14 facts about Glasgow 2014.

1 More than 50,000 people put their names forward to volunteer at the Games – more than Manchester 2002 and Melbourne 2006 combined. 2 The Queen’s baton relay was taken to the tiny South Atlantic island of St Helena by ship for the last time. In two years’ time an airport opens on the outpost. 3 Volunteers from age 16 will feature for the first time. 4 5 Prison officers will join Gurkhas, submariners and RAF pilots on guard duty at the Games. 6 7 840 shuttlecocks will be used during the badminton competition. 8 9 The ceiling height must be at least 12 metres above field of play for rhythmic gymnastics, which involves hoops, balls and ribbons. 10 11 West College Scotland students will run the athletes’ village hair salon. 12 13 Official mascot Clyde was designed by a schoolgirl Beth Gilmour, 12, from Cumbernauld, who won a UK-wide competition. 14 The record crowd jostled to catch a glimpse of the biggest draw of the day.

At just 25, strapping aristocrat Lord David Burghley was a household name after winning gold at the Olympics two years previously.

More than 17,000 spectators had crammed into the newly built Civic Stadium in Hamilton, Canada to see him compete in the inaugural British Empire Games of 1930. As well as gold in both hurdling events, Burghley – who inspired the character of Lord Lindsay in Chariots of Fire – would win gold in the 4x440 yard relay race.

Yet despite his and other athletes’ undoubted sporting prowess, the 1930 British Empire Games was a decidedly amateurish affair, which came very close to never going ahead at all.

The slick Commonwealth Games showcase that rolls into Glasgow this week bears little resemblance to the original 1930s Games it came from.

Now, 6,500 athletes from 71 nations will compete in 261 events in 17 sports over 11 days.

It is an event that has grown over 84 years to become the second biggest multi- sport festival in the world with which sponsors pay handsomely to be associated. A GRAN who is volunteering at her second Games is hoping to use the occasion to renew a friendship with Commonwealth royalty.

Morag Goulden, 68, first volunteered for the Games in Edinburgh in 1986.

The gran- of- four, from South Queensferry, spent that event driving VIP guests.

She became friendly with Sir Peter Heatly, who was one of the Game’s biggest dignitaries.

The Scots diver won five Commonwealth medals in the 1950s – three of them Gold – and later went on to

The Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh will feature in its third Games, having been involved in 1970 and 1986. It will host the diving.Fiji has won 14 medals in its history. The island first competed in the 1938 British Empire Games.The Glasgow 2014 tartan was designed by Glasgow schoolboy Aamir Mehmood, 15.Glasgow 2014 has nine official ambassadors including comic Billy Connolly.It’s the first time the mascot for the Games hasn’t been an animal – Clyde is a thistle.Canada’s Melvin Marks Robinson

War vets were employed during the renovation at Commonwealth House.