Day 7 India - 24th March 2013

Morning started with the usual breakfast and the hotel staff told us to read the newspaper, the reason was a big section on the British team pegging.

Today the morning session was team sword, round A went well with the Brits on fire to finish before lunch in first place.

Lunch followed at the sky city hotel and we managed to get ice cream for Gerald, but it was strawberry rather than green.

We also had to do a photo shoot at the hotel as they were using the teams staying there for PR.

Following lunch and with everyone telling us we were in first place unfortunately it did not quite go to plan and the two later runs on smaller pegs did not yield good results. We held on to bronze, but lost silver and gold to Iraq and India respectively.

Indian file followed, this is where you run one after the other, which is tricky in these conditions as you need to predict what your horse will do and also see your pegs through a cloud of dust.

We didn't do badly, but could not match the full houses of Sudan who claimed gold, Iraq silver and Australia bronze.

The evening was the gala dinner at the Radisson Blue

Day 6 India 23rd March 2013

Today started with team lance, and Swedish marching music due to popular demand from Maj P.

GB are always second to run and I'm afraid we were perhaps not as organised as we should have been. The start was messy and Geralds horse bolted the other way, the team had started but apparently talking mid way on your run is a bad idea, so we blanked

Dawn gave us a stiff talking to and the next run we managed a full house , the final run we had a mixed bag with 2 pegs carried.

We were 9th at lunch time and improvement for round B was still possible

Lunch was good and we fueled Gerald with a green ice cream (Wasn't mint or pistachio)

After lunch we stormed back to form and finish 5th, but not quite good enough to make it into the medals!

Next came the pairs and all the brits ran a blinding first run with double full houses. The seond runs were not quite as consistent from all countries, but Gerald and I continued with form and we one of the 3 pairs to finish carrying all pegs. We thought for a moment wde had silver, but the Sudanese were 0.07 second faster so just took it. Egypt had a resounding win as were the fastest.

The brits are pleased to finally be in the medals and have been celebrating.

We hope we can improve on this for the final day tomorrow!

Day 5 India 22nd March 2013

Today is rest day!

So no horses or pegging to report.

The team had a lovely time visiting various iconic landmarks including the moghul tower, lotus temple and various shopping bazaars that our driver insisted we visit

We had planned to visit a boot maker for Maj P, but unfortunately we ran into a riot and were stopped from reaching our destination by police, army and some rather large water canons

Dinner was quiet and we restocked Geralds ice cream levels, so we are expecting big things tomorrow!!

Day 5 India 22nd March 2013

Today is rest day!

So no horses or pegging to report.

The team had a lovely time visiting various iconic landmarks including the moghul tower, lotus temple and various shopping bazaars that our driver insisted we visit

We had planned to visit a boot maker for Maj P, but unfortunately we ran into a riot and were stopped from reaching our destination by police, army and some rather large water canons

Dinner was quiet and we restocked Geralds ice cream levels, so we are expecting big things tomorrow!!

Day 4 India 21st March 2013

Yesterday,  started with the remaining 30 people to run their rings and pegs. Due to some double full houses (all overarm) the brits were out of the medals, despite a good consistent team performance.

Individual sword came next, we started off well, but think lack of icecream may have impaired performance and unfortunately we didn't have any riders in round B

The competition was won in style by Bassim of Iraq with a full house in all rounds

We had our usual lunch break and the afternoon was going to be easier for me as Tina rode Chetak in the oranges

The afternoon was hot at 33oC, but we are slowly getting used to the team and with our factor 50 loreal sun cream no one had burnt.

The fruit used looked like unripe oranges, but were lime / Clementine sized and were hard as rocks. Normally an unsharpened sword would cut ripe oranges with no problems, but these rock hard versions had a tendency to fly off with just a bruised skin, rather than a slice to gain marks. Sarah did try eating one and reported it wasn't too bad and confirmed it was oranges and not limes!

Our swords became rather popular, as ours weren't blunt and much better than some, but definitely not as sharp and lethal as the Sudanese team swords!

Although we got some good scores, the sharper swords proved their worth and the top riders again all had full houses

We returned to the hotel for a quick turnaround and then food was being served in a banquet in the Sky City hotel. The was a bit disjointed, but we were pleased to see the grooms coming to dinner too

Following dinner members of each country were rounded up for a new world tentpegging meeting. Not much seems to have happened on the IETA front and everyone is keen to promote and grow the sport. It was a shame the South Africans were not present as it would have been useful to have their opinions

It was decided to form a new international federation and the rather exciting news for me is that I am joint secretary along with Col. Sarpartap Singh. There will be a new website coming, as soon as I am back with a full sized computer!

Day 3 India 20th march 2013

Day one started with a wake up call at 6.30am, which admittedly we did wonder if Dawn (manager) had arranged, but was actually the organisers.
We had a quick breakfast and headed for the other hotel (a 2 minute walk) only to be met by the bus who made an illegal U turn (well in British terms) and stopped outside our hotel. Apparently we were waiting for the Swedish, I blame their manager, Maj P!
So we headed for the ground and round one of individual lance. Rachel was riding Monika a small chestnut trialled yesterday on the mosquito broken bus saga, Gerald is riding mystic magic, who he has renamed mystic meg, due to a slight mix up in translation. Sarah is on Barba, a fizzy mare that apprently if you call Ba-ba black sheep results in your grooms referring to you as the British tomato...
I am on a kathiawari called chetak, who is quite grumpy and only appears to love Pat the groom. Although appears to have soften a bit to me today and only threatens to bite and pull evil faces!
As you can see we are all in our official kit, saddle cloths sponsored by haygain, shirts by oncology imaging, clothing by mark Todd and Sun screen by loreal!
So individual lance went ok for the British with everyone picking up points and Gerald and myself making it through to the final 25 for round B.
The sun is beating down today, so was definitely getting warmer, which is a challenge for the British used to cold miserable weather.
Lunch was back at the sky hotel and I am pleased to report that due to heat I think portion size is dropping, but the chaps still had pudding...
Back for round B and the brits were on fire, with Gerald picking up all pegs and myself just dropping one. We both quickly worked up the ranks with Gerald in the top 10 and me in the top 20 in a huge field.
Rings came next and Gerald stood down to allow Tina a run, and she proved why with a full run on rachels ginger Monika, Rachel had swapped to Geralds mystic and Sarah and I remained on our mounts.
The girls put up a good field and if it was team may well be in the leaders with Rachel and Tina on 28 and Sarah and I on 24. These were more invisible rings than last year as they were silver and a smaller diameter than last year as only Tina could wear the bangles!!!
Time was against us as we finished with 30 riders still to run, so we are unsure of the placing
A quick change later and we are on our way to dinner, it would appear a few teams may have been at the bar as there is bus karaoke going on with aussies, Egyptians, brits and Sweds belting out ditties
So one free bar later and things have got messy, we are all on top form.. Well some danced too much, some drank too much and others kept themselved to a safe distance....

Team listing for the World Cup

List of the teams - Qatar and India tbc

Pakistan
Raja
Wamiq
Haroon
Shahbez

Oman
Hamed manager
Mansor
Abdullah
Hilal
Hamood
Yusif
Humaid - admin
Ali
Hamood - media
Hamees
Nasier

GB
Dawn - manager
Gerald
Sarah
Jenna
Rachel
Tina
David - coach
Jerry - crew

Iraq
Mohammed
Mahood
Osama
Ali
Abdulkailq ayad
Salman

Qatar
Ali
Mohammed
Behet
Aplas

Sudan
Rafa - manager
Hatim
Mohamed
Shibali
Ashraf
Khalid
Walid

Australia
Judy - manager
Christina
Barry
Arthur
Neville

Kazakhstan
Sergi
Natlie
Nicoli
Max

Canada
Akaash

Germany
Norbert - manager
Jenny
Peter
Pierre
Heiko

Sweden
Johan
Marten
Klaus
Lars

Lebanon
Elie
Hussain
Georges
Tito
Pierre

Jordan
Ayad
Bassim
Ahmed
Hussan
Mamod

USA
Newly registered association
Ahmed Zubair

Sri Lanka
Serenager
Gajanayaka
Darmadasa
Senanayaka
Sarath kumara
Keerthirathna

India
Ram
Suresh
Ranveer
Jagtaap

Eqypt
Ahmed
Yaser
Mamdoh
Ayman
Zakzok

Day 2 India 19 March 2013

Today we went to the stadium to draw horses this is around a 20 minute journey from our hotels.

The process took quite a long time so the British and Swedish took the opportunity to soak up the sun. We then went to try and find our horses and immediately ran into a problem as we had only 3 out of 5 horses. One was injured and the other missing

So this meant only 3 riders got a practise runs at the stadium, however we were offered a chance to practise in the afternoon.

This afternoon Rachel, Gerald, Dawn, David and Johan (Swedish had the same issue) went off to try the missiing horses, which was apparently due to transport issues as the horses are 10km away from the stadium

In the meantime Sarah, Tina, Norola took the opportunity to go shopping. So we all got to ride in tuk tuks. However the mall was similar to the uk, including prices, so we just enjoyed looking around without spending any money.

Back at the hotel and we discovered that the others weren't back yet, which was a problem as dinner was at a different hotel.

However they arrived back and we did some bathroom shuffling to aid showering in super quick time, which did involve Gerald almost streaking down the hotel corridor!

So the story behind the late appearance involved a broken down bus, a walk to the stables and a walk back to the broken down bus. Plus an awol German rider, as Peter got on the wrong bus!!

We had a fairly long bus ride to the Radisson Blue hotel for a fantastc banquet. The long journey was definitely worth it for the fantastic food.

Unfortunately the British were lead astray by HRH Prince Malik, I think most of us ate far too many starters, so couldn't manage as much of the lovely ice cream as we would have liked (except Major P who was forced by HRH to eat more!!)

Day 1 India 18th March 2013

The team have arrived on schedule into Delhi airport. We located our pickup, but had a small hitch as they had only sent a small car for 3 people. 8 people and lances were not going to fit!

However it was no problem, as they sent for more cars and we had two 4x4's arrive. Lances and luggage has be stowed on top and attached with rope or bungees. I'm not sure that would pass muster in the uk, and we are all hoping our bags make it to the hotel in one piece.

Fortunately people and luggage arrived in one piece.

Lunch was in a different hotel and was superb, obvious it does help if you are a fan of curry! They also have the delicious syrup balls that you never see in Indian restaurants in the uk (might be a good thing, as they are very moreish)

Post the late lunch we relaxed until dinner and saw our friend HRH Prince Malik prior to dinner. We met the team from Jordan, Germany, Oman and Australia

There are 17 teams confirmed for the competition, so this is the largest tentpegging competition ever held.

I am having some internet issues so will try and update when I can!

Delhi here we come!

The team have arrived at the airport and the luggage is hopeful now on the plane.

Everyone is in good spirits and the team gear of hoodies and gilets is attracting attention and we have been explaining what the sport is to a number of people

We take off shortly and head for Delhi!

I am personally not going to miss the cold and snow!