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Billy Bates

neville cardus

International Debutant
Over the course of a spot of research in which I was happily engaging myself today, I came across this most charmingly illiterate letter, written in 1880, from Billy Bates to the Todmorden Cricket Club:

**************

Lascelles Hall Hall
April 28/1880

Sir

I ham oping for engagments for the bowling
[the "b" looks an awful lot like an "f"] dates and my terms is 30 per Match

Nameley

June
[he crosses out July] 19 and 26
July = 10
Augst = 28

Yours Truly
W Bates
 

HeathDavisSpeed

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Please CDM, if you are english, please spell humoUr the English way rather than the American way. Whilst I am sure both versions are acceptable under in the Oxford English Dictionary, its a very slippery slope to cars being run on tIres rather than tyres, people walking on sidewalks rather than pavements and us all driving automobiles rather than cars.
 

neville cardus

International Debutant
Please CDM, if you are english, please spell humoUr the English way rather than the American way. Whilst I am sure both versions are acceptable under in the Oxford English Dictionary, its a very slippery slope to cars being run on tIres rather than tyres, people walking on sidewalks rather than pavements and us all driving automobiles rather than cars.
That's tellin' 'im!
 

HeathDavisSpeed

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
It really is coming to something when a washed-up, prematurely middle-aged New Zealander is telling a Pom how to use their own language. Sigh.
 

cover drive man

International Captain
Please CDM, if you are english, please spell humoUr the English way rather than the American way. Whilst I am sure both versions are acceptable under in the Oxford English Dictionary, its a very slippery slope to cars being run on tIres rather than tyres, people walking on sidewalks rather than pavements and us all driving automobiles rather than cars.
It really is coming to something when a washed-up, prematurely middle-aged New Zealander is telling a Pom how to use their own language. Sigh.
Sorry.
 

HeathDavisSpeed

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
There's a lot more reasons besides that one why I'm not innocent, Neville. ;)

Americanisms annoy me more than anything due to having to take a crowbar to Microsoft Word everytime I have to write a letter to prevent it automatically 'correcting' words to have 'z' in them, changing Sulphur to Sulfur.... Having to struggle to do that means that when there is some free will involved and people who should be using English use American... its frustrating.

Interestingly, last time I was over in Aus, a lot of mechanics had changed the word 'Tyre' to 'Tire'. This conversation makes me tired to be honest. I'm just holding back the tide with the palm of my hand as the dictatorship of Microsoft tells the world how they should be spelling anyway. American English is the unfortunate future.
 

Magrat Garlick

Global Moderator
Pretty sure Mr Bates would have been thankful for a spell checker though.

Assuming someone told him how to turn on a computer, that is.
 

neville cardus

International Debutant
There's a lot more reasons besides that one why I'm not innocent, Neville. ;)
I admire your usage of the age-old English practice of self-deprecation, Heath -- most pertinent.

Americanisms annoy me more than anything due to having to take a crowbar to Microsoft Word everytime I have to write a letter to prevent it automatically 'correcting' words to have 'z' in them, changing Sulphur to Sulfur.... Having to struggle to do that means that when there is some free will involved and people who should be using English use American... its frustrating.
Do you not have "English (U.K.)"?

Interestingly, last time I was over in Aus, a lot of mechanics had changed the word 'Tyre' to 'Tire'. This conversation makes me tired to be honest. I'm just holding back the tide with the palm of my hand as the dictatorship of Microsoft tells the world how they should be spelling anyway. American English is the unfortunate future.
NEVER!
 

HeathDavisSpeed

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Good idea that. Unfortunately, the problem is more at work when I'm using documents that other people have written. I've also had to reject other people's work plenty of times because they'd used 'z' rather than 's'. Frankly, MS Word should default to the computer's local country code automatically rather than assuming that a computer in NZ would want to be set to 'US' language.
 

Jamee999

Hall of Fame Member
Good idea that. Unfortunately, the problem is more at work when I'm using documents that other people have written. I've also had to reject other people's work plenty of times because they'd used 'z' rather than 's'. Frankly, MS Word should default to the computer's local country code automatically rather than assuming that a computer in NZ would want to be set to 'US' language.
That's kinda childish.
 

neville cardus

International Debutant
Good idea that. Unfortunately, the problem is more at work when I'm using documents that other people have written. I've also had to reject other people's work plenty of times because they'd used 'z' rather than 's'. Frankly, MS Word should default to the computer's local country code automatically rather than assuming that a computer in NZ would want to be set to 'US' language.
I'd venture to suggest that we'd have old Bates dumbfounded by now. Refresh my abject memory: how did we start talking Americanisms and Word?
 

HeathDavisSpeed

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
That's kinda childish.
Why is it childish? If I went to the board of the company I worked for with 'realiZation' in the document rather than 'realisation' they would reject the document, so I'm just rejecting it one stage early. Frankly, you don't know anything about my job so I care little for you judging how I manage my own staff thank-you-very-much.
 

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