State of the Region
The Men’s Competitive Review is very much centre stage and some of you may have responded to the on line survey.
The Review is an attempt to put in place some nationwide principles and structures and is being progressed under the auspices of the National Lacrosse Committee. I was born and raised in Manchester but spent some years playing down South (where I drove for an hour and for a home match!). In my opinion the North West is different from all other areas of the country and this needs to be taken into consideration in any implementation by the newly formed National Lacrosse Committee who I do not feel necessarily has the knowledge and experience to respect the history and traditions of the North West.
The formation of North West Lacrosse Association is I am sure the body which needs to address the challenges of the region.
Over the years Manchester has been the source of by far the majority England squad players (pretty well all of them!). It is the base for by far the highest quality Men’s Club programme. Except for Peter Compton’s impressive work at Spencer and the girl’s programmes at Cobham and Hawks it is the only area which has viable Boys and Girls programmes.
However, the North West has its problems. Several club’s are in very serious difficulties and even the so called big clubs do not have the strength in depth that they had only a few years ago. The number of B and C team games and games in the lower divisions being conceded is increasing rapidly.
A few years ago the Boy’s junior programme was in rude health. That is not the case today. The quality and quantity of junior players are in decline. There are a number of possible reasons for this, including competition from other sports, a fall off in recruiting perhaps as a result of the demise of the LDO programme.
The Girl’s programme is improving but there is, in my opinion not enough lacrosse to enable girls to make the jump to the levels achieved by the girl’s school programme. Some do make it through to national squads though in my view not enough.
The Women’s club programme does not to me function as well as it should. How can women’s hockey at TSC run 5 senior teams whilst lacrosse can only run one.
The significant growth of the participation in lacrosse in recent years has been driven by the University programme. When I was at University there were only 6 or 7 playing men’s lacrosse. Now there are more than 70 which is a tribute to the work of English Lacrosse staff, the initiatives supported by people like the Centurion LC and the enthusiasm of students, many of who are new to Lacrosse. Thanks for You Tube!
The University women’s programme has increased significantly in recent years with more and more institutions running 2, 3 and 4 teams.
The challenge is to convert students into adult club players.
Thoughts would be appreciated.
There is certainly of work to do in the North West.

Which are the popular sports? Which are the growing sports? Which are the declining sports?
As I reach seniority I have come to the conclusion that Governments undeniably embrace dishonesty and utter incompetence. Our current bunch could not be trusted to organise the traditional “good time” in a brewery. If it was not so tragic it would be mildly amusing!
Sport is no different from anywhere else. The general view is that the life of the community would be improved by an increased involvement with sport. I certainly do not disagree with that position.
However, when it comes to implementing policies which will lead to increases in participation it is clear they do not have the faintest idea about the levers which promote sports participation or the time scales involved in any policy reaching fruition.
I have been involved with more innovative short term fixes than you can imagine.
What you have to do is assess the challenge and identify the outcomes you are looking for.

The trendy popular sports have constantly changed. When I lived in London in the early 1970s squash was the vogue sport. To get a court you put your office phone on automatic redial and hoped that you got an answer and you were able to book a court a week ahead. The response to the demand was an explosion of court building all over the country. In our little world Rochdale, Monton, Poynton, Brooklands, Bowdon, Cheadle Hulme /Grove Park all became squash clubs alongside other sports. 40 years letter squash has lost its glamour and courts are closing at a rapid rate. Squash has just gone out of fashion!
It does not seem very many years ago that there was a waiting list for the membership of many golf clubs. Nowadays the view that golf is a good walk spoilt seems increasingly prevalent view with clubs fighting for members from a smaller and smaller group of potential players.
Current fashionable sports would seemed to be headed by cycling with middle aged men in lycra flooding our roads riding expensive bicycles which cost nearly as much as a small car. The view that the success in the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games and events like The Tour de France has inspired participation is difficult to substantiate as no-one seems to know what the relationship between elite performance and participation is. I t is certainly a lot more tenuous that elite sport would want us to believe. Perhaps cycling has peaked but will that position be driven further by the troubles on governance and drug taking that are inflicting British Cycling.
We are told that athletics is booming and perhaps envisage hoards of people long jumping, throwing the discus or sprinting on the track. The reality is that the “boom” is due to men and women in fancy running 5k and 10ks very slowly.
The team sports were, in the days of my youth the dominant sports activity. Rugby clubs were enormous with most clubs running 6 or 7 teams. The famous clash often recalled by John Inverdale (because he was a playe.) is that Esher RUFC played Streatham and Croydon with 16 sides representing each club.
Proper 11-a-side soccer has declined enormously in recent years, particularly for adults. If you drove past Hough End playing fields in the 1970s on a Saturday , Sunday or even Wednesday afternoon the football fields were being used by hundreds of players. Most of the time now there are only 4 or 5 pitches in use out of the 20+ available. It is difficult to believe that Manchester City Council does not have its eyes on Hough End for housing and even an extension to Southern Cemetery. I am sure that the Withington tram stop was not built for the benefit of the church across Princess Parkway.
Cricket is a great sport but one which is in decline. It does not seem to fit in with modern life. It takes too long to play; involves only 13 of 22 players at any one time; is prone to disruption by the weather and is expensive to run in the sense of maintaining the grass fields and the relatively low number of people who can use a cricket field. At Timperley the lacrosse pitches host over 50 players on a Saturday. In summer cricket only accommodates 22 (or even just 13 –s ee above.)
Lacrosse has had its ups and downs in my lifetime. In the 1980s many Men’s clubs in Manchester ran 4 or 5 senior teams. At one time Timperley ran a D team and Cheadle an E team. Nowadays clubs struggle to run 3 teams. In the South the men’s lacrosse seemed doomed to extinction in the 1980s but was saved by a willingness of players and officials to accept changes to competition structures pragmatically which enabled games to be played. In more recent times policies and strategies have seen a significant strengthening of the game in the South driven by the fact I suggest that there are more Universities in the south.
Modern sport is very much shaped by the support of government money and to justify that support there has to be rational as to why sport makes a positive contribution to society and to people’s health and happiness.
Sport as we know it is very much the product of late Victorian society. Robust manly sports were introduced by the public schools as an alternative to their pupils indulging in riotous behaviour and often fighting with the local militia.
Ideas developed that sport had a number of purposes including, physical fitness and healthy well being, the development of leadership qualities, self –discipline and responsible behaviour , friendships and the ability to cope with relationships, coping with winning and losing and the joy and despair that comes with these.
Basically sport would seem to me to offer a lot which goes towards creating strong and vibrant communities.
Since the creation of The Sports Council in 1972 funding from central government has been provided to promote sport. Previously public money had come from local authorities through their responsibility for parks and perhaps a swimming pool. In the 1970s facility provision has expanded with the building of leisure centres which as well as swimming pools included sports halls, gyms and squash courts.
In the 1980’s we saw the development of ATPs. The first at a sports club was at Timperley in 1980 but since then they have proliferated with probably more than 20 in Trafford alone.
Responsibility for facilities provision grew into professional support.
One main problem with giving funding and provision being made the responsibility of Local Authorities is that leisure provision is not one their mandatory responsibilities so in a time of funding cuts the area is one of the first to come under pressure.
Another problem with working with government funding agencies can be seen as political short termism and the lack of specific knowledge and expertise amongst the people who are responsible for the creation and delivery of political objectives.
When Gordon Brown was Chancellor he was persuaded that the enormous challenges careering towards us because of diabetes and peoples longevity could in a small way be mitigated by higher participation in healthy activities such as sport. The challenges recognised by Brown have increased greatly whereas the political will to face up to them has significantly decreased.
Another major issue is the generalist approach of our civil service. We don’t have much time for experts which I presume is a position Michael Gove would agree with. If you met with someone at DCMS who was responsible sport you generally met an intelligent, articulate charming person who would readily admit that they had done a bit of rowing at school but little else and that a few months ago they were responsible for prisons and clearly felt that their current role was a stepping stone to greater responsibilities in more important ministries like the Home Office or Education.
In my opinion Sport is an enormous area which impacts significantly on many communities and many peoples’ lives. The leavers which drive participation are varied – facilities, teaching, coaching, publicity and promotion. I firmly believe that investment in sport has to be medium to long term and that results can only be measured over decades not a few years. A politician’s interest span however only stretches over a few years!!!

Going to the Movies
One of the joys of retirement is that you can spend a lot of time eating out and going to the cinema.

Comments on recent viewings
La La Land . Good but not as good as it thinks it is. Surprise ending.
Denial. Excellent because I vividly remember the case involving David Irving, the holocaust denier. Very pertinent in our current world with all the issues of racism and anti Semitism and fake news.
Jackie One of the iconic figures of my youth was JFK. This movie covers the time immediately after the assassination. Quick comment would be that if he had served two terms he would not have emerged as impressive a President as Barrack Obama.
Jackie reminded me of Princess Diana. Both achieved much despite being self obsessed.

Some of the best films are the PG holiday films. Pete’s Dragon was superb. Also very good were Zootopia, Secret life of Pets, BFG and Jungle Book. Why don’t these films get Oscar nominations?
The Michelin Guide and Good Food Guide this year highlight the resurgence of the Manchester dining scene. Perhaps there is scope for a few comments in the future. The city has certainly moved a long way since the late great AA Gill dismissed Manchester as a “drinking city not an eating city”.

Summer Training
Summer training has, over the years, been an important part of our programme allowing us to build up skills and to prepare teams for next season.
Next year we may have a problem with player numbers for so recruiting some new players/beginners would be useful. Friends, enemies, brothers, cousins, neighbours would all be welcome.

The provisional dates for you diary are;
U11 &U13 Girls, U12 & U14 Boys
Saturdays 10am -11am
May 6, 13, 20, (27 -3rd June possible half-term)
June 10, 17, 24.
July 1,8,15
U15 & U18 Girls, U14 & U16 Boys
Wednesday 6.30pm -8pm
May 3,10,17,24 (31 possible half term)
June 7, 14, 21, 28
These sessions are really important in developing playing skills.
There will be more information in coming weeks.
Talent Pathway –Boys Academy
The English Lacrosse Talent Pathway is the starting point on the road to Elite Performance. The Boys Academy is run by Timperley Senior Coach Martin Cragg who is a member of English Lacrosse staff.

Timperley are well represented in the current Academy.
U15
Harry Alty, Dan Flisk, Ewan Ginger, Luke-Frahill Jones, Oliver Lee, Will Hirst
U17 /U19
Ed Loveland, Marius Robinson, Will Greaves, JD Bulmer

These players all have the potential to reach the very top of the game and play in World and European Championships. Some will, some won’t. It will be interesting to watch their progress.