Schumacher to 'quickly surpass' Mansell's age

Gingerous has written in with some interesting comments on a recent BBC Sport article called 'Michael Schumacher targets F1 title with Mercedes team'. Here's the particular par he refers to:

Schumacher is the oldest driver to compete in F1 since Nigel Mansell made a brief comeback in 1994, also at the age of 41 - and the German will quickly surpass the Englishman's age as the year progresses.

And here's what Gingerous has to say:

Two things popped into my head when I read this - firstly, can you quickly surpass an age? Surely we all age at the same rate.

Secondly, technically he won't surpass Nigel Mansell's age since at the time of writing this Nigel Mansell is still alive and with us and currently 56.

Obviously this is just me being pedantic and the article does make sense.

As everyone ages at the same rate, I agree that the word 'quickly' is a bit of a strange choice. Perhaps the writer means 'soon'? And 'as the year progresses' also sounds odd to me. Perhaps it would be better to tell us exactly when Schumacher will become the oldest driver ever to compete in F1.

Tom Watson and a dangling modifier

Here's a nice golf-related dangling modifier from a recent BBC Sport story:



The paragraph in question is this one:

Having won five Opens and three Senior British Opens, including the 2003 tournament at Turnberry, the adoring British crowd had roared on Watson from the moment he carded an opening 65.

Obviously it is (Tom) Watson who has won five Opens and three Senior British Opens, not "the adoring British crowd".

Word of the day: Māori sidestep

I came across an interesting rugby-related word (or phrase, if you prefer) in conversation the other day: 'Māori sidestep'. I suppose it could also be written as 'Māori side step', Maori sidestep', or 'Maori side step'...

The best definition I could find online is as follows:

The "Maori sidestep" was first used by the New Zealanders, and occurs when a player doesn't try to avoid the tackler, but charges him head-on, bumps off the defender, and generally tramples him as he runs over the top.

A couple of warnings, however - the first regarding usage, the second regarding the manoeuvre itself.

On the topic 'Rugby clichés you would like to hear', one member of The Silver Fern.com forums comments: "Maybe im wrong here but i don't think [the term 'Māori sidestep' is] culturally insensitive or racist. it's kinda cool."

That suggests, of course, that the term is sometimes perceived to be "culturally insensitive or racist"...

And here are a couple of extracts from a letter published in Volume 296 of the British Medical Journal:

The Maori side step, known hereabouts as "bursting the tackle," is a highly dangerous manoeuvre where the runner aims himself directly at his tackler.

[It] is more dangerous than the high tackle and should be banned from schoolboy rugby immediately. Adult rugger could also do without it.

You have been warned!

BBC News and attack on Sri Lankan cricketers

The attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team is a big story, but big enough to occupy two of the three tabs in both the BBC News 'news' widget and the BBC News 'sport' widget – at the same time?

Beckham: true to himself

From the Engine Room inbox:

Spotted this little gem in a particularly bad local magazine that drops through our door every month or so.

“Of course, David Beckham is first and foremost a footballer, and every youngster who ever kicked a football will harbour the desire to play like Beckham. The young David Beckham was no exception to this desire...”

Ignoring the mangling of the various tenses in this statement, and the suggestion that youngsters born in 1900 would have subliminally wanted to play like a man who wouldn’t be born for 75 years, I particularly enjoyed the suggestion that David Beckham’s only ambition when growing up was to play like David Beckham. Well, I wanted to play like me, and I achieved that, but it didn’t do me a whole lot of good!