Then more prosaic interpreters of traditional country wisdom blew away romantic confetti to remind us not to discard that warm woolly (and itchy) vest until end of the month.
Another school of thought gathering beyond the nearest hedge claimed ‘May’ referred to the hawthorn tree – Crataegus monogyna – whose common name is ‘may’. So you should wait until the hawthorn’s in bloom before doing away with that cosy underwear.
However, anyone who has shivered on a cricket ground either as player or spectator in early days of a new campaign can vouch for comfort of extra layers when searching winds whistle in from deep square- leg.
Murray Walker, much-loved idiosyncratic voice of Formula 1– obituary
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Murray Walker obituary
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Murray Walker
Credit: Gray Mortimore/ Getty Images
Murray Walker, who has died aged 97, was for more than half a century the high-octane voice of British motor sport and a consummate exponent of – and, indeed, with a strong claim to have invented – the “pants-on-fire” school of broadcast commentary.
At full throttle at the television microphone for a Formula 1 grand prix, Walker would typically let rip with what he called his “crash, bang, wallop” approach, developed during years of commentating on low-budget motocross and rallycross competitions.
“I reacted excitedly and enthusiastically to their drama, speed and aggression,” he remembered, “and when I moved full time to the more sophisticated tarmac racing I took my whoops, expletives, shouts of amazement and malapropisms with me.”
Full Bodied: The fading memories of a big man in the wine trade, by Christopher Fielden
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