THE ANTHONY NOLAN
BONE MARROW TRUST
Presents
IT'S A KNOCKOUT 2001
Sunday 16th September
- Littleport Leisure Centre
And
so it was that the 6 brave volunteers for the Ely On-Line "It's A Knockout"
team gathered together at Littleport Leisure Centre to do battle with
5 other teams on a chilly Sunday in September. And although this was
a competition, and some of the teams certainly treated it as such, the
real purpose of the event was to raise money for the severely underfunded
Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust. Indeed the whole event in Littleport
was initiated by our team captain Al Kitching who recently donated bone
marrow himself. |
| |
The Ely On-Line team, curiously called the Ely Flatliners for the day,
pulled on our specially printed T-Shirts and surveyed the Knockout "battlefield".
This was certainly a well organised event by the Anthony Nolan Travelling
It's A Knockout Roadshow with around six carefully planned games which
all invariably featured water! I had actually anticipated this "aquafest"
and felt glad that I had decided to wear swimming trunks under my shorts.
I did not however, envisage the amount of "aqua" that would actually
be "fested" - one of the first things the organisers did was to hurl
a couple of buckets over us all whilst explaining the rules - the main
rule being that "you will get drenched". |
And
so the first game began which involved diving through a hole in the
wall of a "bouncy castle" type affair, scrambling across said castle,
over a second "wall", crawling under a heavy net and placing a
piece into a large jigsaw - all whilst being soaked by the Trust's henchmen
of course! As he was team captain, Al took the initiative and lead the
way for our team setting off with gusto toward the first obstacle. Unfortunately
the competition lived up to its name as Big Al launched himself toward
the hole in the wall and promptly tore a ligament or two in the process
- It's A Knockout indeed! Al was still in the Accident and Emergency
Department of Hinchingbrooke Hospital at 10 pm that night. So with Al
crocked after just 5 seconds our team was reduced to 5 members - and
we had played our "Joker" - and his name was Al. |
|
|
The next event involved bungy
rope, kids wellies with holes in, sponges, and of course water. To our
immense suprise we actually won this game - damn, we should have played
our Joker! Despite being crocked Al was able to take part in this game
bravely managing to squeeze a sponge.
As the afternoon progressed and hypothermia set in it became obvious that this Ely It's A Knockout Team was not going to emulate its predecessors from 1973 and walk away with the Victors trophy! In fact Al was not able to walk away at all. |
The
organisers had saved the most sadistic game until last, and we gasped
in disbelief as the instruction to swim underwater beneath a heavy plastic
sheet followed by a nice spot of hoopla was relayed to us. Yeah
well, we were all soaked and shivering by now anyway so what the heck
- "in for a penny in for a pond" (groan). As it happened, our man Super
Steve was actually the only person from any team able to successfully
"hoop his la" after the initial scuba dive, and so although we didn't
actually win the event, we were officially christened "The Most Skillful
Team Of The Day" - and that's good enough for me! |
|
|
The event raised over £2,100 for the Trust and we would like to thank our sponsors: |
Thanks to the kind and lovely staff at UbiNetics Limited, who have so far pledged over £150 towards the charity - www.ubinetics.com Thanks also to Helen Palin and Michael Smithson who also contributed. Many thanks to everyone who sponsored the team - there is of course still time to sponsor the team if you would like! (e-mail knockout@ely.org.uk) |
 |
www.anthonynolan.org.uk |
|