Worst case scenario

[Hairy-Neil]

 

The point I was trying to get across (and I might stand a chance as Phylis is on holiday for two weeks!) is that SOME contact is almost inevitable, but a collision shows either negligence or malice. I would agree the rules of engagement on a canal are more akin to association football than rugby, in that limited contact is permitted, but not encouraged

 

Or perhaps just bad luck...

[carlt]

Pot, Kettle, Black.....

 

clicky

I'm not sure how quoting the OED, as a definitive source, to debunk your attempt at pedantry, compares with my opinion that soccer is an americanism.

 

I'd go and look it up but I really can't be arsed, hence saying that "I thought" something, rather than "I knew it to be a fact".

 

Soccer is, I think, verging on obsolete rather than Amurican, and possibly also more used in public school than by the rest of us. It was certainly used in my (grammar) school, but that may partly be because it was in Rugby and (therefore?) the school winter game was rugby.

 

Tim

We were only allowed to refer to it as "Association Football" and being caught actually playing it could earn you a date with the cane.

 

Rugby League was not even allowed to be referred to, at all.

[magpie patrick]

 

We were only allowed to refer to it as "Association Football" and being caught actually playing it could earn you a date with the cane.

 

Rugby League was not even allowed to be referred to, at all.

 

 

Good heavens, my games teacher played for Salford and England Rugby League...

 

so what would be the penalty for supporting Doncaster Rovers?

[Chertsey]

What amazes me is how much space people think they need to pass. It's rare that there isn't sufficient width for two boats to pass - even if one of them's Chertsey - as long as people just keep going and are prepared to pass close. It's when people slow down too much or worst of all, try to stop, that collisions are going to occur.

[David Mack]

What amazes me is how much space people think they need to pass. It's rare that there isn't sufficient width for two boats to pass - even if one of them's Chertsey - as long as people just keep going and are prepared to pass close. It's when people slow down too much or worst of all, try to stop, that collisions are going to occur.

 

Indeed. My first solo boating was in a 17 ft plywood cruiser, that was infinitely more fragile than todays GRP craft, let alone steel narrowboats. Yet I was always happy, and so was the guy coming the other way whatever type of boat he had, to keep heading for his stem bar until quite late on, then push the tiller across, and both boats would dance around each other with inches to spare.

 

Today the other guy is likely to go hard astern and put himself right across the cut, and in line for an inevitable collision, if I don't obviously pull over to 'my side' of the channel well in advance.

 

David

[Chertsey]

Had a good one last week, on the Coventry, on a bend. Shiny moored boats complete with inhabitants on the inside of the bend, to my left; hire boater coming the other way with, to be honest barely room to pass, decides discretion is the better part of valour and tucks himself neatly into a gap between the moored boats. Much consternation from one of them as hireboater's fore end looks like it might touch her shiny boat. Meanwhile, in trying to be helpful I'd gone right over to the outside of the bend and got a little bit stuck on the mud. So the hireboater's about to come out, I'm about to reverse off, when PB cries 'It's the boys!' and coming up behind us is Archimedes with Ara on a long line. So I sit tight, the hireboater sits tight, and two bloody great working boats - one without an engine to steer with - come through what must have been a less than eight foot gap between us and the shiny boats. Made my day. Just wish I could have seen their faces.