WWRITING about military matters can be a minefield. As you will have seen from previous Feedback columns, we occasionally trip up over nomenclature, armed forces for the use of.

Years ago when I worked in a newspaper office not much more than a bosun's bellow from a Royal Navy base it was dinned into us that we had to get the terminology correct. For example, if we said someone was serving oon HHMS Fearless rather than iin tthat ship, the editor would get a call from someone with gold rings on his sleeve asking ever so politely if we could please get it right next time.

People in the armed forces and those who used to serve in them take pride in being all present and correct and when we slip up it only confirms their opinions about us sloppy civilians.

Which brings us to a story and pictures we ran last week and a question: What's the difference between a tank and an armoured car?

Easy, says Ronald Talbot from Hove, who lambasts us for our ignorance. Tanks have caterpillar tracks, armoured cars have wheels.

And the vehicle we were writing about last week and called a tank, albeit a small one, is most definitely an armoured car, he says.

It is an ex-United Nations vehicle and belongs to military memorabilia fanatics Nigel and Clare Wolek who turn heads when they pop out in it for a Sunday drive.

Mr Talbot says armoured cars, with protection that is only bullet-proof, are used in war for reconnaissance, patrol and security duties. The armour is generally less than an inch thick and the cars are essentially light cavalry. Heavyweight tanks, running on tracks, are different beasts altogether with front armour two or three inches thick.

To reinforce his point Mr Talbot sent me pictures of several armoured cars from the museum guide of the Royal Armoured Corps Centre in Dorset. Thank you, we stand corrected and will try to be more careful next time we dust off our Tanks For The Memory headline.

Finally Mr Talbot says he does not approve of civilians buying such vehicles and playing about with them. The driver's vision is often restricted and if there is an accident, they can cause serious damage. Yes, but on balance I'd rather have Nigel's armoured car in my rear view mirror than some of the monster trucks on the motorways that seem always to want to nudge my back bumper.

Now to cricket. I'm delighted to tell you, if you have not already noticed, that from this season our coverage of Sussex is more comprehensive.

We have sent an Argus writer to every day's play, home and away, and more often than not we have live pictures from the game.

When a match is in progress you can read a full account of the previous day's play in all editions of the Argus plus an on-the-day report and scoreboard in later editions.

Apologies to Bev Robbins, chairman of Sussex Society of Licensed Victuallers. He is landlord of the Hand in Hand in Upper St James Street, Brighton. In our story on Tuesday about the Brighton meets Dieppe event we wrongly said he was mine host at the Heart in Hand.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.