Oggy Raiding

Posted on 2003/01/13 13:57:29 (January 2003) by john.

Does it really exist?

There's an episode of the Smell of Reeves and Mortimer where Vic interviews Bob who is doing an impression of Lovejoy. At one point Bob talks about how he went "oggy raiding", and Vic interjects dreamily with "what a nice name for apple theft". I was sure I'd heard of this querky definition before watching the programme, so was convinced it was a genuine bit of slang and not just something made up by Vic and Bob. Just now, I tried to search for oggy raiding on the web, and disturbingly found two of my own pages occupying the top two positions, and barely anything after that.

Where I came from, the whole broad genre of stealing fruit came under the fairly common name of "scrumping", which I'd long believed was somehow connected to scrumpy, that really evil strong cider. Having met some English people who hadn't heard of scrumping, I assumed this phenomenon probably has different names in different regions, so it seemed quite logical to believe that oggy raiding was perhaps a more northern variation. Several words I'd used routinely as a child, and assumed to be commonly understood, have turned out to be specific to the area I grew up in. For example, being mardy, meaning to sulk. Also, perhaps significantly, giving a croggy, which meant giving someone a lift on your bike (which I never quite got the hang of).

As I mentioned, searching the web for oggy raiding came up with very little. I did manage to find a version (maybe typed in by a fan, so not necessarily accurate) of the Reeves and Mortimer script in question, apparently here, although actually the page seems to have disappeared, and I had to look in Google's cache instead:

"My Father take me to edge of plane. I see below me many men, some with air rifle, some with gatty and some with bendy stick for shitty shotty. For three nights I sit with my Father till rain ends, then I do as his fore fathers did, and his fore fathers before his fore father and I go Oggy raiding (stealing apples). Well then I go to orchard, I climb up on top of wall, I see many men below me, some have the air rifle, some have gatty and some have shitty shotty, for shotty shit! For two hours and forty nights I eat chewies, some nights I have sticky paper, an go angry, so I fire Johnny seven, but grenade veers to east! Knocks Stretch Armstrong off tree, he falls on matchbox motorized motorway causing pile up. I seek forgiveness and ride for two days on my BMX in my Spiderman outfit. This was no ordinary journey, absolutely no-way no ordinary journey because my BMX was not equipped with stabilizers, so I come to be here"

Aside from that there was just a random mention on someone's message board, and a couple of links to my own pages. Upon searching instead for an alternative spelling "oggie raiding", I came across a weird kind of online fairy tale - The Skriker. There's a mention in the Glossary: "Awd Goggie - A Boggart with nothing better to do but hide in orchards & eat kids who go oggie raiding." Quite odd.

Does oggy raiding really exist? What do you call stealing fruit where you come from? Any other examples of bizarre regional slang?

I think we should practice this great art at Savacentre....

Posted by rowanboy at 2003/01/13 14:01:12.

I don't think it's quite the same if they're not actually hanging on a tree when you steal them...

Posted by John at 2003/01/13 14:03:07.

More importantly Tom, (and anyone else) what do you call it when you were young?

Posted by John at 2003/01/13 14:06:05.

We didn't do it ourselves - there are *no* apple trees in Aldershot that haven't seen the sharp end of a tank shell - but I *would* have called it scrumping.

Posted by rowanboy at 2003/01/14 09:24:43.

I just remembered another one - the lurgee. Does anyone else say that?

Posted by John at 2003/01/14 09:51:11.

I still say lurgee. It's my favourite.

Posted by Rob Lang at 2003/01/14 11:02:05.

As in "Stay away! I've got the dreaded lurgee!" Yay!

Posted by rowanboy at 2003/01/14 24:12:21.

The lurgee formed a particularly entertaining variant of tick (or tig, tag, or whatever you called it where you came from) at my school. Actually, it was in effect exactly the same game, save for the replacing of "tick" upon touching someone with "you've got the lurgee". Sometimes I recall the lurgee was physically represented by a mangled bit of blue rope tied in a knot, that always seemed to be kicking around our platground. Ever since I've had a fear of catching diseases from bits of old rope.

Posted by John at 2003/01/14 13:47:22.

I'm from all over the north east at some point or other..I'm now thirty but "Oggy Raiding"..ie the stealing of apples was definately used by me and my childhood friends,..we also did it on several occasions, usualy raiding a neighbours garden....Hope this helps mate, honestly it's not just you.

Posted by Andy ( Ven0m ) at 2006/03/14 03:54:53.

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