GLASGOW Mid Argyll Shinty Club (GMA) is very pleased to support your campaign for A Fair Deal for Glasgow at this difficult and uncertain time for many users of Glasgow’s culture and leisure facilities.

GMA is the only senior shinty club in Glasgow. Our home ground at Peterson Park, Yokermill, has the only full-size shinty pitch in the city. In addition to our four teams, the pitch is regularly used by the universities and junior clubs in the Glasgow area. Having worked very hard to ensure we met all the protocols to allow a return to Covid secure training and then Covid-secure matches at Peterson Park we were informed, just before the start of our season, that the facility was not to reopen.

Fortunately, we have been able to come to a short-term arrangement with the council to allow this season’s matches to be played there and have now embarked on a longer-term plan to take over responsibility, with others, for the management of Peterson Park as a People Make Glasgow communities project. Whilst we are being well supported and advised by Glasgow Life staff regarding this significant undertaking and transition for our amateur club run entirely by volunteers, we understand that at present this is the only option available that will enable us to retain a shinty pitch in Glasgow for current and future generations to enjoy this unique traditional Scottish sport.

A new funding deal for Glasgow that would allow our city to take responsibility once again for the management of its own cultural and sporting facilities for the benefit of its residents should not be too much to expect.

This is surely what is required to ensure that Glasgow can deliver on its vision "of inspiring every citizen and visitor to become engaged and active in a city globally renowned for culture and sport".

Readers who wish to see what honest amateur endeavour on a shinty field looks like may wish to visit Peterson Park tomorrow (September 25) where GMA meet Kyles Athletic in the semi-final of the Glasgow Celtic Society Cup competition, the oldest in our sport, having first been played for in 1879.

Dougie Luke, President, Glasgow Mid Argyll Shinty Club.

COULD I BE A FORMER WOMAN?

IAIN Macwhirter's article (""Why can't they say a woman is an adult human female?"), The Herald, September 22) contains the following: "Women are often now referred to as 'persons with a cervix' or 'menstruator'" by medical professionals who fear that they might fall foul of the 2010 Equalities Act". May I advise the medical profession that the legislation would be the least of their concerns.

Being post-menopausal, I do have the relics of a cervix but do not menstruate. Am I no longer a woman? Post-menopausal women are inclined to a degree of sensitivity. Any medical professional who had the temerity to describe me as a "menstruator" wouldn't get to the end of the sentence.

Maureen McGarry-O'Hanlon, Balloch.

VENUES FOR THE MARCHES

THE First Minister has instructed the Justice Secretary to investigate setting up a Parades Commission after the public order problems resulting from the Orange Order marches at the weekend. The intention is obviously to find a way to reduce/eliminate the sectarianism, violence, inconvenience to others and drunkenness surrounding these marches.

Allow me to provide a solution. Permit the marches to continue, thus allowing the right of individuals to demonstrate. However, restrict these marches to enclosed spaces with adequate capacity to allow their followers to gather and support while allowing the rest of us to live our lives without their interference. I feel certain that there would be stadiums which would happily accommodate these events and the foot followers would feel totally at home.

You are welcome.

David Stubley, Prestwick.

DRUGS MOVE IS A NONSENSE

YOU can now be prosecuted for not wearing a mask but not for possession of a Class A drug ("SNP legalising class A drugs possession ‘by back door’", The Herald, September 23). What with that and the gender nonsense, the Government has totally lost it.

James Martin, Bearsden.

SHALE EXTRACTION AND GLOBAL WARMING

AS printed, the letter from Clark Cross (September 23) ends with the words "reopen gas storage facilities and start shale gas extraction". Presumably production difficulties prevented the completion of the missive with the further essential step "and pretend that catastrophic man-made global warming is not happening".

William Patterson, East Linton.

IN PRAISE OF EMPIRE

MARK SMITH ("Remember when...", September 23), says, correctly, that Laurel and Hardy’s visit to the Empire Theatre was evoked in the film Stan and Ollie.

Evoked, perhaps, yes; but the film’s portrayal did no justice to the Empire: a small provincial theatre? Since when? The Empire would have surpassed many halls, in London’s West End, for size and art-deco splendour. Just where were the filmmakers were coming from?

Brian D Henderson, Glasgow.

IN SUM DIFFICULTY

BRIAN Logan (Letters, September 23) had an easy way to solve the problem put by Eric Begbie (Letters, September 21).

Unfortunately he equates 13 feet 6 inches to four and a half yards. 13 feet is four yards but six inches is not half a yard. It is 2/13.

Not so easy. I would hate to go back to imperial measures.

Mary Fallon, Lochearnhead.

* IF Boris Johnson reinstates pounds, shillings and pence he's in for a real shock when all his loyal pensioners finally realise the true cost of inflation. I sometimes re-price things in my head just to scare myself.

Rachel Martin, Musselburgh.