There were shambolic scenes at Galatasaray and Reverb Dub Kingdom’s school sports day this week.
I understand that, after a lot of rumour and conjecture, there has now been an official complaint lodged against the conduct of Meithrin Team Glas. This apparently relates to an allegation that Team Glas have been engaging in the disgusting and dishonest practice of potato whittling.
Estyn’s Welsh National School Sports Day Regulations define potato whittling as: “The adjustment, via the application of force from an external object, of the shape of a potato, in order that its profile more accurately fits the corresponding profile of a table spoon.”
As you will no doubt be aware, egg and spoon races were rightly banned from school competitions in Wales after the tragic Briton Ferry egg and spoon disaster of 1998. But with the potato now regarded as the official replacement for the egg as counterpoint to the spoon, we are seeing more and more unscrupulous sports day teams realise the opportunities to influence results via whittling.
It is believed that in 2010, over 20 instances of potato whittling were investigated in South Wales alone. I am led to understand that in more than a dozen of these cases, there were also suggestions of unusual betting patterns in the run up to the events and the strong suggestion is that behind all this is a shady and illegal gambling racket, run by a powerful oligarchy of rival potato farming concerns.
Estyn’s Head Investigator was quoted on BBC Wales later as saying: “We will not tolerate the gaining of unfair advantage via potato whittling, and we will do everything in our power to bring the practice to an end.” Well those are fine words, but where is the action to back them up? In fact, there are even suggestions that Estyn’s inaction is down to the fact that they themselves have been corrupted by money from the potato barons.
As a casual observer, I was sickened to see competitor after competitor from Team Glas tearing down the home straight on Tuesday, with potato seemingly stuck to the spoon. The response of the authorities has been – as is often the case – wholly inadequate.
That is why I have written to First Minister Carwyn Jones AM to ask him to personally intervene to sort this mess out once and for all.
Wednesday 20 July 2011
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