I get the Oi Oi Oi, but not much else
January 5, 2012 11:45 AM   Subscribe

[AustraliaFilter and CricketFilter] What are the Aussie cricket fans chanting in the SCG stands?

I was at the SCG yesterday, and I couldn't understand the cheers/chants of Aussie fans at all. There was one in particular that sounded like a repetition of a 2-syllable word (-O-O) shouted while pointing at another group of fans (not sure if pointing at Indian fans, or Aussie ones, or even a fielder at the boundary). There were many others, of course, that I didn't get.

Can someone enlighten me about the goings on? I am going again today, and it would be good to know what's being said/sung.
posted by vidur to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (7 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I don't know about the one you're mentioning (more of a football than cricket fan myself), but two SCG favourites you should listen for:

- Members Are Wankers (ie. the crowd in the Members Stand). Meaning is pretty obvious.
- You're Going Home In The Back Of A Divvy Van (followed by ten claps). When somebody's being taken outside by the police/security. A divvy van is a Victorianism for a police wagon, and the chant comes from a Painters and Dockers song.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 12:30 PM on January 5, 2012 [1 favorite]


Losers, losers? Or Swami Army? Jai Ho?
posted by taff at 1:37 PM on January 5, 2012


It wasn't "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi", was it?
posted by Effigy2000 at 4:35 PM on January 5, 2012


Response by poster: No, I get the oi oi oi quite well. This one had a lot of stress on the 'o'. Other suggestions don't seem to fit either. I am at the SCG right now, hoping they'll chant again.
posted by vidur at 6:02 PM on January 5, 2012


Have they chanted it again? Your time seems to be running very short.
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:36 PM on January 5, 2012


Response by poster: I left. No chanting though. Rather empty and quiet stadium, except the Swamy Army, who have also cooled down.

I've been looking for websites where Aussie cricket fans might list out some common chants, but haven't had much success. May be this one wasn't a common chant, though it certainly seemed to erupt a lot yesterday.

On some further thought, could it have been "blotto" with stressed O's? Is that Aussie slang? Something expected at the sporting grounds?
posted by vidur at 8:23 PM on January 5, 2012


Best answer: You left? Ashwin's 42 from 48 - belting the ball all over the park, now that there's nothing to lose.

One possibility with the [something]-O construction is that it could just be somebody's name, as it's a common diminutive, as in "Thommo" for Jeff Thomson.

"Blotto" can be slang for "drunk". "Blot" by itself can mean zero, as in "Australia now takes the lead in the series, two-blot" so that's a vague possibility, not that I've ever heard blott-O used in that way.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:56 PM on January 5, 2012


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