getting a timer to continue after returning to frame where it was created/started

In my boredom I am trying to create the contestant podiums from Sale of The Century and have them set up to look like the TV show (see here: https://youtu.be/rZSdhRZQjak?t=25s). Now this is done between 5 frames on the timeline (with a different graphic for each frame. Everything is fine and swell until I added a timer for the speed round. I created a dynamic TextField in Flash. The problem is that every time I reset the podium by using the gotoAndStop method, my timer stops as well. I tried moving the textfield (because I have to have a removeChild method as it was created in flash) and the gotoAndStop but that still causes issues. I tried by creating the textfield in AS, but I just got the empty rectangle. Below is the code from the frame that is the default podium position and where the timer is created.

The question is how do I get the timer to continue to run after I had gone through the player "buzzin" frames and back to the default?

stop();

removeChild(srclock_txt);

pScore1.text = (firstPlayerScore).toString();

pScore2.text = (secondPlayerScore).toString();

pScore3.text = (thirdPlayerScore).toString();

pName1.text = firstPlayer;

pName2.text = secondPlayer;

pName3.text = thirdPlayer;

var leftArrow: Boolean = false;

var rightArrow: Boolean = false;

var upArrow: Boolean = false;

stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, buzzin);

function buzzin(event: KeyboardEvent): void {

    trace(event.keyCode);

    if (event.keyCode == 37) {

        leftArrow = true;

        gotoAndPlay(4);

    } else if (event.keyCode == 39) {

        rightArrow = true;

        gotoAndPlay(14);

    } else if (event.keyCode == 38) {

        upArrow = true;

        gotoAndPlay(9);

    }

}

stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, give_me_60);

function give_me_60(event: KeyboardEvent): void {

var clock_back: Shape = new Shape();

    clock_back.graphics.beginFill(0x000000);

    clock_back.graphics.lineStyle(3, 0xff0000);

    clock_back.graphics.drawRect(262.5, 312.4, 52, 40.6);

    clock_back.graphics.endFill();

    if (event.keyCode == 84) {

        addChild(clock_back);

        addChild(srclock_txt);

}}

var countDownDec:Number =1;

var totalSecs = 10;

var countDownSecs = totalSecs;

srclock_txt.text = countDownSecs;

var myTimer:Timer = new Timer (countDownDec*1000);

myTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, tick);

function tick (e:TimerEvent): void {

    if (countDownSecs == 0) {

        myTimer.stop ();

    } else {

    countDownSecs = countDownSecs - countDownDec;

    srclock_txt.text = countDownSecs;

}}

stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, start_clock);

function start_clock (event:KeyboardEvent): void {

    if (event.keyCode == 71) {

        srclock_txt.text = totalSecs;

        myTimer.start();

}}

stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, stop_clock);

function stop_clock (event:KeyboardEvent): void {

    if (event.keyCode == 83) {

        myTimer.stop();

    }

}