Review of the Year 2012: August

COMET country enjoyed the Olympics, Stotfold’s own Victoria Pendleton brought home the gold, and a community effort saw a father-of-the-bride reunited with his speech.

? MORE than a billion people around the world were glued to their screens for Danny Boyle’s Olympic opening ceremony, and residents in Comet country were among those being watched.

Dancers, cyclists, placards bearers and actors were among the roles they took on.

And Hitchin musician Iain Farrington appeared alongside Mr Bean star Rowan Atkinson in the now infamous Chariots of Fire comedy sketch.

? STOTFOLD golden girl Victoria Pendleton called time on her career with gold and silver medals at the Olympics.

The cyclist won gold in the kierin and silver in the sprint.

Crowds turned out to watch their heroine on the big screen at Stotfold Football Club, with organiser Kate Elliott-Turner claiming it put the town “a little bit more on the map”.

? A COMMUNITY put up a fight, after developers put in an application to turn their beloved pub into flats.

Residents spoke of their “outrage”, after being told the historic Twin Foxes could be reduced to rubble.

Shirley Pike, who set up a petition, said: “Everybody’s up in arms about it.”

? A FATHER-of-the-bride who left his speech in a pub toilet was reunited with it just hours before the wedding, after an appeal to find him quickly spread.

The speech was found by landlord of The Orange Tree pub in Baldock, Rob Scahill.

He spread the word on social networking sites, and speech owner Alex Stonys was found.

Unfortunately, on the way to the ceremony, Alex realised that he had left his speech at home, and had to improvise anyway.

? SIXTH form students faced a testing time when their A-level papers went missing.

History papers belonging to students at The Knights Templar School in Baldock were lost by exam board OCR.

Results were given based on predicted grades.