Thanks for a great Olympics

Thanks Clay.

It's been a pleasure. Only trouble is, I'm not sure what we're all going to do now...

Truely brilliant.

Jono

Watching it now off the PVR... Was at work while it was broadcast.

I usually tend to tune out of these ceremonies but as with the entire games so far, superbly done. 

Regarding last nites closing ceremony do i need to buy glasses or did i spot Victoria Beckham with a SMILE on her face at one point ??

Loved the guy handing out the flowers at the Marathon medal ceremony,it was like Bosh av some of these mate.

Mista h

Whole thing was superb.

Thank god I can get BBC channels including HD over here in the flatlands.

Some of my neighbours must have wondered what all the screaming was about. Especially when MO did his stuff. I was going as nuts as the BBC team in front of my TV.

Had to share this, it is doing the rounds, but I love it.

+1 Geoff.

The Queen is going to be busy with the gongs in the New Years Honours List. Plus Sports Personality of the Year will be interesting as there are so many deserved winners. How can you choose between Mo Farrah and Bradley Wiggins, who both achieved historic results. Bradley's achievement winning the TDF and Olympic gold for me but others will have their own favourites.

Although I was a cautiously skeptical regarding the transport logistics of the Games everything went beyond expectation, both on the sporting field and the organisation. Apart from a few cringing experiences at the closing ceremony I feel we as a country did a fine job of the whole Olympic Games.

P.S. Did anyone spot Chris Stainton backing The Who on piano. The old war horse looked well. The last time I saw him was in Eric Clapton's group some years ago at Wembley. 

Superb Jamie.

Steve, was thinking about SPOTY just now.

Just WHO do you give it to? Wiggo? Mo? Jessica? It's so difficult to choose.

Maybe Mo or Wiggo with Kenny as runner up? Hoy should get a Lifetime Achievement award along with Ainslie.

Or perhaps they should just give it to every medal winner. One thing's for sure, a footballer won't be winning this particular award.

Not detracting from my previous post – it was an exceptional Olympics & something we as brits should be proud of.

Any thoughts on the closing ceremony, especially wrt the music; it was all a little bizarre & disjoined for me, but it was extremely well done tho'.

I had the TV playing thru the Naim so it was full fat stuff.

Not too sure about achieving  ‘A Symphony of British Music’,  some of the music or its relevance to the games or London did not work for me & some of the tunes seemed to be kinda downbeat.

Some performers past sell by dates did not do it.

Ray Davis "Waterloo Sunset"  looked & sounded like he was just exhumed from his crypt.

( Side story - A French buddy has reported some of the press have said Waterloo had a political innuendo )

It’s always nice to see Nick Mason playing.   But "Wish You Were Here"    ..... ??? …. apart from the title words, the tune & tempo was all wrong. Considering the cost & importance of the event it would have been great to get Mason together with Gilmore & Walters - now that line-up alone would have blown the roof off (assuming it had one)

& what was that Annie Lennox all about ??

Spice Girls, George Michael & even that crap DJ & rap stuff was enjoyable.

But what was really missing – with Brain May & Roger Taylor already playing – “We Are The Champions”   

+1 Brilliant 

Stu.

Kevin, for me SPOTY should go to Wiggo. Winning the TDF is such a major achievement and then to win an Olympic gold 10 days later (to go with his other 3) sets him aside from the others. However, as with a lot of these programmes, it's really a popularity contest and Wiggo may lose out to Mo or Jess. Jessica Ennis has won one event, so have more than 20 others, but she was hyped before the event as the 'face' of London 2012 and has gained a high profile. Similarly with Mo; yes an historical achievement but in addition he's so bloody likeable and will get many of the 'mums' votes. I feel Wiggo will lose out because he's so laid back and the events later in the Games with Mo and Jess distracted people away from his achievement. 

Whatever happens it should be a great programme this year and they'll probably need a bigger venue.

ATB

Steve

Kudos to my UK forum friends for a superb job.  

Yah boo sucks to the French. Their papers were very down, about the London Olympics, anyone would think they are holding a grudge.

So much for the Entente Cordiale then! And that was agreed one hindred and eight years ago!

ATB from George

A grudge, or just sick and tired of the orgy of self-congratulatory backslapping going on in the GB press? I know I am.

Dear Winki,

It is a shame you do not have BBC Radio Four [the old Home Service], as there was little comment apart from a roll of medals won in the later parts of the news - no self-congratlation or comment at all. The antidote to the tabloid/boulevard press for sure ....

The Boulevard Press? Well what can you say!

ATB from George

More than most, if you're in Canadia, you've got the option of not reading the British press. We've had 7 years of build-up to the biggest and best Olympics ever. It has been organised and run better than almost everyone thought possible, and we won a boatload of medals.

So we're going to bang on about it for a while… you should probably tune out for a while.

Failing that, have a look at this… it's going to be pretty good too… turn it up loud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKTamH__xuQ

Simon

Paralympics video is awesome.

I'm tuning out the GB self-love with this....

Did you actually read a selection of French newspapers and decide this for yourself?

I read the L'Equipe piece and poll that suggested that our cyclists must be cheating in order to defeat the mighty *cough* French team… that was pretty chippy.

Simon

This is the standard position of L'Equipe on any non mainland europe cyclist that does well.

The remarks by the French track team leader followed a similar theme and even their riders were asking GB riders for hints and tips.

Jono

No I was watching the BBC correspondents from various countries in a what the papers say piece.

French man quoted from 3 or 4  papers. Closing ceremony was a paragraph on page 6 etc.

Front page for the handball? team though.

By contrast the USA papers were complimentary, as were the  few other European ones reviewed.

London 2012 was without doubt the best event I have ever attended or has been staged in my life time. I have enjoyed the last two weeks more than any other time in my life. If people cannot appreciate the best of the best then that is their problem. I know nothing of French newspapers, but the French people I met at Straford were delightful and had nothing but praise for what had been achieved - I've not met anybody who attended and didn't enjoy it and there were people from all over the world saying this is the best thing ever - the reason they were saying it was quite simply because it was. 

I know no other event will ever come close again, but at least we realised the greatest show on earth in our lifetime, and I'm quite frankly amazed it happened here in Great Britain - for once the first word of our moniker was truly merited. 

I hope the legacy achieves what it set out to do. 

[And lets have more sport and fun things on the news and perhaps stick the economics and politics bits at the end so I can switch over when they come on].