e.mailed the club, prompt reply from Andy Topham. Seemingly web developers problem. corrected now

Thank god for that.

I know, the very future of the club was touch and go for a bit there.*

[size=50*THAT, I believe, is irony.[/size

Isn't that just sarcasm ?

=#0000FFirony
/irni/

• noun (pl. ironies) 1 the expression of meaning through the use of language which normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous effect. 2 a state of affairs that appears perversely contrary to what one expects.

— ORIGIN Greek eironeia ‘simulated ignorance’.


=#0040FFsarcasm
• noun the use of irony to mock or convey contempt.

— ORIGIN Greek sarkasmos, from sarkazein ‘tear flesh’, later ‘gnash the teeth, speak bitterly’.

Hope this helps......

There are more forms of irony though. Verbal, dramatic, tragic, historic, and the Alanis Morissette type. Verbal irony, as SEB suggests, can describe sentences such as "as clear as mud". Althought sentences such as "deafening silence" are indeed oxymorons. Only distinguished by the fact that they do not rely on a simile.

Anyway TANCW will correct us all no doubt.

Or a smilie...

He's on poor form today, bless

Even though similes and metaphors are both forms of comparison, similes allow the two ideas to remain distinct in spite of their similarities, whereas metaphors compare two things without using "like" or "as".

I knew what you meant, although I did read it as smilie when I first read it which gave me the idea for my reply...