Two Bits – 12 September 2014

Into my email inbox popped a solicitation from a Port Elizabeth company saying that if I want my name and number listed in the North Coast telephone directory, I must sign up with them and pay R1881 a year. This is for the standard phone book, not the Yellow Pages.
Strange, I thought our directory listing was free. I rang Telkom’s crime line and asked if they were aware that someone was soliciting money for phone book listings. ‘Oh yes,’ the lady said, ‘there’s a whole list of companies that will do your listing for you.’
But, says I, surely that’s a scam, when it’s free anyway? Aren’t you interested in this company’s details?
No, she says, there’s a lot of them. Just delete the email. So I did, but once again wonder at Telkom’s level of commitment. Dealing with their press office is an exercise in futility as well.
Anyhow, you read it here. Be warned and don’t pay anybody a cent for your white pages phone book listing. It’s free.
* * *
Could anyone enlighten us as to how Tinley Manor came by its name?
About all I have been able to discover is that Tinley is a rare English surname (it’s thought to come from the Olde English “tynan”, meaning “hedge, fence”.
Was there a farmer of that name in days gone by? If anyone knows, please drop me a line.
* * *
You’re never short of conversation on a golf course. There’s plenty to discuss – birds, trees, wives, girlfriends, sport and politics. The only subject that is taboo is religion.
Discussing cricket the other day, someone wondered where the term ‘hat-trick’ came from. This describes the taking of three wickets with three consecutive deliveries.
One of our oldest members, who is always a fount of information on trivia, explained that the first time it happened, the team clubbed together and bought the bowler a hat. Hence the name ‘hat-trick’.
A little further research via the magic Google revealed that when the term was first used in 1858, the bowler was HH Stephenson, a famous professional cricketer who was captain of England’s first tour to Australia. I have no clue if he was a forebear of mine, but I did find a description of him as being ‘ceedingly tall and handsome’, so there’s a very good chance he was!
While on the subject, four wickets in four balls is referred to as four in four. It has occurred only once in international one-day cricket, in the 2007 World Cup, when Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga managed the feat against South Africa by dismissing Shaun Pollock, Andrew Hall, Jacques Kallis and Makhaya Ntini, though it has occurred on other occasions in first-class cricket.
* * *
Never get into fights with ugly people, they have nothing to lose.