The three-day event begins on Thursday, 12 April, 2012, with Liverpool Day. Liverpool Day not only features the John Smith’s Foxhunter’s Steeple Chase and the Grade 1 Totesport Bowl feature race, but is also a celebration for the city of Liverpool. Several entertainment events are planned for the kickoff celebration on Thursday 12 April. This year’s Liverpool Day has been the focus of the community and should provide for an excellent community festival in association with the world’s most famous race because of the number of additional events planned for this season.

The festivities continue on Friday 13 April with Ladies Day, which is a traditional event that features fashion and style from the female attendants. Various goody bags and prize giveaways for the ladies are part of the plan during this year’s festivities. The focus on the ladies is not the only order of the day, of course. Every day of the championship extravaganza is a race day, as the John Smith’s Melling Steeple Chase is the featured race of the day. This has been a highly challenged event in the past few years and should be the same this year.

The Grand National Horse Race is finally run on Saturday 14 April and is the culmination of the week’s schedule. The championship has a storied past among racehorse professionals and within the British culture. It is a specialized race industry that is native to the United Kingdom and enjoyed by everyone up to the Royal Family, who are not only big fans, but are horse owners themselves.

The Grand National Horse Race is an historic event dating back officially to 1839, though there were predecessors to the first official race, and it has been an iconic representation of United Kingdom sports very similar to its professional golf tournaments. The Aintree Racecourse is one of the most difficult courses in the world and provides an excellent course to test the best of the steeple chase racehorse class. The energy infused by the local city of Liverpool, with a population of over 400,000 and a surrounding urban area of over 800,000, will make this year’s championship a major success and well worth attending.

Cheltenham Gold Cup

The third day will be St. Patrick’s Thursday, where jockeys and spectators celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a few competitive races and the last and most important day is Cheltenham Gold Cup Day. Many consider Cheltenham Gold Cup Day as the best day at the festival.

As might be expected, 2011 Gold Cup winner Long Run is the early favourite to repeat. However, two-time Cup winner Kauto Star cannot be ignored, especially when remembering the horse’s thirteen-length victory in 2009. Kauto Star is currently second on the board. If Kauto Star will prove a popular winner if he can find his form after a very bad preparation for the race. Outsiders like ‘Weird Al’ also stand a good chance if the ground suits them.

Once the festival is over the National Hunt season only has one big race left – The Grand National! if you can pick a out winning horse in that race you’ll be beating the odds for sure.

Royal celebrations on the river are part of the rich heritage of the Thames, probably the most history-steeped of all rivers. Richard III was the first English monarch to travel to his coronation by water in 1483, setting a precedent for spectacular royal processions on the river. In 1487, when Henry VII’s queen travelled by barge from Greenwich to the Tower of London, the journey was accompanied by a special firework display. Years later in May 1533, another Henry sent his new wife, Anne Boleyn, on an even more impressive coronation journey. Fifty gold clothed barges, a further 250 smaller vessels and two magnificent lead barges, mounted with fire-breathing mechanical monsters and choirs which flamed and sang for the huge crowds lining the banks of the Thames.

The tradition continued and on 30 May 1610, after James I proclaimed his son Henry to be the Prince of Wales, another grand celebration was staged on the river. This was followed by a three-day river pageant which included a fully orchestrated ‘sea’ battle with two merchant vessels, two fully-rigged men-of-war and a pirate ship.

Over 50 years later, on 23 August 1662, King Charles II and Queen Catherine of Braganza were welcomed with a reported 10,000 boats and an extravagant pageant on their arrival at Whitehall from Hampton Court. Twelve barges, each carrying a mythological character delivered an oration to their Majesties. This event so impressed 17th century diarist Samuel Pepys that he wrote: “the most magnificent triumph that ever floated on the Thames, considering the innumerable boates and vessells dress’d and adorn’d with all imaginable pomp.”

Music played an important part in these grand events. On 17 July 1717, Handel’s Water Music was performed on the Thames for King George I and a party of courtiers who had taken to the water in an open barge. Later, in 1749, to celebrate the end of the War of the Austrian Succession, Handel was again commissioned to write a celebratory piece of music for a celebration on the Thames. The Music for the Royal Fireworks, as it became known, was accompanied by a spectacular barge-launched fireworks display and this same music was again performed some 250 years later as part of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002.

The Golden Jubilee wasn’t the first time that the queen had taken to the water. Six weeks after her coronation on 22 July 1953, a Royal River Pageant was held for the Queen on the Thames. The pageant comprised of 149 vessels and floats, divided into seven thematic sections: The Lord Mayor’s Procession, Her Majesty’s Services, Historical Tableaux, Marine Services, Industry and Commerce, River Services and Private motor yachts. The six-mile route began in Greenwich and ended with the Queen’s salute at Westminster.

To celebrate The Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, a River Progress and Pageant on the Thames was organised with over 140 vessels taking part. The Queen travelled aboard the Port of London Authority’s launch Nore which, dressed as a royal barge, landed several times to meet mayors of several London Boroughs and community groups before being welcomed by a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London.

For the Queen’s Golden Jubilee a new royal barge, based on an 18th century oared shallop, was built. The journey, from Isleworth to Greenwich, was accompanied by a dozen Dunkirk Little Ships and was joined by the Lady Daphne sailing barge, the Portwey steam tug and hundreds of smaller boats.

But no previous Thames pageant is likely to come close to this years, when at high water on Sunday 3 June 2012, over a thousand boats will come together on the River Thames for The Queen to lead her Diamond Jubilee Pageant. It will rival any spectacle that has gone before and be one of the largest flotillas ever assembled on the river.

30,000 flag waving spectators will be on the water and over 1 million are expected to line the shore and wave flags from the bridges along the route which stretches seven miles along the Thames from Battersea in West London to Tower Bridge in the East. The full route, including the mustering and dispersal of the vessels, from Hammersmith to the Greenwich Royal Naval College is around 14 miles.

The Queen will ride down the river from Putney to Tower Bridge in a Thames sailing barge specially converted to give the appearance of an ornate 18th-century royal galley. Her Majesty will review the flotilla before it sets off from Albert Bridge near Chelsea and by the time it reaches its final stop at Tower Bridge it will have travelled under 14 road and rail bridges and taken a full 90 minutes to pass any given point. The flotilla will be divided into 10 sections, with musical herald barges separating each group. The barge was aptly described by London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, as a royal quinquereme.

Everything from rowing boats to gondolas, passenger vessels to tugs, steamers, dhows, wherries, wooden launches, sailing boats, oyster smacks, square riggers and steam vessels, accompanied by the armed forces, fire, police, rescue and other services – everything, as Boris commented, “with the possible exception of the Ark Royal” will assemble all decked out in bunting and flags to welcome the Queen on this very special day in celebration of 60 years of her reign.

The gigantic fleet, selected by invitation and an open submission process, will be more than seven miles long and show our maritime heritage at its very best. Some boats have been chosen for their historic links, others simply because they will provide the Pageant with an element of fun, flair and a unique visual excitement. All will be accompanied by bands and hooters, water jets and whistles, fireworks and fantasy, even the sound of bells led by the Royal Jubilee Bells – eight church bells that will sound a quarter peal and be answered by churches along the route – and Gloriana, a hand-built 88ft row-barge with bell tower, covered in gold leaf.

This river pageant, centrepiece of the diamond jubilee celebrations and a tribute to Britain’s maritime history, will be the largest for at least 350 years and result in a long weekend of public holidays for the second year running.

Boats will muster at Hammersmith, Putney and Wandsworth, before entering the waters of the main route and passing Battersea, Albert, Chelsea, Vauxhall, Lambeth, Westminster, Hungerford, Waterloo, Blackfriars, Southwark, London and Tower, finally dispersing at Greenwich and the West India Docks.

The pageant can be reached by tube via a number of stations close to the route including: Pimlico Tube Station – 7 minutes from River Thames, St James’s Park Tube – 18 minutes from River Thames, Westminster Tube Station – 20 minutes from River Thames, Vauxhall, Waterloo, London Bridge and mainline stations: Victoria Railway Station – 21 minutes from River Thames and Charing Cross Railway Station – 29 minutes from River Thames.

Photo Credit: Ints Vikmanis / Shutterstock.com

Tottenham Court Road, an interchange between the Central line and the Charing Cross branch of the Northern line, played a starring role in John Landis’ 1981 British-American horror film. Despite some initial debate over which tube station appears in the film (Aldwych station was once in the frame), the platform where the train carrying werewolf victim, Joe Kingsploy, arrives is definitely the northbound Northern Line platform. The sign for Tottenham Court Road can clearly be seen in several shots.

It opens with two young Americans, David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) backpacking there way around England. Following a famously tense visit to a very silent Yorkshire village pub (actually shot in the Brecon Beacons in North Wales), the two men, despite warnings to the contrary, venture deep into the moors at night where they are attacked by a werewolf. The attack results in Jack’s death whilst David is mauled and taken to a London hospital. It isn’t long before David begins to have disturbing dreams and then his dead friend turns up and informs David that he’s a werewolf and will transform at the next full moon.

The film, which was a massive success and caused Michael Jackson to ask Landis to direct his ground-breaking Thriller video, was mostly shot in and around London. Even the night time scene on the fictional Yorkshire moor was actually set in Windsor Great Park.

The hospital scenes, where David was brought after being attacked by the werewolf to recover, were filmed at Chiswick Maternity Hospital, Netheravon Road South. The hospital closed as a working unit in 1975 but went on to be used in a number of film and television productions including: the Chinese Detective, Angels, Not the Nine O’Clock news and the very popular Television series Bergerac.

When David is released from Hospital he goes to live with his nurse, Alex Price (Jenny Agutter), in her London flat. In reality the flat and the exterior shots used in the film are three London locations. The front of the flat was filmed on and around Lupus Street in Pimlico; Lupus is Latin for wolf which may have influenced Landis’ decision to use the Pimlico location. Other shots of the flat are of 64 Coleherne Road, Earl’s Court and Redcliffe Square also in Earl’s Court.

David, unable to stop himself from transforming into a werewolf at the rising of the full moon, is consumed by bloodlust and goes on to commit several gory murders. The werewolf’s first victims are partygoers Harry and Judith. We first see them as they alight from a London taxi on East Heath Road, Hampstead Heath, Hampstead. Deciding to play a trick on the host and hostess of the dinner party, they go to the rear of the house which, as it turns out, is a very bad move. The actual killings were shot on the Heath itself.

David then kills three tramps he comes across near to Tower Bridge, this is followed by the killing at Tottenham Court Road tube station; where for the first time we catch a glimpse of David in his werewolf persona. David is later introduced to his victims by Jack, his dead backpacking friend, as ‘the walking dead’ in an unspecified adult movie house somewhere in London. The porn film that is being shown is called ‘See you next Wednesday,’ to which a reference was later made in the opening lines of Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

David runs riot in Regent’s Park’s, London Zoo. Waking up naked in the zoo, he steals balloons from a schoolboy to cover his modesty. Fleeing, David runs into a woman; the actress playing her was not told to expect a naked man prior the shot, all she was told that a man would come out and say something to her. The wolves used in the London Zoo scene were kept privately by Roger Palmer and appeared in several TV programmes and adverts. Roger went on to found the UK Wolf Conservation Trust which still keeps wolves.

The terrifying scene when the werewolf runs riot in Piccadilly Circus was filmed with multiple cameras and completed within half an hour. Police stopped the traffic and the public at the frantically busy intersection. It was the first time since the late sixties that filming had been allowed in Piccadilly Circus. This was due to another filmmaker, director Michael Winner, who set off an unannounced smoke bomb while filming a scene for The Jokers. Police were outraged as Winner escaped by speeding off in a taxi, leaving other crew members to be arrested.

Landis persuaded the Met to allow him to film by using testimonials from the Chicago police with whom he had worked with on The Blues Brothers. This, along with a fully worked plan and scale model of the area showing how traffic would be minimally disrupted, helped overcome official reluctance to approve the filming,

Towards the end of the film Landis himself appears briefly as a bearded man who gets hit by a car and thrown through a plate glass window in Piccadilly Circus. London landmark, Trafalgar Square, also appears in the movie when David asks a policeman to arrest him. At one point David screams, “I’m a f*****’ werewolf, for God’s sake!” Later changed for television to “I’m a famous werewolf, for God’s sake!”

One of the last views of London in the film is Winchester Walk, Clink Street, Southwark; the alley where David is finally cornered by police.

An American werewolf in London is the highest rated popular werewolf film on the Internet Movie Data Base, with an impressive 7.5 rating and the Number 1 werewolf film on Sqidoo.com which says: “This film has one of the best transformation scenes of any werewolf movie, which is all the more impressive since there was no CGI when this movie was made.”

The 2012 London Triathlon will start and finish in Hyde Park [August 4th and 7th]. The swimming event will take place in the Serpentine, followed by the cycle ride around central London and finishing with the run back, in Hyde Park. Spectators will be able to view this Olympic event for free on most of the course, no need for tickets or a trek to the stadiums is necessary for this exciting event.

GB Hopefuls.
In September 2011 Alistair Brownlee took the Triathlon World Title with a convincing win on the 2008 Olympic course in Beijing. Brownlee was thought unlikely to qualify for the games in 2008 but after making the team, finished as the top Brit in the competition. Younger brother Jonathon finished second and Brit Will Clarke, was ninth. Alistair and Jonathon have virtually reserved their Olympic places, which leaves just one place to fill on the Olympic team. There are plenty of contenders for the coveted place including Tom Bishop. Bishop won the Senior National Championships at Windsor on his first attempt and last year came second in the Junior World Championship, he recently said that his life at the momement consists of ” eating, sleeping and training”. Bishop considers the triathlon run his best discipline and his objective now is to qualify for the Olympic Team. Veterans, Will Clarke and Tim Don may have other ideas about who should take the final spot, Bishop said recently “there’s a lot of people going for that last spot but, if my training continues to go as well as it has been, I’ve got a chance”.

Helen Jenkins won her second World Triathlon Championship after finishing runner up ,in the season ending Final, in Beijing the day after Brownlee took his title. This follows her win in August at the Hyde Park triathlon in London, when she won in some style and met GBs selection criteria for the 2012 Olympics. After the race she said ” That hurt so much. I just kept running and running”. Jenkins who finished 21st at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 is not guaranteed selection as others may also qualify, giving the selectors a wider choice of competitors to choose from. Jodie Stimpson who was placed 14th at Hyde Park, Vicky Holland and Scot, Kerry Lang, will also have their eyes set on London 2012.

Daniel Goodings / Shutterstock.com

Marathons have become a world wide running tradition testing an athletes speed and endurance. They have become extremely popular with the general public and the ‘fun runners’ who take part have raised millions of pounds for charities. In 1996, the 100th Anniversary of the Modern Athens Marathon, over 3000 runners from around the world gathered to run in the footsteps of Pheidippides in Greece. The London 2012 Olympic Marathon will start and finish in the Mall and will consist of four laps of a circular route. The course will take in many of London’s well known sights including Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Palace of Westminster. There will be some Special Viewing areas along the course, which will require tickets, but for most of the course the public will be able to view both the Men’s and Women’s Olympic Marathon event for Free.

GB Hopefuls

Mara Yamauchi, she holds the second fastest time by a British woman in the marathon, behind world record holder Paula Radcliffe and finished tenth at the 2010 London Marathon.

Claire Hallissey, finished sixth in only her second Marathon in Chicago, 93 seconds inside the UK qualifying time.

Paula Radcliffe, finished third in the Berlin Marathon in September 2011, inside the UK qualifying time and as one of the most experienced runners must have a great chance of selection.

Scott Overall, at his Marathon debut in Berlin finished an impressive fifth inside UK qualifying time.

Andrew Lemoncello, competed in the steeplechase event at the 2008 Olympics and made his Marathon debut in the 2010 London Marathon, finishing in 8th place.

Amazingly the Central line tube trains cover a distance of 8100 miles, equating to a journey from London and Australia. I’m not sure if I fancy being stuck on the Central Line to Sydney, Notting Hill Gate to Oxford Circus is bad enough.

The Data visualisation specialists “Spatial Analysis‘ examined the information from TfL and mapped the distances that you could travel. Even the shortest distance covered by the tube (Waterloo Line) would be enough to get you to Dublin. Seeing the data laid out like this, gives you a real sense of the massive task TfL undertakes everyday.

I was surprised to find out that the Northern Line gets that much usage every day. What’s more surprising is once you read the report fully you realise that the data only covers peak time travel!

You can click on the image above to see a full visualisation of the distances travelled by the tube each day.

The planned route of the torch relay means it will pass within one hour of 95 percent of the population. The details released so far do not include anywhere outside Britain, however they may eventually include a diversion from Northern Ireland to Dublin in the Republic, to highlight the Peace Process. “We are now really working through the feasibility of this” said Coe, “For all sorts of reasons I am very keen for it” [to go to Dublin]. “That’s not going to eat into any of the time we had allocated for England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, this will be additional time and it is likely to be hours”. Before the torch arrives in London it will take in 1018 villages, towns and cities. Coe said organisers were working closely with the Metropolitan Police and other local forces to ensure the torch would be secure along the route. He said he was confident they would strike the right balance between security and allowing as many people as possible to be involved in the event.

The Olympic Archery competition will take place At Lord’s Cricket Ground, St John’s Wood. This picturesque, world famous ‘Home of Cricket’, will benefit from a makeover before it hosts the Olympic athletes from July 27th to August 3rd. An Archery range will be created on the outfield of the main ground and the nursery ground, in the beautiful surroundings of the 197 year old cricket club, the competition will consist of four medal events. The ground will accomodate a maximum of 6,500 spectators and there will be some tickets available priced at £20.

In Archery competitions the athletes score points by firing arrows at ten concentric scoring zones on the target. From a distance of 70 mtrs they score from 10 points for the golden bullseye down to 1 point on the white outer ring. There are individual and team events for both men and women and a preliminary round to decide seeding takes place before the Games officially start. The seedings decide who will play in the head to head elimination rounds. The individual competition consists of 64 archers with 12 arrows each who compete in a knock-out format. Team events follow the same format as the individual events, except that knockout matches consist of 24 arrows per country, 8 per archer. Any country that qualifies 3 male or 3 female archers into an individual event may compete in the corresponding team event. Modern bows are strong, light and bendy and often made of laminated wood, carbon fibre or fibreglass. A good Archer must have excellent concentration, good balance and eyesight, a steady hand and decent equipment. The ability to read wind speed and compensate for it is essential and the factor which separates the best archers from the also rans.

As the host nation GB are automatically entitled to enter 6 Archers, the maximum number any country may enter. Countries can secure an Olympic place by continental qualification tournaments and at qualification events which will be held just before next years Games. After the 2011 Olympic games have finished all the equipment used will be donated to clubs and schools throughout the country.

GB Hopefuls.

Simon Terry: he made his name as a 19 year old at the 1992 Olympics winning two Bronze Medals and then promptly retired!. After a 12 year break he returned to Archery in 2005, winning Silver at World Championships in 2007 and Gold at the European Grand Prix in 2011.

Alison Williamson: won Bronze at Athens Games in 2004 and led the British Team to Silver at the Commonwealth Games last year. Blamed herself for the teams failure to win a medal in Beijing, when they lost by one point, in the Bronze Medal match.

Alan Wills: was placed 15th in Beijing Games and won Gold at the 2010 World Field Archery Championships, he switched from field archery to target archery, to seek tougher competition and ultimately compete at the Olympics.

Naomi Folkard: selected for the 2004 Athens team ahead of top ranked team mate Alison Williamson. Won Double World Cup Gold in 2007 but failed to bring a medal home from Beijing Games.

Much controversy has surrounded the idea of a G.B. football team, as the four home nations, Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland historically play under their own banners. The associations of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland issued a statement voicing their “collective opposition to Team GB participation at the 2012 Olympic Games”. BOA chief executive Andy Hunt said, ‘Seeing Team GB take to the pitch in 2012 will be one of the defining moments of the London Games. It would be unthinkable to host the Olympics in Britain, home of the world’s most knowledgeable and passionate football fans, and not have Team GB represented in men’s and women’s football’. It now seems likely there will be a GB Team, with a number of players expressing interest, notably David Beckham. Whether the team will be made up of English players only, remains to be seen, and will depend on the four FAs finding some common ground.

GB HOPEFULS.
David Beckham, Aaron Ramsey [Welsh captain], Gareth Bale [Wales] have all expressed interest in a GB Team but will have to face something of a culture shock as they will be expected to stay in the Athlete’s Village at some stage, a far cry from the luxury they may be used to! Top Scottish women’s player, Kim Little, said recently “it’s a one-off tournament and I’m British and Scottish, so, yes, I’d play’, which must surely echo the thoughts of many other players faced with the opportunity to take part in an Olympic event.