LR - Trebuchet, or "Them Crazy Brits"!

[Padraig Ruad O'Maolagain]

Forwarded from a bounced message from Pookie:

Subject:  FW: Trebuchet, or "Them Crazy Brits"!
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2000 16:43:38 -0500

And just who were we going to shoot over the castle wall???


> >  A woman taking part in safety trials of a giant catapult smashed her
> > pelvis after being flung at 50mph from the medieval-style machine and
> > bouncing out of the landing net.
> >
> > Onlookers said that Stella Young, a member of the Dangerous Sports Club,
> > hit the ground "like a sack of potatoes" and could have died if she had
> > not landed on soft, muddy earth after overshooting the buffer zone of
> > tyres designed to break the 15ft fall from the net.
> >
> > Miss Young, 44, had put on body armour, a helmet and a Coldstream
Guard's
> > coat to be fired from the catapult 70ft into the air and 100ft across a
> > field in Stogursey, Somerset, on Sunday afternoon.
> >
> > The catapult, a wooden contraption based on trebuchets used in the
Middle
> > Ages to hurl rocks over castle walls during sieges, had been tested over
> > many months by her boyfriend, Richard Wicks, and the club's secretary,
> > David Aitkenhead.  They had both previously been fired from it and had
> > also tested it with dummies weighing the same as Miss Young.
> >
> > She had been visibly shaking as she prepared for the four-second flight,
> > which her boyfriend had persuaded her to make.  She then landed slightly
> > too close to the edge of the 44ft by 35ft net, hitting a spot where it
had
> > greater recoil.  This made her fly clear of the tyres and land on the
> > ground.  Miss Young, a Citizen's Advice Bureau manager, was watched by
15
> > people, including a television crew.
> >
> > Mr Wicks, 29, whom she met while bungee jumping, said yesterday: "I went
> > through so many emotions in a few seconds.  When Stella landed on the
net,
> > people cheered.  Then everyone gasped when she bounced clear and hit the
> > ground like a sack of spuds.
> >
> > "I rushed over, fearing she might be dead or have a crippling spinal
> > injury.  Fortunately it was clear more or less immediately that she
could
> > move.  But she was groaning and was in a lot of pain."
> >
> > Paramedics arrived within minutes, and Miss Young was taken to Musgrove
> > Hospital, Taunton.  She was still under observation yesterday but will
> > suffer no permanent damage and could be back at work in a fortnight.
> > Mr Wicks, a scrap metal dealer, was yesterday back tinkering with the
> > catapult.
> >
> > He and Mr Aitkenhead, who runs a car scrapyard, have spent ?3,000
> > developing the machine over the past two years and plan to offer goes on
> > it to the paying public.
> >
> > Mr Wicks said: "Stella is fine, but she said she won't have another go
on
> > the trebuchet.  I wish it had happened to me, not her.  I'm devastated
by
> > her accident, but we'll bounce back." His girlfriend has insisted that
the
> > trials should continue.
> >
> > Mr Aitkenhead, 41, who used to run a bungee-jumping business, said:
> > "We are convinced the machine is absolutely safe.  "We had 50 trials on
it
> > before either of us used it.  Only three or four of the test dummies
> > bounced out of the net and all of them landed in the emergency padding
> > zone.  Stella is the only one who has not managed to land safely."
> >
> > The experience, captured on film by the German camera crew, may come
back
> > to haunt them.  Mr Wicks said: "It's inevitable that Stella's accident
> > will end up on television.  I just hope it's not on You've Been Framed."
> >
> > The Dangerous Sports Club was launched in 1979.  Founder members had a
> > memorable first month in which they jumped off the Clifton suspension
> > bridge in Bristol with elastic ropes and on another occasion ate lunch,
> > wearing morning coats, at the top of the Soufriere volcano on the
> > Caribbean island of St Vincent.
> >
> > The club pioneered bungee jumping.  Members have taken part in stunts
> > ranging from having dinner on top of a hot air balloon to crossing the
> > Channel in a septic tank.
> >
> > There are currently six core members, of which Miss Young has been one
for
> > 10 years.  Her previous worst injury was a broken ankle, sustained while
> > practising rock climbing at an indoor centre.
> >
> > Mr Wicks said: "People think we're addicted to danger, which is not
quite
> > true.  It's just an extension of the childhood urge of wanting to climb
a
> > tree.  We all really like the eccentricity aspect of it and that's why
we
> > dress up.  "I suspect that's why the Germans like filming us - we
> > reinforce their ideas about the nutty English."
> _________________________________________________________________
> To leave this mailing list, send mail to majordomo at indra.com
> with the message UNSUBSCRIBE SCA-EAST
>
>
============================================================================
> Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.



--
Nunc Est Bibendum
**********
Politicians prefer unarmed peasants.
--
============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.