The Saturday briefing
IS THERE anything you are desperately yearning to know? Are there any pressing factual disputes you would like us to help resolve? This is the page where we shall do our best to answer any questions you throw at us, whatever the subject.
HAS there ever been a horse race in which none of the horses completed the course?
Bob Russell, Dudley, West Midlands THE only occasion I can find of this happening was the 4.25 at Towcester on March 18, 2011, when none of the four horses in the race crossed the finishing line. It was a two-mile race with four entries but they all fell before the end. The race was declared void.
Until 2009 riders were permitted to remount a horse from which they had fallen and there were occasions when all the riders were thrown but someone won the race after remounting.
In 2009 this was banned, which may explain why we had to wait until 2011 for every rider to fail to finish.
WATCHING the Royal Wedding last Saturday I noticed that the regiment had fixed bayonets. Many years ago I was told that the only time you could parade with a fixed bayonet in peacetime was if you had the freedom of that city.
I’m assuming Windsor isn’t a city. Can you clear this up for me?
Bridie Earl, South Africa FREEDOM of a city is an honour dating back to the Middle Ages which when conferred on a regiment gave them the right to march on celebratory occasions through the city “with drums beating, colours flying and bayonets fixed”.
But fixed bayonets have also been part of the ceremonial uniform of various regiments for other reasons.
At the Harry-Meghan wedding, the Royal Marines wore their full ceremonial dress which includes SA80 assault rifles with chromeplated bayonets.
For some years bayonets had been absent from military dress but they were reinstated in the 1980s when the SA80 small arms range was introduced which allowed them to be fitted on standard firearms.
AT the wedding, both Prince Harry and Prince William wore spurs on their boots. Is this part of the Household Cavalry uniform for use on special ceremonial occasions?
David Ford, West Molesey, Surrey IT is specifically the “Blues and Royals Dismounted Review Order”, which includes spurs on the boots and aiguillettes (gold grading) on the right shoulder.
The Blues and Royals is one of two regiments forming the Household Cavalry division, the other being the Coldstream Guards.
CAN you please tell me what is the origin of the saying “by a long chalk”? It was recently spoken by a member of the cast of Radio 4 soap opera The Archers. Was it a
measure in the early days, and if so, how long is it and why chalk?
Martin Story, by email THE expression dates back to the days of ale houses and the habit of recording scores in pub games such as darts in chalk on a board. A single mark on the board was called a “chalk” and “a long chalk” was a sign of a big score. The term was extended to apply also to the amount of credit given to customers.
In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens refers to “a bar at the Jolly Bargemen with some alarmingly long chalk scores... on the wall at the side of the door, which seemed to me to be never paid off.”
I WAS told years ago that legally each road had to be resurfaced once in every 70 years. With the current bad publicity about potholes, is this still the case?
Stuart Wallis, Mansfield, East Midlands THE 1980 Highways Act specifies only that local highway authorities have a duty to maintain the highway. This by covers everything from potholes to ensuring safe passage at times of snow and ice but no specification is made for frequency of resurfacing.
The need to do so depends very much on road usage but complete resurfacing is generally expected to last from 10-20 years. IN the 1970s the author Charles Berlitz wrote some successful books on the Bermuda Triangle mystery. Have ships and aeroplanes continued to disappear in that region as Berlitz documented? I have heard nothing about it in recent years. J.B. Doutson, Chorley, Lancashire THE general opinion now is that Berlitz and others who claimed paranormal or even extraterrestrial influences in the Bermuda Triangle region have tended to exaggerate things.
The triangular area of the Atlantic with its points at southern Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico is one of the most heavily travelled shipping lanes in the world and probably suffers no more accidents than would be expected.
Add a few unverified claims of missing US navy planes and we have a good story. But it should be noted that a 2013 study of the world’s most dangerous shipping lanes did not list the Bermuda Triangle among the top 10.