Old spice

Maeve Kyle, the three times Olympic sprinter and former international hockey player, is successfully striking a blow against ageism in Ulster. Her highly successful athletics club, Ballymena and Antrim, has taken to actively recruiting volunteers in their 50s and 60s to help in the day-to-day running of the club.

"They are the people with more time, occasionally more money, and very often with a car," she says. "As well as that they'll come around to the club and do a lot of the things that other people don't want to do. They're interested in their own kids primarily, but we've tried it and it does work. People in clubs tend to limit themselves because they think older people might not be interested, but very often it's because they are not asked. They call us the Granny Brigade up here."

The best ideas are always simple.