Jaspistos

Clever-boots

issue 18 June 2005

In Competition No. 2396 you were invited to supply a description of a sporting event by an intellectually pretentious journo.

‘Khan the high priest fast uniting greatness and wealth in holy boxing matrimony’ — Owen Slot in the Times. But Gerard Benson has capped my example with a magnificent piece of tosh by Robbie Hudson in last month’s TLS: ‘Football is both an international language with local dialects and an open-ended narrative offering endless opportunities for self-definition.’ Tell that to Beckham! The rot set in in the Fifties when Professor Ayer started to support Spurs. Did you know that Italo Svevo was a keen fan of Charlton Athletic?

The prizewinners, printed below, get £25 each except for Adrian Fry, who takes the extra fiver.

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