A PENSIONER is hopeful of realising his dream of watching both London Olympics after someone offered to swap two seats at the 2012 games for his pair of unused athletics tickets from the 1948 event.

Cecil Alderson, of Cockfield, County Durham appealed to anyone who would want to swap his tickets, which were bought for the equivalent of about 18p in 1948.

Mr Alderson, 81, was doing his national service in Wiltshire and had planned to go to two days of athletics events with his friend, Fred Wilson, from Penrith. But Mr Wilson dropped out at the last minute, leaving Mr Alderson with the two unused tickets.

Mr Alderson went to the 1948 Games by himself, but missed out on buying tickets for next year’s showcase.

Now Ran Vispap-Rich, from north London, has offered a possible exchange involving a pair of tickets to the womens or doubles tennis tournaments next July.

Mr Alderson said: “I’m more interested in the athletics side of things, but I like tennis and it would be quite good to say I experienced both the 1948 Games and the ones next year.

“I can’t imagine there are too many people around who could say that, so regardless of the sport I would be interested in going down.

Mr Vispap-Rich was allocated four tickets to the tennis final and having seen Mr Alderson’s appeal on The Northern Echo’s website, decided to make contact. He said: “I feel very fortunate to have got four tickets to the tennis, especially as it is the final. So I thought about offering two for a swap.”

Under the terms and conditions of the Olympic ticket allocation, a swap would be able to take place because Mr Vispap- Rich would still be one of the four people occupying the seats and neither party would be making a profit out of the transaction.