Things you often Wonder

[Mark Albrighton]

“A hotel” is the one I have occasionally pause for thought. “An hotel” spoken doesn’t sound too far off but that’s because some people drop the “h” so it sounds like “an ‘otel”. 

[Mark Albrighton]

1 minute ago, blandy said:

Ta. That doesn’t work for the other one though

Yeah it’s the same principle.

The letter “L” sounds like “el” - starting with a vowel therefore it would be “an”.

But with “large” you’re not pronouncing the letter “L”, or rather you’re not making an “el” sound. So it’s remains a consonant, therefore “a”. 
 

[Mark Albrighton]

11 minutes ago, blandy said:

Ta. That doesn’t work for the other one though

You could say “I’ve just bought an LP record” or you could say “I’ve just bought a long player record”.

[mjmooney]

All of which brings me back to my oft-stated pet hate - the current near-universal trend to use a short-vowel 'the' before a word starting with a vowel. 'The end' should be 'theeyend', NOT the horribly clunky 'thuh end'. 

 

[blandy]

4 hours ago, Mark Albrighton said:

Yeah it’s the same principle.

The letter “L” sounds like “el” - starting with a vowel therefore it would be “an”.

But with “large” you’re not pronouncing the letter “L”, or rather you’re not making an “el” sound. So it’s remains a consonant, therefore “a”. 
 

Yes, but I’m sorry, I have a cold.

[Mandy Lifeboats]

Why do Premier League clubs still use captain’s armbands for the regular captain?  
Why not print “captain” on the sleeve or adopt a symbol to denote the captain.  Can’t a referee work out who the captain is without a visual marker?  It’s the guy who shakes his hand and does the coin toss?  

 

 

[bickster]

11 minutes ago, Mandy Lifeboats said:

Why do Premier League clubs still use captain’s armbands for the regular captain?  
Why not print “captain” on the sleeve or adopt a symbol to denote the captain.  Can’t a referee work out who the captain is without a visual marker?  It’s the guy who shakes his hand and does the coin toss?  

 

 

in case the captain is substituted

[chrisp65]

You’d have thought by now the club’s would have worked out they could be flogging a first kit, an away kit, a third kit, and the Captain’s version of all off them with epaulettes and a sash.

[a m ole]

23 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

You’d have thought by now the club’s would have worked out they could be flogging a first kit, an away kit, a third kit, and the Captain’s version of all off them with epaulettes and a sash.

More things for the club shop to run out of

[Mandy Lifeboats]

1 hour ago, bickster said:

in case the captain is substituted

My point relates to the regular captain.  

As @chrisp65says the captain's version of the kit could be a selling point.  People already pay more for names and numbers.  

Or maybe they should have a compulsary tattoo. 

[PussEKatt]

On 27/08/2021 at 09:22, Mandy Lifeboats said:

Why do Premier League clubs still use captain’s armbands for the regular captain?  
Why not print “captain” on the sleeve or adopt a symbol to denote the captain.  Can’t a referee work out who the captain is without a visual marker?  It’s the guy who shakes his hand and does the coin toss?  

 

 

Not sure but it might have something to do with the TV audiance, so they can reconise who the captain is and not just any player waving his arms about and arguing with the ref.

[rjw63]

Why people are still obsessed with Gresford.

[Xela]

Just looking at a map of the West Mids, I'm surprised there was never a football team in South Brum. We're north Brum (appreciate Aston wasn't part of Brum at the time), small heath to the east and the tesco bags out west, heading into the black country. 

I wonder why nothing was ever done south of the city? 

[KentVillan]

27 minutes ago, Xela said:

Just looking at a map of the West Mids, I'm surprised there was never a football team in South Brum. We're north Brum (appreciate Aston wasn't part of Brum at the time), small heath to the east and the tesco bags out west, heading into the black country. 

I wonder why nothing was ever done south of the city? 

Just guessing, but is it because to the north/north-west and east you have more urban areas where professional football grew most quickly? Wolverhampton, Coventry, Leicester, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Derby, etc… whereas to the south it’s very rural, so you wouldn’t be travelling that way for many away games? (Except for London, which is as much east as south)

Edit: similar situation in London, where the north London clubs have traditionally been strongest. Could be complete coincidence of course, but I imagine back in the day this would have saved a huge amount of travel time.

Edited September 1, 2021 by KentVillan

[sidcow]

Yeah, North and East tend to be more working class = more football clubs than South and West which tended to be more middle class. 

Why? The prevailing wind in the UK moves from West to East / slightly diagonally North so smells and chimney smoke tend to drift those ways, therefore richer people tended to live South and West where the air was fresher. 

Where is the tennis club and Cricket ground? South West mate. 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by sidcow

[limpid]

2 hours ago, sidcow said:

Yeah, North and East tend to be more working class = more football clubs than South and West which tended to be more middle class. 

Why? The prevailing wind in the UK moves from West to East / slightly diagonally North so smells and chimney smoke tend to drift those ways, therefore richer people tended to live South and West where the air was fresher. 

Where is the tennis club and Cricket ground? South West mate. 

So why was Aston Manor and the Lower Grounds built north east of Brum?

[sidcow]

5 minutes ago, limpid said:

So why was Aston Manor and the Lower Grounds built north east of Brum?

I would imagine the people who built it had no concept of how Birmingham would develop and how industrial it would become at the time. 

The industrial age is a story of middle (and presumably upper) class migration as once prestigious locations became swamped by growing towns and industry. 

[limpid]

3 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I would imagine the people who built it had no concept of how Birmingham would develop and how industrial it would become at the time. 

The industrial age is a story of middle (and presumably upper) class migration as once prestigious locations became swamped by growing towns and industry. 

Doesn't really work in Manchester either. The clubs are West and South (originally). Although strictly speaking, the red team aren't in Manchester.

[sidcow]

59 minutes ago, limpid said:

Doesn't really work in Manchester either. The clubs are West and South (originally). Although strictly speaking, the red team aren't in Manchester.

Dunno. I was just theorising that footy clubs maybe start in poorer working class areas of cities.  Maybe Mill Towns have different patterns of settlement or maybe clubs just set up anywhere. 

[Xela]

Edgbaston was a posh area at that time, you only have to look at some of the houses. I'm sure they didn't want the prospect of ruffians playing football anywhere near them!

On a similar train of thought, isn't Dudley the largest town/city with a professional team? Surprised one didn't form there... it would have been a centre of industry at the time I would have imagined? Unless the tesco bags covered that area sufficiently.