Hi, I was wondering if anybody could help our current rag committe try and retrace our history.

The rag committee seems to have died over the past few years but we have been working hard to rebuild it up again. From what we have heard we have one of the most infamous rags in the country with the stunts that have been pulled in the past.

We have recently found out that last year was our 75th Birthday, is this true? We would have liked to have had stuff like this archived so we could have celebrated it.

We are now trying to build an archive of our history so we can recreate events and also leave something for future committees so that milestones such as big birthdays don't get forgotten again.

Please email me at lwa02rt@shef.ac.uk with any information, funny stories or photos.

Also look out for the biggest and best rag week in March next year and the infamous Spiderwalk at the end of this month.

For more info on what we are up to now please check out www.sheffiedrag.org.uk

Rach xxxx

In 1969, some japester(s) climbed on top of the old Pond Street bus station roof.

The wag(s) painted the legend "Rag 69" on the roofing material. It was still there, quite visible, approx 20 yrs later when the old bus station was demolished.

PT

Contact Helen Mathers, the official centenary historian of the university. She will be able to help you out with all manner of things to do with shef rag.

Track her down via the staff list on www.shef.ac.uk/history

I believe there is someone on this forum who used to work with rag when I was at Sheffield University, maybe he might be able to provide you with some details.

The Manager/Owner of THE NELSON used to work in Sheffield RAG, along with the assistant Manager Pete.....they were certainly on the RAG committee in the early 90's......sure they have some stories to tell....

I remember the Rag Mag from the 70s, in those days it was far from politically correct, it was full of sexist, racist and filthy jokes. They cleaned it up in the 1980s and lots of local sheffield people were very dissapointed.

The best part of the 'Rag' was the Boat Race held in the afternoon after the procession in the morning. It used to run from Hillfoot Bridge to Lady's Bridge and the students used to make their own boats (more like rafts).

Don't suppose it would be allowed now on Health and Safety grounds, me and my mates didn't used to help with that - we'd drop fireworks on the students as they passed under the bridges!

I can remember them at the time when Concord was being developed everything was supposed to be top secret. They somehow managed to get in the hanger and photographed it with a banner along it saying sheffield rag week and the usual spider.
Another stunt I can remember is climbers laid on the pavement climbing up the wicker as tho they were on a vertical wall using the cracks in the paving stones as hand and foot holds.

Originally posted by jest265



Also look out for the biggest and best rag week in March next year and the infamous Spiderwalk at the end of this month.


Rach xxxx

What is the Spiderwalk?

57 Mile sponsored walk around the City and into the Peaks. Starts at 12 Midnight on a Friday and ends Saturday afternoon/evening.

Originally posted by extaxman
The best part of the 'Rag' was the Boat Race held in the afternoon after the procession in the morning. It used to run from Hillfoot Bridge to Lady's Bridge and the students used to make their own boats (more like rafts).

Don't suppose it would be allowed now on Health and Safety grounds, me and my mates didn't used to help with that - we'd drop fireworks on the students as they passed under the bridges!

If I get my way the boat race will be back next March, I am the vice chair at the moment and am organising rag week. i'm hoping to put a big event on prob in endcliffe park, a carnival with rides etc and the bringing back of the boat race. looks like that is the only thing we aren't banned from doing.

Spiderwalk is a 57 mile walk (I think bikes are allowed this year but not definately sure) or you can do 26. It starts on the Friday evening and finishes on the Saturday. Basically the route goes around sheffield and up into the peaks.

There is more about it on our webiste.

Tahnks for all the stories, keep them coming I'm sure we will be able to do something with them.

Originally posted by Skatiechik
I believe there is someone on this forum who used to work with rag when I was at Sheffield University, maybe he might be able to provide you with some details.
That'd be me...

As it goes, they already have contact with me as I still run the national community website but my memory only stretches back 6 years.


Rach...
GoldenFleece is referring to Pete Kirkup, I suspect, and he would be a good person to contact if you have a spare week handy :)

Originally posted by Martin_s
That'd be me...

As it goes, they already have contact with me as I still run the national community website but my memory only stretches back 6 years.


Rach...
GoldenFleece is referring to Pete Kirkup, I suspect, and he would be a good person to contact if you have a spare week handy :)

is he that difficult to get hold of? I'll see if I can get one of my raggies onto it, I think it would be even more difficult for me to get hold of him from over here.

Cheers martin xxxx

Originally posted by jest265
is he that difficult to get hold of? I'll see if I can get one of my raggies onto it, I think it would be even more difficult for me to get hold of him from over here.

Cheers martin xxxx
Not so much difficult to get hold of... Just that full of information you'll need a week to get it all :)

I can't recall the year, but James Fisher, the naturalist, claimed the island of Rockall for Britain by landing and hoisting the flag. So we claimed the traffic islands at the roundabouts by sending camping parties to them on the Friday night.
Unfortunately, my copies of "Twikker" are now lost. They'd probably get me into trouble now, anyway.
Does anyone shout "IckyMalayyo!" (never saw it spelt) these days

I have heard Chris Tarrant telling the tale about when he fell in the River Don, I can only assume it was during the aforementioned boat race which took place on Saturday afternoon.
I know celebrities have their 'price' but might he as a former student of the University of Sheffield be prepared to relate this story or even provide a 'Forward' for 'The Twikker'?
In years gone by, the Rag Day was usually at the beginning of November.

Nothing to do with Rag Week, but in Sheffield during the war there used to be a 12-mile walk which attracted some of the best walkers in the country. It covered several steep hills going towards Shiregreen and I think it was organised by the Sheffield Star. It took place at Easter and could still be a good fund-raiser. I seem to remember also that at least once there was a marathon from Doncaster to Sheffield which again attracted the country’s best marathon runners. Just idea, but if you’re looking to raise funds, why not think about ’em?

I arrived in Canada in October 1967 and lived with my Aunt who had been here since 1927. I brought along a copy of the 1967 "Twikker". She was in stitches reading it and I never did get it back.

I heard that they kidnapped Arthur Scargill one year, and took him to Radio Sheffield where he hosted the show for a while. Meantime the Raggies demanded money for his return. Apparently the NUM offered a large sum for them to keep him...

I left Twikker in rude health in 1991. It was one of the filthiest in years. The student union vetted it but ignored several pages of smut we had included purely to give them something to censor. The SU President said that if anyone asked, he hadn't seen those pages, right?

God, don't get me started on Rag history - what do you want to know?

Painting a zebra crossing on the M1 (with belisha beacons)?

Holding a 'Twikkere' (sic - intended 'French' spelling of Twikker) banner in front of the Concorde prototype?

The great Rag Mag ban of 1987?

The Puke Book?

Organising a gig with thoughtful singer-songwriter Jennifer 'Single Bass' Moore supporting riotous bikers Dumpy's Rusty Nuts? I'm not sure Jennifer has recovered from the trauma...

Ewen (1987-1991)

I left Twikker in rude health in 1991. It was one of the filthiest in years. The student union vetted it but ignored several pages of smut we had included purely to give them something to censor. The SU President said that if anyone asked, he hadn't seen those pages, right?


Perhaps one such joke involved the lady who took a pair of panties back to a city-centre store and said to the assistant: "These panties don't seem to fit but I might have been putting them on the wrong way round"
Came the reply: "Well madam, they are clearly marked C&A!"

err... no.

I think it was the cartoon with the man masturbating and speech baloons giving his sperms' responses to being ejected onto a kleenex ('Where am I?' 'Hang on, this isn't the egg!' 'I'm dying' etc)

The only censored joke was taken out by McMillan Graham themselves:

'Daddy, what does 'perverted' mean?'

And if you don't want to know the answer, look away now....



'Shut up and keep sucking.'

The Rag folk were the first people I met when I came to Poly in 85. On my first night they took me on a Twikker selling trip to Nottingham, got me very drunk and then took me to Rebels! :thumbsup:

My other half was on Uni Rag I think and his housemate was Rag Fairy. But they're a wee bit older than me so that would've been around 78/79. I'll ask him if he's got any pics or stories.

I was on the Poly Rag commitee in 85. Sadly no photos but I'll ask around and see if anyone else has.
Only major stunts I can think of from out era were spelling out "HELP" with the lights in the Arts Tower, and sticking posters to the inside of the windows of the new (now demolished) Town Hall to label it "Goldenlay".
Our only other real claim to fame was that a number of the committee's bare backsides appeared on the front page of The Star, them having pointed a camera at us and asked us to smile when we were halfway down the West Street pub crawl on Pyjama Jump. (We were quite drunk at the time!!)

Poly Rag 85 eh, till man? Let's see (blows dust off 1985 Twikker...)

That would be the year of (it says here...) Sue Bomford, Si Dean, Johnny White, justine Hickman, Stephen Maddock, Les Finnemore, Dave 'The Rave' Williams, Trev Hallows, Nige Gaunt, jon Wilson, Dunc hoare, Porl Johnson, andy Szpalik, Helen Heath, Steve Burgin, Sue Creed, Duncan Baldwin, Maz Jacobson, Sue Liddle, Keving Jones, Andy Monty, Paul Beevor, Steve Fisher, Paul Dixon (he's probably still there!) and Rob Bloor.

Sample joke: What's green and can't sing? A seasick member of Wham!

I used to make a special trip to Sheffield as a kid to get a copy of the TWIKKER.
Somewhere I still have several old and well thumbed copies - I bet they're worth a fortune now! :wow:

Poly Rag 85 eh, till man? Let's see (blows dust off 1985 Twikker...)

That would be the year of (it says here...) Sue Bomford, Si Dean, Johnny White, justine Hickman, Stephen Maddock, Les Finnemore, Dave 'The Rave' Williams, Trev Hallows, Nige Gaunt, jon Wilson, Dunc hoare, Porl Johnson, andy Szpalik, Helen Heath, Steve Burgin, Sue Creed, Duncan Baldwin, Maz Jacobson, Sue Liddle, Keving Jones, Andy Monty, Paul Beevor, Steve Fisher, Paul Dixon (he's probably still there!) and Rob Bloor.

Sample joke: What's green and can't sing? A seasick member of Wham!

That's the crew. I'm not amongst the list as I was roped in over the summer to take over sponsered events from someone who had left Poly. (B*g*red if I can remember who). I still hear from / see about 7 or 8 of this bunch from time to time.
Missing without trace though are Trev Hallows and Dave the Rave, if anyone knows their whereabouts please PM me (after OKing it with them obviously), it would be great to catch up.

Other sample joke:- Sprog was bought a pair of cufflinks for his birthday, so he went out and got his wrists pierced!
(in joke amongst the committee I think)

God I have been outed!!

Trev is down south married with a few kids, Szpal has his number I believe (I lost it when I lost my phone duh!) Dave dissappeared without trace, there was a rumour that he was seen working in McDonalds in Crystal Peaks, totally untrue as I started the rumour. We have some Raggie stuff on a Yahoo site PM me and I will have a look-mainly polly tho'.

Sample joke: What's green and can't sing? A seasick member of Wham!

Cheers for reminding me of that one, Ewen. Sample of one that McMillan Graham didn't allow:
What's pink and doesn't move?
Mrs Tebbitt's slippers

As for pranks, I recall something of a feud with Women's Group which resulted in their door being put on the Treasure Hunt list. It disappeared within the hour, resulting in a spate of tit-for-tat door thefts around the students union. We also used Women's Group notepaper to advertise a bogus event featuring topless model Sam Fox speaking on feminism and nudity.

Living garden gnomes in Fargate fountain?

Giant spiders descending by rope from Debenhams?

Dyeing the fountains outside the town hall red and ringing up Radio Sheffield to claim it was a message from God?

"Rag 86" (or 85?) was definitely written in lights on the Arts Tower.

The concorde story was definitely true and photos and newspaper articles used to knock around the office. Mind you, so did black death bacilli, probably.

Rag also got pubic hair on the front cover of the Sheffield Star via a Pyjama Jump photo of one of our fondly remembered chairthings..

They was different days and I reckon they must have happened to another person as I'm a respectable pillar of society now. If anyone wants to revive all that stuff I wish them very good luck, but we met with opposition and hostility then and I shudder to think what would happen now. You'd all be given asbos probably.

Merci, l'Eclair Bleu!

What do you call someone with a spade in his head?
Doug.

What do you call someone who used to like farmyard machinery?
An ex-tractor fan.

What do you call a man with a hotel on his head?
Norman Tebbit.

About the funniest thing I recall was when Steve E and Sandy arranged to meet in Bar One. Steve was waiting when a sprog came up and started the usual 'Hello, what's you name? What A-levels did you get? etc etc' conversation; so Steve played along. When Sandy arrived, he gave her the nod and she played along too 'Hi, I'm Sandy. What's your name?' 'I'm Steve. What school did you go to?' Eventually the conversation turned to 'Fancy a f**k?' 'Yeah, OK' and off went Steve and Sandy. I expect the sprog's jaw is still around his ankles.

Hi guys!

I wrote a litle article about Twikker on wikipedia:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twikker

Now someone wants to delete it:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Twikker

Would you care to make your opinions known?! :rolleyes:

Just thought that I'd repost your link with a clicky link Ewen- link to the article:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twikker

Link to the deletion:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Twikker

Thanks Ker... er 'medusa'!
I've not posted enough to be allowed clicky links or private messages!
In response to your private message: Yes, I still have the scar!
e (dot) mclaughlin (at) swancoll (dot) ac (dot) uk

Oh, the debate about deleting the Twikker article is at
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/twikker

The best part of the 'Rag' was the Boat Race held in the afternoon after the procession in the morning. It used to run from Hillfoot Bridge to Lady's Bridge and the students used to make their own boats (more like rafts).

Don't suppose it would be allowed now on Health and Safety grounds, me and my mates didn't used to help with that - we'd drop fireworks on the students as they passed under the bridges!

The boat race was brilliant. My mum used to take me to watch it when I was a kid. :clap: :thumbsup:

Can anyone say with any certainty what year it was finally knocked on the head? :sad:

I'm pretty sure they held a raft race in 1991...

I heard a worrying story about the Don a while ago. Fig trees grow on its banks downstream from Sheffield. How did they get there? The seeds had passed through people's alimentary canals, into the sewage system and thus into the river. But fig trees don't germinate in our cold climate, except where the water temperature is artificially raised by the discharge of waste water from heavy industry. Yum yum! Anyone fancy a swim?

Poly Rag 85 eh, till man? Let's see (blows dust off 1985 Twikker...)

That would be the year of (it says here...) Sue Bomford, Si Dean, Johnny White, justine Hickman, Stephen Maddock, Les Finnemore, Dave 'The Rave' Williams, Trev Hallows, Nige Gaunt, jon Wilson, Dunc hoare, Porl Johnson, andy Szpalik, Helen Heath, Steve Burgin, Sue Creed, Duncan Baldwin, Maz Jacobson, Sue Liddle, Keving Jones, Andy Monty, Paul Beevor, Steve Fisher, Paul Dixon (he's probably still there!) and Rob Bloor.

Sample joke: What's green and can't sing? A seasick member of Wham!

I'm in there.

Rob Bloor was the rag fairy. About 7' tall.

Paul Beevor is sadly no longer with us. I remember him absailing down the side of Debenams the year he was rag fairy.

I have pictures taken at a raft race with Rob as the fairy. The year we de- bagged the reporter from a local paper, think it was just the Poly one, and, due to Robs height put his trousers and skiddies well out of reach on a sign post.

Will try to find and scan them.

We got caught by the police whilst trying to put giant ' candles' on top of the old registry office, known as 'The Wedding cake'.

However there was a sucsessful scaling of the gas cylinders at Meadowhall and massive 'rag' posters put up.

Also, the fountain that used to be at the top of Fargate was turned into a foam bath one year. Not so proud of that one :(

Do you still have the 'Hit Squad' or was it just a Poly thing?

I;m in there too GabbleRatcht.

I remember the great Rag Mag ban of 1987.
We tricked the Poly union exec into banning Twikker by telling them some of the more risque jokes in it.
After their meeting the senior permanant officer said to the exec "You know that's what he wanted you to do ?" and it suddenly dawned on them that they'd been had.

I also managed to get that year's t-shirt ("Vidi Vici Veni ") banned as well so we ended up with a few (male) members of the committee topless in the bar.

The first year that Twikker was banned was< I think, in either 1952 or 53.
The then Lord Mayor deemed it disgusting and all copies were withdrawn. However, you could still buy copies in the back-streets and in certain pubs.
The next year, to mark the banning of Twikker, the rag-mag was named Ragout

Issues of Darts, the University student newspaper, were bound annually and, in the mid 1960's, I remember seeing records going back to about 1946. Most of what is needed for a post-war history of Sheffield Rag should be there, and presumably taken over by Steel Press.

got some old rag program

I used to have a good laugh at the non-PC Twikker. But here is a rarity - a perfectly respectable ex-Twikker joke (c. 1970):

Fido, a lovable mongrel, lived at a pub and was well known to all the regulars. One night, the landlord was ejecting the last, reluctant drinker and slammed the door on Fido's tail, chopping it clean off. This caused much comment among the regular customers, and the tail was fixed above the bar for all to see. Then one night, some years later, Fido peacefully passed away in his sleep. He floated up to Doggy Heaven and barked at the pearly gates. St Bernard came to let him in, but noticed his lack of a tail. Fido explained that he'd lost it, but St Bernard said that they only let whole dogs in, so he would have to go back and fetch it. Fido floated down to earth again, and got into the pub through the scullery window as usual. He tried to reach the tail over the bar, but couldn't manage it. There was only one thing for it - he would have to get the boss up. He barked until the landlord came downstairs in his nightshirt, and then he explained his problem. The boss said "Well, I'm sorry Fido, but you know the rules - I can’t retail spirits after hours…"