Modern Use
"To do a Devon Loch" is a modern metaphor now sometimes used in sports and otherwise to explain a sudden, last-minute failure of teams or a sportsperson to complete an expected victory, for example: "Manchester United won't do a Devon Loch and lose the title after beating Chelsea" or "Lewis Hamilton surrendering the championship having led Kimi Räikkönen by 17 points with just two races remaining was a Devon Loch calamity". Another example occurred ahead of the 2011 Irish election when Seán Gallagher's campaign came undone in the final television debate his fall from grace was compared to Devon Loch's fall just before the winning post in the 1956 National.
In an article in The Times on 4 August 2012, Rick Broadbent wrote about the final day of the 2012 Olympics heptathlon competition: "Jessica Ennis is almost there. It would take a Devon Loch-style collapse to deny her the gold medal now."
Read more about this topic: Devon Loch
Famous quotes containing the word modern:
“Many said selfishness was the flaw of our modern age; but then self-conceit emerged from a corner of the deepest hell to join selfishness.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“Most modern reproducers of life, even including the camera, really repudiate it. We gulp down evil, choke at good.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)