Last night I attended the Olympic Gold Ball held at the Natural History Museum in the presence of HRH The Princess Royal, and, hold your breath, 32 gold medalists, 27 silver medalists and 22 bronze medalists. I was in clover. Jonathan Edwards and Hazel Irvine were the comperes, and did a thoroughly professional job. The auction raised £161,500 to help athletes who are training for the 2012 games, and one of the items was to chose which of the athletes in the room you would most like to have dinner with, and then, when you'd bid, to announce who that athlete was. The top bid, of £11,000, was for Sir Matthew Pinsent.
It was wonderful to see old friends there - Lynn Davies (gold, Tokyo), and Mary Peters (gold, Munich). Those of you who follow this blog, will know that Lynn and I have agreed to run 100 yards against each other on our hundredth birthdays. I must say, looking at Lynn last night, I'm going to have to lose another stone and train a damn sight harder - still, maybe I'll make 100 and he'll only make 99. I have beaten two other friends from that era recently, Adrian Metcalfe (Olympic silver) and David Jones (Olympic bronze) - though I must confess Adrian has a broken foot and David is on crutches - nevertheless, a victory's a victory.
The evening ended with The Princess Royal reminding us that there are 1,000 days to go to the opening ceremony on 27 July 2012, but I have a feeling I'm going to have to do one or two more auctions for them before then.
It was wonderful to see old friends there - Lynn Davies (gold, Tokyo), and Mary Peters (gold, Munich). Those of you who follow this blog, will know that Lynn and I have agreed to run 100 yards against each other on our hundredth birthdays. I must say, looking at Lynn last night, I'm going to have to lose another stone and train a damn sight harder - still, maybe I'll make 100 and he'll only make 99. I have beaten two other friends from that era recently, Adrian Metcalfe (Olympic silver) and David Jones (Olympic bronze) - though I must confess Adrian has a broken foot and David is on crutches - nevertheless, a victory's a victory.
The evening ended with The Princess Royal reminding us that there are 1,000 days to go to the opening ceremony on 27 July 2012, but I have a feeling I'm going to have to do one or two more auctions for them before then.
4 Comments:
Dear Sir,
(I am not so sure how to address you Mr Archer or Jeffrey). I just completed your Kane and Abel. What I can conclude is, it was the best novel I ever read.Your 30th anniversary to publish the book really worth the readers. May God bless you.
Masnoor
sir i just read your book A MATTER OF HONOR a great book ,hope you would come out with more such types of books
Dear Jeffrey,
Nice post on the Olympics. As an ardent cricket fan that you are, I also expected you to type a line or two about the sad demise of your countryman and the great umpire - David Shepherd.
Sarv.
Good day Jeffrey,
Even reading your blog is full of surprises, a twist to the end of your sentence(s). Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences.
wy
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