Democratic sporting events

Tuesday, 19 April 2011 15:23

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Don't get me wrong; I love the idea of all the upcoming women's mini marathon events. It ticks all the right boxes: people getting fit while enjoying themselves and some extremely worthy charities benefiting in the process.
But, I do wonder what the National Women's Council would have to say if no women were allowed enter, let's say, the Dublin marathon in October.
Somehow, I don't think they'd be too happy and there's a part of me also that thinks they wouldn't be too long letting everyone know how unhappy they were.

Anyway, that little gripe aside (actually, it's not a gripe really, it's more of an observation), it is wonderful to see so many people preparing for a whole plethora of races over the next few months. Every second person seems to be in training for one event or another and the growth in participation has to be one of the sporting success stories of recent times.
Some people take their sport very seriously while for others it's about the participation and the goal of achievement. Simply completing a marathon, a half marathon, or indeed a 10k can be a wonderful achievement for some people while with others there's a far more competitive element associated with their taking part and for those people it's all about the time.

And that's all well and good. There's room for everyone in those events and in many ways they are the most democratic of sporting events.

Attempting to write history
There's a few of us in Westport attempting to compile a history of the sport of association football in the town over the past 100 years to coincide with the centenary of Westport United. The emphasis is on the word 'attempting'.
Our toils will not produce the complete history of the sport but it will endeavour to provide an insight into the characters and events that shaped our club over the past 100 years.
It's been hard work but at the same time it's been richly rewarding. It's only when you start trawling through the history books and talking to people that you start to understand all you are really doing is minding the club and hopefully leaving it in good stead for the next generation.
There have been some immense achievements in the history of our club but the development of the Sports Park must surely rank as the single most important project in the history of Westport United.

It was a monumental achievement and Westport people everywhere should never forget those band of men and women who gave so much of themselves to help provide a home for football in the town.
It's ironic in some ways that as we celebrate our centenary we have arrived at another pivotal moment in our history. The Sports Park is a wonderful venue and it will always be the spiritual home of the sport in Westport, but it's just one football pitch and it, on its own, cannot cater for the huge numbers of young men and women that now want to play the game.
The men who developed the Sports Park were visionaries and were they still alive today, I am absolutely certain they would give their blessing to any new project that would ensure the footballers of the next century are provided with the type of facilities they need to develop both as footballers and members of society.

It's the next big challenge for Westport United FC. There are those who say it should have happened many years ago and there is some merit in that argument.
But there is not a club in the country that could have afforded to purchase development land in the Westport urban area in the past 10 or 15 years. It was simply ridiculously prohibitive and when people criticised the club for not developing separate facilities to the Sports Park, maybe they hadn't factored those costs into their thought processes.

Choices
I was telling a Liverpool supporting friend of mine lately of another 'Pool fan that I know who would, if he was forced to choose, rather see Man United lose than see his own team, Liverpool, win.
He found it to be a strange way of looking at things but then on Sunday evening he admitted to me he hoped Dirk Kuyt was going to miss the penalty Liverpool got against Arsenal in the last seconds of their match.

He argued that a defeat for Liverpool didn't really matter to them that much while three points for Arsenal would have kept the pressure on United and he'd much rather see Arsenal win the league than Man U. Whatever gets you through the night, I suppose.
That said, it was amusing watching Professor Wenger doing his best Basil Fawlty impression on the line after the awarding of the penalty and its subsequent conversion by Kuyt.