The Games - part 1

End of first shift, Commonwealth Games, July 2022

Before the day that competition started, I was listed for two days of Venue Specific Training and induction to the role, at the actual location for the badminton in the NEC. Information about this was slow to arrive, especially as the train strike meant that plans probably had to be amended at the last minute, but thanks to an email the previous evening I got to the car park where I intended to park in good time, which is no mean feat at the NEC.

It was a long walk from the car park to the first queue, which was for the accreditation to enter the venue. The next queue was for airport-style screening, where they only had one gate in action to start with. Then they announced to the long line of people that they had opened a second gate, but didn't have any more of the trays so it didn't speed up all that much. That got us inside the security fence, but it was still another long walk to get to the assembly point for us volunteers, where we started to line up for our lunch tickets but were told we should just go and sit in the break area where there were hot drinks and biscuits for us. A bit later we were asked to line up again for our lunch tickets, and then immediately told sorry, could you sit down again?

As you can imagine, this gave those people who love to complain a great deal to complain about, as well as the train strike, parking, the uniform and everything else that was actually working very well considering the size of the enterprise. This was fairly useful in that I could easily identify the people to keep away from. By this method I was hanging out in the break area when I discovered sitting next to me one of the nicest badminton players in a club where I was a member ten years ago.

There seemed to be about 50 volunteers for the badminton, and after we'd been hanging around for some more time they took half of us from the break area to the hall where the competition would take place and we received our training from a team whose first language was not English and who were wearing masks. In fact, they told us we would all be wearing masks on court. But thankfully the main trainer took his mask off, and there were written help sheets, and a presentation and videos, and we went through all the technology and could have a short practice.

The role involves two of us at a time sitting at a table at the side of the court watching the play. One person uses a laptop and the other one has pen and paper. The pen and paper role is the more straightforward: first you note who is serving, then you count the strokes in the rally, then you note down what the score is, and repeat.

The tech role involves much more, and what we do is sent directly to broadcasters, so there is an element of jeopardy too. The majority of the time it is similarly just counting strokes and noting the score, but there are additional responsibilities when old shuttlecocks are exchanged for new, if a Service Fault is called (when the serve starts above the waist), if any penalties are applied (yellow and red cards and disqualification), and if a Video Review is requested. This last is the most terrifying, because we have to record which team requested the review and whether it is successful or unsuccessful, and it is very easy to become confused about these things in the heat of the moment.

Our trainers reassured us that should anything go wrong we just raise our hands and they will instantly be at our sides, but it was still a bit terrifying, especially for the very first shift. My first shift was with someone who'd done it the previous day, and he worked the laptop while I was on pen and paper. It still took two of us when the video reviews happened, because we had to look at a screen that was not facing us and the result came up very small and difficult to see.

My shift pattern kept changing, but in the end I did five shifts on the courtside desk and attended six badminton sessions and one table tennis session as a spectator, sometimes in the company of friends, sometimes on my own. The table tennis was very interesting - it's much faster paced than badminton and much more difficult to see what's going on, and without any experience of the game I didn't appreciate what must be immense skill among the players. I sat near some helpful people who explained the bits that I didn't immediately understand (why they make such a performance out of serving, why the umpire kept raising his hand, how does the order of serving work...)

And to finish this first part of my account, a snap of the England badminton team at the end of the team event.