Haway the lads!

Did you know that you can upset Newcastle fans simply by changing one vowel in that sentence? For two years now I thought I was being nice to a young cricketer at my club who supports Newcastle by shouting “Haway the lad” every time he took a wicket. One day last summer his dad, also a Newcastle fan (from West Sussex, mind) asked me to stop winding him up. I was perplexed and asked how I was winding him up? He said Geordies say HOway the lads and the hated Mackems say HAway. He was dead serious! Now THAT is pettiness even beyond anything the Kopites can come up with!