When John Dunlop, chief executive of Scottish Squash, got in touch last week to explain that his organisation had been forced to recruit a second club in order to stage the Central Junior Squash Championships, I was intrigued.

My own experience of playing squash regularly ended about a decade ago, at which time it felt like a sport in near-terminal decline; every club team we faced was largely made up of men of advanced middle age.

As Dunlop noted, squash has no Olympic bounce from which to benefit. Yet a quick visit to Dunblane Sports Club, the aforementioned spill-over venue, confirmed that, at a time when most sports are struggling to convert primary school participants into secondary school competitors, there was no shortage of teenage involvement in this under-19 event.

In short, profile may help sports to gain interest – the same club which so recently played host to Andy Murray's homecoming apparently now has more junior members than seniors – but it is the hard work of administrators with vision that will provide the real legacy, Olympic, Commonwealth or otherwise.

"Interestingly we are a sport that has hitherto hardly registered in our state schools, yet as we roll out our new formats designed for Scottish primary and secondary schools and start to engage with the active schools networks and sports development staff in the local authorities, awareness and demand for our sports will only rise further," observed Dunlop.

"We recognise that our kids have a choice. Many of them play other sports and at a high level, but I think they realise that squash helps them in their other sports."

As the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the state of our national game of football continues, there is an important point to absorb here.

Dunlop, a former SFA executive, notes that the late, great Davie Cooper was a high-class squash player and believes the nature of the sport helped his football.

Not for the first time, I point out that, until the football fraternity stops insisting on addressing their sport's problems at the expense of all else, often very aggressively, we will not recreate the sporting culture in this country that will let us prosper on the sports field in anything other than isolated, individual cases.

How smug must Gloucester rugby club's owners be feeling right now?

Just six months ago, they were threatening legal action against Sale Sharks when Bryan Redpath quit the West Country club amid reports that he was set to return to Lancashire where he spent an important chunk of his playing career.

Lo and behold Redpath soon signed a four-year deal with Sale. The outcome? Gloucester, under Nigel Davies' leadership, are second in the Aviva Premiership, while Redpath has just been removed from his post as director of rugby following the Sharks' worst run of Premiership defeats. Be careful what you wish for.

On which note, what of Richie Gray whose move to Sale this summer mystified all bar the player himself and a handful of advisers? The lock's talent is such that decent displays for Scotland this season will still surely earn him a place on the British & Irish Lions tour next summer.

Unlike Glasgow Warriors, the club he left, Sale have at least registered a Heineken Cup win this season, but you cannot help but feel that it would still be more fun to be at Scotstoun this week aiming for a club record sixth successive league win.

The irony seemed to pass Mark Dodson by as he delivered his complaint about England's Premiership clubs engaging in "selective leakage" in their battle over the future of the Heineken Cup to a group of hand-picked Scottish journalists.

Invitations from the SRU chief executive to a gathering at a plush room overlooking St Andrews Old Course were, we had been told, "personal and not transferable": surely the definition of selectivity.

Hard, too, to understand why, if they wanted to ensure that their message is openly and fairly distributed, they would insist on that clause, unless, of course, they are seeking to indicate that there are circumstances under which some may not be invited to such gatherings in future.

The SRU has previous on this under another regime, once having withheld an invitation from this correspondent to a briefing hosted by the former chief executive Gordon McKie. When I turned up anyway, they did not seek to eject me, but my, what a stushie followed.

That was then, though and this is now, so we must assume that, far from seeking to use invitations as weapons, Mr Dodson just likes the look of a few media types in particular, and be grateful for it.

Not too grateful, though, since I was, dear reader, all too conscious that, albeit we were told the SRU debt is now only around £13m, these are difficult times so I chose only a sliver of fish, a few chips and a hefty helping of parmesan-sprinkled rocket from the buffet provided.

Others did indulge more enthusiastically by ploughing into the dessert, but that is a matter for their consciences.

As someone – almost – once said: "Let them eat their cake."