sports day on the school field

when i first joined monk's hill secondary in 1987, i was surprised to find out that they still held their sports day on the school field. granted, monk's hill had a large enough field to stage a sports meet. but, why hold it on the field when you could rent a stadium and have everything provided for. was it to keep a tradition going, i wondered?

to have it on the school field, you had to draw the lines for the tracks. the straight lines were straight forward matter but the curves needed some knowledge of mathematics and some drawing technique. they had actually buried bricks in the field to mark the spots where the curve began. still, with these aids, it took victor, aman and myself a few afternoons to get the whole 300m track done.

then you needed tentage. sheds were needed to house all the spectators, participants and invited guests. it involved a bit of logistics. students could stand to watch the races but guests and parents had to be accorded proper seating arrangement. to cut down on expenditure, the school's classroom chairs were used. to create the mood, decorations in the form of buntings and flags were put up.

they did not have field events like throwing the javelin, discus, shot put and the jumps. it was a track meet, incorporating some obstacle races. when i took over the reins from mr aman - when he got promoted to a vice-principal - i introduced the some field events as completed events, that means, they were held before the actual sports day.

subsequently, we had our sports day (renamed track and field meet) at a public stadium, either at toa payoh or farrer park. one year, the meet, held at toa payoh stadium, was 'washed out' because of heavy rain.