Being Judged and Doing Well
Judgement Day. The time that Team Random, made up of (in no particular order) Phil Price, Will Johnson, Andrew Sterland and David Waby, get to strut their stuff. To say that they were first years they put on a hugely impressive show. It was great to watch them moving from "I can't do this" to "Hey, I just did this" to "Lets do that again" in the course of the presentations. By the end of the day they really had everything nailed. They only had to do things three times, which I reckon was optimal. By a fourth presentation they might have been tempted to extemporise or start to get bored at which point they may have gone off the boil a bit. Or perhaps that is just me.
I had to try quite hard not to explode with pride whilst they were doing their stuff. They were just so darned good. And all around all the other teams were doing just the same. I've got nothing but utmost respect for all the contestants. By gum they were good.
And so to the competition dinner which was held in this converted monastery in the middle of Barcelona. Apparently, when the monastery was built all those years ago, they didn't put in air conditioning, but this time it was fine because the ceiling was much higher and they gave us all fans (I kept mine - it is going to Majorca with my daughter for beach use.) Great food, fine wines and good conversation (except when I was speaking of course).
And then to the judging. I had been pondering for some time how to handle the fact that there was a good chance we would not make the top four. We had decided that in that situation we had lost nothing, since we were all winners anyway. However, there was still some trepidation as the names were announced, in alphabetical order of institution. When they got past H we kind of figured we were out of the running. We were just in the process of "well, it has been great and we put in a good shot" when the man said "University of Hull". Which is our proper name. And we were in the final.
I'm kind of ashamed about how pleased I was, and how much I showed it. I'm thinking now about the ones that didn't make it; on the slimmest of margins. What they don't realise is that the experience and what they have achieved is now going to change the course of their lives and they have already won big time. They now know that they can beat the world at this business, right down to the last fifteen, and that is going to change the way they do things for ever. In five or so years they will look back at how things have changed since their experience in Barcelona, but at that moment all they would be thinking is that they had not made it to the last four. And some tall idiot involved with a team that has is dancing around and looking please with himself.
Ah well, sorry folks.
Of course, the sting in the tail is now that we have to come back again and wait for another round of results. But that is another day.
I had to try quite hard not to explode with pride whilst they were doing their stuff. They were just so darned good. And all around all the other teams were doing just the same. I've got nothing but utmost respect for all the contestants. By gum they were good.
And so to the competition dinner which was held in this converted monastery in the middle of Barcelona. Apparently, when the monastery was built all those years ago, they didn't put in air conditioning, but this time it was fine because the ceiling was much higher and they gave us all fans (I kept mine - it is going to Majorca with my daughter for beach use.) Great food, fine wines and good conversation (except when I was speaking of course).
And then to the judging. I had been pondering for some time how to handle the fact that there was a good chance we would not make the top four. We had decided that in that situation we had lost nothing, since we were all winners anyway. However, there was still some trepidation as the names were announced, in alphabetical order of institution. When they got past H we kind of figured we were out of the running. We were just in the process of "well, it has been great and we put in a good shot" when the man said "University of Hull". Which is our proper name. And we were in the final.
I'm kind of ashamed about how pleased I was, and how much I showed it. I'm thinking now about the ones that didn't make it; on the slimmest of margins. What they don't realise is that the experience and what they have achieved is now going to change the course of their lives and they have already won big time. They now know that they can beat the world at this business, right down to the last fifteen, and that is going to change the way they do things for ever. In five or so years they will look back at how things have changed since their experience in Barcelona, but at that moment all they would be thinking is that they had not made it to the last four. And some tall idiot involved with a team that has is dancing around and looking please with himself.
Ah well, sorry folks.
Of course, the sting in the tail is now that we have to come back again and wait for another round of results. But that is another day.
posted by Rob Miles at
Monday, June 30, 2003
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