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A poor week for the Times crossword. A "char", 2 SA/ITs in the same clue and a shepherd but no shepherdess. They did spell licence correctly today though.

Grunger

I agree but it is not all bad news. On the front page, it reports plans for items to be sold in imperial measures only. The original metric martyrs will get a pardon and Ivan Napple and the like will be able to call out their prices like they used to. I cant wait.

I was very pleased to solve 5d in the Times today, the answer being a word used correctly to fit the double definition clue. By an amazing co-incidence, this comes on the day that the MCC has changed the laws of cricket so that 5d is the word to be used. Not by me.......thanks very much.

They are wrong that 5d is "gender-neutral". The correct word is gender-neutral as are draughtsman, draftsman, chessmen etc. The word that they have introduced, as well as sounding ridiculous, is not gender-neutral as the -er ending is masculine. If they are going to inisist on this nonsense, I shall refer to myself as a ****ress.

I hope all female cricketers will support me.

Are we still allowed to bowl a maiden over?

Grunger, I felt very sorry for you when i worked out the stuff about your sports terminology being tweaked, changed, politically correctisised (if they can introduce new words, then so can I!). I think you shoukd stick to your guns and never use that daft word from today's crossword. I have no problem with many of the old (and to only a few people, obsolete) words - draftsman, chessmen etc. I am not so keen on the ones that have fallen by the wayside - poetess, conductress, the awful bishopess that was in a recnet crossword) and I am glad those have gone.

PS I don't think the '-er' ending is necessarily masculine. Most of the time, surely, it's just an agent noun? A dancer is someone who dances, a walker is someone who walks, a singer is someone who sings. Those are far more prevalent than 'mister' and 'cricketer'.

jono

Thanks, you can as far as I am concerned, though the MCC have not ruled on it yet.

Malone

I like your "politically correctisised". I hope we can keep hold of the culture "-esses", e.g. authoress, poetess and sculptress, having lost paintress and being in danger of losing actress. I know women who still use conductress, shepherdess and seamstress amongst others. I agree bishopess is awful.

I agree that some -ers are neutral, but words like mister/mistress, songster/songstress should not be neutered IMHO.

Grunger

I agree it is ridiculous. I am afraid that the MCC, like the ECB, is being run by idiots.

The official reason for the change - that the word "batsman" in the Laws of the Game will put off young girls - is ludicrous. Every woman and girl I have played with has called herself a batsman and been proud of it.

Those who bowl have called themselves bowlers, no attempt to invent a word like bowlress or bowlperson.

Grunger, I'm afraid I feel the complete opposite when it comes to authoress, poetess and sculptress . They all sound so ungainly to me. I don't mind 'shepherdess' as it (the job itself) is virtually historic now. Conductress is embedded in my childhood, and refers only to women punching tickets on a bus and getting to ring the bell. I haven't heard seamstress since my gran died, though I do know a few dressmakers. Songstress seems to be about the same era - well, for me personally. I'd never go to a restaurant that had serveresses, nor a hotel with porteresses - those are as appealing/unappealing as the others!

Thanks, jigjag. I really don't like the replacement for 'batsman' - and think it's a daft idea anyway. There seems to be lots of people in authority, in charge of various bodies and so on who are imagining problems, putting forth scenarios and suppositions... baselessly. I think everyone's so scared of offending anyone and wants to keep the balance 'right', that they're leading themselves down weird and not so wonderful paths.

Jigjag

I have the feeling the MCC and ECB are going out of their way to upset and marginalise Cricket supporters and County members - I`ve just renewed my YCCC membership for 2022 even though I have no idea how and when the various competitions will take place.