24 OCTOBER 1992, Page 29

Unseasonable wit

Sir: In past years Lloyd's cheques arrived with Names between April and early July (if they arrived at all) — a time when no game bird is in season.

So what and where was that pukka sportsman Max Hastings shooting on those spring and early summer days when the 'fat and smug' fellow guns he so despises (Diary, 3 October) sidled over to announce that they had 'just got the Lloyd's cheque'? Pigeons in Lime Street?

John Noble

Ardkinglas, Cairndow, Argyll