We set it up because we realised that doctors were hesitant to send people on fitness programmes because they didn’t have a medical basis

“We set it up because we realised that doctors were hesitant to send people on fitness programmes because they didn’t have a medical basis.”More than 100 leisure centres across the country have already applied to have staff trained as “referral programme consultants”. By the time the courses begin next April, the foundation hopes 400 leisure centres will take part, following the success of a pilot scheme in Bournemouth.”The pilot scheme began two years ago and there are currently 534 people referred there. It is now funded by the Dorset Health Commission who completely endorse it,” Mr Wallace said.Mr Wallace said that although paying for people to attend fitness classes might appear expensive in the short term, “Patients become less dependent on expensive medication so they’re cutting down on the drugs bill,” he said. For Campomanes the defining sentence will be ‘They kicked him out’.”. JOJO MOYES

The hypochondriac – scourge of doctor’s waiting rooms everywhere – might soon be prescribed advanced aerobics instead of antibiotics, following the launch of a scheme yesterday in which fitness programmes will be available on prescription.
The Wright Foundation Medical Referral Programme aims to bring together doctors and fitness experts to provide people with medically prescribed fitness programmes at their local leisure centres.Patients with “prescriptions” will be able to use fitness facilities under supervision by specially trained fitness experts and at half the normal price.”The medical professional will be putting in a prescription, as we call it, which contains patient details that the referral consultant has to take into consideration,” said Murdo Wallace, chairman and founder of the Wright Foundation, which masterminded the scheme. Soon after, it was announced that the Karpov-Kamsky match for the Fide championship would take place in Montreal.The American grandmaster Larry Evans, a veteran anti-Campomanes campaigner, summed it all up: “Every figure in history gets about one defining sentence.

The figures supported allegations that the president was spending more than Fide could afford.Without waiting for another vote, Campomanes resigned. It still had to be confirmed by the General Assembly, but this time his opponents seemed to have done their homework. Another report, on the state of Fide finances, sealed his fate. Both Karpov and Kamsky wrote furious open letters to Campomanes, Karpov accusing him of acting like “God and Tsar”, while Kamsky accused him of being an ally of Kasparov in the latter’s efforts “to prevent the Karpov-Kamsky match”.In September 1995, a letter was delivered to Fide headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, signed by 61 delegates from member nations, calling for an extraordinary general meeting. Campomanes negotiated, and managed to have it downgraded to an ordinary general meeting, but a motion of no-confidence in him was still on the agenda. So was a report on alleged irregularities during Campomanes’ re-election in Moscow.The no-confidence motion was passed by the central committee. Yet the delay in organising Karpov-Kamsky brought accusations that the Fide cycle was being quietly forgotten.

While full details of the Campomanes-Kasparov deal were never published, one major component had been the promise of a unifying match for the world championship in 1996. Yet Campomanes, who had shown considerable skill in the past in finding multi-million-dollar sponsors for world title matches, was making no apparent effort to secure backing for the Karpov-Kamsky match. The schism was damaging to both organisations: the PCA lacked the credibility of backing by the world governing body; Fide lacked the support of the strongest player in the world. So Campomanes was re-elected, and that is when the problems got worse.While the PCA championship cycle proceeded smoothly, the Fide version ground to an unexpected halt after Kamsky and Karpov qualified for the final. At the Fide congress in Moscow last December, he changed his mind. His candidacy was supported in a stirring speech by Garry Kasparov, who said: “If Campomanes wants to stay four more years, I would support him.”Their joint platform was built on an agreement to reunify the two world titles.

At this stage, Campomanes comes back into the story.At the end of 1994, his fourth term as Fide president was coming to a close and he had announced that he would not seek re-election. Between 1993 and 1995, the PCA and Fide ran parallel world championship eliminators. Kasparov defended his title a month ago against the young Indian challenger, Viswanathan Anand, while Anatoly Karpov, who had recaptured the Fide title, faced a challenge from the American, former Russian, Gata Kamsky. The prize money was far less than Short had been led to expect. So he contacted Kasparov and suggested they take their custom elsewhere.The result was the formation of the PCA, the expulsion of both Short and Kasparov from Fide, and the creation of two world championship titles. Short’s gripe with Fide in general and Campomanes in particular lay in a belief that he was being short-changed in their decision to accept a bid from Manchester to stage the title match. This time, however, he has been brought down by his efforts to do a deal with the rival Professional Chess Association and its leader, Garry Kasparov, the former Fide world championThe battles began in 1985 when Campomanes terminated Kasparov’s world championship match against Anatoly Karpov after the combatants had been at each other’s throats for five-and-a-half months.

Convinced that Campomanes was robbing him of a chance to win the title, Kasparov declared war against the Fide president.The sniping between them continued until 1993 when Kasparov, whose anti- Fide stance had not been supported by his fellow grandmasters, found an unlikely ally in England’s Nigel Short, who was his official world championship challenger. WILLIAM HARTSTON

Chess Correspondent
Florencio Campomanes, president of the International Chess Federation (Fide) for 17 turbulent years, has resigned his post after a motion of no confidence was passed against him “and his whole team” at a meeting of the Fide Central Committee in Paris.With his colourfully autocratic style, the 68-year-old Filipino had led Fide into some of the greatest crises in its history, yet his political skills had always in the past seemed to thrive on the storms and disputes he created. He said he will study material sent to him by different groups before making up his mind on his proposed Bill.. Double summer time was tried 25 years ago but it was dropped after a number of children were killed in Scotland on their way to school.Second in the ballot was Alan Meale, Labour MP for Mansfield. Twenty names were drawn but the constraints of parliamentary time mean only about half a dozen are likely to reach the statute book, and only then if they are not too controversial.Two years ago MPs voted by 103 votes to 86 in favour of a Bill to advance the clocks but the parliamentary timetable meant it made no progress.During the Second World War clocks were changed four times a year to maximise daylight.