[UK-CONTEST] Time off for Contesting.

[Don Field]

Mm, curiouser and curiouser. I used to sail, but I always regarded it as a
hobby, not a sport (for me at least). Not sure where it stops being one and
starts being the other.

WRTC started at the "Goodwill Games" in Seattle for a number of those
competitive (surely that's the key word?) activities that didn't qualify for
the Olympics.

I guess the problem I have always had with sports is that they seem to fall
into various categories:

1. Those that are genuinely popular, and therefore commercially viable
(tennis, rugby, football at the highest levels) - fine!
2. Those that are not viable without external funding - why should I fund
someone's "hobby" just because it happens to require a certain physical
prowess (often inherited - ability to run fast, or whatever) - but if these
exist, why can't radio amateurs play too?

Does snooker require physical prowess? Or darts? They only became popular
(other than as hobbies) with the advent of colour TV I suspect?

It all seems rather arbitrary to me! (head down, this is obviously an
emotive subject!)

Don G3XTT

On 11/30/06, Andy Swiffin <a.l.swiffin at dundee.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> >>> On 30/11/2006 at 10:44, in message <001901c7146c$7f339960$0201a8c0 at PAV
> >,
> "G3RIR" <g3rir at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Don,
> >
> > I have to reply to your comment that "even though other equipment-based
> > sports (sailing,  ...... are recognised as sports ".
> >
> > If you had ever taken part in one-design dinghy sailing racing you
> wouldn't
> > have any hesitation in describing it as a sport. The dinghies in such
> cases
> > are very very strictly controlled to be equal for every competitor. What
> is
> > needed to win is a high degree of skill, fitness, stamina both physical
> and
> > mental and a high degree of mental agility in assessing the constantly
> > changing wind, waves and the other competitors.
>
> > Amateur Radio contesting is not a sport (except perhaps ARDF,
> Orienteering
> > style) but sailing is most definitely a sport.
> >
> > I am certainly one of the "howls of protest" group who object to
> contesting
> > being called Radio Sport.
>
>
> Dictionary.com:
> sport
> *noun 1.
> an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a
> competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling,
> boxing, hunting, fishing, etc
>
> Sign me up and I'll howl if you like.    I'd seen the term 'radio sport'
> bandied around and taken a 'well if you must' view to it, but when it gets
> to this stage......
>
> I enjoy my radio HOBBY, I even take part in some contests, I sometimes,
> heaven forbid, miss out on some sleeping opportunities to pursue my HOBBY.
> But it is a HOBBY not a sport.
>
> How can amateur radio be a sport - what athletic skills are required?  OK,
> you can go into training at staying awake for a long time but that is no way
> sport.  I, in no way, mean to denigrate the skills required and demonstrated
> by those at the top of the radio contesting pile but you'll be asking me to
> believe that Sudoku will be in the olympics next.
>
> OK - if you must,  the sport of 'antenna erecting' that I could believe
> in........
>
> Andy
> gm8oeg
>
>
>
>
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