The turf | 20 August 2011

I could not understand on Saturday why a fairly standard Newbury card had brought so many vehicles on to the approach roads. All was explained when I saw a group of merry ladies pulling knickers out of their handbags and comparing them. The old Welsh belter Tom Jones was appearing on stage after the day’s racing and he still gets ladies of a certain age waving their underwear at him. I do hope, though, that on such a breezy day those were spare pairs on display.

The so-called ‘Party in the Paddock’ went with a zing, rather more so than the dinner party reported on last week by one of our favourite guests. On that occasion the claret had proved rather better than the conversation. Worried that her husband had gone missing halfway through, she found him in the next room, fast asleep. When she urged him, ‘For God’s sake, get back in there and be entertaining,’ his response was, ‘Get your handbag, woman.