Regular watchers of this space will recall mention, last week, of a first meeting in many years with Kevin McKenzie, the former Scotland hooker who, until a decade or so ago was one of Dunblane’s most famous sporting brothers.

The actual circumstances of renewing acquaintance with the delightfully malevolent little blighter, whose natural aggression was central to the efforts of a pack of forwards whichset a platform for his play-making brother Mark and the rest of the back division in the characterful championship winning Stirling County team of 1994/95 were utterly typical.

Having just finished a five mile run with a slight incline up to the Cathedral car park I was doubled up and leaning on a lamppost when a powerful paw slammed gleefully into my gut as Kev made his greeting.

There was an odd coincidence about that meeting, however, because an hour (or so!!!) earlier, just before our wee group had set out, another weel kent face had run past, Tony Stanger offering a cheery wave as he did so.

As Kev and his kids continued their dog walk, mention was made among our group of all the sporting connections associated with this little town these days, given that Olympian Andrew Butchart is also often to be seen running around the streets and me being me, knowing that we have, among our runners, some of the more reasonable opponents of Judy Murray’s Park of Keir tennis centre proposal, I could not resist a little dig, observing: “Aye… why on earth would anyone think that this would be the ideal place, slap bang in the middle of Scotland, to build a sporting centre of excellence?”

Key here, though, is not so much whatever it is in the local water that has led to the emergence of the McKenzie brothers, Murray family of Butchart from this one wee place, but the fact that its residents now number the scorer of the most famous try in Scottish rugby history.

What Stanger and I have in common is that work brought us to the middle of the country, in his case a job with the sportscotland Institute of Sport and while both of us have since moved on to other things we still live here. In my case that is certainly because it is a much more convenient location for access to the whole of Scotland than Dundee had been and I rather suspect the same applies for the 1990 Grand Slam hero who, it would seem, does not share the great Bill McLaren’s oft-stated claim that a day out of Hawick is a day wasted.

Setting aside the daftness of the Dunblane community representative who should be trying to ensure provision of the best possible facilities for local youngsters but instead tried to tell Judy Murray, during the Park of Keir enquiry, that this would be better built somewhere else, there is probably no more appropriate site than adjacent to a roundabout which is, quite literally, central to Scotland’s transport infra-structure.

It was also put to Judy in the course of that enquiry that since some of the very few indoor tennis courts in Scotland are in Bridge of Allan, it was more important to get courts built in remoter parts. She explained very clearly and sensibly that her vision was not one or the other but both with what would be, in every sense, a centre of coaching and training excellence at Park of Keir that would cater for the very best, but could also disseminate expertise to facilities around the country.

While, then, there has been some chat locally about this week’s long overdue announcement of proper investment in the future of tennis in Scotland by the powers that be, that is the proper context in which this project must be seen.

It was never a case of either/or in this little corner of the world that suffers from weather which, even when we are not being lashed as we are this festive week, does not create the ideal climate for most outdoor sport and it is vital that we start to learn from our North Atlantic neighbours in terms of building simple, but functional, properly equipped, easy to access facilities.

Popular recognition like the latest award Andy Murray received last weekend is all very well, but he and his family are very much among those who know that in the past few years there has been far too much talk of ‘legacy’ in Scotland without meaningful delivery.

In this season of goodwill to all men and women, but most particularly a time of year when we are eager to make the world a better place for our youngsters then, the opportunity that has been presented must be properly welcomed rather than it being a case of giving with one hand and taking away with the other.