Well it was really about a domineering mother and her two sons one of whom she loved and the other she didn't like at all. Bit like my own childhood really as my mother favoured my brother. Some great lines and very amusing although some people did leave at the interval which I found strange as it was pretty well done. As for decline I have been in steady decline for a number of years but rather prophetically in the paly the father did die and the son took over a business that was in a bit of a mess and then the business failed. Should we be worried?
2011 Census statistics: Bristol population: 428,100 Southampton population: 236,900 Portsmouth population: 209,166 So not quite. Anyway, to answer the point made by Black, the whole of the South West of England, from Worcester down to Cornwall, may be rugby country, but football is as popular, if not more so. Bristol, Exeter, and Plymouth have teams in the lower divisions of the Football League, and, surprisingly, the small Somerset town of Yeovil (population 30,378) has currently the highest-placed team in the South West. In terms of attendance, Bristol City's average gate last season was 13,348, while Rovers pulled in an average of 6,308 in League 2. Bristol Rugby, on the other hand, could only manage an average of 4,891. Looking at the local paper, there are many, many more teams playing local-league football than rugby. I think Beddy is right, the demise of Bristol City's academy is because of lack of foresight and investment over the years, whereas the opposite is true of Southampton, even under Lord Lowe. I would suggest that the recently-elected Mayor of Bristol, George Ferguson, should take the initiative on this, and get one of the Universities in Bristol to start up a football academy for the youth of Bristol. And on the Bath Academy, from what I can make out, the University of Bath seems to serve to develop local players both for Southampton and for non-league Bath City, so that would seem to detract from the Bristol City "cheating" argument somewhat.
The culture of rugby is that it is far more popular as a played sport than as a spectator sport. I know lots of lads who play it every Sunday - indeed I used to myself - but who never actually go to watch it save for the odd day out at Twickenham to watch England. It doesn't have the same tribal, working-class, 'boys club' feel to it that football has. You can't compare the two on match attendances alone. I'm not saying rugby is more popular than football in Bristol, I can't imagine there is a city in England where football is not the most popular sport. However, I would argue that football is less fervently followed in Bristol than in other cities, due to the popularity of rugby. I mean, a 13,000 average crowd for a city of 400,000 plus is diabolical. We averaged over 20,000 in League One, and Pompey are averaging above 13,000 in League Two.
Funnily enough, when Bath Rugby visit Bristol, they generally hold the game at Ashton Gate, where the crowd usually exceeds 20,000. Bristol City would think they were in heaven if they got a crowd like that. I agree with you about the rugby culture, but as I said, there are a lot more local football teams around than rugby teams, even in darkest Somerset. Maybe down in Cornwall it's different but I think the point is that the Bristol football clubs only have themselves to blame for their low attendances and lack of youth development. They have plenty of young players they could call on, but they just haven't got the facilities. And the City needs to pull its finger out and help change that.
Yeah, that's a fair enough argument no doubt. But you can't be suggesting that the only factor behind whether a club is successful or not is the standard of their youth academy? I just don't feel their is a significant enough 'football culture' in Bristol. The fact is, they have a massive population, nearly half a million, and yet they struggle to find decent young players there. If it was a football city like Newcastle or Liverpool, they would have no problems with finding young footballers. Therefore, rather than moaning about catchment areas, perhaps they should concentrate on promoting football more in their city.
