“Not quite cricket” means not proper, substandard, or perhaps even illegal. The phrase is a reference to the world’s second most popular sport, cricket, and derives from the 19th-century notion that the “Spirit of the...
sea-gulling v.— «The final few yards is elbowing, sand-spraying pandemonium, as contestants dive headfirst, grapple, and fight for batons, sometimes waiting to let others grasp and miss before making their move. “Sea-gulling,”...