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This year, the Winter Interneige series heats were held at one venue
instead of two as had been the norm since 1965, but for fairness, the Winter
Final was held at neutral venues in both of the two competing countries. Akin
with the main Jeux Sans Frontières series in 1967, the neutral jury
which had overseen proceedings in Interneige for the previous three years was
no longer used, with the scores being confirmed by mainstay referee Gennaro
Olivieri. It was also to be the last series until its return eight years later
at the start of the 1976 season. The Jeu Divisée (The Divided Game) was
introduced into some of the Winter heats this year.
On the British Domestic front, no sooner had new presenter Katie Boyle joined
the programme to co-host with David Vine, she upped sticks and left it after a
disagreement with producer, Barney Colehan. Another presenter, Maggie Clews,
also joined the programme briefly during the 1968 series and covered for
Boyle at two Domestic Heats (the third and fourth) when her colleague proved
unavailable. Additionally, due to unforeseen
circumstances, the BBC was forced to hurriedly stage an extra Domestic heat
when the final qualifying place for the International Series was thrown into
confusion by two teams, Cheltenham Spa and Torbay, achieving identical highest
losing scores (the criteria used to decide the last qualification place).
Meanwhile, it proved to be a difficult year on the continent owing to student riots
that broke out in Paris, the original planned venue of the French
International Heat, in early May 1968. These events first caused the relocation of the French
heat to Épinal, situated to the north east of the country in the Moselle
region close to the West German border. However, as the riots continued into
late May and early June, spreading to towns and cities outside Paris, it was
decided not to risk holding a 'live' event in France. It was considered that
such an event may be sabotaged by the protesters with the resulting scenes
causing embarrassment for France in front of an international audience, so the
event was cancelled completely. The straw that broke the camel's back was when
technicians and staff of ORTF became embroiled with the situation and went on
strike. French teams continued to participate, but the programmes were not
transmitted in France. The
West Germans stepped in to help with Jeux Sans Frontières, which
resulted in them staging two consecutive International Heats!
Already having won four International Heats out of the six staged and not to
be outdone, the West Germans ended the year by achieving the first and ONLY
‘treble’ in Jeux Sans Frontières history. After two victories in 1966
and 1967, they lifted the Golden Trophy for the third year in succession at
the International Final held in the beautiful city square in Bruxelles /
Brussel, Belgium. However, they were not finished yet and went one better in
1969. |
