The Badminton radio earpiece

For the die-hard Badminton fan, the radio earpiece is an essential piece of kit, says Catherine Austen

AFTER Badminton each year, Karen carefully packs away her Badminton radio earpiece and at the end of April the following year, she gets it out again, ready for the great event. Karen camps at Badminton from the Tuesday until the Sunday night — it is her annual holiday and she can’t understand why you’d spend it any other way. Who needs Corfu when you have the Cotswolds?

The weather is irrelevant — this is Britain and that’s what wellies and waterproofs are for. And when the sun does shine, her nifty quick-dry trousers zip off at the knee.

She walks the course on Wednesday morning, then gets to the first trot-up in plenty of time to get a good spot. Her earpiece is clamped on from dawn ’til dusk — she enjoys Pammy’s dressage commentary, which suits her down-to-earth nature, and likes to hear what each rider says about their cross-country round. Rather them than her, she thinks.

On Saturday, she likes to watch at least one horse at each cross-country fence; it’s a tried-and-tested plan.

And she’d rather not spend money on an expensive falafel wrap when she has eyed up her potential purchases in the shopping village — so it’s homemade cheese and ham sandwiches for five days on the trot.

Driving home on Sunday night, she has that empty feeling that most of the British public reserve for 1 January.