strathspey@strathspey.org:44958

Bryan McAlister

Re: Over 700 schoolchildren dance in Glasgow

April 3, 2006, 11:06 a.m. (Message 44958, in reply to message 44952)

Actually this is a great analogy.  One of the reasons that Scottish 
Football is "not very good" these days is that kids nowadays dont kick 
cans around on the street. Often they are not allowed to.  The result is 
our football teams are half filled (or more) with the "nearly retired" 
from other countries and we have the spectacle of a non league team 
(Gretna) winning trough to a Cup final.

Scottish football is now not shown live on network TV and as a result 
seems to be having difficulty in retaining the commercial sponsorships 
that are increasingly relied on these days.



In message <xxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx>, Dick Daniel 
<xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx> writes
>Anselm wrote
>
>“Everybody can have fun kicking a rusty can around the Street......
>However, playing organised football does take some practice and 
>dedication....
>And incidentally, football DOES have rules, and some rather more 
>complicated ones than SCD at that......
>no amount of ›loosening up‹ will change that.......
>Apparently the RSCDS were down there in the thick of it rather than 
>outside wrinkling their noses at the outrage, and that is what 
>counts.......
>the main problem in Scotland seems to be that people tend to *view* the 
>Society as a stuffy assemblage of old fogeys who are intent on taking 
>all the fun out of dancing.......
>What the RSCDS needs in Scotland is not ›loosening up‹. It just 
>needs a PR campaign to educate people. From that point of view the 
>Glasgow event is a Good Thing."
>
>In response...
>
>I fail to see the comparison between COMPETITIVE football and Scottish 
>Country Dancing – excepting the COMPETITIVE variety.  Most dancers in 
>my experience, are of the non-competitive variety.  I repeat  “Please 
>note that I am not suggesting extinction of competitive styles”.  As 
>for the football analogy, I am  certain that a rule which stated that 
>the goalkeeper must stand in "First Position" when not defending his 
>goal would be laughed out of play, or totally ignored.
>
>Incidentally, I WAS one of the RSCDS people in the thick of it, and my 
>nose remains unwrinkled.  Further, I do not see the RSCDS in Scotland 
>[or anywhere else] as "a stuffy assemblage of old fogeys, who are 
>intent on taking all the fun out of dancing".
>
>No amount of PR will eliminate that iceberg.
>
>The “Glasgow event” demonstrated my point well, and was undoubtedly 
>an EXTREMELY good thing.
>
>Dick Daniel.
>
>

-- 
Bryan McAlister