Speccie Ladies Day by 13th June
 

A bumper crop for Spherians, with Bazza leading the pack, and Chris O'Carroll and Frank Osen proving that BEING a furriner is no bar to taking the silverware. Brian Allgar continues his impressive run, bill is tucked in there as always and even Whitworth finds a fiver with his name on it, his first win this year. Adrian Fry, are you of our number? Congratulations i you are. Congratulations anyway.

The new competition contains a line of great beauty. We will have to strain every sinew to match it..

No. 2751: FALLEN ANGELS?
Ladies’ Day at Royal Ascot traces its roots back to 1823 when an anonymous poet described the Thursday of the Royal meeting as ‘Ladies’ Day ...when the women, like angels, look sweetly divine’. You are invited to submit a portrait in verse of Ladies’ Day 2012 (16 lines maximum). Please email entries, where possible, to lucy@spectator.co.uk by midday on 13 June.

Bazzaading
 

Is this a new verb?! If so we need a definition.

Sorry about that. But I love bazzading. It's obviously the sound of him winning - again!

The coinage seems to take me into Sopranos territory. 'Just when I thought I got out...'

I'd bazzaad a guess that John had already corrected it before I saw it.

Congratulations to all.

I think, if I may say so, that the thought behind this might be a tad snobbish. So I have gone (well slightly) another way. You may be astonished to learn that I have never been to Ascot, or indeed any other racecourse. And I've only once attended what Americans quaintly call a soccer match. Never again. I have been to Wimbledon, however, as devotees of my verse will know. Strawberries were a bit pricey.

Fallen Angels

When the women like angels look sweetly divine
In their frocks and their hats of exciting design,
When the Widow's on ice and the weather is fine,
It's a wonderful day at the races!

The hampers from Fortnums are bursting with pheasant,
The sun on your face is remarkably pleasant,
And nobody here is a pleb or a peasant,
A marvellous day at the races!

There's nothing to smack of deceit or skulduggery,
No foul-ups, no punch-ups, no theft and no thuggery,
Just gee-gees all shifting their arses like buggery,
A fabulous day at the races!

Lovely ladies, sweet ladies, how graceful your gait,
As you teeter and totter in rather a state,
And my nags all come in at a-hundred-to-eight,
An astonishing day at the races!

Simply topping, John!

P.S. Maybe "Bazzaad" is a familiar contraction used by close friends and family of the President of Syria, Bashar Hafez al-Assad?

Thank you, Brian. I do think it is one of my better efforts. But not entirely to the paper, perhaps.

Of course snobbery. It's at the heart of English social & cultural life. And I infer from the putative title that we are being asked for knee-jerk sneers at the vulgar concubines of flash, wealthy counter-jumpers. But you can usually straighten the kink in the rubric, or twist it the other way, as John proves here. Personally, I'm an inverted snob. I look down on the posh.

Good for you, Basil.

But I'm more of a perverted snob. I go down on the posh.