'Any sort of cowboy behaviour is frowned upon.'After all, who needs bad behaviour when the regulations require you to perform a backward roll at the top of a steep climb, and pull out of the subsequent earthbound plunge upside down at treetop height? 'The most difficult thing,' Buckenham said, 'is working out where the hell you are.'You don't have to be a plane spotter to appreciate the craft in which these petrifying manoeuvres are perfomed. The characterful little Pitts Special, a bit out of date but immensely strong; the beautiful French Cap, like a slimline Spitfire; and the rumbling old Russian Yak 55 (incidentally, if you're wondering why someone named an aircraft after something as unaerodynamic as a yak, it's short for Yakolev). The thing to have, if you've got pounds 100,000 and a burning desire to fly around upside down, is a Sukhoi, acigar-slim monoplane that is probably Russia's only export. If you're just starting out, there was a Pitts Special advertised on the noticeboard at Wickenby: pounds 19,500.A certain amount of hanging around went on while some low clouds drifted past. The pilots passed the time chatting and walking round in small circles, making funny movements with one hand: they were thinking through their routines, but they looked just like little boys imagining dogfights.

You expected them to shout 'Tacka-tacka-tacka] Pow] Bam]'Once the clouds had blown away the competition got started. The pilots waggled their wings to indicate that they were about to start their routines, then flew into the kilometre-square box in which they must perform. And what routines: flips, stalls, turns, circles, loops - and that terrifying moment at the top of a climb when the engine note died away and everybody held their breath until it picked up again at the bottom of the dive.The chief judge was Mike Riley, a diminutive sort in a mauve floppy hat who looked like an off-duty bank manager In fact, he's an off-duty Concorde captain. He and the other judges subtract marks for every imperfect manoeuvre. They have to be very sharp-eyed: one mark is docked if a move is wrong by just five degrees. It's an open contest: any of the nine men and women in the Unlimited class were in with a chance (though it helps to have a Sukhoi).There's a sign on the lavatory door in the control tower.

It says: 'Do not place disposable nappies down the toilet.' Funny, you think, there aren't any babies around. Then a Pitts Special zooms past upside down at 30 feet and you think - well, how sensible.(Photograph omitted). A SOURCE at Broadcasting House tells Almanack that the BBC has incurred the wrath of one of British sport's most formidable mums, Mrs Angela Keown, who is the mother of Arsenal's Martin. It seems that Mrs K was sitting at home listening to the Radio Five commentary on the Newcastle match when she heard her son accused of pushing Philippe Albert, and described as 'unprofessional'. She was furious, and got on the blower to the BBC straight away.

So upset was Mrs Keown by this unwarranted slur on her son that she had still not calmed down on Friday when we telephoned her to commiserate 'It was that Mark Lawrenson,' she said 'I rang the manager at Radio Five and I told her I was really annoyed. Martin was nowhere near the man.' How does she know? 'I was watching the game on BSkyB as well.' Mr Keown senior joined in the tirade in the background. We caught the gist of his feelings if not their precise expression. 'Mark Lawrenson said that he would have to query Martin's - what was it? - integrity or something,' Mrs Keown continued 'Martin was very upset when we told him about it. I'm surprised at Mark Lawrenson saying that because he knows Martin as well.'Mrs Keown is concerned that the BBC did not respond to her complaint in the appropriate manner. 'They never came back on the air with an apology or anything,' she said 'Martin was very annoyed And everybody heard it Everybody at work the next morning told me about it. Martin was nowhere near the guy that got pushed.' A matter for the Director-General?.