My Most Expensive Ticket Ever!
I went to the Olympic athletics last night and I got some tickets for Thursday morning in the ballot. But I really wanted to see Mo Farah run on the last Saturday night.
I didn’t get a ticket in the ballot, so as I’ve finally sold my stud, I decided to try to buy a ticket for the Saturday night. But I couldn’t so I bought a ticket for the Friday night, to see some more finals.
I’ve never really paid a high price for a ticket and certainly, I’ve never paid over the odds. Although, I did buy an unwanted Senior ticket at Sheffield Wednesday for £10 instead of £11 from a tout at Sheffield Wednesday.
The most expensive ticket, I’d bought was one for about three hundred to see Ipswich play Torpedo Moscow in the Moscow Olympic Stadium. But I suppose it did include a flight from Luton.
I went on the official site and bought one for Friday night for seven-hundred or so.
Does that seem excessive? Probably at the moment, yes! But ask me again on Saturday!
An I Was There Moment
One of the BBC presenters on Sunday was talking about Mo Farah on Sunday. It could have been Brendan Foster or Steve Cram, who were both good distance runner in their time, but they were nowhere near as good as Mo .
Whoever it was said that it was one of those I was There sporting moments, like Roger Bannister running the first four-minute mile, Llanelli beating the All Blacks or Liverpool winning the Champions League in Istanbul.
Obviously, the 82,000 in the Olympic Stadium were actually there, but how many of the British squaddies on Olympic duty will claim they sneaked in to watch? After all, servicemen are not known to varnish the truth to make better tales are they? Especially, when it’s about something like being the Army’s champion for painting lumps of coal white! i.e. Anything where no-one gets hurt.
A survey done in a few years time, will show that there were at least a quarter of a million crammed into the stadium.
What is going to be the size of the claimed crowd on Saturday?
Presenters Go Mad For Mo
This must surely be one of the best video clips from the BBC, as their presenters go mad cheering on Mo Farah in the 10,000 metres on Saturday night.
To me what makes it even funnier is that Michael Johnson is rather the calm American and he’s cheering on a Brit!
The ExCel Blows Hot And Cold
I went to the ExCel yesterday afternoon, to watch the table-tennis.
The sport was fine, but that could not be said for the venue. I was nearly passing out from the heat and left early. I then had to walk the full length of the venue and then back on the outside to get to the cable-car, as I didn’t want to be in the crush on the DLR. Although in the end, I didn’t use the cable-car and took the DLR to Bank, as it wasn’t as crowded as after the boxing. I did meet a guy who’d been in the fencing and he said that was freezing. So it looks like the ExCel should look at its heating and cooling system. A Royal Engineer also told me, he’d felt it was hot in the Excel and he’d just come back from Afghanistan.
Cornwall Wins More Gold Medals Than Australia
The Aussie press is having a go at their athletes for failing to turn silver into gold, but what has happened to Australian sport? When I was growing up, Wimbledon was almost a suburb of Sydney or Brisbane, with win after win by a never-ending stream of players. Then more recently, the cricketers were invincible. So why has this happened?
I’ve just done a bit of research on London’s Olympic medallists and have found that one of the UK’s least populous counties, Cornwall, has won two gold medals; Helen Glover and Ben Ainslie, to Australia’s one.
Perhaps our athletes are doing better as they get a post box painted gold in their honour, in their home town. It costs us nothing, as we get bankers to do as a tax allowable expense.
And if that wasn’t enough shame, Wales, Scotland and Yorkshire have also got more gold medals than Australia. My adopted county, Suffolk may not get a gold medal. But here’s hoping!
Millennium and Wembley Stadiums Compared
I’m not comparing anything, but their use for football, as I’ve experienced both in the last few days.
I’d say Wembley is very Jaguar, whereas the much less expediently-built stadium in Cardiff is more Audi, with more concrete and wood and less marble.
On the other hand, the sight lines in Cardiff, may even be better to those at Wembley. You also seem to closer to the action. I wonder, if this is because it is a much squarer stadium than Wembley. Only an architect with experience of sports grounds would know.
Food in both stadia is the usual gluten-rich junk, but then as the Millennium Stadium is in the centre of Cardiff, anybody who like me is choosy with his food will eat off-stadium. That is not really an option at Wembley, so I always eat before I leave home or in the centre of London.
The Millennium Stadium does lose on access to the trains, whereas Wembley has improved greatly in the last ten years. I believe Cardiff Central station is being rebuilt, so hopefully, better access will come. But a nearly three hour wait for a train to London is unacceptable, even if First Great Western were their usual helpful self, even handing out bottled water.
We Can’t Win Everything!
I did try to get to the womens football on Friday in Coventry, but there no tickets available. As they lost to Canada, I wasn’t that bothered, especially, as like many men, I’ll look upon the women’s side of the game in a different light.
I did go to Cardiff yesterday to see the men lose on penalties to South Korea.
I’m sure the system of deciding matches on penalties, was brought in by sneaky foreigners to make sure we never win anything.
Boxing At The ExCel Arena
On Friday, I went to the ExCel Arena to see some boxing.
It was the first time, I’d seen amateur boxing, or in fact any type of boxing live. One vivid memory at about the age of about eight was seeing the UK, whitewash the United States, ten-nil on the television one evening. In that match, Billy Walker knocked-out the giant Cornelius Perry with one punch. The story is in Billy’s Wikipedia entry.
The last few pictures show Freddie Evans progressing to the last eight.
Are The Ghosts Of Long-Dead Steam Engines Powering Great Britain On?
As a ten-year-old or so, I used to bunk the engine sheds in East London to collect the numbers of the steam engines stabled there at the motive power depot. It was a massive place, as the number of engines needed to power services into East Anglia and Essex was very large. Many were being scrapped, as electrification of the suburban lines out of Liverpool Street continued.
Much of the site was cleared for HS1, the link to the Channel Tunnel from St. Pancras, but much of the area ended up a derelict site, supporting large numbers of businesses.
But it was here in Stratford, that the Olympic site was created.
So are the ghosts of those long-dead steam engines powering Great Britain on?
C Swam In The Serpentine
I’ve said before that my late wife, C, was a manic swimmer. One summer when we lived in St. John’s Wood, we went to the Serpentine to swim. Or in my case, just stand and sit around.
Now, there’s swimming the triathlon in the same lake, over forty years later.
The Anonymous Widower 