tribalism and insularity to one side and taking the lead in simplifying its offering to the sector it serves.

The additional news that IMSPA is joining with SkillsActive to develop a single qualification structure for all the levels of workforce in the profession is another step in the drive for simplification.

Celebration time at Old Trafford

Very short post today - 'get in!' Thoroughly enjoyable game between Sir Alex's men and Ancelotti's team, and a thoroughly enjoyable outcome. Thought JS Park was mercurial and energetic, Valencia added a whole new dimension on the right-hand side of the pitch and Giggs was masterful.
I also thought it was a great indicator of the coaching team at Manchester United's great professionalism in preparing their players to peak at absolutely the right moment.
Can Sir Alex come up with the strategy to beat Barcelona - I hope so.

Dr Bird's obvious remedy

Dr William Bird talks lots of sense. So much so that it is a surprise he is not locked up somewhere.

Dr Bird talks about a deficiency that is sweeping across the country, causing misery and suffering and costing the NHS, and hence the tax payers, millions of pounds.

Much as deficiencies in vitamins A, B or D can have devastating effects upon people’s health, so too can the deficiency that Dr Bird refers to as PA deficiency. And just as vitamin deficiencies can be addressed easily, the answer to PA deficiency is also easily available, if we could just bring ourselves to adopt it.

The practising GP and chair of the Physical Activity Alliance, who also advises the Department of Health on the benefits of exercising outdoors, has been beating his particular drum for nearly two decades but his message is both consistent and relevant.

PA deficiency, of course, refers to a lack of physical activity and the easy remedy is to get our bodies moving more frequently and at a higher intensity.

Easier said than done? Well that may be the case if the motivation is lacking, but with the threat of obesity, diabetes, cancer, stroke, heart disease, not to mention the feel good factor and the increased mental capability associated with exercise, there are surely enough carrots and sticks available.

Solutions

For the person who is ‘time pressured’, then a few simple life-style changes may work. If you drive to the train station, try swapping four wheels for two. If you sit in front of the computer at lunchtime, go for a walk. If you go to the gym twice a week, add an evening jog, a weekend swim or a yoga session to the schedule.

If a lack of confidence is stopping you, remember that there are many, many people in similar situations. A quick troll through the local gym, sports centre or leisure centre websites will direct you to classes or groups where there are beginner groups who will welcome you. Or a quick email around work colleagues may unearth someone who is desperate to play squash with a fellow non-sporty person, or who would just go for a lunchtime spin class or walk.

Illness or injury is a common reason to stop being active. In most cases exercise of some kind is of benefit to people suffering from long term illness or injury, or returning from injury. Arthritis sufferers will benefit from a controlled programme of activity, someone with a broken arm can still walk, someone with a broken leg can still do upper body exercises.

The point that Bird makes is that there are a million solutions to the PA deficiency. He advocates bite-sized chunks of exercise that fit into a modern lifestyle. Today, an active person is as likely to be doing a 20-minute jog in the morning, a game of football after work one evening, a bike ride with the kids at the weekend and a pilates session once a fortnight. The goal is to be doing a minimum of five lots of 30 minutes of physical activity a week. How that is done, or when that is done is not important.