…turned out to be a damp squid. The first round of the Summer/Autumn leg of the Members Monthly Mêlée had to abandoned because of the atrocious weather conditions. This leg of the M.M.M will now start with the competition on Yorkshire Day, August 1st “. Only half the players completed round 2 so it would be unfair to award points. Having never experienced this before it’s time to review the rules for this event as there have been a few issues that need addressing. We’ll do this so they are in place for the next MMM.

Yes it was originally a damp squib. It is very common to hear a damp squid instead of damp squib, to mean disappointment, and there are many examples on the Web. The reason for the change seems clear and perfectly logical in its own terms. The word squib means a firework. As the word squib now rarely appears outside the idiom it no longer makes sense to some people. Replacing it with the word squid does two things: it links it to a word that people know, and it breathers new life into an otherwise dead metaphor. Squid intensifies the idea of dampness; and there is, arguably, a strong metaphorical link between dampness and disappointment.