Gareth Ashworth

Gareth is in Upper 6th, and is the son of Mrs Ashworth, and one of the best under-eighteen chess players in the UK.

Appearance

Gareth Ashworth, better known to those that experienced years 9-11 with him as ‘Gaffro’, is famed half man half afro. In his earlier years in BRGS he would often forgo having a hair cut, sometimes over periods as long as six months. This dubious habit evidentially led to the discovery of his half human nature when his hair grew massively out of proportion to the rest of his body. Whilst Gareth now favours crew cuts in order to hide his biological essence from civilized society evidence of this earlier period of revelation can be found on one of the more recent school photos. He is very shy.

Whilst Gareth has almost fully embraced the dress code introduced in September 2006, often being visible in a full suit with a stylish shirt, there has been an incidence to the contrary. On September 27, 2006, he shocked many an occupant of the lower common room by entering bedecked with a bright yellow sombrero. This infringement of uniform was mostly ignored by staff and the older inhabitants of the lower common room but was considered unsuitable by Deputy Head Dr Edwards which resulted in the semi-postponed confiscation of the sombrero despite Gareth arguing the toss. This has since been 'retrieved' from Dr Edwards's office as was evident when he was seen walking home from Bacup centre during heavy rain with the legendary hat firmly attatched to his head.

Subjects

At the start of sixth form, Gareth studied Maths, Chemistry, English Language, Geography and Critical Thinking. It soon became apparent that he found Maths at AS far less enjoyable than he had found it previously and dropped the subject after the summer exams. This caused certain problems as he was no longer able to study a Chemistry-style subject at university without another science subject. He decided to take up Biology for this purpose and the venture appears to have been quite successful despit his dislike of the labs the subject is taught in.

Life of Crime

While in school Gareth will rarely do anything to provoke punishment, however, rumour states that this does not extend to his life outside of school. Once while being served by one of the welfare staff he was referred to as 'Mafia'. From this, one can assertain the true reason for his regular purchasement of canteen meals; they are daily bribes to prevent the welfare staff from exposing his secret identity as the notorious gangster Bongo Extreme running the Bacup Mafia.

Further theories suggest that 'Bongo' was in fact also the financial backing behind Certaxe and Loko's Furniture 'Cleaning' business.

Injuries

Gareth has managed to sustain remarkably few injuries during his time at BRGS, however, some experts believe that this is in fact not the case in recent times. In the last year a near inaudible pressure-release sound can be heard when he takes a step with his left leg. This is believed to be caused by this limb being an artificial construction with a 'dodgy' hydraulic system. The reason for the presence of the fake leg has been attributed to a gunfight it which Don Bongo Extreme had his leg blown off.

Gareth denies all connections to the Mafia, Bongo Extreme, all aligations that his leg is in fact false and that it can be removed for use as a double-barreled, sawn-off shotgun.

Penguins

In recent weeks it has come to light that Gareth has an unusual and intimate knowledge of penguins, specifically those involved in the so-called "Penguin Mafia". When asked on the subject Gareth damned the term "penguin mafia" as inaccurate, claiming that the mafia was never of Italian origins but instead originated in Antarctica.

He revealed that penguins are actually the secret rulers of mafia organisations worldwide, providing the evidence that an emperor penguin could easily pass for a human in a tuxedo (or a human dressed up as a penguin) and that staring down the barrel of an AK-47 with a dark eyed, beaked and flippered merciless penguin bodyguard at the other end is far more intimidating than if it were held by a human.

Further evidence included the penguin's ability to swim at speed, claiming that this was why the cops were never able to catch them in the act, and the sub-zero temperatures of their 'native' habitat, saying this was caused by a large sub-glacial arms facility which needed to absorb all the heat from the surrounding atmosphere in order to run. Even the penguin's bunching together had criminal implications as this was clearly to keep within the penguin ranks what human eyes aren't ready to see, and some drug dealing and poker on the side.

When asked how penguins move about in our society he simply scoffed and said "Helicopters". Later, it came to light that the pilots of said vehicles were in fact human mafia agents hand picked by the organisation to protect their leaders. When asked why the general public hadn't found out about this grand conspiracy he simply replied 'How many people die in Antarctica?'.

It is obvious from the information gathered in this brief time that the penguins are an extremely advanced race with technology far beyond our own; this may account for the quality of Gareth's artificial limb.

Sports

Gareth has never been particularly strong at the generally accepted sports such as football but is believed to have some skill at chess. He also has a fondness for pool, which is surprising as he's terrible at it, and has gone on to make several variations on the game: pin pool and Sentric Pool. He has yet to find anyone with the facilities to make Sentric Pool a possibility or anyone with the courage/stupidity to play it with him.

Assassination Attempts

In recent times, Gareth attended the five day Geography trip to Iceland. Whilst on this trip numerous attempts to end Gareth's life were made by our very own southern assassin, Mr Hoyle.

The first of these was done when traversing a path down to a rather impressive waterfall. A rope was provided as the means of preventing people from falling to their death into the river channel as it was most certainly the only thing that prevented Gareth from falling into the drink as the path was, rather literally, covered in an inch or two of solid ice. Gareth was on his way down towards the back of the group and was doing fairly well until Mr Hoyle stopped holding the rope taut. Several seconds later Gareth was propelled under the ropes.

The second attempt was done in an old Icelandic school where the group were allowed to have lunch in. Gareth was seated on a bench along with Mr Hoyle and several others. While rooting through his bag for his thermos flask, Gareth was subjected to another of the Geography teacher's vicious ploys. Mr Hoyle, without any recognisable reason, maliciously stood up, causing the bench to flip rapidly. Only quick reflexes by our Bongo, something he was previously belived not to have, saved him from being deposited at unbelievable velocity directly into the cold, hard floor.

The final attempt was made on the last night of the trip. Mr Hoyle released a toxic biologically fixed agent into the room Gareth was sharing. The result of this was a near-fatal sneezing fit that made Gareth wisely leave the room immediately. Soon after, Gareth was asked to share a room with Mr Hoyle and Tom Marsh for the night. No one knows precisely what happened that night, all that is known is that several large explosions were heard and that Mr Hoyle has made no further assassination attempts.

Some experts speculate that Gareth used his false leg to club Mr Hoyle unconscious whereupon he was able to perform the surgery needed to remove a spinal implant placed on the teacher by a disatisfied Don Penguin.

Nicknames

"Gaz"

"Gazza"

"Gazz Azz"

"Gash"

"Gary"

"Gaffro"

"Gaff"

"'fro"

"Sentric"

"Senners"

"Bongo"

"Mafia"

Quotes

"...." (possible mafia connection?)

"WEAKSAUCE"

"Never say that again!" oft said to Tom Mitchell after an erruption of randomness eg "C'mon chicken feed"

"NINJAAAAH!" (Answering a register)