Bigger than that London at one point. It got pacified later. Lovely velodrome. Birthplace of Sir Bradley of Wiggins. Twinned with Kanazawa (beautiful historic Japanese city) and Nottingham (city).
5 January 2015
Dr Desperate
Featured in Robert Browning’s ‘How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix‘ (“I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he; I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three”), a rattling good poem despite the fact that two horses die of exhaustion.
5 January 2015
dickhead in quicksand
Sellar and Yeatman took the good news in the opposite direction (further down the page); without horse-abuse, and with an intriguing foreshadowing of Trad Arr. Tune in the second verse.
5 January 2015
Chris The Siteowner
As contributor Rubber-Faced Irritant observes, although the city is “Ghent” in Dutch and “Gent” in French, the football team is most definitely KAA Gent or just AA Gent. Nearly 200 people have looked at this page, with its photo showing “Gent” spelt out in seating, yet nobody seems to have raised their hand over the issue of the superfluous “h”.
However, whoever wrote the Wikipedia page reckons that the club is “often simply known as Ghent”, which would suggest that if you drop the “KAA”, as in the song, the “h” might be reinstated. I’m not sure about this. Newspaper reports seem to use the diminutive “Gent”.
So what do we think?
7 September 2015
EXXO
I was gutted, FBR-wise, when they avoided the English teams in this season’s CL draw – they’ve only ever played one English team & one Scottish & they won’t get many chances. Mind you I’ve not got BT Sport so who gives a sh*t really.
But anyway, who fancies a teaser? OK then if you promise not to post the answer on here for a couple of days – which Biscuit-referenced gent is one of only TWO players ever to score a competitive goal for an English team against Gent in European competitions? Guess before you google and DON’T POST IT YET PLEASE.
7 September 2015
paul f
Thanks Exxo for giving me a golden opportunity to waste the last 10 minutes of my working day. I’d never have guessed it but did eventually track down the answer.
7 September 2015
Dirk Hofman
The city of Ghent will be playing host to tidy group stages of this years World Korfball Championships. Far out connection there Exxo…
11 September 2015
EXXO
From that twitter: KAA Gent @KAAGent 39 minutes ago This is who we are. Standing our ground. Equalizing with ten man. Holding on to it with nine. A penalty save with 1-1. WE ARE BUFFALO! #UCL
16 September 2015
EXXO
Oh, and yes, I nearly forgot why I came on, yes, you’re right in assuming that one of Gent’s two red cards was indeed for “a dangerously high challenge”.
16 September 2015
peter mcornithologist
KAA Gent looking good for the last 16. What is happening? Apart from Hartlepool, I now look for the scores from Leicester, Tranmere, Gent, Keith and even the little buggers who did the offy.
9 December 2015
EXXO
I’ve been really pleased for them the way they’ve battled and then blossomed in this CL group .. eat yer hearts out Anderlecht … but then just now the Mexican wave started going round … as a celebration of qualifying ??!!??
9 December 2015
Peter mcornithologist
A Washington Irving publication of various stories is named The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Anyone got a clue as to why?
27 January 2016
GOK WAN ACOLYTE
Gent was a nineteenth century abbreviation for Gentleman- a bit like we sometimes use esquire today. Nothing to do with the town in Belgium
27 January 2016
Peter mcornithologist
Thanks Mr.Gok. Learn something every day.
28 January 2016
Tim Wain
Mr Dele Alli of Tottingham Spuds tonight put his foot up in Europe against KAA Gent, and was promptly & correctly sent off. Why does his shirt say he is Dele, and not Ali? And why does the Belgian team’s badge feature a Native American? Perhaps when I am less tired, I will ask Mr Google
That was a dangerous foul and a red card in anybody’s language though, not the classic ‘foot up’ in a 50/50 or loose ball situation, which the song is referring to as being viewed more dimly on the ‘nent, and which classically involves no contact with the opponent but is still a foul.
Hope the googling went well, Tim. In addition to the history of abandonment and adoption which he has survived so wonderfully, there’s also a nice ‘Pele’ reference I reckon. Wonderful player.
24 February 2017
CHARLES EXFORD
All those Dele tweets are proper doing my head in, not out of pedantry but just out of depression that the song’s reference is not understood (or may be muddied by this palaver). OK, some people are just enjoying the fact that it was Ghent, so it makes the song ‘prophetic’, and they know really that Dele’s was no a case of “Foot up in Europe”, but others just don’t seem to understand the reference.
To clarify: the song refers to the fact that for a 50-50 ball, you will often get a foul given against you as “dangerous play” (indirect free-kick, maybe a yellow), if your foot is higher than would be allowed in some other leagues, even though you had no contact with the opponent, and to the fact that “You can’t put your foot up in Europe has been a commentator cliché” for around 50 years, though less common now that there are fewer differences between the national cultures of foul play and reffing.
No matter how many times Dele had listened to the prophecies and the advice on the “foot up” rule, which as far as I know he is well aware of and did not transgress, this would still not have helped him avoid a rush of blood and a clear red for almost breaking somebody’s leg.
26 February 2017
CHARLES EXFORD
You could accuse me of sensayuma bypass here but funny lyrics & football are two dead serious businesses to me. As well as the sheer delight in pedantry of course – I often correct the absurd falsehoods in football songs at the match while they are still in progress. I won’t get started on that here though.
So come on people. How can you really appreciate the sheer delicate beauty of “they take a dim view of a slightly raised shoe” if you abuse the poor song so in your tweetings? Please cease the trait.
(I’m glad my slip with the speech marks in the previous post don’t manage to create any alternative truths, by the way).
26 February 2017
GOK WAN ACOLYTE
I’m glad Mr Exford recognises that he’s being a bit of a killjoy on this issue. Yes, it would have been a perfect PBR if Dele Alli had been booked for the type of foul that would be seen as innocuous in the Premier League, but let us (and I write as one also guilty of tweeting about it) enjoy the moment.
Personally, I’ve always seen the “slightly raised shoe” line as typical British understatement, in the same way that being shot could be described as ‘slightly fatal’. Mr Alli’s shoe certainly was slightly raised in this context.
And it should be a good thing that so many people “got” the reference and tweeted about it. It reveals a bigger fanbase than might be expected and might even get a few more people into the band
26 February 2017
CHARLES EXFORD
It isn’t about “the type of foul that might be seen as innocuous”, though, it’s about “foot up” with no contact, a completely different beast. That’s why I’m a bit depressed about it, ‘cos I fear it’s a sign that the line is not actually fully understood.
As for the all publicity being good publicity point, well we know what Mr. B thinks about all publicity. Mind you, on the plus side I have sometimes thought that if there was more widespread and blatant misundrstanding about HMHB lyrics it might well encourage Mr. B to overcome his reluctance to talk about his songs.
26 February 2017
Jeff dreadnought
Well said, Exxo. I’m with the “humourless killjoys” on this one.
26 February 2017
JUST MARK
I didn’t interpret the ‘foot-up’ line quite as literally as some of our friends on the twattersphere. As a veteran of 70’s/80’s UEFA cup games you became familiar with top, top English players picking up needless yellow cards for niggly shoves or the slightest of challenges as they became more and more frustrated with the continental style of keep-ball (unless you were Liverpool who spent twenty minutes every game passing triangles from keeper to defender and were more boring than any European team). Killjoys have more fun as they don’t expect much.
26 February 2017
CHARLES EXFORD
Anyway believe me @GWA during an amateur league game in Italy I have had a foul given for a teeny raising of the studs to play a 50-50 ball that was bouncing maybe four inches off the ground, ie less than a foot to the top of the ball. If you think the line is British exaggeration, you definitely don’t know the offence that it refers to or the commentator cliché that it parodies.
The other similar one that is still just as real is the cliché about keepers getting OTT protection from refs on the ‘nent. My only sending off in my life was in at a tournament in Germany for two yellows in just a 40-minute match, when playing against a deep slow defence and not giving up on through ball ins front of me towards a brave keeper, who dived at my feet and rolled around with his team-mates carping at a fellow-German ref. The second one I pulled out of and the ref still gave in to the baying mob.
27 February 2017
CHARLES EXFORD
Understatement, I meant to quote of course, rather than the substituting its complete opposite – exaggeration.
27 February 2017
Jeff dReadnought
Similarly, one of the things that struck me most during my short time playing in the very lowest echelons of Belgian football was the dim view taken of a slightly lowered head. Any attempt to head anything even fractionally below brow-height invariably met with a whistle and a stern rebuke.
27 February 2017
dr desperate
I was reminded of the Browning poem (see post 2 above) this week when a BBC report bringing the good news from Stoke-on-Trent featured a lad who referred to ‘Joris Bohnson’.
I made the same mistake when driving from Budapest to Dunkirk via Belgium once. I was on the outskirts of Brussels, in a bit of a flap, ‘cos it was rush hour and my ferry departure was uncomfortably close. I knew I needed to go past Ghent, and assumed Genk was the French/Flemish spelling. Had I used the tiniest bit of common sense, I’d’ve realised it was in completely the wrong direction. Fortunately, I turned back and made the ferry.
Another time, I was going in t’other direction and was following signs for Liege without issue, until all mention of the place disappeared from road signs. I knew I hadn’t passed it, but WTF was it? Well, the very nice Flemish people had decided to call it Luik all of a sudden without retaining the French version. My, how I chuckled…
24 October 2019
ANDY FOR THE HILLS
Apparently, Gent, the city, is a very pleasant place to sit in a bar watching Genk, the football team, after a hilarious travel mix-up:
One of the Liverpool fans came from Leicester, G”wed M”duck. I’m looking forward to seeing if the knobhead makes if to Filbert Way on Boxing Day, He’ll most probably miss the kick off after queuing for two hours at the Tigers ground.
25 October 2019
John anderson
West Ham players, think on tonight.
13 April 2023
MULDOON LIVES!
After Liverpool’s visit to Toulouse ” Oh, you cant put your arm up in Europe, it cant hit your sleeve on the ‘nent. they’ll ask VAR if it gets up that far, so think on when you take on the French ,my lad , think on when you take on the French.”
This leaden paul
Bigger than that London at one point. It got pacified later. Lovely velodrome. Birthplace of Sir Bradley of Wiggins. Twinned with Kanazawa (beautiful historic Japanese city) and Nottingham (city).
5 January 2015
Dr Desperate
Featured in Robert Browning’s ‘How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix‘
(“I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he; I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three”), a rattling good poem despite the fact that two horses die of exhaustion.
5 January 2015
dickhead in quicksand
Sellar and Yeatman took the good news in the opposite direction (further down the page); without horse-abuse, and with an intriguing foreshadowing of Trad Arr. Tune in the second verse.
5 January 2015
Chris The Siteowner
As contributor Rubber-Faced Irritant observes, although the city is “Ghent” in Dutch and “Gent” in French, the football team is most definitely KAA Gent or just AA Gent. Nearly 200 people have looked at this page, with its photo showing “Gent” spelt out in seating, yet nobody seems to have raised their hand over the issue of the superfluous “h”.
However, whoever wrote the Wikipedia page reckons that the club is “often simply known as Ghent”, which would suggest that if you drop the “KAA”, as in the song, the “h” might be reinstated. I’m not sure about this. Newspaper reports seem to use the diminutive “Gent”.
So what do we think?
7 September 2015
EXXO
I was gutted, FBR-wise, when they avoided the English teams in this season’s CL draw – they’ve only ever played one English team & one Scottish & they won’t get many chances. Mind you I’ve not got BT Sport so who gives a sh*t really.
But anyway, who fancies a teaser? OK then if you promise not to post the answer on here for a couple of days – which Biscuit-referenced gent is one of only TWO players ever to score a competitive goal for an English team against Gent in European competitions? Guess before you google and DON’T POST IT YET PLEASE.
7 September 2015
paul f
Thanks Exxo for giving me a golden opportunity to waste the last 10 minutes of my working day. I’d never have guessed it but did eventually track down the answer.
7 September 2015
Dirk Hofman
The city of Ghent will be playing host to tidy group stages of this years World Korfball Championships. Far out connection there Exxo…
11 September 2015
EXXO
From that twitter:
KAA Gent @KAAGent 39 minutes ago
This is who we are. Standing our ground. Equalizing with ten man. Holding on to it with nine. A penalty save with 1-1. WE ARE BUFFALO! #UCL
16 September 2015
EXXO
Oh, and yes, I nearly forgot why I came on, yes, you’re right in assuming that one of Gent’s two red cards was indeed for “a dangerously high challenge”.
16 September 2015
peter mcornithologist
KAA Gent looking good for the last 16. What is happening? Apart from Hartlepool, I now look for the scores from Leicester, Tranmere, Gent, Keith and even the little buggers who did the offy.
9 December 2015
EXXO
I’ve been really pleased for them the way they’ve battled and then blossomed in this CL group .. eat yer hearts out Anderlecht … but then just now the Mexican wave started going round … as a celebration of qualifying ??!!??
9 December 2015
Peter mcornithologist
A Washington Irving publication of various stories is named The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Anyone got a clue as to why?
27 January 2016
GOK WAN ACOLYTE
Gent was a nineteenth century abbreviation for Gentleman- a bit like we sometimes use esquire today. Nothing to do with the town in Belgium
27 January 2016
Peter mcornithologist
Thanks Mr.Gok. Learn something every day.
28 January 2016
Tim Wain
Mr Dele Alli of Tottingham Spuds tonight put his foot up in Europe against KAA Gent, and was promptly & correctly sent off. Why does his shirt say he is Dele, and not Ali? And why does the Belgian team’s badge feature a Native American? Perhaps when I am less tired, I will ask Mr Google
23 February 2017
Injured buzzard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60Ys6tO3BGQ
24 February 2017
CHARLES EXFORD
That was a dangerous foul and a red card in anybody’s language though, not the classic ‘foot up’ in a 50/50 or loose ball situation, which the song is referring to as being viewed more dimly on the ‘nent, and which classically involves no contact with the opponent but is still a foul.
Hope the googling went well, Tim. In addition to the history of abandonment and adoption which he has survived so wonderfully, there’s also a nice ‘Pele’ reference I reckon. Wonderful player.
24 February 2017
CHARLES EXFORD
All those Dele tweets are proper doing my head in, not out of pedantry but just out of depression that the song’s reference is not understood (or may be muddied by this palaver). OK, some people are just enjoying the fact that it was Ghent, so it makes the song ‘prophetic’, and they know really that Dele’s was no a case of “Foot up in Europe”, but others just don’t seem to understand the reference.
To clarify: the song refers to the fact that for a 50-50 ball, you will often get a foul given against you as “dangerous play” (indirect free-kick, maybe a yellow), if your foot is higher than would be allowed in some other leagues, even though you had no contact with the opponent, and to the fact that “You can’t put your foot up in Europe has been a commentator cliché” for around 50 years, though less common now that there are fewer differences between the national cultures of foul play and reffing.
No matter how many times Dele had listened to the prophecies and the advice on the “foot up” rule, which as far as I know he is well aware of and did not transgress, this would still not have helped him avoid a rush of blood and a clear red for almost breaking somebody’s leg.
26 February 2017
CHARLES EXFORD
You could accuse me of sensayuma bypass here but funny lyrics & football are two dead serious businesses to me. As well as the sheer delight in pedantry of course – I often correct the absurd falsehoods in football songs at the match while they are still in progress. I won’t get started on that here though.
So come on people. How can you really appreciate the sheer delicate beauty of “they take a dim view of a slightly raised shoe” if you abuse the poor song so in your tweetings? Please cease the trait.
(I’m glad my slip with the speech marks in the previous post don’t manage to create any alternative truths, by the way).
26 February 2017
GOK WAN ACOLYTE
I’m glad Mr Exford recognises that he’s being a bit of a killjoy on this issue. Yes, it would have been a perfect PBR if Dele Alli had been booked for the type of foul that would be seen as innocuous in the Premier League, but let us (and I write as one also guilty of tweeting about it) enjoy the moment.
Personally, I’ve always seen the “slightly raised shoe” line as typical British understatement, in the same way that being shot could be described as ‘slightly fatal’. Mr Alli’s shoe certainly was slightly raised in this context.
And it should be a good thing that so many people “got” the reference and tweeted about it. It reveals a bigger fanbase than might be expected and might even get a few more people into the band
26 February 2017
CHARLES EXFORD
It isn’t about “the type of foul that might be seen as innocuous”, though, it’s about “foot up” with no contact, a completely different beast. That’s why I’m a bit depressed about it, ‘cos I fear it’s a sign that the line is not actually fully understood.
As for the all publicity being good publicity point, well we know what Mr. B thinks about all publicity. Mind you, on the plus side I have sometimes thought that if there was more widespread and blatant misundrstanding about HMHB lyrics it might well encourage Mr. B to overcome his reluctance to talk about his songs.
26 February 2017
Jeff dreadnought
Well said, Exxo. I’m with the “humourless killjoys” on this one.
26 February 2017
JUST MARK
I didn’t interpret the ‘foot-up’ line quite as literally as some of our friends on the twattersphere. As a veteran of 70’s/80’s UEFA cup games you became familiar with top, top English players picking up needless yellow cards for niggly shoves or the slightest of challenges as they became more and more frustrated with the continental style of keep-ball (unless you were Liverpool who spent twenty minutes every game passing triangles from keeper to defender and were more boring than any European team). Killjoys have more fun as they don’t expect much.
26 February 2017
CHARLES EXFORD
Anyway believe me @GWA during an amateur league game in Italy I have had a foul given for a teeny raising of the studs to play a 50-50 ball that was bouncing maybe four inches off the ground, ie less than a foot to the top of the ball. If you think the line is British exaggeration, you definitely don’t know the offence that it refers to or the commentator cliché that it parodies.
The other similar one that is still just as real is the cliché about keepers getting OTT protection from refs on the ‘nent. My only sending off in my life was in at a tournament in Germany for two yellows in just a 40-minute match, when playing against a deep slow defence and not giving up on through ball ins front of me towards a brave keeper, who dived at my feet and rolled around with his team-mates carping at a fellow-German ref. The second one I pulled out of and the ref still gave in to the baying mob.
27 February 2017
CHARLES EXFORD
Understatement, I meant to quote of course, rather than the substituting its complete opposite – exaggeration.
27 February 2017
Jeff dReadnought
Similarly, one of the things that struck me most during my short time playing in the very lowest echelons of Belgian football was the dim view taken of a slightly lowered head. Any attempt to head anything even fractionally below brow-height invariably met with a whistle and a stern rebuke.
27 February 2017
dr desperate
I was reminded of the Browning poem (see post 2 above) this week when a BBC report bringing the good news from Stoke-on-Trent featured a lad who referred to ‘Joris Bohnson’.
26 September 2019
Andy for the hills
Apparently, Gent, the city, is a very pleasant place to sit in a bar watching Genk, the football team, after a hilarious travel mix-up:
Liverpool fans miss victory in Genk after travelling to Gent by mistake
24 October 2019
Alice van der meer
Your link isn’t working, Andy.
24 October 2019
brumbiscuit
I made the same mistake when driving from Budapest to Dunkirk via Belgium once. I was on the outskirts of Brussels, in a bit of a flap, ‘cos it was rush hour and my ferry departure was uncomfortably close. I knew I needed to go past Ghent, and assumed Genk was the French/Flemish spelling. Had I used the tiniest bit of common sense, I’d’ve realised it was in completely the wrong direction. Fortunately, I turned back and made the ferry.
Another time, I was going in t’other direction and was following signs for Liege without issue, until all mention of the place disappeared from road signs. I knew I hadn’t passed it, but WTF was it? Well, the very nice Flemish people had decided to call it Luik all of a sudden without retaining the French version. My, how I chuckled…
24 October 2019
ANDY FOR THE HILLS
Apparently, Gent, the city, is a very pleasant place to sit in a bar watching Genk, the football team, after a hilarious travel mix-up:
Liverpool fans miss victory in Genk after travelling to Gent by mistake
24 October 2019
Bobby Svarc
One of the Liverpool fans came from Leicester, G”wed M”duck. I’m looking forward to seeing if the knobhead makes if to Filbert Way on Boxing Day, He’ll most probably miss the kick off after queuing for two hours at the Tigers ground.
25 October 2019
John anderson
West Ham players, think on tonight.
13 April 2023
MULDOON LIVES!
After Liverpool’s visit to Toulouse ” Oh, you cant put your arm up in Europe, it cant hit your sleeve on the ‘nent. they’ll ask VAR if it gets up that far, so think on when you take on the French ,my lad , think on when you take on the French.”
10 November 2023