I yearn for a return to those truly golden Olympic days O

THE Ritz music venue in Brighouse came under fire from lawyers representing The Ritz Hotel in London who, fearful the two might be confused, issued an ultimatum: Change your name or suffer the consequences.

Kelvyn Waites was intrigued by the conflict of interest. “It seems the word ‘Ritz’ came into our language from the founder of the Ritz Hotel, Cesar Ritz, but the word has been used for many establishments, mainly cinemas, throughout the 20th century.”

Prompted by Kelvyn I dug further and discovered that, if the lawyers want to confront everyone using the name, their work is only just starting.

There is the Ritz ballistic theory in physics from 1908, the Ritz Theory of Electromagnetism and it’s a modelling technique for acoustic guitars.

It’s the name of a car in India, a cheese biscuit, a Cadbury’s chocolate biscuit, a light fitting, a chair, ladies trousers, online beer shop, a pizza and curry takeaway in Manchester, a jazz band in Scotland, a property firm in Leeds and a building in Matlock.

Ritz is the name of rehearsal studios in London, a music and tuition centre in Richmond, a restaurant and events venue in Burton-on-Trent, a JD Wetherspoon pub in Wallsend.

There is The Ritz Bar and Grill in Edinburgh and, in North Carolina, is a music venue much like our own at Brighouse.

So why pick on our Ritz? LYMPIC funding organisation UK Sport has cut the money it gives to seven sports.

It’s rationale is to only give cash for guaranteed medals.

In the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996 Britain was placed 36th with only 15 medals, including one gold.

At Rio last year, with UK Sport controlling a big sponsorship budget, Britain won 67 medals and were second in the table of nations.

Athletes competing in the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in 2020 will have funding of £345million.

In short, any medals Britain win will have been bought.

Poorer countries will be unable to compete in the cash stakes.

Perhaps I’m being over cynical, especially in a climate of drug cheats who wish to win at all costs, but I thought the spirit of the Olympics was purer than buying medals.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894, said: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.” Not, it seems, any more. In the old days it was an amateur event and I particularly like the spirit of the London Olympics of 1908: 22 nations, 2,008 athletes with 1,971 men and 37 women competing.

Only two teams took part in rugby union: Australia and Cornwall, who represented Britain because they were county champions.

Australia won, but we got silver and did better in the soccer where we took gold in a contest between six teams where the highlight was a Danish player who scored 10 goals in the 17-1 demolition of France.

Britain won gold, silver and bronze in the tug of war, which was contested by Sweden, the United States, the City of London Police, Liverpool Police and K Division of the Metropolitan Police. The bobbies couldn’t be beat.

And Britain also won the top three spots in women’s archery, but that was because all 25 contestants were British, including one lady called Doris Day.

Ah yes, those were the days of real Olympic glory.