HOLD THE BACK PAGE:HAVE NORTHERN Ireland hockey players who have contributed handsomely to British Olympic success been airbrushed from the history books? It may appear that way judging by a recent article on the BBC website in relation to the GB team's new structures and preparations ahead of the 2012 London Olympics.

In modern times three Irish players have won Olympic medals while playing for Britain: Jimmy Kirkwood (gold, Seoul), Billy O'Connell (bronze, Los Angeles) and current Olympic Council of Ireland chief executive, Stephen Martin (gold, Seoul; bronze, Los Angeles).

Up to and including the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the British team only came together in the final year of the four-year Olympic cycle. That's changed now thanks to an agreement signed between the English, Welsh and Scottish hockey federations.

Richard Leman, the president of GB Hockey, explained: "We must be unique compared to many sports as we've got England, Scotland and Wales to sign a piece of paper agreeing to a system. We've concentrated on putting the athlete first and there are many other sports who struggle to do it.

"It was difficult, though. We spent just over a year in discussions, negotiations, talks, all conducted in a very professional way. But if we wanted to start winning Olympic medals then we had to get rid of the system where GB only came into existence for the last year of the four-year cycle. That's a disaster from a performance perspective. Now, we can put on a GB team at any time, which makes a huge difference to the players."

Leman goes on to talk about the hopes and aspirations for both the new agreement also providing the British team with the best possible structures and preparations to ensure success at the London Olympics before adding: "The important thing about England being the nominated country (the staff of the highest ranked of the home unions call the shots as the nominated country) is there is an opportunity for the others, it's not a closed shop. It's important, politically, that other countries realise there is a chance to get that nomination."

The article points out that Leman conceded that Scotland and Wales are not exactly knocking on the door just now.

At no point in the piece is there even a mere suggestion of the presence of Northern Ireland players, which is a little strange given that two Ulster-born players, Iain Lewers and Mark Gleghorne are well into a three- year qualification period – they can not represent Ireland during that time – to make the British team for the London Olympics.

Leman should be fully conversant with the contribution of Irish players to previous Olympic hockey tournaments given that the captain of the British team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics was the aforementioned Stephen Martin.

Over the years England have adopted a proprietorial attitude to the British hockey team, which seems a little at odds with a current desire to pool resources and give all an equal opportunity. It seems some are more equal than others but there are those who remain invisible.

Escapism eases Barcelona’s long trip

ENTERTAINING THE multimillionaire players of Barcelona FC on an 1100km coach trip might be only marginally less gruelling than trying to distract young children on say, a four-hour journey by car. It'd certainly involve many of the same tricks – bribery, cajoling, threats, sugary snacks, toilet breaks, tantrums, fighting and the default reply of "nearly" to the frequent enquiries as to "are we there yet" – including a movie or three.

Gone are the days of plumes of smoke hovering above the card schools (that's the soccer players and not the kids), faces hidden behind the tabloid newspapers or stuck on page 12 of the lesser- spotted book.

The Barcelona players embarked on the two-day trip – they stopped in the five-star Hotel Martinez in Cannes overnight – to play in Wednesday's Champions League semi-final first-leg game at the San Siro stadium in Milan.

Coach Pep Guardiola and his backroom team travelled in another coach and, while they concentrated on videos of their upcoming opponents, the players were treated to inspirational sporting movies, Al Pacino's Any Given Sunday(American Football) and the Clint Eastwood-directed Invictus(Rugby Union).

It's probably just as well the Barcelona players didn't confine themselves to just soccer films for inspiration. Quite what Lionel Messi would make of When Saturday Comes, starring Sean Bean as Jimmy Muir, a hard-drinking brewery worker who goes from his pub side to non-League Hallam FC and finally a trial at Sheffield United, is possibly mitigated by the Argentine maestro's belief that none of the clubs are real.

Fever Pitch(1997), There's Only One Jimmy Grimble(2000), Mike Bassett England Manager(2001) and Goal(2005) are other titles that spring to mind but there could only be one accompaniment to the on-board nachos, the cheesy, Escape to Victory(1981), a movie that included Pele, Osvaldo Ardiles, Bobby Moore and half of the 1980 Ipswich Town team, including Ireland's Kevin O'Callaghan.

The Old Yeller moment in the film involved O'Callaghan having his arm broken to allow Sylvester Stallone's character, Hatch, to take over as the team's goalkeeper. In the film the Allied prisoners come back from 4-1 down at half-time: Barcelona's task is slightly easier as they are only 3-1 behind after the first leg.

Lawn bowls devotees ready to roll

LAWN BOWLS. Mental images and clichés: blue rinses, Zimmer frames, old age pensioners, refugees from a Persil/Daz/Aeriel commercial, the tranquillity of a sunny summer’s day interrupted by the gentle thud of Hensilite on Thomas Taylor and the clicking of artificial hips and knees; bowls portrayed as a final sporting pit-stop before the graveyard. Check.

The stereotypes don’t quite hold up although the case for the sport’s defence as a game for all ages is slightly compromised perhaps by the fact the Bowling League of Ireland (BLI) are sponsored by the company Hidden Hearing.

Today in clubs such as Aer Lingus, Blackrock, Bray, Clontarf, Crumlin, Greystones, Skerries, St James Gate and Westmanstown, to select but a few, a new league season begins that will last until early September. The majority of the population will be completely oblivious because the days when national newspapers carried a lawn bowls column and/or the results are long gone.

It’s a quasi-secret society, grim-faced men toting holdalls disappearing behind privet hedges, their afternoons punctuated by cries of “chase the jack,” “yard-on,” “gerra wick” and “no rubs”. It’s lawn bowls’ very own Esperanto.

The complexities of the sport on this island mean there are four associations, three based in Northern Ireland that in the vernacular represent the private greens (NIPGL), public parks (NIBA) and provincial towns (NIPBA), and one for the Republic of Ireland (BLI).

The national team, drawn from the four associations, is dominated by northern bowlers, based largely on quality and also a much wider playing base.

The BLI and the LBLI (the equivalent ladies governing body in the south) have contributed many internationals and championship winners, not least Blackrock’s Phillis Nolan, a three-time World Pairs champion in tandem with Margaret Johnson.

Last Wednesday, Nolan and her club Blackrock found themselves in the unusual position of not starting their opening league game in Division One as defending champions. The success of the CYM ladies in 2009 broke one of the most remarkable sequences in Irish sport.

The Blackrock ladies first team won the LBLI Division One (10 clubs, 18 matches home and away per season) a staggering 27 times in-a-row from 1982 to 2008. A bit like the men’s hair product, their quest to experience crowning glory again now comes under the heading, Regain.

On the men’s side of affairs, St James’s Gate will be looking for a fourth successive Division One title, that campaign beginning this afternoon.

Sadlier comfortable in analyst's chair

F I N A L S T R A W:RICHARD SADLIER represents an articulate and engaging presence in terms of soccer analysis, both in newsprint and also on television. A professional footballer with Millwall (34 goals in 145 appearances) his career was tragically cut short at 24 years of age by a chronic hip injury.

In 2006 he was invited to become a columnist with the Sunday Independent, his views offering a thoughtful and often humorous insight into the game. He wrote his own copy, from the first day he took on the task. This sounds incidental but 90 per cent of columns of that ilk across the sports, are ghostwritten.

From a television perspective the 31-year-old first appeared on Setanta Sports before becoming a regular studio guest on RTÉ's Monday Night Soccer(MNS), unencumbered by his role on the board of St Patrick's Athletic, a position from which he resigned last year.

He has featured regularly in recent times on RTÉ's Premiershiphighlights programme, his analysis sharp and provocative but in a measured, intelligent manner. Television tends to crave or create polemicists who pride themselves on strong opinions.

Sadlier brings knowledge that resonates far louder than the shrieked soundbite, something that the national broadcaster may in time come to appreciate more.

Henson heading for frosty reception

IT HAS been confirmed that Gavin Henson intends to do two things in the foreseeable future, return to competitive rugby next September but first star in the reality television show 71 Degrees North. It’s a photo finish as to which is likely to cost him the most grief.

He has informed his club, the Ospreys, about his plans some 13 months after his last match, an EDF Energy Cup semi-final against Gloucester. He has missed 45 of Wales’ 59 internationals in the last five years due to a host of problems.

Henson said the priority was for his partner Charlotte Church – they got engaged recently – to pursue her career for the time being. Asked about his playing absence and his situation at home, he said: “Injuries got me down. I wanted to concentrate on being a good father as well. I thought I needed to make this work first. I have not even been missing rugby until recently.”

But first he’ll spend time with other “celebrities” in Norway’s frozen north cape – next stop the North Pole – the contestants having to endure extreme conditions as they swim in frozen fjords, endure five hours of kayaking, get parachuted into snowy mountains and dive into the bitterly cold sea.

It’ll be instructive to see where Henson receives the frostier reception in the light of his self-imposed hiatus from rugby.