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[bill cobbett]

Massive crowds have turned up to welcome The Olympian Relay to the birthplace of the Games at Much Wenlock, Shropshire, England.

Very exciting moment... will post some pickies later for the excitable.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18252601

[GreekIslandGirl]

Where the heck is that?

Anyways .... CLEAR OFF!!!!

[bill cobbett]

Where the heck is that?

Anyways .... CLEAR OFF!!!!

Back later with some pickies...

... after a stroll down to the offey for fags.

... Pick you up a bag of that other Great Invention of the English Midlands, Pork Scratchings, GI Girl...???

[GreekIslandGirl]

Where the heck is that?

Anyways .... CLEAR OFF!!!!

Back later with some pickies...

... after a stroll down to the offey for fags.

... Pick you up a bag of that other Great Invention of the English Midlands, Pork Scratchings, GI Girl...???

Erm, don't hurry back.

Did you hear that the torch disappeared from accountability, for some 20 minutes, whilst on its journey?

[bill cobbett]

No haven't heard... OMG!... better go and check on our Marbles.

Here's an excellent article from today which as well as giving the background to the Much Wenlock Olympian Games, reminds us of the connection between the founding father of the Games Dr William Penny Brookes and Baron de Courbetin and various Greeks which led to the second revival of the Games.

Well worth a read as it also reminds us of how far the Modern Games with their over-commercialisation, nationalism and corporatism have drifted from the vision of William Penny Brookes for personal progress through amateur sport. Here is how the article puts it...

"Its explicit goal was pure Victorian social reform: ‘The promotion of the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood of Wenlock and especially of the working classes, by the encouragement of outdoor recreation, and by the award of prizes annually at public meetings for skill in athletic exercise and proficiency in intellectual and industrial attainments.’

and for those who doubt the debt owed to the Great Victorian Dr William Penny Brookes this is what the Good Baron de Coubertin had to say...

After staying at Dr Brookes’s house, Baron Coubertin returned to France fired with enthusiasm. Since Brookes was in his 80s and too frail to undertake a major new administrative role, it was the French baron who took up the baton and founded the International Olympic Committee.
But Coubertin admitted that the man from Much Wenlock deserved the credit. ‘If the Olympic Games — which Modern Greece has not yet been able to revive — still survives there today [in spirit], it is due not to a Greek, but to Dr W. P. Brookes’ he wrote.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... reaks.html

Oh and one of the events at the first Games was ‘the old woman’s race for a pound of tea" ... will you be entering GI Girl...??? ...

[bill cobbett]

As promised, here's a picky of the Torch going through the home of the Modern Games, Much Wenlock...

Much Wenlock.jpg

... and as an acknowledgement to the Shropshire town, the chap carrying the Torch through Much Wenlock is...

Dimitrios Eforakopoulos,... "born in Krestena a town 7 km from Ancient Olympia in Greece, was present in all Olympic flame lighting ceremonies since 1972 , and participated as a Torchbearer in Athens 2004 Olympic Torch Relay . Full of enthousiasm for the Olympic spirit , feel very proud to participate one more time."