Michael Moynihan: A court battle for Cork tennis

File photo showing the 2014 Cork Parks Tennis Summer camp at Clashduv Road, Togher. Picture: Larry Cummins

You probably saw some or all of Emma Raducanu’s dramatic US Open win a couple of weekends ago. Or maybe you clocked Billie Jean King’s new autobiography, which has landed in bookshops everywhere.

Tennis to the fore and in the news, and nothing to do (directly) with Wimbledon, for a change.

In Cork, the sport has had a vibrant presence within the city since 1984 thanks to Cork Parks Tennis. The organisation has been providing opportunities to people to play tennis in areas all over town, including in the Togher neighbourhood at courts in Clashduv: the goal of parks tennis is accessibility and enjoyment, and locals have responded with enthusiastic involvement in the schools programme, adult and junior lessons, holiday camps, and the pay-as-you-play rent a court service.

The goal of accessibility and enjoyment is underlined when you consider the local Togher Community Tennis Club has over 280 members keeping the courts occupied.

A complication has arisen.

Tennis Ireland’s Munster branch wants to run junior squad programmes, which means supplementary lessons for players who are already members of other clubs in Cork. Furthermore, Cork City Council wants to use the courts in Clashduv to facilitate those squad programmes.

Cork Parks Tennis is responsible for the management of the courts in Clashduv and has been doing so for over 11 years — with the approval of Cork City Council. The responsibilities of the management company set up to run the courts include booking the courts, and Togher Community Tennis Club keeps those court bookings full.

It now appears Cork City Council has sought court times from Corks Parks Tennis for Tennis Ireland’s Munster branch junior tennis squad programme — but has been told by Cork Parks Tennis that none are available because the Togher club has already booked the courts for its members.

This may have the outward appearance of an internal sports matter, one that should be resolved by the sports bodies concerned, but eagle-eyed readers will immediately spot an obvious question.

Why is Cork City Council so committed to promoting Tennis Ireland’s junior tennis squad programme?

This situation could surely be worked out between Cork Parks Tennis and Tennis Ireland’s Munster branch without the involvement of the municipal authority; it would be difficult to imagine the city council getting enmeshed in a similar dispute between soccer or GAA clubs, for instance, in the same way, so why lean on Cork Parks Tennis in this instance?

Furthermore, the junior tennis squad programme is intended to improve young players, but those young players are already members of other clubs.

Why are they going to a different venue altogether for coaching when they could get that coaching at their home clubs? Surely Tennis Ireland, with a range of tennis clubs in the city to choose from, could accommodate these extra lessons elsewhere?

(Note: the week before last your columnist contacted both Cork City Council and Tennis Ireland’s Munster branch, but neither organisation provided a comment on this matter.)

Cork City Council’s ownership of the courts is not in question, but the day to day management of those courts has been the responsibility of Cork Parks Tennis for over 11 years, presumably to the satisfaction of the Council.

Here we have a community organisation providing a valuable service in its area for decades, one which surely deserves the support of the local authority rather than a confrontational approach. Why can’t the other two organisations reach an agreement with Cork Parks Tennis?

Billie Jean King, mentioned above, would recognise what’s at stake here. “I am a public park kid,” she said some years ago at the dedication of public tennis courts in Pittsburgh. Hopefully the next Billie Jean King isn’t being pushed off the courts at Clashduv.

Sleeve notes incoming

Are the floodgates about to open? I note a communication from the GAA’s Ard Comhairle and Coiste Bainistiochta last Saturday which stated: “A proposal to permit sponsorship on the sleeves of players and replica jerseys was approved; updated guidelines will be circulated to units.”

Are we going to have logos and insignias up and down the sleeves of jerseys and tops of inter-county sides? This is an interesting one for all sorts of reasons, not least the aesthetic one.

I wrote here a few years ago about American sports tending to avoid sponsorship on jerseys and tops — just look at the big team sports across the pond — but when I did someone was in touch to remind me one of their biggest sports, NASCAR, features drivers festooned from head to toe with advertising.

Is the day of the county jersey with logos on the front, back and all along the arms about to dawn? Have a peek online at NASCAR drivers for a glimpse of the future.

‘Won’t anyone think of the rats?’ Thus spake one of my pals during the week, referring to the fiasco which saw Connacht women’s rugby side changing in the open air near bins in Donnybrook — said bins were described as rat-infested by some observers.

As mooted by my pal, I was half-expecting some pressure group or quango to pop up during the week to tell all and sundry to stop vermin-shaming some of God’s creatures just trying to get by, to stop trying to invalidate their lived experience. You know the drill.

On a more serious note, the controversy showed that for hamfisted botching of a troublesome scenario nothing beats a sports organisation on the defensive.

There was some competition recently with the attempt to install Katherine Zappone as grand vizier of the Western Isles or some such, but the handling of this controversy by the rugby authorities sees them take the podium.

What’s always surprising in these situations — which happen in all sports — is that it would take just one organisation to show the way. When the hole has been dug, instead of reaching for another shovel a sports body could try a different tack.

“We’re sorry for what happened. It was a mess. It won’t happen again. The person responsible won’t be burnt alive but they’ve been told not to make the same mistake again. Again, it’s not acceptable, and we apologise.” Holding the hands up as soon as possible disarms a lot of the negativity.

The reluctance to admit a mistake is the bigger weakness, not the initial error.

Harlem Shuffles into view

On the face of it, I thought I couldn’t go wrong with Colson Whitehead’s The Colossus of New York, but I found it a struggle. Good, then, to hear the coded references to the enjoyability of Harlem Shuffle, his new book.

Whitehead won Pulitzer Prizes for fiction back to back for his last two novels, but this new work has been described in one review as “a book that could pass for genre fiction”.

Roughly translated this means there’s some action and entertainment involved, and you needn’t feel guilty about enjoying it. Count me in and I’ll try Colson’s stuff one more time.

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