KeithQuinnRugby
Thinking and talking about rugby every day for 50+ years
You are here: Home » All Blacks year by year » 2014 » 2014 All Black tour Diary » 13th and 14th day in Nanjing
26 August 2014
I got myself a new gig at the Nanjing Youth Summer Games these last few days. And, ah hem, if you don't mind from now on, call me one of the Daily Officers in Charge of ACQC for the World Feed of OBS. That puts me up among the big time operators. Well maybe not that high. For more on what makes a top ACQC Operator tune in right here...
The abbreviation actually stands for Audio Commentary Quality Control and that is the placement I have for the last three days of my employment at these Youth Olympic Games. And far from being a BIG job, being an ACQC is actually one of the littler jobs in the team, a small but necessary role if you like for OBS - the Olympic Broadcasting Service.
What I have been doing yesterday and today is go into the studio, either in the morning or late shift, depending on what the other rostered ACQC operator wants to do - (there are two of us each day) - and then I sit there and watch TV from the start til the end of my day. If that sounds easy it probably is - but it is a roll which has to be filled.
The formal role of an ACQC Operator is to monitor who has or hasn't checked in to their outside broadcast position, then when they do from their various commentary points around the city, I then monitor how they sound on the air, sometimes taking advice from sound technicians or other production staff, and then I keep monitoring that quality of sound to make the total broadcast a good 'sound' and of an 'even' quality. Its a fun job and I like it. Most of the broadcasters here have had a stint in the ACQC seat, depending on when their specialist commentary events start and finish.
So being an ACQC officer fits for me now that the programmes of sevens rugby, weightlifting and tennis, the other sports I have been broadcasting here have finished. As I write this page of the Nanjing Diary there are only two days to go at these Games. Most other events will finish tomorrow and that's when I will finish my stint, pack up and check out of the hotel and fly home. I will not be in place for the Closing Ceremony day. I shall be in my seat on China Southern Airlines from Nanjing to Guangzhou and then onto good old KiwiLand!
So for the moment it is ACQC reporting to you!
It's another tick of the boxes of 'things I can do' as part of a big TV sports production crew.
I'll talk to you here tomorrow though. As I close the Nanjing Diary and commit it to history; ACQC will probably have SOMETHING to report!
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Bob Barber ended his time with the All Blacks in Australia and Fiji; in his last four starting games he was no.8, flanker, lock and prop.
CALCUTTA CUP
The only trophy for competition between two of the Five Nation teams, the Calcutta Cup is played for between England and Scotland.
The trophy originated in India where the Calcutta Football Club, started by some former pupils of Rugby School in England, found itself facing recession after only four years of existence. Rugby was not suited for the summer-like conditions of India.
The club had only modest resources, but as a closing-down gesture, rather than spend their remaining monies on a dinner or a ball, the members withdrew their remaining rupees from the bank and had them melted down. The silver was worked by the finest of Indian workmanship and shaped into a handsome trophy with three distinctive handles shaped like cobras and an elephant mounted on its lid.
The Calcutta Cup was presented to the Rugby Football Union in London in 1878 for competition between England and Scotland. Since then (with the exception of the war years) it has been a much-prized trophy in the annual Five (and now Six) Nations match.
There is an anomaly in the recording of annual results on the base of the cup. It was first played for in 1879 yet the results of England v Scotland matches from 1871 to 1878 are etched into the plinth of the trophy, years before the trophy came into being!
The original Calcutta Cup is now seldom seen in public. Whether the annual game is held at Twickenham or at Murrayfield the original is stored, for security reasons, in a safe vault. In its histroy the Cup has often been the subject of mistreatment by the players of the day. It is often a full-size replica of the cup which is kept for display at both grounds.
(With thanks to John Mcl. Davidson – Honorary Historian Scottish Rugby Union)
What was different about the British Columbian winger Denny Veitch who played against the British and Irish Lions in Vancouver in 1966?
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