Sports Event in Meylan
November 2000
I attended the sports event for young people as a representative of Didcot.
I thoroughly enjoyed the event and was impressed by the professionalism of
the organisation and the way in which the people of Meylan welcomed everybody
who attended.
The 4 day event which was fun packed from start to finish brought together
around 100 young people (and 'young at heart' adults) from the Town's of
Didcot, Planegg, Gonzales and of course Meylan. Activities that took place
were football, volleyball, swimming, badminton and orienteering as well as
demonstrations in gymnastics, jazz dancing and martial arts.
The young people were split into groups ensuring that there was a mix of
nationalities in each group. This made for some interesting conversations
but more importantly many new friendships were made over the course of the
event. Each group was assigned a colour and issued with a T-Shirt to match.
Each team was also assigned with an adult who would be responsible for the
group throughout the event. I was placed in charge of the 'Vanilla' team,
made up of 2 French, 4 Germans and an American.
The idea of having mixed nationalities in each group was extremely successful,
although it did rather test my ability to control an excited group of teenagers
who spoke 3 different languages! Although the emphasis was on fun, each of
the sports was undertaken in a competition format, so imagine my joy when
the Vanilla team stormed to victory in the first event, the football competition!
However, the phrase “peaked too early” soon became apparent for when it came
to the afternoon event (volleyball) my team seemed a little tired to say
the least. The kids were obviously tired from their morning exertions; my
only excuse was too much wine at lunchtime! The lunches were an event in
their own right, everybody met in the college hall and extremely nice packed
lunches were provided for all. For the adults, copious amounts of wine were
supplied and as a result afternoons always seemed to be a little less hectic
than the mornings.
On the evening of the 1st day there was a 'Bring & Share' supper followed
by a disco till the early hours of the morning. All of the host families
were invited and it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
The second day saw all of the teams enter the pool for a swimming competition
followed by orienteering around Meylan in the afternoon. The purpose of the
orienteering was to ensure that everybody got to see the town of Meylan.
It certainly served this purpose, as each team must have walked about 10
miles, I now know Meylan better than Didcot!
In the evening the young people were free to either spend time with their
host families or to practice various sports in the college gym. Meanwhile
the adults headed off to Grenoble for a 5-course meal. It was a wonderful
evening and once again there was more than enough wine to enjoy.
The next morning was set aside for shopping in Grenoble, however, winter
had decided to descend upon the region, and so it was off to an indoor shopping
mall instead. In true tourist style, all of the young people headed straight
for McDonalds, I wasn't far behind them.
In the afternoon it was back to the sports hall for a Badminton competition
followed by a jazz dance demonstration. Unfortunately, due to work commitments
I had to head off to the airport mid afternoon and therefore missed out on
the closing ceremony held in the Town Hall that evening.
I can safely say that I thoroughly enjoyed myself, as too did all others
taking part, I made many friends and am extremely glad that I had the opportunity
to attend. It is largely understood that Didcot will be staging a similar
event in 2001, I wish everybody involved every success and hope that it will
be as enjoyable for those taking part as the Meylan event was.
Les Newell, Didcot Town Council