Sporting Activites
Sporting Activites
Playing sport was encouraged in the RAF and some, as mentioned in the pages about Padgate, were practically engaged in sport as a full time job. At Leconfield, every Wednesday afternoon was designated as a time for sport and there were various activities available but most of the airmen used it as a time to relax and lie about doing nothing. A new sports officer came to the camp and decided that everyone was to report to him on Wednesday and tell him what activities they wanted to participate in. We all turned up and were duly signed in. I didn’t fancy running about or doing exercises all afternoon so I told him I was learning to throw the javelin, which I wasn’t. I had never thrown a javelin in my life but had seen them being thrown at the Olympics. He thought about this for a moment then gave me a javelin and told me to go into the farmer’s field next to the sports field and practice on my own. This field was hidden from view by a tall hedge so I just had to make sure that the javelin appeared above the hedge every so often to prove I was engaged in this activity.

Later I got involved in the armourers’ football team and became captain of the second XI. This had difficulties as I had to wait until the captain of the first XI had selected his team before I got to pick my team from whoever was left. And some of these were unhappy at not being picked for the first XI and weren’t very enthusiastic. But we had matches most Saturday mornings against other teams in the camp with mixed results.

I had played badminton for a number of years prior to joining up and this had appeared on my records. Soon the sergeant who ran the station badminton club contacted me and asked me to come along. We played in one of the hangers and we occasionally had to move a plane or two off the badminton court before we could play. We entered the RAF Badminton Cup competition and were drawn against Catterick Camp. But there was a petrol shortage at the time and an officer, who was our best player, got annoyed because they wouldn’t give him petrol to enable him to drive there, withdrew from the team. I had been on leave but came back a day early and got off the train at Catterick to meet the other members. When we arrived to play them, we discovered they had some Malaysian airmen who had been attached to Catterick and they were miles ahead of us and we were well beaten.
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