When Did A Volley Cease To Be A Volley?

Not for the first time, John Motson made me wince on Saturday night.

Listening to his commentary of West Ham's defeat of Blackburn, he slipped in to one of modern football's most irritating terms. Some years ago (presumably at a secret meeting chaired by Andy Gray) it seems to have been decided to cancel the correct terminology for a volley.

Any football fan knows that volley is a shot where the ball is hit before it touches the ground. The Oxford English Dictionary states:

(in sports, esp. tennis or soccer) a strike or kick of the ball made before it touches the ground.

Marco Van Bastens goal for Holland in the 1988 European Championships is the perhaps the classic example of a volley in all its glory. Sadly, football's revisionists have decided to apply the term volley willy-nilly, and especially to shots that are in fact half-volleys, or even simply kicks of a bouncing ball.

To end my case for the prosecution, I quote from Motson's despicable commentary of West Ham's third goal on Saturday night:

"And Bellamy waits for it to bounce once, then twice, then he hits it on the volley".

Mr Motson - you Sir are a disgrace!

Comments

[Dave E]

Isn't Motson some sort of Arsenal supporter? That would explain his ignorance of the English language.