Thousands line the route through Swindon, Bristol and Royal Wootton Bassett to see torchbearers including Didier Drogba
Time and again they gave the same reason for skipping lessons or ducking out of the office for an hour: this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They wouldn't see the Olympic flame pass through again and didn't want to miss out on something that might be great.
Day five of the relay could be seen as the one when torch fever began to grip the nation. Many hundreds, young and old, turned out to see the flame carried across a misty Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol early in the morning, then, as the fog cleared and the day warmed up, countless thousands more lined the streets of market towns and villages for a glimpse of the convoy.
But it was in Swindon that it became clear the British public, or at least a fair-sized chunk of it, was taking the torch to its heart. Up to 15,000 packed into a sweaty Wharf Green square in the centre of the town and the surrounding streets to see footballer Didier Drogba, splendid in standard-issue white tracksuit, take his turn with the Olympic flame.
Onlookers hung out of top-floor windows or watched through the bars of a multistorey car park that looks on to the square. True, some were drawn by Drogba, who has announced he is leaving Chelsea after scoring a vital goal and the winning shootout penalty in the Champions League final at the weekend. Many more had just come to see the flame and didn't really care who was holding it.
"I haven't got a clue who Drogba is, to be honest," said museum worker Patsy Bartlett. "But I wanted to see the flame. I don't remember the last Olympics in the UK and I don't imagine I'll be here if it comes again. This was the one chance."
The day had got off to an unfortunate start when the convoy that carries the torch between relay legs took a wrong turn on the outskirts of Bristol.
It is not the first blip – the London 2012 organising committee has already had to explain why the flame went out briefly in Devon (burner malfunction) and why some runners have been trying to sell their torches on eBay (because they can if they want).
A spokesman downplayed the idea that the torch was lost: "They missed a turning this morning between Nailsea and Failand. They realised straight away and rectified it. They were running 10 minutes late. It did not impact on any of the torchbearers."
By the time the torch reached Chippenham it was nearly half an hour late. But, in truth, nobody minded.
Many schools had given children permission to take the morning off. Youngsters waved union flags, tried to get Mexican waves going and blew on those dreaded vuvuzelas – which came to notoriety during the World Cup in South Africa two years ago.
One boy, Fergal Brophy, was still on a high after his under-nines football team, Marshfield, secured first place in the league. Not quite as big a deal as Drogba's triumph but it sounded as if the sight of the flame would inspire him to even greater feats. "The torchbearer looked like an angel," he said. "I want to take part in the Olympics one day as a runner or tennis player or footballer."
Concerns that interest in the flame might wane after the fanfare of its arrival in Cornwall at the weekend appear unfounded. Donald Kelly, who had draped red, white and blue bunting from his Chippenham bed and breakfast, said the arrival of the flame had brought the community together. "The town has made a big fuss of this. As a society we do a lot of things apart but this sort of event unites people." He could be right – people may have gone along out of a feeling they would be missing out if they didn't. And by turning up they did create something special.
There was a poignancy to the torch's journey through Royal Wootton Bassett, famous as the town that used to turn out en masse to bear witness to the return to home soil of service personnel killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But when the torch arrived in Swindon it was all fun and games. The council and business leaders had organised events from wheelchair basketball to gymnastics, fencing and Bollywood dancing as crowds waited for the torch.
There was some bemusement over why Drogba (a London-based striker from the Ivory Coast) was having his moment of Olympic glory in Swindon. He made the joke before anyone else could that he was not planning to sign for the local football team, despite its promotion to league one.
But he and the flame were warmly greeted. After its brief sojourn in Swindon it was off – via Swindon's notoriously confusing Magic Roundabout – northwards where the flame was being carried by Zara Phillips, riding her horse Toytown, along the finishing straight at Cheltenham racecourse.
Certainly, the 70-day relay has a long way to go and, especially if the weather turns, interest may waver. But for now the route seems be the place to be. Read More
انسخ الكود التالى و ضعه فى موقعك او مدونتك.
