AK Souffle: Get your kit on

I have never had any interest in sport, which when you take even the briefest glance at my physique should come as no surprise. My body has never been a temple that’s for sure. As a teenager I would create projects that seemed so worthy that I would be excused football, cricket and gym. The only exercise I regularly indulged in was swimming, well not the only exercise but let’s not go into that here. Back in the last 1960s and early 70s I could often be found painting murals in children’s homes. I was the master of the fantasy landscape, a world of toadstools and fairies! In fact at school I was know as one of the fairies from the bottom of the art room.

As a grown up I attended one football match, went to Wimbledon a few times and later grew interested in cricket, but not in any great way. As a result I am unfit, my body is a bit of a car crash, feeble, chubby and… well let’s face it, falling apart at the seams.

In a forthcoming episode of AK Soufflé my guest is the chairman of the Brighton and Hove Sea Serpents Rugby Football Club, Ian Chaplin. Ian has played the game, but these days manages the team and their match schedule, no mean task as it seems to be a rather demanding role.

My body is a bit of a car crash, feeble, chubby and… well let’s face it, falling apart at the seams

I find so many of the guests on my show an inspiration, not in the sense that I want to be them or do what they do, but because that they simply get on with it. Now that is inspiring. I’m sure though that many of you will be inspired and find that what they do is indeed something that you might want to do or to be.

Perhaps you do have a hankering to hunker down in the scrum, if indeed Rugby League includes scrums? My knowledge of the game is entirely based on growing up in St Helens and The Saints play League and not Union. Anyway back to the Sea Serpents…

Having made contact I thought it would be a good idea to have Latest TV’s sports editor Jamie Walker include reports on the Sea Serpents’ progress as a regular part of his coverage.

Jamie was delighted to do so and it reminded me how passionate we all are at Chateau L’Atest about diversity and inclusivity. Jamie was in total agreement that primarily the Sea Serpents are a sporting side, and that they are made up mainly of players from the LGBTQI community was merely incidental. It’s heartening being a part of a team that thinks in this way, there’s no place for prejudice of any kind here at Latest. As Latest Bill says “we don’t think diversity, we are diversity!”.