Your first example is from snooker, pool or billiards. (It means rubbing chalk onto the cue tip - I am not sure what it is said to do, nor if it really works, though).
The second is new to me.
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Cricket has some deliciously eccentric names for fielders' locations around the pitch: square leg, etc.
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Skittles: a 0 score for any hand of 3 balls is often called an oxo, I think from a tradition of marking the scoreboard cell with an diagonal cross to highlight the unfortunate player's inability to knock even one of the nine pins over.
Replacing the bowled-over pins for the next player's turn is called sticking-up; and performed by the sticker-uppers.
A Stick-up: If a player fells all nine pins with only two balls, those are replaced so he or she has the full set to aim at with the third ball. This is called a stick-up... and failing to fell even one of the re-set formation with that third ball is likely to attract a good deal of good-natured teasing from one's own team and ironical amusement from the opponents! (Skittles is a pub and social-club game, and in the local league in which I played for several years it was common for the spectating team to retire to the bar-room while the other was playing.)
Skittles terms may be regional though, as the game itself has slight regional vaiations and is delightfully free of excessive standardising - especially of alley length. I have played on one so short that even our good players took a while to become accustomed to it.
That phrase "nine pins" was itself an old, perhaps original, name for the game.
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Darts: I have to meet anyone who knows the etymology of oche (rhymes with hockey)- the line on the floor, behind which the player must stand to throw the darts.
Most of darts' terms are simple and self-explanatory, though.
The second is new to me.
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Cricket has some deliciously eccentric names for fielders' locations around the pitch: square leg, etc.
&&&
Skittles: a 0 score for any hand of 3 balls is often called an oxo, I think from a tradition of marking the scoreboard cell with an diagonal cross to highlight the unfortunate player's inability to knock even one of the nine pins over.
Replacing the bowled-over pins for the next player's turn is called sticking-up; and performed by the sticker-uppers.
A Stick-up: If a player fells all nine pins with only two balls, those are replaced so he or she has the full set to aim at with the third ball. This is called a stick-up... and failing to fell even one of the re-set formation with that third ball is likely to attract a good deal of good-natured teasing from one's own team and ironical amusement from the opponents! (Skittles is a pub and social-club game, and in the local league in which I played for several years it was common for the spectating team to retire to the bar-room while the other was playing.)
Skittles terms may be regional though, as the game itself has slight regional vaiations and is delightfully free of excessive standardising - especially of alley length. I have played on one so short that even our good players took a while to become accustomed to it.
That phrase "nine pins" was itself an old, perhaps original, name for the game.
&&&
Darts: I have to meet anyone who knows the etymology of oche (rhymes with hockey)- the line on the floor, behind which the player must stand to throw the darts.
Most of darts' terms are simple and self-explanatory, though.
rinkydinkydoink · M
@ArishMell
Do you put your heart and soul into everything you do?
👍
The 2nd one is a football (soccer) term for an especially skilled pass (sometimes to oneself) between an opponent's legs
Do you put your heart and soul into everything you do?
👍
The 2nd one is a football (soccer) term for an especially skilled pass (sometimes to oneself) between an opponent's legs
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@rinkydinkydoink LOL! Metaphorically maybe - I don't believe in souls!
Ah, I did not know "nutmeg" because I don't play or follow football!
Ah, I did not know "nutmeg" because I don't play or follow football!
FreddieUK · 70-79, M
I'm not a sports fan and when forced to play I had no idea of what was going on or heart to find out. If asked what positions I usually played in it was alway Left Out or Right Off.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@FreddieUK I know the feeling!
Even in primary school, when it came to having to play football I was always one of the two last boys to be picked by the two temporary team captains, and usually placed somewhere I could do least damage. Which suited me, really, as I had no interest in the game and was no good at it.
Even in primary school, when it came to having to play football I was always one of the two last boys to be picked by the two temporary team captains, and usually placed somewhere I could do least damage. Which suited me, really, as I had no interest in the game and was no good at it.
Thevy29 · 41-45, M
In cricket there is a 'sticky wicket' and something called 'Catch a crab' in rowing..
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@Thevy29 "[Batting on a] sticky wicket" of course has become a colloquialism in speech far from sports-grounds; meaning to continue with something risking one's downfall in usually a social or political way.
I think "catching a crab" means to immerse the oar too deeply, with the result the rower can be pushed off-balance and even possibly off the thwart (the seat).
I think "catching a crab" means to immerse the oar too deeply, with the result the rower can be pushed off-balance and even possibly off the thwart (the seat).
Teslin · M
Golf has some strange ones:
Stroke
Birdie
Eagle
Stroke
Birdie
Eagle
Thodsis · 51-55, M
Cricket.
Silly Mid Off defines itself as the best one!
Silly Mid Off defines itself as the best one!
rinkydinkydoink · M
rhymes with wicket
rinkydinkydoink · M










