Polo in Argentina

Although I have enormous appreciation for the players’ ability to ride and simultaneously hit that tiny ball while fending off other high speed challengers, I don’t know enough about polo to find it very interesting. But the whole festive atmosphere surrounding the Palermo polo field, and the preternaturally subdued applause of the fans, both make an afternoon there quite enjoyable.

Not for me - too much cash needed to play for me to enjoy it....

Polo is for the elite, a bit like high level yachting like the Americas Cup. You have to be loaded and there's a lot of snobbery involved.

Talking of which, my father was a Captain, Royal Navy and we sailed a lot together, occasionally calling at Cowes, Isle of Wight, the home of the Royal Yacht Squadron. One day, ex-PM Ted Heath sailed in on his yacht, Morning Cloud, with all his young boy crew spick and span, with heath wearing a dark blue blazer, shirt, tie and khaki trousers. At the time, we were enjoying a few cans of beer on deck only a few berths from Ted, so we all waved and shouted hello, at which he turned around and completely ignored us, probably muttering, "Bloody peasants..." under his breath.

My dad turned to me smiling and said, "Miserable, queer bastard.."

My old boss in Edinburgh had a boat that he kept on the West Coast. He held team-building exercises at his expense. All we had to do was contribute to food and drink. It was quite a fancy boat but we were all quite "normal". I learned to sail on that boat but when I went on other boats they were full of Ted Heath-type characters.

When I left that company I have never sailed properly.

I don't count the wee boat trips on launches close to Tigre as real sailing.