Hugh Darrington: My Olympic Story

In 1948 my brother law (who as 18 at the time) went up to the Olympic games every day to watch something.

The only sport I ever like to watch is the Olympic Games and I was really thrilled when I heard it was going to be staged in London again.  I was really looking forward to going to the Olympic Stadium and sharing in the experience with the nation from the ringside.

It never occurred to me that I would not be able to get a ticket.   I was disappointed not to get a ticket in the first round and when the website opened yesterday I did everything right.  I got up early and when six o'clock came I applied for a single session at the athletics.  I don't want to watch horse riding, archery, shooting or football.

When I completed my application  the website said it couldn't process it and I should try later.  I tried every two minutes for about an hour and when I got back on all seats were sold.

As my wife and I are in our 70s, this is our only chance to go to the games.  We can't afford huge prices either. I can't understand why such a ridiculous system was set up to sell tickets. LOCOG must have been aware that by inviting everyone to buy at once the system would crash. We wanted to go the stadium which we have watched being built and we wanted to be there just once to see and share it in action.

I just can't tell you how disappointed I am.  Now I have got to watch the Olympic Games being thrust down my throat every day for the next year knowing that I am an outsider and can't share in it.

I wish we had never won it.

Hugh Darrington 


Email enquiries@londonolympics2012.com if you want to contact Hugh Darington

London Olympic Tickets: One Fan's Message to LOCOG

Your records will show as soon as the offer to register for Olympic Tickets was announced I registered my interest and therefore received information as it was released.

For personal reasons I was unable to actually submit an application for the Tickets I wanted until the last day though I tried to purchase tickets on 4 occasions on the deadline date and got through as far as the credit card details being accepted but then the final payment was unsuccessful and on all 4 occasions I was advised to try again! 

I did so up until the time deadline for such applications, but did not try thereafter. I was SO DISAPPOINTED that there was no indication that the time limit for the ticket application/financial transaction had been extended to 1am because of the credit card system being unable to cope! 

There should have been a notice on the Ticket website about the extension, the fact there was not reveals a flawed system and has led to unfairness to those not informed of the extension for applications.

The fact that a reported 60% of the public applications were not successful provides further evidence of a disproportionate small ticket allocation to the general public who are the main funders of the event whilst the relatively small contribution by the so-called Sponsors have been given a high proportion of the tickets! 

All the early rhetoric by Lord Coe & Co that this will be the public's games is meaningless! 

I just hope that our country's Sportsmen & Sportswomen of whom I was one in my younger day actually do get a look in and have they had a chance to book tickets through their sports associations or will our country's allocation be filled with Fat Cats and the hoy paloy who don't invest either their personal time in supporting Britain's sport talent and only their money if there's a big pay back via advertising or promoting their products!

In my view the London Olympics Committee has badly let down the Sport-loving public of our country and all Lord Coe's patronizing 'I understand' just won't wash!

If the actual organisation of the Games is the same shambles, we shall all despair, but will certainly hold those to account who are being paid huge sums of money in these hard times - for Lord Coe and his crew the jury's out!