While in Yugoslavia in 1947, as a member of the Britanska Brigada, helping to construct the Omladinska Pruga (Youth Railway) through the Bosnian mountains from Samac to Sarajevo, we were informed that we were to send a team to Zenica to participate in a sports event with other brigades, almost all from east European countries. As the games were ending (with unfortunately little British prize-winning), we were told to prepare for a “cultural artistic” finale, at which each country would present their national dance in the main arena. We were told that this was the moment we should display our national pride. No one knew Morris dancing but we all knew the hokey cokey (Letters, 25 September). It was received with rapturous applause, followed by many requests to show other nationalities exactly how it was performed, so they could take the dance home with them. The meeting had as its slogan “Death to fascism – freedom for the people”. I like to think that we contributed in some small way.
Bruce Vivash Jones
Cirencester, Gloucestershire
• Very much liked Rod Edmond’s suggestion of the England team Morris dancing in response to the All Black haka (Letters, 22 September). I’ve long thought the Irish team could unnerve them by a quick performance of Riverdance.
Tony Clarke
London
• I’ve thought for years that England should respond to the haka with the hop-skip-hand-behind-the-back routine that Morecambe and Wise used to perform.
George Kitchin
Penrith, Cumbria
• A team rendition of Agadoo would be a wonderful English riposte to the haka.
Paul Roper
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
• Pace John Cregan (Letters, 23 September), I prefer the late Tommy Trinder’s account of the origins of rugby football, delivered on Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life: “When young Tom Brown first arrived at Rugby School, there was a football game going on and he said, ‘I’ve never played this game before. Can I join in?’ and they said, ‘Of course you can’. So he got stuck in and when the ball came his way he astonished everyone by picking up the ball and running all the way up the field and plonking it down behind the goal-line. As all the other players came charging towards him, he said, ‘Now what do I do with it?’ And that’s why the rugby ball is the shape it is today.”
Lawrence Buckley
Crieff, Perthshire
