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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The great All Black Colin Meads was sent off v Scotland at Murrayfield. Did he deserve to go? All NZ says 'no!' But the ref had the final say.
GAINSFORD, JOHN
Western Province and South Africa
33 internationals for Sth Africa 1960–67
One of South Africa’s greatest players, John Gainsford played in what was then a record number of internationals for a centre in the Springbok colours.
A big, strong-running centre with positive instincts for attack, he made his first-class debut as a 19-year-old, before joining the Junior Springboks for their 1959 tour of Argentina. He came into the South African test team in 1960, when he appeared in the only test against the Scotland touring team and in all four games the same season against the All Blacks. Thereafter, until 1967, only injury kept him out of test teams.
In his seven seasons as a Springbok, Gainsford earned world-wide respect. After only five years he became the highest-capped South African player, beating the old mark of 28 tests, held by Johan Claassen, in the third test at Christchurch on the 1965 New Zealand tour. This was a feat which he celebrated by scoring two brilliant tries as the Springboks came back from 5–16 at half-time to score a notable victory.
At the time of his retirement, after the 1967 tour by France, Gainsford was also South Africa’s top test try-scorer, with eight tries. Both his appearances and try tally records were broken in subsequent years, but it took until 2001 before Japie Mulder passed his record for being South Africa’s highest-capped centre.
Why was the kickoff for the Japan v Wales in Cardiff in 1983 delayed for 15 minutes?
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