The Editor has over the years become used to correcting spelling and grammatical errors in articles submitted for publication. Perhaps the most persistent mistake is in the spelling of rhythm, which is something that crops up in the minute book rather more often than it does on the water: the word is difficult, so is what it describes. In this newsletter, the following words were mis-spelt in the original articles has submitted: Aiguebellete, alcohol, analysts, brake, camaraderie, chord, competent, dj vu, exaggerated, guaranteed, Guinnesses, losing, masochistic, nutritionists, practised, queueing, rhythm, Rosslare, signalling, stair-rods, Stamfli, Tewkesbury, travelling, Whiskey (Irish).
Brian Mawer has been the honorary proof-reader for many years. He spots most errors in the version of the newsletter he is given to look through. However, the editor normally adds photographs and their captions at the last minute, so it is often in these that typing errors creep through.
We are both, I suppose, somewhat old-fashioned. By tradition, or is it obstinacy, if an article includes the words "Due to...", they are always replaced with something like "Because of.."
The pot however, should not call all the other kettles black. My most embarrassing failure to read a proof properly occurred when I was doing work on the exam league tables. I had sent out a document to about 700 schools about the importance of them reading proofs properly. There was a mistake in this document, which had to be corrected urgently. The only way to get the correction through to the schools was to send a fax to all of them. (This was before the days of e-mails.) I headed this fax in large bold letters Imporant note about proof reading.
Only two schools pointed out the error to me. It was a bad, but could have been worse!
A similar, more modern error is to send e-mails to the wrong people. Again, when working on the exam league tables, I received an e-mail from the education correspondent of a national newspaper. Before replying, I needed some advice from a colleague, so I sent him some comments and questions which would certainly not have been seen by anybody else. I pressed the 'send' button carelessly, and the message went off not only to the colleague but to the Daily Telegraph. A hasty and apologetic phone call was made.
Take care! (Taking the wrong riggers to a regatta is the same sort of mistake.) The First Four of about 1974 turned up to Evesham regatta with no rudder. We phoned through to Monkton from a local call box (no mobile phones then), and the rudder was brought up by a supporter in time for the race. More recently, the First VIII of 2005 (coached by JMB for a few days), found that a stretcher was missing from the boat when they arrived to take part in the Head of the Taff. It was the stretcher next to the joint of the boat so had to be removed when splitting the boat into two. It was the Captain's stretcher, and he swore that he had put it back in place before carrying the boat to the trailer. Ever resourceful Mike Smith rigged up a new one for us, and we assumed that the other one was somewhere on the M4. When we arrived back to unload boats, the stretcher had somehow arrived back safely in the field where the boat was split for transport. If you are an oarsman, remember that it is always your fault; if you are the cox, it is always your fault, and if you are the coach, it is always your fault!