We’d been planning for quite a while that this would be a summer of sport for us. One big reason is that Alan Pennington (Alice’s grandfather) ran in the 1936 Olympics, but we have been doubly excited about the Olympics taking place in London since Scotty was there in Trafalgar Square on the day, seven years ago, that London’s winning bid was announced.
When information about tickets first came out we keenly downloaded the calendar of ticket events and started to plan what we would try to go and see and how much money we would be happy to spend on it all. We put our two applications in; trying to spread between us the tickets we most wanted in the hope that we would get a spread back. Our tactics didn’t fully work, as although we did get three sets of tickets we didn’t get some of the sports we really wanted to see (such as rowing, athletics and beach volleyball). Luckily though we could apply in the second round as we had not got any tickets on Alice’s allocation. The second round was no longer a ballot, but was a first-come first-served affair, and so we made sure we were prepared by working out what we would apply for and aiming for higher price brackets in the hope that this would give us a better chance. Luckily that paid off and we were dead chuffed with the way our summer of sport was panning out! And all this was a good 10 months before the summer actually started!
Olympic Torch in Kingston, 24 July 2012
We’d researched the route of the torch and were excited to see it was coming through Kingston when we would be down in Raynes Park. We knew we wanted to see it on our old stomping ground and so caught the bus in good time to get there. When we arrived we followed the crowds and found somewhere to stand along the pedestrianized shopping street. It was really exciting to see it so busy and that everyone had really come out for the event. For us this was one of the first signs that people were really going to get behind the games.
There was lots of standing around at first with not much happening and then after a while the Kingston parade came through with a display of dancers and costumes from the Korean cultural centre (as New Malden has the highest concentration of Koreans anywhere in the world…apart from Korea of course) and a few others. We’d heard that then the sponsor vans would come through but we didn’t see them (and later found out that they had pulled up in the Market Square rather than try to negotiate the narrower streets).
The first sign of the torch coming was the official cars coming through, followed by a bicycle or two at various intervals. Then a cyclist came through saying that the torch was just 5 minutes away – we thought this was all quite clever to have a range of out riders checking the route and preparing the crowds. We asked one of the volunteers how long it would be and he said that we’d know when it was close as we’d heard it!
It all happened quite quickly really. We heard the crowds cheering and peered down the street to the bend and could just about make out a group of runners in grey surrounding a single runner in white holding the torch. We did our bit of cheering (but foolishly had not brought with us anything to wave!) and then the runners had soon made it past us! It was quite exciting to see and think about how for the torch had gone and think of all the people who had been out to see that torch. We really should have picked up a local paper as it would have been nice to know a bit more about the runners who were coming through Kingston and what their stories were.
Geekily, one of the exciting things about seeing the torch go by was seeing the grey runners ‘protecting’ the flame. We’d heard that these were Special Branch people and they all had ear pieces in ready to take action in case anything was amiss. We noticed that one of the grey runners had a long thin bag over his shoulder which we deduced was a spare torch (!) and another runner was running with a small canister attached to his belt. On closer inspection we saw that this was a spare flame – no one was going to spoil this show it seemed!
Olympic Torch in Harringay, 25 July 2012
It was only a day later that we had the chance to see the flame again, but this time we weren’t just watching it on route, but were going to the end-of-day party that was being held at Alexandra Palace. We were quite impressed that DaddyP had managed to get tickets and were dead keen to go along.
Ready to learn from our previous flame experience we were planning our outfits (Egypt football shirts) and where we might stand (somewhere in the shade), but when it came to it only one of these two plans actually happened (it was just way too hot for synthetic football shirts!). After a bit of queuing we were let through the gates (which were cunningly at the bottom of the hill so that the crowd would spread out as they climbed the hill to the stage area) and we made our way to the ice-skating car park which had been turned in to a stage area with a fenced-off running route. We found our ‘spot’ very quickly which was cunningly both in the shade, and because it was on a corner gave us a good view of the running route and the stage.
With our spot secured we went for a wander and managed to get some freebies; free tracker-type bars, free coke bottles, free drum-things from coke and free wavey-things and sweat-bands from Lloyds. We were quite well kitted out by the end of it. we did make one purchase and that was a new addition to the tea-towel collection (good for drying dishes and for waving as the torch goes by).
It was quite exciting when we found out that the celebrity runner doing the last leg of the relay was Daley Thompson. We spied him wandering around the crowd and then doing some pieces to camera for the Beeb, but didn’t manage to collar him for a photo.
The pre-torch entertainment on the stage came from the various sponsors and was OK, but nothing too exciting. They did have some Harringey young musicians playing which was good to see – a steel band before the torch and then the jazz band afterwards who were very good.
As when we saw the torch the day before there were various out-riders who all came up the hill and then we had the final cyclist to let us know that the torch was about to come in to view, but again you could hear it. As they had ‘secured the area’ there were no longer any grey runners beside the torch as it came up and Daley ran right passed us on his was to light the cauldron while we waved our wavey-things and tea towel.
It was a really good fun evening and once again it was amazing to see so many people out getting so excited about the Olympic Games. After so much scepticism in London about the games it was reassuring that people were going to get behind them – because if they will get behind a small lighted object being carried through the streets by people, then surely they’ll get behind anything!
Rowing at Eton Dorney, 30 July 2012
Our first proper Olympics event and we were both really excited as rowing was one of the sports we (well, Alice) really wanted to see! As the rowing was out at Windsor and Eton it would have meant a very early start from Raynes Park to get there in time, so Scotty booked us in to a hotel for the night before the event so that we’d be able to get there in a bit of a more relaxed manner! We walked up through the park towards the castle in the early evening and it was a gorgeous sight. Wandering around the town that evening was really nice as it was just the two of us on our first bit of a ‘holiday’ in quite a while!
The next morning we had our fill at breakfast and then took a taxi to the venue (we had intended to use the free shuttle bus, but we thought that if we were going to treat ourselves to a lie-in then we may as well do things properly!) There was a fair bit of a walk from the drop-off to the entrance itself, but it was a lovely morning (so unlike England!) and so we were quite happy making our way in. Once inside we found our seats and found that they were pretty brilliant seats! We had decided to fork out for the seats, as we wanted to be sure of getting to see some rowing, so they were Category A (our only top price tickets) and this meant that we were pretty much on the finish line itself!
The races were all heats and repocharge so there were no medals to be won today which meant that although the crowd was really vocal there wasn’t quite the same buzz as I imagine there would be for a medal race. We didn’t know beforehand who was going to be racing, so when the countries were announced on the start line we’d choose who to support based on whether we’d visited the country before and liked it, e.g. Hungary got a lot of our support! There were a few GB crews who were racing though, so for those races there was no contest for our cheers.
Because the course was a 2000m straight, it meant that you had to watch the majority of the race on the big screen to have an idea of what was going on before the boats go to you. Even using the screens you were never sure of the exact placings because the angle of the camera could easily distort two boats that were close together. With the boats so far away as well to start with, we found ourselves and the crowd watching in silence at first, then maybe a cheer or shout at the 500m intervals that the places were put on the board. As the boats came into view though (probably the last 250m), the crowd around us would be shouting and waving so wildly that you couldn’t even hear yourself. Our throats were feeling it by the end of the first few races but we struggled on! When GB were racing the crowd went extra wild and it was great when Kat Grainger’s pair turned to the crowd once the had (easily) won their race to acknowledge their support – it made everyone go wild again!
Beach Volleyball at Horseguard’s Parade, 1 August 2012
Our second set of tickets was to the Beach Volleyball – something we’d been excited about ever since the bid announced the planned venue for this. How genius was it to host beach volleyball backing on to Downing Street?
We wanted to allow enough time to get there easily, especially after all the talk of security and crowds, but the organisation was actually very well done; the walking routes from the tube were well signed and were long enough to allow any crowd to be well spread out by the time they go to the venue gates. We were impressed. It took us only a few minutes to get through the security and have our tickets scanned and we were inside.
Inside, and the stand wasn’t open yet, but the grounds were so we started to wander and were soon drawn to the main lawn where we found the Horseguard’s Band playing a James Bond medley! Another genius move! We stayed and watched for quite some time as their choice of tunes continued to be inspired. When we did move on, it wasn’t far, as we got ourselves a coffee (no longer having had the luxury of staying in a hotel near by the venue!)
When we found our seats they felt a bit high up at first, but it meant we had a great view of the central London sights and we were actually directly behind the court so were a good position. It was a good set up in the venue, as they had a video explaining the sport and the scoring and the DJ playing tunes out before the teams came on.
Once again, we didn’t know any of the teams, and so picked at random the team that we were going to support (tending to go for either the underdog, or the eastern European option!). What was great about the stadium style venue for beach volleyball was that the atmosphere for the crowd was brilliant. When the teams came out there were lots of high-fives and pumping music being played. In fact the pumping music was played between each and every point! At first it seemed a little excessive and slightly odd to have sport played to so much music, but it created a really great atmosphere and meant that the crowd really got in to it with loads of clapping (including the ‘slow hand clap’, gradually getting faster during the point)
Weightlifting at Excel, 6 August 2012
Athletics at the Olympic Stadium, 9 August 2012
Women’s Football at Wembley, 9 August 2012
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