Olympic fever hots up as torch relay nears
Gurpreet Samrai • Published 9 Jul 2012 18:30
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THE Olympic Flame will light up the streets of Slough and the Royal Borough tomorrow.
The eyes of the world will turn to Maidenhead, Eton, Burnham, Slough and Windsor as torchbearers run the Flame through the towns on day 53 of its 8,000-mile journey to the Olympic Stadium.
As the Torch travels through Slough and the Royal Borough, rolling road closures will be in place. Both councils are advising spectators to plan their journey and make sure they get into position early to witness the historic moment.
Lynsey Hellewell, operational lead for the Olympic Torch Relay in Slough, said: "While it will be a great opportunity for the area and an exciting day, the Olympic Torch Relay will have a considerable impact on traffic.
"We would encourage road users to plan their journeys ahead of time so that any disruption is minimised and ask spectators to leave their cars at home, or park further away from the route."
Roads will close at least 30 minutes before the first convoy is due to arrive at each destination in the Royal Borough and will re-open around 30 minutes after the Flame leaves.
In Slough, there will be rolling closures coming into effect minutes before the convoy arrives. Traffic will be stopped in side roads for approximately 10 minutes as the Flame passes.
The Torch is first expected to appear in Bisham just after 10am and then Furze Platt Road in Maidenhead at 10.48am before heading along Marlow Road into the town centre reaching Maidenhead Bridge around 11.29am. It will be taken to Eton Dorney Lake, where it will be rowed from one end to the other in a boat.
The Flame will come into Slough at around 12.25pm at Huntercombe Lane and travel along the Bath Road to Tuns Lane where it will turn onto Church Street, Chalvey Road West and Ragstone Road before heading to Windsor.
The Torch can be seen in Windsor in Maidenhead Road at around 2.30pm before it passes through the town travelling to the Castle by 2.45pm before moving down The Long Walk.
The route and timings:
MAIDENHEAD
10.48am Torchbearers set off from Pinkney's Farm Entrance, in Furze Platt Road
10.50am Furze Platt School
11.01am St Piran's School in Gringer Hill
11.07am Craufurd Rise
11.12am Torch carried from Marlow Road into Frascati Way
11.18am Passes St Ives Road
11.20am Turns from Bridge Street to Forlease Road
11.22am Torchbearers travel down A4 Bridge Road
11.29am Passes Maidenhead Bridge
11.30am Torchbearer joins convoy shuttle heading towards Dorney Lake
DORNEY
The Olympic Torch Relay arrives from Maidenhead (turn page for route and
timings) by Olympic motor convoy.
11.39am The flame arrives at Eton Dorney Lake which is not open to the
public.
11.50am The Torch will be rowed down the lake, at the Olympic venue.
SLOUGH
12.25pm Torch enters in Bath Road at junction with Huntercombe Lane North
12.42pm Passes junction with St Andrew's Way
12.45pm Flame travels past Station Road junction
12.53pm Torch carried on Bath Road past Dover Road junction
1.00pm Reaches junction of Leigh Road
1.07pm Arrives at Three Tuns roundabout
1.11pm Passes down Church Street
1.17pm Torch carried down Chalvey Road West
1.18pm Reaches end of Slough tour at Ragstone Road junction with Windsor
Road
2.29pm Torchbearers, after a stop for lunch, leave the town in convoy
WINDSOR
2.32pm Maidenhead Road torchbearer leaves convoy shuttle opposite
Vansittart Road
2.35pm Torchbearer will turn from Arthur Road into Charles Street
2.40pm Route moves into Peascod Street from Victoria Street
2.42pm Peascod Street into Castle Hill before entering Long Walk
3.09pm Torch will make its way down The Long Walk
3.12pm Convoy will pass Long Walk Gate
3.21pm Exit The Long Walk into Albert Road
3.23pm Torchbearer joins convoy shuttle which departs from Crown Cottages
For a full route see www.slough.gov.uk/london2012 or www.rbwm.gov/web/london2012
- Are you carrying the Torch tomorrow? We want to hear from you - email newsroomslough@berksmedia.co.uk or call 01753 527222
This article appeared in Slough Observer 09 Jul 12
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Jul 9, 21:37
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JUDGE1066
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Jul 11, 19:04
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JUDGE1066
265 posts
Jul 11, 19:11
Report commentJust Saying for all the flag waving people who say.......once in a lifetime experience, learn some history :-) then you can delete it as your paper doesn't believe in free speech, god forbid anyone who has a difference of opinion, however, the only way to stop me posting is to ban me, I wouldn't put that apst you lot too lol.
FACT!
The Olympic flame, lit last week in Greece, arrives in Great Britain tomorrow before embarking on a 70-day, 8,000-mile relay around the British Isles that will culminate in the lighting of the Olympic cauldron in London on July 27. While the Olympic torch relay evokes the spirit of ancient Greece, it was first concocted by a regime not known for the Olympic ideals of international peace and goodwill: Nazi Germany.
While the pageantry appeared to reprise a sacred ancient Greek tradition, the Olympic torch relay was actually a piece of modern political theater carefully scripted and paid for entirely by Nazi Germany. The Greeks employed a ritual fire in the ancient Olympics, but they never staged a relay of torchbearers to open their games. The Olympic torch relay was the brainchild of Carl Diem, the chief organizer of the Berlin Games, who envisioned an unprecedented succession of more than 3,000 runners transporting the flame from the cradle of the ancient Olympics to Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, where it would light the cauldron during the opening ceremonies of the XI Olympiad.
Diem had been instrumental in getting the International Olympic Committee to award the Summer Games to Berlin in 1931, but their future was very much in doubt when Adolf Hitler became German chancellor in 1933. Hitler was contemptuous of the modern Olympic movement, which he once dismissed as “an invention of Jews and Freemasons,” but propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels convinced the Führer that the Summer Games would be an international stage for showcasing Nazi Germany—and the torch relay would be its stirring opening act. Hitler admired the ancient Greeks and saw the Nazis as their rightful heirs. While Diem was not a member of the Nazi Party, his torch relay would be coopted by the Nazis as a powerful propaganda tool to bind not only the ancient and modern Olympics, but ancient Greece and the Third Reich as well.
The entire torch relay, starting with the ceremony in Olympia, was a thoroughly German production. Krupp, a German arms manufacturer, crafted the steel-clad torches that featured a magnesium-burning element designed by German chemists to stay lit regardless of weather conditions. Germany’s Zeiss Optics built the mirror used to light the flame, and an Opel car carrying a spare Olympic flame trailed the torchbearers. Goebbels ensured there was extensive German media coverage of the relay, including radio reports directly from the route, and he commissioned director Leni Riefenstahl to film it as part of “Olympia,” the Nazi propaganda film released in 1938.
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