9th-12th-Lancers - Year 1984 - Page 0109
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 1984 |
| Transcription |
High Goal Entertainment lConversalion over dinner, L'Atiberge. on Friday 81h July 1983) ’Well, I think you boys should come over to Florida and have some fun. Come for a couple of weeks and play a bit of polo'. ‘Ed, That is very kind but you are going to see a lot of other people on this tour and ' ’l am talking about you guys in Hohne'. ’But you have not seen us play polo, and are we awful l' ‘Helt no, lust come and have some fun’. fhat conversation, repealed and confirmed the next day. was the stair ill a dream holiday come that came true on Sunday 4th December 1983, as we stepped down from the aircraft, exchanging the . 15°C of Germany for the + 30"C and humidity of Miami, Florida Ed and Corrie Bernard, our hosts, had been among an American polo team who had made Hohrie Polo Club the first stop on their tour of BAOR and the UK The Club, thin on the ground at the best of times, was faced With the daunting prospect of nitiunttng two teams for a match, including finding ponies good enough for the likes of Stephen MaCaire t6 goalsl. However With the help at Harrier Schuslei from Hamburg, we managed it and trad a fine game, marred only by the loss of a lovely pony belonging to The Royal Hussars li was a memorable blaZing hot, mid summer weekend, With a full programme of parties, polo, a day at Hannover races, and the sight of Scotty marking what he stileinly believed to be straight lines on the ground which reduced our vtsrtors to disbeltevmg laughter. But l digress All dreams take a bit of organising and the first problem was lo persuade the Colonel that he Could do without his Second in Command, Adiutant and two troop leaders for a fortnight We like to think he agreed so quickly because of our subtle approach, but on the other hand , ., .7 Fortunately the composition of the proposed group of five was really dictated by outsrde events; the majority of polo players from other Regiments being otherWise engaged, and we soon settled on Davtd Chappell, James Mackaness, James Botighey, James Scott and Adrian Bradshaw 14/20H. Dates were agreed, flights booked, and even vtsas gained after a few minor difficulties, These, the Major getting lost on the way to the Consulate thereby arriving late and Scotly forcing an entry past an armed US Marine who kept saying NO' Interesting Sighl that Finally leaving Hohne gripped by the first ice and snow of Winter, we were off. As this lS a family Journal, and espectally as this is the year of the tamtly, (not forgetting the SWiss Army Kntfell, we cannot describe everything that occurred, not of course that there is much to tell This is about us unexpurgated a version as you Will ever read or hear, so bad luck wtvesl 100 Years of the “Swiss Army Knife" In 1384, Charla Elsener established himself as a cutter and opcned his businc“ in the village of loath SchwyL In 1890. on his initiative. the Swiss Master (‘ullEr's Association was toundcd. lhc aim hung to produce a soldier's knife which the Swiss Army had unti| their imporlcd from Germany. I ,# [7,7 t These forerunners ot' todayt multi- purpose pocket knives proved to be such at rticcess both at hUlflL‘ and abroad, that lhE range was L‘chltdcd over tln: years so that no“ 98 different comhinations have been introduced, Today, Vlclorlmn not only supplies the Swiss Army and the German Armed Forces bill also the 9|h/lZlh Royal Lancer» with their knives. They are sold in over 90 countrier, and Britain mprcrctrts a very substanlia market both for the Sims) Arm) pocket kntit and the professional and donieitic knives manufactured by Victorinox. fHE 91 irriz'iit novAi tnNcras REGlMENfAl tounNAr Any slight discomfort from the ten hour flight or the humidity was soon dispelled by the two young ladies who met us and their swept us away northward up Ihe Florida lurnplke to the holiday of a lifetime. Culture shock is a much hackneyed phrase and too strong a phrase at that, but we knew we were in a different world, a world of colour and zest for IiVing, ot Cadillacs and Chovrotcts, of 'boars in the air’ and ‘bears in the grassl', turnpikes and highways of gopher food, a veritable breeding ground for MaoDonalds, and wonder of wonders, the 'DflVEVlleratlk', but more of that later There was excitement in the air Steady boysl Off the turnpike the vast bulk of Florida seems to float on a swamp and the surface is largely semitroptcal such as Everglades lf5ell, or scrubland and Cypress forests It was therefore a startling contrast as we left the turnpike, dropped down 'Four Forty One’, and 'made a lett’ into Wellington and Palm Beach Polo and Country Club lPBPCCl, lust west of West Palm Beach on the east coast of Florida From the trankly inhospitable landscape we had driven through we were now ushered into art equally frankly millionaires playground as seen only on the movies, PBPCC has 14 polo fields, innumerable palatial barns and farms (often more resembling exotic housosl spread over thousands of acres. Together with it's twtn Tennis and Golf Club, they are the brainchild of one man, and have grown out of nothing in less than ten years and now stand, all 10,000 acres, Within a post and rail ring fence. Outside barns, farms and more polo tields, Villages and shopping centres have sprung up like satellites Everywhere is emerald green, manicured grass, lawns and fields indistinguishable from one another, and ever spreading groups of white painted Condominiums laparirnentsl resting in groves of palm trees The whole l5 crisscrossed by drainage canals, all seemingly populated by the ubiquitous Arthur the Alligator, and at dawn by sets of the best ponies you could ever wtsh to see. (Get the Idea’ not a bad place to live). Into this we were swept and were led by our lovely guides into our own ‘Condo‘, embarrassingly vacated by the Beriiards for our stay. |
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