Hungarian athletes' memorable interactions with Queen Elizabeth II

 

The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II takes place on Monday, with the world's attention focused on London. It is predicted that the glittering ceremony could be the most-watched television event of all time. It is an interesting parallel that the coronation of the British monarch, who died on September 8 at the age of 96, was also a milestone event in television history on June 2, 1953, with a Hungarian sports influence. Patrick Barclay, a British sportswriter of Hungarian descent from his father's side, pointed out in his 2013 Nemzeti Sport publication 'Hathárom' (SixToThree) that the Hungarian national team defeated England 6-3 in London in November. It was a shock to the British public at large because the televised match was already being watched by many people - on the devices they had bought for Queen Elizabeth's inauguration in the summer.

Even if Her Majesty did follow the England-Hungary match, it was only by the newly available device as she was not present at Wembley. We know this from the recollection of the then president of the Hungarian Football Federation, Sándor Barcs, who confessed like a fan. "I am not fully protocol-ready when we play a big match. But I had to be very protocol-ready for the England-Hungary match because I was invited to the Queen's lodge. ‘The Queen will probably be present, too!' they said. Good heavens! I must watch the match of the century in silence! [...] The Queen didn't come, but her uncle, an old prince did, and I had to sit on his right. To my right sat a less old prince. Well, I can't root here at all! I looked around sadly. Not far from me was Comrade János Katona, our ambassador in London, and further away was Pali Titkos, then Secretary General."

 

The sequel reveals that the President and the Secretary General, with strong self-restraint, kept their composure among the fine English gentlemen after Nándor Hidegkuti's leading goal. Instead of loud cheers, they acknowledged the positive turn of events with quiet tears of joy. Even if the British monarch did not meet the Hungarian winners in person, she sent them some sort of royal gift. In an interview in 2003, the daughter of head coach Gusztáv, Erzsébet Sebes, mentioned the silver fruit bowl they received from the Queen of the United Kingdom when she described her father's glorious return to Hungary.

"Then the Queen of the United Kingdom will fall!" Nándor Hidegkuti joked with his listeners when was asked before the 1966 World Cup in England what would happen if the host team was defeated. But the throne of Elizabeth II was not shaken by Alf Ramsey's team, so much so that she herself presented Bobby Moore, the newly appointed England captain, with the Jules Rimet trophy after the final win over West Germany. The tournament not only ended with the Queen but also began with her. As Pál Borbély reported from the scene: “She greeted the guests with true ladylike charm and then said the historic sports sentence: 'It now gives me great pleasure to declare open the eighth World Football Championships.'”

 

"Before the carriage driving competition, Queen Elizabeth visited the Hungarian horses," Dezső Fehér, Deputy Director of the Horse Breeding and Racing Directorate told Magyar Hírlap. "In the huge stable, our smaller than usual grey half-breeds did not look good. The Queen didn't remain silent: 'These horses are so small,' she remarked when she received the recently published picture booklet on the Hungarian horse from me. Then, when I sat by her side at the gala dinner at the end of the race, she changed her statement: ‘Mr. Abonyi is a master of the drive, and his horses turn like ballerinas when they have to, and when they have to, they are so fast that even I can't catch up with them.'"

We learn from the report that the members of the royal family also got on their horses during the cross-country race, so they could experience the speed of Imre Abonyi and his horses. Queen Elizabeth said the following at dinner: “When we were riding through the forest behind the Hungarian carriage, we stopped to listen for the sound of the Hungarian bell. But we only heard the bells, we couldn't catch up with the carriage."

The English nobility had the opportunity to learn about the nature of Hungarian horses later on. According to the Hungarian sports paper's recollection, the queen of Buckingham Palace learned about the scare at the 1984 World Driving Championships in Szilvásvárad from her husband's reports.

"Prince Philip spoke to his wife daily on the phone. Queen Elizabeth was not unreasonably worried because she knew very well that horse racing was not a harmless sport. But there were no major problems at this World Championships, Prince Philip finished second in the dressage and also came through the difficult marathon carriage without tipping over. However, a small mishap almost happened... The Prince's horses "lived" in the stables, and a hot-blooded Hungarian stallion had a craving for one of the Prince's beautiful mares. The stallion kept galloping until he broke the chain and headed for the foreign "guest." There was a big panic, but the grooms intervened in time so that the prince's mare was able to leave innocent but without a beautiful memory..."

Oddities sometimes happened at the Queen's court. For example, in an interview in the 1990s, Hungarian world champion in driving, György Bárdos, called the British kelp specialty served as an appetizer at Queen Elizabeth's dinner as the greatest culinary challenge of his life. There were some Hungarian sportsmen and women who had more pleasant memories of the great encounter. Erzsébet Horváth, a spring canoer from Győr, born in 1952, got close to her illustrious namesake as a reserve for the 1976 Hungarian team in Montreal, and even took a photo of the rare guest.

 "Two bodyguards accompanied her in the village. Princess Anne was with her. She was celebrating her birthday that day. The Queen went up to everyone who also had a birthday and shook hands with them. We happened to be dining at the long table where Princess Anne was introduced and her birthday was announced. After giving her the gifts, the Queen invited everyone to a drink served by uniformed staff," reads the book Arrabona's Olympians from Tokyo to Atlanta.

Sports journalist István Szombathy had a word with Her Majesty in Canada, which is part of the British Commonwealth, at the reception on the board of the Queen's boat who arrived for the Summer Games.

"But what the hell shall I tell her? - he recalled his struggles before the protocol greeting in the pages of Népsport. “The next moment I was standing in front of the Queen, and I greeted her. I must say she was very cordial, no grimace was visible, and even her dress was the simplest. What shall I say, what shall I say? Then I suddenly thought of what to talk to her about. I arrived in Montreal the day after the Olympics opened, so I didn't see the opening ceremony. I figured it was the big moment. To ask the Queen - ordinary people call such interviewees informers (don't they?) - how it was. Not all journalists can say that about themselves either!... ‘It was very nice,' said the Queen. ‘It was very nice to see one of the aims of sports: to bring people together. And to also see how diverse this huge country is with its French, English, and, of course, Native Americans, who, of course, don't live like they used to. When the Queen saw that I was really interested in what she was talking about, she put on a real little show and told me the main events of the ceremony from beginning to end."

 

We will not bore the reader with the details of this. However, we would like to mention that Ferenc Árok, the football coach born in Magyarkanizsa in Délvidék (Serbia), who died last year, was awarded the Order of Australia by the Queen in 1990 for his work as Australia's head coach. The Queen's handshake remains a privilege for few Hungarians, and perhaps the most surprising member of the select company is József Pakucza of Békéscsaba, who won the Miklós Toldi competition in the 1980s after throwing a millstone four meters and then leading the way to Buda with a three-meter-long pole for two minutes and fifteen seconds. Later, out of competition, he tolerated being run over by a Trabant without a whimper, so it's no wonder that his strange skills soon caught the attention of the world's circuses. After his conquest of the Budapest Circus, he toured South America and Western Europe and was invited to London for the Christmas revue at Exhibition Hall. But from here, let's give the floor to the modern Miklós Toldi, who was interviewed in 1993 by Nemzeti Sport. “While warming up, the boss suddenly said that I must pay close attention tonight because the Queen would be present. It may not sound pretentious, but when I put on the props that remind me of a Roman soldier, the outside world disappears, so I wasn't paying attention. Fortunately, at the beginning of our event, we bow to the lodge of honor. Well, when I looked up, I remembered what Mr. Cottle said. At the end of the performance, Queen Elizabeth congratulated me. What's more, she shook hands twice after the photographers missed the first one..."

The British monarch's visit to Hungary in 1993 was followed by the Hungarian sports daily, although the only event on the packed schedule that was indirectly related to sports was the horse show on the Puszta. Ferenc Róth, however, gave a very sensitive description of the preparations for the event in his report: “The grass blades were straightened, the tree leaves were made shiny, the walls of the houses were painted dazzling white, and the cows by the roadside were ordered to stand at attention on Bugac.”

Similar preparations are underway in London ahead of Monday's event, and the television will be worth turning on again as it was in 1953. In Bugac, Békéscsaba, and Budapest as well.