The Bone of Contention

[Prangster]

Do the respectives messes still fight it out or like many other traditions has this one too faded away?http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/icons/46.gif

[Courtney Mil]

In what way, Prangster?

[Pontius Navigator]

CM, from your response one could infer the answer is no.

Games Nights.

A rarer beast was officers' mess games nights between stations. I guess that died out when you needed to travel for hours and the other mess was all OOA.

There used to be regular games matches between Swinderby and Waddington and a different sort of games night with Spital Gate or Nocton Hall :)

[smujsmith]

As a member of the Sgts Mess at Lyneham for many years, the Bi annual games night with the O's Mess was always something to be enjoyed. ISTR that there was a Christmas beer call, which similarly alternated each year between the two messes, which was also "proper fun". I'm sure Machrihanish, Abingdon and Waddington all had similar events when I served there. This was all between 1980 and 1997. Is it still "game on"???

Smudge

[thing]

Was in two OM's on two consecutive weekends last month, one army one RAF, both utterly deserted.

Well apart from me and some of my colleagues dossing there.

[Pontius Navigator]

thing, which is why dining-in nights moved to Thursdays.

I still remember a party in No 2 Mess at Lindholme near 50 years ago or at Cottesmore when marrieds came in for one party while livers-in bailed out to local hostelries various. Also the fish pond at the SM at Cottesmore (I think but memories are very vague about that).

[BEagle]

Was in two OM's on two consecutive weekends last month, one army one RAF, both utterly deserted.

It wasn't any better at RAF Abingdon 20 years ago... The only car park was reserved for some wee-stained old fart educators, no-one lived in and with nowhere to park, it wasn't even possible to nip over from the UAS for lunch or to have a beer with the students in the evening...

A chum on OUAS did weekend SDO and told me he hadn't seen a single person in the OM all weekend.

A far cry from the RAF I joined.....:uhoh:

thing, which is why dining-in nights moved to Thursdays.

The bean-stealers tried that at RAF Biggin Hill in 1977, so that they could bugger off at Friday lunchtime taking their dining-in night hangovers home with them. But a concerted junta of aircrew and officer reselectees voted against the proposal, so that the dining-in nights remained scheduled for Friday. Quite right too!

As an 18 year old APO at RAF White Waltham, I would be woken up by a batman with a cup of tea. Then off to breakfast, which would be served by mess staff - none of this self service nonsense! If I was free at lunchtime, I would also be served with luncheon. In the evening, it was jacket and tie in the OM, but after a few pre-dinner drinks in the bar, dinner would again be served by mess staff. Afterwards, it was either a few more beers in the bar, perhaps something on TV in the bar annex - or into our cars and over to West London Aero Club.

Entirely normal for those times. But from about 1974 onwards, OM quality of life and standards began to be progressively eroded.

[thing]

Indeed. Mind you looking back I'm sure that the mob was partly fuelled by avtur and partly by alcohol. There would be a lot of frowning these days at the antics I (and I'm sure everyone else) used to get up to.

Different world, glad I lived in the one I had.

RAF White Waltham?!! Exactly how old are you?!:)

You'll be pleased to learn that the runway at WW is still as rough as old boots...

[BEagle]

You'll be pleased to learn that the runway at WW is still as rough as old boots...

It is indeed.

A pity that WLAC removed all the model aircraft which used to hang above the bar....:mad:

[PingDit]

ISTR that when I first joined the WO & SNCO's mess, we were required to attend a minimum of 3 functions a year, to include at least one formal function. The 'bone of contention' was every 6 months, alternating between messes. It never mattered who won on the night, the 'bone' just continued to alternate between the messes as well!
I used to like the schooner race!

[Union Jack]

Well the "Beira Bucket" was certainly a "bone of contention for those of darker blue", as described at:
Open Writing: The Beira Bucket (http://www.openwriting.com/archives/2008/12/the_beira_bucke_1.php) and pictured at:
Beira Bucket | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/61518268@N00/3292826011/)

(with apologies in advance for the author's spelling of "Shackleton", and for describing them as "ageing"!:=)

Jack

[Pontius Navigator]

As an 18 year old APO at RAF White Waltham, I would be woken up by a batman with a cup of tea. Then off to breakfast, which would be served by mess staff - none of this self service nonsense!

By far the best was Waddo before that. No matter how many had just arrived at your breakfast table you got your own pot of tea, your own rack of toast, and your full fry and fruit juice. I can't remember if the first course was self-service. Butter pats were served in a chilled dish; there was a revolt at one time when they tried to switch to individual foil packs. The messing member avoided a lynching by a narrow margin.

In Ascension in the 80s we had good dining in nights, no one except the night shift sloping off but no games nights. We may have had Christmas drinks however.

[ian16th]

PN,

I still remember a party in No 2 Mess at Lindholme near 50 years ago or at Cottesmore when marrieds came in for one party while livers-in bailed out to local hostelries various. If the hostelry was The Robin Hood & Little John, it was Lindholme :ok:

[Pontius Navigator]

No, not Hatfield Wodehouse. This was half left out the front door of the mess.

[Haraka]

A pity that WLAC removed all the model aircraft which used to hang above the bar....http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/censored.gif
There might be a reason for that Beags.
We were over there one night in a corner whilst a certain APO R.... E....... was up at the bar chatting away with the barman ( Yes that one, Ducky).
R.E. strolls over and bets me he will buy me a pint if I can identify all the models over the bar (IIRC about 50).
I go up and stroll down the bar rattling them all off ( one of my few talents). End of the test, R.E. who has lost the bet , is grinning from ear to ear.
The barman has a face like the proverbial Chinese sh1t taster.
R.E. had bet a round for all the bar with the barman , that he had a mate who could identify the lot.
That might have been the night we got 12 in and on a Triumph Herald for the trip back. Then after about an hour back could only count 11, having forgotten the guy still shut in the car boot.

[Wander00]

used to fly with the AEF at WW when a CCF Cadet, then after flying scholarship was a member of WLAC until I went to Cranwell in Jan 63. CFI lived in Ickenham and Dad dropped me at his house and I drove him in his VW beetle to WW.

[BEagle]

Ah yes, Haraka, wasn't that the same Triumph Herald in which we used to go chasing rabbits on the aerodrome at night? Taking pot shots with an air rifle from the passenger seat... I think it belonged to the (then) girlfriend of APO N***l H*****s? Little did she know!

On one occasion we actually managed to pot one. So it was taken back into the block and an unfortunate chum who'd gone to bed early found himself with a still warm and fluffy bedmate.... The scream and subsequent yell of "GET IT OUT!!!" soon followed. I have a feeling that it was the very same APO R***r E******w!

I gather that the models were removed when some new broom decided to change the image of the bar...then they were relocated to a hangar before being despatched by BSA Meteor .22. Including a model of the Starship Enterprise which I'd made and donated to WLAC - although some idiot did ask what scale it was...:rolleyes:

[Prangster]

Beags I was thinking along the lines of midnight commando raids to liberate the darn thing from which ever bar currently displayed it. Distincly remember being held captive whilst some regiment gentlemen went about their business

[BEagle]

Well, although from the days of a bygone RAF, I recall Officers' Mess vs. Sergeants' Mess games nights and also Aircrew vs. Groundcrew 'Benders vs. Menders' intra-squadron competitions, I've never heard of anyone attempting to steal the trophy....:eek:

To do so would run entirely against the spirit of such friendly competition and I'm astonished that even 'regiment gentlemen' (surely an oxymoron?) would stoop to such a level.

[Haraka]

The OM v Sgts mess games nights I felt were an essential part of the bonding exercise within the Service. Certainly it was a chance for all to let their hair down a bit and a great training ground for Junior Officers to be exposed to the wit and cunning of the other mess. Alcohol tolerance also had to be gained!
On your point about WLAC Beags, things certainly changed. I dropped in post ULAS departure one day. No kits over the bar, "Fairey Aviation" had departed
" Up north somewhere" and I realised that those days were over.
Now regarding night time activity on the airfield: something about firing TIMEX flares "won" from the runway caravan over courting couples' cars on the old peri track comes to mind........:E

[BEagle]

Not I, but a chum did allegedly find a Cortina with misted up windows bouncing about on its springs....until one of those flares were discharged into the immediate vicinity.....:E

Ah - the days of the handwritten menu (pencil scrawl on the back of an envelope) announcing the delights of 'beffbrugers' and 'spong' at dinner... probably penned by that awful tart who allegedly 'entertained' the M4 construction workers for extra pennies.....:\

[Haraka]

"WANT SOUP?"



:sad: