Manly Pursuits

How did that happen? (Questions by Jon Lipsey of Men's Fitness magazine)

 
What did you tell the Manly locals you were doing and how did they react?

I told them I was writing a book about local sport in Manly.  Sports people were very helpful and welcoming.  Business people were wary and wanted to know what was in it for them.  (That’s the difference between sport and business)

You started off by playing an old woman at bowls and an old woman at shooting. Was that how you had envisaged the trip going? Were you happy with that kind of opponent?

Maria the shooter isn’t old.  She’s also the 11th ranked air-rifle shooter in all Australia.  When I set out, I had no idea how I’d be welcomed in Australia.  However, I did envisage a test of temperament rather than physical skill, so in that sense it didn’t matter how old the opponents were, or what gender.

After the first two sports, did you feel like you were achieving what you set out to achieve?

Yes.  I was seeing how sport worked at a local level in one single community in Australia.  I could appreciate that sport was a glue in Manly, but also that it was unremittingly competitive.

After playing the Friday afternoon golfers, did you feel you were getting closer to understanding what makes Australian sportsmen tick?

It’s always a measure of the man.  The advantage of golf was that handicapping means the Australian competitor doesn’t have to be the best golfer in the world, but he must at least live up to his own standards.  The pressure is there to be the best they can be, even if that isn’t always very good.

Can you explain how you went from golf to swimming and why you chose chose to enter a swimming race when you'd only recently learned how to swim?

Swimming is everywhere in coastal Australia, what with the ocean and the beach and community Olympic swimming pools.  You can’t be in Australia and not do swimming.  I entered a race because that’s how sport in Manly works.  If you want to take part, you have to compete.

How did you go from swimming and surfing to the running races?

I didn’t actually go from one thing to another – I did everything at the same time.  However, you go to the golf course, and you walk past the swimming pool; you go swimming, so you go surfing, and while you’re surfing you see soft-sand joggers shuffling along the beach.  There are so many sports that one thing inevitably leads to another.

What did you learn from the two running races?

I learned that there are many reasons, sociological and historical and climatic, why Australians are better at sport than us.  But they don’t try harder, and they don’t have a greater will to win.  We try just as hard and want to win just as much.  That’s not where we’re lacking.

Why did you decide to stop after the pub to pub race? Did you feel you had achieved what you set out to achieve?

I couldn’t stay in Manly forever!  I wanted to play football and Australian rules and 16ft skiff sailing.  Just didn’t have the time.