Talk of the Town: He’d be a Liddell bemused by Games

Published on 11/07/2012 12:00

THE soundtrack to the film inspired by his life might have become synonymous with the Olympics, but Eric Liddell would have been left “bemused” by the modern Games, it has been claimed.

Lord David Puttnam, producer of the 1981 Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire, which premiered in Edinburgh last night after being re-released, said: “I think Eric Liddell was fairly unique. He was the embodiment of everything that Baron de Coubertin had in mind when he created the Olympics.

“Liddell, I think, saw sport as an expression of himself and all the things he believed in, so I think that Liddell would struggle with understanding actually where the Games had got to.”

Liddell refused to take part in the 100 metres heat in 1924 because it was held on a Sunday. Instead, he decided to run in the 400m and unexpectedly won gold.

Gold-dust Olympic tickets on sale . . 64 years later

STAYING with the Games and one city-based charity shop is aiming to make a profit out of the London Olympics – the 1948 version that is.

Staff at Barnardo’s in Portobello were going through donations handed in a while back when they discovered a batch of 20 tickets to the event.

Also in the package, they found a schedule and a pass to the opening ceremony. The tickets are described as being the same size as Monopoly money and are decorated with graphics featuring the sport they are for.

The children’s charity now plans to sell the tickets, which according to eBay go for between £10 and £60.

It just doesn’t add up

GIVEN a shop owner’s obvious delight, it’s amazing they didn’t take their entire stock north to Aberdeen with them.

A poster celebrating a son’s sterling effort at university was spotted stuck to the door of an off-licence in Morningside.

But we can’t help feel that any more impromptu shutting up shop, and even the newly-trained accountant might have a tough task on his hands.