LONDON VAUXHALL DEALERS

Some of Britain's top sport stars will carry the Olympic Flame as the London 2012 torch relay enters its third day today.

Ashes winning cricketer Marcus Trescothick and Olympic gold medal winning triple jumper Jonathan Edwards are among more than 100 torchbearers who will get to hold the famous torch.

Communities stretching from Exeter, via the north Devon coast, to Taunton in Somerset will see dozens of unsung and hardworking individuals get their moment in the spotlight.

The torchbearers range in age from children from Minehead School to 91-year-old Arthur Gilbert.

Gilbert will be one of the oldest of the 8,000 torchbearers who will carry the Olympic Flame on the way to the July 27 opening ceremony.

The nonagenarian, from Burnham on Sea, will carry the flame through Minehead.

His nomination says he received an MBE in 2008 to recognise 35 years of charity work.

Gilbert ran his first triathlon aged 68 and completed his most recent race in June last year in 2hrs 45min 43sec.

"Arthur lost his son and his wife to cancer recently looking after both of them at home and still keeping his training going," his nominator says.

"He is a shining example to all the young people who use the local sports facilities and has a large following of supporters."

There is also dedicated milkman James Winter, 40, from Chard, who will carry the torch in Minehead.

His nominator says: "The community he delivers the milk in rely on him to be there in all weathers.

"Even in the deepest snow he manages to deliver extra milk and make sure the elderly people on his round are ok and have enough suppliers.

"He goes out of his way to call on people to check they are ok on a weekly basis."

Winter has also completed the London marathon three times for charity.

Organisers will be hoping for a repeat of the packed out scenes that were part of the first two days of the relay when excited people lined the streets of Cornwall and Devon to catch a glimpse of the torch.

Yesterday began at the Plymouth Life Centre with the torch in the hands of 18-year-old Jordan Anderton.

Inspirational former Royal Marine Mark Ormrod, who lost an arm and two legs in a bomb blast in Afghanistan, was a torchbearer in Plymouth.

The relay travelled from Plymouth the Devon south coast of Totnes, Paignton and Torquay before finishing in Exeter for an evening celebration.

More than 8,500 people filled Exeter Cathedral Gardens to watch a live show of music and dance.

The convoy travelling with the flame is made up of 14 core vehicles, including a pilot car, torchbearer drop-off and pick-up shuttles. There are also sponsors, media and security vehicles plus a command car.

The lead convoy provides some entertainment for the crowds. The torchbearer follows about five to seven minutes later.

A crew of approximately 350 people are set to be working on each day of the 70-day relay.

The relay also relies on the work of staff from London 2012, the Metropolitan Police Torch Security Team, the sponsors plus the host police forces and town halls.

"I'd build a stadium with a million seats because we had more than a million applications to see the opening ceremony and the 100 metres final," Paul Williamson, London 2012 director of ticketing, told the Global Leadership Summit at the London Business School when asked what he would have done differently.

Demand for tickets has far outstripped supply, leading to grumbles from Britons about the initial allocation via online ballot, prices and the number of tickets going to sponsors.

Tickets for the opening ceremony cost from 20.12 pounds ($31.80) to 2,012 pounds ($3,200).

Williamson said London organisers had to market tickets for sports like handball which is a mystery to many people in this country. He said handball and other "challenging sports" like archery, shooting and wrestling would now be played out before full houses.

Athletes could also look forward to having their heats staged in a busy Olympic stadium.

"Morning sessions at the athletics, when the preliminaries are held, were always in a half empty stadium," said Williamson.

"We'll have 60,000 plus in London, so we must have got some of the pricing right. It'll be a different audience from the evenings, more families, but a vibrant atmosphere."

Some of those ticketing grouses were voiced at the conference. Brigitte Ricou-Bellan from online ticket market place StubHub told the conference that her company had surveyed Britons and found dissatisfaction "not just on prices but on delivery of tickets".

However, London organisers won heavyweight support from Michael Payne, former marketing chief for the International Olympic Committee, noting demand for tickets.

"This is viewed internationally as by far the most successful (ticket) marketing programme," Payne told the conference. "It will be the model for Rio (in 2016). The problem is success," he said.

Williamson said a further batch of Games tickets would go on sale on Wednesday and that he expected almost everything to sell out in London.

Tickets for soccer at venues like Newcastle and Glasgow were proving harder to shift, he said.

London organisers had talked of selling excess tickets at booths in the capital before the start of the July 27-August 12 Games but Williamson said he did not expect many tickets to be left over to sell in this way.

($1 = 0.6326 British pounds)

(Reporting by Keith Weir, editing by Justin Palmer)