As sporting summers go, the English effort for 2004 has matched the weather.

A depression seems to hang permanently over the nation.

Euro 2004, Tim Henman and now the NatWest cricket series have all been and gone with only fleeting glimpses of sunnier moments.

The Olympics is just around the corner but, Paula Radcliffe apart, where are our golden boys and girls going to come from?

Of course, just like the immovable grey clouds that have taken up residence for the past week or so, we should be used to it by now. In a country where we all love a plucky loser, the stiff upper lip is designed to overcome any disappointment.

And we should not be surprised, given the lack of facilities and amenities available to our youngsters. We expect to produce a generation of sports superstars with the minimum of outlay and effort.

That will never add up.

Another new initiative was launched this week to get more children playing sport. Aimed to coincide with the Games in Athens, the Olympics for Everyone scheme wants to bring more competition into schools.

But at the same time a national survey of parents claims that one in eight thought it was wrong to take part in competitive sport at that age.

In the week when Wimbledon crowned a new champion who had left her Siberian home for Florida at the age of seven, 12 per cent of the 3,600 adults quizzed said they didn't want little Johnny getting upset because he may not win every time.

These are no doubt the same people who would like to see any kind of tests banned, whether it's spelling or sporting. In their perfect world where everything is equal, there are no winners and losers.

But life is competitive. And competition is healthy.

Playing sport at that age is more than just unearthing the next tennis or football prodigy. It's exercise, it's encouraging team work, it's about learning how to take defeat as much as revel in

victory.

My lad's school does not have the facilities to do much sport. Apart from the odd game once a week in the playground, they are limited to using a local field for sports day.

But most of his class play for the village football team and have done since they were four or five. The coaches do a great job (and I'm not just saying that to keep him in the team) in their development, not just as players but individuals.

Parker junior can perfect a drag-back, a step-over and now and again he might even head the ball. But just as important, his self-esteem has shot up, he knows how to work with others and he has learned that losing is not the end of the world.

Competition has done him no harm, nor the hundreds of others who play in the local junior leagues throughout the

season. Surely we should encourage our children to do as much exercise as they can.

One week we are warned that too many of our under-tens are getting fat, the next there are warnings that playing too much sport is a bad thing.

You can't win. And in some eyes, you are certainly not allowed to lose.