Day 7: Hockey and Park Life

The day began with an earlier-than-usual start, to be at the Riverbank Arena by 08.15 for men's Hockey.

The first game was Australia v Argentina, which ended in a 2-2 draw.

In between the two matches of the morning session, the pitch was watered with rainbows (unicorns just out of shot...).

Netherlands v New Zealand was game 2, which was fast and open. And very well supported (particularly from the Dutch, who turned the Riverbank into a sea of orange).

The final score of 5-1 to the Netherlands was flattering, and a little cruel on New Zealand. Great game, though.

After some meandering around the park photographing the funny hats and fancy dress (starting with 65% of the Dutch leaving the Hockey game!), it was time to adjourn to Park Live with a beer and watch some sport on the big screen.

Including Jess Ennis in the opening rounds of the Heptathlon...

...and Ben Ainslie racing side-by-side down in the Solent.

Oh, and there were the little matters of GOLD medals for the men's team pursuit (Burke, Clancy, Kennaugh and Thomas) AND for Victoria Pendleton in the Women's Keirin behind us in the Velodrome to cheer. Not a bad day in Olympic land.

Day 6: I could be dreaming...

Hello. Today I am going to level with you...

I have to very clearly say that I am completely and unbelievably lucky to be able to be on the Olympic Park for thirteen out of the sixteen sporting days in the 2012 Olympics. I should also very clearly say that I totally appreciate this, and am doing my utmost to make the most of every second of this amazing opportunity.

Being involved in the Olympic Games in any way is incredibly special. I am really enjoying being a Games Maker

I blogged on Saturday about the amazing atmosphere, my feelings at the end of the first day and the friendliness of strangers.

That has, in short, completely and utterly continued.

I've had more conversations with strangers, and on public transport, in six days than I have in almost thirteen years of living in London.

I've already watched some fantastic sport, from the headline-grabbing to the heroic individual effort.

I am having "pinch me, I'm really doing this" moments several times a day. But I don't have to wake up... there's ten whole days of this left to go. Amazing!

|As for today? Enter the gold rush!
- GOLD for Pete Wilson in the double trap shooting
- Men's cycling team sprint GOLD in the Velodrome
- Canoeing GOLD and also silver in the doubles slalom
- plus a well-deserved Silver in the lightweight fours rowing

This afternoon I've seen yet another improvement in the GB men's Handball team, despite them losing 21-32 Vs Argentina.
But I will save my growing fascination with Handball for another day. There's still some highlights of today's Olympic action to watch before I go off and do a sleep...

Day 4: a day off...to watch more sport!

My first day off for a long time, having gone straight from work to working at the Olympics. So, with a full day of leisure to do whatever I pleased, it was off to watch more sport! Well, this is me and there are Olympics out there on my doorstep to play with...

First, off to Earl's Court to watch some Volleyball.

Match 1: Italy beat Argentina 3 sets to 1 in what I, unfortunately, thought was quite a dull match that didn't really endear me to the sport of volleyball.

Then it was on to USA v Germany, a much more gripping game.

Below is Germany just missing a block, again. This was a feature of their their 3 sets to 0 loss, although that score flatters the USA unnecessarily flatters the USA, and belies how close the game was.

Then it was over to Excel for the evening session.

Excel is hostiing seven sports, as the signage shows, although I was there for Table Tennis.

North Hall 1, set out for the Quarter Finals, and so with only one table in the centre.

Here's Romania's Adrian Crsan being beaten 4 sets to 0 by Chih-Yuan Chuang of Taipei. It was my first ever live Table Tennis match and, whilst I'd been warned about quite how fast the games are, it was overwhelming for the first few minutes. Before it, sadly, settled down to a somewhat dull and predictable match.

The second Quarter Final of the evening was the Danish man Michael Maze very narrowly losing to the (formerly Ukrainian) German Dmitrij Ovtcharov. This was an incredibly tight 4 sets to 3 thriller that went down to the final point, and really caught my interest.

All in all, two sports I would never in a million years have paid to go and see live if it had not been the Olympics. But watching and enjoying different sports is yet another brilliant part of what makes the Olympics so great.

Back to being a Games Maker tomorrow...