From britdisc-owner@csv.warwick.ac.uk Wed May 26 19:35:26 1999 Received: by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.9.3/8.9.3) id TAA15108 for britdisc-outgoing; Wed, 26 May 1999 19:34:39 +0100 (BST) Received: from snowdrop.csv.warwick.ac.uk (snowdrop [137.205.192.31]) by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id TAA15099 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Wed, 26 May 1999 19:34:37 +0100 (BST) Received: from mail-gw1.webleicester.net (mailgate.webleicester.co.uk [195.146.160.12]) by snowdrop.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id TAA03617 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Wed, 26 May 1999 19:34:36 +0100 (BST) Received: from pii266 (pool-pri2-035.webleicester.co.uk [195.146.164.35]) by mail-gw1.webleicester.net (8.9.1/8.9.0) with SMTP id TAA09618 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Wed, 26 May 1999 19:25:04 +0100 (BST) Message-ID: <013901bea7a6$9d3d42c0$23a492c3@pii266> From: "Ben Ravilious" <bravil@webleicester.co.uk> To: "BRITDISC" <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk> Subject: Drug Debate - my point explained Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 19:23:37 +0100 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.1 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 Sender: owner-britdisc@warwick.ac.uk Precedence: bulk A debate on Britdisc - Wow! I think my point - which has been somewhat missed in this debate - is what a tabloid newspapers will make of our sport. Its almost certain that the Worlds will attract national press coverage given the amount of effort Jon Hope &co have been putting in. It would only take one sneering News of the World article to waste it all (unless you liked the Time Out article and believe any publicity is good publicity) I recently did an interview for a magazine in Leicester and the moment they saw a list of ultimate team names they jumped on the drug culture references. When it is published, I want to use the article to approach potential sponsors - if it suggests in any way that we're not entirely above board then you can forget it and you can forget getting any schools in the area to start playing too - my fingers are crossed. Personally I don't give a fig what names teams have - I love the weird and wacky names traditional in our sport and I'm not serious about censoring anything. I also *personally* don't care what people get up to in the privacy of their own homes - I am not a big Jack Straw fan either! All I am suggesting is that it would not be too much to ask newly forming teams just to be a bit careful about what names they choose. Being sensible about this does not have to involve the infringement of civil liberties or any huge compromise with the culture of our sport. You are quite within your rights to name your team 'Paedophile Ring' if you want, but you wouldn't do it because it would get bad press. Likewise, I am suggesting that overt references to drug culture might also not be in the sport's best interest. My reply to the 'keep it cosy' traditionalists out there is next time you run a freshers fair and someone joins having seen "that Channel 4 documentary" or "this website" perhaps you should reflect on how you first heard about the sport and how lucky you are to have found it. That is what good publicity can do for you. Fair enough? Ben (my own opinions throughout) PS: Red Leicester is not only a cheese but also a powerful hallucinogen which causes the abuser to see players, discs, endzones, etc which are not actually there! Particularly popular in the Bristol area - Pete? ;-)