Just like Barcelona, but with a much better view & shady, spectator-friendly coffee trees

It is so hard to convey the excitement and immense delight over the very first match to be played on the new WTA pitch the other week. Another WTA historical 'never before' moment. Pitch designer Jerry assures everyone that the pitch is the same dimensions as Barcelona FC .. with a few extra benefits - including space for athletics and netball.

At last, the grass had 'taken' well, survived the early drought & weathered some early storms. Just like the tough little stems of grass, past generations of students have been tenacious, patient & resilient in waiting for this long-awaited, long-promised, full-sized pitch to actually appear. At last, the footballs SHOULD actually last for more than just a few days (we hope), now that the teams are no longer have to play on hard, stony ground. 

Richard the referee is, fortunately, a well-trained and experienced referee, who had to prove himself more than a match for any dissenting player or outraged spectator. Whereas the backchat and insults are in Luganda or Acholi, the body language makes their version of 'that's a rubbish decision, the Ref is biased' totally unmistakable!  Handing out a few red and yellow cards certainly helped to establish true referee authority on the first few matches. Muttering 'it's only a game' seems rather inappropriate .....

Watching the spectators is an even better sport, (some might say), as they truly celebrate on another level - cheering over each goal, each attempt and each penalty. The cheerleaders and campaign managers jump incessantly on the sidelines, waiting for any excuse for a pitch invasion. The volume of noise: cheering, screaming, ululating (!), hollering, frenzied mayhem, is hard to describe. Even an audio/video clip doesn't really do the noise level justice! Clearly the spectating students need serious reminding about not invading the track to run en masse with the sprinters, totally obscuring the view of the finish line. But everyone agrees these are mere teething problems at the start, but next time it will be EVEN better... and even more professional -  so they say. 

In the run up to the WTA Celebration Day (see next article) the school ran a full tournament of football, athletics and netball heats with the winners accruing points for their house team: Mandela, Kasoma, Jerry & Muteesa. Final, final results will be announced in the last week of term. Watch this leader board ....