A few days later I was thrown in at the deep end by having to play at a Sunday morning rehearsal when Teddy Augarde wanted time off - and of course it had to be Delius' "Paris" which opens with a bass clarinet solo. It seemed to go quite well but the Royal Family, as the principal woodwind were known, continued to ignore me for some time to come, with the honourable exception of the first bassoon, Jack Alexandra.