CHAZ wrote:
Who are the others???
Fiona Fertile = Fiona Barron
Grolli = Dr Newsome (could the nickname really have been to do with sheep's balls in Greek as was alleged? and why?)
Chez = Mike Williams - bit of a ColA in-joke, I think, and a cue for an anecdote (stop me if you've heard this one)
Mike Williams, like a lot of Welsh people, enjoyed using language sometimes just a bit too much. His neat little housemasterly notices pinned up on the noticeboard baffled many with the slightly overelaborate vocab. One I particularly remember referred to the trashing of some chairs, and started off: "While not the most robust or aesthetic items of furniture..." For some weeks after that one, "robust and aesthetic" became a bit of a House catchphrase (in the obligatory Welsh accent of course).
One of the delights of the Williams régime was the regular Open House invitations to tea with Mike and the lovely Judith. So the little housemasterly notice would go up announcing the date and time of an "Open House, Chez Williams". Unsurprisingly, the nickname of "Chez Williams" stuck (pronounced, of course, "chezz" not "shay"). Chez himself remained blissfully unaware for a long, long time.
During the Merger, as Coleridge was being closed down, the natives got restless (ColA never quite as mutinous as ColB, though) and certain people got sent off on a "2 week holiday" and things escalated into a "Kill Chez" campaign. Notes in toyces saying "Kill Chez" and other appearances of the revolutionary slogan culminated in the appearance one day of "Kill Chez" chalked in big letters outside ColA on the Grecians' Path. This led to one of the most excruciating instances of social embarrassment ever, when Chez was doing the rounds and attempting the usual housemasterly small-talk. Now, Mark Cullingford was (and maybe still is) one of the nicest and most straightforward guys ever and when Chez pinned him with the question "So Mark, who is this Chez person? He doesn't seem very popular." Mark was completely incapable of uttering a straight-out lie by saying he didn't know. So he said, "It's you, sir." Painful silence followed by retreat of housemaster.
(Apologies if the story's not quite accurate after the passage of years)
But Chez also, naturally = Taffy