Comments on: Guardian 25,557 / Rufus

By: John E

John E — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 01:21:50 +0000

Re. my earlier comment (no. 36 above), I finally heard the words ‘no side’ spoken by the referee at the end of this week’s England-Wales match!

By: Jan

Jan — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:47:34 +0000

Eileen @45

“I was quite bemused at the thought of ‘no-side’ being so obscure and provoking so much discussion: I thought that, if I knew it, everyone else surely must!”

Nope! I didn’t even write it in because it made no sense. But, then, I’m the only person in the world who hadn’t heard of a world famous footballer and had to Google ‘footballer Lionel’.

By: tupu

tupu — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:56:44 +0000

Thanks Eileen

As I’m sure you remember, Tom Brown’s Schooldays was set in Rugby School where the author had been a pupil and where, of course, the game was born.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:17:56 +0000

Hi tupu @42 and cholecyst @13 Tuesday

Apologies for the lack of response. I was quite bemused at the thought of ‘no-side’ being so obscure and provoking so much discussion: I thought that, if I knew it, everyone else surely must!

By: Speckled Jim

Speckled Jim — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:29:43 +0000

Half easy and half very tough!

Not happy with the word ‘some’ in 3d – aid is help, so why ‘some help’? Also ‘most’ in 26a – according to whom are ballpoints the MOST popular writing implements? Surely wrong to claim that unless it’s been enshrined in public knowledge (is that what the Chambers entry on ballpoints says? No)

Clever anagram in 9d – I didn’t spot it but got the answer just assuming it was a vague cryptic definition.

By: Hazza

Hazza — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:14:08 +0000

RCW & Paul B. Both plausible explanations. I just took it to mean that the ref had blown but not fot one side or the other as he’d been doing all game. I’m pretty sure that that’s the way Bill McLaren meant it. I too played rugby in the 50s but never heard the expression. Most times I didn’t hear the whistle either so that means nothing.

By: tupu

tupu — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:12:15 +0000

According to OED the term ‘no-side’ appears first in Tom Brown’s Schooldays in 1857 and thus seems likely to be as old as the game of Rugby itself.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:02:32 +0000

No-side is in Chambers and Collins as ‘the end of a game’. Thanks a million, you two. Like RCW I can’t find any source for it, so I’m forced to revert to my own interpretation, which is that after the final whistle, teams or sides are irrelevant: we’re all one again.

By: RCWhiting

RCWhiting — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:46:46 +0000

Hazza @38
When I first played rugby, in the mid 50s and a long way away from Scotland, we used the term ‘no side’for the end of the match.
Although I have never discovered the origin of the phrase, I can only guess that, during the match, every player is either onside or offside at all times. Consequently when the match ends there is no longer any side to be on or off of!

By: tupu

tupu — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:09:08 +0000

NeilW @28

Many thanks for thinking of me. I was flattered by your attribution but devastated that it doesn’t seem to be justified. The earliest use of the term ‘double bluff’ in this blog seems to be November 11 2006 by Neil Dubya (yourself?) and I much regret not being able to find an example where I used it. Still perhaps like love, it is better to have ‘gained and lost’ than never to have gained at all.