Comments on: Beautiful games and others http://airminded.org/2006/07/10/beautiful-games-and-others/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beautiful-games-and-others Airpower and British society, 1908-1941 Wed, 23 May 2012 10:08:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Brett Holman http://airminded.org/2006/07/10/beautiful-games-and-others/comment-page-1/#comment-116802 Brett Holman Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:25:43 +0000 http://airminded.org/2006/07/10/beautiful-games-and-others/#comment-116802 Ah yes, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charters_and_Caldicott" rel="nofollow">Charters and Caldicott</a>! They were in <em>The Lady Vanishes</em>, but I think that scene was from their appearance in <em>Night Train to Munich</em>. Thanks, I don't think I have seen that Orwell quote. Reading Orwell is on my to-do list ... Ah yes, Charters and Caldicott! They were in The Lady Vanishes, but I think that scene was from their appearance in Night Train to Munich.

Thanks, I don't think I have seen that Orwell quote. Reading Orwell is on my to-do list ...

]]> By: Neil Datson http://airminded.org/2006/07/10/beautiful-games-and-others/comment-page-1/#comment-116412 Neil Datson Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:31:44 +0000 http://airminded.org/2006/07/10/beautiful-games-and-others/#comment-116412 Brett Are you familiar with the following quotation? 'Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there.' (George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, IV) I thoroughly recommend this essay to anybody who wants to know what Orwell thought of the background to the war and the war itself to late 1940. Some of his ideas and comments seem bizarre given what we know now, some seem at least faintly prophetic. Anyway, I doubt that given such circumstances few could do much better. There is a wonderful scene in The Lady Vanishes, in which two sporting buffers are discussing cricket on a German train when an Englishman, whose is known to one of them, enters their compartment wearing an SS uniform. 'Goodness me! It's Toddy Frobisher, isn't it?' (Frobisher, who is a secret agent working for the British, makes hasty and embarrassed exit.) 'I'm certain that was Toddy Frobisher. He was on my staircase at Balliol.' 'Well, perhaps he's . . . gone over . . . switched sides, old boy.' 'Couldn't have done! Played for the Gentlemen at Lords.' (The above passage is from a thirty year old memory, so it may be a different film.) Brett

Are you familiar with the following quotation?

'Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there.' (George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, IV)

I thoroughly recommend this essay to anybody who wants to know what Orwell thought of the background to the war and the war itself to late 1940. Some of his ideas and comments seem bizarre given what we know now, some seem at least faintly prophetic. Anyway, I doubt that given such circumstances few could do much better.

There is a wonderful scene in The Lady Vanishes, in which two sporting buffers are discussing cricket on a German train when an Englishman, whose is known to one of them, enters their compartment wearing an SS uniform.

'Goodness me! It's Toddy Frobisher, isn't it?'

(Frobisher, who is a secret agent working for the British, makes hasty and embarrassed exit.)

'I'm certain that was Toddy Frobisher. He was on my staircase at Balliol.'

'Well, perhaps he's . . . gone over . . . switched sides, old boy.'

'Couldn't have done! Played for the Gentlemen at Lords.'

(The above passage is from a thirty year old memory, so it may be a different film.)

]]> By: Airminded · The ashes of the air http://airminded.org/2006/07/10/beautiful-games-and-others/comment-page-1/#comment-8792 Airminded · The ashes of the air Thu, 23 Nov 2006 03:43:11 +0000 http://airminded.org/2006/07/10/beautiful-games-and-others/#comment-8792 [...] I’ve written about connections between sport and war before. Here’s another which I came across just last night, so perfectly timed that I can’t resist posting it. It’s from a book written in October 1941 or so by the pseudonymous Auspex, who is talking here about the RAF’s sweeps over France that summer, which he claims is the first stage in the air offensive which will eventually lead to Britain’s victory over Germany: It began in mid-June. It was then that the Royal Air Force started their return match with the Luftwaffe in the series of tests for the ashes of the air. The first had been played on our home ground, in July-September, 1940. We won that match. We routed the German air force over and around this island, routed it decisively and without possibility of appeal. The next round was set on the enemy’s ground. We went over and challenged him there.1 [...] [...] I’ve written about connections between sport and war before. Here’s another which I came across just last night, so perfectly timed that I can’t resist posting it. It’s from a book written in October 1941 or so by the pseudonymous Auspex, who is talking here about the RAF’s sweeps over France that summer, which he claims is the first stage in the air offensive which will eventually lead to Britain’s victory over Germany: It began in mid-June. It was then that the Royal Air Force started their return match with the Luftwaffe in the series of tests for the ashes of the air. The first had been played on our home ground, in July-September, 1940. We won that match. We routed the German air force over and around this island, routed it decisively and without possibility of appeal. The next round was set on the enemy’s ground. We went over and challenged him there.1 [...]

]]> By: Brett Holman http://airminded.org/2006/07/10/beautiful-games-and-others/comment-page-1/#comment-1714 Brett Holman Mon, 10 Jul 2006 11:38:24 +0000 http://airminded.org/2006/07/10/beautiful-games-and-others/#comment-1714 That's a great list, thanks Peter. Tally-ho would be another one, depending upon whether you regard fox hunting as a sport or not ... I must admit that tent-pegging and the Field Gun Run were entirely new to me! That's a great list, thanks Peter. Tally-ho would be another one, depending upon whether you regard fox hunting as a sport or not ...

I must admit that tent-pegging and the Field Gun Run were entirely new to me!

]]> By: Peter Hibbs http://airminded.org/2006/07/10/beautiful-games-and-others/comment-page-1/#comment-1695 Peter Hibbs Sun, 09 Jul 2006 17:22:53 +0000 http://airminded.org/2006/07/10/beautiful-games-and-others/#comment-1695 I was originally going to say that it's a pity that international disputes can't be resolved on the football field rather than the battlefield. Then I remembered the 'Football War' of 1969 where existing tensions between Honduras and El Salvador were heightened by rioting at a qualifying match for the 1970 World Cup. The resulting war (said to have been the last where piston-engined aircraft were used by both sides) resulted in 2,000 fatalities. On a lighter note, had football historically been the language of diplomacy, then I don't think that the British would've stood a chance at empire-building had they faced penalty shoot-outs... Some sporting terms used by the RAF (from Eric Partidge's <em>A Dictionary of R.A.F. Slang</em> (1945) include: - Bag: To shoot down. From sportsmen's slang. - Daisy cutter: A faultless landing. From cricket, where it = a drive clean along the sward. - Football feet, to have: To make excessive use of the rudder. - Gone for six: Killed; dead. From cricket. - Hockey stick: A bomb-loading jack or hoist. From a vaugue resemblance. - Nursery slope: An easy target on which bombing-beginners practise. - Tee up!: Get ready! Cf. the Army's to have (a thing) teed up or ready. From Golf. - Touch down: To land. From football. [Rugby?] You only have to look at <em>tent-pegging</em> and the Royal Navy's <em>Field Gun Run</em> (essentially a sporting reenactment of the defence of Ladysmith during the Boer War) to realise that the British do like to mix sport and war... I was originally going to say that it's a pity that international disputes can't be resolved on the football field rather than the battlefield.

Then I remembered the 'Football War' of 1969 where existing tensions between Honduras and El Salvador were heightened by rioting at a qualifying match for the 1970 World Cup. The resulting war (said to have been the last where piston-engined aircraft were used by both sides) resulted in 2,000 fatalities.

On a lighter note, had football historically been the language of diplomacy, then I don't think that the British would've stood a chance at empire-building had they faced penalty shoot-outs...

Some sporting terms used by the RAF (from Eric Partidge's A Dictionary of R.A.F. Slang (1945) include:

- Bag: To shoot down. From sportsmen's slang.
- Daisy cutter: A faultless landing. From cricket, where it = a drive clean along the sward.
- Football feet, to have: To make excessive use of the rudder.
- Gone for six: Killed; dead. From cricket.
- Hockey stick: A bomb-loading jack or hoist. From a vaugue resemblance.
- Nursery slope: An easy target on which bombing-beginners practise.
- Tee up!: Get ready! Cf. the Army's to have (a thing) teed up or ready. From Golf.
- Touch down: To land. From football. [Rugby?]

You only have to look at tent-pegging and the Royal Navy's Field Gun Run (essentially a sporting reenactment of the defence of Ladysmith during the Boer War) to realise that the British do like to mix sport and war...

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