The biggest “loser” sport in the world!
Good evening campers!
(This is a catchphrase from a very popular 1980s comedy show in the UK called “Hi-de-Hi”, about a holiday park.)
I was really impressed with those of you who wrote about your favourite walks – you used some very evocative language to describe the scenery, to the extent that I really felt I was there. (You’ve also inspired me to start planning a major trip round the world!). So thank you for that, and well done!
Satya, you probably won’t see this until you get back, but I hope you have a wonderful time at home, and I can’t wait to hear all about it!
Well, as promised, today’s post is all about sport. Actually, I was quite clear in my head about how I was going to write this, and then I had a crazy conversation with Chris, and all my ideas changed …In fact, the title of today’s post is something he said while we were talking (much more interesting than what I was originally going to put!). By “loser” he means a sport that only sad, pathetic people (like me!) would play …
So, I’ll stop being mysterious and start writing! We were actually having a conversation about the sports we played at primary school, particularly on sports day. Did your schools have a sports day too? We used to have one once a year, just before the summer holiday. Anyway, at primary school, there were different kinds of races: the egg-and-spoon race (you run holding an egg on a spoon, and the winner is the person who reaches the end without the egg falling off), the sack race (yes, you’ve guessed it – you try to run whilst standing in a sack; it’s more like jumping, actually) and the three-legged-race (your right leg is tied to your partner’s left leg and you run together). My best friend and I were really good at the three-legged-race – in fact we won three years on the trot!
So this led onto a more general discussion of sports we played at the village gala (in my case) and the school fête (in Chris’s case). I think I’ll just give you the conversation …
C: The tug-of-war* …
R: Yes, the tug-of-war. And of course, welly*-throwing.
C: What? Welly throwing?
R: Yeah, you stand behind the line, and you take a welly boot by the heel, and you throw it as far as you can, and the person to throw it the furthest wins.
C (collapsing into hysterical laughter): Welly-throwing? You’ve got to be kidding! That has to be the biggest loser sport in the world!
R (highly offended): Actually it’s really hard. And if you’re so tough, what did you use to play?
C: The greasy pole*.
R (completely bewildered): The what?
C: You sit on a greasy pole, and your opponent sits opposite you, and you hit each other with pillows until someone falls off.
R (imagining all kinds of bizarre behaviour): And is the pole vertical or horizontal?
C (hitting R with a cushion): It’s horizontal, you idiot!
*Tug-of-war – two teams hold on to each end of a rope and pull. The winner is the team who manages to pull the other team past the centre line.
*Welly – Wellington boot (also known as a gumboot).
*A pole covered in soap and water to make it slippery and difficult to sit on.
So, we would really love to know – do any of you guys know of anything stranger than welly-throwing or the greasy pole? Do tell!!!!
And now on to more serious sport!! I thought I might start you off with a little quiz (answers below). Can you match the names of the Aussie sports people with the sport they play (they’re not all current players)?
Ian Thorpe ----- Rugby League
Lleyton Hewitt ----- Cricket
Brett Lee ----- Football (Soccer to non-Poms!)
George Gregan ----- Swimming
Andrew Johns ----- Australian Rules Football
Mark Viduka ----- Formula One
Chris Judd ----- Tennis
Mark Weber ----- Rugby Union
Answers:
Ian Thorpe – Swimming; Lleyton Hewitt – Tennis; Brett Lee – Cricket; George Gregan- Rugby Union; Andrew Johns – Rugby League; Mark Viduka – Football; Chris Judd – Australian Rules Football; Mark Weber – Formula One.
Probably the most popular sports here in Oz are rugby, Aussie rules and cricket, although football is also making a bit of a comeback. I should probably explain some of the terms that Aussies use to talk about the various forms of football:
NRL – National Rugby League – “footy” or “League”
AFL – Australian Rules Football – “footy”
A League - Soccer / Football – “footy” or “soccer”
Rugby Union – “footy” or “Rugby”
Now that’s not actually as confusing as it might look –
NRL is played mainly in New South Wales and Queensland (there’s only one Victorian team in the league); New Zealand teams also play as part of the league.
AFL is played in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory (there’s one New South Wales team in the league, and none from Queensland).
Soccer has had a bit of a revival in recent years, with the formation of the nationwide league for soccer, known as the A-league, which is starting to attract some international faces such as Juninho.
Rugby Union is played in New South Wales, ACT and Queensland. The Australian team (the Wallabies) has a very good international reputation – or at least they did until England knocked them out of the World Cup a couple of weeks ago!!!!! (Sorry, Chris!)
As for attempting to explain cricket, I’m afraid that is beyond me! (Paulraj, maybe you could have a go in your next comment? You know a lot more about it than I do!). I can give you the basic facts – a game can last up to 5 days, with each team batting twice and fielding twice. And the players wear white. Unless it’s a one day international match and then they wear their national colours (Aussies call it “pyjama cricket”!). And that’s it! As I think I’ve told you, Chris loves cricket – playing it and watching it.
And I shouldn’t forget to tell you about the three major racing events in this nation of sports-fans! There’s the Melbourne F1 (obviously), plus Bathurst and the Melbourne Cup. Bathurst is a touring car race over a 100km circuit, and only two makes of car are allowed to compete: Holden (you might know Holden as Opel or Vauxhall) and Ford. It takes place in early October in the NSW town of ... can you guess … yes – Bathurst! The Melbourne Cup is held in early November and is Australia’s most famous horse race. The whole nation stops to watch it, even though it only lasts about three minutes (it’s even known as “the race that stops a nation”), and it’s actually a public holiday in Victoria. I won’t say any more about it as it’s on in a couple of weeks, so I’ll give it a post all to itself!
All this talk of sport has reminded me of the only real experience of culture shock I’ve had since I’ve been here, but I’ll leave that for another time as you’ve probably had enough of this for today!
Let’s have a quick look at the homework on those past tenses:
Satya, your corrections were spot on:
1. I asked them whether they had placed it correctly or not.
2. And do you know what we did the next day
Satya, you asked for an explanation about number 2 – we use the past simple here because the story and the events you describe are still in the past, even though you’re using the expression “the next day”.
And for those of you who had a go at putting “scolded” on the timeline, you are absolutely right – it goes somewhere before number 4. We don’t know exactly when the scolding happened, so we could put it anywhere on the timeline as long as it’s before my friend came.
As Satya’s going to be away for a few days, this might be a good time to have a look at those wonderful things called gerunds and infinitives! Hurray! So here’s a little bit of preparatory homework for you – have a look through today’s post and the post about the beach walk and see if you can find any examples of where I’ve used gerunds (-ing forms) or infinitives (verb + to or base verb), and start thinking about any patterns you can see, and we’ll talk about it next time.
I’ll put the answers to the vocab here as well, so you can check it if you’ve done it (if you haven’t done it, don’t look and then check it later – no hurry!). I'm blown away by your positive feedback on the vocab – after I’d posted it I felt terrible about bombarding you with so much stuff, and worried that I might have turned you all into "Englishvocabularyphobes"! (Thanks Pilar!!). Anyway, I’m relieved that you’re not giving up in despair! I think that I might do vocab exercises every couple of days so I’m not throwing thousands of words at you all at once – would that be a bit more manageable? And now I know you liked the matching, I’ll try and come up with some more activities for vocab review. (And if anyone hated it, please let me know – all feedback is welcome!) Anyway, here are the answers:
1st Oct:
1-f; 2-c; 3-h; 4-a; 5-j; 6-e; 7-b; 8-g; 9-d; 10-i
3rd Oct:
1-d; 2-i; 3-b; 4-j; 5-f; 6-c; 7-h; 8-a; 9-g; 10-e
4th Oct:
1-e; 2-j; 3-a; 4-c; 5-k; 6-g; 7-b; 8-f; 9-d; 10-i; 11-h
7th Oct:
1-d; 2-h; 3-e; 4-i; 5-a; 6-f; 7-b; 8-g; 9-c
10th Oct:
1-i; 2-f; 3-d; 4-k; 5-e; 6-h; 7-m; 8-j; 9-b; 10-g; 11-a; 12-l; 13-c
12th Oct:
1-c; 2-h; 3-b; 4-f; 5-e; 6-a; 7-g; 8-d
15th Oct:
1-e; 2-b; 3-a; 4-f; 5-c; 6-d
Gapfill:
1. Technophobe
2. Figure out
3. Let the cat out of the bag
4. Cheap and cheerful
5. Upmarket
6. A bit picky
7. A scorcher
8. To be pleased to bits
9. Downside
10. Dodgy
And finally, today’s vocab!
(three years) on the trot (expr)
gala (n)
evocative (adj)
kidding (vb)
opponent (n)
make a comeback (expr)
knock sb out (of a competition) (phr vb)
spot on (adj)
Well, that’s enough for me today – I don’t know about all of you! Oh, by the way, we did go to the noodle markets tonight (all of us this time) – but it was just as crazy as last week, so no photos! Sorry!
Back soon,
Rachel
PS - BIG thanks to Chris for reading this before I posted it and increasing my knowledge of Aussie sport. If there are any mistakes, they're all mine!
Comments
Hi Rachel! I have never had a sports day. Basically, PE is an underestimated school subject in Italy. Ian Thorpe is one the best swimmer ever. Cheers!
Hi Rachel!!!! How nice to know you all went to the noodle markets this Thursday :-). Oh Rachel, the welly throwing seems to be so funny. I laughed a lot when I read about it. Well, we have something similar to your sports day. We call this day 'gincana', which is set in the begining of the Spring in order to celebrate this new season. Basically, we play the same sports you used to play in the sports day, except for the welly throwing(I´m going to suggest this one in my health club, haha). The gincana is also a charitable event, where all the people who take part of it donate food to people in need. Ah! In June we have a festival to celebrate Saints Anthony, Paul and Peter, it´s the 'Festa Junina' (you would love it being here in this time Rachel). The food and drink are amazingly good, the atmosphere has a wonderful smell of diverse seasonings that makes your mouth watering, humm... So, a pole is put on the vertical after lots of fat has been spreaded on it. On the top of the pole is put a gift(some money for example), and some people are challenged to reach the top of the pole in order to get the gift, but as you can guess Rachel, it´s very hard to reach the top. We call this pole 'Pau de Sebo'. Oh, it´s a great time indeed! Well, I have a go at the vocab: (three years) on the trot (expr): on the sequence; gala (n): sports competition, especially swimming; evocative (adj): make you remember or imagine something pleasant; kidding (vb):joking; opponent (n): a person being competed against in a sports event; make a comeback (expr): a successful attempt to get power, importance or fame again after a period of having lost it; knock sb out (of a competition) (phr vb): defeat your opponent; spot on (adj): exact. I´m looking forward to hearing from you soon. Good night, Ana Paula. PS- Rachel, please say thank you for Chris for the sports explanation :-).
Hi Rachel. Thanks for telling us about the sports in Australia. Footy makes a lot sense to me now. I am always wondering why Aussies are so fascinating about it. I heard my work mates talking about it all the time. I had a go at the vocab matching. I got about 90% right with the help of Lookup function in Word. :) I will try to practise them in the conversion with my work mates. Have a nice weekend. Hualan
Hello Rachel...Your post wonderful as usual! Your explanations about sports were fantastic, except for the cricket one...(My husband tried to explain it, but it was a complete waste of time!) As regards The Rugby World Cup, I had high hopes that the Argentina Rugby team was going to defeat South Africa and that we were going to play the final match with the English but as you must know the South Africans knocked us out of competition!!! The transcription of your conversation with Chris was just superb!!! I nearly died laughing!! It was great to find out that here in Argentina we play the same games that you play (I burst out laughing when you told about the welly-throwing game...let me tell you that I've never heard of something like that before, and I couldn't avoid telling my husband about it and he is still laughing!!) I always want to write so many things that come to my mind while I'm reading your blog, but then I realise that it is very late in the night, that I have to get up early to work and finally I do my homework (in a hurry and half asleep)and go to sleep like a log! I remember many funny games from my childhood but I promise to tell you about them tomorrow! Here goes the homework: Have a look through today’s post and the post about the beach walk and see if you can find any examples of where I’ve used gerunds (-ing forms) or infinitives (verb + to or base verb) # Let me “tell” you about… (Inf.) #…you keep “stopping” (-ing) “to stare” (to-inf.)at views and catch your breath after “climbing” (-ing.) hills! # So, the first beach, and the “starting” (-ing) point (or finish point, “depending” (-ing) which way round you do it), is Coogee. # As you can “see” (inf)… # I tend “to go” (to-inf) … # …good for clambering (-ing) over… # it’s also interesting “to walk) (to-inf)through… # “Coming” (-ing) down from the cemetey… The vocab: #(three years) on the trot (expr) one after the other #gala (n) a public entertainment or performance to celebrate a special occasion #evocative (adj) making people remember something by producing a feeling or memory in them #kidding (vb) to say something that is not true especially as a joke #opponent (n) soemeone who tries to defeat another person in a competition, game, fight, or argument #make a comeback (expr) if a person, acvtivity, style etc makes a comeback, they become popular again after being unpopular for a long time #knock sb out (of a competition) (phr vb) to defeat a person or team in a competition so that they can no longer take part #spot on (adj) exactly right Good night from the other edge of the world! PS 2:40 am How am I going to get up early tomorrow?
Hi Rachel, Your blog today brought me the memories of my school days. It recalls the wonderful fun time with friends in earlier life. Some times we had this kind of games in the church for fund raising events. Lemon and spoon races, instead of egg we used to play with lemon. Other thing and all how you did. Actually I had played sack race and three legged race. But I had never reached the end. My friend and I fell off in the middle. Instead of pillow, we used big balloon. It had been tied back side of your body. You have to hit and break others balloon without breaking yours. The final person wins the game without breaking his balloon. Tug-of-war, we watched this in the school sports days. Our teachers were divided in to two groups according to their physical strength. They fought for each others. The students supported the side where their class teachers belonged. It was really crazy to watch the teachers who were fat. Do you know this one? Food game, Bread or bun or banana used in this game. With in one minute how much loaf of bread you eat. How many bun or banana you have that counts. Those who eat more win the prizes. It was all fun. You helped us to remember all the glorious moment. I don’t think my children in the school play or see the game like this right now. They are familiar with computer game, video game and electronic gadgets. Will it good for this generation?
Hello again,Rachel! As you suggested,I have reviewed the first 3 posts in the months.And I found sth that you maybe have forgotten...That is you said in the end of the October-3-post that "Owen goes running up to him and announces: “We got you a birthday cake, Daddy”!" And then you asked," Why have I used the present simple here when I’m clearly talking about the past? " But I couldn't find the answer in the following post..... Could you explain it for me?
Hello Rachel! You´ve got us! And Chris seems to be a very good fellow! I felt being a kid on a school yard. What a good times that was. However, welly throving, the 1st on my list and the greasy pole was behind the teacher´s and our imagination during that red-pioneer´s scarfs childhood. Than those for me incomprehensible paragraphs like in the newspapers, only cars and horse races are interesting and known as Aussies sports for me. And yes, I am the one who hates all sorts of grammar exercises, but you teach us so seriously that I am more ashamed to admit it to you as to all previous teachers. Don´t be disgust, sometimes I have any clue what the grammar term it could be in slovak (so long from the school avay) but this only mean as much I need more and more explanations from you! Have a good fun!
Hi Rachel, I played cricket when was in school. I like watching cricket particularly ODI on TV. I know some of the rules. I am not much familiar with the rules and all. Ok. This is for Chris. Finally, it was a consolation win for India. The last two matches were really good. The Indians fought it in the end. Andrew Simonds got a man of the series award. He deserves that. I was shocked to know that the spectators in the match showed him some kind of racist remarks. It was not good for any sports. Both BCCI and ICC issued some statements regarding this. People should not behave like that. Why this kind of treatment against Australians alone. If you had watched the presentation ceremony you might have noticed that after receiving the cup Ponting asked the teammates to join with him for the photo. Why? When they had received the cup last time in India it was the hustle bustle on the stage. Finally the BCCI president was pushed over from the dais. It became the controversy about the behavior of the Australian players. Because of their superiority in the game they should not show disrespect to others.
Hello Rachel. Wow I could only recognize Mark Viduka (the handsome socceroo)and, of course, Mark Weber, the Formula One driver.. Are you being serious about the cricket game? Can it really last up to 5 days? I'll be honest with you. Not always I have time to do the homework but I've just bought a notebook to write down all the vocab given by you and other teachers. Even though I couldn't do the homework, I've read the readers' comments, especially Ana Paula and Carolina, and I have found the answers very useful for me. Thanks Rachel and Chris (I loved your dialogue about the "loser" sports)and also the readers. I wish you all a special weekend. Bye
Hello, Rachel! First, I have to say that your answers/explanations to the vocabulary were quite confusing because of the way you presented them. If I were you, I'd have written them in the following order: 1. To let the cat out of the bag = To reveal a secret 2. Dodgy = not good or reliable Why? Because the way you wrote them it's very unlikely for a learner and especially a new learner to first read the blog, scroll down to the vocabulary list and then scroll back up (since you say learning from the context is better) and again scrolling down (if one fails to learn it from the context it was used, which is possible) to read the meaning, which, to be honest, is a boring and rather annoying practice more so because it's on a web-page. And above all, teaching is all about making it easier for students to learn. Occasional activity of such a kind is ok but in your case it was on a regular basis to make us wait for the vocabulary and it came here after 16 days that you explained. Well, it's just my opinion with which you and my fellow learners may or may not agree; and I didn't mean to offend and as far as I know, blogging is about expressing your opinion unless it's offensive or rude. And telling your teacher that you're not satisfied by the way you're being taught cannot/shouldn't be taken as offensive. My apologies in advance if you still find it the other way round. Rafique
Hello Rachel! Happy woman's day (in Vietnam). Hope full happiness for your and your family! Sports that you played at primary school and village gala or school fête is very interesting. So I think I (with my friends) should try in the next picnic or camping. I impress especially with greasy pole, so hilarious. I'm trying to image how funny anyone falls in a pole covered soap and water look like. (Is there any grammar matter with this sentence?) About tug-of-war is also popular in my country, particularly in the folk festival. In Vietnam, we usually to organize both traditional and modern sports in order to celebrate some big festival days in a year, as Lunar New Year, National Day, woman's day, teacher's day... We also organize some funny sports when go camping, picnic...Then one of them, I don't know to use any word, so I call temporary it ‘float race’ (we play it in the beach). You’ve guessed that 4 (or 3) people try to get into a float, stand with their back to others, and then run together in an expanse of sand. The winner is team who reaches the end earliest with full people (4 or 3). But teams rarely go to the end without falling because of sand or step on foot…, may be the float is too small for whole people. It’s most hilarious sport (game) I’ve ever played. Well, I must go to my old teachers now. Bye bye (^_^)
Hi Rechel, I hope you are safe and sound with rest of your family. I'm very pleased to know about the welly throwing and it seems to be so funny and interesting.when I was in school we had sport time twice a week for one hour and my favourite game was football and i played in the school team. After graduating from school i left the football because I went to Pakistan with my family for nine years.Now i like cricket and Breet Lee is one of my favourite baller . I am sorry for being absent for the long time because i went to my village and there was no internet and for that resone i did'nt study your previous blogs. I am looking forward to read more from your side and convey my best wishes to Chris for propering intresting information about sports. but now my favourite game is cricket
hello Rachel nice to meet you. this is my first time visit this website . and,i've been gotten a problem recently ,so would you mind answering my grammar question? actually,it 's difficult for me how to distinguish gerund and participle which are teaching in my english lesson lately . but i also read some english grammar book to look up to this topic but it doesnt work anyway,hoping you can help my question and thank for
It's nice you are going to discuss 'those wonderful things called gerunds and infinitives' as they cause lots of problems, maybe not to you native speakers, but to us foreigners or at least to me. I’ve been learning 'those wonderful things’ for ages and I’m still stupid. I very often have to look them up in a dictionary. Thanks in advance.
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