Torch will miss out on St Neots’s Olympic history

Published: 1:31 PM June 20, 2012 Updated: 4:23 PM November 1, 2020

I WAS staggered to read that the Olympic Torch had been paraded through the streets of Dublin. That country, although in the geographical British Isles, is neither in the United Kingdom nor a member of the Commonwealth.

The torch will travel, by vehicle, from Huntingdon to Bedford, south along the A1 Eaton Socon bypass, missing the largest town in Cambridgeshire, which has a good past and present representative link with the Olympics.

Even winter Olympic trial sport-to-be (bandy) rules were formalised in the town in the late 19th century.

Two years ago, I was interviewed twice by the visiting Professor of Anthropology at Seoul University, South Korea (Ik-joo Hwang) on the social value played by sport in the development of the town in the past two centuries.

Changing this route [to include St Neots] would have added only 20-25 minutes to the proceedings, via The Common, Market Square and Great North Road, and was suggested to the route planning committee, but the whole concept was rejected with undisguised bland rhetoric.