In the meantime, the Mighty Manch is halfway through her final deployment. As it happens, prior to departure, Warship Wonderful has been chosen for another "Life in the Pusser" TV Documentary, and by way of a change this one is free of brass tops and flat tops. However, the TV company are a little concerned about bimbling around on the grey and crinkley stuff as winter approaches as it is rumoured that it often gets a little lumpy!...so the film crew and the Mighty Manch are hastily despatched to the West Indies, where the weather is warm, the sea is blue, and there is an array of classic runs ashore…and a certain, soon to be famous, ocean going coconut!
OCTOBER 2010
Back at 2MA HQ, Gary Kempsford, a full career matelot who cracked two drafts to D95 (92-94 and 2000) and Paul "Boxer" Graham from Leyland, Lancs, who was an AB Radar on the first commish, willingly surrender their street cred and clamber onboard 2MA. The last edition of the Buzz (No. 9) hits the streets,…to critical acclaim, and we are forced to issue an immediate apology on account our editor inexplicably and without malice aforethought confused two of Pompey's more famous pubs, namely Ruby's - where the good guys go, and Martha's, where the gay guys go (allegedly!) and so when we just happened to mention Shippy Shipman met Aggie Christie in the latter named establishment, they were both somewhat keen that we issued a retraction! (Male bonding is one thing, male bonding in Martha's is another, allegedly!) We were of course were very happy to oblige, on account we do like an element of truth to appear in our paper (News of the World please note - oh no, you can't!) and we were not influenced in any way by the fact that both Aggie and Shippy work for the "Old Bill"! We were Guilty as charged!... In the meantime, Martha's has closed!
NOVEMBER 2010
A relatively quiet month, which we later learned was the calm before the storm! With filming nearly complete, D95 is on her way home, and thoughts turn towards the imminent De-commissioning. We field a number of enquiries from 2MA members keen to be on the jetty on the last day, while others let it be known of their intentions to contact long lost oppos currently serving onboard, and give them an offer they simply cannot refuse! Meanwhile, in a sleepy corner of West Sussex, Roger Caldwell - a POWEM(O) on the first commish contacts the outside world and slaps in to join 2MA.
DECEMBER 2010
Thursday December 9th dawns bright and sunny with a chilly wind, and anchored in Spithead is that graceful greyhound of the oceans, the Mighty Manch, busily preparing for her final operational homecoming. We despatch our raving reporter complete with box brownie, to capture the moment for posterity, and at his regular vantage point between the Round Tower and Billy Mannings, he is soon joined by another member of the Press Corps - complete with hoofing great camera, and a lens longer than a porn stars penis! As it happens, Billy Bigcamera is on assignment from a well known newspaper that we shall call the "Currant Bun", and he is not too chuffed at being detailed to record the Mighty Manch's homecoming, when, at the same time students were rioting in London and he wanted to be in the thick of the action! However, he soon became much more lucid when our own reporter quickly explained that he had been handed a once in a lifetime opportunity to record Her Majesty's Finest entering harbour, whilst our astute representative was sure there would be other opportunities for Billy to photograph rioting up in the Smoke…which suggests Billy might have been busy in early August! Entering harbour completed in fine style, the happy snappers exchanged business cards, with Billy promising copies of his phots - the take ratio being 40-1 - for 2MA to use on the www.
No sooner had Billy bxggered off to London in his Beamer, our raving reporter received a call from the aforementioned newspaper. The conversation went something like this -
"You must be really sad that HMS Manchester is being scrapped as part of the defence cuts?"
"No", said our man, "I'm naturally sad that she is being decommissioned, but Manchester, like all the other Type 42's is very old, and the Navy has had 29 wonderful years from her. Her passing has nothing to do with recent defence cuts." The newspaper chap was undeterred and continued to prompt and probe for any anti Pusser type quote without success, before finally and abruptly giving up! We later learned he had contacted another equally astute 2MA founder member that day and got the same answers! As a result on page 41 in the following morning's paper - next to a half page expose on Morrison's £4.85 per head Crimbo dinner, complete with colour phot of a well stuffed turkey, the following grossly inaccurate article appeared:-
