ACO NEWSLETTER - Ecb - England and Wales Cricket Board

Hidden talents – London 2012 Experience by Colin BarthorpeFollowing on from Issue 14 which noted the efforts of volunteers throughout the Olympics,including our very own Lin Martin, we were made aware of Colin Barthorpe’s involvement as aHockey Statistics Team Leader. Therefore we had to ask Colin for a summary of his experience.The email arrived in mid-February. “Wewould like to invite you to become NationalTechnical Officer, Hockey Statistics TeamLeader”. I could hardly contain my joy; Iwas going to be closely involved in thegreatest sports event on earth. I already hada role as a Games Maker, ironically as oneof the team who would be supporting theTechnical Team from the Tournament Director,International Technical Officials,Umpires and NTO’s but now I was going toexperience being part of the TechnicalTeam at close hand.So what would I be doing? As TeamLeader I led a team of 5 NTO’s, includingmyself, and 20 Games Maker Statisticians.Initially I would have one NTO and 4 Statisticianscovering each game. We would bebased in the Timing and Scoring Room atthe very top of the main stand and our jobwas to capture all the statistics in real time.This information would be instantly availableto the 5000 journalists in the MediaCentre, and all round the world, and wasthe information used by the broadcasters aswell as providing copies to the competingteams at half time and full time. Three ofmy 4 NTO colleagues were InternationalTechnical Officials, all from Scotland whistthe fourth was an IT specialist who coachesStaines Ladies in the National League.Why did I get this appointment? Firstly Isuspect because of my extensive involvementin hockey administration and officiatingat domestic and international level overa period of 22 years, but also because I wasable to demonstrate my ability at inputtingstatistics on a computer, largely due to havingscored for Shropshire County CricketClub for 13 years, the last 5 using TCS. Iam sure that without that experience Iwould not have got the job.What training did we receive? Well nota lot really. The 5 of us were invited to ahalf days training at LOCOG’s base in CanaryWharf where we were introduced tothe procedures, protocols and technologywe would be using. As for our team of statisticians,we met them less than one hourbefore the Test Event dress rehearsal inMay, and they had not seen the ReferenceManual or had any real idea of what theywould be expected to do!! Not surprisinglywe made mistakes at the Test Event as wegot used to our role, but that is what theTest Event was all about. From our experiencesthere we made some changes, such ashaving a substitute caller situated directlybehind the team benches and adding a secondinput tablet just to cope with all thesubstitutions. The caller was in radio contactwith the inputter upstairs. It was vitalthat we logged every substitution on andoff very quickly. As an example of whatmight and did happen if a player went onand immediately scored a goal we couldnot log the scorer unless the system showedthey were actually on the pitch. Given thatTV required that we needed to identify theplayer’s number and log it into the systemwithin 10 seconds there was considerablepressure. The TV commentator and stadiumannouncer could not announce thescorer until we had completed that action.We were also in radio contact with theTechnical Table at pitchside, as it was vitalthat the information we logged matched theofficial match sheet produced at the end ofthe game.For the Olympic Games we made furtherchanges. We quickly found that weneeded 2 substitute spotters on each game,both in radio contact with the inputter upstairs.Some teams made as many as 75substitutions per match and when we had 2such teams it became hard. Often we wouldhave as many as 8 changes all being madeat the same time and one person was unableto cope. We got round that by usingone of my NTO colleagues as the secondspotter, meaning that we ended up with ateam of 7 covering each game. I think therecord number of substitutions we loggedin one match was 147!!We shared our room with the main scoreboardoperator and with Omega technicians.Fortunately they were able to amend informationinstantly. Apart from the substitutionswe logged every change of possession,every card issued, every circle penetrationand every shot. Each shot had as many as 8possible outcomes, such as goal, miss, save,block, post and if there was a flurry of activityit was hard to keep up.My NTOs worked in pairs. One pairwould leave the hotel at 0630, cover thefirst 3 matches of the day and the otherpair would leave the hotel at 1400, coverthe last 3 matches and return to the hotel at2330. Each of us had a day off in every 5and most of us kept away from the hockeyon those days. Our teams of statisticiansworked one session per day, covering 2matches, so we had 3 of the 4 teams workingeach day. These Games Makers wereall volunteers, some having to get up at0430 in the morning and others gettinghome at 0200 in the morning!!So what will I remember from my experience?Firstly, meeting and working againwith many old friends from around theworld whom I had met at previous tournaments,as well as meeting and making newfriends. Secondly, the extraordinary professionalismof those who had worked sohard over the past 2 or 3 years to put thehockey tournament together. Sue Catton,the Hockey Manager, must have felt veryproud at what she had achieved, togetherwith Sarah Capel from England Hockey,the Technology Manager. Sarah has beenrewarded by being appointed as HockeyManager for the Commonwealth Games inGlasgow in 2014 so she faces a furtherchallenge. Also Steve Brooks, an oldfriend who many of you will know whowas in charge of all the support staff lookingafter us.We were fortunate enough to be given aticket for the Opening Ceremony whichwas a great experience. Some of us managedto see the odd session of other sports,something I was unable to do but just towalk through the Park mingling with allthe crowds was a magic experience. Howevermy abiding memory, like so many ofus, was of the fantastic contribution madeby the vast army of Games Makers. Manye-mail us at ecbaco@ecb.co.uk 18 contact us on 0121 446 2710