Get your skates on!
QUESTION Watching figure skating, how do I identify the difference between a Lutz, toe loop, Salchow and Axel?
THERE are six basic jumps in competitive figure skating. They are divided into two categories: toe jumps — the toe loop, flip and the Lutz; and edge jumps — the Salchow, loop and the Axel. The names Salchow, Lutz and Axel came from the skaters who invented them: Ulrich Salchow in 1909, Alois Lutz in 1913 and Axel Paulsen in 1882.
To identify the jumps, you need to understand the design of figure skates. For toe jumps, the skater must utilise toe picks, a set of large, jagged teeth on the front of the blade. In toe jumps, the skater plants the toe pick of his free leg and uses it to help launch him into the air.
An edge jump takes off directly from the edge without assistance from the other foot. The skating blade has a middle groove called the ‘hollow’ that has an inside and outside edge. These give the blade traction with the ice and a skater constantly switches between edges throughout a routine.
These are the six jumps in ascending order of difficulty, hence the maximum number of points they are worth in competition. The key point of identification for a viewer is by looking at how the skater is taking off.
The simplest of the six jumps, the toe loop, starts off with a forward approach on the inside blade edge. Then, the skater switches to a backward-facing orientation, kicking off with the backward outside edge and using a toe pick to add lift and spinning before landing on that same outside edge. Depending on the complexity of the jump and number of spins, a skater can get a maximum 10.3 points.
In the Salchow, the skater takes a backwards approach and launches using their inside edge before landing on the opposite outside edge. It’s worth a maximum of 10.5 points.
The loop starts with a backwards approach on the outside edge, which builds the power to launch the skater airborne before coming down on the same edge. It’s worth a maximum of 12 points.
The flip begins with a forward approach before the skater switches to their backward inside edge, using the toe pick of the other foot to launch themselves into the rotations. They return to the ice on the outside edge of the same skate. It’s worth a maximum of 12.3 points.
The Lutz takes a long backward approach. It is another toe pick-assisted lift-off, using the outside edge to lead the movement. The landing flips to the outside edge of the opposite foot. It’s worth a maximum of 13.6 points.
Worth a maximum of 15 points, the Axel is the only forward-facing jump. It starts off with an outside edge launch and ends with the skater finding their footing on the outside edge of the other foot. Elizabeth Halton, Clitheroe, Lancs.
QUESTION What was the longest siege in history?
THE Ottoman-Venetian wars were a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice that started in 1396 and lasted until 1718.
During the 17th century, the city of Candia (today Heraklion on Crete) was besieged by the Ottomans from 1648 to 1669 — a record 21 years.
The Venetians had been in control of Candia since the Fourth Crusade (12021204). The city was a key stronghold in the Mediterranean, coveted by the increasingly powerful Ottoman Empire.
Matters came to a head in 1644 when the Knights Hospitallers attacked an Ottoman ship that was carrying treasures and Sultan Ibrahim’s harem to Constantinople. It was the excuse for the Empire forces to land on Crete and start a war.
In two months the Ottoman forces conquered La Canea and Rettimo, subsequently occupying the entire island. By 1648, the Ottomans were ruled by the powerful Sultan Mehmed IV, who ordered the attack on the prized city of Candia by 60,000 troops. Throughout the siege, the Ottomans would capture numerous territories and fight with the Venetians, eventually securing the prize in 1669.
The second longest siege was The Fall of Philadelphia, 1378 to 1390. Philadelphia, which means ‘the city of him who loves his brother’, is now Alasehir in Turkey. As the Byzantine Empire crumbled into civil war, Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos promised the city, the last independent Christian Greek settlement in western Asia Minor, to the Turks. The residents resisted the Ottomans for an impressive 12 years before the city fell.
Rob Appleton, Hemel Hempstead, Herts.
QUESTION What is the origin of the terms brogue and burr to describe an accent?
A BURR is ‘a rough pronunciation of the letter,’ often associated with the Scottish accent — though linguists will tell you the Scottish ‘r’ is a lingual trill and the burr is an uvular trill, a sound used in the Northumberland accent.
The term has been used to describe northern speech from the mid-18th century.
The sound of the word is thought to be imitative of the sound itself. However, it has been argued that it is derived from the 14th-century phrase to have ‘a bur in one’s throat’, a figure of speech for ‘feeling a choking sensation; huskiness’. The idea is that the sufferer had swallowed a burr: a prickly seed case or flower head.
A brogue is a strong Irish or Scots accent. The term dates from the early 18th century and is probably related to the brogue shoe.
The original brogue was a ‘rough, stout shoe’ made of rawhide and tied with thongs, worn by rural Irish and Scottish highlanders in the 1580s. Today, it is a more refined leather shoe with a pattern punched into the leather.
The word comes via Gaelic or Irish, from the Old Irish broce, meaning shoe. The footwear was characteristic of the peasant, thus it was considered the ‘speech of those who call a shoe a brogue’. R. Stapleton, Bedlington, Northumberland
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