A1 you make a number of interesting points

A1 tennis academy wrote:

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So arguably there are 80 players who should be a greater priority for support & funding .

Have these 80 players qualified for funding? Isaac did but it was withdrawn because his father protested publically when the LTA racially discriminated against his son. Clearly free speech is not a right if you're a tennis player/parent under the LTA code of conduct.

I have never seen any evidence that the LTA as an institution are racist quite the opposite there have been a number of projects which have specifically targeted ethnic minorities particularly in the inner cities albeit without significant success from from a performance Stand point so far but it is still early days . 

Institutionalised racism is an insidious act and is extremely difficult to prove precisely because the evidence is not obvious. The LTA I'm sure appreciate your vote of confidence though. You also mention the 'City Tennis' initiative which if memory serves has produced one junior player of note he is Caucasian. This initiative was apparently sold on the promise of producing players from the ethnic minorities who have a lot of the disadvantages you mention.

One of the problems I have encountered with my free tennis for kids initiative in Orpington lets say the Cinderella borough of Bromley is that the parents from working class backgrounds do not have the funds for the enormous amount of travel to tournament & ratings tournaments irrespective of the fact that we are are providing free coaching for children at A1 Pharmaceuticals  ltc . Children from the poor inner city are often from single parent families who cannot afford  the time and funds required to pursue performance tennis for their children .  We need to follow the example of  other sports such as football & athletics we need particularly the larger wealthier clubs to seize the initiative and make a sustained effort to recruit and support talent from all disadvantaged members of our society irrespective of race , religion , creed Or indeed wealth .

The difference between tennis and the other sports such as football is simple but fundamental. Football sees children in the sport as an investment in the clubs future, tennis looks for ways to exploit that child. The Let's Try Againers at the LTA reinforces this exploitation culture by taking the lead, discarding many thousands of promising junior players they no longer have use for. So until the clubs (many of which do not have a clue competitive tennis) start to make an investment in their future nothing will change in British tennis.

I would like to see the large wealthier clubs attempt to fill this gap and for example take performance kids in a club bus with a  coach driving & in attendance to junior tournsments  & ratings matches as a team  . Make it easy for children from financially disadvantaged backgrounds .

I would like to see you put your money where your mouth is so I'll put you on the spot here to see if you genuinely want to make a difference. Isaac Stoute is a Kent player who when you were 'building' your 'A1' team was ranked No. 4 in the County for men, did you approach him to join your team?

There are plenty of causian players that feel that they are discriminated against not on race but because they are financially disadvantaged . We need to focus on supporting & developing talent from the poorer communities in our society irrespective of their race , religion or creed .

This point could have been made without you trying to belittle the difficulties allegedly suffered by this child, which you probably cannot begin to understand.

Sadly tennis is still an elitest sport which I often advise patents not to go into with professional ambitions unless they can afford the time & indeed the money which becomes equivalent to the cost of a private school education at 12 years + 

Tennis in the Uk does not discriminate on race it discriminates against the financially and in my opinion the intellectually disadvantaged . 

You I'm afraid are not in a position to make this claim. The LTA who represent tennis in the UK do racially discriminate and they make it as difficult as possible for ethnic minorities by their subjective decision making. Why would the governing body of a sport based on competing ignore the results of those competitions when looking at funding?

I would like to see wealthy club's eg park Langley & Queens  ( close to large inner city minorities  ) to do more to support financially disadvantaged children & families . I tried to set up performance funds to help the best talent at a number of clubs & the kent LTA and was astonished by the lack of support from  the average club member .

Kent LTA may not be the best example to use when discussing the support of talented especially from an ethnic minority background, after all this county failed to select their best player for County Cup who hails from such a background.

The  lack of support for such an initiative was shocking . I suggest that at large clubs like park Langley that have Recieved  a huge amount of LTA & lottery funding we should expect more !

We all know from the disproportionate success of the Afro Caribbean community in  athletics & football what could be achieved in tennis these sports have great roots within working class communities an act that although we are following is progressing far too slowly for my liking . 

Tennis is a sport which attracts the kind of people for who appearance is the only consideration. Therefore the people who are held in high regard in other sports would just about be tolerated.

By the way did you deliberately go for the all Caucasian team look for you Team Tennis team or was it just a fortunate coincidence?

It also seems a shame that given your close proximity to Isaac Stoute you were not prepared to actually take the time to make an assessment of his abilities rather than taking the prejudice LTA line. 

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It's nice watching Belinda Bencic competing with Venus Williams at the French Open and not looking out of place in such a tough arena.

 

-- Edited by Equality on Sunday 25th of May 2014 04:14:42 PM

EddietheEagle wrote:

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The LTA has publically refuted the allegation of racial discrimination. It cannot easily afford to settle a dubious case as that would be read by many as an admission of Stoute's claim as well as potentially open it up to more soft claims. I predict the court of appeal will reject the case anyway; there appears to have been no error in law made by the court of first instance.

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         It could happen again after all its not the first time this has happened - if I remember rightly the LTA settled a discrimination case out of court with Yasmin Clarke !

as earlier on this thread, I think the Court of Appeal is 100% right in allowing the appeal to let the case be heard. People's right to be heard should not be extinguished by, possibly, messing up some minor admin. requirement.

But it should be reiterated that, simply in allowing the appeal, it says nothing about whether there is any substance in Isaac's claim - it's simply a procedural thing.


Isaac Stoute v LTA Operations Ltd (trading as Lawn Tennis Association) [2014] EWCA Civ 657; [2014] WLR (D) 212

Postal service of a claim form by the court in disregard of the claimants request to return the claim form to him so that he could serve it personally, in breach of CPR r 6.4(1)(b), was an error of procedure, within rule 3.10, and so did not invalidate service.

The full (ish) report is on:

http://cases.iclr.co.uk/Subscr/search.aspx?path=WLR+Dailies%2FWLRD+2011%2Fwlrd2014-212



The judge found against the LTA's interpretation of what constitutes proper service of the forms but it's nothing to do with the rights and wrongs of the actual underlying claim.

-- Edited by Coup Droit on Sunday 25th of May 2014 07:44:56 PM

Quite agree, Beefy !

And I do note that Isaac is using the Bar Pro Bono Unit, a charity that provides free legal representation. Whereas the LTA are using Farrers, one of the top, and most expensive, set of lawyers.

Also, the decision of the Clarkes to settle says as much about the confidence they had in their case as the LTAs confidence in theirs and nothing should be taken from it either way. Settlement is 9 times out of ten, the best outcome for everyone. Yasmin of course had her case against david Lloyd thrown out a couple of years ago, another argument over funding (but not based on race). Presumably settlement was discussed there too but for whatever reason could not be achieved.

If this ends up being settled (which would surprise me slightly given how certain Mr Stoute seems to be of his case, i could be wrong but he doesn't seem to be trying just to get a quick pay day) it tells us nothing about the merits of either sides position, and so maybe it is best for this one to run ita course and see what comes.

Will be messy either way I fear, sadly.

Am I correct in thinking that was based on Tennis Europe rankings?