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Hooray Henley

Despite our distance from the finish line creating the slight sense that we might just perhaps have been in one of the cheaper enclosures, on Saturday I increased my English-posh-quotient by several points by attending this year’s Henley Regatta along with a gaggle of unruly Aussies (actually, perhaps not by that many points after all).

Rather like being at a sporting event in the US, any actual sport taking place seemed somewhat peripheral to the whole experience, and the occasional rowers passing the white picket fence at the edge of our enclosure only detracted from the main purpose of the day: the consumption of alcohol. At the risk of showing my ignorance about these things, I might demonstrate this by pointing out that we’d been there for several hours before realising that they had actually started the day’s racing some time ago, although I did have a red-faced Matthew Pinsent almost pointed out to me at some point after that as he disappeared into the distance behind the passing Umpire’s boat.

Overall, the whole experience reminded me of being back in the first year at Bristol, but my prevailing image of the day will probably be the sight of the reverse side of a naked man being quietly asked (I presume) by the steward, or possibly police officer, standing next to him if he might just put his clothes back on (this, I assume, being the same naked chap who had earlier raced a naked friend to the other side of the race course and back again–the guys from the table who had arrived some time before that carrying three huge buckets, nay barrels, of ice, so big that they had be carried one between two, and almost a slab of beer each, although I’m sure none of these events were in any way connected).

Since returning to work, I’ve discovered that the group from work who also attended the Regatta as part of a morale boosting event must, in fact, have been in the enclosure next to us, but judging from the pictures that have been circulated, their day seems somewhat staid in comparison, lacking in the nudity, excessive alcohol consumption, and, towards the end, bad disco music that characterised mine. (There are pictures of my day too, but I’m not sure they do it justice either, although it would help if you imagined the music to be absolutely fucking awful when looking at the last two pictures).