XPost: alt.usage.english   
   From: jja@blueyonder.co.uk   
      
   On 16/07/2024 08:31, HenHanna wrote:   
   > On 1/22/2024 7:49 AM, Antonio Marques wrote:   
   >> Ross Clark  wrote:   
   >   
   >>> For this occasion (Arsenal v Sheffield United at Highbury stadium,   
   >>> London), the BBC had devised a grid dividing the football pitch into 8   
   >>> squares, which was published in the _Radio Times_. The chief   
   >>> commentator, Henry Blythe Thornhill Wakelam ("Teddy"), would describe   
   >>> the action, and an assistant would call out a number indicating which   
   >>> part of the field the ball was in.   
   >>>   
   >>> Example: "now up field (7)...a pretty pass (5,8)..."   
   >>>   
   >>> Eventually they realized that fans could easily visualize the playing   
   >>> field, and a single commentator could deliver all the necessary   
   >>> information without the numbers.   
   >>>   
   >>> This kind of live description belongs to what Koenraad Kuiper calls   
   >>> "formulaic genres" (the title of his book, Springer, 2009). The speaker   
   >>> has to respond to sometimes rapidly changing real events, and makes use   
   >>> of ready-made elements and sequences to ensure fluency. Kuiper's   
   >>> original interests were in horse-race calling and auctioneering.   
   >   
   >   
   > They used     "now up field (7)...a pretty pass (5,8)..."  for several   
   > games?   
   >   
   > it's Odd that they didn't use  Chess's  (A-H, 1-8)   
   >   
   >                 or  combination of  (Number + Right, Left,   
   Center)   
   >   
   This is the origin of the expression "back to square one".   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)