The week the Olympic flame burned bright across Kent
The eyes of the world were supposed to be on Tokyo on Friday to watch the starting gun fired on the 2020 Olympics. But with Covid-19 suspending the Games for a year, we looked back at a time when Kent enjoyed its own taste of the sporting festival...
Across four days in July 2012, the Olympic flame passed through 37 towns and villages in Kent ahead of the Games being held in London. Tens of thousands lined the county’s streets as the beacon was carried on its journey by deserving torchbearers, each with an inspirational story of personal achievement or contribution to their community.
Among them was kidney transplant recipient Paul German, who carried the torch through Chatham - a moment he will never forget.
He said: “I’ve heard it so many times on the television but it really was the experience of a lifetime.”
Fellow relay runner, Garry Philpott, was the only person to carry the torch in one hand and a pint in the other. The then-42-yearold, from Salmon Crescent, Minster, ordered a free Spitfire just before he ran his leg in Faversham. “It was just completely and utterly mad,” he said. “Everyone’s fear was that no one would be there. It was absolutely packed.” Marathon man Jack Denness couldn’t face watching the torch pass through his home town of Rochester after being turned down for a place in the relay. The then-77-year-old school caretaker was inexplicably rejected by Games bosses despite raising more than £100,000 for charity and winning our Pride in Medway awards in 2011.
The KM Group’s Medway Messenger ran a long campaign to get Jack a place but organisers failed to relent.
Jack said he’d heard from people there that some were chanting his name and someone was holding a placard which said: “Where’s the Pride in Medway man?”
“I didn’t go down, I couldn’t face it,” he said. Fellow torchbearer Deb Puxty, of
Canterbury Street, Gillingham, had more luck and struggled to put her experience into words.
“People keep going ‘how was it?’ and I stumble over my words,” she said. “I just can’t tell you, it was amazing.”
Leeds Castle played host to an evening of celebration on the torch’s third day in Kent. Julia Chilcott, from Maidstone, had the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron on stage.
“It was absolutely amazing. I can’t believe I actually lit the cauldron – I want to do it all again,” she said.
Former whistling postman Dale Howting made his career’s most special delivery when he carried the torch in Birchington.
The 78-year-old Sittingbourne resident was another of the many torchbearers who couldn’t carry the flame in his home town.
But the experience, for which he was beaming with pride throughout, was one the father-oftwo will never forget.
“Even though it was for the Olympics, what I will cherish most is that I was doing it for my town, because the relay didn’t come here,” he said.
“It was for Sittingbourne, Sheppey and Faversham really but I want my torch to stay in Sittingbourne for good.” Shopkeepers in Maidstone’s Union Street were left angry when no street bunting was installed as part of the town’s celebrations.
“It’s up all along Week
Street, but what about us?” said trader Mandy Brooks, co-owner of Think Cake.
“No explanation has been given as to why we were not included,” she added.
Tonbridge suffered a snub of a different kind when it was left off the official route, but the intervention of double Olympic gold medalist and Kent athlete Dame Kelly Holmes ensured the town still played a part.
The middle distance specialist helped persuade the organising committee Locog to hold a separate event at Tonbridge Castle, and she was able to bring the spirit of the Olympics to her local community. It proved as successful as the relay itself, adding to a spectacle that proved momentous for the people of Kent.
Assistant Chief Constable Andy Adams said: “Our main priority was to keep people safe so they could enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime event. “I am pleased that people have been able to enjoy the Olympic torch relay and the event has highlighted the pride that residents take in their neighbourhood.”