Commonwealth Games: Day 11 and closing ceremony
22.44: Dougie, Kylie and Lulu each take turns at singing the new year’s favourite before harmonising together. Fireworks then go off at the conclusion. That’s it! The closing ceremony has finished. That was a strong ending to the night and to the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
22.41: Dougie MacLean is out now and performing ‘Caledonia’. We knew it was coming but it’s nice to hear it anyway. And now ‘Auld Lang Syne’ via bagpipes.
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Hide Ad22.39: Des Clarke interviews a few of the athletes, including Tom Daley and Kirani James. They were all very complimentary.
22.37: (Martyn McLaughlin from Hampden Park) We’ve still 20 minutes of the opening ceremony to go. That sound you hear is TV schedulers banging their heads off desks.
22.33: (Raman Bhardwaj @STVRaman) Right, as much as I wanted a Kylie hit, is this a Kylie concert or what?
22.30: She’s still going strong. Remember that Glasgow party you went to when someone insisted on playing Kylie Minogue’s greatest hits? No, didn’t think so.
22.26: While Kylie does the ‘Locomotion’ a number of the additional dancers on the field are doing the Slosh. That’s more like it!
22.20: Some of the performers at the side are now standing back enjoying a bag of chips while Kylie sings. The rest have gone back to freestyle dancing.
22.16: The Gay Gordons is currently being danced around the peripheries of the crowd. With Kylie’s singing it’s designed to signify the marrying together of Scottish and Australian culture.
22.11: (Martyn McLaughlin at Hampden Park) Closing ceremony is currently running 15 minutes behind schedule, according to my running order. That’s nothing compared to the opening ceremony of course, which seemed to last for a fortnight.
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Hide Ad22.07: Kylie Minogue has begun. ‘Spinning Around’ is her song of choice. She’s not wearing the famous hot pants from the video, but the men of Glasgow will likely still approve of her wardrobe choice. She must be a bit chilly, though.
22.04: Kylie Minogue is warming up as Glasgow 2014 is now officially closed.
21.56: (Jonathan Sutherland @BBCjsutherland) Ok, Gold Coast. We get it. You’re sunnier, better looking, have endless beaches, etc. Not sure this is what Glasgow needs right now.
21.55: (Stuart Gillespie @SMTID) The start of the opening ceremony looking better every minute.
21.53: (Martyn McLaughlin from Hampden Park) Harold from Neighbours is preparing to jump from a helicopter above Mount Florida.
21.50: Do you know those tourism adverts that tell you to explore a country on the other side of the world? Australia’s Gold Coast are now performing one of those live at the closing ceremony, except with worse acting.
21.49: Jessica Mauboy is introduced... who? Apparently she’s a singing sensation but, incredibly, instead of singing it’s ANOTHER speech she’s brought.
21.43: More thanks to the city of Glasgow at the end of a terrific Commonwealth Games. They’d probably have been saying this even if it was a disaster, but the sentiment certainly rings true on this occasion.
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Hide Ad21.42: There’s a lot of the TV cameras focusing in on the English athletes. Surely they know Charlie Flynn is the only guy we want to see enjoying himself at a party.
21.39: A wee bit of Rabbie Burns’s ‘Ae Fond Kiss’ being sung right now as the Commonwealth Games flag is passed through the crowd and onto the stage before being folded up and passed onto Australia ahead of the 2018 Games.
21.36: Just when you thought he’d bored the backside off everyone, Prince Imran gives a tremendous punchline! The Commonwealth Games Federation President just said “thank you Glasgow, youz were pure dead brilliant.”
21.34: (Graham Barnstaple @grahamb2105) There is always some boring old guy who gets up and talks at a party in Glasgow! Get the music back on....
21.33: Prince Imran has been up now for another five minutes, thanking everyone from the athletes to the boy that cleans the lavvies. This party is dying a death.
21.30: Winner of the David Dixon award is Frankie Jones, the rhythmic gymnast from Wales. The award is based on performance, fair play and contribution to their team.
21.26: Lord Smith of Kelvin is out now giving a speech to the crowd with a nice sentiment saying that sport should transend politics, race etc, and that the 2014 Games have been a great example of that. Still, nobody likes the guy at the party who tries to get serious all of a sudden. Especially when he goes on for at least five minutes.
21.19: (Stuart Bathgate @stuart_bathgate) Who’s this now? The Sensational Alex Harvey Band?
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Hide Ad21.18: Glasgow’s biggest party has been replaced with the Edinburgh Tattoo marching through the field as all the “festival go-ers” slink off to one side. This is quite a mood switch. If any true festival attendee saw that on a mad Saturday in Balado they would lose their mind.
21.12: Tribute going to out to the Clydesiders, the 15,000 volunteers without whom these Games wouldn’t have been possible.
21.10: (Martyn McLaughlin at Hampden Park) Over 220 workers from across Glasgow emergency services & local authority now forming parade as Deacon Blue play. The parade includes staff from Glasgow Life, Clyde Gateway & City Parking. I call it the quango conga.
21.08: Deacon Blue are up next with ‘Dignity’. Good selection so far. The best festival bands always get things kicked off with a party song then calm everyone down a little bit. You don’t want the audience and band to peak too early.
21.05: Lulu gets “Glasgow’s biggest ever party” started with a rendition of ‘Shout’. The Scottish born singer is on a star shaped stage at the centre of Hampden park with a packed audience around it. They wanted a festival style atmosphere and it’s looking like a scaled down T in the Park. There’s even a few tents at the back. Wonder if it also costs £5.20 for a pint of Tennent’s in a plastic cup.
21.01: (Martyn McLaughlin at Hampden Park) To those wondering what accent Lulu will be using - it’s a lottery. I’ve counted at least five during rehearsals.
20:59: Lynsey Sharp interviewed as part of the build up. Said she was in a taxi before the games started and the driver said to her “you know if you win a medal it will change your life for ever.” Glasgow taxi drivers ladies and gentleman, they don’t mince their words. This was likely one of 5,000 sentences he said to her on a six minute journey.
17:00: And that’s it! Australia have defeated England in the final of the Squash Men’s Doubles, the last medal up for grabs at these Commonwealth Games. It’s been a number of things, but the overriding feeling is that it’s been so immensely positive for Scotland; for the athletes, for the people, for the culture, for the existence of the Red Road flats; for everything, really. It’s just been an incredible 11 days and it’s sad to see it go, even though we can always look back on the time with immense pride.
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Hide Ad16.35: David Millar finishes in 11th place in the Men’s Road Race, cementing Scotland’s official tally of medals at 53, including 19 gold medals. The previous highs to beat were 33 overall medals from Edinburgh ‘86 and 11 golds from Melbourne 2006. We didn’t just break those records, we absolutely smashed them. Well done to all the Scottish athletes, native and adopted, who represented the country at these Games. You did us proud.
Click here to read through the full list of Scottish medallists.
16.20: It’s a disappointing end to the game for Scotland’s Squash Men’s Doubles pair of Alan Clyne and Harry Leith. Competing in the Bronze Medal Match against Engand’s Daryl Selby and James Willstrop, the Scots pair were competitive but ultimately lost two close games and their chance at medal glory.
14.35: The day just keeps getting better for the Aussies. They’ve now won gold in the Netball, a success all the sweeter because it came against rivals New Zealand. The final was close during the first half but Australia exerted their dominance after the break, limiting New Zealand to single digit scores in each of the last two quarters and strolling to a 58-40 win.
14.27: Australia have completed a hockey double after the men’s team followed the women’s lead by winning their gold medal match. The Aussies led India 2-0 at the half and ran out comfortable 4-0 winners.
14.14: Kashyap Parupalli is officially the best male badminton player in the Commonwealth. The Indian defeated Singapore’s Derek Wong (great name) 2-1 in today’s final. It represents an improvement for Parupalli who had to settle for the bronze medal when the Games came to his home country four years ago.
13.36: Who can forget the iconic moment in Rocky IV when Ivan Drago responds to being questioned about the quickly deteriorating life-span of Apollo Creed with the callous “if he dies, he dies” retort. Well, in the build up to the Women’s 800m Final, Lynsey Sharp had an equal disregard for a person’s health. The only difference was that Sharp had little regard for her own morality, reasoning “if I die, I die” before setting off on her silver medal winning run. Read Moira Gordon’s amazing report of the track star that refused to give up in the face of incredible adversity.
12.47: The Men’s Road Race is currently underway with David Millar looking to make up for his disappointing race in the Time Trial event by reclaiming a place on the podium. Katie Archibald, on the other hand, had fared surprisingly well in the Time Trial, staying in contention en route to a fifth place finish. She couldn’t quite replicate that sort of challenge today but seventh place in a top class field was a respectable achievement nonetheless.
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Hide Ad12.23: There was heartbreak for England last night in the final of the Women’s Hockey. Leading 1-0 with 17 seconds remaining, our neighbours conspired to throw away their lead and then lost the shoot-out to Australia. It mirrored the late drama that befell them in the Netball where they allowed, quite literally, a last second New Zealand goal which cost them a place in the final. The players must still have been reeling from that defeat because they fell to Jamaica 52-48 earlier today in a bronze medal match they were fancied to win. There was happier news from the men’s hockey team, however, who managed to pick the bronze after defeating New Zealand in the third place play-off.
12.05: Unless David Millar or Andrew Fenn can upset the odds in the Men’s Road Race, it would appear that there will be no Sunday gold medal to celebrate after Kirsty Gilmour was beaten in the Badminton Women’s Singles Final. The Glasgow girl lost in two games to Canada’s Michelle Lin after struggling to score points on her service. She’ll have to settle for a silver medal.
11.50: It is with a heavy heart that we begin the final live blog of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Whatever anyone’s expectations were before the competition started, they have surely been surpassed tenfold thanks to the drama, excitement and generally all around positivity that we’ve been treated to over the past 11 days. The Scottish success has been unprecedented and, grumblings about trains and some wet weather aside, the whole thing has gone off without a hitch. From our own point of view it was a great pleasure to write this blog every day as the action came in thick and fast from so many varying sports. We may have missed one or two details, but overall who hope to have brought you a comprehensive recount of all the major news and sporting action from our Scottish stars. Thanks for reading.