Source: http://jsf.hiddentigerbooks.co.uk/series_1972_jsf.htm
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 08:38:14+00:00

Document:
Teams: Spa (B) v. La Chaux-de-Fonds (CH) v. Hirschau an der Oberpfalz (D) v.
Salisbury (GB) - Bill Toop (Team Captain), Bryan White (Team Manager), Paul Griffin, Michael Hayes, Roger Kelner, Sue King and Barry Pritchard.
This heat was held at the community swimming pool complex located in the north-east of the Belgian town of Spa. Completed in the mid-1960s, the complex offered bathers a choice of two pools - a 25m indoor heated pool and a 50m Olympic-size outdoor pool. The games were all held in and around the outdoor pool.
During rehearsals for this heat, several members of the Franeker team were mysteriously taken ill with stomach problems, and were unable to participate on the night of the actual recording. To assist the team’s coach, members of the Dutch production crew were given permission to participate for the team on the night. That’s more than likely the reason why the team faired badly on the night! Incidentally, the stomach problems were traced back to a local take-away that the team had visited the night previously. Was this a piece of Belgian sabotage or skulduggery?
The Fil Rouge was based on the old trade of sweeping chimneys and involved two male competitors from each team, who had to climb a 10 metre Perspex tube unassisted, using body weight and friction alone. During rehearsals, several players suffered friction burns to their elbows and knees and had to be treated in hospital for their injuries.
The final game - ‘The Painters’ - involved over 1000 balloons which had to be burst. The idea of the game was that seven male competitors in circular cages had to roll them to roll down an inclined and uneven course, bursting 150 balloons each. With each country having balloons laid out in different colours, it was quite a spectacular sight, and as the teams started their first incline drop, the noise from the bursting of the balloons by the caged rollers was quite dramatic. British team Salisbury, having won the previous two games as well as the Fil Rouge, went all guns blazing down the course with the Italian team of Ostuni and won in fine style, giving them a run of four game wins in a row. Ostuni finished some 10 seconds later. After the final whistle, it was clear that none of the other five teams had even completed half of the course. As a matter of interest, the Belgian team actually finished in last place on the game bursting a mere 40 or so balloons. If their attempt to play the Joker on this game had been accepted, it would not have made any significant difference to the result.
As Jokers were no longer permitted to be played on the last game from this year, teams had to play their Jokers on the games on which teams missed out (i.e. Games 1-7). However this change of rules had obviously not got through to the Belgian team, and by Game 6 there were still three Jokers left to be played. Two of these three teams duly presented their Jokers to the referees. The third of these teams, Belgium were scheduled to miss the next game and therefore would not have another opportunity to play it. As the team captain was not forthcoming, Gennaro Olivieri started the game. During Belgian’s participation in the final Fil Rouge, West German commentators Camillo Felgen and Kurt Gerhardt mentioned that the Belgians had forgotten to play their Joker. Camillo added that the rule change this year meant that they would not be able to play the Joker on the last game. At the start of the final game, the Belgian team captain presented the Joker for play and was informed by Guido Pancaldi that it would not be accepted. Gennaro then explained the reason for this amidst a hail of jeers from the home crowd. The team captain was slightly peeved due to this but accepted it and exited the area, whilst Belgian presenter Michel Lemaire shrugged his shoulders in sympathy. Since their introduction in 1967, this was the first time a Joker had not been accepted by the referees. Fortunately after this, no other team befell the same fate.
For the first time, all the Jokers presented to the referees were different. Each of the teams Jokers were representative of one of the seven trades from the theme's games - a chimney sweep (Switzerland), a plumber (West Germany), a wine waiter (France), a lifeguard (Great Britain), a barber (Italy), an aerial erector (Netherlands) and a baker (Belgium).
For no clear reason (apart from its length), the Swiss team of La Chaux-de-Fonds was shown on the master scoreboard as La-Ch. de Fonds. However, in the International Final (for which they qualified), their scoreboard entry had been revised and their name was shown in full.
For some unknown reason, the music played over the end credits at this heat was that from the 1967 series of the programme!
Teams: Gembloux (B) v. Jegenstorf (CH) v. Waldkraiburg (D) v.
Banbury (GB) - Mike Swann (Team Manager), Brian Stone (Team Trainer), Ray Phillips (Team Captain), Louise Belcher, Sandra Boland, George Gibbs, Angela Harper, Derek Heywood, David Higgs, Eric Hillman, Helen Jarman, Stella Judd, Ann Mullard, Mike Palmer, Tony Puddifoot, George Reynolds, Stuart Smith, Lee Steadman, Gerard ‘Jed’ Sutton, Ellen Twiner.
This event in Bern was only the second summer Jeux Sans Frontières competition to be held indoors, being staged at the Allmend Ice Stadium (also known as the Bern Arena - and now the PostFinance Arena), home of Bern SC Ice Hockey team. The teams were introduced in the grounds of the arena - in the pouring rain - and then ran indoors to compete in the dry. With the event being held indoors the noise made by the cheering spectators drowned out most of what presenter Jan Hiermeyer was saying and even more so it was even more difficult to hear any explanations of the times / scores and points being delivered by the referees. The first indoor JSF summer event had been held in 1971 at the Ahoy Stadium in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
A sudden change in the rules cost the British team dearly in this heat and this has only now been revealed in 2011 from information gleaned from archive newspapers. The rule change came into effect immediately following Belgium’s debacle in International Heat 1 when their team forgot to play the Joker. Following protests from the Belgian TV producers immediately after the programme, it was decided that following the final dress rehearsals, all teams had to reveal which game they would be playing their Joker on in the actual competition. This decision was then irrevocable under all circumstances.
It was mixed fortunes on Joker games for two teams in this heat. West German team Waldkraiburg were fortunate to have had a six-foot high team member drawn to play on Game 4 - ‘The Locksmiths’ - in which competitors had to jump up and grab keys hanging above their heads from a jackdaw’s nest. Whilst all the other five competitors made heavy weather of the game, the West German competitor made it look very easy, and the team were awarded with 12 pts. At the other end of the scale, the British team of Banbury made one of the most disastrous decisions on playing theirs. Although the team did not do very well in any of the games, Mike Swann the team manager opted to play the Joker on Game 6 - ‘The Quick Waiters’ - in which seven team members were standing aloft a larger carpeted conveyer belt each holding a tray of five items. On the whistle, they were all meant to jump in unison whilst the 20ft carpet was pulled from under their feet. It was embarrassingly clear that the team had no idea how to play this game because for the first 30 seconds of the game, half the team were in the air when the other half were standing on the carpet and it had only moved 10 metres. The team ended the game without scoring and were destined to get just 2 pts on the Joker after just the second leg of the game.
Teams: Middelkerke (B) v. Massagno (CH) v. Westerland (Sylt) (D) v.
Ridderkerk (NL) - Henk de Frise and Henk Vormlar.
The venue for this heat was Sylt Stadion, which is located adjacent to the Dünensteg (Dune Ridge) in Westerland. The stadium is now known as Dünensteg Stadion. This was the only time that a West German heat had not been held on the mainland. In fact, it was held on the island of Sylt, in the very north-west of the country, close to the Danish border. Although the island has been connected to the mainland since 1927 by the Hindenburgdamm, it can only be accessed by train or aircraft.
In Game 2 - 'The Steeplechase' - the Belgian team were disqualified and demoted to last place on the game because one of their competitors had come out of their lane on the game. Ironically, on Game 4 the British competitor did likewise, but on that occasion no disqualification was made, despite protests from the Italian team which had been hampered by the British encroachment.
In Game 3 - ‘The Giant Wrestlers’ - team members had to negotiate a small gateway dressed in giant wrestlers costumes which weighed about 90lbs each! As this was an elimination race, it had an unusual twist. In all other elimination games, the winner was decided by the ‘last team standing’, but in this game it was the complete opposite, with the winner being decided first and so on!
The two most strenuous games in this heat were both played by female competitors. On Game 6 - ‘Waldi the Dachshund’ - four girls from each team sprinted 30 metres down a course to where the giant dachshund was positioned and had to place a worst (sausage) in the dachshund’s mouth. The girls then had to tie four pieces of rope to the front of the dog to make a leash and once completed had to then pull the 80kg dog back down the 30 metre course.
Game 7 - 'The Obstacle Race' - saw an unprecedented incident when one of the French team was injured. Whilst jumping over the six obese inflatable horses, he slipped and dislocated his left shoulder. Clearly in agony Gennaro Olivieri ran in and stopped the game. The rules this year stipulated that all team members were drawn to play specific games. However, Gennaro explained that due to the nature of the injury sustained it would only be fair to allow the French team to have another attempt at the game with another player. The crowd of spectators obviously agreed because they gave the announcement a round of applause. This may have been that the French team were out of contention at this point, some 19 pts behind the leaders, West Germany!
The final game saw four females standing on a large carpet with all eight of their feet attached to the four corners of the carpet. On the whistle, the girls had to jump in unison moving the carpet down the course, picking up gold medals along the way. Despite the game having a 3 minute time limit, two of the teams were unable to finish and the Swiss finished with just 23 seconds to spare.
One of the games was based on the first-ever official mascot of the Olympic Games, this year being held in München, West Germany. ‘Waldi the Dachshund’ was suitably coloured in blue, yellow, green and purple to represent the colours of the Olympic Rings. However, it was felt that red and black should not be used for fear of the colours being associated with the Nazi Party.
Teams: Zottegem (B) v. Sarnen am See (CH) v. Oberursel (D) v.
Venray (NL) - Wim Willems (Team Captain) and Jan de Massen.
The venue for this heat - the spectacular and beautiful Villa Manin in Passariano - was revisited in 1993 when the programme was staged there once more, during the revived second run of the series.
Teams: Bouillon (B) v. Thônex (CH) v. Rodenkirchen (D) v.
Città di Castello (I) - Paolo Alunni, Achille Baldinelli, Maria Luisa Balzelli, Corrado Bernecchi, Ugo Brodi, Alfio Bucci, Laura Busatti, Anna Maria Calagreti, Giovanna Carbone, Antonello Ciliberti, Fabio Crulli, Benito Davanzati, Franco Francoia, Antonio Galetti, Anna Gragnola, Giuliano Mambrini, Otello Mambrini, Giuseppe Migliorati, Daniela Pazzaglia, Mauro Pazzaglia, Fausto Politori, Daniela Porganti, Renzo Sartini, Vittorio Servadio and Theo Volpi.
This heat was held in one of the smallest sites ever in Jeux Sans Frontières. The majority of the games were played in the Port Lympia harbour and the others on the narrow Quai Lunel. The programme opened with a carnival float which had an enormous lifelike dragon atop it bellowing smoke from its nostrils.
Italian signorina Maria Luisa Balzelli, a member of the Città di Castello team, also participated as a member of the Riccione team in 1975.
With the theme being ‘International Carnival’, each of the first seven games was dedicated to one of the seven competing countries. At the start of each game a giant carnival float was towed onto the quayside (which already had a very limited space) depicting something about each particular country. In order of presentation, the floats were: Belgium - bicycles with a giant effigy of Edouard ‘Eddy’ Merckx; Netherlands - giant windmills; Great Britain - a sailing ship; Italy - a gondola complete with gondoliers; West Germany - a Baroque castle; France - huge cooking pots with chickens in tow; and Switzerland - giant effigies of Swiss bankers.
Despite only scoring 6pts on their Joker game, the Lincoln team from Great Britain had a good night, finishing in 4th position just 3pts behind the winning teams. Game 2 (dedicated to the Dutch) - ‘Windmills and Cheeses’ - involved a giant windmill which was located on the quayside overhanging the water, with its sails set in the classic ‘X’ position, The idea of the game was that one-by-one, each team member (three boys and one girl) would climb a ladder and release an Edam cheese down inside the hollow sail beam of the windmill, which ran from top right to bottom left. Once released, the team member had to then slide down the ladder and make their way to the bottom of the sail by means of a greasy platform which was angled into the water, and then grab the cheese as it came out. The West Germans went first and were unable to judge any of the cheeses’ exits and scored nothing. The Dutch, the Belgians and the Swiss failed likewise, all scoring zero. It looked like the game was going to end in a six-way tie, but the British, having witnessed the failure of the other teams, used their heads and decided that instead of standing on the greasy platform and waiting for the cheese to exit the sail, they would sit down on the platform and slide down at a slower rate towards the edge. This proved to be the secret of the game and they managed to catch one cheese which put them in first place on the game. Last to go were the home team of Nice. They copied the British tactics but couldn't make them work, and they too scored nothing. It all now depended on how they were going to judge the game, and Gennaro Olivieri quite rightly stated that this was a first for Jeux Sans Frontières as he awarded Great Britain 6pts and all the other five teams 1pt each.
West German team Rodenkirchen and Italian team Città di Castello both ruined their chances of winning the competition outright. With the Italians lying in last place on the Fil Rouge, the West German team lost 7 valuable seconds on the Fil Rouge when the trapeze artist tried to be clever and jump into the rubber dinghy which had come to ‘save him’, instead of lowering into it sedately. This resulted in the dinghy overturning along with his ‘rescuer’ who had come to save him. (This would have given the team an extra 2pts from the Fil Rouge). Nevertheless, going into the last game the Italian team was 5pts clear of West Germany and it looked as if it was going to be a clear Italian victory. However, with Italy finishing in 6th place on the game and West Germany finishing in equal first place with the Swiss, the contest ended in a draw. Incidentally, the Fil Rouge was won by Great Britain team Lincoln, its second victory of the night.
Teams: Woluwe-Saint-Pierre (B) v. Küsnacht (CH) v. Bad Münstereifel (D) v.
Congleton (GB) - Ann Brightwell (Ladies’ Team Captain), Robbie Brightwell (Men’s Team Captain), Glenys Baskerville, Kevin Cooper, Barry Cove, Fiona Dale, Robert Dale, Ivor Davies, Sandra Dyson, David Edwards, Tony Heath, Janice Holden, Paula Kennerley, Rona Livingstone, Colin McFadeine, Gordon Mellor, David Miller, Stephen Mulligan, Rita Powell, Eddie Pruden, Bob Roberts, Fiona Roberts, Richard Sawbridge, Peter Shufflebottom, Linda Swinyard, Leslie Taylor, Geoff Walker.
The venue for this heat, Norfolk Park in Sheffield was the perfect setting for one of the games. The park is adorned with tall oak trees and grassy banks, and the 'Robin Hood' game was located in front of such and it gave some well defined gravity to the game as it looked like the game was actually being played in the trees of Sherwood Forest. However, the illusion was shattered by the appearance of members of the St. John Ambulance Brigade walking across the background!
This heat was riddled with false starts, with many of the competitors having to come back to the start of the course and prepare themselves again for the whistle. In one instance, the British crowd were making so much noise that some of the competitors didn’t even hear the whistle and a new start had to be arranged.
The Fil Rouge in this heat was not the one that should have been in the programme. Due to a carousel malfunctioning minutes before the programme began, the original game - ‘Delivering the Prisoners’ - was quickly replaced by the BBC with the reserve game - ‘The Manacled Knights’. This had the effect of making it one of the closest run ever. The game involved a manacled knight jumping up a 30-yard course pushing a giant beach-ball in front of him, and when reaching the end a second knight repeated the same in the opposite direction. Mainly due to its simplicity, being the reserve game, all seven teams finished within 4 seconds of each other!
Despite the fact that the heat was made and broadcast in full colour, the scoreboard in this heat was shown in black and white. This is somewhat stranger than it sounds, as all long shots during games of the scoreboard clearly show it in its normal blue colour, suggesting that the BBC were limited in the number of colour cameras that they could commit to the recording.
At the end of the programme, the credits rolled to the music of Bean Bag, the theme music for the British Domestic series. The credits even announced It’s A Knockout from Norfolk Park, Sheffield.
After the credits had rolled, the camera panned to a large display of fireworks which had been set off and was designed to say GOODNIGHT FROM SHEFFIELD - THE EXCITING CITY. However, some of the fireworks in the word ‘goodnight’ didn’t go off and the letters ‘GHT’ were not displayed!
This heat was transmitted in Great Britain three weeks after the previous one. This was due to the fact that the BBC transmitted the XXth Summer Olympic Games from München, West Germany between Saturday 26th August and Sunday 10th September 1972.
Teams: Leuven (B) v. Giubiasco (CH) v. Ahrensburg (D) v.
Sermoneta (I) - Paolo Santamaria.
This heat was held in front of the Protestant Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) in the beautiful Market Square of Delft which is also the home of the Renaissance-style Stadhuis (City Hall). In 1584, William the Silent was entombed here in a purpose-built mausoleum for members of the Dutch monarchy. Both buildings were designed by Hendrick de Keyser and his son, Pieter. Since then, members of the House of Orange-Nassau (the Royal Dutch dynasty) have been entombed in the royal crypt. The latest incumbents were Queen Juliana and her husband Prince Bernhard in 2004. The church itself has the second highest tower in the Netherlands.
Pam Lewis, Luton’s female team coach revealed that following rehearsals on Tuesday 15th August 1972, several of the games were found to be impractical, dangerous or too easy. Following consultations with the Dutch games designers, some of the games had to be revamped. “We made sure the team were in bed by midnight whilst John Howells, John Riches and I had an emergency meeting on how the games should be tackled. We feared disqualification if we did not play them to the rules”. She added, “Luton were the red-hot favourites to win after the two rehearsals, but it looked like we were not going to live up to those expectations after the first two games”.
The JSF International Heat cost an estimated 100,000 Dutch guilders (c.£12,750) to stage, an increase of 20,000 guilders (c.£3,500) on the cost of the 1971 International Heat from Rotterdam. The programme was seen by an audience of 3 million viewers in the Netherlands and 80 million viewers across Europe. Organisers claimed that the programme would even reach television owners in Northern Africa, who took the Eurovision link live. If this was the case, then it would have most likely been a regular service to the region.
Props and equipment constructed, purchased or hired for this International Heat included: 300 square metres of reinforced steel, 860 square metres of foam plastic, 500kg of paint, 70kg of glue, 30 cubed metres of styrofoam and 100 litres of liquid designed to look like milk.
With less than 24 hours to the actual recording, the British team were rocked by news of an alleged scandal. The Italian team from Sermoneta claimed that the BBC had passed details of the games to the Luton team, weeks before they were officially revealed on Monday 14th August 1972. Sermoneta team member Paolo Santamaria claimed that one of his team-mates had earlier engaged in conversation with a Luton team member who had accidentally let slip that the team had been informed about the games after their Domestic Heat win. BBC commentator Eddie Waring replied to the allegations by stating that they were just an attempt by the opposition to unnerve the team. He added, “I am sure no one at the BBC would have revealed the games. These allegations go on every year."
Even though Luton's win did not qualify them for the International Final, it did not dampen the team’s post-event celebrations, which ended with the whole Luton team invading Stuart Hall's hotel in Delft, and dragging him down to the fountain outside, into which they threw him!
Teams: Leuven (B) v. La Chaux-de-Fonds (CH) v. Westerland (Sylt) (D) v.
This International Final was staged at the Bellerive-Plage Sports Complex which is among the most loved of all leisure sites in Lausanne as well as a jewel of functionalist architecture. Besides its two pools, it has a round building containing its entrance and a restaurant and a long, curved locker room. Its architecture, and notably its use of glass, evokes lightness. The dressing rooms are arranged on two levels, one for women and one for men. Designed by architect Marc Piccard, it was built between 1936 and 1937, despite it being a time of economic crisis for the leisure society. The project was part of a plan to fight unemployment and for this reason no machines were allowed on the building site, thereby creating jobs. The site was enlarged in 1962 and meticulous renovation was carried out in 1993 by the architects Inès Lamunière and Patrick Devanthéry, with careful attention to the historical monuments.
Game 3 - ‘The Playful Monkeys’ - proved to be a funny and crowd-pleasing game. The idea of the game was that an explorer had to cross the pool by means of a tightrope, holding on to another rope above him. Attached to the tightrope were six swings and each had a monkey standing on it. Five of the monkeys were from each of the other competing teams, and the sixth was from the explorer’s own team. On the whistle, the monkeys had to jump violently on the swings causing the tightrope above to shake and bounce, whilst the explorer had to try to walk across it. Obviously, on reaching the area where his own team-mate was, the explorer found calm. The game gave the viewing spectators a hilarious six minutes, and incredibly the Italian team played their Joker and scored 12 pts!
The teams arrived into the arena from a Compagnie Générale de Navigation (CGN) diesel-powered paddle ship named Helvétie, which was built in 1926. This is one of the many ships which operate on Lac Léman, connecting towns in Switzerland and France. The British team of Salisbury embarked the ship carrying a large brown bear as their mascot, Dutch team, Venray had a large rabbit which was so heavy it had to be carried by four of their competitors and the Swiss team carried a large carriage clock!
This International Final was very colourful and entertaining, but started precariously for the home Swiss team, after they were disqualified on the very first game for breaching the rules. Although this was met with a torrent of boos and hisses, it was not too harsh on the team as they had only finished the game in 5th place!
Whilst the Dutch team set off at a cracking pace by winning three of the first four games (one of which was their Joker game), the team blew their chances of winning the International Final by finishing last in the Fil Rouge and in sixth place on the last game. This resulted in the Dutch team only scoring 3 pts in the final three games (one of which they missed out), whilst the eventual winners, La Chaux-de-Fonds picked up 18 pts (3 x 6 pts) to beat them to victory and the Jeux Sans Frontières Golden Trophy!
The Swiss team of La Chaux-de-Fonds won this International Final. This win was a breakthrough in the history of Jeux Sans Frontières as it was the first International Final win by a team which had not won in the heats (they qualified with a 2nd place, in Heat 1). All previous International Finals (1965-1971) had been won by teams that had qualified with 1st places - even in 1969 when Wolfsburg and Shrewsbury shared the spoils, both had qualified for the final with victories.
Although Belgian team, Leuven and French team, Anglet both qualified for this International Final without having scored a top three placing in their International Heats (both teams having finished fourth), this was not as bad as the team from Brugge, Belgium in 1969, which finished fifth of five teams and still qualified for the International Final that year.
As in 1969, there was also a tied position in the top three places in this competition. During the medals ceremony at the end of this contest, the four bottom teams all received Jeux Sans Frontières plaques. However, it was later decided that bronze trophies would be awarded to the two fourth placed teams - Anglet from France and Salisbury from Great Britain.
There was a summer break of four weeks between the staging and recording of International Heat 7 and that of the International Final of Jeux Sans Frontières. This was due to the XXth Summer Olympic Games being held in München, West Germany between Saturday 26th August and Sunday 10th September 1972. This break allowed broadcasters to carry live coverage of the events and free up technical, administrative and presentation staff and resources for the sporting tournament. This resulted in the Swiss and Italian transmissions of the International Final being broadcast four weeks after the final heat was transmitted.

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