"And just who's going to determine what those divisions should be, David? And who is going to administer them?" (Don)...to save a search, do you remember off-hand who administered the rule/law that women could not run a marathon? Me - I'd say, as ever, each nation and the UN.

Although she may be much more on your side than mine on this matter, Sue Barker has said on the BBC that she played a lot of her matches with pain-killers injected into her wrist - tennis DOES indeed put a lot more strain on the arm than table tennis.

"In fact, one cannot engage in any activity, including the arts, without the possibility of some kind of injury. Take ballet for example. A not uncommon injury among ballerinas are stress-fractures in their lower legs caused by the unnatural act of dancing en pointe (on their toes). Would you suggest that women not be allowed to become ballet dancers?" (Don)...I've looked at this, also - Poem # 192...I'd do away with en pointe.

Volgadon - I have a spare tennis racket but no lap-top.

LH - hearing you, I think the best way is to accept that humans are competitive, and have good regulations to make things as fair as possible..."Liberty, as surfeit, is the father of much fast" (William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure).

Now for something completely different...

THE WEEKLY WALKABOUT, E.G.

Poem 163 of 230: ON A CLEAR DAY - SUMMER 2001

Far - the Lakelands behind Blackpool Tower;
    Well-ebbed - the ocean and estuary;
Odd - a sand-digger and wagons that cross;
    Tonal - the flats left by tidal power;
Patched - the grasses surviving the big tides;
    Plonked - the driftwood sprouted in other lands;
Clinging - the coastal flora to the dunes;
    Busy - the bees and folks on Southport rides.

From walkaboutsverse.741.com