I’m ambivalent about sports days (particularly the competitive/non-competitive debate) so wonder what other people think about them. Evan’s was good fun, with many of the typical inversions of reality:
– rapturous applause for questionable accomplishments (e.g. someone slows down to alter their hairband and drifts to an irreconcilable distance from the rest, but decides, on balance, to finish the race anyway and receives a delirious reception.)
– Headteacher wearing Lycra
– Activities which bear little relationship to the ‘outside world.’ In one event, they had to non-competitively squeeze a sponge into a bucket before running back to pass the dry sponge on as a baton, repeating the process of soaking and rinsing. No problem with that, but what are they alluding to?
– Heightened concentration/ altered consciousness for feats which exist in a vacuum. You only deliberately walk slowly with a spoon at a sports day -wouldn’t it be more relevant to walk slowly with a knife?
– Odd behaviour from parents who aren’t used to having time off, and are only able to do so because their American boss is still asleep. While watching the sack ‘race’, one said ‘what’s the take home from this then?’
Also, while most people seem
to jog around their neighbourhood, you rarely hear someone say ‘I’m just popping out for a sprint.’ The results of doing so at the end of a sports day seem regrettable. There was one pile up of dads on a bend, the obligatory ladies’ shoe flying off and other instances of people hitting the deck under no pressure. A good day, but probably more questions than answers at the end of it.
Wilderspool Causeway 
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