Henley Regatta

Posted on 2016/06/30 23:42:42 (June 2016).

[Wednesday 29th June 2016]
The final event of my campaign to take part in the English "social season" this year. Whilst, sadly, not another opportunity to wear morning dress and a top hat, I had been intrigued by Henley Regatta mainly because of the exclusivity of the Stewards' Enclosure, which has some parallels with the Royal Enclosure at Ascot - you theoretically need to be a member or a guest of a member to get in. As with Ascot though this rule is waived if you shell out for one of the (rather pricey) hospitality packages.

Of the three events - the Derby, Ascot and Henley - today was almost certainly my least favourite. For a start, it was less of a sartorial highlight. Whilst boating blazers are a briefly amusing oddity of menswear, they mostly look rather garish and are typically quite cheaply made. I had gone out and bought a new blue blazer and a pair of white trousers to look appropriately boaty, and I suppose wearing very pale coloured trousers was a novel experience but overall, typical attire at Henley doesn't nearly lend to the sense of special occasion in the same way morning dress does at Ascot (and to a lesser extent at the Derby).

Also the weather was completely rubbish - not just grey, and occasionally wet, but actually quite cold at times. It's almost bloody July! It seemed to be a big faff and expense getting there and back, and two of our group were in varying degrees of incapacitation (Christian had recently had an operation on his foot, so was mostly wheelchair bound, and his wife is heavily pregnant) - so for them it hardly constituted a day of carefree frolicking on the riverbank. The food was a bit disappointing compared to Ascot, and I failed to see what the fuss was all about in the Stewards Enclosure. Again, maybe that relates to the lower standards of dress at Henley compared to Ascot - on entering the Royal Enclosure at Ascot you're suddenly surrounded by a sea of top hats and exceptional ladies' millinery, plus a sense that you're rubbing shoulder with members of the aristocracy. I couldn't determine any real difference between the people inside and outside the Stewards' Enclosure at Henley. Finally the actual sport - not that this was ever the main draw for me - but it was such a background thing that you'd barely know it was happening. There are dozens of races throughout the day, and they just churn through them without any kind of ceremony.

So rather a disappointing end all in all to my run of the social season.

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