MUSS Big Dick Award

We want to issue a paragraph on each winner, a character ref (!) and the story of why they won. But we need your help. Please send your recollections of why the Big Dick was awarded, and nominations for this year. Either fill in this form or e-mail Philipandbabs@cs.com.

Your Name:                Year:
   E-mail:       Winner's Name:
    Story: Character Ref:

Stories

1979, Sleeping in Fire: Andy Sweetman
"It was as Lank Mills' place in Rossendale, and he'd had a party/BBQ. The BBQ was held over the remains of an excessively large fire that didn't burn down sufficiently for cooking on until about midnight. After eating we were sitting around drinking (more) beer/wine and blathering, with me sitting on a trestle at one end. I just nodded off and toppled off the trestle straight into the fire. I woke up in time to keep my face out of the fire. My knees were protected by my trousers, my left hand landed on the bricks at the edge and only got a bit singed, but my right hand went straight in the middle. I spent the next couple of hours with my hand under the cold tap, didn;t go caving the next day, and called in at the hospital when I got back to Sheffield. My hand was still in bandages when I went off on the club expedition to Austria 4 (?) weeks later."

1991, Setting Ireland on Fire: Sam Lieberman and John Bown
"MUSS go to Ireland, our 2nd forray to the Burren, & John & I went off in search of Cullaun 1 for our Good Friday caving trip. It took some time to find an entrance in the featureless bog planted with young conifers, but eventually a likely candidate was found and laddered down to a stream canyon. Following this down there were several sections where daylight was visible above and John poked his head up for a look. Following along behind, I heard a strange crackling noise as I passed by and went up for a look myself hoping to catch some rare wildlife (porcupine or something) instead I was greeted by a small patch of dry grass on fire, about the size of a breakfast plate. Whilst beating out the flames on one side, the flames on other side set off across the bog at astonishing speed, by the time John came back there was a small bush on fire and deciding to make a sharp exit we ran across the bog stopping only to retreive the ladder. 10min's later, back at the car, a large proportion of the area appeared to be on fire with flames 50ft in the air. The smoke, visible from Lisdoonvarna, had brought the local forestry chap out for a look. Now changed, we informed the man that we had been on the way up from the coast when we spotted the fire and were hastening with all speed to inform someone in town about it, he shugged his shoulders and said that it didn't look too bad and there was nothing he could do about it anyway. Indeed the next day, though looking a bit singed, it was hard to tell that anything had happened at all."

History of MUSS

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JS
February 2004