A crowd had gathered around the bandstand, where the chairman was holding his opening speech. He was a slow speaker, much to the annoyance of the listeners, for it had just started to drizzle and the chairman was still talking about the history of the event. Last year, that had been followed by a summing up of all the entertainment available, a long speech in which he thanked all the contributing parties, interspersed with even longer anecdotes, and wishing the participating teams success, which apparently allowed for still longer anecdotes. Given that his speech so far had been an exact copy of the one last year, the crowd had little hope of returning home dry.

Some began to stir. People on the fringes of the crowd made embarrassed excuses to the people around them and rushed away on an 'urgent engagement'. The chairman droned on unperturbed by rain and disinterest.

Suddenly a smartly dressed woman ran up the stage and revealed a banner. "Votes for women!" she shouted.

"Ah, thank Christ," muttered one underwhelmed man who had found himself trapped in the middle of the crowd.

"Votes for women!" echoed women elsewhere in the crowd, and they too unveiled banners or hung them on the bandstand.

The chairman had taken a step back, finally pulled out of his monologue, and looked very much at a loss. Then he turned back to the crowd and continued his speech.