Sports Day memories
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Guy Hollands – Co Director
What was your earliest sporting memory at school?Does marbles in the playground count? Very competitive as I recall.
Winter or Summer Olympics?
Summer every time
What is your favourite sport to watch/take part in?
Football to watch and play
Can you name one of your school sports teachers?
Weirdly no I can't. I remember the men themselves and some of the terrible things they did, but I seem to have wiped their names from my memory.
Who is the best sporting role model for children today?
Tough question - probably a runner - track athletes are tremendously dedicated, have a touch of glamour about them and often seem to be very positive people.
DC Jackson – Writer
What was your earliest sporting memory at school?Lessons at primary school being replaced by rounders if the weather was nice. That should be a convention that continues into adulthood, jobs, careers, whatever. If it's really sunny we should all congregate on the nearest grassy patch and play rounders.
Winter or Summer Olympics?
I'm not really in to either. If you're asking me to participate I'd say winter as a lot of those events look pretty easy as long as you have the equipment.
What is your favourite sport to watch/take part in?
Watching football, participating in... Christ I don't know, em, I quite like skiing.
Can you name one of your school sports teachers?
Mr Stanley. Whenever I describe him to people he sounds like he was a frightful prick but I really liked him. He was funny. Paranoid about 'funny boys' like McCarthy was about communists, but it was a different time. I guess this might be libellous so perhaps you should redact some letters of his name.
(Ed: Henceforth Mr Stanley will be known as Mr. Sny)
Who is the best sporting role model for children today?
A couple of years ago I'd have said Ryan Giggs... Maybe sports people shouldn't be role models other than for their dedication to their sports.
Ian Pattison – Writer
What was your earliest sporting memory at school?Playing football in the playground. We lived for football, everything else was merely tolerated.
Winter or summer Olympics?
Summer. The appeal of watching anonymous figures in lycra sliding down snowy hills has limits.
What is your favourite sport to watch/take part in?
Football.
Can you name one of your school sports teachers?
Mr Matthew Carruth, Johnstone High school. R.I.P.
Who is the best sporting role mode for children today?
I like the Juventus footballer Andrea Pirlo, for his style of playing and attitude. Here’s a little back story about Pirlo. His grandfather reputedly came to Italy from a gypsy background in Eastern Europe and spoke no Italian. A town hall official mockingly gave him the name ‘Pirla’ which, in Italian, means ‘jackass.’ I’m guessing Italian football now wishes it had a few more jackasses just like Andrea Pirlo.
AJ Taudevin - Writer
What was your earliest sporting memory at school?Egg and spoon race.
Winter or summer Olympics?
I grew up in Indonesia until I was 18 and didn't ever really watch TV so I don't have a childhood memory of any Olympics.
What is your favourite sport to watch/take part in?
Favourite sport to watch: Tennis. Favourite sport to do: Swimming.
Can you name one of your school sports teachers?
Mrs Piff was my first swimming teacher. She had a job getting me to stop swimming along the bottom of the pool.
Who is the best sporting role mode for children today?
Marion Bartoli because she is an incredible athlete and stands strong in rejection of the brutal and repulsive sexism of the sporting arena.
Alan McHugh - Writer
What was your earliest sporting memory at school?Being on the end of a 21 – 1 defeat by Wester Cleddens Primary School… and I was in goals.
Winter or summer Olympics?
Summer! It has slightly fewer unfathomable sports… the luge relay for example!
What is your favourite sport to watch/take part in?
To watch: football, despite the 21 -1 humiliation as a seven year old. To play – golf.
Can you name one of your school sports teachers?
Mr Brickley. St Mungos Academy. Painfully burned forever into my memory!
Who is the best sporting role mode for children today?
Graeme Obree. World record breaking Scottish cyclist. Succeeded against adversity and all the odds… and drug free!
Lynda Radley - Writer
What was your earliest sporting memory at school?I used to run the third leg of the hundred metres relay and remember our teacher always moving the finishing line further away as we got closer to the end in training, to stop us slowing down before the end.
Winter or Summer Olympics?
Summer.
What is your favourite sport to watch/take part in?
Well, I'm obsessed with hurling. No, not curling! Hurling. One of Ireland's national Gaelic games (a bit like shinty). It's the fastest field sport in the world, so it's amazing to watch.
Can you name one of your school sports teachers?
Mr Curran was the one who kept moving the finishing line.
Who is the best sporting role model for children today?
I'm going to say Donal Og Cusack who until recently was the hurling goalkeeper for Cork. Donal is amazingly skilled, eloquent and sportsmanlike, passionate about his sport and his county, and openly gay.
Joyce Falconer - Actor
What was your earliest sporting memory at school?Seagulls swooping down and eating the smashed eggs after the egg and spoon race.
Winter or Summer Olympics?
Summer
What is your favourite sport to watch/take part in?
I loved netball - although I’m not fit enough or fast enough any more.
Can you name one of your school sports teachers?
'Beakie'- due to his large shnoz. He was strict but liked a laugh.
Who is the best sporting role model for children today?
The charismatic Mr. Bolt. Because of his effortless flair.
Johnny McKnight – Writer
What was your earliest sporting memory at school?Coming last. Stone last. As in about 5 minutes after everyone else, at the school obstacle race. At one point I think I started running towards the start line. Me and sports have never really been a perfect match - unless it was the skipping rope race. Now if that was a Commonwealth sport, I'd be tabling. No doubt about it.
Winter or Summer Olympics?
Well I'd have to go Summer. The outfits are better, the sun is shinier plus I don’t get skiing or throwing yourself down a snowy hill on top of a tea-tray. Its not for me.
What is your favourite sport to watch/take part in?
I'm a total cliché but I love watching the ice-skating, ever since being a kid there was a sense of that being a real sport because Torvil and Dean were actually British and really, really good. I also like that the grading system messes with your mind - why is it only up to six? Why the decimal points? This doesn’t make sense! Yet, I'm now interested in this.
Can you name one of your school sports teachers?
At primary school everyone sort of pitched in for school sports so there wasn’t really any specialists. I do remember a brilliant hockey teacher in Secondary School - Mrs Lang. I got smacked in the eye with a hockey ball once and she sent me off for running into the ball. This was also the same teacher who did the cross-country races. My best friend Iain and I hated running, we used to just walk, a stroll even, on route we'd sneak into the local newsagents and buy a few cream eggs. We'd then bribe Mrs Lang to give us a run back to school in her car - who needs to run that journey twice! Not me.
Who is the best sporting role model for children today?
I think without question it has to be Tom Daly. He's an Olympic athlete, young and openly gay. I think its a real tragedy that in this day and age our sports stars tend to wait until they're retired before they feel they can poke their head out and 'admit' to being gay. The only way we can ever move forward is through visibility. I think given his age and profile its incredibly brave and honest of him. Ever read his twitter feed or instagram (yes I do, I admit it!) The amount of abuse and trolling because of his sexuality is terrifying. However there is a shift. The messages of love and thank you's is incredible and heartwarming. I think if I was a teenager, having a sporting hero as someone you could look up to as a role model would be so important. Oan yersel Tom.
Find out more information about Sports Day on our website, and book tickets online.
You can read some extracts from the script here.
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