You have struck a hidden nail fair and square! Nothing seems to emphasise the falling standards of matches as much as the food,followed up by the prize schedule.Not so many years ago, at every Hereford match, you had a cooked meal in the village hall, or a barn on the site farm. Now so often you get a paper bag of onion flavoured offerings, onion flavoured because they dont wrap the onion separately! Onion flavoured cake, anyone? Or a wrapped paper plate bearing similar culinary delights including a second or even third onion!Agree, there was a little confusion last year - we were tpold to treat it as stubble!! I shan't have a go though, I do think Brailsford is one of the best matches out there, if only for the food!!!
The match with the worst food, in my opinion, was also the match with the most high profile caterers, Windsor Castle kitchens no less! The match was the Royal East Berks, which was more or less "kidnapped" by the crown reps after Prince Phillip informed them that the match would be held on crown lands nr the castle. We were supposed to be having game stew from the castle kitchens, which I expected to be served with a few spuds at least. What we got was carrot stew, with the odd (in more ways than one) bit of meat and an armour plated bread roll!
The burger van did a roaring trade, whilst the stew was largely untouched!