The IOSH presidential team has been getting in lots of practice to ‘conker’ some of those oft-presented myths about health and safety.
Lisa ‘Basher’ Fowlie, Neil ‘Cracker’ Budworth, and Ray ‘Smasher’ Hurst will be joined by hundreds of other teams at this year’s World Conker Championships at Ashton in Northamptonshire on 14 October.
But it’s not all fun and games for the IOSH team, as Lisa pointed out: “Our sponsorship is about showing that health and safety allows you to do fun things. It should not be, as is often depicted in the media, an excuse to ban harmless, fun activities. Health and safety professionals have an undeserved reputation as killjoys. I hope that by our participation in the World Conker Championships we’ll help to break down that image.”
Neil said he was optimistic the team would do well: “I’ve been getting in lots of practice and I think I’ve found the technique to defeat any other conker player. We’re going there with the intention of winning it — and if we don’t, it’ll be a good day out anyway!”
And Ray had some advice for any would-be conker players: “It’s about hand-eye co-ordination and giving it a good old whack. We won’t be adopting the ‘stamping’ tactic suggested by some on the IOSH chat forum, though — that’s not fair play!”
Come and cheer the team on at Ashton on 14 October. As well as IOSH being there, there’s going to be lots of other fun things to see and do! You can find out more about why IOSH is sponsoring the championships and what’s going on by visiting our new microsite on the link below.
