Now, I’m not one who normally gets passionate about sport. I could have been certain that my first blog from Pakistan, where I recently arrived as the High Commission’s new Press Attaché, would not have been about sport. But, I am surprisingly doing just that.
When I think of sport in Pakistan, cricket comes into my mind first. It is after all seemingly played on every spare patch of flat ground throughout the country. Hockey is also pretty popular here, too: the national teams have, in the past, led the world rankings for many years. But I definitely wouldn’t think of tent pegging…
I’m told many Pakistanis, particularly in rural areas, love watching tent pegging. But it turns out there is a dedicated following in the UK, too.
I must admit I had never even heard of tent pegging before I turned up to watch the Faisalabad Agricultural Fair last week. But it didn’t take long to get enthralled by the festivities, all set in a charming, laid back atmosphere. Teams of horse riders, with spears in hand, charge on their decorated horses (think tassels, bells, coloured ribbons, etc.) towards a small wooden tent peg about 100 metres along a field. The aim of the game is to impale the peg, and then for it to stay impaled by the time the horse reaches the end of the course. Or at least that’s what I think the rules are! The crowds cheered loudest when teams managed to get that result. Hand signals from the fearless umpires seemed to also award bonus points for jockeys’ style, bravery and speed.
But did you know that Britain has its own tent pegging team?
It was great to see a British team, along with three South African groups, participating in Faisalabad. It’s true to say that the team’s outfits were far less colourful than the Pakistani teams’: but the red, white and blue made the visitors easy to recognise whilst they charged down the course on the horses they borrowed from the event organiser. It also helped the group of us from the High Commission, who had travelled down from Islamabad, to know when to cheer even louder. The Faisalabad crowd were also pretty pleased to see the international teams taking part in the local pastime – although many asked me why the international riders had replaced puffy white trousers, bright tailored jackets and turbans for health and safety gear. Thousands roared when the British team, especially the women (the only females taking part in the normally male-dominated sport), impaled the wooden pegs. The British competitors told me the sport emerged from British Cavalrymen practicing their skills on the saddle. Pakistani spectators passionately told me the sport had its origins firmly in the villages of the Punjab. Whatever the origins though, the event was a great way to spend an afternoon, making the most of the cool, sunny spring day.
Alas, the British team didn’t win the competition that day. But I guess you could argue they had a good excuse: they were competing on an unfamiliar course, on unfamiliar horses in an unfamiliar venue. Nevertheless, the event organiser, local tribal leader Prince Malik Khan, was keen to have a British representation at the event. The Prince’s home is very much in the Punjab. But he is also a regular visitor to the UK where he raises horses on a small farm on the Surrey/Sussex borders.
Faisalabad’s historic connections to the UK are not solely based around tent pegging. The main bazaar is built in the shape of the Union flag (when viewed from above at least) and the town’s clock tower has a definite resemblance to London’s Queen Elizabeth Tower (recently renamed from St Stephen’s Tower during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee last year): more commonly known as Big Ben.
At the High Commission, we’re currently running a campaign called Celebrating Connections. We’ll have to add tent pegging to the long list of UK-Pakistan connections – cultural, educational, sporting, trade – which help to underline the unique relationship between our two countries.