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Shooting stars caught in political crossfire

Tim Glover
Sunday 04 August 2002 00:00 BST
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The road to Bisley, the National Shooing Centre, is paved not only with gold, silver and bronze but establishments called The Hunter's Lodge, or its sleeping partner, The Fox. The main entrance to the shooting fields during the Commonwealth Games have been manned by demonstrators from the Sportsman's Association, protesting about the ban on target pistols in Britain brought into effect by the Firearms Act of 1997.

There are two ways of looking at this, highlighted by the stance of the Sports Minister, Richard Caborn, and his predecessor, Kate Hoey. Last week Caborn visited Bisley to witness the sharp shooters but side-stepped the hunting party and their banners by taking a side entrance. Therefore, there was no debate on the issue which Carborn clearly regards as a small bore. Had Hoey, who comes from a Northern Ireland farming community, still been in charge, she would probably have joined the demonstrators.

"What we have done to our pistol shooters is outrageous," she declared. "Any sensible government would admit that they had made a huge mistake." After the nightmares of Hungerford and Dunblane, the Government introduced the Firearms Act to take handguns off the street but both Hoey and the Sportsman's Association point out that there has been a year on year increase in gun-related crime.

A side-effect of the Act is that cartridge pistols are outlawed, even for sportsmen and women who are now forced to train abroad. Handguns can only be owned by individuals with the consent of the Home Office and it is rarely given. "It has not reduced crime one iota," Hoey said. "If anything there are more illegal guns around now than ever. Our pistol shooters should be allowed to go about their legitimate business and I will continue to campaign for their rights."

The Sportsman's Association would like to point out that there is a world of difference between Moss Side and Bisley but perhaps the greatest boost to the sport was provided by Charlotte Kerwood. She took the gold in the double trap clay pigeon final at the age of 15. In the old days she'd have been whisked off to a circus.

Big decisions after Big Mac

Whoever succeeds Lord MacLaurin as chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board faces the dilemma of what to do with county cricket – shoot it or revive it. The former is by far the easier if more painful option.

When MacLaurin vacated the chairmanship of Tesco six years ago he left the supermarket chain in a much ruder health than he is leaving the country's national summer sport. Widely applauded for his reforms and the promotion of the England Test team, MacLaurin, who took Tesco to No 1 in the supermarket league with a huge expansion programme, believes the professional game in the shires is unsustainable. As in football, he thinks that the numbers who are paid to play should be halved.

There are few other comparisons between the two sports. Football's problems are self-inflicted and centre around greed. It still has grass-roots support and wall-to-wall television coverage. Cricket has neither of those advantages.

Channel Four is big on Test matches but the county game, outside the interests of the die-hards, is to a large extent ignored. Thanks to television, it is easier in this country to keep more up to date with what is happening in American baseball than the latest developments in the County Championship. An evening highlights programme would be invaluable.

Baseball, like football, has to live with paying players extraordinary salaries. Cricket is not in the same league. Counties may either have to cut staff or merge: Middlesex with Surrey perhaps, Glamorgan-Somerset, Yorkshire-Lancashire. Tesco with Waitrose? Lord MacLaurin is a businessman first, a sportsman second, but he is experienced in both fields. He was involved in the successful bid by Valderrama for the 1997 Ryder Cup and in that respect has something in common with the former Glamorgan and England captain Tony Lewis, who is being touted as a successor to MacLaurin. Lewis was the front man for Welsh club Celtic Manor's drive to host the Ryder Cup.

Of the contenders for the ECB chairmanship, Lewis is the outsider. He would probably gain greater satisfaction in playing golf at Porthcawl. David Morgan, chairman of Glamorgan for five years until 1998, is MacLaurin's nomination as his successor and is the hot favourite. Nominations for the vacancy open on Tuesday and do not close until 27 August.

The coup and the backlash

It is de rigueur that if you want to get ahead get an Australian bush hat, complete with dangling corks. Not only is the head man of Sport England an Australian but England's swimming coach, diving coach and hockey coach are all from Oz. Come to think of it, why isn't Richie Benaud on the short list for the ECB job? We already have Rod Marsh running the cricket academy. Back in Australia the exodus is not always viewed with a handshake and a fond farewell of "good on yer mate", witness the departure from Australian rugby of Jason Jones-Hughes to Newport a couple of seasons ago.

Bath rugby club, who have beefed up their coaching staff with a pack of Queenslanders to supplement the appointment of Michael Foley, thought they had pulled off a coup in signing the former World Cup Wallabies flanker Mark Connors. After the Australian Rugby Union had given its blessing, Connors was offered a two-year contract worth about £300,000. Confident of arriving in the West Country on 12 August, Connors put his house in Queensland on the market and made arrangements for the move.

However, when Bath discovered that they had exceeded the salary cap for the squad, it is understood that Andrew Brownsword, the club's chief executive and principal investor, hit upon a solution – Connors was surplus to requirements. Unsurprisingly the player is not amused at Bath's change of heart. A solicitor by trade, he is considering taking legal action against the club.

Morgan's rum revelation

Derek Morgan, the new president of the Rugby Football Union, performed his first task on Thursday evening, hosting a cocktail party at the Lowry Centre, Pier 8, at Salford Quays on the eve of the Commonwealth Games Sevens tournament. In expectation of a glorious evening, the tipple of the night was pink champagne but in fact the rain bucketed down. The drink, however, almost matched the blazers of the contingent from Trinidad and Tobago whose number, needless to say, included an Australian.

Enter the one-man front row by the name of Adrian Skeggs, formerly an assistant coach at Harlequins, Saracens and Worcester and now lending his weight to the sartorially spectacular but underpowered rugby islands of T & T.

Welshmen present at the bash might have been hoping that Morgan, a dentist who played most of his rugby for Newbridge in Monmouthshire and who lives in Cwmbran, could work as a fifth columnist for the land of his father. Not so. "My father was from Gloucestershire and I regard myself very much as an Englishman," Morgan the Filling announced proudly. "You must remember that at one time much of Monmouthshire was in England." Nevertheless, he's the first president of the RFU who sounds as Welsh as an eisteddfod. His goal for the new season? "I will only regard it as successful if we have www," he said. He was not referring to the world wide web but to wins for the England team.

Despite the fact that England were hosting the party, conspicuous by its absence was the red rose brigade captained by Phil Greening. Kenya were in no such party-pooping mood and, judging by their first match in Manchester on Friday, the pink bubbly did them no harm whatsoever.

The Kenyans produced the upset of the tournament, defeating Samoa in the pool stages. The Kenyan rugby players do not enjoy the level of support that is afforded the country's great runners. "There are more than 40 ethnic groups in Kenya," explained a spokesman. "And our president and our athletes are from the Kalenjin."

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