The opening game yesterday was for billboard purposes between the Douglas firs and the Scots pines

The opening game yesterday was (for billboard purposes) between the Douglas firs and the Scots pines. You will certainly see blood out there.''Netball has an uphill task being taken seriously in this country from the moment playground schoolboys are persuaded it is a game for drips, and should be avoided in favour of restringing the catapult or crushing beetles.Nevertheless, there are 1.5 million adult players in Britain alone and a national side that has emerged from the ice mist of scientific preparation. A mental and physical programme has been developed for each squad member at Manchester Metropolitan University in an effort to win the world title for the first time (John Major would rather like the sound of this).The rules, however, remain relatively unchanged since the time an American, Dr Toles, brought the game to Madame Osterberg's PT College (now Dartford College) in 1895 and gave a display with wastepaper baskets employed as nets. "And it's only in this country."In New Zealand and Australia they are getting up at 4.30 in the morning to watch this tournament live and players are asked for their autographs when they walk down the street."This is a tough game and when we play the teams from Down Under they aren't going to pussyfoot around. Certain journalists have suggested so this week, and would be advised to undergo plastic surgery and head for the deed poll office."We're light years ahead of other sports in many respects and that is why we get annoyed that we are treated as a triviality," Liz Broomhead, the England coach, said.

There were bodies on the ground, stretchers in the aisles and the threat of cadavers in the press room yesterday as the group matches for the ninth World Championships unfolded. England's squad trains for up to 12 hours a week, and have not taken kindly to reports that their sport is a bit of a joke. For the next fortnight, the netball World Cup has come to town. Netball, like its cousin basketball, is remarkable for the number of times its principal rule - outlawing body contact - is broken. All this has been provided free and with minimum disruption to children and families, as the vaccine was administered in schools.Yours faithfully,R D HardingYork. om Mr Stephen Plowden Sir: Mr Portillo says: "We're not in Bosnia to fight a war. We're there to save lives." Is it not now clear that in order to save lives, we have to fight to protect the safe havens and to ensure that the convoys get through? Yours faithfully,Stephen PlowdenLondon, NW1. There will be blood on the floor at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena this week.

Not because another world championship boxing title is up for grabs at the Midlands venue, and not because the Gladiators have returned for another series. The target population was 7 million children aged 5 to 16 years. The uptake was 92 per cent throughout England, with a range of 79 to 98 per cent between districts. Not only has the expected epidemic failed to materialise, but in the past three months there have been a mere seven cases reported, of which three came from abroad and three were in children under the age of routine vaccination There have been no deaths. In October last year a major measles epidemic was forecast, with an anticipated 150,000 cases and 50 deaths A crash vaccination campaign was launched by the DoH. Perhaps good news does not make good copy, but I have received a notice from the Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health that, I think, merits a report in your newspaper. From Dr R D. Harding Sir: The press has developed a habit of rubbishing the NHS and the medical profession.

Mens sana in corpore sano was his motto; a much more praiseworthy ideal than an attempt to break the tape in an Olympic final.Yours faithfully,Basil KentishColchester17 July. My uncle's aim in 1924 was to improve the health of the nation by giving everyone a chance to play a game for the game's sake. It is almost unbelievable.John Major is quite right to want to encourage sports and games for the young, but is a pounds 100m Academy of Sport a necessary part of this? Competitive games encourage the desire to win at all costs, with the temptation to use drugs. What has happened since is problematical but your paper reports ("Lottery to fund pounds 100m sporting academy", 15 July) that 5,000 playing grounds have been sold since 1979. It was hoped that young people would no longer have to play their games in the streets of our overcrowded town and cities.He was chagrined during the 1939-1945 war to see so many playing grounds ploughed up or used for military purposes. Kentish, who, apart from other things, founded the National Playing Fields Association in 1924, under the auspices of the Duke of York (later King George VI). The aim of the association was to provide adequate facilities for open- air recreation in and around every city, town and village in the country.