Games people play

Pandora Melly talks to Lord Lichfield about thick photographers, thin rugby players, parachutes, camels and cameras

Patrick, 5th Earl of Lichfield, 58, photographer and arboriculturist

My first big jump start in photography was given to me by Jocelyn Stevens when he was the editor of Queen magazine. He also took advantage at ervery possible chance. nearly every scrape I got into, Jocelyn had a hand in it. And there were many. One sticks in my mind particularly.

He said to me one day: "Go out and photograph the 13 most eligible bachelors in England, and we'll publish it on Valentine's Day." I was so thick, I didn't realise that one more was needed to make up the 14. And he added a photograph of me - a really silly picture of the photographer laden down with cameras like a camel, which I'd sent him as a joke. The caption underneath read: "England's 14th most eligible bachelor will take you out to dinner if you answer these questions correctly ..." But I don't know if that really counts as a game.

The game that I find most interesting in the sense of why the players are so different is rugger. Most people don't realise that whatever shape you are, there is a position on the rugby field for you. Very tall, or very small people have their place among the 15 men, and if you look at the line-up when you go and shake hands on the pitch, there is an amazing array of the large, the fat, the thin and the small.

Mind you, I'm now talking about spectator sports. I used to box and play cricket, and as a schoolboy, I was very keen on team games. But I think that as one gets older, one plays less and less. Time is the enemy; my regret is that I'll probably have to give up parachuting. I suppose I could go on, but it's not really an old man's game.

`Queen' magazine is no more. Sir Jocelyn Stevens is the Chairman of English Heritage.