The Second
HMS Manchester Association
LATEST NEWS, Continued...






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Slops

New style crested Polo Shirts - 1982 - 2011 - Available in Maroon or Dark Blue

Available in sizes - Large (L), Extra Large (XL), Extra Extra Large (2XL)

Cost - £14.00 plus £2.00 P&P

AND

Crested Baseball Caps        Cost - £9.00 plus £1.00 P&P


Interested? Please send Ian an email with size and colour required.


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Jonathan "Sting" Wray
Jonathan "Sting" Wray left the safety of his native Yorkshire for a life on the grey and crinkly stuff, and in a pensionable career, he clanked his way around the machinery spaces of Ye Olde Bulwark, Ark Royal, Norfolk, Newcastle, Diligence, Biter, St Ursula (Royal Virgin Island Police vessel), Leeds Castle and of course the Mighty Manch which he joined immediately post Global 86 as advance party for those charged with re-instating the ships reputation following that Soddin' World Cruise!  A Global 86 Dit Listening Specialist, "Sting's" favourite warship - and this is a change from the norm - is not D95, but HMS Biter, a P2000 craft with a ship's company of circa 5, and where "Sting" - as MEO - was Senior Engineer...and quite often Junior Engineer too!  Equally surprising is his list of favourite runs ashore which includes D95's visit to Liverpool and Newcastle's visit up the Tyne, where, evidently love was involved!

A larger than life character - literally - "Sting" made a valiant attempt whilst on D95 to build a fifth diesel entirely from items available from Naval Stores and was only thwarted for the lack of two washers before he legged it on draft!  Among his nocturnal activities - when not guarding his messes supply of CSB - was to edit the "Dear Doctor" column of the ship's excellent newspaper.  However, whatever ailment, affliction or catastrophe beset our gallant band, his remedial prescription was always the same "starve yourself for 24 hours, don't listen to the evening sitrep, and don't forget to take your anti malaria pills!"  However, his greatest claim to fame was as a member of the Cherry B Four, a tale of heroism and daring do which he has kindly recalled in his own words and it goes something like this...

"We sailed from Pompey for the gulf, [Armilla patrol] and at the time we were due to call into Oman and some other politically sensitive ports so the Good Ideas Club came up with a privileged leave list.  Everyone onboard was on the  privileged leave list until you went into the brown and smelly at which point your name was removed from said list.  If the next port of call was deemed a privileged leave port, and if your name was not on the list, you could not be allowed ashore. 



There were five qualified Chief of the watches, Myself, Simon Marriott, Rog Jones, Knobby Clark, and Keith Midgley, - Keith had flown back to the UK on compassionate leave and we were on patrol in the Straits of Hormuz and were due to be relieved by Charybdis, however, the Cherry B had Air conditioning problems which meant she had no radar and had lost some weapons systems too, so when we came out of the Straits we were going to have to go back in to do her patrol.  Before commencing this, it was decided that we would raft up alongside the Tidespring with Cherry B on the other side for a swift drift in the Gulf of Oman.  I knew the Air conditioning Tiff on the Cherry B [Ray Francis] so us clankies decided it would be a jolly good wheeze to take a cold pint of CSB over to the clankies sweltering in the Chiefs mess on the Cherry B - Knobby Clark was on watch - so myself, Wobbly Wagg, Simon , and Rog Jones duly embarked on this mission of mercy.  Having arrived in the Chiefs mess on the Cherry B, we found that their beer cooler was working fine and that despite there being no air conditioning, if sufficient volumes of cool CSB were consumed ones body temperature could be maintained at something like normal levels!  The Cherry B clanky crew being somewhat miffed at the Manchester "hit" squad decided to disconnect the tannoy so that no pipes could be heard in the mess!  [eventually, Simon [always the sensible one] said something like "what time are we sailing?  "Ah don't worry they'll pipe when we are due to go" replied Wobbly.  Whilst I was intent on downing just one more pint of the Cherry B's ice cold CSB, Simon went up onto the upper deck to find out when we were sailing only to find only one warship tied up to the Tidespring and the Mighty Manchester was a tiny speck on the horizon.  OH SH*T! I think were the exact words used when he duly informed us of this fact, (this was of course immediately followed by raucous laughter from the Cherry B bastards in the mess who had stitched us up!)

Messages were duly sent from Bridge to Bridge and the Manchester ground to a halt, and the buffer was woken from his afternoon siesta and told to arrange a water taxi for the miscreants!  Meanwhile conversations regarding sheep and lambs were taking place in the Cherry B's mess, so more beer was consumed whilst awaiting transport!  The buffer on the Mighty Manch knowing we were all in whites - and being the kindly chap that he was, (an upstanding non drinking never sh*ts on an oppo type,) made sure that when we arrived alongside he had selected the scrambling net that was dunked overboard in an oil slick in Mombasa, and had organised the whole ships company to man the side.  How he managed to train them all so well in the chorus of that well known Naval Ballad "Privileged leave - Privileged Leave" in such a short time has always amazed me!  Indeed - Never in the history of being adrift, has the return of so few been witnessed by so many!  One other part of the welcoming committee was the MEO who wasn't quite as pleased to see us, and was rather more intent on having our buttons! 

After the subsequent patrol, us four miscreants were lined up at the Skippers table and charged with being absent for four hours.  The Skipper, struggling to keep a straight face due to the dit value of the enterprise, greatly enhanced by the cult status we enjoyed - partly due to the Manchester Evening News - christening us "The Cherry B Four", issued fines of £65 and wisely decided that as the offence took place at sea, we could not possibly be removed from the privileged leave list!" (Good dit Sting, the only thing you didn't mention was the sixteen attempts you made to put your foot on the scrambling net.  It did ever so slightly give the game away!)

Outside since June 98, "Sting" is now the Overseas Business Manager for a combined heat and power corporation.  His hobbies include sailing his yacht Seashell - where be also frequently doubles up as bar manager!  Our Pavarotti look alike hero is a stalwart member of 2MA.
Sting learns the Mighty Manch has sailed without him!
KNOW YOUR SHIPMATE!
The True Cherry B 4 Story - out now!
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Don Hazeldon

Don Hazeldon joined Pusser UK Ltd in 1966 as a baked beans bosun, and after a brief course at the RN Cookery School - aptly named HMS King Alfred - to learn the difference between salt and sugar, he was off on a pensionable career to test the digestive systems of matelots onboard Eagle, Fife,  London and twice onboard the Mighty Manch - 82-85 and 88-90.  As for his best run ashore, Don gives another vote for Singapore (Xmas 89) whilst South Georgia (83/84) also impressed our culinary consultant.  Among Don's many claims to fame is the time he was nominated from a cast of one to bake a cake for HRH Princess Anne's birthday - evidently the cake was fine - but decorating it with a fist full of Pusser's one inch candles did not enhance his career or catering prospects!  (Evidently, Candles, Birthday cake, Princesses for the use of, were out of stock in Naval Stores!)

Outside since 91, Don is still in the scran game as a production manager for a Kent frozen food company and among his leisure pursuits he is a S/Lt in his local sea cadet unit.  Sir Don, as we like to call him, is also studying for a degree in Computer Science and he has now reached the advanced stage where he only frequently confuses the "Send" and "Delete" buttons...with devastating effect!  Indeed it is rumoured at PC World that Don struggles with computers like Gordon Ramsey struggles with profanity free speech!  It must be a cooking thing!  Don is a founder member of 2MA.
Don Hazeldon joined Pusser UK Ltd in 1966 as a baked beans bosun, and after a brief course at the RN Cookery School - aptly named HMS King Alfred - to learn the difference between salt and sugar, he was off on a pensionable career to test the digestive systems of matelots onboard Eagle, Fife, London and twice onboard the Mighty Manch - 82 - 85 and 88 - 90.  As for his best run ashore, Don gives another vote for Singapore (Xmas 89) whilst South Georgia (83/84) also impressed our culinary consultant.  Among Don's many claims to fame is the time he was nominated from a cast of one to bake a cake for HRH Princess Anne's birthday - evidently the cake was fine - but decorating it with a fistful of Pusser's one inch candles did not enhance his career or catering prospects!  (Evidently, Candles, Birthday cake, Princesses for the use of, were out of stock in Naval Stores!).

Outside since 91, Don is still in the scran game as a production manager for a Kent frozen food company and among his leisure pursuits he is a S/Lt in his local sea cadet unit.  Sir Don, as we like to call him, is also studying for a degree in Computer Science and he has now reached the advanced stage where he only frequently confuses the "Send" and "Delete" buttons...with devastating effect!  Indeed it is rumoured at PC World that Don struggles with computers like Gordon Ramsey struggles with profanity free speech!  It must be ca cooking thing!  Don is a founder member of 2MA.
Cooks mate Ann with Sir Don!