Blades wins poll “fairly overwhelmingly”

Yes, I clicked through on this Sport24 story thinking it had something to do with Sheffield United. It didn’t.

Instead, I learned that Hugh “Blades” Bladon had been voted SA’s favourite rugby commentator in a poll on the Sport24 website.

Apparently Hugh’s was a “landslide victory”, polling, as he did, 34% of the vote. His win was described by the site as being “fairly overwhelming”.

Can something really be “fairly overwhelming”? Isn’t that like being “a bit unique”? Surely when wanting to downplay the meaning of “overwhelming” somewhat, you should just use the word “whelming”?