Alison does what Pele says

Sports journalist Alison Walker is learning Portuguese – because the famous Pele told her to! This was one of the many things she revealed to around 100 Glasgow Business Club members at their lunch meeting today in Firhill Stadium.

Introduced by President Norman Ferguson, Alison recounted her rise to fame despite the frequent, chauvinistic attitudes of her male colleagues. ‘I’d never admit I’d two children,’ she said.

She reeled off a list of eminent sports people she’d interviewed and told delightful, insightful tales of incidents along the way. At the 2012 Olympics, Pele was one of her interviewees – along with David Beckham, Henry Kissinger and the King of Spain. She told Pele she’d love to report on the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. ‘He advised me to learn the language. So that’s why I’ve spent the last six months at Glasgow University learning Brazilian Portuguese!’ she recounted.

Recently she set up her own media training company. ‘I’ve time to spend with my children now. But as they’re teenagers, they don’t want to spend time with me!’

Next month the guest speaker will be Margaret Curran, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland. Known until recently as Glasgow South Business Club, the organisation now holds meetings in a wider geographic field than it did before. Therefore the meeting on May 21 will be at GTG Training Centre in South Street, G14 0BJ.  For futher details check the Glasgow Business Club’s website.

 

 

 

EDITORIAL

What a summer for sports, rain and wacky happenings. The Olympians’ Parade through Glasgow is underway as this is written. The crowds have turned out as only Glasgow people can – happy to stand side by side with folk from Kirkcaldy and even far flung parts of Lanarkshire – to cheer on their sports heroes.

The sun shone as it does most afternoons. Then you get the waterproof hood ready for the monsoon which tends to fall around 6pm.

And wacky happenings include the fantastic events which will be part of DOORS OPEN weekend Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 September.  Govanhill Baths will have the toddlers’ pool filled with water and the new front foyer space can be seen for the very versatile event platform it is proving to be.  While not on view at DOORS OPEN, synchronized swimmers have used the pool for an upcoming National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) production to be performed in the Calder Street Baths later in the year.  Even if you have other things to do this weekend, drop them and go opening doors in some of the 100 buildings which will be open to the public and expecting you in!

Get all the uptodate info from their website: www.glasgowdoorsopenday.com

 

Games LEAD through sports

Sports festivals could be developed in local communities to promote involvement in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. Keen young athletes will lead the way to create this interest with support from the LEAD 2014 Campaign. The campaign is a youth leadership and volunteer mentoring programme aimed at university students and high school pupils across Scotland as part of the Games build-up.

Triathlete Grant Sheldon and swimmer Cameron Brodie – who are working towards competing in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games – were among the top young sports people who launched LEAD 2014 at Stirling University on Friday 3 February. The campaign will hone and develop leadership skills among the young generations. This could include LEAD 2014 protegees helping run sports events in their own communities. Organised by sportscotland, the Youth Sport Trust and Glasgow 2014, LEAD 2014 the main idea is to inspire a real interest in the Games and support for them so that volunteers will come forward at the right time and young people will be enthused to take part in sports.

Success for Sports fund run

A very successful  24 hour run in aid of softball sessions at East Wood High School was held recently. From Saturday afternoon on 7 May till the same time the following day, more than two dozen adults and teenagers paced the semi derelict sports ground to clock up more than 160 miles and a handsome sum for the kitty to regenerate the area and to put into the softball sessions in the school
Said organiser Stephen Koepplinger: ‘  We ended with a barbeque to cheer on the runners for the last few

hours.  He added: ‘This will also raise the profile of some of our disused sporting resources as well as raise the profile for after school activities.’

Hit the ground running and win a copy of Played In Glasgow

Football grounds, bowling greens, dog tracks, ‘doocots’, racecourses, blaes pitches, athletics tracks and swimming clubs; our city has had them all. Ged O’Brien’s book, Played in Glasgow, is a modestly-sized but mighty anthology that covers every sporting nook and cranny since Victorian times.
This is part of the superb Played In Britain series,  backed by Historic Scotland and English Heritage. The volume is subtitled ‘charting the heritage of a city at play’, and is a store of information for those of us who choose to look beyond the elegant stone facades, towering steel skeletons and pretty, manicured lawns.
Beyond Hampden Park, the home of Queen’s Park and Scotland’s international team, there are retrospectives on the homes of Rangers, Celtic, Partick Thistle, Clyde and the bullish ranks of Glasgow Junior football.
O’Brien also looks at the homes of the city’s many rugby teams and enjoys our rich bowling heritage, all recorded with excellent photography and detailed with the care of a first-class reference work.
Played In Glasgow has a section on swimming baths and clubs, from the elegant but forgotten municipal pools of the late 1800s to their 21st century heirs and the architectural wonders of the Western and the Arlington Baths clubs.
The book also strikes a nostalgic tone with a look at the city’s remaining red ash ‘blaes’ pitches and takes a flight into the world of the Glasgow pigeon fancier and their home-built doocots. Neither does it neglect cricketing heritage nor pass by the huge achievements of our many athletes over the years.
With one eye on Glasgow’s place as host for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, this book is a roadmap that shows us how far we have come, what we have won, what we have lost and hints at what could yet be.
A blend of social and cultural history and a treat with archive and modern photography, sometimes evocative and occasionally controversial, Played In Glasgow is an essential addition to the book collection of anyone who has an eye for their city’s sporting heritage.

LOCAL NEWS GLASGOW has three copies of Played in Glasgow to give away.
For a chance to win your own copy, just write and tell us which football teams play their home games at Hampden Park.

Send your answers by email to competitions@localnewsglasgow.co.uk. Please put ‘PLAYED IN GLASGOW COMPETITION’ in the header field and remember your name, address and a daytime telephone number. You can also enter by snail mail, please write with your answer to Played In Glasgow Competition, Local News Glasgow, YAM Publications, Third Floor, 142 West Nile Street G1 2RQ. Don’t forget all your contact details.

This competition closed at 9am on Monday, May 24.

Awards as Sports Council goes distance

<!– @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } A:link { so-language: zxx } –>

The Sports Council for Glasgow breasted the tape at their 30^th anniversary recently with a family gathering and awards dinner at St Andrews in the Square.

Twenty-one sports and more than 30 clubs were represented, with the evening compered by veteran Herald athletics journalist Doug Gillon.

Attended by 140 people,  59 of them, who have been volunteering in Glasgow sports clubs for 30 years or more, received a special plaque and certificate recognising their long service.

Two founder members of the Sports Council also received special awards. Bob Stephen and Dick Rafferty from athletics and boxing were elected to the very first executive committee of the Sports Council in May 1979.

Colin Atkinson, chairman of the Sports Council for Glasgow, said: ‘The evening was a great success and was enjoyed by all. Too often, the tremendous work done by volunteers goes largely unrewarded. I hope that by organising these awards and this presentation ceremony, the Sports Council for Glasgow has recognised the importance of volunteers to sport in the city and helped to express to the recipients how valuable their commitment has been over the last 30 years and more.’

 

Scotstoun leads way in race to 2014 Commonwealth Games

Glasgow has taken another big step on the road to the Commonwealth Games in 2014 with the £18m refurbishment of Scotstoun Stadium.
UK Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe joined Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy during a visit to the stadium, with its nearby sports centre, where they saw a world-class facility offering what promises to be a strong foundation for up-and-coming generations of Scottish athletes.
Scotstoun will also serve as a hub for rugby excellence. The Glasgow Warriors will use the ground as their training facilities from 2010 thanks to a partnership between the Scottish Rugby Union, Glasgow City Council and Culture and Sport Glasgow.
The stadium’s capacity will increase to 5,000 and Scotstoun will bid for high-profile athletic events. As well as a refurbished track and field, there is a full-length, indoor warm-up track, and top-class conditioning suites. The facility won £4m in funding from Sportscotland, with the remaining £14m funded by Glasgow City Council.
After a display of running on the indoor warm-up track from young athletes of Glasgow School of Sport, Gerry Sutcliffe said: ‘We’ve been looking all around the UK to ensure that new sports facilities are indeed world class, and this clearly is one. The indoor track is probably the best I’ve seen in the UK and facilities like this, which allow training to go on indoors regardless of the weather, are something the city should be proud of. It all augurs well for 2014.’
Jim Murphy was equally impressed. ‘I think it’s phenomenal, a Rolls-Royce facility and the stars of today would be happy to use it. Outdoors, that new track they’ve taken ownership of today lasts 15 years so it’s the best, most-modern track anywhere … it’s a great location for records to be broken.’
Looking ahead to 2014, Jim added: ‘In the build-up to the games there’ll be a buzz which will be fantastic, but it’s also important that there be a legacy.
‘The Commonwealth Games will last a matter of days, but the effects will be felt for decades, lighting a spark of enthusiasm amongst Glaswegians – and Scots – for athletics and other sports. It’ll mean a great legacy for facilities and for a lifelong attitude towards sports.
‘Usain Bolt is a name that so many youngsters now recognise,’ said Jim. ‘They wonder at his ability, he’s a modern icon. The important thing is for us to grow our own icons.’

Castlemilk’s Barlia Sports Centre to be Rebuilt

Castlemilk’s Barlia Sports Complex is to benefit from a £500,000 refurbishment programme. The existing synthetic football pitch will be replaced with a modern rubber and mixed playing surface, and the tennis courts will be replaced with three new 5-a-side pitches. The Barlia Sports Complex is managed by Culture and Sport Glasgow. Around £300,000 of capital funding is already in place for the project, with the remainder being sought from other sources. Councillor Archie Graham, Executive Member for Culture and Sport, said: ‘Barlia Sports Complex is a fantastic and well used sporting facility, which has also been identified as one of the community football hubs for the city. This refurbishment, also part of the Council’s sports pitch strategy to upgrade the city’s sporting and recreational facilities by 2014, is a good example of where this money should be invested to improve the health and wellbeing of local communities and encourage participation in sport.’ Work on the refurbishment of Barlia Sports Complex is due to start in January 2009.