I don't know "steal a march"

If you steal a march, you do better than your competitor and climb to the next place on the podium..

Francis is correct. The origin of the expression is military. If two armies are facing one another, a clever commander can get his army moving, he can order them to march before the other army marches. He can "steal a march," before the other army's commander is aware of the movement. That puts the commander of the army which marched first in an advantageous position.

Here, i'll make this long and complicated.

In 1700, the King of Spain died. He had no children, and refused to let the rest of Europe dictate who would take over Spain when he died--he bequeathed Spain to the grandson of Louis XIV--the King of France. The rest of Europe was horrified. France had the largest army in the world at the time (yes, bigger than any army the Chinese had, too). The King's army was almost as large as all of the other armies in Europe combined (he had a quarter of a million men permanently in arms, which was an enormous army in 1700). The King of England, William III, was actually Dutch, and he had fought Louis XIV all his life. He set to work to create another coalition of Dutch, English, German and Austrian troops to defy Louis. He died, but not before he had formed his coalition. This became what is known as the War of the Spanish Succession. Queen Anne became the Queen of England, and she sent her friend, John Churchill, to command the coalition army. John Churchill, soon to become the Duke of Marlborough, is the greatest soldier England has ever produced.

It took a while for the war to get going. In 1701, the French armies and the coalition armies marched around, looking for an advantage, but no one found an advantage. The same thing occured in 1702, after Marlborough took command, and he was frustrated. In 1703, he again went to Flanders (modern Belgium) to confront the French, but every time he wanted to fight them, the Dutch said no. The Dutch paid most of the soldiers, and they sent commissioners to the army who had the power to say whether or not Marlborough could fight--and they said no. They had fought the French for more than forty years, and it had cost them a lot--so they did not want to risk their expensive army on a battle.

In 1703, Marlborough asked the Dutch commissioners to let him have full control of the army for three days, if he promised not to fight a battle without asking them first. They agreed. On the first day, he set out on a rapid march, and the French began to march in order to "conform"--that means they made sure the the coalition army did not get an advantage by marching to a better position which threatened them. At the end of the first day, Marlborough sent the English and German cavalry (soldiers riding horses) out to "screen" the French army. This means the cavalry prevented the French from observing what the coalition army was doing. Marlborough put his troops on a high ridge, with most of the army behind the ridge where the French could not see them. The troops the French could see began making camp, and lighting fires. The rest of the army, which the French could not see, were moved out immediately, and marched all night. While they marched, the rest of the army kept the campfires burning, and just before dawn, they began to march. By the end of the day, the French were a half-day behind, and still marching while the coalition army rested. That night, Marlborough marched again while the campfires burned. On the morning of the third day, the French had realized that the coalition army had marched, and they began to march themselves. But Marlborough had already reached the high ground to the north, and the French were strung out in a long line along the road, still marching, and Marlborough was ready to attack--he had successfully "stolen a march" on the French. The Dutch saw the advantage, but were fearful of the cost of a battle, and they begged Marlborough not to attack.

In 1704, Marlborough decide to act without the Dutch. He told them he was going to march, and asked them to send him their troops if the French did not attack at the end of three weeks. He took the English troops, and the German troops paid by the English, and he marched up the Rhine river (meaning he marched south by southeast). As he marched, the French were "fixed," which means that they did not dare move from their positions, because they did not know where Marlborough would attack. He did not steal one march on them, he stole one march after the other. He reached the Black Forest, and joined the German troops under Austrian command, and disappeared from the view of the French. Prince Louis of Baden joined him with Imperial troops (Germans and Austrians paid by the Holy Roman Emperor, who was Austrian), and they marched over the highlands to the Danube River. By then, the Dutch had seen that the French were paralyzed in Flanders (they were sending troops after Marlborough, and didn't have enough troops left to threaten the Dutch), so they sent their troops after Marlborough. Because Marlborough's march had paralyzed the French, the Dutch were free to send their troops by river boat up the Rhine, and they eventually caught up to Marlborough and joined his army.

Max Emmanuel, the Prince-Elector of Bavaria (which is west of Austria) had betrayed the Emperor and joined the French. The French and Bavarians had planned to attack Vienna. Marlborough suddenly turned up, with a large army--he had "stolen a march" on the French in a big way. At Donauworth, the coalition army attacked the French and Bavarians in a short and costly battle, and prevented them from fortifying a base, and therefore prevented them from marching on Vienna. Marlborough was joined by Prince Eugene of Savoy, arguably the greatest soldier of the day, with many Austrian troops. They marched into Bavaria, burning farms and villages, and forced the French and Bavarians to come after them. Then he disappeared again. When the French and Bavarians finally caught up, with their troops exhausted from constant marching, they found the coalition army camping on the high ground north of the Danube River, near the villlage of Blindheim (which the English have always called Blenheim), and it appeared that the coalition army was going to march north to Franconia, to try to escape. Both armies camped for the night, and the French commander, Marsin, was confident that he had them trapped--that they could not safely march away, which was true. But Marlborough did not intend to march away. He had stolen his latest march to allow his army to rest. The next day, Augsut 13, 1704, he attacked the French and Bavarians, and after a long, bloody battle, he broke their line, and scattered their army. The French never again threatened Vienna in that war, and Max Emmanuel became a Prince without a country--he became a dependent of the French, and all he brought them was a few thousand Bavarian troops whom the French were obliged to feed and pay.

In both the small local sense, Marlborough had stolen several marches on the French. In the larger, strategic sense, he stole a march, and forced them to do battle at a disadvantage, on ground of his own choosing. He won a great victory, and changed the course of the war. From that time forward, the French danced to his tune, and had to react to him, because they never knew when he would steal another march on them. He did it again and again, and by 1709, he actually invaded France.

The rest of the story is even longer and more complicated, but i'll leave that out. Marlborough and Eugene of Savory were two great soldiers, who were able to steal a march on their enemies on many occasions.

Dear sir, could you tell me how to understand the following sentence?

setanta is big show off!

thank you! for your plep

I can do that with one lobe of my brain tied behind my back . . .

I'm sure my remarks might confuse you, so i'll provide an example.

If there were a contest, with a prize, your friends might say: "I'm sure to win!" But if they go home, and watch football, and listen to music, but you go home and study very hard, the next day, you could win the contest and the prize. Then you could say: "I won the prize because i was able to steal a march on my friends." You were prepared, and they were not.