Summary

ScottishSport.co.uk provides practical sports information to amateur sports people (read that as "for normal folk who do a bit of sport"), whether residents of Scotland or visitors to the country. The website is run using our own resources with the income from clubs and organisations featured on the site ensuring that the site is financially viable.

Who Are we?

Well, first up, we are not Sport Scotland, the official Government body for Sport in Scotland. You'll find them at www.sportscotland.org.uk

ScottishSport.co.uk is an independent entity that we run using our own resources.....everyone thinks ScottishSport.co.uk a great idea, but words of encouragement are all that has come our direction so far! You can contact us by email with any questions, queries or comments. Articles for the website always most welcome.

Background

ScottishSport.co.uk was launched February 2000 by a core team of three individuals. The articles you see and read on the site have either been developed in-house by the team, contributed by a fully qualified coach or athlete or, for a few of the walking articles, been submitted by visitors to the website. The three of us have done everything from setup and coding through to writing reviews and articles and ensuring that you are kept well up to date with new cycling or walking routes around Scotland.

ScottishSport.co.uk was started as a result of a lack of a cohesive resource, both online and in the real world, for practical amateur sports information. The local tourist information centres were great up to a point but they don't really allow you to plan for the weekend or decide where to go for something completely different. We aim to bring together information on sports and activities into one centralised point to allow everyone from the experienced walker to the imitation Tiger Woods to get out and enjoy themselves.

The web design (by DaftPaddy) has been kept simple, intutive and fast to download. We appreciated that people visit ScottishSport.co.uk to get information and find what they are looking for quickly and easily. Also, we know that we ourselves are impatient when other websites are slow to download.

ScottishSport.co.uk is based and run from Falkirk, Stirlingshire (central belt of Scotland).

The Team - the core team consists of:

Andy Mac

Andy's one of those people that just can't sit down in one place for too long. Keen walker, golfer, snowboarder and squash player, if you stop him getting out to the hills or onto the squash court, it's not pretty. Andy keeps the walking section in shape and has decided to single-handedly promote Scottish Squash .....quite an ambitious target, particularly as he's actually an Irish man more commonly known as DaftPaddy.com.

Stevie "The Striker" Lockhart

More of a spectator than an active sports person (though I'm sure Stevie would dispute that!). But when it comes to football The Striker certainly knows his stuff. Come the end of the season and the start of summer he starts to venture off his sofa into the chilly grasslands of the golf course or the cycle tracks, for a while anyway.........

"B" McLearnon

Well, B tends to keep the background stuff for the website and the boys in order. Happy out doing stuff - keen golfer, squash player, and a nae bad skier and snowboarder. B keeps the skiing and snowboarding section up to date, sorts out the message boards and other interactive bits and oversees the site in general.

Other Contributors

David Heath (Squash)
David is a highly qualified squash coach and needless to say is pretty handy with a squash racquet. David has written several articles to help improve your squash game leaving you raring to go and kick some ass. Oh, and yup, David is the brother of the also rather talented, Martin Heath. Click here for the squash section.

Jim Hay (Fitness across all sports)
Jim has written several articles to assist those participating in various different sports looking to get just a little fitter. Jim Hay is an Edinburgh based, fully qualified personal trainer, who can provide one to one training plans or just a helping hand to get back in shape. Jim describes himself as one of the "more mature" type.....or do I paraphrase? But either way, if you're not keen on the idea of a lycra-clad young whipper-snapper as a personal trainer, then Jim is definitely the man for you - see www.fitnessjim.com for more.

Richard King (Squash)
With a laid back approach to life, Richard can make the most taxing of squash games look like a walk in the park. Richard is a qualified squash coach and has contributed several articles to the squash section on ScottishSport.co.uk to help you improve different areas of your game. Click here for the squash section.

Richard "Vern" Moore (Cycling)
Although being prone to work best when there is a deadline......and a pay packet (er....), Vern does eventually produce some cycling articles and tit-bits for the site. Vern cycled for Scotland in the Commonwealth Games and is now working as a sports journalist for the Sunday Herald and other newspapers as well as contributing articles to well known biking magazines such as MBR. Click here to jump to the cycling section.

Ruth McKean (All Sports)
Ruth is a fully qualified sports nutritionistwho has worked with Hibs Football team, Heriot Watt University and the Scottish Triathlon team to name a few. Ruth aims to show that taking a bit of time to look at your diet and daily intake can yield great dividends and allow everyone to realise their true potential .........coupled obviously with good training and natural ability! For more on Ruth or to see some of her articles, Click Here.

Chris Brydie
Chris is similar to Andy Mac, in so far as he's always busy doing one thing or other. A keen walker whatever the weather, Chris contributes articles to the walking section; keeps us right on the photographs; and lets us know when various sections are not up to scratch.

Our thanks also go to the following people for their foresight and support from the early days of ScottishSport.co.uk:

Les Starkings of Wee Yellow Book of Amateur Golf - for those of you who play golf competitons on a regular basis, you will be well aware of this invaluable wee book. The Wee Yellow Book lists all the details for all the golf competitions in Scotland and recently two new Blue Books were launched for England - for more see www.weeyellowbook.com. Les was a great boost when we started the site and his normal question when ever we speak to him is "well, have you any money from the site?" ...... now we can thankfully tell him that the site makes enough to keep itself in pocket money. But is just goes to show that it's just as well we do it for the love of the sports and not the cash!

Andy Brydie - alias Ice-P - for his laid back outlook on life. We are still awaiting the completion of Ice P's article on the distractions of caravans and sunday walkers. Started in the early months of 2000, the half finished article, which refers to the end of the ski season, has gone out of date........ for many years and probably will never see a completion date although we are still promised the final article. But whether that is due before the article passes the next millennium it's very hard to say.......Andy will be probably be wandering around with his zimmer frame in years to come, estolling the virtues of by-then dusty pages of Ice-P.