November 2009

An excellent effort from the Mallaig Primary School Team sees them take third place at the Mallaig 'It's a Knockout'

Following a lengthly absence, Saturday the 14th of November saw the return of the famous 'It's a Knockout' to Mallaig and district Swimming pool.

Mallaig Primary School entered a team of 6 and were up against teams from the Fire Service, The Old Forge, The Local Tradesmen and the ex-swimming pool staff. The competition, which drew a healthy crowd, comprised of a series of 6 events involving swimming, obstacles, floats and balls!

The Mallaig Primary Team!

Each team had to include 3 adults, 1 child between 12 and 16, and two of primary school age. The Mallaig primary team was made up of Jenna and Niamh from P7, Frankie who very kindly joined from the High School, active school co-ordinator Emma, volunteer Janitor Chris, Head Teacher Miss Martin, and our wonderful mascot Faye from P1.

The day began with the Judging of the 'Jokers' which in the case of Mallaig Primary came in the form of Faye our mascot, before we launched straight into the first event - an assault course around the pool involving swimming under a net, paddling a float through a slalom course, swimming through an underwater hoop and carrying a ball throughout it all. An excellent effort from the whole team, but particularly from Niamh and Jenna, saw the team take an excellent first place!

The second event saw the teams required to throw a ball at a target before swimming two lengths of the pool each. Despite the fact that many of the other teams featured several fully grown men, Mallaig Primary again put in a very strong performance and managed to grab second place, with the fast swimming of Jenna, Niamh and Frankie proving invaluable.

Event three was the famous 'dinner lady race' which involved our very own Jenna dressing as a dinner lady (a costume which won the team valuable points at the end of the competition) and standing on a large float whilst balancing a tray full of plastic glasses! The rest of the team then had to push the float down the length of the pool as fast as possible. A comination of Jenna's excellent balance and the rest of the teams strong swimming saw Mallaig primary take first place for the second time in the competition! This meant that after three events, Mallaig primary held a strong lead overall.

Jenna, Mallaig's most stable dinnerlady!

Event four was a straightforward 'float swim' and after getting off to a slow start Mallaig Primary found themselves behind with two legs to go. However a powering performance from Frankie on the final leg saw the team power to a thrid victory of the competion with a photo finish win which had the crowd on their feet!

Still holding the overall lead, Mallaig primary then tackled event five, which involved Niamh balancing on top of a giant octopus whilst holding a ring. The remainder of the team then had to throw as many plastic balls through the hoop as possible within the alotted time. Quite how the judges managed to decide who had won this was beyond the majority of the spectators, but the end result meant that Mallaig Primary School went into the Grand Finale with a commanding 23 point lead!

The last event featured the Swimming Pool's all new inflatable obstacle course, complete with palm trees, treasure chests, bridges and tunnels. All this had to be navigated whilst trying ones best not to fall into the water! Unfortunately the Mallaig primary School team were generally on the small side, and combined with the fact that as leaders they were forced to go first, meant that that despite a valiant effort, we struggled a little to match the point scoring of the other teams. The fact that the final event had the most points available by far meant that despite leading for the first five rounds of the contest, Mallaig Primary slipped to thrid place in the overall rankings.

The pool's new Treasure Island inflatable.

However, this was a fantastic effort and particular thanks have to go to Active schools co-ordinator Emma for stepping into the breech at the last moment, and a very big well done to Jenna, Frankie, Niamh and Faye for their wonderful peformances. The event rasied much needed money for the local swimming pool, and I have no doubt that the Mallaig Primary team will be back again next year to see if they can't take that final step and take the title!

3rd Place!