Ben Robb
	aka "Polo" aka "Lord Ben of Hulme"

Shows/ Jobs 1997 Iolanthe - Lighting Designer 1998 The Mikado - Bass in Chorus & Alcohol Consultant

Ben spent so much time in his hall bar that he failed to join MUGSS until his third year at university, when he was dragged kicking and screaming into the society by Jeremy, then UGSS chairman. He had so much fun that he decided to stay in Manchester an extra year and do his Master's in Astrophysics (allegedly, though he never seemed to do any work). Ben threw himself into the society scene and was seen in various states of undress at parties throughout his time in the society. He gained the nickname "Polo" after he crashed his car (a VWPolo) during the York poster run, breaking Claire's collarbone in the process. It was, all in all, a most original pulling technique, of which Ben was very proud. He was less impressed, though, with the caberet acts that the incident spawned.

Ben was also a veteran of the infamous "Hiking Trip" which he survived, albeit with comedy bruises, and he vowed never to go near a mountain with George again. During Iolanthe he was the lighting designer and he solemnly promised the female chorus that the two UV cannons at the front of the stage were perfectly safe, and that it didn't matter if the fairies stood really close to them... He was anchor at the Annual Cast vs. Crew Boat Race and he set about showing the society previously unheard of stages of drunkenness since he no longer had to worry about being sober enough to drive the next day.

Not letting the previous experience of holidays with MUGSS deter him, Ben thought that the idea of lolling about on the Avon on a canal boat or two for a week doing little but eat lard (cheese toasties mostly), drink medicinal rum (anything he could get his hands on) seemed like a good idea at the time. He made light of the fact that he had always suffered from seasickness on boats, and he surprisingly found that when the world is spinning anyway due to excess alcohol and sunstroke, all feelings of seasickness fade (come to think of it, all feelings fail anyway). He will never forgive Penny for eating the cereal we were using for poker chips.

Fresh from the holiday, Ben was one of the fabled defectors from crew to cast for the Mikado. Throwing off the shackles of crewing (it was really because he couldn't afford a Maglite) Ben, with Jeremy, Matt, Tim, Suzanna to name but a few, crossed the great divide to show the cast new levels of coarse acting. It was about this time that Cattac elevated Ben to the peerage, and bestowed upon him the title "Lord Ben of Hulme" during some obscure bidding game involving multi-storey hippo parks. In the spring term he was co-opted onto the committee as Alcohol Consultant to organise the Cocktail Party. He threw himself into the role and proceeded to get the committee drunk at all of their meetings (not that they needed much help, with Kate S, Kate K, Cattac, Rachel and Tessa already on committee at the time).

Since graduating, Ben has shown no sign of leaving MUGSS. He went to France and caused havoc with the natives, and was elevated to monarch - King Henry VIII - because of his excessive "roystering". Despite living in London, he still made it to four parties and the ball during the autumn term (though that was not as bad as Jeremy), and fully intends to take show week off for the Sorcerer. He currently works as a software developer for an internet company, and he can be reached at ben@cscape.com