When the dust had cleared on the Artists’ 10-8 win in the Artists and Writers Softball Game Saturday at East Hampton’s Herrick Park, Ed Hollander, basking in the glow of victory, said that, surprisingly, the Game had “smacked of competence.”

Preparing the Bridgehampton grounds for the horses, riders, and thousands of people who will return to the weeklong Hampton Classic starting Sunday began almost the minute last year’s show ended.

Swimmers ages 7 through 79 churned the water in Bill and Dominique Kahn’s 25-yard pool here Saturday, raising money for pancreatic cancer research and evoking the spirit of the late Dr. Charles van der Horst, a retired University of North Carolina medical professor internationally known for his work with AIDS patients.