Greased Gerbil's Quote Discussion #3 - Cheating
Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:23 am
This one has a story behind it.
I play squash (if you don't know, think of tennis played inside a 30-foot square room, but you take turns hitting the ball against the front wall instead of over a net). Anyhow, I was playing a semi-final in a tournament, and the woman I was playing against claimed she'd made a fair shot when the ball had clearly bounced twice (you have to get it on the first bounce). I saw it, spectators saw it, but the referee was obscured. From where the referee sits, it's often hard to tell if the ball has bounced twice. Especially if the player's body is in the way. You often rely on the honesty of the player. Anyhow, she won that point. At a crucial stage later in the match, she smashed a drive that went all the way down to the back corner. Before anyone watching could lean over the rail to see the ball, it bounced for a second time. But I managed to flick it out of the corner along the side wall, where it hit the front wall right on the corner and trickled on the floor before she could even move. Everyone applauded me for making a near-impossible winner. That point turned the game, and I won.
Afterwards, I told a friend that this winner actually bounced twice before I got it. He gave me a "Tisk, tisk", and said "She cheated, you cheated... it's even". My reply was:
"Cheating is a privilege reserved for people who don't get caught"
I play squash (if you don't know, think of tennis played inside a 30-foot square room, but you take turns hitting the ball against the front wall instead of over a net). Anyhow, I was playing a semi-final in a tournament, and the woman I was playing against claimed she'd made a fair shot when the ball had clearly bounced twice (you have to get it on the first bounce). I saw it, spectators saw it, but the referee was obscured. From where the referee sits, it's often hard to tell if the ball has bounced twice. Especially if the player's body is in the way. You often rely on the honesty of the player. Anyhow, she won that point. At a crucial stage later in the match, she smashed a drive that went all the way down to the back corner. Before anyone watching could lean over the rail to see the ball, it bounced for a second time. But I managed to flick it out of the corner along the side wall, where it hit the front wall right on the corner and trickled on the floor before she could even move. Everyone applauded me for making a near-impossible winner. That point turned the game, and I won.
Afterwards, I told a friend that this winner actually bounced twice before I got it. He gave me a "Tisk, tisk", and said "She cheated, you cheated... it's even". My reply was:
"Cheating is a privilege reserved for people who don't get caught"