An Evening's Entertainment

There we were, poised and ready. Although, pedants amongst you may question the use of the bowler hats by the ladies' team. However, those of us over here, next to the mantelpiece comprising the men's team did have the shin pads, so it was not as unusual as all that.

However, the Scrabble(tm) board itself was ready in the middle of the room, the referee was yet to signal the match could begin as some of the women were not yet fully-armed.

Some – according to recent media reports, yet to boil over into full-on media hysteria - have questioned the increasing violence in these get-togethers, especially the rioting that resulted recently in Guildford when a dinner party attempted to annexe next-door's patio, using a previously-purchased attack helicopter, and with supporting mortar fire from behind the garden shed.

There was also the case in Tewkesbury where the local chess club set up a twelve-mile exclusion zone around the church hall they used as a meeting place, setting up razor wire and guard towers to prevent an attack by the Evesham volunteer Bridge club paratroops who were attempting to – as they called it - 'liberate' the Chess club's tea urn and recipe for chocolate-chip cup cakes.

Still, at least, as the Prime Minister said in a recent TV interview, despite these problems, we have not returned to the dark days of the late 1970s when the country was ravaged and brought to the edge of collapse by the outbreak of the Bingo wars in the North-East. We do hope – as the PM – said that we do not see a return to those dark days, at least not in our lifetimes.