As Birmingham prepares to host the Commonwealth Games, which starts on Thursday, it’s worth remembering we were once candidates to host the Olympics. Yes, really. This was October 1986 and I’d just gone off to university in London. I was terribly homesick. Walking to lectures every morning I’d cross the Finchley Road, along which National Express coaches made their way to the M1. If I saw one bound for Birmingham, I’d soon be trying to swallow a lump in the back of my throat.
I was in the college bar when news broke that we’d missed out. For reasons which remain unclear to me, the International Olympic Committee had chosen Barcelona as the 1992 host city instead. Astonishing decision. I told my new university friends
