Page 53 - KRH Regimental Journal 2022

The Officers’ Mess
Pandora’s Box had well and truly been opened in 2020 and 2021 as the subalterns grappled with Covid cancelling all the fun on top of the hammer blow that was the MODNET laptop roll-out. One might quite reasonably ask what it had all been for during those dark days at Sandhurst, to arrive at the promised land only to find no parties, no polo, and expectations of a profes- sional output. As all good classicists know, however, the last thing that came out of Pandora’s Box, so quiet it was but a whisper, was hope. Hope had been rather more than a whisper in 2021 with a raucous Culloden Hawk setting the Highlands to rights but none- theless, the year had concluded with Covid cancelling the Winter Ball (that and Capt Turner’s laid-back approach to planning). So it was that the stage was set for 2022 – The Return of The Mess.
Starting the year on the ploughed fields of Hampshire, gun in hand, dog loosely in control, and sloe gin swilling can never be a bad thing – especially when the SOT is paying. It wouldn’t be befitting of a King’s Royal Hussar to boast, so let the record show that no one shot particularly well, although some much worse than others (Nichol). Nonetheless, Hensting Lane were fantas- tic hosts, and their beaters were very complimentary. The day was much improved by the addition of plus-ones whose pretty faces and range of conversation brightened the day no end – although the Commanding Officer may wish he could unhear a few of the more vivid anecdotes regaled to him after a couple of aptly named ‘sloegasms’. Their presence also gave cause to the Partner’s Dinner Night that was to follow that evening. Thanks must go to the then-PMC, Maj Lambert, who put on a fantastic evening that culminated when DJ ‘Fizzy Major’, a fellow officer who had been on ICSC with the PMC and incidentally had been Capt Worth’s Sandhurst Platoon Commander, took to the decks
Blues-undressed for Capts Nichol, Worth, and Barrell at the Partner’s Dinner Night
The Regimental Journal of The King’s Royal Hussars 51