What, another morris publication? We're afraid so.
There are already at least a dozen morris-related journals in existence. This means most of them are never read by most of the people who could be reading them.
Hardly an effective way of sharing news and ideas between the various morris communities, we think.
So Shave The Donkey is going to fill this yawing gap, then, is it?
Actually, no.
It WILL, however, carry a modest trickle of genuine (if not always serious) stories about the morris community, produced by people who happen to do this sort of thing for a living.
And the great thing is, it's freely available to anyone with Web access, whether they're morris people or not, and regardless of faction.
In truth, though, The Donkey is partly intended as a device to get people to visit the mildly-entertaining web site of our dance team, The Outside Capering Crew.
This doesn't mean The Donkey will be full of gratuitous references to this rather fine morris side. It will, however, mean you'll have to skip over various blandishments to read about our highly unusual dances, and so on.
And speaking of The Crew, we'll shortly be introducing A Bunch Of Posers.
This is our very own puzzle page, the sad result of one man's compulsion to jumble up letters. You'll find all this and more in The Dove's Hankey…. Do The Knave's Hey…. Shove Th' Dank Eye.... Kev's Th' Handy One….we could go on.
Email update@capers.co.uk if you'd like to know when we update the site.
We're busy people, so we make no promises about how much news we'll run. You could help by joining our stable of correspondents.
And if you have a tale for The Donkey - serious or otherwise - just e-mail us.
The Donkey is all ears.
e-mail: donkey@capers.co.uk
"Shave The Donkey" is a morris dance from Bampton, Oxfordshire. We have no idea what it means. If you know, please tell us.
©1999 Simon Pipe, Mark Rogers, The Outside Capering Crew