One of my worst traits is a tendency to leave things until the last minute, so it was no surprise that I did not sit down until yesterday evening, the last night to apply for London 2012 tickets, to actually do the deed. I got my application for tickets done in the early evening, those that waited even longer encountered problems as the website crashed under weight of numbers and in the end the London 2012 people had to extend the deadline until 1am.

Some folks have been moaning about ticket prices and, admittedly, the top end prices look steep but most of the tickets I have applied for are at £20. The only one I winced at was £150 for the opening ceremony – but when will any of us ever get another chance to witness close up what promises to be a home-grown spectacular and see one of our legendary stars (and there are so many to choose from) light the cauldron in the Olympic Stadium? In that context £150 looks like a bargain.

As you might expect many of my applications are for women’s hockey tickets but I have gone for some athletics events, swimming, cycling, tennis and football at Coventry too. As a Coventry kid originally, I am excited about the chance to see Olympic football just down the M69, although it would have been much better here in Leicester.

On top of those there are some free events: both marathons unless you want to be at the finish, cycle road races, again as long as you don’t need to see the finish and the cycling time trials as well as race walking. I shall definitely try to attend some or all of those.

Despite making my ticket application I am still hoping that I will not in fact need all the tickets. My big hope is that my application to be a Games Maker will be successful but I am assured that if that happens and I also get Olympic tickets in the ballot I can sell those tickets back to the organiser. For me, the greatest thrill of London 2012 would be feeling that I had made my contribution to its success through volunteering but I could be waiting until early 2012 for an interview, that’s if I am selected for interview as the Games Maker process was heavily over-subscribed.

Of course, I would like to believe that I am also contributing to the success of London 2012 through my job. One of the best days I have had in the nearly two years of being in post came earlier this month when I organised a visit to Loughborough for the Director of Paralympic Integration, Chris Holmes MBE.

Holmes lost his sight overnight when he was 14 but never lost the vision of what he wanted to achieve. He had three goals: to succeed in his A Levels, go to Cambridge University and be a top sportsman. He achieved all three, winning nine Paralympic gold medals in all with a record-breaking six at Barcelona in 1992.

On his visit to us, I took him to RNIB College in Loughborough where he presented students and the Principal with their Get Set Network plaque; schools and colleges in the network are 100% committed to the values of the Olympics and Paralympics. Next we walked across the campus to Loughborough College. There, Holmes learned all about the College’s Flames, Lighting the Way project, one of the most successful Inspire Mark projects in the country.

Students lead physical activity sessions for younger peers designed in conjunction with the British Heart Foundation and the youngsters get to run with the London 1948 torch which is in the care of the College. He also met the legend that is Tommy Godwin, double bronze medal-winning cyclist from 1948, and together they started the Torch relay for pupils from the town’s Church of England Primary.

After a visit to the University swimming pool, where so many of our Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls are expertly trained, and to SportPark where he met Youth Sport Trust officers and the Minister for Sport it was at Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School that the day ended.

Sacred Heart is another school totally caught up in the spirit of London 2012 and is the only school in city or county partnered with an overseas school via the BBC World Olympic Dreams programme. Its partner school is a massive elementary school in China, once attended by one of China’s top divers, 20 year old He Zi. In a whole school assembly, five of the pupils presented a sort of ‘Chris Holmes MBE – This is Your Life’ before he had them spellbound with his Paralympic stories. The children then beautifully sang him a song called ‘Believe’, which, for me, summed up what the man is all about and left me an emotional wreck.

It was a brilliant day from my perspective and great to know that the key planner behind the Paralympic Games in London next year is someone in whom you can have total faith.

There are just a couple of other big things to mention in this blog. I had the great pleasure of compering the Chairman’s Trophy event for Leicester-Shire and Rutland Sport’s Competition Board, of which I am vice-chair and interviewing the inspiring Guin Batten, who won Olympic silver in the quad sculls in Sydney 2000.

I love doing this event as I get to meet and interview many of the sub-region’s most improved young sportspeople. Runners up this year were wheelchair basketballer, Danny Higgins and hockey player, Amelia Milton. Winner was the young golfer, Kieran Foster whose refreshingly honest plan for the next 12 months was to pick up a few more winner’s cheques!

There were prizes for improvement for more than 30 young people, teams and associations with awards to volunteers young and old(er). Top U21 volunteer was Jade Feavyour with the slightly over 21 award going to Geoff Gay. The Peter Walker Memorial Award for Unsung Hero went to Trevor Low from Schools Gymnastics, a very deserving winner. There was a big surprise for me on the night too when I was given a Lifetime Achievement Award – for once I was almost speechless!

The final thing is my favourite sport – hockey. The Leicester Ladies side put aside the disappointment of defeat by 3-2 to Reading in the Premiership Final and travelled across to the easy to pronounce Hertogenbosch in Holland over Easter for the European Club Championships. Leicester’s group was a tough one containing the champions of Holland, Den Bosch from the host city, and from Belgium, Royal Antwerp. Seeing Den Bosch, European Champions for the last ten or so years, put eight past Antwerp was a bit daunting but Leicester then beat Antwerp 3-1 to guarantee a quarter final whatever happened against Den Bosch. Leicester put up a better fight than the scoreline suggests before losing that game 3-1. Monday’s quarter final pitted Leicester against German champions Berlin and a solitary Lauren Turner goal was enough to put Leicester into the semi-finals in June. Leicester’s performance was put into context when Den Bosch beat Terrassa of Spain 10-0 in their quarter final!

Last year’s Leicester Mercury Team of the Year is once again mounting a strong challenge for that honour. Opponents in the Euro semi-final will be Slough whilst Den Bosch take on compatriots Laren so an England v Holland final is guaranteed and my money is on Leicester v Den Bosch. Well done to players, coaching team and supporters who gave the team such great vocal encouragement.