| After last year's spectacular weather, the climate for Hurlingham 2004 returned to form - wet. Downpours sent players scuttling, like
mallet-wielding Stag beetles, for the cover of their striped tents. Nestling together, the bedraggled insects dove into the inner sanctums
of briefcases and handbags to retrieve duty free potions which put colour back into their armour-plated faces.
It is said if a nuclear war of
unimaginable proportions covered every single surface of the planet earth with atomic explosions and magic mushroom clouds, decimating all
living matter, the sole survivors would be the insects. They'd carry on, mallet in mandible, their free pincer raised to
the Heavens as if to say: "Come on Giant Beetle in the sky, is that all you can throw at me? You've reduced everything I know to rubble,
but I'm still here with my iron hoops and my duty free! I'll still have lunch on the Harness room and stop the clock for tea."
The Men and Women's Championships returned to Hurlingham this year, giving up and coming players like Parish, Daniels and Mooney a chance to
rub shoulders with the big boys. But the final was a strictly top class affair, Trimmer taking eventual winner Bamford to a fifth game decider.
Hurlingham Week saw the notable absence of two dearly loved regulars. One hopes it was just a blip in their long association
with
this tournament.
|
singing "Happy (70th) Birthday" to CA secretary N Graves
the manager's tent
B Sandford and R Webb
prize giving
P Macdonald - tournament manager
David "bisque inferno" Wedmore
