Читать книгу Harvey Wallbangers and Tam O'Shanters - Martin Hannan - Страница 66

For some inexplicable reason, the nickname of an American Civil War general is now routinely used to describe a penalty in British football, as in ‘it’s a stonewaller, ref’. The original Stonewall was Confederate General Thomas Jonathan Jackson (1824–63) who gained his nickname in the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861, when a fellow general is reputed to have said ‘there’s Jackson standing like a stone wall’. Jackson’s troops refused to yield and suffered heavy losses, becoming known thereafter as the Stonewall brigade while he became ‘Stonewall Jackson’. He did not enjoy the name for too long, as he died of pneumonia two years later after being accidentally shot by his own side.

Any form of firm defence in sport or other activity soon became known as stonewall, but stonewaller is a recent development, coming from the seemingly endless ability of footballers and commentators to mangle the English language – somebody clearly thought ‘stonewall’ meant certain, and then ‘-er’ was added to change the eponym’s meaning entirely. But that’s the trouble with followers of the beautiful game – their brains are in their feet.