"Skated" is more than setting a boot on the ice.

No one who had merely put a foot on ice a few times would say they'd skated (unless they were indulging in a ridiculous exaggeration).

so are all the 'but it was probably only once' replies.

Just would be interested in some clarification since it's not the same as never skated before.

And if it was only once as Psychosis suggests surely she'd have said she skated once in her teens.

Don't get at me- she wrote it on twitter -ask her what she means!

Teens are children, at least in the early teens.

Greg's skating experience obviously helped him a lot.

Twitter on it from Kieron:

"In regards to an article today about @Hayleysoraya it's bullshite, Hayley is the life and soul of the group, and is just talented end of x"

But then he and Hayley have always been very close, so it was never going to have been him doing the bitching...

That's good since he's my favourite! They train together too I think don't they? I wouldn't put it past the paper to have made up the stuff about not being liked or to have taken a jokey aside out of context

I would say I haven't skated since my teens, by which I would mean that at the age of 16 I went to the local rink a grand total of 4 times during PE class and spent most of the time chatting up boys from other local schools. The only time I've set foot on the ice since is for a broomball tournament which, since you wear trainers for it, cannot be classified as skating!

I don't Tweet, but perhaps an FM who is a follower of hers could ask her to clarify her remark so that everyone can stop second-guessing her and drawing inferrences that may or may not have been implied?

Are you joking? "I have skated" means that you have skated. Whether you've skated one time or a thousand times, you have still skated. What do you call skating before the ffith/tenth/fiftieth time, then?



Hayley wouldn't feel the need to defend herself on her own twitter, which only her fans would be following.

Yep, they both train up north in Bradford. Hayley said Kieron is like a little brother to her.

It might be made up, but having said that, there's one or two others who you wouldn't put it past to have been bitching to the press...

The article says

"Ex-Emmerdale star Hayley was on standby for two series after being asked in 2008. Rivals claim she has skated since her teens"

So it would seem that Hayley on Twitter is only denying what was written, not actually saying she hasn't herself skated since her teens.

I don't blame her for being upset and trying to set the record straight on twitter, why shouldn't she, it's a valid form of communication straight from her mouth.

Unless the program is deliberately miscounting the votes - how can they be fixing it for Hayley to win?

Skating ability or experience isn't everything. Bonnie Langford was the superior skater in her series and Chris Fountain's prior skating experience didn't work in his favour when he took part on the show.

And we don't even know for certain whether Hayley has even had any previous training. It's merely hear'say.

I have more of an issue that she's known Dan since childhood. I do think that gave her a bit of an advantage.

From the article:

That direct quote from the supposed "contestant" doesn't look much like it could have been a joking aside to me or like it would have a different meaning in any plausible context.

So if the paper isn't making it up, or quoting something 2nd or 3rd hand without telling us, then either someone did say it, or the paper is pretty seriously misquoting them.

BTW, this, also from the article, may help clarify why she made the "teens" comment:


But it raises a different issue. Why did the paper (or the "rivals") phrase it that way? Is it a rule of the show that they can't have skated since their teens? If not, then it sounds like it was known and accepted that she had skated in her teens.

Meanwhile,

Never before vs since her teens.

The article's URL again: http://www.people.co.uk/news/tm_head...name_page.html

That would be incredibly naive since tweets are freely available for anyone to view especially when they are posted on one's website and visible on a google search.

Plus she said 'I haven't skated since my teens'. If she'd only skated once she surely would have wanted to make that perfectly clear and would have said 'I only skated once in my teens.' or I skated a few times in disco sessions in my teens like I think Ray said.

Why would she mention it all if it was only once. I don't think anyone would count one visit as 'skating in their teens'. She could have said 'I skated once when I was 14' or whatever.

It's the change of position from 'never having skated' that interested me.

Ah OK I can see a different interpretation that might mean she wasn't saying 'I haven't skated since my teens' implying that she did skate during her teens but 'I haven't skated since my teens' as in denying the direct quote and meaning nothing at all about skating in her teens. That would then gel with the never skated before. That's the problem with such things that are not clear.

It's clear enough from the article what was meant:

and

Of course, it's possible to contest the use of "fix", but "fix" is often used pretty loosely in such contexts.

No, I'm not joking. "Skated" is more than setting a boot on the ice.

So before I continue with this discussion, could you please clarify what the word is that describes the action of using ice skates to move around an ice rink? Just so I know what terminology I should use?

You might use the term 'fix' loosely, I don't.

To me it infers that there's cheating going and as far as I know, there's no rule that stipulates that previous skating experience means celebrities can't take part. Personally, I prefer contestants to start from scratch. But it's not a 'fix' if they aren't because they aren't breaking any rules.

And as someone who defended Kelly Brook and Ali on Strictly when they faced similar allegations, I assume you're also going to be consistent and defend Hayley here

But I thought many people criticised her for not being a good skater, only in the last few weeks have her skating skills improved (or at least that is what Robin says). Does this not indicate that she cannot have much skating experience?

I think the fact that she said she has not skated before or not skated since her teens implies that she cannot have done extensive skating IMO. I might say I never played basketball or I haven't played baskedball since my teens (having played 2 times and having not been very good at it for size reasons). People post things very quickly, or they are in an interview situation, and they might not be very careful what they say (because however media savy she is supposed to be, she might not be, after all she hasn't made a fortune publicising herself like Jordan). Maybe she doesn't realise that a whole forum is scrutinising her every word, who knows (I feel the same about things said about other contestants e.g. Gary).

I am inclined to believe that this story is just the usual sort of nonsense you get from the red tops.

I don't know about last year but she certainly wasn't the reserve in 2008 as that was Zaraah who joined the show when Michael Underwood got injured.

However, I don't think Hayley does herself any favours on Twitter. She does whinge & whine a lot on there. I doubt it makes any difference though - she is not exactly rivalling the likes of Schofe & Stephen Fry in her number of followers.

Thanks for quoting the excerpts from the article, Veri, and that totally clears up the 'skating since her teens' thing. In the context of the article, the accusation is clearly that she took up skating in her teens and has been doing it ever since, ie 'she has been skating since her teens', so 'I haven't been skating since my teens' is a rebuttal of that and not, as most of us had read it, an admission that the last time she went skating she was a teenager!

Context is everything.

I can't see what all the fuss is about I don't think Hayley is that strong on the skating side she is certainly not IMO good enough to have had load of experience before

I'm not using it. It's the article in the People that's using it, and from the parts of the article I quoted it's clear that the paper (or the paper's source) is using it loosely.

how do you know it's her "first instinct" for all you know she could have been on the phone to her friends and family for ages first

so you're the expert at getting your feelings out at 140 characters or less. hayley spends ages talking to her fans on twitter, she's a nice genuine girl. that's probably why she so shocked by this tosh

well said !

It's because she's a Dingle