Farewell to the Major

Sorry about another Times link, but I do so love this Mike Selvey anecdote about Christopher Martin-Jenkins:

Only once did I see him flummoxed. Like many cricketers, I used rhyming slang by habit, so if I were to say that someone was having treatment on their Vanburn, you might surmise Holder, or shoulder. During one commentary stint, he thought he would have a stab. “I’ve been having some trouble with the old Conrad,” he said. At first it stunned me, and then I corpsed — so badly I had to leave the commentary box. He meant Conrad Black.