The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 21

SPORTS GUARDIAN Wednesday-July, 5 .1978 21 Lacrosse: John Roberts 1 he tragedy IsW global commons Following blue trail already turned to the Over-fishing is going on all round tne world, Tne Rus sian, and Japanese factory ships are scouring the South Pacific. In the North-west Atlantic fishing grounds be tween Greenland and the about a whole change of atti tude. Common to many among the younger generations of Irish decent in America is an image of the old country and, more especially, its old persecutors, that tends to be intransigent. With Monaghan on his father's side and Armagh tugging maternally, Mac says he came to England with pre-notions and' prejudices that I don't want to go into too deeply now American shore catches have been declining over the oast Lacrosse Spectators at the for the gap waiting to be filled world championship at Edgeley by two false teeth, replacements Park, Stockport, fresh for those he lost playing gri. paint proved slow to dry were diron football.

I got conspicuous by the marks of smashed in the face and the royai blue on the seats of their teeth were knocked dead, with-pants or skirts. On this colour- out nerves, and had to come ful occasion there were many out," he explained. At 23, and tall Americans with white stet- resembling a slightly older sons. However, in spite of the (though perhaps not so long in mishap with the paint, Stock- the tooth) Bjorn Borg, port County are to be com- McEneaney is a recent graduate mended for putting on this of Cornwall University, known entertaining as Big Red in the Ivy League, Australia, Canada, England where he majored in "com-and the United States are the munications." Intending to com-comnetinK nations and, inevl- munieate further, he will ten years. The haddock catch is down to one seventh of what it was ten years ago.

Off the coast of Peru the anchovy-catch crashed to one tenth of what it had been in years of peaK tismng in tne jaws, and latarfojtd Thomas nas tailed to recover in snite of strict but belated control of tably, the Americans reign shortly take a coaching scho- over-fishing. ring, the haddock, and the cod, and the anchovy, and whatever is next on the list to be fished, if not to actual extinction, certainly to a catastrophic collapse in numbers. Last week's International Whaling Commission conference, was a dismal sample of that political inertia which Ronald Higgins pinpoints as the deadliest threat in his book The Seventh Enemy published last month (Hodder and Stoughton, 5.95, quite essential reading). The two most ruthless of the whaling nations, the Soviet Union and prevented any effective action to protect the declining numbers of whales. It is illuminating to note that the hand-line capitalist and the hardline communist find themselves a natural duo joined in the narrow materialism of short-term economic advantage.

This week we await new regulations to shut down on herring fishing in the seas around the British Isles. It may be too late. The factory fishing ships, with blind disregard of the consequences, have reduced the herring stocks to a low point frem which they will take years to recover. The Russians have summary of "-process which is probably fairly widely understood nowadays but needs a. sentence or two to de- This' involves still an-; 'concept, "maximum sustainable yield." The Carrying capacity of grassland, forest, or fishing ground- is Vi the maximum number of 'animals that can be grazed, the maximum number of -trees' that can be felled, or 'the maximum number of fish, that can be as' the case may be, on a sustainable basis, allowing for the -regeneration of grassland, forest, or fishing ground.

To exceed the carrying capacity is to bring on the tragedy of the commons. The idea, of the tragedy of the commons seems" to have originated with a study of the use of a village green by an Oxford don, William Forster Lloyd, in 1883. It was an idea born before its time: Nowadays' we are not talking about village greens, but about global commons the atmosphere, the oceans, and the biological ecosystem on which all life depends. And we to look far for contemporary case histories in which bioblindness leads on to tragedy. Currently we have only to consider the whale, the her it shows that new ideas are on the move.

Similarly with certain phrases that establish themselves, first in specialist discussion, then in the of the language. One such is. "the. tragedy of the commons." This refers to the Srocess of over-grazing, over-anting, over-fishing, and the like, to the point at which a common natural resource becomes exhausted by over- use. It come, into current use only in the last ten years, since it was used as the title of a paper by an American Professor, Garrett Hardin in the magazine Science in December, 1968, The tragedy of the commons is that if each person with a right to graze animals on a stretch of corn-mow land pushes his right to the limit, then the common may be over-grazed to the ruin of all.

They may all agree that it would be to the advantage of all to limit the number of animals on the common but in-less everyone agrees to, do, so, the see 'no point in reducing his own herd. So (he sum of individual decisions will be disastrous: This brings In the concept of carrying capacity." That Is another valuable two-word supreme. ims is naraiy surpriK- larsnip in Lacrosse at Syra- The cynical view is that it ing, for the settlers having extracted Manhattan from the doesn't really matter, we can Indians for trinkets worth replace oceanic fish from arti rather less than a fistful of dol ficial fish farms. That indeed is bioblindness. of a special lars, it was obviously no great effort to steal their game as well.

The peak of American kind that might be called ecoblindness. For it implies disregard or domination of the sport was scaled- on Monday evening when, in achieving the most comprehensive victory in the ignorance ot tne tact tnat to disrupt one part of tne ecosys tem is likely to have damag nistory ot international matches, they overwhelmed ing repercussions on the rest. because my experience of the English people here has brought about a change of mind. They are not anything like I imagined them to be. Competing in this championship has been a rewarding experience." Without wishing to be discourteous or discordant, the general feeling among rivals envious of American success at a sport in which players disport themselves like Darth Vaders is Yanks go home." Mac is their top scorer with-sevrn goals in the victories against Australia and Canada.

Though his sporting hero was Willie Mays, the outstanding all-round baseball star from .1951 to 1973, Mac and his friends in Elmont, a spit from New York City," found baseball rather tiresome. We quickly became bored waiting our turn to bat and so we turned to lacrosse, which is more physical and invigorating," he says. The match against Canada over-grazing leads to sou ero Canada 28-4. It was strange, perhaps, in cuse, near his home in New York. There he will also continue to study journalism in the hope of securing a job as a magazine writer I want to be creative and don't want to be stuck reporting auto accidents and that kind of stuff." As befits a person aspiring tr the literary end of our business, young Mac is the Pepys-cum-poet of the American squad, an example of his work being this eulogy of Richie Moran, the all-conquering coach of Cornell and the United States Winning a championship is like magic.

It's the most difficult thing to comprehend unless you are the magician, and at Cornell and in the lacrosse world the magician is Richie Moran. He is a man who lives life with vigour and endless devotion and devotion is love, for if you allocate your time to the things which are most important to you, then you will love them and vnu will snivperi. Them is sion which creates deserts. Deforestation likewise, with the additional effect of reduc view of their inherent fascina tion of sporting statistics, that ing the carbon dioxide absorp tive capacity of the world's tree canopy which could alter the American players were apparently the last people on the ground to realise the full significance of the margin of their success or the climate. We do not know what side- effects the elimination of cer perhaps it becomes difficult to distinguish one result from an tain kinds of fish might have.

But the inter-connections of other wnen you win every time. living systems from the bac Even with such an emerald name as Eamonn McEneaney it terial to the animal level are complex. Disturb the balance was understandable that the and tne unforeseeable is was, Mac believes, a case ot likely to happen. no other man that I know who catching an opponent cold They fell behind early and devotes himself to the game of The life-sustaining capacity of the thin layer of air, soil, and water in which we live depends on an intricate balance of a great diversity of team's outstanding attacking player should fail to appreciate that the victory would result in the up-dating of a paragraph in the Guinness Book of Records, for his mind was preoccupied I HAVE commented before ottHhe crop of new words springing up. Some of the more fussy; word specialists don't I can do without ongoing interface situations and the like, but some of the new words and phrases have an honest job to do.

They say something about ideas which areiiew enough to need a new' word as a label. Tiie notion of "bioblindness" a good one. It turns up in a study of the National Health' Service by thaiguy's Hospital Unit for the: Study of Health Policy (restarted in Monday's Guardian). It helps to make the point that economics and politics' traditionally neglect to take into account the biologi-calimplications- of economic activity, that is to say, its effect on the living Investment is made in terms of prospective production is geared to market demand, and price put at what' the market will bear. TheK social, environmental, anfl Tiealth considerations to which no money price can easily be attached are ignored.

The Guy's Health Policy Unit thinks this may be because of the- relative neglect of biology -in general education. "It may be that this produces the serious disability of bioblindness in most political and economic 'decision-making bodies. The apoint is that many of the problems involved in unselective economic growth affect biological systems and their' inter-. dependence the ecological relationships." So. bioblindness justifies itself as a word by summing i' up in four syllables an.

idea which takes many words and (several sentences to set out. That is how new words come into being, and when they do never got back into it, but I know they're better than that, and if we played them again tomorrow it would probably be a lot closer." In fact, having enjoyed their Fourth of July break from lacrosse and to his players more than Richie Moran, and he reaps what he sows." In formulating his composition Homeward Bound on a lonely day an Wigan, Paul Simon showed that inspiration species, to eliminate a species is to eliminate it with out nope or replacement, we hasten the run-down of the with a more urgent and personal quest. "I can't find your teeth anywhere, Mae," said an apologetic voice beneath a frown beneath a stetson, and sweat and toil, the Americans can be drawn from the most un planet. likely environment, and so it is play the game but unsuccessful The president of the Amer with Mac as he takes in the McEneaney smiled graci ican WorldWatch Institute, ously and spaciously and England were beaten in their two previous games by Canada and Australia. The ground is a short distance from Stockport station and is easily discovered.

Jusf follow the blue trousers. Lester R. Brown, stresses this point in his book The Twenty Ninth Day, on which I have sights, sounds and smells of a town built around hats and cotton. He finds the experience pleasing and, indeed, the people of Stockport have brought ducked back into the dressing room, saying, "I must find them, I'm. ugly enough as it is." drawn in writing this column ugly ne is not, even allowing (it was published in the United States earlier this year by W.

W. Norton for the ATHLETICS Sandy Sutherland Worldwatch Institute). The more nostalgic dimen sions of this problem usually Williamson still left out in cold capture pumic attention," ne says. The loss of a large and visible species of wildlife is heart-rending but it is cause One cannot help feeling a for anotner kind of concern. little sorry for Scotland's hard- If too many species are lost tne complex biological web could begin to unravel.

The extinction of any species of pressed Commonwealth Games officials. Graham Williamson's run in the Emsley Carr mile at the Crystal Palace on Sunday, in front of millions of television viewers, could not have come at a more inconvenient time when fauna or flora can become a tear in the whole cloth of row youngster who is just four months younger and who has now been added to the England team for his performance in finishing fourth behind Williamson. The lack of action by the Scots now reflects two things. All the Games Council officials do their job in their spare time except the long-retired Willie Carmichael, now nearer 80 than 70. and there is lack of leadership in the sport whose job it is to nominate Williamson, athletics, since the ebullient Rab life." Scottish team organisation stretched to the utmost.

The fuss of reconvening the council to consider an application for another athlete's place is the last thing they want. But Scottish men's athletics have already had their fingers burnt over their 16 nominations being severely criticised by the council on whose initiative Burgess was added. So, the secretary of the Scot tish AAA, Ewan Murray, an- other spare-timer, who is fully taken up with the organisation of next week's UK Champion- WHATEVER is next on the list to be fished may well be facing extinction. they already have their prob lems preparing 100 competitors before the Scottish aeroplane leaves for Canada on July 23. Cut price They were not to know that the athletics selectors had once again slipped up as they had Forman was unkindly edged out done in the case of the British shipping as Scottish athletics secretary ships at Meadowbank, is content to take the legalistic view I high-jump record-holder, Brian Burgess, and this time in the glamour event of the track.

war Williamson indeed was prob- ablv not even aiming for a after the fine job he did in the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. Carmichael, the master mind of the entire 1970 organisation, on the other hand has perhaps unwisely continued too long in the job of council secretary, particularly in view of ill health, and the month he spent in hospital in May has left the Games place at the start of the checked with the Games council who told me competitors could still be added for a superlative performance that is one likely to win a medal, and in my view Williamson's was a brilliant not superlative performance." On such hair splitting rests a very weak Scottish case for inaction. hots up season and was content to run in schools events rather than trials for the Scottish team in much the same manner as England Steve Cram, the Jar- From Thomas Kent in Brussels DESPITE efforts by shippers Readers' letters selected by Frank Keating and politicians alike, hesi tation and disputes among Western governments have blocked firm action against Punish rugger thuggers Soviet block shipping lines cut-rate competition. Westerners suffer from a lack of exact data about East era snipping, and some THE outrageous brawls during pective clubs and for the clubs the Welsh international games in turn to make these views in Australia both shamed and known to their national unions. nations fear that a major ship foVovrfng em exrracts from rfc tPtiKlat) wtucft fus boon pntilamlwnhiho 'fictxrtentlAccomtsfor vigyoar ended ping dispute could complicate political relations with Mos cow.

scared Gareth J. Hopkins, of It is surelv time that the London WC1, who has been a powers in Rugby Union open player for many years and their eyes to see the trends and would go so far as to say the their mouths to express their same is an integral part of my concern lest this great game de- Machine Tool Division Excellent results from this division were assisted by a strong continuing demand for our products both at home and overseas. Our order books remained very high at the year end and we are confident of achieving good results in the currentyear. Engineering Products and Services Excellent results are also shown by this division. Exports contributed greatly to this performance.

We are continuing to expand our activities in the Far East. Exports Direct exports from the United Kingdom again increased over the previous year and reached 47,467,000. The drive that "we have put into exports together with the senior and top management time that has been devoted to overseas sales missions, has undoubtedly paid off; five With rates often ranging from 15 to 60 per cent below those charged by Western life." Like many of us, Mr Hop- generates into legalised thug- lines, the state-owned shin kins noted sadly that the Test punch-ups came only days after the conviction in Wales of a ping companies of the Soviet union, roiana and East uer club plaver for grievous bodily many have been steadily eating into Western business In Ascot today the heat is quite hot." Memories of my wonderful lost weekend ait the Corxnamara Golf Club at few weeks ago surged back on receipt of a lovely letter from John Orme, of Seer Green, Bucks. He says the new clubhouse built by the locals under the inspiration of tihe whizz-kid parish priest, Father Waidron was constructed without planning permission so, as soon as it was finished, the Gaiway County Council slapped a demolition order on it Mr Orme goes on to say that when Alcock amd Brown landed in tihe bog just near the course at the end of their historic flight they did not know if they were in England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales. The first local was asked "Where are we to be told Sirs, y'two-and-arhaJf miles from Bal-lyconneely, t'be They, were none the wiser.

the past five years. gery. There has not been much joy for Michael McEvoy, of Bis-pham, Blackpool, in his efforts to fly the flag at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton in August. Nor is he now in the least sympathetic that the British teams remain short of funds. He was planning to take his family on holiday to visit harm.

He writes rne second Test could not be described as sport but only as brutality and thuggery on an organised basis Shipping a piece of Our results were the best that we have shown despite the fact that the world wide depression in the steel industry (affected the achievements of oiir Iron and Steel Division even more severely Jinan we had expected. Both our Machine CTopI and Engineering Divisions, which finclude our Overseas produced by fartheir highest profits and 'record exports were achieved. Finance We have adequate funds and facilities available to finance ourcapital expenditure programme, a revival of business in the Iron and Steel Division 'and further expansion, machinery about, the size of an automobile from Antwerp and I should be surprised if many of the Welsh players to New York, now costs about ago our exports were 19 million. would wish to contradict that $1,000 on a Western ship, viT Hw3 LhatJhu Alberta during the Gaines and rugby football should help make gtay witn reiatives. He wrote to bovs into men and, although I the Sports Council in London to believe there is much truth in that claim, what mother is go ask for the schedule of events and details of ticket purchase.

"They were not helpful and told me to contact the individual bodies of the sports con ing to want her youngster to take un the snort when that sort of exhibition can be seen Personnel We are all dependent upon the imagination, keenness and devotion to duty of our personnel who are responsible for any success we may achieve. Difficulties are many and outside interference becomes more common, but the enthusiasm of our personnel has not waned. We are indebted to all our employees for their interest, effort and loyalty. Outlook Looking backto this time last year I find the outlook is little changed. We are still dependent forany major advance In the performance of our Group upon an prominently on the television cerned.

Four of them were no Salient figures to 31st March 1978 Ye trended War ended Slit Much 31st March i 1378 i 1377 tSOSt- SSUSs The verv nature of the eame heln at all another told me to The great Halifax rugby mys' terv seems nearer to being requires discipline, a quality and write to Edmonton itself." characteristic which appears to Thrnr cant him a lict nf Ptonic compared with S470 on a Soviet line. The Soviet Union claims that its shipping service is not state-subsidised. But Western shippers maintain that the Russian fleets do benefit from government aid and low labour costs, and that their activities have wide political implications. Soviet ships are now more evident than ever at world ports, and have begun carrying a significant amount of cargo between Western nations as well as to and from the Eastern block. The Soviet fleet bas nearly doubled In the past 10 years, and now ranks close to those' of Britain, Greece and Japan, according to Western specialists.

The American merchant solved. John Sutcllffe, of Hay- SnnrtSearcy Thi, Aniinf'u an tne prices he sent back his wards Heath, Sussex, says that quarters. This discrpline is clloice and his cheque (for the present Halifax RU club needed at all levels of the a lion liBi ii i sninnr 1 -i 180,424 42,685 10,628, ZB2S 47W7 3,1 iiic u.ro.u jv.i plied that there were no tickets Un nlnke qnri Mmaine Ihrm Dh the clubs and captains, through SAUS uk exports included profit beforetax ordinary dividends retained profit earninbsper Ordinary, stockunjt available for two of the days he asked for There are some to the individual players and especially to referees. Weak ref- has definately no connections with the club formed in 1873, later to become the present RL side who play at Thrum Hall. Robert Gate, of Manor Drive, Halifax, writes There was no Rugby Union club bearing the name of Halifax from 1895 until the 1920s.

The present Halifax Rugby ftfpMea 113 pence ereeiug cuiuuiiieu wiui m-uia- ciplined players seems to be an improvement in the UK economy, especially in the steel and allied industries. Order books for our manufactured products remain very strong and we have entered the year well. We expect at least to maintain our overall level of results and with eny upturn in the Steel Industry weshould dp better. things we do very badly in this country, aren't there he writes. L.

T. Wilson, of Maidstone, Kent, has been keeping a close Ideal recipe tor a Drawi. "Clubs' selection committees fleet has shrunk from some 4,000 ships 30 years ago to know of the players who con watch this summer for tne first sistently overstep tne line oe less than sou vessels now. tween vigorous play and violent cended from Savile Old Boys ine to give un their best players (ca 1919) which was retitled play. Unfortunately tney are Iron and Steel Product arid" Services Division Efforts must be made by the Scrap Industry during theyeat to obtain prices from the Steel Industry whichbear a reasonable relation to processing costs and which approximate closer to the valupiln'useofotherferrousfumace -feeds which, iii the main, are imported.

Generally it was a most difficult year with some Improvement expected in the currentyear as prices move up from their recent low. hesitant to act by refusing to select these men, who no doubt to the Tests or lucky Kent, at full strength all season, thanks to Packer." Our Richard Yallop has won on both counts, he. says, adding that "it is the first season in at least 20 years that Kent have been able to plan a programme without having to consider Test absentees and we members are enjoying it immensely." Halifax Old Boys (1920) and finally Halifax in 1923. This club has won the Yorkshire Cup in 1926, 1927, 1928, 1930, 1933. 1935, 1950, 1951, 1964, 1967 and 1971.

It is arrant nonsense for the present Halifax RU club to claim the Yorkshire Cup triumphs of another organisation (Halifax RL club) in the A copy of the Report and Accounts for the year to 31st March 1978 can bo obtained from ThaSecretary, The 600 Group Limited, Wood see their re-seiection as tacit acceptance and approval of their methods. The clubs should try harder to rei-ember that this is an amateur sport where winning is important but not so Soviet rate-cutting has been most evident in the past three to four years, according to Western studies. "This is an extremely urgent matter," said an official at the Common Market's headquarters in Brussels. Every month that goes, by, the competitive situation' between East and West Is growing worse," Western Powers have been unsuccessful so far In doing anything about the problem. Most, commercial ports in Western Europe are open to Soviet ships, except ports such as Naples, where there is heavy military traffic.

According to EEC statistics, about 95 pec cent of trade between the EEC and the Eastern blcck is now carried by Eastern ships. eWJIifc BOB wWr inr important as to condone by im- I must apologise to the years between 1877 and 1895 as Dlication violent acts oy ineir members upon opponents, particularly bearing in mind that splendid Lieut-Col Peter Moor, its own date of foundation is, at ITV's racing linkman, for say- the earliest, 1919. The cover of ing that his dentures were the Halifax Rugby Union Club's clacking all through the official programme, however, Derby Day transmission. He' continues to claim its founda- such acts, if committed off the Cmt niMM XfcltMM The 600 Group Limited ESTABLISHED 1834 MACH1NET00I5 'ENGINEERING PRODUCTS STEEL DISTRIBUTION SCRAP PROCESSING rugby field, would result in criminal prosecutions, says alt his are intact. On tion as 1873 and lists its York "It is time for open debate another broadcast from the pad: on these matters and I urge dock, Graham Shaw, of Hud- shire Cup successes including those to which it has no claim." Come on.

you Union chap pics End this shame now I other players and supporters to dcrsfield, thought you'd all like express their views in their res- to share Judith Chalmers At.