THERE will have been plenty of stiff upper lips on display over the weekend as, in defiance of the weather, the British pressed ahead with their traditional summer entertainments.

Church fetes, school fairs, garden parties, open days, steam weekends, theme evenings - all will have happened, as planned, in spite of the pouring rain and the standing water.

We are a very determined nation when it comes to handling the elements: there will have been very few cancellations.

Indeed, time and again we prove ourselves to be a very optimistic people. Over the last few weeks, football followers have stuck flags to their cars in the unlikely belief that their country would produce a tournament-winning team; tennis followers have glued themselves to their television sets in the improbable hope that a British player would win Wimbledon.

And then, despite the forecast predicting a weekend wash-out, people will have spent days baking for the cake stall, potting-on for the plant stall, sticking-on cloakroom tickets for the raffle and the tombola.

After so much hard work - usually by the same stalwarts - it is a great shame that the rain should put a dampener on a once-a-year event, especially as charities, churches and community projects are heavily reliant on the funds raised.

The cruelty of the weather would have been felt more keenly because the thunderstorms were so picky in what they chose to disrupt. Yesterday, for example, in wildest Weardale it was apparently an afternoon to spend outdoors, whereas in more temperate Darlington anyone venturing a foot beyond the most substantial of shelters would have been washed away by the torrential downpours.

Yet this is Britain. Even in the age of global warming, our summers are still blisteringly hot and terrifically wet - all within the same minute.

Our summers shape our identity and our character. Wimbledon would not be Wimbledon without rainbreaks and TV pictures of Sir Cliff Richard, in his colourful jacket, waiting in the wings.

Even in the age of the European Union, we might be becoming more integrated with the perpetually blue skies of the Mediterranean but our heavy summery showers and our grey summery skies mean the British will always have something unique to talk about.