Sports day
Plessey Woods, near Morpeth was the location of a recent event run by the Newcastle Sports School Partnership – a project run by some very dedicated people in schools, local industry, and the professional sports world. The aims of the NSSP are pretty clear – to promote sport in schools. This is a pretty important issue in my opinion, given that a good few kids seem to be lazy, & fat nowadays. (citation needed). When I was a nipper, it wasn’t uncommon to see me and my pals out in the fresh air from after breakfast to just before bedtime – playing out the Olympic events of the day, cycling to Hexham and back on Grifters ( 70 miles or more ), or taking part in inter-street world cup tournaments – using special FIFA authorised jumpers for goalposts. I digress.
The Plessey Woods event was an organised orienteering day for various schools from all parts of the city, and I turned up afterwards to record the handing over of an award certificate by the National Youth Sports Trust to Joyce Matthews, the partnership development manager for the NSSP. Upon arrival, I was greeted by the sight of several groups of youths, in their own demarcated territories. Press guys will know the score with this following shot:
As part of my brief I’d been asked to supply an A3 shot for a report cover, with all the kids included. As some of you will know, teenage kids don’t make the greatest photo subjects as they mess you around constantly – this was no exception. I managed to get everybody lined up in a sort of curved shape which looked nice in the viewfinder, and positioned the 2 main subjects appropriately. I fired off about 30 frames in a few seconds in an attempt to get at least one shot in which one of the youngsters wasn’t doing a gurn or giving me the old “petrol tanker” hand sign. As it happened, when I got back to base and started looking through the frames, it was apparent that the tough looking youths on the right of my shot had been looking just a bit too tough on purpose – that sort of disaffected, vacant stare that only teenagers with three balls can manage to pull off effectively. I had to resort to a bit of tactical cropping to get the image I needed in the end.
The event seemed to be a success, and the posh kids from Gosforth won all the medals, as was usually the case in my school days. Although we tended to chin them afterwards in the traditional post-event mêlèe. Ahhh…Walker Comprehensive…those were the days.
