A game of two sports
QUESTION In Battersea, London SW11, in the Thirties, the Alphas played a game akin to American football or rugby. Does anyone know anything about this team? AS A lad I lived in Battersea and in the summer my friends and I would visit Clapham Common on various midweek evenings to watch rugby netball.
There were leagues of ‘a’ and ‘b’ teams, and the Alphas were one of the most successful teams of the time (the Fifties and Sixties). Other teams were Old Town, Old Blues, Concord, Barbarians and Battersea Ironsides.
Rugby netball was invented shortly after the Boer War to give war veterans an outlet for their energies (they’d been wrecking all the local hostelries). It became a popular spectator sport and attracted famous rugby players to its ranks, the international Bob Hiller among them.
Alan Brown, Orpington, Kent. THE Rugby Netball League began as early as 1906 and was well-established by 1909. It’s now played on Clapham Common under the new name Netrugby. The rules are simple. Two teams of not more than ten players, using a size-five rugby ball, try to score goals by throwing the ball into the opponents’ net. The team that scores the most goals wins.
Those used to rugby find it hard to orient themselves at first as tackles can come in from any angle. There is no kicking. Each half is 30 minutes. The ball may be passed forward and as there are no offside laws, the ball move around the pitch fast. Full contact tackling is allowed.
Netrugby is played in the summer months and many rugby players use the game to keep fit and sharp in the closed season.
There are six teams in the league: Old Paulines, The Tour, Battersea, Concord, Taverners and Spartans. There is also an annual World Cup competition, which is a great day out.
Simon Bell, Cobham, Surrey.
QUESTION The enormous USS Theodore Roosevelt has more than 80 combat aircraft crowded onto her 4½ acres of deck. How soon can she get any of them into the air? THE flight deck of an aircraft carrier is a busy, and it would require only a minor error by a pilot landing his aircraft or taxiing for take-off to cause an accident.
So aircraft are parked on the flight deck only in displays, such as during courtesy visits to foreign ports, or in readiness for flight. Usually there is only a small number at any time while at sea. Usually aircraft are parked beneath the flight deck.
This is where routine maintenance is done before and after sorties, and where aircraft are refuelled and re-armed. It also offers weather protection — saltwater can ruin aircraft.
The aircraft are moved between the flight and hangar decks on large highspeed elevators. A carrier will have at least two of these, one towards the forward end to deliver aircraft for take- off and one further aft. The Theodore Roosevelt has one on each side towards the aft and two on the starboard side in front of the accommodation island.
On board are several different aircraft types — fighters for defensive and offensive operations, supplemented by airborne early warning aircraft, such as the E18 Growler or E2 Hawkeye. There will also be helicopters for anti-submarine patrols and to rescue downed aircrew.
The F18 variants in use by the U.S. navy are multi-role, and so conduct defensive and offensive operations, though their armament mix varies depending on need. From 2018, the Lockheed F35 Lightning II will start to replace the F18.
When an aircraft carrier is in a combat zone, or when international tensions are high and a surprise attack might be a risk, a variety of operational patterns might be flown to protect the carrier group itself or to mount offensive operations.
For defensive purposes there will usually be one pair of aircraft airborne and operating under radar guidance from an airborne early-warning aircraft. Back on the ship there might be two more aircraft on ‘immediate readiness’, which means they can be launched as soon as the order is given, and there might be two more aircraft on five-minute readiness.
This means the aircraft will be in position on the flight deck; the crew aren’t actually sitting in them, but will be in a ‘ready room’ close by. If an attack is believed imminent, forewarned by airborne early-warning aircraft, then the number of aircraft airborne or on immediate readiness might be increased until the threat has passed.
The Roosevelt is a Nimitz- class carrier, the fourth to be built. Her keel was laid in 1981 and she was commissioned on October 25, 1986. Her flight deck is 1,088 ft long and 257 ft at its widest. From keel to masthead she is 257 ft high and weighs in at 91,300 tons.
She can sail at 35 knots powered by two nuclear-powered reactors driving four steam turbines turning four propeller shafts. Her endurance is theoretically unlimited, dependent mainly on food and other logistical limitations.
The total ship’s company is 3,200 of which 2,400 make up the air wing.
Bob Cubitt, Northampton.
QUESTION Does anyone in Britain have North, East, South and West in their address? YES, we do.
Bill Toon, Northfield Close, West End, South Cave, Brough, East Yorks.
QUESTION Why are movie sound effects artists known as Foley artists? THE earlier answers reminded me of a time, in the Seventies, when I was an assistant film editor for a documentary company. We were making a film about pandas in the wild and there were a lot of close-up shots of the creatures chewing on bamboo sticks.
The authentic sound quality didn’t work, so I was sent into the dubbing theatre with bunches of celery. I had to spend an entire session breaking off the sticks and chewing them in sync with the hungry pandas.
It worked a treat, but to this day I can’t stand celery.
Trudy Ann Hartsiotis, Bournemouth.