NSO's FTW!

Yesterday was my second and third time NSOing for SSRG :-)

Whenever I get the message telling me the jobs Im expected to do I have that moment of panic 'what if I cock up!?' Luckily my role for the day would involve a whiteboard and a marker pen, how tasking could it be really?

I caught the tram to where I needed to be and once I got inside I hung around for a while until more folks turned up. SSRG were having a practice, and I didn't fancy gatecrashing unless I had someone else there to do so with :-) So I loitered, a lot, quite possibly looking like an obvious spare part. Luckily people started turning up and when Glam arrived and I grabbed her just to run over what I was meant to be doing. I'd be operating the penalty whiteboards for the first bout, and doing penalty timing in the second.

AAARGH, stopwatches!!! I was not expecting this, but it would explain why I'd been sent the manual for this role aswell (pay attention Becky!)

Yes, so the first bout got underway, and my job was to write down any penalties, minor or major, on the whiteboards in the middle of the track. 1 Major Penalty equates a minute in the penalty box, as does 4 Minor Penalties. There's lots of different ways a penalty can be given, it seemed yesterday people were favouring Track Cutting, Back Blocking and Forearms. It was actually really good fun in the middle, and a lot less scary/lot more exciting than I thought it would be.

Time for Bout 2 and I was sent with two others to the penalty box. I was in charge of Blocker timing :-) While I was happy to do this, I was a little concerned that the only space I had for standing was right behind the penalty seats, and I was told that the boys skate in with some gusto- I did NOT want to be squashed! It was all fine though. I remembered to start/stop the watch at all the right times, and once I got stuck in I realised it was actually a lot easier than it had first sounded. I remembered everything I needed to say, when I had to say it and even managed to have some sneaky little chats with the skaters coming in :-)

Anyway, for now I love being an NSO, but I am looking forward to when it's my turn out on the track.  The only downside to being an NSO, that I'm not so keen on, is the 'being impartial' bit. I'd love to be cheering along with everyone else, but unfortunately I'm not allowed. So for now I'm supporting Team Grey, NSO's FTW!!!

(PS- Team Orange and Team Black, of course you are both awesome, I'm just not allowed to say so during bout time!)