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Archives for September 2010

India, the perfect location for the Games

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John Beattie | 19:24 UK time, Wednesday, 29 September 2010

Do you know what? India is the perfect location for the .

I've been here three days and it has been a more culturally enriching process than Melbourne, and more uplifting than Manchester. If Glasgow can capture half of the sheer joy of India then it will have done well.

To all the people who have called off: you have let yourselves down and your countries down. Most of all, you have let India down, and this is the country whose citizens make up half of the entire Commonwealth.

I want to go into this in a bit more depth in my next blog but our Western attitude needs to be adjusted.

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Bowled over by the fortitude of Willie Wood

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John Beattie | 22:05 UK time, Monday, 27 September 2010

Willie Wood, I admire you. Sir, you have grit.

It's the heat. Thirty-five degrees in the middle of a big city is hot. And I wonder if this warm, sweaty climate might affect the British athletes.

Perhaps the sheer physics of a Delhi day have dissuaded some athletes - like who has just decided not to play - from coming and I find her decision sad given that the status of these games diminishes with each withdrawal.

But we took the media bus to the bowls practice area where the venerable Mr Wood was concentrating and bowling. He is about to take part in his eighth Commonwealth Games and as we baked his patience was a sight to behold.

TV crews from around the world waited to interview the most experienced campaigner we are ever likely to meet, while the Scottish men and women were trying to get used to an artificial surface that is slower than they might want.

His first Commonwealth Games were in 1974. I was just three at the time. Honest...

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Excitement builds as Scots touch down for Delhi Games

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John Beattie | 18:26 UK time, Sunday, 26 September 2010

Will India be ready in time? so I hear, were of the Scottish team's lodgings in the Games village and the mess was what you guessed it might be.

The Scots promptly moved into the Indian building.

Can Delhi deliver on a Commonwealth Games for which many locals here feel little empathy?

I hope so, and much of that is because it is we Scots, and my hometown of Glasgow, hosting the next Games and the "brand" needs to be kept alive.

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Defeat offers steep learning curve for young Scots

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John Beattie | 15:07 UK time, Monday, 20 September 2010

You simply can't beat experience, and are finding out.

I was in the bank this morning and a young Spanish student, speaking in broken English, was trying to open an account with a very rude teller telling him he didn't have the correct "letter of introduction".

The confused student left the building, I followed him and told him to just go and see his course secretary and ask for one.

I asked him what course he was studying. "International banking and corporate finance," he told me with a smile.

If he'd been experience he'd have argued, asked to see the manager and got an account opened. I know which bank won't be in his deals when he's top of some bank in Seville...

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Rugby sevens one day will outstrip fifteens

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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Sport blog editor | 16:17 UK time, Monday, 13 September 2010

I wonder if sevens rugby will ever overtake the fifteen-a-side game, especially with the Commonwealth games on the horizon and with rugby now admitted to the Olympics?

And will Scotland be at a disadvantage as they do not operate with a full time, and completely separate, sevens squad?

In 1983 a teammate passed me the ball.

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Bloodgate scandal offers harsh lessons

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John Beattie | 09:56 UK time, Monday, 6 September 2010

When it comes to sport can doctors really say: "I am sorry, but I was bullied into this?"

So, bloodgate is over. A player swallowed a blood capsule, the doctor was coerced into cutting his mouth, the coaching staff lied about it and rugby leapfrogged into the professional era in the most unsavoury way.

The doctor kept her job. And before I pass comment let me assure you I am not squeaky clean in any aspect of my life.

Every doctor will know what it is like to be forced to do the wrong thing. "But doc, it was only a small concussion!"

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