R.E. FIELD RECORDS, GHQ FAYID
"FAYID OLYMPICS"
As Remembered By Dave Hickman
One very, very hot summer afternoon, sometime during ’54,
I was laid in my pit as usual, when a corporal (I knew he was a corporal because
he was carrying a clip board – they all did!) came in and said “We
are organising a Fayid Olympics (well a sports afternoon) in the Stadium in
GHQ Fayid”.
He then asked me “What events I would enter?”
Getting tired of all this chat, I said “Put me down for everything” and forgot all about it until the programme was printed a month later and a copy arrived on my desk in GHQ. To my surprise my name was against every event!
Come the day of the 'Olympics', and competitor Sapper Dave turned up in his red tee shirt and shorts to find that the GHQ stadium (a sandy area in the centre of GHQ which had a small amount of concrete seating at one side) had been transformed. Typical army, someone had painted white lines everywhere. There were lines running round the arena, with odd lines and boxes and weird shapes in the centre of the sand. They had erected flag poles, with flags of all regiments flying.
My problems started while I was running 25 times around the stadium for the mile race. The tannoy crackled out “Sapper Hickman report for the high jump”. While competing in the 500 yds it was “Will Sapper Hickman report for the hop step & jump”. This continued over and over, throughout the day.
Over the years I have lost that programme with my name against each event, I wondered if any Zoner still has a copy or can remember this event?
By the way, I did not win any event, but as they say, it’s the taking part that counts.