Richard Moore - Murray net verbals to increase

Published on Sunday 29 June 2008 21:52

ONE upshot of Andy Murray's waltz to the Wimbledon title is that a simmering feud between the two websites that report on his earthly movements in cyberspace is likely to intensify. In what might be called the War of the Websites, Murray's official site, andymurray.com, has been at loggerheads with the unofficial murraysworld.com.

In the early days, all was rosy. In 2005, tennis fan Mark Sanger was so inspired by Murray that he established murraysworld.com. It was a site run by fans for fans, and it quickly attracted a steady flow of traffic – as they say in cyberworld – and became Murray's main, if unofficial, online site.

A meeting was arranged between Octagon, Murray's management group, and Sanger. The proposal was that murraysworld.com would become the official Murray site, to be run by Sanger. But nothing came of it.

Murray left Octagon for Ace Group and Sanger heard no more. Instead, a new, official site, andymurray.com, was started.

In the meantime, Sanger's site continued to grow, in tandem with Murray's climb up the world rankings.

Sanger insists, however, that it is "non-commercial" and he makes no money from his site. Importantly, he adds, it contains negative as well as positive stories about Murray, pointing out that, although people are drawn to the site because they are fans, he wants it to be a forum for balanced rather than one-eyed discussion. But a couple of months ago he received a letter from Onside Law, representing andymurray.com. "This matter requireds (sic] your urgent attention," it was headlined, below which it ordered Sanger to remove photographs which "constitute an infringement of our client's rights under copyright law."

Sanger claims that he doesn't know which pictures the letter referred to, since they weren't specified.

He describes the letter as "an attempt to suppress a website that is often critical and, in some cases, damaging to Murray's image due to its journalistic principles."

The letter from Onside followed a colourful email from the editor of andymurray.com, Rob Stewart.

On Sanger's claim that his site is not for profit, Stewart writes: "My advice to you would be to have a little bit of a sanity check.

"There are numerous people who, given the opportunity, will make your life a legal misery." He adds: "I can be a good ally, but I'm not the greatest person to get on the wrong side of."

When contacted about the War of the Websites, Stewart emailed back with a comment from Murray's spokesman, Stuart Higgins. "Everyone knows that Andy has an official website which is professionally managed with his permission and his regular input with words, photos and video footage," said Higgins.

"We have no issue whatsoever with any other fan sites which are supportive to Andy and his career, but we do have a legal right and responsibility to protect the content on the official site in the same way a newspaper or any other media organisation would."

If this column was cynical it might speculate that the War of the Websites could be connected to the fact that while the unofficial site has 1,100 members and 340,000 member posts, the official one has some catching up to do with 468 members and 62,000 posts.

But we aren't, so we won't.

You can bank on Howieson

THE second Clydesdale Bank Athlete of the Month is Craig Howieson, an 18-year-old table tennis player from Edinburgh now resident in Bristol.

Why Bristol?

Because it's a hotbed of British table tennis, that's why.

Bristol is home to the Filton Table Tennis Academy, where Howieson trains – get this – six to seven hours a day. "I've been there for the past year," says Howieson, a prodigy who recently beat the world No4 and has played in the Scottish senior team since he was 14. In Bristol, Howieson trains with the former Scottish coach, Kevin Satchell, but he makes regular trips to Sheffield, another hotbed, where most of the top British players are based.

The Clydesdale-sponsored award was introduced last month to recognise Scotland's best young sports people, with its focus on the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India, in October. Before then Howieson has the European Youth Championships in Italy in July, and the European senior championships in St Petersburg – he'll fly direct from there to Pune, assuming he's selected.

Finally, for more occasional table tennis players, a little known fact: Howieson's bat cost 150, with the rubbers coming in at 70 for two.

Scratch Wells off the list

IT MUST be a sign of just how cynical the public has become about the London Olympics that even the launch of lottery scratch cards can provoke controversy. Last week it was revealed that, following a public survey, the six great British Olympians who will feature on new scratch cards are Sebastian Coe, Jonathan Edwards, Duncan Goodhew, Sally Gunnell, Kelly Holmes and Steve Redgrave.

The survey was carried out by Ipsos MORI, and entailed members of the public being presented with a list of athletes to choose from. The omission of Linford Christie was explained by the fact that drug offenders were automatically excluded. Fair enough.

But where was Daley Thompson? And where was the other British winner of the blue riband 100m, Allan Wells?

To The Scotsman's enquiry, a Camelot spokesman explained that the list of athletes presented to 2,140 members of the public, from throughout the UK, was drawn up by the BOA. The Camelot man, sensing where the enquiry was leading, clarified: "Allan Wells was on the list!"

That's okay then.

Sutherland career leap

AN EDINBURGH basketball player, Joanna Sutherland, has landed a top job with the London 2012 Organising Committee, as competition manager for her sport.

Sutherland was Scotland's player of the year back in 1998, but in recent years, with her degree in law and French from Edinburgh University, she has been a jet-setting, globe-trotting mover and shaker in the world of international sport, most recently working with the Spanish Basketball Federation in Madrid as operations director for EuroBasket 2007. For 2012 she will be responsible for all the planning, organisation and management of the Olympic basketball and wheelchair basketball events.

"I'm honoured to be given the opportunity to help showcase basketball and wheelchair basketball at the Olympics," she says. "The Games are a terrific chance for basketball in the UK to start realising some of its potential, and I look forward to contributing to that process. My only regret is I won't be playing."