FRANCINE Clee's article (August 10) about women liking sport was sexist and very disappointing but not surprising.

Whilst boasting about her in-depth knowledge of men's football, men's cricket etc, etc, she reinforced the widely held view in this country, particularly within the media, that sport is not something that women do.

She made no mention of great sportswomen, instead of Ilie Nastase, what about Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova or even the great Val Robinson, a supremely gifted hockey player and twice BBC Superstars Champion (I can imagine many readers saying "who is she," which illustrates my point).

Until the media learns to treat sportswomen with a little interest, we shall continue to have a dearth of role models. We need to encourage young girls to take up sport, to participate, and not to grow up believing, as most of the media implies, that sport is solely for men to do and women, if they want, to watch men do.

June Hutt,

Temple Road,

Bishopthorpe,

York.

Updated: 10:10 Tuesday, August 16, 2005