LESSONS IN LIFE...

This picture of a local boys football club conjures up memories of years ago when my three sons played junior football and Mrs. Snopper and I were heavily involved in helping out with the club. They were happy days and, of course, there were ups and downs for the young players who played in the local league. The league was structured on ages - Under 10s, Under 12s, Under i4s and Under 16s - which meant that in any one season there were teams at the top end of the age range playing other teams in the lower end. This produced some remarkable scorelines and I recall one snowy afternoon when one of my sons suffered a 36-0 hammering from a team who were bigger, stronger, faster and, allegedly, still within the age range for the division.

I see today that there is a move afoot to stop that kind of thing happening. There`s a proposal that, once a score in a game reaches 9-0, then the game is brought to an end. This appears to be in order to prevent the kind of stuffing that my lad endured all those years ago. It seems to me like introducing yet another namby-pamby nanny-state restriction in the misguided belief that it prevents psychological harm being done to the losers. But it might also deny access to an important rite of passage.

In late Spring 2003, we were on holiday in North Devon. It was the week before Southampton played Arsenal in the FA Cup Final at Cardiff`s Milennium Stadium. It was a lovely day, so we took our much missed retriever, Henry, for a walk up on Hangman Hill, above the village of Combe Martin. It`s a strenuous climb, so we were grateful for a seat near the top of the hill. Soon, we were joined by a walker who had come the other way and he asked if he could share the seat with us. We got chatting, as you do, and it turned out that he was a keen Arsenal fan and he had a ticket for the final. I suggested that Arsenal had already won quite enough trophies and that it might be Southampton`s turn to add to their solitary FA Cup victory in 1976.

"Ah," said our newfound friend, "you`ve got to learn how to lose before you can enjoy the winning." How true. I`ve had my own share of humiliating defeats. I once played in a cricket team that was all out for eight! But I went on to enjoy scoring 50 and taking five for nine in another game.

Hangman Hill, Combe Martin

My three sons survived their early sporting setbacks and went on to enjoy their sport and life itself with no visible psychological damage - having me as a parent may have been enough. So I view with some concern the proposal to impose a limit on football scores. What about cricket scores, rugby and all the other games where a good thrashing is possible so that defeat can be turned into victory? And why should the winners be denied their own rite of passage?