Edmonton picks N.Z. brains

Press, 5 November 1977, Page 1

Edmonton picks N.Z. brains

A "back-room worker” during the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch has been paid the compliment of being asked to assist at the Commonwealth Games at Edmonton next year. Mr H. F. Hutchings, the Christchurch production manager of Whitcoulls, Ltd, served on the Games organisation’s design committee in Christchurch, but it is for his expertise in printing programmes that he is wanted at Edmonton. Whitcoulls was responsible for printing all the sports programmes, and

Mr Hutchings was in charge of the overnight production of programmes for the sports which could not be planned ahead. In swimming, for example, the fields and draws for semi-finals and finals were often not known until late at night. It was the task of Mr. Hutchings and his staff to have all this information included in the next day’s swimming programme. The same situation applied in several sports and, although it had long been a target, 1974 was the first time that fully up-to-date programmes

were available each day. It usually meant working right through the night, to get copies to the team managers at Ham ready by 7 a.m. Edmonton will obviously follow the same practice; Mr Hutching’s invitation came from the president of the organising body (Mr Maury van Vliet). He will arrive in Edmonton about 10 days before the Games begin, on August 3. Mr Hutchings said yesterday that he was very happy to accept the invitation, and to lend what assistance he could.

He will become a member of the daily programmes committee. The chairman of the Christchurch organising committee (Sir Ronald Scott) said that the invitation was a great tribute to Mr Hutchings, and to the people who worked with him at Whitcoulls. “They clearly set standards which Edmonton hopes to match, and it says much for the technical expertise of a New Zealand printing company. We were well aware that they did a fantastic job, combining as they did speed with accuracy.”