Buzz No 2 - A rather Spartan publication of just 12 sides - perhaps we were conscious of the weight and postage costs. There were 69 attendees for Re-union Two in the WO SR and SNCO's Mess, HMS Nelson, and we broke even…just!
We advertised for someone to create a website for 2MA and we offered copious amounts of alcohol in return! The jokes within are best left unrepeated!
Buzz No. 3 - Followed our third re-union held once again in the WO, SR and SNCO's Mess, HMS Nelson on Saturday 26th June 2004. There were 58 attendees.
Jack Russell made an appearance with his large model of D95, and we were working on creating a website, and our bank balance was healthy. Red Snape cleaned up in the raffle as he did the following year. We also featured a dit from Slinger Woods: -
"Slinger, now of the Norfolk Constabulary just happened one night to be patrolling a large private estate on his patch called Sandringham. Suddenly a back door of the big house opened and a little old lady appeared surrounded by corgis. Immediately recognising who this little old lady was, our hero snapped smartly to attention, saluted and uttered the universal call of all coppers "Evening all"!!! The little old lady was really impressed to find she was being guarded by such a fine young man (!!!) and enquired all about him. In no time at all Slinger was regaling his VVIP with tales of daring do as a greenie on the Mighty Manch!!… and so it came to pass that Slinger just happened to mention that they both enjoyed an oppo in common. "Who is that?" enquired the little old lady." "Connie Francis" said Slinger, "He was our Chief Bosun's Mate before he went to the Royal Yacht." "Oh yes" said the little old lady, "he made me laugh." Court Jester or what?!!! Look out for Connie spinning dits from a balcony of a big house at the end of the Mall!!"
Buzz No 4 hit the streets in late 2005 following four major events that took place in Pompey that year, namely the International Fleet Review, the International Festival of the Sea, The Trafalgar 200 celebrations and the fourth Re-union of the 2nd HMS Manchester Association which attracted 61 attendees. This was the Re-union where we introduced name tallies, thereby ensuring an end to that popular early evening game "Whose he", "Whatsizname" and "Who are you?"
My Co-Organiser, Stevie Swaine, had difficulty holding his alcohol that night, when his pint pot slipped through his fingers, and as an encore he then dropped a raffle prize, - a bottle of very rare vintage Merlot fresh out of Sainsbury's at £3.50 a bottle!! It you want to buy Stevie a beer, it's best to buy halves! It's not so messy!
Among those featured in the mag were "HTB" (Harry the B@stard) - where is he now?, the late and greatly missed Mick D'Arcy and Bill Morgan.
Another welcome newcomer, along with HTB, was Brian Logan, the star of so many pipes onboard during the late 80's. "Petty Officer Logan - Bridge" was such a familiar sound, that when our internal comms hero finally went on draft, bosun's mates discovered that his surname wasn't a double barrelled Logan-Bridge after all!
Among the regular attendees was the ubiquitous (Don't know if this word really describes him but I found it in the dictionary and wanted to use it!!.ed) Sting Wray, looking even more like his hero Pavarotti than he did last year. Sting was once again able to brief enthralled listeners with the
finer points of the Tale of the Cherry B Four, a stirring story of four selfless clankies in their efforts to help out their chums, the mishap that befell them, and the tragic miscarriage of justice that they were subjected to….and all in the same afternoon in the Gulf!!
