EC1, I refer you to Warbler's use of the term "apologist". The inference is clear, so have another think about whether HF is being crabbed or not.
I credited Warbler with being more than a common troll, but maybe you're right, and this should just be allowed to descend into a thread for yanking people's chains, rather than an assessment of the race - though I have to say, you advocacy of the "wind-up" approach to thread-development, is somewhat surprising.
Let's see how it goes.
PS. If you can find ANYWHERE on the thread where I've "knocked" the pace-figures, I'll give you a million quid. I may have queried or disagreed with the conclusions you draw from the figures, but I have never once questioned the numbers, because to do so would make me an idiot.