I set aside the horrors of what is happening in Japan and Libya to devote this writing to sport and the sport of sports.
I feel a little guilty about doing this but nothing like as in the past. Is this a good or bad development?
The Summer Olympic games last came to the United Kingdom in 1948 when I was nine years of age, and only once before then in 1908. Because of the cost of staging in the games the number of countries able and willing to afford the games is limited but even so it is unlikely the games will be held again in the UK during the next half century. It is therefore an opportunity which many people will not want to miss attending in person rather than relying on television
I was nine years old in 1948 and had to be content listening to the radio and seeing brief moments in the Newsreel programmes which along with a Cartoon sandwiched between the continuous programmes of A and B films. I have little memory or knowledge of the games other than they were known as the austerity games with events held at existing sports venues and the athletes accommodated in existing accommodation and therefore missed out on the camaraderie of the Olympic Village. 4104 athletes competed of which only 380 were female from 59 nations in 136 events covering 17 sports. Of winners I do remember a housewife and mother of three children called Fanny Blanjers-Koen, more because of her memorable name than that she won four gold medals in Athletics. Harry Llewellyn on Fox Hunter came third in the team event but went on to win gold four years later at Helsinki.
Britain also had a football team managed by Matt Busby which was defeated for third place by Denmark. The events were staged at Wembley Stadium for opening and closing ceremonies, athletics, football, hockey and equestrian finals and at the Empire Pool which includes Boxing as well at the water events. Other events were held at Earls Court, Henley and Bisley and six London area football clubs including the Crystal Palace Ground at Selhurst Park. While the UK has 398 competitors ahead of France 3I3 and the USA 300 the fourth largest was Argentina with 199. China had a team of 31 and Russia did nor participate. Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia sent medium size teams larger than Australia and India
The reason for making reference to the Olympic games is that on Sunday I learned that ticket balloting commences on Tuesday with everyone having six weeks to make their application for one or more of the 8.8 million tickets. On the Andrew Marr Show the Minister of Sport mentioned that at 200 events there would be opportunity children to pay their age up to 16 years and that those over 60 would also only pay the sixteen year old rate. This altered my perspective on applying for events in the capital although it had been my attention to attend some of the football games at St James Park where I discovered there are some excellent concessions.
I downloaded the official information of all the events and decided to apply for three blocks of tickets for London with the football between two of the two hoped for London visits. Given the likely demand from within the UK, the number of seats allocated to participants and sponsors, those going to general visitors for official hospitality packages the odds of getting the lowest prices seats for major events such as the opening and closing ceremonies, the Athletics, the Swimming and the Cycling is on a par with winning the national lottery.
The football includes concessions at venues until the Male semi Finals The price of tickets for the opening ceremony on the evening of 27th July starts with a modest £20.12 and then rises to £150 before entering the stratosphere with tickets at £995, £1600 and £2012. As the chances of getting the £20.12 tickets are remote I may also apply for a concession ticket for the 2 matches played at St James Park on the 26th as the cost of the ticket covers both. On the morning of the 28th there are concessions for the opening heats of the swimming as there are for the opening rounds of the Tennis at Wimbledon including the centre court on 29th. I have only made visits to the number 1 court including one match involving Tim Henman.
Having made my initial selections I was able to log on the Tuesday and could have submitted an application form through to completion but having established that one can but tickets for others, family, friends, colleagues as long as you accompany, I need to confer although I have made a provisional selection for myself which I have saved to complete later.
I have changed the approach including some major finals including the Tennis Cycling swimming and Athletics as well as the concessionary session in the early morning. I suspect there will be no problem getting tickets for the football at St James especially for the women’s games
On Friday I watched Warrington where I was once appointed to a position which I did not take up having then been appointed to a more senior and better paid position in the North East, play Wakefield, where I lived for a few months until a house sale and house purchase were completed and where I worked for the old Yorkshire West Riding County Council for one year before the reorganisation of the Social Services came into effect in 1971. The sport was Rugby League, not an Olympic event. Warrington with two winning appearance at Wembley in the past two years look good enough to win the championship and were no match for Wakefield who are struggling. The home side lost by 22 point to six and led the Wakefield coach to praise the Warrington defence and echo the view that are genuine championship contenders. Warrington has the same number of points at the table top as Castleford and Harlequins but Castleford have a game in hand. Leeds Wigan and St Helens are all mid table but can be expected to move up as the season progresses.
The Quins are better known for their Rugby Union side and they were playing Newcastle at the same time but with an overlap. I was therefore able to keep in touch with the union game noting that Newcastle were behind but keeping in touch. I switched over to see Newcastle score a try in the last seconds to win the game having trailed 13-6 at half time. The win takes Newcastle into the Final of the LV Cup. The Quins ground is the Stoop was familiar to me since 1967, but only from the outside, as it was on the route from Teddington into London. I never attended a game though. The ground was redeveloped in 2005 and is yet to be completed.
The big shock was the defeat of England by Bangladesh. England struggled to score on 225 on a slow wicket and the four spinner attack. Bangladesh on the other hand started well against the pace attack making 52 before they lost their first wicket and 72 their second. England were 52 for three. Both side then had excellent fourth wicket partnerships with Morgan and Trott putting on 109 runs and Kayes and Shakib 82. England appeared to gain the advantage when Bangladesh slumped to 169 for 8 but Mulhmundullah was supported by Shafiul Islam who made 24 not out to take the match at the start of the 49th over. England have to beat West Indies to have a chance of reaching the knock out stage and but and even then the others results could mean they finish 5th. This would be shameful given the high hopes after winning the Ashes Test series at home and in Australia and Paul Collingwood leading the 20 20 side to World Cup Victory.
I watched only part of the Manchester United 2.0 win over Arsenal in the FA Cup over the weekend which was even more disappointing at Arsenal put out their strongest team while Manchester had to have one thought for their important European Cup game against Marseilles tonight. I also enjoyed the last part of Stokes win against West Ham in the FA Cup. This not only gives Tony Pewlis side a Wembley semi final visit but an excellent chance of reach the final as Bolton beat Birmingham in a thrilling game 3.2. Arsenal meet Manchester City in the other Semi final after they beat reading.
I watched the whole of the second half and some of the first as England beat Scotland in the Six Nations Trophy Former Newcastle and England Hero Johnny Wilkinson came on for injured floor and score an excellent penalty and try conversion to help secure the victory, after Flood had secured four penalties. Three of these were in the first half matching three from Scotland. It was fourth penalty early on in the second half that swung the momentum back to England although overall this was a scrappy game with both sides making errors. England have to win against Ireland to achieve the grand slam and such is their points advantage that should Wales beat France and England Lose, they will still finish top of the table.
I also enjoyed the last part of Stokes win against West Ham in the FA Cup. This not only gives Tony Pewlis side a Wembley semi final visit but an excellent chance of reach the final as Bolton beat Birmingham in a thrilling game 3.2. Arsenal meet Manchester City in the other Semi final after they beat reading.
I feel a little guilty about doing this but nothing like as in the past. Is this a good or bad development?
The Summer Olympic games last came to the United Kingdom in 1948 when I was nine years of age, and only once before then in 1908. Because of the cost of staging in the games the number of countries able and willing to afford the games is limited but even so it is unlikely the games will be held again in the UK during the next half century. It is therefore an opportunity which many people will not want to miss attending in person rather than relying on television
I was nine years old in 1948 and had to be content listening to the radio and seeing brief moments in the Newsreel programmes which along with a Cartoon sandwiched between the continuous programmes of A and B films. I have little memory or knowledge of the games other than they were known as the austerity games with events held at existing sports venues and the athletes accommodated in existing accommodation and therefore missed out on the camaraderie of the Olympic Village. 4104 athletes competed of which only 380 were female from 59 nations in 136 events covering 17 sports. Of winners I do remember a housewife and mother of three children called Fanny Blanjers-Koen, more because of her memorable name than that she won four gold medals in Athletics. Harry Llewellyn on Fox Hunter came third in the team event but went on to win gold four years later at Helsinki.
Britain also had a football team managed by Matt Busby which was defeated for third place by Denmark. The events were staged at Wembley Stadium for opening and closing ceremonies, athletics, football, hockey and equestrian finals and at the Empire Pool which includes Boxing as well at the water events. Other events were held at Earls Court, Henley and Bisley and six London area football clubs including the Crystal Palace Ground at Selhurst Park. While the UK has 398 competitors ahead of France 3I3 and the USA 300 the fourth largest was Argentina with 199. China had a team of 31 and Russia did nor participate. Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia sent medium size teams larger than Australia and India
The reason for making reference to the Olympic games is that on Sunday I learned that ticket balloting commences on Tuesday with everyone having six weeks to make their application for one or more of the 8.8 million tickets. On the Andrew Marr Show the Minister of Sport mentioned that at 200 events there would be opportunity children to pay their age up to 16 years and that those over 60 would also only pay the sixteen year old rate. This altered my perspective on applying for events in the capital although it had been my attention to attend some of the football games at St James Park where I discovered there are some excellent concessions.
I downloaded the official information of all the events and decided to apply for three blocks of tickets for London with the football between two of the two hoped for London visits. Given the likely demand from within the UK, the number of seats allocated to participants and sponsors, those going to general visitors for official hospitality packages the odds of getting the lowest prices seats for major events such as the opening and closing ceremonies, the Athletics, the Swimming and the Cycling is on a par with winning the national lottery.
The football includes concessions at venues until the Male semi Finals The price of tickets for the opening ceremony on the evening of 27th July starts with a modest £20.12 and then rises to £150 before entering the stratosphere with tickets at £995, £1600 and £2012. As the chances of getting the £20.12 tickets are remote I may also apply for a concession ticket for the 2 matches played at St James Park on the 26th as the cost of the ticket covers both. On the morning of the 28th there are concessions for the opening heats of the swimming as there are for the opening rounds of the Tennis at Wimbledon including the centre court on 29th. I have only made visits to the number 1 court including one match involving Tim Henman.
Having made my initial selections I was able to log on the Tuesday and could have submitted an application form through to completion but having established that one can but tickets for others, family, friends, colleagues as long as you accompany, I need to confer although I have made a provisional selection for myself which I have saved to complete later.
I have changed the approach including some major finals including the Tennis Cycling swimming and Athletics as well as the concessionary session in the early morning. I suspect there will be no problem getting tickets for the football at St James especially for the women’s games
On Friday I watched Warrington where I was once appointed to a position which I did not take up having then been appointed to a more senior and better paid position in the North East, play Wakefield, where I lived for a few months until a house sale and house purchase were completed and where I worked for the old Yorkshire West Riding County Council for one year before the reorganisation of the Social Services came into effect in 1971. The sport was Rugby League, not an Olympic event. Warrington with two winning appearance at Wembley in the past two years look good enough to win the championship and were no match for Wakefield who are struggling. The home side lost by 22 point to six and led the Wakefield coach to praise the Warrington defence and echo the view that are genuine championship contenders. Warrington has the same number of points at the table top as Castleford and Harlequins but Castleford have a game in hand. Leeds Wigan and St Helens are all mid table but can be expected to move up as the season progresses.
The Quins are better known for their Rugby Union side and they were playing Newcastle at the same time but with an overlap. I was therefore able to keep in touch with the union game noting that Newcastle were behind but keeping in touch. I switched over to see Newcastle score a try in the last seconds to win the game having trailed 13-6 at half time. The win takes Newcastle into the Final of the LV Cup. The Quins ground is the Stoop was familiar to me since 1967, but only from the outside, as it was on the route from Teddington into London. I never attended a game though. The ground was redeveloped in 2005 and is yet to be completed.
The big shock was the defeat of England by Bangladesh. England struggled to score on 225 on a slow wicket and the four spinner attack. Bangladesh on the other hand started well against the pace attack making 52 before they lost their first wicket and 72 their second. England were 52 for three. Both side then had excellent fourth wicket partnerships with Morgan and Trott putting on 109 runs and Kayes and Shakib 82. England appeared to gain the advantage when Bangladesh slumped to 169 for 8 but Mulhmundullah was supported by Shafiul Islam who made 24 not out to take the match at the start of the 49th over. England have to beat West Indies to have a chance of reaching the knock out stage and but and even then the others results could mean they finish 5th. This would be shameful given the high hopes after winning the Ashes Test series at home and in Australia and Paul Collingwood leading the 20 20 side to World Cup Victory.
I watched only part of the Manchester United 2.0 win over Arsenal in the FA Cup over the weekend which was even more disappointing at Arsenal put out their strongest team while Manchester had to have one thought for their important European Cup game against Marseilles tonight. I also enjoyed the last part of Stokes win against West Ham in the FA Cup. This not only gives Tony Pewlis side a Wembley semi final visit but an excellent chance of reach the final as Bolton beat Birmingham in a thrilling game 3.2. Arsenal meet Manchester City in the other Semi final after they beat reading.
I watched the whole of the second half and some of the first as England beat Scotland in the Six Nations Trophy Former Newcastle and England Hero Johnny Wilkinson came on for injured floor and score an excellent penalty and try conversion to help secure the victory, after Flood had secured four penalties. Three of these were in the first half matching three from Scotland. It was fourth penalty early on in the second half that swung the momentum back to England although overall this was a scrappy game with both sides making errors. England have to win against Ireland to achieve the grand slam and such is their points advantage that should Wales beat France and England Lose, they will still finish top of the table.
I also enjoyed the last part of Stokes win against West Ham in the FA Cup. This not only gives Tony Pewlis side a Wembley semi final visit but an excellent chance of reach the final as Bolton beat Birmingham in a thrilling game 3.2. Arsenal meet Manchester City in the other Semi final after they beat reading.
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