h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Job done - what do you think?
Only just stopped swearing after getting stuffed by England yesterday. Some bloody chance of retaining the Six Nations.

Bollocks. There I go again...

Hopefully its ready to be picked at last. Good work Fraggle you done a great job on that entry...at least one thing is working in Wales!




Sorry but as a loyal England Fan you need at least one dig about saturday! Who'd have thought I'd spend sunday afternoon sat on the edge of my seat nervous about wether scotland could just hold it together for the last ten minutes...very very good weekend of rugby as far as I was concerned!

I like what you've done with the entry, this is definitely a lot better. Of course, I have more comments...

- Describe the field, where the lines are and what they're called first. Saves a little time later on.

- Maybe mention that the posts are H-shaped. You can work it out from your description of a conversion, but it makes it easier to visualise.

- I think that mentioning famous players is good if you can link to them in the Guide (Lomu springs to mind) but otherwise avoid them for the reason I mentioned earlier in the thread; if somebody reads this in 2009, they won't understand what you're on about.

- I don't know if the All Blacks forward pass gag works (particularly now the explanation of it is in a lengthy footnote). Might just confuse novices and infuriate Kiwis!

- Speaking of footnotes, they all need to be punctuated with full stops etc at the end.

- When talking about rucks and mauls, substitute 'ground' for 'floor'. People might think that it's played indoors or something.

- Somewhere in this thread people had got the idea that passing backwards meant you had to turn around and lob the ball *directly* backwards, so maybe mention that the angle of a pass needs to be no more forward than parallel to the tryline, and that most passes are slightly diagonally backwards.

- Mention that under normal circumstances, the team that puts the ball into touch gives away the throw to the lineout (which means that the other team knows (mostly) which member of the lineout the ball is going to go to and will try to throw to that person).

- Mention briefly the countries who play it seriously. New Zealand may be worth a mention as the only country in which it is the most popular winter sport.

- I reckon the positions section should go up the top so you have a description of the pitch, then the positions, then a description of the play. Otherwise the reader might have to work out what forwards and backs do for themselves before you explain it later on.

Apart from that lot, I like it! Commiserations to Welshmen and so forth.

Matt

Excellent work! I agree with Dr Matt's comment about the structure and the references to players, and in addition you have a mixture of quote styles in there. You need to replace all of the curly quotemarks (like the ones you get in MS Word) with straight ones like this: ' also you should replace all double quotes with single ones to fit in with the house style.

Looking good though

Cheers all, thanks for the feedback. I'll try and make the changes asap, cos I really want this in the guide. Thanks for all your support and advice, I really appreciate it.

As regards Saturday's result, well, what can I say. Outgunned, outshoved and outplayed. BUT...

Never write off a disappointed Welshman. Especially if his name is Colin. Or Shane. or maybe even Gavin (when his suspension ends)...

JOKE - Q. Why can't Gavin Henson play rugby on sundays?
A. He's busy in Church...

Thankyou, thankyou, I'm here all week, try the steak...

F x

its a sad state off affairs when people nick jokes from Sue Barker

She's a comedy genius. And not bad looking when you consider she's 758 this year.

Right. I think it's done. I've made some more changes based on Matt's - and other folks' - feedback, and I think I've nailed it. I'm really happy withthe entry now, and I hope you are too. Let me know what you think.

And yes, Matt, I've taken out the AllBlack's forward pass gag. Even though it's true...

Enjoy the entry and enjoy the 6 Nations. Unless you're English, in which case I hope you lose! Being Welsh, I only support 2 teams, see. Wales, and whoever's playing England. Especially after last weekend...

Cymru am Byth, Diolch yn fawr

F x

I reckon it looks much better now. The acid test I spose is to get some comments from rugby novices to see if they understand what's going on.

Hope Wales do well in the 6 Nations... Kiwis hold a lot of affection for a team who can (mostly) beat England, although officially we never quite got over losing to you guys in that game in 1905.

Matt

Thanks Matt.
I think you're right about the 'acid test' bit - hopefully some new folks will have a look at the article before too long.

As for the Kiwi/Wales thing, I know loads of Welsh folks who love New Zealand because in parts it looks just like Wales. Add inordinate numbers of sheep and a fairly good drinking culture and you've got a place made in heaven. My other half loved it over there and we are planning to head over together before too long. 1905 - ancient history.

I know that the Kiwis have a similar 'two teams' thing going as well, but substitute Engalnd with the Aussies...

Superb work Fraggle...

I really like the way it reads now, they're are a couple of typo errors in there but the sub-eds will pick them up. Now where's a scout when you need one!


BTW congrats for your victory on saturday, you welshies certainly made your win look easier than ours against italy. Then again you were playing aginst 14 men for most of the match! It's such a good tournament this year I'm loving the closeness of it and that even Italy are putting up a good fight.

Oi! Fraggle you git!
Been waiting two years for that email now!

Ah, we don't really spend all our time down here stewing about 1905, I was just joking. We love the Welsh really, even if they have given the All Blacks a good scare a few too many times.

Matt

I thought it was the Irish that scared the All Blacks, they always seem to come close to giving them an unexpected pasting

A4099539

This has gotta be close to picking now - it's great And I so want to link to it in an Entry of mine!

Although I have picked up an unfortunate gaff.

You've linked to an Unedited h2g2 Entry A846669

I'm afraid that can't be done Granted it's a nice little Entry, but them's the rules for Entries that are going into the EG - which this one better be doing soon

You could link to this instead -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/rules_and_equipment/4216664.stm

And a few other Edited Guide links might be worth chucking in, doesn't hurt. I'll have a looksee and see what I can find

Here ya go;

A138368 Football

A144217 Grass

A165601 New Zealand

A580303 Wales

A53650 Australia

A297083 France

A297100 Italy

A3970398 The United States of America

A53443 Canada

A2184509 Visiting Tonga

A2757855 The History of Samoa

And the Entry refers to English football as soccer, I don't know what the policy on this would be.

Is it also worthwihle mentioning Australian Rules A812639 (seeing as it has some similarities?


Anyway, let's see this in the EG soon eh?

MJ

Thanks guys. Really appreciate the support. I actually didn't put that link in, but thanks for the heads-up. I will attempt to squeeze the other links in asap, unless some lovely scout or editor appears and does it for me as the piece gets rushed into the edited guide!

Sally - sorry matey! Lost the address! Yes I am crap.

As regards Wales on Saturday, it sounds weird to say this, but we should have crucified Scotland. 4 years ago I'd be jumping up and down celebrating the fact that we actually won, but I guess it shows the way we have developed that I was grumbling that we didn't put 40 past them, especially with only 14 men. Fair play to the Scots.

Should be a cracking tournament. Will someone please beat England? Soon?

Cheers y'all

F x

Fraggle, [email protected]