Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Schools Summer Games Festival.
Another day of sitting in the sunshine.
Not in the garden as I had been contemplating yesterday evening, but at the track.
As I climbed into bed last night I looked ahead to the next day and remembered that we had timekeeping duties.
The event was the culmination of the Sussex area part of a nationwide scheme to get young people interested in a sport of some sort.
On Wednesday 10 July young athletes from across the county will travel to K2, Crawley to compete in the Sainsbury’s School Games Summer Festival. Around 800 participants will represent their area in athletics, stoolball, golf, netball, cricket, gymnastics and table tennis. Billed as a mini-Olympics, the day will include an opening ceremony and closing medal ceremonies, and visits from some very special guests
Bill and I took our seats on the timekeeping steps along with old friend, Keith.
Each of us had a 6th form girl working with us.
Lovely girls!
The sun shone down and all was delightful.
The events in the morning were for Year 7 kids - 12 year olds.
Each area of the county had one school to represent them.
In the afternoon the events were for years 5 and 6 - they all did 4 events (just like the 4 event competition at Brighton last Sunday)
My girl timekeeper was Georgina; she had never done it before and probably never will again. I had 5 minutes to teach her the skills and opted for the very simplest method of getting it right most of the time.
Basically if you stop your watch as the leading foot hits the floor over the finishing line it would be at just about the same moment that the torso actually gets to the line. It's not the correct method and it doesn't always work.
But Georgina and I were very quickly getting very similar times on our watches most of the time.
The other girls were not - they were, as expected, anticipating the finish and ending up with short times.
What do you think of that Dave and Lorraine?
All the 6th form helpers had T shirts with Young Event Maker on the back.
Why couldn't I have one? OK - I am not young.
The final events were shuttle relays for the 11s and under.
This event was superbly organised and very enjoyable.
Hope Saturday will be just as pleasing, when we are back on the steps once again.
It's going to be a scorcher on Saturday.
Not in the garden as I had been contemplating yesterday evening, but at the track.
As I climbed into bed last night I looked ahead to the next day and remembered that we had timekeeping duties.
The event was the culmination of the Sussex area part of a nationwide scheme to get young people interested in a sport of some sort.
On Wednesday 10 July young athletes from across the county will travel to K2, Crawley to compete in the Sainsbury’s School Games Summer Festival. Around 800 participants will represent their area in athletics, stoolball, golf, netball, cricket, gymnastics and table tennis. Billed as a mini-Olympics, the day will include an opening ceremony and closing medal ceremonies, and visits from some very special guests
Bill and I took our seats on the timekeeping steps along with old friend, Keith.
Each of us had a 6th form girl working with us.
Lovely girls!
The sun shone down and all was delightful.
The events in the morning were for Year 7 kids - 12 year olds.
Each area of the county had one school to represent them.
In the afternoon the events were for years 5 and 6 - they all did 4 events (just like the 4 event competition at Brighton last Sunday)
My girl timekeeper was Georgina; she had never done it before and probably never will again. I had 5 minutes to teach her the skills and opted for the very simplest method of getting it right most of the time.
Basically if you stop your watch as the leading foot hits the floor over the finishing line it would be at just about the same moment that the torso actually gets to the line. It's not the correct method and it doesn't always work.
But Georgina and I were very quickly getting very similar times on our watches most of the time.
The other girls were not - they were, as expected, anticipating the finish and ending up with short times.
What do you think of that Dave and Lorraine?
All the 6th form helpers had T shirts with Young Event Maker on the back.
Why couldn't I have one? OK - I am not young.
The final events were shuttle relays for the 11s and under.
This event was superbly organised and very enjoyable.
Hope Saturday will be just as pleasing, when we are back on the steps once again.
It's going to be a scorcher on Saturday.
