Sticky wicket as moisture evaporates. When covers were introduced into England's County Championship, John Woodcock wrote an article for the 1981 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, criticising the move, in an article titled, "Sticky dog is put down". He added, "I cannot forbear ... from lamenting ... a part of the very heritage of English cricket – a drying pitch and a sizzling sun." In the game of croquet, the phrase "sticky wicket" may refer to a hoop (wicket) that is difficult for a ball to go through because of the narrowness of the opening. This usage is confined to the United States. An
See a man about a dog See a man about a dog To see a man about a dog or horse is an English idiom, usually used as a way to apologize for one's imminent departure or absence—generally to euphemistically conceal one's true purpose, such as going to use the toilet or going to buy a drink. The original non-facetious meaning was probably to place or settle a bet on a racing dog. The earliest confirmed publication is the 1866 Dion Boucicault play "Flying Scud" in which a character knowingly breezes past a difficult situation saying, "Excuse me Mr. Quail, I can't stop; I've got to