Ennis a true star before Games began

I SHARED everyone’s joy and excitement at Jessica Ennis’s outstanding performance in winning the Olympic gold medal for the heptathlon, but I considered her an Olympian before London 2012 even began (Yorkshire Post, August 6).

I have a grandson whose 11th birthday happened to fall on July 27, the day of the opening ceremony of the Games.

Together with his Year Six classmates from a Barnsley Primary School, he had looked forward to a five-day school trip to London in May which was to include a visit to the Olympic Park.

Imagine his disappointment when the school was notified at a very late stage that the visit could not take place.

The children still enjoyed their trip to London but it was not the Olympic experience they had looked forward to for so long.

I wrote to Peter Elliott at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, as he had trained with my stepson many years ago before winning his Olympic silver medal for the 1,500 metres in 1988, saying how sad I felt that the visit had been cancelled at such short notice.

This “true Olympian” took the trouble to send a personal card to my grandson on his birthday signed by himself and by Jessica Ennis.

This was a great gesture by these two very busy people and I was annoyed to read in one of your recent issues that Olympic officials “could find no trace” of Peter Elliott to invite him to London 2012.

Alex, my grandson, was astounded to receive a card from such outstanding local sports heroes and will always treasure it.

From: H Marjorie Gill, Clarence Drive, Menston.

WHY is it always assumed that money is the answer to so many activities, when in many cases it is enthusiasm and willingness to study past arrangements which are the answer?

When I was a schoolgirl, there were numerous activities entailing the minimum outlay of sparse cash which kept us occupied in many healthy ways, for instance – whip and top, marbles, simple ball throwing either against a wall or thrown to one another, or playing cricket with home-made bat and ditto wickets, skipping alone or in groups taking turns to spin the rope, hopscotch using chalk and a stone.

All of these activities can engender a love of sport and also help in the understanding of keeping the eye on the ball, very necessary in all ball games.

Not everyone can be as good at games as the best and only the best should win but everyone should be expected to take part and cheer on the best.

Get rid of these
foreign firms

From: Mrs A Saville, Yedingham, Malton.

In 1986 or thereabouts, our family business was situated close to Northern Dairies on Hull Road in York.

I became acquainted with the various managers including the CEO, who was based at their head office in Hull.

Our business was about to go into liquidation, and as theirs was struggling, we had a lot in common.

About six or seven years later, I found myself living near Whitby. The Co-op had a large and (apparently) thriving dairy in the town. I was in my element; I could buy all the things that corner stores or supermarkets did not offer in those days: curd for Yorkshire curd tarts, two litre jugs of whipping cream etc.

Then, giving no more than seven days’ notice, that closed too. I later found out that it has been taken over by Arla, a Danish firm. I now try to avoid buying anything that has Arla on its label, but it is becoming more and more difficult. One after the other, that name is appearing on labels, many not even involved with the dairy industry.

When (not if) we manage to leave the Common Market, shall we be able to once again, take up the reins of our own businesses, and get rid of foreign companies that sneak in through the back door and wreck our industrial heritage? I assume that once all our dairy cows have been got rid of, the Danes will lay pipes across the North Sea and pipe all their milk to the UK.

Am I joking? Perhaps my nightmares are extreme, but all I can see is successive governments allowing foreigners to buy British, and preventing us from doing the same.

Brutal spike is unwelcome

From: David F Chambers, Sladeburn Drive, Northallerton.

SO a new building has taken its place among the others affecting London’s skyline over recent years. The tallest in Europe, but that says little in its favour. Clearly not built for its beauty, style or practicality, by an Italian architect evidently unaffected by the rich heritage of his own country. It is simply a brutal spike, sheathed in glass.

To have named it ‘The Shard’ seems about right. A harsh, merciless word (which I am sure does not endear itself to those unfortunate enough to have suffered the effects of flying glass).

No amount of reassurance would induce me to live or work in the upper reaches of The Shard. Help in emergency from fire and rescue services would be asking a lot. Lifts, rising to unprecedented levels, serving less and less floor space the higher they travel, would presumably be the first service to be switched off in the event of fire, and I doubt if helicopters could offer much help, if any.

Surely the tendency would be that fire in a lower level would be drawn strongly upward by the chimney-like structure and spread much faster than in a more horizontal building.

Such a waste. Such arrogance. Fair comment from the cartoonist who, gazing upwards into the London haze, said: “I can’t see the point.”

Trees discredit
global warming

From: Rick Sumner, Cliff Road, Hornsea.

I WAS very interested in the article about the once green Antarctica (Yorkshire Post, August 2). Apparently the whole of Antarctica was a palm-covered paradise some 50 million years ago. Now that really is global warming. Whatever life forms existed then must have had a huge number of coal-fired power stations and gas guzzling sledges.

In reality, I understand that one substantial volcanic eruption creates as much greenhouse gas as man has created in his whole history and I wouldn’t mind betting that whatever authorities were in power 50 million years ago found a way to blame everything on poor working class dinosaurs.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.