Comments on: ‘Ow is zat?

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 05:40:54 +0000

‘“England face defeat”: we’re losing a game; “England faces defeat”: we’re losing a war. In some newspapers it’s the only way you can tell the difference.”

I remember the Frost report describing how various newspapers would cover an impending nuclear war. The best was

“West Ridings to be devastated: Test match in doubt”

By: Nabakov

Nabakov — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 00:55:44 +0000

Cricket’s actually pretty simple. I’ll explain the overall principles again for the benefit of our American and non-Commonwealth cousins.

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he is out. When they are all out, the side that’s been out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out, he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who are all out all the time, and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game. Easy-peasey!

Of course the LBW law is slightly more complicated.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 20:34:32 +0000

It still doesn’t solve my inability to get any of the cricket jokes in Monty Python,

By: neil

neil — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 13:46:55 +0000

Any Americans who are still having trouble should simply consult this handy guide to cricket fielding positions. It sure cleared a lot up for me!

By: yabonn

yabonn — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 11:32:20 +0000

Niquer has been in the dictionnary for some time now. For “niker”, I can only hang my head in sorrow looking at the influence instant text messaging has on proper slang.

By: johnhayter

johnhayter — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 10:41:44 +0000

Hmm. If that strip is accurate, the French seem to regard batting as attack and bowling as defence. Which is arse about face.

By: Scott Martens

Scott Martens — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 10:20:24 +0000

Oh, and I get 18,000 hits for “nike ta mère” and 33,000 for “nique ta mère”. That’s within the margin for regarding both as reguarly in use and giving it a place in the dictionary.

By: Scott Martens

Scott Martens — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 10:18:09 +0000

I get that the pitcher tries to hit the wickets while the batter tries to hit the ball. But why do they both have to run around without going anywhere?

By: Chris Bertram

Chris Bertram — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 10:11:37 +0000

le mi-dessus fou?

By: Andrew Brown

Andrew Brown — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 09:13:49 +0000

They didn’t leave out no balls. They had most of the no balls, a concept on which grammarians may suck at leisure.

By: ben alpers

ben alpers — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 08:47:55 +0000

What’s French for “silly mid on”?

By: DC

DC — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 01:40:42 +0000

marvelous!

A heroically simplified version of LBW (“batsman hits ball with leg instead of bat”) – the full thing would make anyone despair from understanding the game at first. They’ve also left out no-balls, as opposed to wides.

That the whole thing is put together by a federation for baseball, softball and cricket is a bit distasteful though.

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 01:00:24 +0000

Kenny, the exception is, "Unless the ball pitches on the leg side"

By: Jasper Milvain

Jasper Milvain — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 23:25:42 +0000

a different chris—The use of plural for sports teams doesn’t make much sense, no, but it does allow British English to convey additional meaning compactly. We can distinguish a cricket team from a nation, or 11 footballers from a quoted company, just by tweaking the verb.

“England face defeat”: we’re losing a game; “England faces defeat”: we’re losing a war. In some newspapers it’s the only way you can tell the difference.

By: anon

anon — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 23:20:59 +0000

A different chris, would you say “the Chicago Cubs employs Smith?” And if not, aren’t you mixing singular and plural (Cubs being a singular noun referring to a baseball team)?