Read the July / August 2012 edition online - Ollerton with Marthall

THE
OLYMPIC
TORCH
RELAY
A surprisingly
emotional
experience
by Alan Street
When it was announced the torch would
be passing within yards of my home (
past the top of what I still prefer to call
Potts Lane ) the immediate thought was
that ‘ I might as well go and see it ‘as it is
very unlikely to happen again in my lifetime,
but when it became evident from
an account by friends in Gloucestershire
in the same proximity to the route that all
I would see would be a fl eet of buses and
4 x 4’s passing at about 50 miles an hour
- why bother ? After all, many years ago
I had gone ashore with my family when
sailing from Crete towards the Adriatic
and had been soundly beaten in a race
in the original Olympic stadium by my
then sub-teen age daughters. But when
the scenes attending the passage of the
torch through towns and villages further
south started to be shown nightly on the
box I came to realise I was completely
wrong !!
After spending some time prospecting
to see how close one could get a car to
the route, I eventually arrived at Tatton
Park.I had to be there about two-anda-half
hours before the torch was due
to avoid the road closures. It was very
wet and took umbrellas, rain gear and
stout shoes and went for a walk in the
gardens. In late May - early June when
the rhododendrons and azaleas are in
full bloom I reckon Tatton Park is one of,
if not the most colourful places on earth.
We also viewed some of the Biennial
Contemporary Art exhibits ‘Flights of
Fancy’ scattered throughout the Gardens
and Parkland . ( There are also displays
inside the Mansion ) - I’m not a Tate
Modern man myself , but some are very
imaginative - the ‘ Pont de Singe’ in the
Japanese Garden is particularly emotive
I thought.
PTO