THIS is a government well-versed it would appear in the burial of 'bad news' among more newsworthy events.

What better time, therefore, than the denouement of a World Cup to furtively publish a plan to abolish the good old school sports day?

Yes, it seems that the sight of a large egg tottering on an undersized spoon is to be despatched to the annals of history -- replaced by a series of team events which supposedly better tax the minds and resourcefulness of the children.

Before anybody accuses me of playing politics, let me set the record straight. The teaching of physical education has been poorly served by successive governments of both persuasions. We saw our playing fields being handed by the Tories to their property developer friends.

Both parties have allowed already rickety equipment to become . And now we allow politically-correct petty officials within the Department of Culture to decry the ethos of competitive sport because of the potential effect on the losers.

What rubbish! Competitive sport demands each participant performs to the best of their ability if they are to win. If they do not, they must try harder. What better preparation for the future?

We compete for jobs, for houses and for the highest standard of living we can attain. That's life!

Indeed, if the Government carries this philosophy to its logical extent it must ban examinations because, inevitably, they throw up high achievers and under-achievers. What on earth happened to the manifesto pledge of each child maximising its potential?

I fully accept that in the past some children have felt alienated and marginalised by a failure to flourish in sport. I further accept that some of these had their lives made a misery by cruel peers. This however is not the fault of sport, it is the fault of bullies and I am confident that we have the teachers and policies in situ to prevent this being an issue again.

If some children do find competitive sport harder than others it is surely a small price to pay to guarantee our society a healthier type of young adult. We are becoming a clinically-obese society that threatens our brittle health service with total collapse.

The computer game has replaced the real thing. Our recreation grounds are covered in broken glass; our kids are ballooning and what is the Government proposing? -- that we replace what precious activity time remains in the National Curriculum with a problem-solving hour in the library, alienated from a traditionally sporting society that wants to see us win the World Cup, break world records, and, perish the thought, even beat the Aussies at something!

Please, if you can bring any pressure to bear either in the schools or politically, don't let this crazy, trendy theory ever see the light of day.

NEIL A YATES, Wharf Street, Rishton.