the Diocesan College in Rondebosch, and remaining dominant until 1878. In 1941, the Old Wykehamist General Wavell was congratulated by telegram for his success in pushing the Italian 10th Army back in North Africa with the words "hotting the enemy over worms" (i.e. pushing the hostile scrum back over the goal line). In 1996, the Old Wykehamist John Whittingdale, speaking in Parliament in a debate on sport, said that "at school, I was forced to play a weekly game of fives, as well as a peculiarly brutal game known as Winchester college football, which normally resulted in substantial injuries to the participants." The pitch Winchester football is played on a pitch known as a "canvas", 80 metres long and 15 metres wide flanked on either side by 2.5 metre high netting (confusingly called the "canvas" as well; as is the squad for a winkies team) designed to prevent balls from being kicked off the pitch. Approximately a metre in front of the netting and running parallel to it is found a thick one-metre high rope supported by nine stout posts at intervals along the canvas (seven on some of the smaller pitches on Palmer Field). The distance between two adjacent posts is known as a "post"; hence the total length of the canvas is eight posts. The inaccessible area between the ropes and the netting is known as "Ropes". The goal area off each end of the pitch is known as "Worms". Teams Major matches are played with teams made up of 15 players, known as XVs; other matches can be played with smaller teams, usually 6 or 10, known as VIs and Xs respectively. In VIs, there are two "kicks" (full-backs), one "hotwatch" (half-back) and three "hot" (scrum) players. In Xs, there are two kicks, three hotwatches and five hot players. In XVs there are three kicks, four hotwatches and eight hot players. The team sizes may differ sometimes in smaller house competitions, with IXs and XIs being common-place. Major matches are played between three teams, called Old Tutor's Houses (OTH), Commoners, and College. OTH wear brown and white striped "zephyrs" (football shirts), and consist of men from Furley's, Toye's, Cook's, Chawker's, and Hopper's houses. Commoners wear red and white striped zephyrs, and consist of men from Kenny's, Freddie's, Phil's, Trant's, and Beloe's. College wear blue and white striped zephyrs, and consist only of men from College, the scholars'