Hertfordshire Sports Village, Hatfield. From the desk opening at half past eight to the last group photograph in the evening light. Every photograph here is from the day itself.
Nearly three hundred photographs, in the order the day happened. Shot between matches by players, parents and committee members, so there are as many pictures of the chai queue and the touchline as of the finals.
Click any picture to open it full size. Squash was played but nobody managed to photograph it, so it has no section here.
The desk opened at 8:30am. Names given, wristbands collected, first chai of the day. Every check-in was a point for a mahajan, so the queue counted.
Sixteen mahajans in one hall at nine o'clock. The welcome, the prayer and diya, and the safety notices, kept short so the first serves could go at quarter past.
Badminton and table tennis in the sports halls, youth cricket in the indoor nets, pickleball and tennis on the courts, and sevens on the astro outside in the sunshine.
Not a competition and easily the loudest room in the building. Ribbons, pom-poms, a portable speaker and a crowd that kept growing as people wandered in from the halls.
Most of a festival is not the playing. It is the touchline, the bench, the chai queue and the conversation with someone you last saw at a wedding.
Laid out on the terrace before the presentations began. Footballs, cups, shields and the plates already engraved.
From five o'clock on the terrace. Juniors, women, veterans, doubles pairs and whole teams. Every presentation photographed on the day is here, so if you went up for a trophy you should find yourself in this section.
Won by North London and collected by Neil Morjaria. Every check-in at the desk earned a point, so turning up counted for as much as winning, which was exactly the idea.
Outside the entrance under the LCUK sign, with Raghu, in the evening light. The last thing shot on the day.
Anyone who asked not to be photographed wore a wristband from the desk. If you spot yourself and would rather we took it down, tell us and it goes, no reason needed.
Pool at Harrow, golf at Stanmore, Festival Day at Hatfield. The 2027 dates go up here first.
Every gallery