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Malone,
Yes people working in the travel industry, tour guides etc, seemed to start using `guys` some years ago.

Even worse I`m now referred to as `sweetheart` by shop assistants and receptionists - this appears to be an `age` thing . The next time this happens I plan to say `are you calling me a cabbage ?`

Dear all

Yes, in my ladies cricket team it is batsman, third man, twelfth man, night-watchman etc. I have never heard a woman use anything else. We even say, "Sorry, we are a man short today." or "We played against 10 men". It is all so natural. Occasionally a male umpire might refer to a "batswoman", but we put him right.

When women have played for "men's" teams, through ability or to make up the numbers, we are happy to be included in "fellas", "chaps" or "lads", if that is what the captain naturally uses. I do hate "guys" though, male or female.

The local teams are "ladies" in cricket and hockey, but "women" in football and rugby. Not sure why.

Grunger, I think your 'ladies' and 'women' point is interesting. There's probably no definitive answer! I'm not a fan of 'ladies' in general -'women' seems perfectly adequate to me. My mother and her friends always referred to seeing 'the nice lady doctor' at their local surgery - no-one ever dealt with a 'gentleman', nice or otherwise. I don't mind 'dinner ladies' as that seems quite historical - a bit like being 'a man short'. As an aside, I always thought it odd that my children would discuss with their pals whether they were going to be a 'school dinner' or a packed lunch' the next day.

At a local fair
'On site security personal are on duty'.

Why do sports commentators nearly always say "understimate" when they mean "overestimate". "You can't understimate how much that means to him" for example.

Chrise

I agree. I heard the Irish cricket commentator saying that you could not "under-estimate how well Ireland had bowled".

Concurring with Orson (@3): at school our Latin teacher drummed into us

"Vir, man as opposed to woman,
Homo, man as opposed to beast."

While I'm here may I spit some bile on an idiom beloved of lazy, dull reporters - 'any time soon'...my flesh creeps!