It pays to increase your word power

There was more Marquis of Queensbury than we are used to in the Ruts away game at Winchester earlier today. An hour and a half down the A3 for a punch up seems a bit extravagant. I could have just gone into Ben's room this morning, tuned him with the business end of a baseball bat and saved on petrol.

One particular donnybrook after a late tackle is lodged in my mind. An aggrieved Winchester prop came up off the floor and gave Sid the time-honoured two palm to the chest who-the-fxxx-are-you shove that we have all delivered when wronged, only to find he was pushing an immovable object and succeeding in nothing more than bouncing back and knocking himself down again. A one-in-all-in mêlée ensued, but an atavistic part of me thrilled as the ref sent him scowling and gesticulating to the touchline.

Prodnose: Donnybrook?

Myself: Named from Donnybrook Fair, a notoriously disorderly event, held annually from 1204 until the middle of the 19th century. A brawl or fracas; a scene of chaos.

Prodnose: Atavistic?

Myself: Relating to or characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral.

Prodnose: OK. I'd still prefer to have it in English though.