being champions of the shag machine

[Jonathan]

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The English comedienne, Dawn French, caused a stir when she spoke out against “ladette culture", the British scourge abroad.

Here are some of her comments about seeing a programme on lasses “on the lash” in Ibiza (for Ibiza read Mallorca, Kavos, Malia, Laganas, Agia Napa):-

They go out and get utterly hammered and are shagging in a bush, acting like the men we hoped we wouldn't ever be like, and certainly not mimic as women — being champions of the shag machine and going home and throwing up... is that what women flung themselves in front of horses for?

[In response, Georgette Culley wrote in The Sun: “Rolling around in bushes, skinny dipping and dancing on tables are some of my fondest memories.” She added: “Women shouldn’t be telling other women how to behave”.]

[spiros]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/exclusive-interview-dawn-french-on-body-shaming-lenny-henry-and-her-fears-for-todays-young-women-z9dx9v36h
Dawn French is wrong for criticising women for having sex and drinking | Metro News
https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/4495718/alcohol-lad-behaviour-dawn-french-feminism-row/

I guess this is not much of an idiom, just a literary construct: "κάνοντας πρωταθλητισμό στο σεξ και... στον εμετό".

Mind you, a shag machine can also be some type of carpet-making machine. The slang meaning in its literal form would be "μηχανή του σεξ" or "γαμησομηχανή" if you are talking about a device (which is also an interesting short story by Bukowski).

And since we are talking about the word "shag", you may also like this:

I remember the very day, sometime during the first two weeks of my five-year amorous sojourn in Brutland, when I was made privy to one of the most arcane of their utterings. The time was ripe for that major epiphany, my initiation into the sacred knowledge—or should I say gnosis?—of that all-important, quintessentially Brutish slang term, the word that endless hours of scholastic education by renowned mentors, plus years of scrupulous scrutiny into scrofulous texts, had disappointingly failed to impart to me, leaving me with that deep sense of emptiness begotten by hemimathy; the time was finally ripe for me to be transported by the velvety feel of the unvoiced palato-alveolar fricative, the élan of the unpronounceable and masochistically hedonistic front open-rounded vowel, and, last but not least, the (admittedly short) ejaculatory quality of the voiced velar stop: all three of them combined together to form that miraculous lexical item, the word shag.
No Sex Please, We’re Brutish!

[Jonathan]

Θεγξ, Σπύρο. Νομίζω πως έχεις δίκιο: 'champions of the shag machine' δεν είναι ιδίωμα αλλά μια λογοτεχνία. Προσπαθώ να μεταφράσω το παραπάνω απόσπασμα στα Ελληνικά μα υπάρχουν τόσες δυσκολίες για τον μαθητή. Για 'going home & spewing up' έγραψα "πηγαίνοντας σπίτι και ξερνώντας". Αυτό φαίνεται εντάξει.:)

[spiros]

"ξερνώντας" is fine (but "throwing up" was quoted originally, which is less harsh, not "spewing up"), the problem is that when translating into a non-mother tongue it is really hard to have a grasp of the appropriate syntax, lexis and style but it is a good exercise if one has native speaker feedback. Again, the issues tend to multiply the longer the chunk gets: one might get the translation of a word fine, but not of a phrase or a sentence. For example, the gerund is very common in English, but equivalent constructs are uncommon in Greek and sound unnatural, hence, syntax and grammar-lever transformation must take place.

[Jonathan]

Thanks for all this much appreciated help, Spiros! I try & write in Greek as often as possible but am sometimes reluctant to expose my ignorance to others.
Just for the record, this was my final version. I hope it is passable Greek.

Βγαίνουν και γίνονται σκνίπα και μετά πηδιούνται πίσω απο τους φράχτες, συμφερμένες έτσι σαν οι άντρες που ελπίζαμε τους ποτέ δεν θα μοιάσουμε ως γυναίκες και ασφαλώς δεν θα μιμηθούμε, να κάνουν πρωταθλητισμό στο σεξ και μετά στο σπίτι στον εμετό. Γι' αυτό οι γυναίκες πετάχτηκαν μπροστά στ' άλογα;

[spiros]

συμφερμένες - does not exist, it would have to be συμπεριφερόμενες ως άντρες - use this site to check: https://www.lexigram.gr/lex/newg/%CF%83%CF%85%CE%BC%CF%80%CE%B5%CF%81%CE%B9%CF%86%CE%B5%CF%81%CF%8C%CE%BC%CE%B5%CE%BD%CE%B5%CF%82&selR=1#Hist1
στο σπίτι στον εμετό - στο σπίτι για να κάνουν εμετό

A quick idiomatic attempt. Note extra bits of information (italics) added in order to make more sense in Greek.

Βγαίνουν τα βράδια, γίνονται σκνίπα και μετά πηδιούνται πίσω από τους θάμνους, υιοθετώντας συμπεριφορά αντρών στους οποίους δεν θα θέλαμε ποτέ να μοιάσουμε, πόσο μάλλον να μιμηθούμε, δηλαδή να παραβγαίνουν στο ποια θα πηδήξει τους περισσότερους και μετά να γυρνάνε σπίτι και να ξερνοβολάνε. Αυτός είναι ο λόγος για τον οποίο οι σουφραζέτες πετάχτηκαν μπροστά στ' άλογα;

[Jonathan]

Ένα μεγάλο ευχαριστώ, Σπύρο, γι' όλα αυτά.Βοηθάει πάρα πολύ να συγκρίνω τις δυο μεταφράσεις για να κάνω τις αναγκαίες διορθώσεις. Γηράσκω αεί διδασκόμενος!:)