Field Judge

Having responded positively to my sons athletic club’s appeal for volunteers to help officiate at the Sunday meetings, I wrapped up warm and, armed only with the sketchy knowledge gleaned from long gone schoolboy participation and watching a dozen Olympic Games, stepped into the arena to play my part as follows: first manning the high jump bar, which was demolished just the once; then off to the long jump pit where my job was to “spike” the spot where the jump landed with (bizarrely)  a meat thermometer poked through the end of the measuring tape  - the distance was read off the other end at the take-off board, but at least I could confirm each jump was ‘well done’; next job was retrieving javelins which thankfully weren’t going very far nor very fast; to finish off were three rather low key senior events (shot put and triple jump), with only one competitors in each; nevertheless the five hours went quicker than usual and it was good to support the hard-working coaches who make it all possible for the youngsters.