Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Now that's a game-stopper!


I've always been intrigued by how animals can imitate humans - either their mannerisms, or their sounds, or even their personalities. Seems that one such animal caused a bit of disruption lately.


There was everything to play for. As the second half of the match got under way, there was nothing to separate the two sides.

Then the whistle blew – and the player with the ball stopped.

But there had been no foul nor injury in the amateur football game. And no one was more surprised to hear the noise than referee Gary Bailey.

Confused, he signalled for the footballers to carry on. But the whistle kept blowing.

It was clear there was a mischief maker among the 150 fans watching the quarter-final cup tie between Hatfield and Hertford Heath in Hertfordshire.

And when someone called him ‘pretty boy’, Mr Bailey, 45, decided enough was enough.

‘I was forced to go over to this woman who I thought was making the noises and ask her to stop,’ he said. ‘But when I confronted her, she said, “It’s not me, it’s my parrot”.’




Irene Kerrigan, 66, had taken her nine-year-old bird Me-Tu to the match in his cage as usual so he could get some fresh air. But as she watched, her pet began mimicking the sound of the whistle.

‘As he grew in confidence, he even started calling out phrases to the players,’ said Mr Bailey, a referee for seven years. ‘I got a hell of a shock.’

In the end, there was only one thing for it. ‘I didn’t have a choice – I had to send the bird off because it was ruining the game.’

Ted Collie, Hatfield’s chairman, explained: ‘The referee went up to her and pointed to the exit to send her off.’

Saturday’s knock-out ended in a 5-2 win for Hatfield, but Hertford Heath’s manager Clive Adlington remained philosophical.

‘I think because the parrot’s been to the games so often it’s picked up how to whistle,’ he said.

‘It was quite comical really, all the lads looking around after hearing a whistle.

‘I’m not convinced he’d make a very good mascot, mind you.’


I've been around some parrots that can do amazingly lifelike imitations of telephones, doorbells and other household sounds, so much so that their owners have been fooled into answering the phone or the door: so this doesn't surprise me. Still, it must have been fun for the players!

Peter

1 comment:

joe said...

My mother used to have an African Grey parrot that was amazing. She would imitate the microwave, from the initial beeps, to the final alarm, including the fan noise in between. We would hear the "phone" ring and go to answer only to hear the bird say "Hello", then mutter a bit, then say "bye." She would even call the dogs. They got a bit surly about it and eventually learned to wait for Mom to call them again before running in.
I'm not at all a bird person (allergies and I REALLY don't like the screeching) but that was one neat critter!