10 JANUARY 1998, Page 23

Big bangs

Sir: May I be pedantic and correct Mr Simon Hoggart's use of the phrase 'shag- ging like a belt-fed wombat'(Television, 20/27 December). In fact he correct military idiom is `to bang like a belt-fed Wombat'; a Wombat, in the military context, being a (now obsolete) 120mm recoilless anti-tank weapon with a notably ear-jangling report, rather than a sexually hyperactive Aus- tralian marsupial. An alternative form is to say that a person 'bangs like a belt-fed mor- tar', and additional emphasis may be given by adding on a defensive fire task'.

Mr Hoggart is right to use the term as a form of praise for a notable practitioner of the sexual arts but in my experience it is typically applied to women.

Adrian Weale

39a Kelso Place, London W8