I SUSPECT I will not be the only person not drawn to view the Olympic Torch on its trip through Oxfordshire.

The odds are that the bearer will not be local but someone flown in from the US or someone with no connection to the local area.

I sympathise with Ken Lester in Wallingford, a former Olympian, refused being a local bearer when the Wallingford bearers are from Bicester, Banbury and Swindon.

It doesn’t make any sense to me but seems to fall in line with shambolic ticket-selling, the possibility of traffic gridlock, criminal over-budgeting, soul-selling to sponsors, the crazy refusal of the organisers to allow a group of knitting ladies to give each of the contestants a commemorative cushion and the disposal of the assets after the event at less than it cost us to build them.

However, we are a forgiving and hospitable nation and I have no doubt that the athletes and especially the bigwigs will have a memorable time.

DAVID BUCKWELL, Wytham Close, Eynsham