Among those selected to carry the Olympic Torch across the country is one particularly apt choice, 85-year-old Lionel Price.

He is a veteran of the last London Olympics of 1948, where he represented Britain at basketball (and was, said the JC at the time, one of the team's "most effective players"). Mr Price (who is father of David Price QC) will be taking the torch though the streets of Redbridge. As an ex- Olympian, he will be using his allocation of two free tickets to watch some basketball at the Games..

Other torchbearers include comedian Cyril Baker, 76, who will carry it through Congleton, Cheshire and Efrayim Goldstein, 22, the founder of the Charedi defence patrol, the Shomrim, who will be bringing it through Lewisham, South London.