Who's who?

Yes of course it's G - otherwise known as Gordon Hadwin.

An excellent alround drinker who introduced us to the pleasures of Hartley's of Ulverston - he was from Cumbria although it wasn't Cumbria then. A native of Whitehaven and the only person I've ever met who owned up to supporting Workington Reds, although he was of course a staunch Manchester United fan. In fact one of my greatest memories of G was him sliding down a doorway with a pint in his hand, as he collapsed to the floor still singing "Wemberleee Wemberleee....we're the famous Man United and we're going to Wemberlee!" Taste in football - excellent, taste in jumpers - dodgy! He was in my tutorial group I think, and we had to stop at the motorway services on the way to our legendary surveying course in the Lake District to pick him up. He taught me how to say "I's gannin yam" and other Cumbrian necessities.

Sometime in the late eighties I walked into the Greyfriars Bobby pub in Edinburgh to get out of the rain, and get a pint when a voice from the far side of the bar yelled "Ho....Lewy!" and it was G. I can't remember what he was doing there but it was really nice to see him. He's been a Londoner for many years now having surfaced in Loughton, Essex and working in some sort of customs documentation area. I've lost touch with him a bit though, so if you're out there G, drop us an email!

It's Paul Woodhead, in familiar pose as he was one of G's close associates and drinking crew! From Scarborough I think, and had an excellent Northern sharp wit. Famous for one liners such as "The meat pies have come....there's gravy all over the floor" - yes I now that's really two lines! I don't know where he is now although he is on friends reunited so I'll catch up with him soon and update this!

And now our first non geographer - it's Fez! Did he have a real name....oh yes....Steve Fairey! Economics student I think, from Northampton and introduced us to Jim Flanagan, who, rumour had it was one of the first cricket hooligans! I remember Jim walking down the Main Rd after a party at Owens Park or somewhere, carrying one of those keep left bollards with all the wiring hanging out from it. Fez and Jim and G used to hang out at the Ducie for a long time.

Fez had more stories than Hans Christian Anderson - you'd be at a disco with him and one minute he was a brain surgeon and the next minute a deep sea diver....depending on which girls he was talking to at the time! Last time I heard he had surfaced in Bristol. I think he was a brain surgeon...or was it a deep sea diver!

It's Ruth and Maraid....is that how you spell Maraid? Ruth was doing joint honours geography and geology and I've no idea what Maraid did but she was always with Ruth. Ruth was from Scarborough and I think has surfaced back there. I tracked her down a few years ago and she's been teaching - geography as well! At least that geography degree came in useful for someone!

Ah...it's Lefty!

Mr John Leftwich - one of the boys from UMIST who met from playing table football in UMIST union when Ed and I used to live there. We had great plans to move in together and all share a flat in the third year but Lefty and Kev failed their exams, and went off to get real jobs!

Lefty of course has become a legend in his own lunchtime since then - after accidentally finding himself in the computer industry he surfaced as marketing director Europe for Microsoft, and retired having made enough money to buy himself his own table football machine! And a Brighouse at that! The websites say he was a founding father of the Internet.....founder of Hartleys brewery more like!

I still keep in touch with him and the boys have a bit of a mini-reunion each year.

It's Simon - another one of the UMIST boys. Now Squadron Leader Bottomley, or Wing Commander, or Group Captain or something like that. He was doing mechanical engineering at UMIST and we met him playing table football, and then shared a flat in the Toblerones with him in the third year.

He had a white Herbie VW Beetle in which we used to cruise around Manchester looking for parties. I do remember driving down a pedestrian walkway one night with fences either side and having to let some students who were coming the other way walk over the car roof as there was no room to pass either side.

He used to be keen on motorbikes as well and we used to go to Donnington and Mallory Park together to watch Barry Sheene and Ron Haslam race motorbikes. Simon's claim to faim was that he appeared on Fighter Pilot on BBC - one of those early reality programs which tracked the fortunes of a group of RAF recruits trying to get accepted for pilot training.

He was doing some sort of engineering degree and became saftey engineer at Snowdon pit in Kent. He engineered (haha) a trip down the mine for some of us boys and it's an experience I'll never forget, especially as my grandad was killed in a pit accident in Fife. He married Jenny....Don did...not my grandad! Although....hang on a minute....so did my grandad as that was my granny's name! We were all ushers at the wedding...Don's....not my grandad's....and had a great time as it was held at Newstead Abbey where Lord Byron used to live.

Unfortunately Don and Jenny were later to split up and he married Lindy, still living in Kent. Then one day he died suddenly, with no explanation and none was ever found. I met up with Lefty and Kev and Simon again at the funeral and it pretty much prompted us to start meeting up before any of the rest of us disappeared.

"It's Mike Osbourne - Walsall's most famous inhabitant! Or at least the only Walsall fan I know! He was doing a degree in electrical engineering at UMIST and we met when we lived in the same hall of residence - Wright Robinson Hall, in the first year.

He was sponsored by the Midlands Electricity Board and had to work in the holidays for them, dealing with power stations and pylons carrying thousands of volts. I remember being round at Jenny and Heather's one night when he volunteered to mend an extension lead for them. When he started choking and gurgling we all thought he was messing about....until we saw the sparks coming from his fingers! we managed to unplug him from the mains and he was OK...next time he'll check to see if the other end is plugged in!

He had a Cortina which was his pride and joy until, while pointing out some particular species of power station to me on the way home from Viv's wedding, he took his eyes off the road and we leapt over a hedge and landed in a field! We had to sleep the night in the car and get the farmer to tow us out the next morning! Dangerous thing - electricity!

He was also a huge fan of Gallagher and Lyle and we had our photos taken playing the guitar and accordion from the front of their Seeds album one night when we saw them at Owens Park. He was also a big fan of Sailor and used to drive us mad singing Stylistics songs at all hours!

This is Tony...Tony Warwick, who I shared a flat with when I was doing my PhD. He had a first in physics and was doing a PhD in something which involved keeping an eye on the telescope at Jodrell Bank and talking to Aliens...or something like that! He had a brain the size of a planet and some of the quirky behaviour that is normally associated with genius! Like driving us miles out to party somewhere and then getting bored after the first 10 minutes and leaving us stranded!

We were detsined to live with him - Mike and I met him when we doing the rounds looking for somewhere to live. We were looking at a flat in Burnage and he was looking at it at the same time - it was for three people and there were two of us and one of him so we decided to share. We found out later that he went to school in Cullercoats with Lefty and when he'd come up for his interview at Manchester he'd actually stayed in my room at the Toblerones while I was off ill back in Nottingham.

I tracked him down a while back at the University of Berkeley in California - he sounds as if he loves it there!

Yo...Kev! Looking dazed and confused as usual!

He had an inbuilt alarm clock which woke him up about 10 minutes before the pubs were due to open...he'd been coming to stay at my parents house for at least two years before they ever saw him sober! He was doing something at UMIST and we met him with John and Don and Simon through table football. John and Kev were partners in crime for a slong as I can remember. They used to come to Nottingham for weekends when I'd moved back there and on a Sunday night at about 7.00 pm they'd come for just one quick drink at the Marquis. At 11.00 they'd finally set off back through the Peak District to go back to Manchester! Kev turned up one day with a beautiful girl in blue leathers and a motorbike helmet - Barbara, not Kev, and theyve been inseperable ever since. We went to their wedding in Manchester although technically speaking a group of us went to the wrong church and had to celebrate it with a bunch of strangers in the pub next door to the reception! They now live in York and we've been meeting up fairly regularly recently, including weekends on Lefty's boat and at Kev's place in Spain.

A sleeping Mr Ed Bramley! Probably not the best angle to take of him but he's much safer when he's asleep!

I met him in my first week at University and discovered we were living in the same hall. He was from Nottingham as well, and we shared a flat together in the second and third years. I've no idea how he did it but he managed to actually use his gegraphy degree and find a job he loved in hydrology about a mile from where his parents lived in West Bridgford.

He was famous for being able to snort buryani rice at the Plaza Cafe up through one nostril and down through the other, particlarly if you said "gubbins" to him while he was eating it. Absolutely mad.....no I mean....absolutely mad on climbing he used to spend weekends hanging around Grindleford Cafe near Edale and I did find him occasionally testing out a sit harness in the stairwell of our house in Victoria Park. And he always won our climbing round the common room without touching the floor competitions on H floor at Wright Robbo!

Always guaranteed to entertain he was once so drunk on Mateus Rose that he had to be taken to hospital for a stomach pump!He now lives with Janet in Leeds and still hangs around mountains all the time!