[Magdalen] For those of us US'ers (& maybe even Canadians)...

[Lynn Ronkainen]

Roger would it be more accurate to say the distance between wickets is a chain? 
Lynn

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 30, 2016, at 4:17 PM, Roger Stokes <roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com> wrote:

> On 30/07/2016 21:33, M J _Mike_ Logsdon wrote:
> I learned a surveyor's measurement term that I still laugh about: chain. A chain is 66 feet. Gotta love that. I can only imagine how it was invented (and no, I haven't looked it up yet, so there could be something truly smart about it, and most likely is). "Hey, Boyd, you got something to measure with?" "Got a length chain here." "How long is it?" "'Bout 66 feet." "That'll do."

Did you come across furlongs as well?  The name derives from "furrow long" and is 10 chains. An acre is the size of a rectangle a furlong by a chain. I have seen facsimiles of old maps with distances in miles and chains.  There are 100 links in a chain so each link is just under 8 inches 25 links to the rod, pole or perch (they are interchangeable terms). A chain is the distance between the wickets on a cricket pitch.

Roger