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Ladies’ Day fight bruises Ascot’s exclusive reputation
Racegoers at Ladies Day, Royal Ascot, become involved in brawl involving Champagne bottles View larger picture
Royal Ascot on Ladies Day, where some racegoers become involved in a brawl. Photograph: Ben Russell/INS News Agency LtdAscot regulars were stunned on Thursday after a drunken brawl broke out during Ladies’ Day.
The fight was captured on camera, with around six men throwing punches and one even appearing to use a chair leg to strike a fellow racegoer.
No arrests were made after the scrap, which took place beside the Victorian bandstand beside a champagne bar. It is not known what started the fracas, although one witness said it may have been after one man was insulted by another.
"I can remember one guy just kept going, ‘Are you mugging me off?’" Sophie Healy, 25, told the Metro.
"The tone of his voice was really aggressive and then they started pushing and shoving. We got out of the way and then suddenly our table with a newly-bought bottle of champagne went flying.
"Things turned really nasty with one man wielding a broken chair leg and another had a bottle of champagne.
"They were biting and kicking each other. It was quite scary."
Ladies’ Day is normally associated with refinement and glamour, however some preservers of British tradition are concerned Royal Ascot as a whole may be becoming less exclusive.
The Daily Mail wrote that Ascot has been the "highlight of the summer calendar for the well-off and well-connected" for 300 years.
However the paper warned that this reign may be coming to an end – with the event now attracting "a much less distinguished breed of racegoer".
"A quick glance across the terraces reveals a sea of flesh and unsightly tattoos – of women in cheap, tawdry dresses and men who have shunned the expected top hat," the paper lamented.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jun/17/ladies-day-fight-royal-ascot
Absolutely shocking
This sort of thing really should be kept strictly to Haydock and the other well-known chav courses
There is no place at Ascot for this sort of behaviour
It’s almost a non-story.
It happens most years – it just happens a snapper got lucky and manage to get it on film this year. Far worse has happened in previous years.
An increasingly common occurrence at far too many racecourses and simply a reflection on our society . . . . just an extension of many High Streets on a Friday / Saturday night. Testosterone and drink fuelled moronic behaviour.
Just another factor to make emigration all the more attractive.
…. just an extension of many High Streets on a Friday / Saturday night. Testosterone and drink fuelled moronic behaviour.
Just another factor to make emigration all the more attractive.
Because you don’t get testosterone and drink fuelled moronic behaviour in any other country than England do you?
It’s the same all over the world mate. We highlight it in England because we live in England. In Spain they won’t highlight this story, but they’ll highlight a drunken brawl in Barcelona’s city centre.
I get sick and tired of the debate that it doesn’t happen in other countries. Really?
You can get most national newspapers from other countries online in an English translation. I suggest everyone who is thinking of emigrating because of the ‘testosterone and drink fuelled moronic behaviour’ in England reads these newspapers for a month or so.
Not exactly new – the origins of the Royal Enclosure date back to circa 1850 when it was felt necessary to put up fences to protect the Queen from the increasing numbers of hooligans and drunks arriving by the new fangled steam railway.
Fights were certainly a regular event around the gin shops erected on the Heath.
AP
Because you don’t get testosterone and drink fuelled moronic behaviour in any other country than England do you?
Where did I say you didn’t get such behaviour overseas?
In my experience it is worse in this country.
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It is worse in this country,
OneEye
, because we have a society absolutely obsessed with alcohol consumption, especially amongst the under 40’s.
You absolutely do not see this kind of thing in the centre of Barcelona or Madrid (in both of which cities I happen to spend much time for professional reasons) after major sporting events. Nor do you get filthy littering or discarded cans of lager on public transport in either city.
Most of the brawling in Spain is done by English tourists in the Balearic Islands and Costa Brava.
The English have been famous for this sort of alco-fuelled brawling since medieval times at least. It’s the oldest and grandest tradition we have. No other country can hold a candle to us.
Glad it was the
chavs
this time, not the
toffs
!
The English have been famous for this sort of alco-fuelled brawling since medieval times at least. It’s the oldest and grandest tradition we have. No other country can hold a candle to us.
But dammit, we’re trying!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZF_QII1wBw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sr3GOYPGOA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5cFGofmDSA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrG9e3z4B6o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Sgqd9b3jI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN0OS5_bDnY1. You absolutely do not see this kind of thing in the centre of Barcelona or Madrid (in both of which cities I happen to spend much time for professional reasons) after major sporting events.
2. Most of the brawling in Spain is done by English tourists in the Balearic Islands and Costa Brava.
1. How do you know? Because you haven’t seen it!!! I’ve never seen a fight at a UK Racecourse but it happens
2. Is this fact? Not it damned well isn’t
You get violence in every country in the world, you get drunken violence everywhere in the world. Anyone who thinks otherwise is very naive.
There’s a little scrap at Royal Ascot and people start talking about how attractive emigrating is for crying out loud.
I’ve just seen a 14-year-old boy with a fag in his mouth. Jeez, I better move aborad, wouldn’t get that kind of stuff in any other country would we?
You absolutely do not see this kind of thing in the centre of Barcelona
or Madrid (in both of which cities I happen to spend much time for professional reasons) after major sporting events. Nor do you get filthy littering or discarded cans of lager on public transport in either city.
Don’t you
Brilliant acting here then;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNJvleOI3pU
Or perhaps they were ALL English !!!
Quote Pinza:
You absolutely do not see this kind of thing in the centre of Barcelona or Madrid (in both of which cities I happen to spend much time for professional reasons) after major sporting events.Oh yes you do & plenty of it.
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You absolutely do not see this kind of thing in the centre of Barcelona
or Madrid (in both of which cities I happen to spend much time for professional reasons) after major sporting events. Nor do you get filthy littering or discarded cans of lager on public transport in either city.
Don’t you
Brilliant acting here then
OneEye
, that is a
riot
, not a
drunken brawl
, which is the subject of the thread. I do know the difference. Those Spaniards were fuelled by elation, not by drink.
The Spanish can beat us hands down when it comes to a proper
riot
, but we’re the tops when it comes to
drunken brawling
. I repeat: having spent many a Saturday night through Sunday morning in the hearts of Barcelona and Madrid, I have never seen drunken brawling (though I have seen the odd
knifing
!)
You can look at the Police records from the Balearics if you insist on questioning Pinza’s word on the supremacy of English brawlers on Majorca or Ibiza!
Pinza, come off it
It was after a Barcelona v Real Madrid game; over 500 arrests were made, an estimated 10,000 people were involved in that riot.
Are you saying none of them were drunk? You get funnier by the day mate, you really do.
Forget Majorca then for arguements sake, I’ll give you that one. What about Argentina, is most of the drunken fighting in that country done by English? What about Australia, Peru, Italy, USA, Germany, France, Poland, Chile, Sweden etc. You’ve probably gathered I’m just clutching countries from the top of my head.
Are all the drunken fights in these countries down to the English? Or are you going to admit that drunken violence is a problem in every country in the world where alcohol is available? Or are you just going to insist English are to blame?
And don’t twist my words as you usually do. I got involved in this thread in defence of English. We’re not perfrect far from it, and yes, were are perhaps amongst the worst. But all I am saying is if that anyone is thinking of emigrating to get away from drunken violence in this country, well… it happens everywhere in the world.
Would also like to point out that a recent Rugby 7s tournament at Twickenham which had about 140,000 or so over two days with lots of different countries taking part and no doubt lots of drinking would have gone on yet NO arrests of any kind were made.
It is sad that this becomes a regular thing at racecourses in the summer, why cant people behave well and act like humans instead of animals when they go out??
Doesn’t happen in other countries eh?
I’ll bet they were saying that in Canada until the other day.
Of course it happens in other countries as much as it does here. The primary difference is they don’t put their drunken brawls on the front of every single one of their newspapers.
‘240,000 people attend Royal Ascot, 239,982 had a good time without incident’ doesn’t tend to sell many papers.
On the other hand, took attention away from all the whip shenanigans didn’t it?
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Sorry to be unpatriotic, chaps, but the Young Men of England are the brand leaders here.
There was some damning research released this very day (and talked about at length on the R4’s
Today
) which looked at the rates of drunkenness in English teenagers, and found that – unlike in the rest of Europe or America – the alcohol cult amongst the young has reached endemic proportions, and that this national malaise is passed down in families.
A couple of Doctors with whom I was talking today were sepaking (anecdotally, agreed) about the exponential increase in admissions through A&E for injuries from drunken assaults over the last 10 years.
I agree it is shocking: but we really are world champions. You don’t see drunkenness as a general rule on the streets of the Latin countries in particular. Teenagers are much more family oriented. They don’t drink beer or spirits to anything like the degree the Northern Europeans do, and they tend to take food with their wine.
Result = Less public drunken brawling. Not "none at all" (where did I say that?) but far less. And read the social history books: ’twas ever thus with English Youf. Top of the league!
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