A Study of the Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games (known as the British Empire Games from 1930–1950, the British Empire and Commonwealth Games from 1954–1966, and British Commonwealth Games from 1970–1974)^[1] is an international, multi- sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exception of 1942 and 1946, which were cancelled due to World War II, has taken place every four years since then.

The games are overseen by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), which also controls the sporting programme and selects the host cities. A host city is selected for each edition. 18 cities in seven countries have hosted the event. Apart from many Olympic events, the games also include some sports that are played predominantly in Commonwealth countries, such as lawn bowls and netball.

Although there are 53 members of the Commonwealth of Nations, 71 teams participate in the Commonwealth Games, as a number of dependent territories compete under their own flag. The four Home Nations of the United Kingdom—England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland—also send separate teams. Only six countries have attended every Commonwealth Games: Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales. Australia has been the highest achieving team for twelve games, England for seven, and Canada for one.

This year the Commonwealth Games was held in Glasgow. The class looked at sporting events, why New Zealand does so well with a population of 4 million and did a research study on a selected sport and the rules that are used in that sport.

We also looked at some of the venues used in the past and where the Commonwealth Games will go next. We held the Games in 1974 in Christchurch and again in 1990 in Auckland. They are more manageable for smaller nations than the Olympic Games.

The next Commonwealth Games will be in the Gold Coast, Australia.

Edition	Year	Host City	Host Nation	Start Date	End Date	Sports	Events	Nations	Competitors	Top Placed Team
Inter-Empire Championships
Inter-Empire Championships	1911	London	England	12 May	00 June	4	9	4	Unknown	Canada
Edition	Year	Host City	Host Nation	Start Date	End Date	Sports	Events	Nations	Competitors	Top Placed Team
British Empire Games
I Games	1930	Hamilton	Canada	16 August	23 August	6	59	11	400	England
II Games	1934	London	England	4 August	11 August	6	68	16	500	England
III Games	1938	Sydney	Australia	5 February	12 February	7	71	15	464	Australia
IV Games	1950	Auckland	New Zealand	4 February	11 February	9	88	12	590	Australia
British Empire and Commonwealth Games
V Games	1954	Vancouver	Canada	30 July	7 August	9	91	24	662	England
VI Games	1958	Cardiff	Wales	18 July	26 July	9	94	36	1122	England
VII Games	1962	Perth	Australia	22 November	1 December	9	104	35	863	Australia
VIII Games	1966	Kingston	Jamaica	4 August	13 August	9	110	34	1050	England
British Commonwealth Games
IX Games	1970	Edinburgh	Scotland	16 July	25 July	9	121	42	1383	Australia
X Games	1974	Christchurch	New Zealand	24 January	2 February	9	121	38	1276	Australia
Commonwealth Games
XI Games	1978	Edmonton	Canada	3 August	12 August	10	128	46	1474	Canada
XII Games	1982	Brisbane	Australia	30 September	9 October	10	142	46	1583	Australia
XIII Games	1986	Edinburgh	Scotland	24 July	2 August	10	163	26	1662	England
XIV Games	1990	Auckland	New Zealand	24 January	3 February	10	204	55	2073	Australia
XV Games	1994	Victoria	Canada	18 August	28 August	10	217	63	2557	Australia
XVI Games	1998	Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia	11 September	21 September	15	213	70	3633	Australia
XVII Games	2002	Manchester	England	25 July	4 August	171	281	72	3679	Australia
XVIII Games	2006	Melbourne	Australia	15 March	26 March	162	245	71	4049	Australia
XIX Games	2010	Delhi	India	3 October	14 October	171	272	71	6081	Australia
XX Games	2014	Glasgow	Scotland	23 July	3 August	171	261	71	4947	England
XXI Games	2018	Gold Coast	Australia	4 April	15 April
XXII Games	2022	Edmonton or   Durban	Canada or South Africa	To Be Announced	To Be Announced

Life Education

Every two years the Life Education trailer visits our school. The general focus is to look at body systems, food and nutrition. The mobile classroom stayed for a week at our school and we were provided with two extensive lessons of creative sound and sight installations alongside the mascot Harold the Giraffe.
As follow up the children filled up a booklet provided by Life Education on body systems, how to choose packaged food by reading labels and the 500 jobs of the liver.

Life Education is a non-profit organisation. We teach health to 245,000 primary and intermediate school children each year. We go into schools by invitation, not by right. We are linked into the school curriculum. Life Education is a preventative approach. We teach children about the wonder of life, themselves, and other people, with the aim of showing them how to reach their full potential. Life Education does not necessarily work on changing children's behaviour, it works on changing desires. Rather than frightening children with various forms of scare tactics, the Life Education philosophy focuses on creating a sensitivity to values which lead to an understanding and appreciation of human life. This enables the child to make decisions about any negative influences that might impede the development of their fullest potential. We do this by taking children on an adventure in a mobile classroom that is equipped with sight and sound equipment designed to capture children's imaginations. Our educators (registered teachers) take children on this journey, along with Harold the Giraffe, our mascot. These educators are chosen for their x-factor and together with Harold make the journey fun as well as educational.

A Teacher in Melbourne
July 2014

It was time for a break after a busy term teaching so on the first day of the two week July holidays my wife Robyn and I were on our way to Melbourne and 12 days in that beautiful city.

“So where are we staying while in Melbourne?” I asked having just arrived on a flight from Auckland at 1.15 on the Sunday morning. At such an unsociable time I was hoping for lavish accommodation to rest our weary heads to await the first dawn in Australia for 2014.

And I wasn’t disappointed, waking in our inner city hotel room to this view from our window.We were in the beating heart of Bourke Street, the fashion centre of Melbourne, with its coffee shops, street buskers, hidden lanes, alley art, and tram links to the suburbs.

William Blake Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria
Who cannot forget learning the lines of William Blake’s poem ‘Tiger, Tiger’ as a high school student for a pass in School Certificate English, or singing the anthem ‘Jerusalem’ in a draughty school hall. Yet this exhibition provided a rare insight into this Englishman’s wide ranging talents other than several original poems. There was a display of over fifty spectacular water colours expressing William Blake’s visionary ideas in the early 1800’s to illustrate texts written by Dante and Milton.
His stunning original art work was alive, bright and full of movement, expressing his own visionary universe. Some of it was scary and grotesque, what was going on in his mind?

Free Walking Tour of Melbourne
Nothing is more appealing than receiving high quality service for nothing. Matthew was a local guide who made a living  walking the streets of Melbourne sharing his stories on a three hour walking tour. With 26 clients, we started at the grand State Library, and began viewing the buildings and hearing of the people involved in building Melbourne on a wealth of gold discovered in the 1860’s.

Being a young and enthusiastic tour guide we were also shown where his favourite drinking houses were, where to eat cheap student meals, how to negotiate for free coffees, and when to purchase half price cakes from the Block Arcade  teahouse. Ahh, to be young again.

At the end of the tour, Matthew concluded his presentation with a reminder that his walk was free but he would appreciate donations to make a living. Along with my $20 his total takings for the evening was $230.

World Cup Soccer in Brazil
There is something decadent, but delicious, about sitting up in a Australian hotel bedroom at 8.30 in the mornings, sipping cups of tea and watching the World Cup football matches. I enjoyed watching the Netherlands beating Costa Rica, Belgium beaten by Argentina, and the unexpected defeat of Brazil with a 7-1 capitulation to the organised, disciplined and rampant Germans.
Later in the week , to enjoy a more suitable atmosphere for the World Cup final, I set the alarm for 5am and snuck out to watch  Germany versus Argentina in one of the many coffee bars open in St Kilda. The crowd was loud and boisterous, mainly Argentinians, and I sat rather quietly, as I had put a bet on Germany to win. It was in extra time, seven minutes away from a penalty shootout, when the German player Gotze received a cross, chested the ball down and finished with a sublime left-foot volley. Even the Argentinian supporters grudgingly joined me in a cheer for a wonderfully executed goal and Germany’s fourth World Cup win.

City Circle Tram

Again we were treated to another free service, travelling the City Circle Tram around Melbourne’s inner city for tourists, taking one hour to complete the circuit in a rapidly moving tram and listening to a commentary as well. The service is regularly used by locals, often burdened with grocery shopping or young children.

One incident I observed was a mother ushering her two small children aboard, then turning to pick up the groceries. The doors closed, the tram took off by an impatient driver keeping to schedule and she was left on the platform. Fortunately the tram stopped 100 metres up the line at a red light and she was able to scamper beside the line and board the tram.

National Sports Museum
There is always a magic moment in sport, in the minds of those who competed, who were there, or who passed their stories on for the next generation, that can make a nation.

For Australia I felt what shaped their collective view of themselves and recognised their responsibility as a unified nation of all races including their ill- treated indigenous peoples was the winning of the 400m sprint by that lithe aboriginal woman Kathy Freeman in the Sydney Olympics 2000.

For a New Zealander, what became a blueprint of how we value Australian sport was the underarm bowled by Trevor Chappel to our New Zealand tail end batsman Brian McKechnie in 1981. It happened at the MCG, was in a one day match and was ordered by the Australian captain Greg Chappel. McKechnie required 6 off this final delivery to tie the match so the Australians weren’t at risk of losing it. But it was the furore the came after this incident.

New Zealand Prime Minister Robert  Muldoon described it as "the most disgusting incident I can recall in the history of cricket" and said: "It was an act of true cowardice and I consider it appropriate that the Australian team were wearing yellow."

In the National Sports Museum there was a detailed account, including video clips, hooded uniform, actual shoes worn, and medal ceremony of Kathy Freeman’s stunning accomplishment. Not a mention of the underarm bowl.

Putting all this aside the Sports Museum under the stands of the MCG is well worth a visit, hosting a number of galleries that captured Australian sporting glory. From the Olympic displays of Australian participants at all the venues starting in Athens 1905, to the evolution of cricket and the foundation of the Ashes, the NRL heroes of days gone past, and the thoroughbred racing gallery celebrating stories and excitement of horse racing in Australia.

My magic moment was talking to Eric, an attendant at the National Sports Museum after my three hour stroll. Resting my aching feet we chatted about the impact of sport on the national well-being of a country. Not once did I mention the underarm bowling incident.

Hidden Lanes and Alleyways

We discovered the eclectic, quirky maze of laneways in Melbournes city centre. It is mainly the locals who appear to relish the hidden boutiques and outlets selling everything from homemade local artifacts to International retail wares.
The alleyways and lanes, once delivery precincts for main street shops were developed with local council encouragement from the 1990’s onwards.
Matthew, our guide, quoted, “The outer doughnut (referring to the main outer streets circuiting the Inner City) has been filled with sugar and spice.”
The council also fosters a great creative energy with painted displays on the sides of buildings hidden in the laneways. It is urban street art best seen in Hosiery Lane with its vibrant patterns and swirling colours, in which we came across a wedding ceremony.

Beachside Brighton
The bay side beach of Brighton, just 15 minutes south of the city, provided a graceful cluster of colourful bathing huts in Dendy Street. These are protected heritage Bathing Boxes, all nestled against an overgrown bank of unkempt weeds and bushes, overlooking the Port Phillip Bay from the beach.

These Bathing Boxes in Brighton are known to have existed as far back as 1862, although the earliest ones were at the water's edge at the end of Bay Street rather than their present location on Dendy Street Beach just south of Middle Brighton. In 1906, the completion of a tram line from St Kilda to Brighton led to an increase in applications for bathing box permits and significant construction between 1908 and 1911; final numbers are uncertain, but between 100 and 200 bathing box sites may have been allocated prior to the Great Depression. As part of capital works programs during the Depression to help relieve unemployment, the City of Brighton, backed by State Government funding, relocated all bathing boxes to the high-water mark on Dendy Street Beach, or removed them completely. The boxes were relocated again in 1934 to their present position at the rear of this beach, a total of 81 of them when I counted them.
The last one sold was in February 2014 for a princely sum of $172,000, rather a large amount as they remain as they did over one hundred years ago; licensed bathing boxes with no service amenities such as electricity or water.

Luna Park at St Kilda
The gaping mouth of a face, flanked by towers dominated the entrance into the suburban shopping area of St Kilda. Here was Luna Park, Australia’s oldest pleasure park which celebrated 100 years of fun in 2012. It is as much loved now when we visited as it was when it first opened its doors way back in 1912 when over 22,000 people attended the opening night.
 Apparently over 800,000 are welcomed every year, all enjoying the quaint clattering of the timber built roller coaster, travelling at a rather sedate pace, snaking its way around the park’s perimeter, rising up and down, to afford views of the nearby shops, coastal beach and far off cityscape.

Market Day Blues
Sometimes a special moment is encountered when least expected. This was when visiting the Pahran Market in upper Chapel Street.
A quartet was playing in the open air plaza, a middle aged lady with a gravelly voice, a grey haired gentleman on a brass saxophone, a well girthed 50-something on lead guitar and a bespectacled whiskered man with back to front cap on double bass. An unlikely mix.
But what a sound. We sat for an hour with the music rippling over us enjoying a latte, I think maybe it was three each we had, enjoying the last of the evening sun and foot tapping to the music.
The CD I purchased from the singer as they were packing up was called ‘Yolanda and Music for Lovers’. Mmmmmmm.

Geelong Bollards
They stood like upright sentinels along the curving shore of Geelong township, painted bollards representing a narrative of the people and events associated with the towns history.
 The painted figures included explorers, opera singers, fishermen, and lifesavers, made from pier pylons of hardwood, shaped by some subtle, minimalistic carving, painted in the technique of trompe l’oeil (three dimensional illusion) with added fixings and adornments often made of industrial components.
All the figures stood higher than us, over two metre tall and all appeared quite tactile and interactive. We spotted several rabbits painted on many of the figures, remembering that mistake made in 1859 where all of Australia’s wild rabbits are descended from ten pairs imported by Thomas Austin in the nearby bay.
We found out later, having strolled by some of the 111 sculptures on display, the inspiration of this came Australian artist Jan Mitchel, who began making them in 1990, having spent a year researching and gathering local information.