Photo: President Gordon Ward greets Stewart Tosh, with Club Member Jim Foote (L) and Press Officer, John Dobson (R)

Talk by Mr. Stewart Tosh on 'The Commonwealth Games'

Club President Gordon Ward welcomed members to the meeting and then introduced our speaker for the morning Mr Stewart Tosh. Stewart gave the members an extremely interesting and topical talk about the 'Commonwealth Games', the 20th of which was being held in Glasgow this summer. A brief summary of this talk, with photos, is also available in the Speakers Record Book.

At the beginning of the talk, we learnt that Club Member Norman Maxwell had taught Stewart, so clearly he was on his best behaviour! Even Stewart, the General Team Manager for the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games team, representing our province in Glasgow 2014, had one eye on just who was in his audience. Despite this he thought he would start his talk with a joke, which went down well with the members and showed the commonly held views of national (English, Scottish, Welsh and NI) characteristics. The reason for the joke was to illustrate how a group of people from different countries can generate 'fun'. Just imagine what fun there is when people from 70 countries get together, for the Commonwealth Games are known as 'The Friendly Games', and are second in world of athletics and sports, only to the Olympics.

Stewart went on to give a very comprehensive and clear description of; how the Commonwealth Games Federation was structured; how NI fitted into that structure; how, from his perspective as NI General Manager, the games were organised and how the NI team was put together. Team selection is based on sporting achievement and performance over a period of time. For Glasgow, there will be around 160 athletes chosen from around NI, competing in 14 out of a possible 17 disciplines.

The whole games are staged, like the Olympics, staged every four years. But in reality, planning for the event is over a six year cycle, there normally being extensive infrastructure projects - stadium, accommodation, transport links etc. to update / renovate / build to cater for the several 1000 competitors and the spectators / tourists these games attract. Glasgow has a budget of over £500m set aside to pay for the event.

For Stewart, the essential elements for the games and his role were the planning of:

• 1) Ceremonies (there are eight main ones for each games)
• 2) Security (the bigger the event, the bigger the terrorist threat - in Deli - India - 2010, there were 90,000 Police deployed every day of the games. Statistic note; the entire British Army numbers 85,000!)
• 3) Health (the medical team assisting the sports team is extensive, and so is the equipment they need to take)
• 4) Transport (It's not just booking a plane seat, how do you get the pole vultures poles on the plane? Or, try putting the Bowls team 'woods' (possible 8 per competitor) into hand baggage! - Headaches all round!)
• 5) Food (the right balance of nutrition and hygiene - 'Deli Belli' is no joke and very seriously debilitating)

Drawing towards the end of his talk, Stewart gave an assessment on the prospects for 'Team NI'. The previous games in India the Team went with good prospects of 4 medals, and came home with 10. For Glasgow, there is a realistic prospect of 5. What the final total is, is not a matter of 'winning' or 'loosing', the difference between getting a medal or not getting a medal, can be (often is!) only one or two 1/100 of a second. If the competitor is fourth by that margin and has produced a personal best in get that far, they are the real winners.
Stewart finished his talk and presentation by showing a short video compiled from Team NI's participation at Deli 2010. This was a very inspiring and rewarding video, and so good to see so many young people of different nationalities, competing AND enjoying themselves too.

Needless to say, members were keen to ask some questions. Among them were: 'How many countries represented in Glasgow?' - 70 this year, Ghana withdrew from 2010 line up. 'How did you (Stewart) become involved with the Federation?' - Interest in sport from school days, developed more in Police Service (Triathlon), then got involved with sports governing body and somehow on to the CGF. 'What's the prospects for NI hosting a CG in the future?' - possibly nil, as the budget required currently is more than `Stormont' could possibly afford, BUT there are pressures to reduce the expenditure and expectations - for instance, the recent 'Police and Fire Service World Games' was staged in Belfast for less money than just the opening ceremony part of the Glasgow games will cost. 'Where is the next CG to be held?' Gold Coast, Australia.

A vote of thanks was proposed by Jim Foote, who said that we were all pleased Stewart could take the time out to talk to us, and what an excellent talk it was, with such insights into the background preparation and organisation, a really fascinating and interesting talk. The thanks were passed on by the President and the members showed their appreciation.

Mike Turner - Secretary

'Click' a Logo to find out more...
To find out more about the Commonwealth Games Federation, click below:

To find out more about events in Glasgow, click below:

And if you are thinking of visiting the Games in 2018, first click below: