• October 06, 1975
• Vol. 4
• No. 14

Old Earthquake Turns Bullish on a Cowed Miss England

Carrying coals to Newcastle is one thing, but putting on a rodeo in Kent? There it was in the horseflesh in Maidstone, England, and some of the wranglers were out of the ordinary too. One of them was Miss England, 22-year-old Vicki Harris, who gamely donned a pair of leather chaps and climbed aboard an aging bull named Old Earthquake. As it turned out, Old Earthquake could still register a bone-rattling jolt on the rodeo Richter scale. Promptly flinging his lovely passenger to the ground, he proceeded to cover Miss England with hoofprints before rodeo hands could come to her aid and shoo the beast away.

Vicki suffered a mild concussion, a badly bruised face and a slightly disheveled ego. "Don't worry," she shrugged. "I don't mind my looks. They will mend." But boyfriend Tom Waite, an aspiring British pop singer, was not about to stiff-upper-lip it. Bursting with indignation at rodeo organizers, Waite declared himself "absolutely mad. From now on," he huffed, "I shall be looking after her." Bully.