>I think he had sold his soul to the devil the way the dice rolled for him!! Happy days!<

Yes. That would also explain why he could perform uncannily perfect barrel rolls and slow rolls either way in the Chipmunk, was a first-class golfer and seemed to have an infinite capacity for beer. A lovely man, fondly remembered by UWAS lads and gaps.

John

From the Etymology Dictionary

c.1700, originally, "person hired to do routine work," short for hackney "an ordinary horse" (c.1300), probably from place name Hackney (Middlesex), from O.E. Hacan ieg "Haca's Isle" (or possibly "Hook Island"). Now well within London, it was once pastoral.

30-40 minutes Pontius? You obviously played with rank amateurs. The finals of the 1968 Inter-Service match in Singapore between RAF Changi and HMS Terror began at Changi Engineering Wing at 1500, proceeded to The Europe Bar and concluded at the coffee shop of the Malaysia Hotel at 0600 - a total of 15 hours play excluding the walk down the village and the taxi-ride to Tanglin Circus. RAF Changi won after a stupendous "Suck Back Five" by the Changi team captain, Corporal MicK Jackson of Electrical Engineering Squadron. No Army teams made it into the final stages - they couldn't Hack It obviously and the championship was a purely RN/RAF grudge match. Tiger Breweries allegedly made an extra S$150,000 during that week, just from the spectators.

Hacking has nothing to do with Hackney cabs, hacking jackets or early military amputations. Hacking is not only what Uckers players do, but is derived from the method of procuring the pieces from military issue broom handles.

The Cassell Dictionary of Slang throws some light on hack (with twelve meanings for "hack" before the derived phrases!).

"Hacked off," they say, comes from the C19th slang verb "hack", to annoy. By the 1930s "hacked off" meant very angry. Between the late C19th and 1910s, "hacked off" in American slang usage meant exhausted.

"Hack it," they say, comes from the sense of the standard verb "hack," to cut through, via a slang use of "hack" from the 1910s, to accomplish something. They date the phrase "hack it" as "C20th".

adr

Our ULAS Uckers set circa 1970 did indeed use offcuts from a standard military broom handle for the ucks! They had then been dipped into the chippy's paint before being allowed to grace the IPS!

Our games lasted most of the day on Black Flag days - and even on flying days, players would spell for eachother when chosen to go and commit aviation!

"Fever four? Shall diddly-dum* and lurk!"

*Means to leave one uck alone and take both dice scores with the other - but the higher score had to be taken first - i.e. the 5 before the 4 even if that caused a self-hack (back to home and 2 hacks to the oppostion). "Diddly-dum" was the noise made by fast trains of the period; thus one uck moved forward by nine and the other stayed put - lurking just before the opponent's donk was a valuable tactic as a hack on the donk counted double.

Sorry - you had to have been there - it's sadly a bygone age!

Hmnn... 'Uckers... Got agree with BEagle that its a Navy game invented to be played on empty powder barrels, but probably most widely played by light blue. On a run ashore we used to go into local establishments and "bet" on it with big "winnings" piling up for one player or another. This usually resulted in a crowd of locals watching having no idea whatever of what they were looking at. A grateful bar manager would more often than not give us free booze if we promised to come back tomorrow. It didn't work in Malta though. :uhoh:

Ah .......... the broomstick offcuts!! A truly Proustian "madeleine moment".

I recall once when I was an irresponsible cheating Plt Off slipping a couple of extra men of the opponent's colour onto the board ... and he didn't notice until he realised he had nowhere to put the 9th hacked man ..... he can't have been that dull though - he retired as a 2-star!

Every fast jet squadron and every Q shed had an Uckers board. Given the 'reduced orbat' these days, I wonder where the boards went?

>"Hacked off," they say, comes from the C19th slang verb "hack", to annoy...<...SNIP...>.... They date the phrase "hack it" to "C20th"<

That's very interesting and seems to clinch the answer to the original question. Many thanks.

As for uckers, UWAS studes were simply the best. Who are ULAS anyway? Who won the Drooper Trophy most years <g> ?

John

Strike QRA Laarbruch 1970s

Uckers school would start 5 mins after Takeover complete and end upon departure 24 hours later if it was a really hard school. Only one thing could stop it - the hooter - but even then some had to be dragged to their jet!

Yep the Navy gave it to us!

Syph on yer Donk, mate!