Aniseed Balls

Sports commentators are well known for talking complete bollocks. They are much better than they used to be when the only qualification for the job was a plummy voice, but they still get carried away in the heat of the action like everyone else. However, I keep hearing tennis commentators say something that I just cannot let pass. It is not a slip of the tongue - it is a sentiment they repeat over and over: "One reason X is such a good player is that they make the opponent play one more shot". I don't understand this. In fact I cannot proffer any meaning for it other than "I like player X". Here is a challenge. Suppose that 'making the opponent play one more shot' really does mean something, and I claim that when I play my friend at tennis, I am better at whatever this something is than (say) Lleyton Hewitt (who is often said to have this mysterious quality). Tell me what it is that you are going to measure about our matches that will decide the issue.

Recent events in Devon have made me wonder if I am becoming an aging grumpy: my incredulity is genuine. How can the media report the escape of wild boar without even a passing mention of the glaringly obvious question? I have bought wild boar products occasionally - and now it transpires that I have been completely naive to imagine that the animals were as described: wild. Is this complete ignorance on my part? Does everyone else already know that wild boar are not wild at all, but in fact the complete opposite of wild, namely penned in? Is it too obvious to mention? Perhaps only the British would put up with such a deceit of nomenclature. I know Yorkshire pudding isn't all made in Yorkshire. But surely it isn't transparent that wild boar is farmed. Please tell me that I'm not a complete dunderhead. If I do turn into a grumpy old man, animal liberation will be high on my list of invectives.