Seeing red

What do footballers, rugby players, cyclists and many country-sports enthusiasts have in common? They are all members of legal sporting associations and wear ‘club colours’ to distinguish themselves, whether in a tie, cap, collar, buttons or coat. Not all the colours are particularly tasteful – and let’s not go near cyclists’ Lycra. Yet none of them seem to get any gip about their attire – except the country-sports fraternity.

One camp, with an increasingly popular view, maintains that the country-sports dress code needs to be shaken up to stop the rest of the community feeling that there’s a divide between them and us. Traditionally, those taking part in country sports would take time to dress well as a sign of respect to the invitation, or to the landowner and farmers whose land you were crossing that day. Is a group of wellpresented people, either on the shooting or hunting field, really offensive, or do people object to what we stand for, in which case we would ruffle feathers