Organisers Celebrate “Brilliant” Saddleworth Village Olympics
The senior long jump competition. (picture: Nick Watts/Urban Haze)
The Saddleworth Village Olympics came to an end for another year last weekend, and organisers have said it was a “brilliant” event once again.
More than 1,000 local youngsters took part in a variety of sports, ranging from athletics and swimming to football and cricket.
Steve Bradley, one of the co-ordinators of the Delph and Denshaw squad and SVO spokesman, said it was a “fantastic” month of competition.
He said: “We were lucky some days with the weather, and other days we weren’t so lucky. But everything went ahead.”
Steve added: “We finished with the football at Churchill on Sunday which was a really good event. We also had the cricket on Saturday, we ended up getting a bit wet towards the end but nobody seemed to mind.”
The Saddleworth Village Olympics was first held in 1985, and were inspired by the Los Angeles summer games of the previous year. Diggle, Dobcross, Greenfield and Uppermill enter individual teams, with a further three squads made up of combinations of different Saddleworth villages.
Success was shared out among the different teams this year. Greenfield did particularly well in the cricket, the combined Lydgate Grasscroft Friezland and Grotton team dominated the swimming, while basketball and rugby league went the way of the Scouthead Austerlands Springhead squad. Dobcross took a special fair play prize.
Steve added that it was a particular joy to see the younger athletes, aged from seven upwards, taking part.
He said: “There was some good quality sport played by all age groups. But it’s the seven to 11 year-olds who are great to watch. They enjoy sport as it should be, they have lots of fun running and jumping around and getting excited, and cheering everyone else on.”
Steve also said that the organisers would soon be meeting to review how the event went, and talk about possible improvements for next year, before the planning for 2012 begins.
He commented: “Our main aim for next year will be to increase the number of children taking part again, especially the younger ones. My philosophy is that once they’ve had a taste of it, the ones that can might go on to join local sports clubs, but even if the others end up just playing a bit of social football or badminton then they’ve got a hobby out of it. It’s much better than being sat in front of a computer screen.”
The official photos of this year’s event were once again taken by Nick Watts of Urban Haze. You can view them all and order prints from the Urban Haze website here.
News updates about the Olympics can be found at the blog here, and results from the different sports can be seen here.
Author: Jude Gidney - Editor
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