Northern ITers get in on a bumper sporting weekend
Last weekend was a bumper weekend for domestic sport, with England and Ireland in action in the World Cup, Tim Henman battling it...
The sun was out, the shirts (or at least some of them) were off and fun was never far away. Kicking off proceedings on the track was a rather peculiar event which required contestants to don hard hats supporting large plastic baskets. Meanwhile, on the field, the football event was also proving to be deceptively difficult.
Consignia Veterans were certainly not short of excuses. "The balls are too hard," exclaimed one, with another member, clearly more at home on the rugby field, jokingly commenting that the balls were "the wrong shape".
A bit of gerrymandering with the lines in the hockey ball dribbling competition meant that the lanes were rather narrow and negotiating the turns became somewhat difficult. More than one of the competitors was disqualified for touching the edges of their lanes. The real shocks were still to come, however.
The Northern heat is traditionally the smallest and, as it transpired, all of the 11 teams ended up qualifying for the final. The winning men's team was Royal London, which romped home with 192 points, some 53 points clear of second-placed team Halifax 1.
However, Halifax had the last laugh in the women's event, pipping the Royal London women to the post. Halifax, which entered an impressive six teams in the heat, was also awarded a special prize from the organisers for its outstanding contribution to the event over its 25-year history.