From britdisc-owner@csv.warwick.ac.uk Tue Jun 29 15:29:34 1999 Received: by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.9.3/8.9.3) id PAA05855 for britdisc-outgoing; Tue, 29 Jun 1999 15:28:31 +0100 (BST) Received: from daffodil.csv.warwick.ac.uk (daffodil [137.205.192.30]) by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id PAA05830 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Tue, 29 Jun 1999 15:28:27 +0100 (BST) Received: from pp.dundee.ac.uk (pp.dundee.ac.uk [134.36.2.60]) by daffodil.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id PAA27415 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Tue, 29 Jun 1999 15:28:24 +0100 (BST) Received: from dundee-as.dundee.ac.uk ([134.36.7.200]) by pp.dundee.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 2.02 #2) id 10yys1-0004AX-00; Tue, 29 Jun 1999 15:28:21 +0100 Received: from DUNDEE-AS/SpoolDir by dundee-as.dundee.ac.uk (Mercury 1.44); 29 Jun 99 15:26:54 +0 Received: from SpoolDir by DUNDEE-AS (Mercury 1.44); 29 Jun 99 15:26:45 +0 From: "Steve Morrish" <s.m.morrish@dundee.ac.uk> Organization: Dundee University To: express.letters@express.co.uk Date: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 15:26:42 GMT MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Oliver Bennet's article on frisbee CC: britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v2.54) Message-Id: <E10yys1-0004AX-00@pp.dundee.ac.uk> Sender: owner-britdisc@warwick.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Dear sir, Oliver Bennet's article on frisbee being a vile sport, with the threat of decapitation a real one, was both ludicrous and damaging to what is a growing sport in this country. That the article was tongue in cheek does not make up for the fact that your reporter failed to do any research whatsoever on this subject. Has he ever played Ultimate (the sport played with a frisbee)? Has he ever been to one of the many well organised competitions that are held around the country on almost a weekly basis? Did he make any attempt whatsoever to find anyhting out about the sport at all? No, he did not. I am incensed that such an article was carried by what I had regarded as a quality newspaper. The Ultimate World Championships are being held in St Andrews between the 8th and the 14th of August. Perhaps Mr Bennet would like to attend, to see what Ultimate is all about. He will find none of the stereotypical attributes he seems to think are rife within the sport. How can we hope to raise the profile of the sport in this country, if narrowminded, brainless idiots such as Mr Bennet continue to portray frisbee as being played by stoned, long-haired hippies with nothing better to do with their time than to endanger the health of picnickers? Not only does this article damage the sport, which if he had bothered to do any research whatsoever, he would have found that it promotes sportsmanship, friendship and the spirit of the game above everything else, but has also damaged the credibility of these very attributes. There are many people, myself included, who are desperate to introduce Ultimate to schools, both to prolong the sport and help it grow, and to promote the three ideals mentioned previously. Mr Bennet may consider himself a humourous journalist, but in reality, he is nothing more than a petty, unimaginative hack. Yours in disgust, Steve Morrish Captain, Shooting Stars Ultimate Frisbee Club University of Dundee