I’ve mentioned before my little habit of scribbling down bits and pieces from books I’ve been reading (words/phrases/place names) intending to look further and then not being able to remember where they came from.
I’ve just begun reading Starting over – Marcia Willett (1997) a very gentle book about beginnings/endings in the lives of some English people connected to each other and this (👇in bold ) turned up.
…..Robert was determined that Pippa’s inadequacies should not queer his pitch….
No idea what it meant but I had a vague recollection I had heard/read it before.
But where??
Luck was with me this time😊 – looking for something else the answer turned up – part of a sentence- not on a scrap of paper but in ‘notes’ ….
….Because her arithmetic, which was abysmal always queered her pitch…
and I’d even noted where I found it.
Tea is so intoxicating- Mary Essex (1950)
Another very English book I read last November!
Obviously that’s as far as I’d gone or I’d have remembered that it meant ‘spoil someone’s chances’ or something similar.
How well known is it – are any of you familiar with it – use it even?
******
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/queer-someones-pitch
Still Waters 
I have never heard or read of that expression. Just goes to show, one can learn something new everyday.
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I haven’t come across it either. A new one for me too!
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Both of my parents used it – and I doubt that I have heard it since they died. Definitely a very English phrase (despite English being my father’s second language).
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Nope, new to me – but then again I’m not a native speaker (Danish). I never came across it in any books either.
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Yup – familiar with that one and use it reasonably often. I am perfectly capable of queering my own pitch rather too often.
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and also https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/queer-the-pitch.html?utm_content=cmp-true
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I ddon’t think I’ve ever used that phrase, but I’ve always known it. My father probably used to use it. He loved using different words and phrases
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Yes, I’m quite familiar with it and what it means. I doubt I’ve ever used it though, and I can’t remember hearing anyone else use it.
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I know of it but it’s not a quote I would use
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