The Game Fair

Mrs H and I thought that it would be a rather good thing to rub shoulders with the rich, famous and those who wear the red trousers, so on Friday morning at the crack of dawn we set off to Blenheim to have a potter round the Game Fair. I can tell you that driving up the avenued tarmac drive and seeing the Palace appear over the landscaped lake was a stunning sight – a bit like home really!

After coffee and bacon rolls we set off for the fishing part of the show – well, Mrs H thought that she would like to try out a new rod. I can’t think why as she does pretty well with the one she has. However, we managed to meet up with Scott Mackenzie, a long distance casting champion and a thoroughly good chap. Scott took us down to the casting lake and showed us a selection of rods that he had developed himself. They were very smart in a lovely burgundy red, and Mrs H insisted that I buy one for her, which I did.

We explored the rest of the fishing village and other parts of the show including the renewable energy section. I managed to steer Mrs H away from the clothing section in case she wanted to buy a tweed coat to match her new rod.

We moved on and eventually arrived at the casting lake in time for Scott Mackenzie’s casting demo. Well, to cut a long story short, I have never seen anything like it in my life. Scott warmed up with a few medium length casts and then picked up the big rod and gave it the full beans. With a whoosh of the big rod he sent the line high over the water, to land the piece of wool on the end, in the rushes on the far side of the casting lake. Mrs H remarked that she thought that she could do better with her new rod, but I thought it as well not to tell Scott!