June 5, 2012 5:40 pm
Source: www.ft.com
London Bridge Tests Olympic Queueing System During Jubilee - Londonist
Amid the frustrations of people struggling to get the train home after Sunday’s Jubilee pageant, what might not have been clear was that crowds at London Bridge were actually taking part in an Olympics test.
The SE1 website has photos of people queuing down Tooley Street and at the Duke Street Hill entrance, some rather unhelpful signage and a glimpse at the planned queueing system. Passengers wanting to use the tube were directed to Duke Street Hill, those wanting trains were asked to enter via the bus station main concourse and anyone wanting to leave was ushered towards Tooley Street or Joiner Street. If you use London Bridge take note: this system will be in action again this Thursday, when the station has a workday Olympics test run.
SE1 has also discovered that Olympics travel changes are still being made: a Network Rail briefing given to MPs indicated that London Bridge will likely be exit only 6-10pm on 30 July, and Southeastern services may not stop at the station to ease overcrowding. Neither measure is mentioned on the Get Ahead of the Games website which, annoyingly, has separate maps for tube and rail.
London Bridge isn’t the only station changing how it works during the games; Waterloo will have a queueing system in place for trains towards Weymouth, St Pancras will have queues for the Javelin service and you won’t be able to get to the station from the northern ticket hall, plus numerous changes to stations around Olympic venues in south east London. We can’t find information on any other stations running tests though – anyone with better information, please let us know in the comments.
Photo by The Green Odyssey from the Londonist Flickr pool
Source: londonist.com
Bopara returns with a hundred to help Essex beat Gloucestershire - Bristol Evening Post
Ravi Bopara confirmed his recovery from a leg injury with a brilliant 120 not out as Essex easily reached their target of 225 to beat Gloucestershire by eight wickets in their match at Chelmsford and claim their first Clydesdale Bank 40 Group A victory of the season.
Bopara's injury had ruled him out for three weeks, but he was soon showing that his lay-off had not affected him. From the moment he walked out to open the innings, he took charge with a succession of superbly timed drives, and with Tom Westley striking the ball equally well at the other end, it soon became clear that Gloucestershire's total of 224-5 was not nearly enough.
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Gloucestershire's Kane Williamson against Lancashire in Cheltenham on Sunday
The pair had come together after Mark Pettini's departure in the first over, when he was caught at slip off Ian Saxelby without a run on the board, and went on to put together a partnership of 185.
That was broken when Westley's enterprising knock of 82 from 99 balls, nine of which he dispatched to the boundary, ended as he was stumped off Will Gidman.
But Bopara, who raised his 50 with a straight driven six against left-arm spinner Ed Young, went on to complete his century from 91 deliveries, with two sixes and eight fours, and he was to add another four boundaries as Essex secured victory with 19 balls to spare.
Like Essex, the visitors had also seen their openers separated in the first over when Graham Napier breached the defences of Will Gidman, a dismissal that was to put them firmly on the back foot.
It was not until the 14th over that the 50 was raised, before which Hamish Marshall was beaten for pace and bowled by Tymal Mills. So pedestrian was Gloucestershire's progress that they needed 27 overs to send the total into three figures. But then Kane Williamson and Ian Cockbain were to inject much-needed life into the innings with a fifth-wicket partnership of 85 in 11 overs.
It ended when Williamson was caught behind by James Foster off David Masters for 77, which came from 73 deliveries and contained seven fours and a six.
Cockbain and Jack Taylor maintained the tempo over the remaining four overs, Cockbain finishing unbeaten on 52 from 44 balls with a six among his four boundaries.
Taylor's unbeaten 22 came off a dozen deliveries and ensured a respectable, if not demanding total.
Source: www.thisisbristol.co.uk
London 2012 Olympics: Bramham last chance as selectors make their choice - Daily Telegraph Blogs
Despite its disrupted schedule, next week eventing will become the first equestrian discipline to announce its team for London 2012. Selectors ripped up their protocols after the costly wet-weather cancellations of Badminton and Chatsworth, and the further loss of a month’s worth of national competitions due to waterlogging will have played havoc with the prep of even those who privately expect to be named.
Received wisdom is that four of the five eventers will be William Fox-Pitt (exact horse t.b.d. as he has so many), Mary King (Imperial Cavalier), Nicola Wilson (Opposition Buzz) and Piggy French (Jakata, who won confidently at Houghton Hall last week), with the remaining slot between five riders. These are Lucy Weigersma (choice of three, and hoping Granntevka Prince will make up for his fall at Kentucky), Zara Phillips (High Kingdom), Francis Whittington (Sir Percival), Sarah Cohen (Treason) and Tina Cook (Miners Frolic, the 2008 bronze medallist still with a little to prove after absence due to his life-threatening colitis last year).
All run at Bramham this weekend (June 7-10) which has doubled capacity, because UK-based overseas riders are inevitably short of match practice too (incredibly, Mark Todd only got his Olympic qualifying result on NZB Grass Valley two weeks ago). Bettina Hoy, once the doyenne of the German team and who controversially lost Olympic gold in 2004 on a technicality, has an outside chance if Lanfranco TSF can produce the goods on his seasonal international debut at Bramham.
Fox-Pitt starts Lionheart at Bramham. He and Oslo are among the less experienced in Fox-Pitt’s enormous string but he is thought to favour for them for the unusual challenge of Greenwich. It would be hard to think of any other rider that is in a position to discount a Burghley and Kentucky winner (the racing-bred galloper Parklane Hawk.) But the cross-country obstacles at Greenwich will be slightly under height – as Olympics often are, for the benefit of the emerging nations – and the real test will be selecting a “handy pony” suited to the relentless turns and cambers in between.
Greenwich will undoubtedly be the twistiest cross-country ever seen at a championship. A LOCOG executive told me that if you walked directly across the Park you would cross the jumping track eight times; at Badminton the pedestrian would cross just once or twice.
In dressage, the obvious team of three, Carl Hester, Charlotte Dujardin and Laura Bechstolsheimer, are merely on tick-over, having all scored personal bests this spring. Only the fourth “courtesy” slot remains, which rider doubles as team reserve. This is between Richard Davison (Hiscox Artemis), who scored a promising 74.4% at Munich last week in the reduced Grand Prix Special test devised for London 2012, and Emile Faurie (Elmegardens Marquis), who will aim to better it at Fritzens this coming weekend. The squad will be confirmed in the first week of July.
In show jumping too, three of the quartet is popularly assumed to be decided – Ben Maher (Tripple X), Scott Brash (Hello Sanctos) and Nick Skelton (Carlo or Big Star), Skelton being the rider that Eric Lamaze also tips to succeed him on now that his own chance of a successful gold medal defence has evaporated with the death of Hickstead.
However, while last week’s Rome Nations Cup seemed mostly to rule riders out of the British jumping squad, St Gallen brought a “new” and very serious prospect into the frame.
Last October, Tim Stockdale was prone on his hospital bed, contemplating life as an invalid with three broken vertebrae. However, London 2012 spurred him to recovery and although he frightened his fans by falling off at Royal Windsor two weeks ago, with Fresh Direct Kalico Bay he jumped a double clear in the St Gallen Nations Cup, and a further two clears gave them second place in the Grand Prix.
St Gallen was an arguably more influential track than Rome, yet Stockdale showed no ring-rustiness whatsoever. He will now almost certainly contest the final observation event at Rotterdam (June 20-24). If they can reproduce even 90% of last weekend's form, the 2010 King George V Gold Cup winners cannot be over-looked.
On paper there was an impressive top league debut in St Gallen by John Whitaker’s new partner, Maximillian, in only their 13th competition start. Whitaker usually produces his own champions but, fearing the prodigious Argento might not be quite ready, he quietly purchased a half-made jumper from Sweden in December. Maximillian showed his inexperience in the first round, but visibly grew in confidence and delivered a second-round clear. Yet in the Grand Prix two days later he accrued 21 faults. Maybe fast-tracking him to the big occasion had taken its toll mentally, or maybe Maximillian just felt tired – something selectors also have to consider with the Olympic team and individual jumping contests decided concurrently over six days.
Whitaker has won 21 championship medals, but none of them as an Olympic individual, and that still grates. In 1988, his legendary Milton was prevented from travelling to Seoul by his owners. In 1980 Ryan’s Son won team and individual silver at Rotterdam but John feels this was never recognised: Rotterdam was an “alternative” Olympic event following the mass political boycott of Moscow by all show jumping nations bar 11 from the soviet bloc that would never have got within 100 yards of a podium on any other occasion. Whitaker celebrates his 57th birthday during London and much sentimentality would be attached to his participation, but it’s hard to see how even this magician can pull something out of the hat with only three weeks to a decision.
Show jumpers from the new eastern Europe are still not a major threat, by the way, despite massive investment. The Ukraine has qualified for London but this is largely a contrived operation funded by billionaire enthusiast Alexander Onyshencko. Like the Saudis, Ukraine has bought in ready-made horses – to the extent that some were seized by authorities investigating Mr Onyshekco's financial affairs and sold at public auction earlier this spring. But, unlike the Saudis, Ukraine seems to have bought in the riders as well, notably Katharina Offel and Bjorn Nagel (formerly of Germany) and Gregory Wathelet (ex Belgium). This certainly adds to the "universality" of equestrian participation at London - at the expense of proper players such as Ireland and Italy under the strict quota applied in western Europe. What this this Formula 1-style, commercial team system will do for grass roots participation in the countries is not yet clear.
Source: blogs.telegraph.co.uk
Cancelling London 2012 Olympics would cost $5bn, warns insurer Munich Re - Daily Telegraph
The bill would cover the costs incurred and revenues lost by companies such as advertisers and media companies, according to reinsurer Munich Re. Other forms of cover, including employers and public liability insurance, would add to the industry's losses. However, policies will not cover cancellation or disruption caused by transport chaos in London.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
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