PC stewarding - traumatising...

atot

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I was handed over the chalk on the most vile day possible at a PC XC competition, because the steward needed to calm her nerves, but disguised it well by ''needing a pee''.

The chalk was useless on this little blackboard, the rain was NOT helping me keep all the numbers on, parents were screeching at me, I was wrapped up in at least three layers plus an oversized barbour to protect myself from the jostling, nippy ponies and the parents who were basically assaulting me so their daughter/son could go next on the 'xc' which was actually a bog/eternity of mud.

I had people offering me hotdogs to let their kiddy skip up to the top of the endless queue, althought I never actually recieved anything (yes the corrupt world of pony club got the better of me
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) probably because the driving rain and biting wind snatched it first. I fell over twice in the mud, and eventually I put on a balaclava just to keep the pack of parents at bay from scratching my eyes out.

Communication was eventually reduced to hand signals because noone could understand what anyone was saying, and I was promoted up to wearing a hi-viz vest so people would realise I was a ''steward'' and would not trample me.
My face was basically frozen into one position, so I couldn't even express disgust at some chavvy little girl yelling at me to let her go next, although I was extremely tempted to push her off her horse and watch her drown in the mud.

I eventually chucked the towel in when I fell over for the third time, and realised that the little blackboard was in danger of sinking in the muddy mess that was slowly engulfing me/ponies/lorries which had to be towed out of the hell hole.

My mother ran around handing out turnout rugs to equally traumatised/freezing children, and some camped in mum's car whilst their parents bidded for any source of warmth at the mobile cafe/stock exchange.


A fellow jump judge was lucky enough to escape unscathed apart from being wrapped in tin foil surrounded by paramedics after she began to feel 'a little nippy'.

I however, was left completely traumatised and unable to speak of the experience until now, so thank you for listening. Would anyone else like to share any similiar experiences with the group?
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You where lucky to get out of it alive. Perhaps C4 will do a docudrama of your experience to warn others who may be tempted to help out!
 
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You where lucky to get out of it alive. Perhaps C4 will do a docudrama of your experience to warn others who may be tempted to help out!

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Yes, and I'm incredibly grateful for that. However, I think part of my soul was left behind on that day...... I daren't venture back to that place to get it back....
 
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was that pony club field in walton? always fun up there! x

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*shudders*

And to think I have actually competed there!! It's a nice enough place, but my god was that day hell.x
 
Ah the joys of xc stewarding, we did quite a bit of that a few years ago. We got promoted to time keepers!!!!!!!!! It did get a bit "creative" at times
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Three stop watches and two and a half people is not a good combination, especially when half person has to keep running off with a hammer to mend fences. And you can guarantee that the only people who want to see their times are those whose time you had to guestimate becaus the rain got in the watch/ you forgot to start the watch/ the watch fell in the mud/ the half person was timing them and had to mend a fence/ some fool fell off as the person wanting the time was half way through the timed section, need I go on?
 
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Ah the joys of xc stewarding, we did quite a bit of that a few years ago. We got promoted to time keepers!!!!!!!!! It did get a bit "creative" at times
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Three stop watches and two and a half people is not a good combination, especially when half person has to keep running off with a hammer to mend fences. And you can guarantee that the only people who want to see their times are those whose time you had to guestimate becaus the rain got in the watch/ you forgot to start the watch/ the watch fell in the mud/ the half person was timing them and had to mend a fence/ some fool fell off as the person wanting the time was half way through the timed section, need I go on?

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LMAO god yes timekeeping would not suit me.
 
It didn't suit us either, but we are good at bluffing and if you say confidently ehough, 'oh yes the times are accurate' people wander off looking puzzled but failing to argue, which is essential. We also found the lack of loos a problem, plus you can't time from behind a bush, you can't even pretend it's accurate
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Oh wow, I thought that was going to be a *tale* - how superbly was that written!!

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Thank you, that means a lot Weezy.
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It all really did happen like that, but yes I wanted to write in a way that was slightly amusing/descriptive.
 
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It didn't suit us either, but we are good at bluffing and if you say confidently ehough, 'oh yes the times are accurate' people wander off looking puzzled but failing to argue, which is essential. We also found the lack of loos a problem, plus you can't time from behind a bush, you can't even pretend it's accurate
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There are NO bushes on that xc country course!! lol!!
 
Was tet manager for a pc some years ago and the timing equipment for the xc run was the real deal. Only something went wrong early on and every child's time was 30 seconds out. The organisers felt that as everyone's time was wrong by the same amount, they would leave the scores as they were rather than spend hours recalculating.

However there was a near riot amongst parents who were claiming things like "my child won't know their proper time" - get the rule book and work it out, or "my child might have got a personal best" - go home and work it out then, or "my son ran so fast he should get more points" - no, it's a sliding scale, silly! I had to go in to see the organisers and they were in an office with glass so everyone outside could see me, but not hear me.

So in the style of the Yellow Pages ad where he takes his niece into the hairdressers to get her hair sorted, I said, "That lot out there want me to complain, but I am very happy with the way things are and I think you are doing a great job!". With that I walked out and said to our parents that I had done my best and we should leave it as it was.

Funnily enought the organisers never ran that tet again. Wonder why...
 
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Was tet manager for a pc some years ago and the timing equipment for the xc run was the real deal. Only something went wrong early on and every child's time was 30 seconds out. The organisers felt that as everyone's time was wrong by the same amount, they would leave the scores as they were rather than spend hours recalculating.

However there was a near riot amongst parents who were claiming things like "my child won't know their proper time" - get the rule book and work it out, or "my child might have got a personal best" - go home and work it out then, or "my son ran so fast he should get more points" - no, it's a sliding scale, silly! I had to go in to see the organisers and they were in an office with glass so everyone outside could see me, but not hear me.

So in the style of the Yellow Pages ad where he takes his niece into the hairdressers to get her hair sorted, I said, "That lot out there want me to complain, but I am very happy with the way things are and I think you are doing a great job!". With that I walked out and said to our parents that I had done my best and we should leave it as it was.

Funnily enought the organisers never ran that tet again. Wonder why...

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good on you. Parents are SO competitive, it's like they've missed out on child hood competing and are living the dream for their children now.
 
The parents who were pushing me to go in and complain on their behalf probably think to this day how hard I tried to get it changed! Hope they don't read this forum...
 
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The parents who were pushing me to go in and complain on their behalf probably think to this day how hard I tried to get it changed! Hope they don't read this forum...

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LOL don't worry...was it quite recently? I guess they could hunt you down if they wanted to lol....

ETS - Just reread it was years ago...don't worry they will have moved on to someone else...
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LOL!!
Sounds like me when I was doing the timekeeping at an event. I had people coming up to me asking their kiddies times when im trying to juggle stopwatches, get people off and write down times, whilst trying to keep dry.

And then when I was shouting at people to come up to the start, we had one horrid child shout back at us because we said "30 seconds"...she bellowed, if Ive got 30 seconds then why are you calling me now! Well, she was miles away and we needed to make sure she started on time! Needless to say, she didnt get the bogey time....never mess with the time keepers is what I say!

Also, for my sins, I have organised countless riding club showjumping events... I have had people ask me how big the 2ft 6 is ..er...., then you get those who complain about paying £2 for the first aid (do they realise how much they cost!) and the classic ones who phone up to ask you what time does such and such a class start. We used to give rough times, but after getting it wrong once and getting loads of stick for it, I now say "Lunchtime".. That basically covers us from 11 (early lunch) to around 3!

The joys!
 
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LOL!!
Sounds like me when I was doing the timekeeping at an event. I had people coming up to me asking their kiddies times when im trying to juggle stopwatches, get people off and write down times, whilst trying to keep dry.

And then when I was shouting at people to come up to the start, we had one horrid child shout back at us because we said "30 seconds"...she bellowed, if Ive got 30 seconds then why are you calling me now! Well, she was miles away and we needed to make sure she started on time! Needless to say, she didnt get the bogey time....never mess with the time keepers is what I say!

Also, for my sins, I have organised countless riding club showjumping events... I have had people ask me how big the 2ft 6 is ..er...., then you get those who complain about paying £2 for the first aid (do they realise how much they cost!) and the classic ones who phone up to ask you what time does such and such a class start. We used to give rough times, but after getting it wrong once and getting loads of stick for it, I now say "Lunchtime".. That basically covers us from 11 (early lunch) to around 3!

The joys!

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sounds like you are quite experienced in the 'coming out alive after being involved in a PC event' - keep up the good work
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You have my sympathy, I was roped into stewarding at a tetrathlon for the running and I have never seen such horrid rude competitive people in all my life, I was truly gobsmacked!
I was brought up through PC and I just can't believe what has happened to it, no wonder the kids don't enjoy it anymore!
I had people shouting at me because I am supposed to tell the kids how many times to run round the track, but nobody told me the older ones had to go round more times, I am a HELPER FFS.
Never never never again!
 
In situations like this it is always best to face up to your fears. I think you should volunteer to help at all the local ponyclub events for the next two years
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was that pony club field in walton? always fun up there! x

[/ QUOTE ] We were up there a few weeks ago - got to be one of the most exposed places going! Must be horrific in the pouring rain!
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was that pony club field in walton? always fun up there! x

[/ QUOTE ] We were up there a few weeks ago - got to be one of the most exposed places going! Must be horrific in the pouring rain!
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It is truly hellish when it's bad weather!
 
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Oh Truffles, do you want to steward again soon!!?? Ive got a vacancy!

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Mmmm, I suppose as DM said, facing up to my fears would be the best thing.....where is it?? Bring it on!!!
 
I feel I must redress the balance here in case others are put off.
I often work in XC control at local eventing centre during BE comps.
The day starts with on tap coffee and nibbles before wandering over to the bus. Light hearted banter abounds and eventually we get round to doing some work. Fortunately this is soon interupted buy the arrival of bacon sarnies and more coffee, tea soft drinks biscuits etc. Another couple of hours are spent in the comfort of the bus idley chatting with the occasional conformation critque of the riders (only if all male team). Fortunately before we break sweat lunch arrives. All manner of tasty treats. Whoops, a faller, better do some work. Ok back to normal. anyone know when the ice creams will arrive. Best get on the radio and hurry them up. Phew there here fololwed by scones with clotted cream and jam.
Well what da ya know, its all over. Time to go get the wine
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Tis a hard life.
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That was a fab wriiten story made me smile, but sounds like a dreadful day!


I have only had one brief involvement with PC when they ask me to teach at a rally.

After I refused to let the darling child of one of the big wig parents not ride in the jumping lesson in side reins I was never asked back!
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I feel I must redress the balance here in case others are put off.
I often work in XC control at local eventing centre during BE comps.
The day starts with on tap coffee and nibbles before wandering over to the bus. Light hearted banter abounds and eventually we get round to doing some work. Fortunately this is soon interupted buy the arrival of bacon sarnies and more coffee, tea soft drinks biscuits etc. Another couple of hours are spent in the comfort of the bus idley chatting with the occasional conformation critque of the riders (only if all male team). Fortunately before we break sweat lunch arrives. All manner of tasty treats. Whoops, a faller, better do some work. Ok back to normal. anyone know when the ice creams will arrive. Best get on the radio and hurry them up. Phew there here fololwed by scones with clotted cream and jam.
Well what da ya know, its all over. Time to go get the wine
smile.gif

Tis a hard life.
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You come over to the PC field I was in and you will never be the same person again...
It sounds dreadfully taxing, all that icecream and wine....
 
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