Hacked off?
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Hacked off?
On a similar topic, where does 'hacked' in the sense of either 'hacked off' or 'hacking it' come from? It seems to have made its way into more common use over the years, but in the 1970s it seemed to be specific to the RAF.
John
John
It comes from a term used in 'Uckers' - a board game loosley based on Ludo played in crewrooms back in the days when it was OK to relax and absorb wise counsel from one's elders when not flying...
Which the Rental Air Farce can't afford these days..
Rack it, track it, hack it.. F*ck it, missed it!
Which the Rental Air Farce can't afford these days..
Rack it, track it, hack it.. F*ck it, missed it!
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Has a couple of other meanings, of course: to start your stopwatch, and to attack. I was doing a bounce sortie against a Harrier 4-ship many moons ago and, since the radar was u/s, I asked the Harrier leader 'Can I have a hack at the ridge?' to help the interceptions. Nothing happened for the rest of the afternoon, as I waited for his 'time' hack at the ridge and he waited for my 'attack hack' at the ridge. We were all hacked off 'cos we didn't hack it.
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There's more!
Achieve the standard required: "You can hack it!"
To rebrief an errant: "Hack him in the forks."
But most probably has its origins in the process of rope-making, where natural fibres are combed into straight lines by hackle-boards, which were/are blocks of wood or metal, studded with steel prongs. Hacking.
BTW. I reckon 'Mark' is so much more civilised than 'Hack' for a time check!
Achieve the standard required: "You can hack it!"
To rebrief an errant: "Hack him in the forks."
But most probably has its origins in the process of rope-making, where natural fibres are combed into straight lines by hackle-boards, which were/are blocks of wood or metal, studded with steel prongs. Hacking.
BTW. I reckon 'Mark' is so much more civilised than 'Hack' for a time check!
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On the time check side of life, I believe 'hack' comes from those chinless cav types who choose to wear yellow cords and pink shirts. You know the sorts, the ones who are usually married to their sister. I could be wrong of course...
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Gotta go with BEagle here, I'll believe anything originated from the most wonderful game "Uckers"! Not too sure about the "absorbing wise consel from one's elders", though, perhaps severe abuse and physical maiming might be more accurate, especially in the crew-rooms I used.
BEagle - I was told we (RAF) nicked the game from the Navy, can you confirm or deny? Wherever it originated, I miss playing it, no-one outside the RAF seems to have heard of it, certainly not in these parts!
Kind regards,
TheNightOwl.
BEagle - I was told we (RAF) nicked the game from the Navy, can you confirm or deny? Wherever it originated, I miss playing it, no-one outside the RAF seems to have heard of it, certainly not in these parts!
Kind regards,
TheNightOwl.
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Follow up to Beagle's comments. definitely nicked from the Navy. At one time they even used to play with the board marked out on a parade ground - using bods as pieces and having two jolly jacks rolling a giant pair of dice in a barrel.
As for advice from your wiser elders, at Lyneham in Comet 2 and Hastings days it was accepted that the players were merely there to move the pieces. The game was "actually" played by the crowd of kabbitzers standing around shouting advice!
If it wasn't uckers, it was kirkee. There was the occasion when the Boss of 99 came into the crew room to get someone to carry out a chore. Huge crowd round the uckers table and just one poor sod doing something useful like amending an AP in a corner. No way would the boss upset the uckers players - the poor guy amending his service book got the chore!
As for advice from your wiser elders, at Lyneham in Comet 2 and Hastings days it was accepted that the players were merely there to move the pieces. The game was "actually" played by the crowd of kabbitzers standing around shouting advice!
If it wasn't uckers, it was kirkee. There was the occasion when the Boss of 99 came into the crew room to get someone to carry out a chore. Huge crowd round the uckers table and just one poor sod doing something useful like amending an AP in a corner. No way would the boss upset the uckers players - the poor guy amending his service book got the chore!
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Suck back, mixy blob and blow 4, always a contentious bunch of rules! A good station would have its ucker SOPs lined up next to 'pilots to see and Station standing orders'.
I seem to remember that ex 96 and 97 on the auth sheet was 'Uckers solo and pairs' (98 and 99 always being wazzing and zooming!).
Twas always a matlot inheritance as I understand it. First played the game in Khormaksar in '66 whilst hosting some strange chaps from Sheba (why do the fishies insist in calling a bit of land a 'ship'?)
I seem to remember that ex 96 and 97 on the auth sheet was 'Uckers solo and pairs' (98 and 99 always being wazzing and zooming!).
Twas always a matlot inheritance as I understand it. First played the game in Khormaksar in '66 whilst hosting some strange chaps from Sheba (why do the fishies insist in calling a bit of land a 'ship'?)
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Certainly from Uckers, which was introduced to the RAAF by the RAN at least before 1967-68. The only crew-room activity allowed when I was instructing at RAAF Pearce (WA) in those years.
I suspect the Navy tradition goes way back.
Gru
I suspect the Navy tradition goes way back.
Gru
'Uckers' was definitely one of the traditions the RAF inherited from the Senior Service!
We let them keep rum, bum and the cat o' nine tails though - fortunately!
The last time I recall playing Uckers was during a ME refresher course at Arthur Scargill International when the Wg Cdr on the course and I decided to take on a team from the AFTS students. It went on for most of the morning - until the miserable old farts who instructed on the Wetdream moaned about "Students wasting their time playing games when they should be working". The Wg Cdr (excellent bloke!) gave them a sound debrief concerning the value Uckers played in the real Air Force for team building. But agreed that we'd played enough that day.
I hated every minute in the god-forsaken Wetdream!
We let them keep rum, bum and the cat o' nine tails though - fortunately!
The last time I recall playing Uckers was during a ME refresher course at Arthur Scargill International when the Wg Cdr on the course and I decided to take on a team from the AFTS students. It went on for most of the morning - until the miserable old farts who instructed on the Wetdream moaned about "Students wasting their time playing games when they should be working". The Wg Cdr (excellent bloke!) gave them a sound debrief concerning the value Uckers played in the real Air Force for team building. But agreed that we'd played enough that day.
I hated every minute in the god-forsaken Wetdream!
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
I believe an uckers game could last about 30-40 minutes what with the pairs and so on on 50 BUT
On 12 some smart chap created a FIVE-MAN board just for a 5-man V-Force crew. Now a 5 man board was something else. The game used to run for 2.5 - 3 hours with blobs and super-blobs and alliances.
On 12 some smart chap created a FIVE-MAN board just for a 5-man V-Force crew. Now a 5 man board was something else. The game used to run for 2.5 - 3 hours with blobs and super-blobs and alliances.
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Strange - just naval variants of ludo!
Real Uckers is more tactical - and involves scoring the hacks achieved. The game finishes when the first team get home, but the winning team is the one with the higher hack score. This adds an extra dimension; if you are behind in hacks and in danger of getting home, a sacrificial self-hack may be advantageous to go back to the start, then syph out and hack the opposition. Spotting this ploy, they may not be keen to leave one uck lurking whilst diddlying-dumming another....
All mystery to yoof of today, I guess. Who probably go to a 'gym' (whatever that is) rather than practise team building and tactical mental development playing uckers in the smoky corner of a crewroom over a mug or three of 'standard NATO'.
Real Uckers is more tactical - and involves scoring the hacks achieved. The game finishes when the first team get home, but the winning team is the one with the higher hack score. This adds an extra dimension; if you are behind in hacks and in danger of getting home, a sacrificial self-hack may be advantageous to go back to the start, then syph out and hack the opposition. Spotting this ploy, they may not be keen to leave one uck lurking whilst diddlying-dumming another....
All mystery to yoof of today, I guess. Who probably go to a 'gym' (whatever that is) rather than practise team building and tactical mental development playing uckers in the smoky corner of a crewroom over a mug or three of 'standard NATO'.
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I sadly witnessed the demise of uckers at ISK in the the late 80's when the new Sqn boss of No 1 RNAS - who remains nameless, less I get fined a bottle of port - came into the crewroom and said,
"If you lot have enough time to play uckers, you must all be 'B' cats".
We were so incensed, we wanted to throb on his knob, bloat him, and bash his base, so we asked hin to make the next throw - Guess what? - he threw a tricky die of two 6's.
He's now a 1 star
Love many - Trust a few - Always paddle your own canoe
"If you lot have enough time to play uckers, you must all be 'B' cats".
We were so incensed, we wanted to throb on his knob, bloat him, and bash his base, so we asked hin to make the next throw - Guess what? - he threw a tricky die of two 6's.
He's now a 1 star
Love many - Trust a few - Always paddle your own canoe
Thread Starter
>Just like OC 50 used to do - often escaped from his office to thrash the JPs at Uckers! You could sound out the boss for latest news & he could keep abreast of gossip at t'coalface.<
That just has to be Chris Lumb. Used to thrash the studes in my UWAS days -- was there ever a better uckers player?
John
That just has to be Chris Lumb. Used to thrash the studes in my UWAS days -- was there ever a better uckers player?
John