Curiosity Corner: Know Your Initials, The Words We Use and Find the Former Manager

KNOW YOUR INITIALS

It's AG this week
1: This foul-mouthed TV character was a West Ham follower
2; He had some unkind words to say about a female official
3: These are hard to come by a team on the road...
4:.....and if there is a win in one of these, punters would earn two points on the Pools
5: A Spurs centre-forward in days gone by
6: When takings at the turnstiles are neither good nor bad
7: This is caused by very bad weather or a big fight
8: The name sometimes given to hurling
9: She played in this year’s World Cup final
10: His goal, one for the ages?

THE WORDS WE USE
Mountain To Climb: When a team or individual is a mile behind. Having been flogged to death, it is not now being heard or seen as often.
There could, however, be a new version of it. “We have an Edmund Hilary”, a fella said one day, and when he knew his side wasn’t going to make it, came up with, “We couldn’t kick snow of a rope”, which pre-dates Mountain To Climb by decades.

Down To The Wire: This is when the writer or commentator forecasts a tight finish. Used in American horse racing, the wire is the Yanks’ way of describing the finish-line.
On another day at a match, a chap, whose hearing wasn’t the best, replied, when someone came up with DTTW, “I didn’t know we had a player called O’Dwyer.”

A Game Of Two Halves: Used – maybe over-used – when one team dominates before the interval, the other after it.
Wind is often a factor, but sometimes a side just loses the run of themselves, fading out of in the second half.
It was back in the last century, in the ‘Eighties or ‘Ninties, when the GAA introduced an experimental rule for early-season inter-county subsidiary competitions. Games would have four 15-minute periods, the sides changing sides after each of them.
The rule was short-lived; but a hack was still quick enough to come up with the line in his report: “It was a game of four quarters.”

As Slow As A Late Dinner: In former times the reason why some players were not able to keep up with play, or get to a ball first. There’d have been no special diets then. Dieticians were only employed in the world of medicine.
The Sunday roast would be eaten with relish, and there’d no holding back on the spuds. If the dish was slow in coming up, even making the throw-in or kick-off would be problematic.

A Dead Match: Heard at the dog track in discussions before a race if it was considered there were two runners with much better form than the rest.
This would inevitably lead to someone saying: “A Maguire & Patterson, you mean.”

FIND THE FORMER REP OF IRELAND MANAGER
Had One In (4, 4)

HE SAID
“Donegal gets so little to cheer about. In 20 years, what have we done? Daniel O’Donnell? We’re the last outpost. When we do have success, it’s in our nature to go over the top. We can only hope it’ll not get back to the players.”
Manus Boyle, an All-Ireland winner with Donegal in 1992, fearing the hype might get to his county’s players in the All-Ireland final of 20 years later.
He needn’t have feared. Donegal, playing the plan composed by their coach, Jim McGuinness, inflicted a four-point defeat on Mayo.
McGuinness is back as Donegal after a career that brought him to many parts, involved in soccer as well as Gaelic.

ANSWERS
Know Your Initials: 1 Alf Garnett, 2 Andy Gray, 3 Away Goals, 4 Away Games, 5 Alan Gilzean, 6 Average Gate, 7 Abandoned Game, 8 Ancient Game, 9 Alex Greenwood, 10 Alejandro Garnacho: Former Ireland Manager: Eoin Hand.