3 DECEMBER 1988, Page 29

Television game

Sir: Sod those boring grammarians too. To extend Kingsley Amis's accurately aimed salvo at newsreaders, may I invite him and others to join me in playing the latest game. To my wife's annoyance I nearly always fail to note the factual contents of the weather forecasts, on radio or televi- sion, because I've been playing `Spot the Main Verb'. You have to be quick on the draw: those darned main verbs pop up so rarely and disappear so rapidly they can get lost in the noise. I have an informal points scoring system to reward the exceptional performers, some of whom can fill three or four minutes with nouns and unattached participles alone.

A. F. Bainbridge

166 Farnborough Road, Farnborough, Hampshire