British sports expressions that have crossed the Atlantic

Track 3 of this album. Grrrrrrrrrreat track too!!

I'm presuming you mean crossing over into everyday language, rather than specifically sports language?

Early doors

I imagine golf has supplied a fair number of expressions

... and cribbage!

Do Americans say "own goal", which must come from football/soccer

Hat trick is a hockey term. Or as you call it, ice hockey.

Shitload of golf terms though. I think the "mulligan" actually originated here though.

"early doors" doesn't seem to have made the transfer. i had no idea i said it so much until i started getting frequent bewildered looks.

"hat trick" does indeed have its origin in cricket, something about pasing a hat around for a collection after three consecutive wickets. hockey uses it like soccer tho, so it probably crossed over via that route, maybe via Canada?

They used to play quite a lot of cricket in the USA!

How about 'on the back foot'?

Nope

I thought 'early doors' was a pub expression, not a sports expression.

But the most prolonged and involved hat-trick was perhaps when Melbourne Club cricketer Stephen Hickman, playing for PowerHouse, achieved a hat-trick spread over three overs, two days, two innings, involved the same batsman twice, and was observed by the same non striker, with the hat-trick ball being bowled from the opposite end to the first two. In the Mercantile Cricket Association C Grade semi final at Fawkner Park South Yarra in Melbourne, Gunbower Cricket Club were 8 for 109 when Hickman came on to bowl his off spin. He took a wicket with the last ball of his third over and then bowled number 11 batsman Richard Higgins with the first ball of his next over to complete the Gunbower innings, leaving Chris Taylor the not out batsman. Powerhouse scored 361 putting the game out of reach of Gunbower. In the second innings opener Taylor was joined by Higgins at the fall of the fourth wicket as Hickman returned to the attack. With his first ball, observed by an incredulous Taylor at the non-strikers end, he clean bowled Higgins leaving Higgins with a pair of golden ducks.

This is a joke paragraph, right? I've been playing cricket for twenty years and I barely follow it.

Dan Perry must have signed up for Wikipedia

Another dose and you might be dead
And I'm a Nike head, I wear chains that excite the feds
And ain't a damn thing gonna change
I'ma performer strange, so the mic warmer was born to gain
Nas, why did you do it?
You know you got the mad fat fluid when you rhyme, it's halftime

Assuming that no US sports have halftimes

What about "all-rounder"?

the term "snooker loopy" is frequently used in basktball, but that's more to do with the wholesale absorption of Chas n Dave lyrics into african american culture than a sport-related transfer per se.

^ hahaha

American football and basketball have always had halftimes

Tom D - nope

"maybe via Canada?"

yes

"Assuming that no US sports have halftimes"

you assumed wrong. football and basketball do

xxxpost

"all-rounder" isn't used. struggling to think of an equivalent. pitchers who can bat to a high standard in baseball are a lot rarer than cricket all-rounders. in US Football, the term "playing iron man" refers to someone who plays offense and defense - that's as close as it gets, i think.

sticky wicket

no one says that

in baseball an all-rounder is a "five-tool guy"

"Assuming that no US sports have halftimes"

you assumed wrong. football and basketball do

xxxpost

-- Bill Magill, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:26 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Schooled!

"Open goal"?

"in US Football, the term "playing iron man" refers to someone who plays offense and defense - that's as close as it gets, i think."

This never happens anymore, so the term "iron man" is passe. I've never heard the term "playing iron man".

xpost nope

by the way those five tools are:

1. hit for average
2. hit for power
3. good arm
4. good defense
5. good wheels

xpost Troy Brown all '06, dude. that's when i first heard the term.

I gather "quartermaster" was originally a term for a combatitive midfielder

"tackle"?

Ah! I've found one - DRIBBLE!

... you get that in basketball, don't you?

posh spice

^ otm

Tom i think you found one although it sadly isn't quite an example of the type mentioned in the question

in so far as US Football derived from a combination of soccer and rugby, the basics - pass, tackle, goal, kick off - are all still there. offside was retained too, but with a completely different meaning.

kids on my soccer team used 'nutmeg', but i mean, we were playing soccer...

We use a ton of American football jargon when playing rugby. Admittedly, this is in the United States and most people come to the game from an American football background.

There are plenty of American sports expressions that are used or at least understood in the UK - getting to first base,

-- Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 09:59 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Surely this comes from rounders, though?

maybe i should try to insidiously introduce the full range of Ron Atkinson's 'Ronglish' into US sports, including "lollipop" and "spotter’s badge", but not forgetting the very current "reducer" and the always popular "fucking lazy thick nigger".

kids on my soccer team used 'nutmeg', but i mean, we were playing soccer...

-- Hunt3r, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:41 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

exactly. did we come up with any that are used figuratively outside of sport yet?

xp, I guess we did.

You call those poles "bases" Dom?

We always used to use these kind of frisbee things to mark them out as kids, so we always called them bases. I am unaware of what the Official Rounders Term for them is.

maybe i should try to insidiously introduce the full range of Ron Atkinson's 'Ronglish' into US sports, including "lollipop" and "spotter’s badge", but not forgetting the very current "reducer" and the always popular "fucking lazy thick nigger".

-- Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:47 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Now, let's be fair, Ron only called him a "fucking lazy nigger". Let's not make the man out to be some kind of bigot.

bases

NRA

Yes, bases

"i just want to touch base here"

I have only ever heard "own goal" at soccer games with a bunch of bleedin' Anglophiles. "Sticky wicket" might actually qualify, though!!! I think we hast found one!

xp what are you, high?

I pointed it out in the very 2nd post on this thread (xp)

Is that something I would have had to click on a random link while at work to know about? ;)

I played baseball in England for half a season(Preston Bobcats, holla) and it used to drive me crazy how the English guys on the team used cricket lingo. They would say stuff like "It's the first innings" and it was really annoying.

I love how people think "I haven't heard this therefore no-one in this country can have done so either". That's always my favourite thing about these kinds of thread.

Another thing that drove me crazy: the Canadians on the team would skip our baseball games for ice hockey practice. Priorities, my fellow North Americans, priorities...

Well of course! Self-righteousness is the best part of any ILX thread!

I played baseball in England for half a season(Preston Bobcats, holla) and it used to drive me crazy how the English guys on the team used cricket lingo. They would say stuff like "It's the first innings" and it was really annoying.

-- novamax, Thursday, February 28, 2008 3:58 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

yes but it goes both ways- you say "Soccer" and "EPL" and "Manchester United is 19 and 4" and "halftime" with the emphasis on the half...

Saying "EPL" really should be punishable by death.

also say things like "Ronaldo makes a play and Rooney makes the score" and shit like that.

Chris Rock endearing himself to British audiences: "You know when you're watching David Beckham kick a goal"

Seriously us North Americans need to start saying it right-- its the BPL now.

what do you guys say "halfTIME"? like "cigaRETTE"?

nobody says freaking "sticky wicket" in the US unless they're being ironic/making fun of british people

wicked pisser

I think they might say "the half", Tracer...? I know. Weird, huh?

yes, we say halfTIME. And cigaRETTE. It's our language, we can do what we like with it!

xpost - no, the half is comes either side of half-time.

Saw Bonjour Tristesse. What an odd little film. Preminger rather slyly doesn't shy away from the sexual tension between sticky-wicket Niven and Seberg. She's awkward when bantering or acting most adolescent, but she and Kerr (who's really superb and looks great in Preminger's extended great) have great chemistry.

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 7 January 2008 16:41 (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

What does "EPL" stand for?

I try to use correct terminology for football (soccer) and I get called out by "red-blooded" Americans all the time. I used "nil" once and one of my workmates looked at me like I declared an undying love for Fred Durst. But I think things like "two-to-nothin'" sound stupid for football.

I hear Americans pronounce pipecock as pipeCOOOOOCK as well.

Ooh, games don't ever go into overtime, ever. Extra-time or injury time. OK?

EPL doesn't actually stand for anything, but I'm guessing it's for English Premier League for people who don't get that it's actually called the Premiership.

i was watching a US feed of the Newcastle v Man U game on Saturday and at half-time it just switched to 15 minutes of adverts including an amusing ad for the Boro vs Sheff Utd replay with deep movie-trailer style voiceover ("EN-GLUND'S F.A. CUP! CHELSEEEA GUARD THE TROPHY BUT UNITED ARE STILL IN THE HUNT")

The Premier League isn't called the Premiership any more, is it?

Egregious Premier League

Mea culpa though, once I accidentally called East Cincinatti Klezmer coach Tony Chuck Hentonsite IV "Tony Chuck Hentonsite V". Boy was my face red.

xpost

Premier League is correct now. if you're not in this country then I suppose "English Premier League" is fine. And it can be said very quickly without having to FUCKING ABBREVIATE EVERY FUCKING THING.

Also EPL makes us think you can see our underpants.

two to nothing - "two oh"

yeah it's reverted back from premiership to premier league. bring back division one.

Ha ha, that's even worse (xp). Is there a Venezuelan Premier League?

teleVISION
magaZINE

it rillih is too too!

Ach, I'm Scottish, I'm as bad as Merkins when it comes to following the vagaries of your Pepsi-Cola League Division 87 or whatever. Is it really not called the Premiership any more - it certainly still gets referred to as that sometimes, I'm sure, and that seems more right than EPL anyway.

I haven't seen a reverse pipecock as bad as Paddy "Patrick" Kenny's last night since the infamous incident with Brad Steenbrekker during the Sacramento Dune Buggies defeat at the '89 HyyyperBowl.

lololol they should never have drafted that dude from Skatchewan State!

xpost to ailsa: yeah, i did have to check though : http://www.premierleague.com/

with blueski on the old "division one of the football league". We knew where we were then, the good old days

I haven't seen a reverse pipecock as bad as Paddy "Patrick" Kenny's last night since the infamous incident with Brad Steenbrekker during the Sacramento Dune Buggies defeat at the '89 HyyyperBowl.

this is exactly how all sports talk sounds to anyone who doesn't follow it

Aye, fucking "League One", get lost, you're in the Third Division, deal with it.

xpost

I gather according to those new Ni-key speed adverts that Ga-breel "The Man of $teel" Agbon-La-Hör is the fastest wingmaster in the Pre-Meer League

btw i have known Scottish people to use the term EPL. i swear some Scottish sports journos or tv pundits do too.

They're probably just miffed at the idea of the English Premier League being THE Premier League

But it's fair enough because, in Scotland, "The Premier League" is the Scottish Premier League after all

my friends in Scotland are Montrose fans. I'm not sure they know there is a Premier League in Scotland.

'Division One' sounds so mundane now. Maybe it did at the time too but people just accepted this without really questioning it.

its mundane but comforting. like the ski sunday theme tune.

I think they should call it the Top Flight.

Top Flight
The most effec-tu-al Top Flight
Who's intellectual close friends get to call him T. F.
Providing it's with dignity
Top Flight
The indisputable leader of the gang
He's the boss
He's the VIP
He's the Championship
He's the most tip top - Top Flight

Yes he's the chief
He's the king, but above everything
He's the most tip top - Top Flight!

... except, for weird contractual reasons, it would actually have to be called Boss Flight

aaand back to the thread premise: is "Top Flight" a candidate? is that a phrase used by the merkins?

although actually not sure the etymology is sporting.

The terms "first division" and "second division" were used in baseball up until 1969.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_division_(baseball)