CARTHA Queen's Park will offer a further demonstration of the power of building relationships with local authorities when they stage the second Jenkins & Marr Glasgow City Sevens today.

The BT Premiership 2 club may not be able to compete with Melrose in terms of scale but, as far as inclusivity is concerned, their competition is the market leader.

As well as England's top club, Sale Sharks, and CUS Torino, from Glasgow's twin city in Italy, all three Scottish pro sides and teams from every one of the SRU's regions are taking part.

While invitations to Borders sevens tournaments still operate on a grace-and-favour basis, Cartha's target has been to get the leading club from every part of Scotland involved."In terms of attendance we are not as big as Melrose, but in terms of the rugby on display we are not far away, and outside Melrose nothing comes close to us, " said Brian Gervaise, Cartha's president.

Cartha have their own long tradition to build on since, first as Cartha Athletic Club before the merger with Queen's Park, the club have staged an annual sevens since just after the Second World War.

As ambition within the club grew, they decided, around the turn of the century, upon a strategy of building the event, and last year persuaded the city council to offer its support.

With CUS Torino to be the council's guests at a civic reception this weekend, there are clear mutual benefits, and Gervaise noted that this is a perfect example of how clubs must work with local authorities. "Our relationship is growing because in so many ways our agenda runs absolutely parallel to the council's when we consider issues such as health, crime prevention and social deprivation, " he said.

"Particularly given the situation the SRU have found themselves in financially, this is the way forward. Every club in the country should be looking at getting involved with their local authorities."

While many in the club game still bleat about the lack of financial support from Murrayfield, the example set by Cartha is an important one, not least because it is manifesting itself in progress at first-team level.

"I'm not sure anyone here believed we could get as close as we did to reaching Premier 1 when this season began - Cartha were runners-up in Premier 2 and lost a Scottish Cup semi-final in injury time - but it is not unrealistic now to think about bridging the gap, " said Gervaise.