Today we went to the 32nd Howorth Trophy Day at the Police sports club in Imber Court. This day of cricket is to commemorate the life of a police bomb disposal officer Ken Howorth who was killed in the line of duty whilst diffusing an IRA bomb in 1981. I will be quite honest, I still do not understand how the rules of cricket and they have been explained many times to me! Can I very quietly admit that I find it rather boring? (Apologies to all those cricket fans out there).
The interesting part of the day for me is that there a number of different police departments attend with demonstrations such as fingerprinting unit, Forensics and bomb disposal. This year there was a real treat - the arrival of the MPS helicopter which had time to land and to let visitors have a close up look. I got a ‘heads up’ as to the area it would be landing and so set off early as this was not public knowledge. Although a little late as they had attended a last minute shout, the helicopter arrived at about 12.45 and after a fly past came into land right in front of me. As the helicopter is often hovering above Teddington Lock at night it was great to talk with crew about what they do and to see the state-of-the-art kit they use such as infr-red cameras.
