No net gain from Murray effect

Published on Saturday 1 August 2009 22:59

HIS heroics at Wimbledon and tournaments around the world have volleyed the profile of Scottish tennis to unprecedented new heights.

But an international sports conference has heard that the "Andy Murray effect" has failed to materialise in his native land. Academic and tennis coach Fiona Reid claims the number of people playing the sport in Scotland has actually fallen in recent years.

While Murray's spectacular progress from precocious youngster to Grand Slam contender has captured the attention of the public, Reid believes a lack of facilities has prevented a tennis boom taking place.

The PhD student gave an address on the "Murray effect" at the recent International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport (ISHPES) conference at Stirling University. Reid admitted she had been surprised by the findings of her research on the topic.

She said: "When I started out I thought that the success of Andy Murray would lead to a clear increase in the number of people playing tennis in Scotland. But surprisingly, that doesn't appear to have been the case."

In fact the latest available figures supplied by sportscotland, the government-backed agency, suggest tennis as a minor sport in decline.

The Stirling based academic said: "The level of tennis participation in the most popular months had been 2 per cent of the population up until 2005.

"This was around the time when Andy Murray was starting to make waves.

"After that, between 2005 and 2007, when Andy was really coming to prominence in a big way, there was actually a drop and the level has steadied at 1 per cent of the population.

"There has been a similar drop-off across the rest of the UK and this mirrors some of the other statistics about people becoming generally less active."

Reid believes the opportunity to capitalise on increased media coverage of Murray's exploits has been hampered by the deterioration and disappearance of grassroots courts and coaching.

She claimed there were fewer places for youngsters or novices to play casually.

She added that reports of Scottish courts being filled to capacity following Murray's run to the Wimbledon semi-finals, may not be particularly significant.

She said: "Tennis always has a Wimbledon effect.

There are a number of factors to consider and high performance from Andy Murray might not actually inspire people who are completely inactive to play."

Reid also claimed the Dunblane player's rise to global prominence had provoked mixed responses from rising tennis hopefuls.

She highlighted the case of Stirling's Colin Fleming who reversed his decision to abandon his tennis dreams – and has subsequently played at Wimbledon and risen to 122 in the world – after being inspired by Andy's success.

"The statistics say general numbers are down but there are plenty of individual success stories like Colin's.

"I also spoke to one or two people who told me 'I know I'll never be as good as Andy Murray or match his achievements so why should I bother?' I heard a number of different views, but that was the converse part of the Murray Effect."

However, Reid was encouraged by figures which suggested that official tennis club membership had bucked the trend by rising substantially in recent years.

A spokesman for Tennis Scotland conceded the statistics on participation were disappointing, but claimed they failed to take account of a more recent resurgence.

Dave MacDermid said: "The official figures may signify there has been a drop, but that is far from the full picture in Scotland. It is incredibly difficult to get a handle on exactly how many people are playing tennis.

"But I have absolutely no doubt that more people are now picking up tennis rackets then they were three or four years ago and the Andy Murray effect is absolutely pivotal to that."

However, the national tennis body agreed that the lack of suitable facilities did pose major problems for the future of the sport.

MacDermid said: "Getting the numbers of players up and keep them up is a real challenge. We need to increase park tennis and community tennis but there is no getting round the fact that we have a real issue with facilities in this country.

"We need places for youngsters to play and for coaching to be available for them at prices that are affordable.

"These are things that we are acutely aware of and are working hard on, but unfortunately it will take a wee while before it all comes to fruition."

Earlier this year a survey of the 32 councils in Scotland revealed that a third do not have any courts at all, while four just have one tennis facility and only four offer free access for under-16s.

The results led Labour MSP Frank McAveety, a former sports minister, to demand more action from the Scottish Government.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said ministers were serious about ensuring quality facilities were available for all.

"1.3m has been invested in extending the Centre of Excellence for Scottish Tennis at Stirling University to improve facilities for all levels of tennis players.

"This year sportscotland announced increased investment in Scottish tennis of 334,000 to support club development, coaching, medal success, organisational development and player improvement."