Running

Running appears to be one of the most popular participation sports at Alpha, and three of our Dutch translators - Cybele DeJong, Carola Ranssen and Sophie Van Everdingen - have decided to keep fit and raise money. They have all signed for the Race for Life, a 5km race for women wishing to raise money for Cancer Research UK in Bury St. Edmunds in June. All levels of ability are welcome, and participants can run, jog, walk or even hop in a fantastic atmosphere. Cybele ran the race in 2008 after her mother was diagnosed with cancer, and is encouraging as many Alpha colleagues to take part as possible. Click the logo for more details on The Race for Life.

While UK Business Manager Darren Hughes spends his summer Sundays playing cricket - see below for a summary of the rules - our staff are busy enjoying a variety of other pastimes.

Cricket

The Rules of Cricket

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.

Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out.

When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out.

Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.

There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.

When both sides have been in and all the men are out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!

Ultimate

Although more recently a cricket aficionado, International Sales Director Paul Mangell was once a champion at Ultimate, a team sport played using a small flying disc. As Paul explains, the sport was born in New Jersey in the USA. 'Originally know as Ultimate Frisbee, Ultimate originated from a proposal by Joel Silver, then a student at Columbia High School, to launch a school Frisbee team to the student council in 1968. The following summer, a group of students got together to play what was an adaptation of a form of Frisbee football with the focus on gentlemanly behaviour and gracefulness. There were no referees, and that remains the case today, although some tournaments are nowadays overseen by independent "observers". Ultimate is fast and furious, but is also lots of fun and great exercise.'

The objective of the game is to score points by taking a pass from a team mate within the opposing team's end zone. Teams usually consist of seven players, and the game is normally won by the side achieving a pre-determined number of points. Ultimate is played outdoors with a 175g disc on a grass pitch measuring 64 metres by 37 metres, although it can also be played indoors, on the beach and using a smaller area (Intense Ultimate).

Sleigh riding

As Notburga Rotheneder, a German Translator based in our Cambridge office, reports, sleigh riding is a popular winter sport in Austria. 'It involves climbing to the top of a mountain road - preferably one which has been closed to traffic - and descending on your sleigh,' she says. 'The sport is usually preceded by a snack and (several mugs of) mulled wine/punch in a lodge! Another variant for shorter slides is 'bag sliding', where participants fill a large, robust plastic bag with hay and use it to slide down the nearest hill. This version is best undertaken by anyone happy to get extremely wet!'

Badminton, scuba and sky-jumping

Soren Moldaschl, a Danish Translator in our Cambridge office, enjoys a curious combination of sports when he gets the opportunity: badminton, scuba diving and sky-jumping. He plays badminton with his colleague Fabien Freudenreich, French Language Manager in our Cambridge office, every week, a far cry from achieving his PADI scuba diving certificate in Thailand, the opportunity for using which is nowadays somewhat limited in Cambridge! Also limited, but no less thrilling, are Soren's opportunities to enjoy sky-diving in his native Denmark. He had his latest sky-jump about a year ago using automatic chute-deployment, where a small rope is attached to the bottom of the plane and your chute, so you don't need to pull it yourself. His ambition is to take a few more jumps to earn the ability to do some free-falling on his own.

Rowing

Strategic Accounts Director Fernando Blasi loves rowing - honestly! 'I enjoy rowing,' he comments. 'I bet, I hear you say! Why would you do that, otherwise? But once you put your body on a narrow seat in a wobbly vessel, by yourself, or in the company of men (or women), well, things look different. If you scull alone, you are in for an exercise to contrast all the forces that want to tip you over: a log in the river, a drunken boat, a novice rower (occasionally known as a "muppet"!), a swan, yourself (your worst enemy).If you are in a squad, there are more of you, but you need to move like one and think like one: your cox, the only one who does not move! So you get told off big time: Three... your body lean is appalling; Four... your hands height is all over the place; Bow... square early your blades!; Two... you are washing out!; Seven... You are late - follow Stroke!; Five... you should be in a punt not a rowing boat!; Six... Wake up! And then it is all strength, endurance, breathing, mind (yours or the cox's), (real) pain in the legs, silence, herons, moor hens, a lock and back, and, by the way, all this down by the river (Cam).'