News Interview p9 Comment p10 In the wilderness Fashion p16-17 Starter for ten – Varsity His own planet: alum Jeremy Paxman on is Putin right to student fees, the Empire reach for the red and “stupid questions” planet?
Friday 11th November 2011 The Independent Student Newspaper since 1947 Issue No 747 | varsity.co.uk
ANDREW GRIFFIN News p3 And on your left: Cambridge students establish new guided-tour company
Theatre p27 “It was Hell for the characters, but Heaven for the audience” No Ifs, No Buts: Cambridge students were amongst thousands of university and school students in London on Wednesday, protesting against changes to the Tom Powell funding of higher education 3 » on Jerry Springer: The Opera
Sport p30 Cash for honours Amidst the chaos Helen Charman & Tristan Dunn Oxbridge Essays is a company that The company employ Oxbridge of Queens’ Ergs, NEWS CORRESPONDENT & NEWS EDITOR was set up in 2006, and describes itself graduates and current students to on its website as “the UK’s largest £4,000 write any essay that their customers Tom Marriott Essays are the primary mode of and leading provider of guaranteed request – the rates for which are assessment for many courses at Upper 1st, 1st Class and 2:1 essays The approximate market value of a something to behold. spots plenty of Cambridge and the ‘essay crisis’ is and dissertations, custom written history undergraduate’s termly work A fi rst class undergraduate History fresher talent something familiar to almost every by academics from leading UK essay of 2,500 words will set you back Cambridge student: the coffee, the universities”. £790, but a 2:2 only £360. frantic reading and the working in the Anyone in need of an essay, review, The prices also increase in relation library until the early hours. project or dissertation can simply go to the time frame given, with an Yet there are some students and onto the website and request an essay £790 essay required for a fortnight’s graduates of Oxford and Cambridge on their chosen topic, specifying the The price of a fi rst-class 2,500 word time significantly less that are making serious money out of length of the essay and the timeframe History essay expensive than one 6 » other people’s crises. within which they need it. needed the next morning, Take the Varsity Class Survey Are you a working class hero or the Lord of the Manor? Take it at varsity.co.uk 11th November 2011 Something to say? 2 EDITORIAL www.varsity.co.uk [email protected]
DIGITAL DIGEST
Established in 1947 Issue No 747 Old Examination Hall, Free School Lane, Cambridge, CB2 3RF Telephone: 01223 337575 Fax: 01223 760949 VARSITV Space Invaders episode 2 – Rachel’s House “I’m often told it smells like a crack den, but I’m OK with that.” This week VarsiTV’s Jocelyn explores Rachel’s house and found many a strange Aims and outcomes object (stuffed foxes included). ake your mind back to last winter: an undeniable discrepancy here between These are perfectly acceptable issues violence on the streets of London; aims and outcomes. for protest and condemnation but, as you Tthe Old Schools occupied in Smash down the front door of Fortnum may have noticed, they fail to address Cambridge; Charlie Gilmour dangling & Masons and expect the opprobrium of the central point: the anger felt towards from the Cenotaph. the red-tops; peacefully march through tuition fee increases. E Now remember the reaction: 3 years Westminster square and expect, well, Does this desire to change the subject of educational self-indulgence demanded silence. betray a lack of confidence in the VERIFIED by bored middle-class students; A year on, again the argument is essential argument? Or, more likely, recreational violence the means by somehow lost. Instead, we are treated has a wider realisation taken place that Why I Left Cambridge for Oxford which hard-working taxpayers are to be to headlines and announcements that without changing the subject or seeking “The combined effect of switching to Oxford is a very happy and fulfi lling defrauded. bemoan the supposed heavy-handedness to address wider social concerns, the existence of the sort I assume nobody Ignoring for a moment the rights and of police tactics, or the wider inequalities voice of the student protestor is either at all gets in Cambridge.” Cherwell wrongs of raising tuition fees, there is of society. condemned or ignored? writer Robin Mcghee explains why he made the move to ‘the other place’.
what do you actually think can be done Letters, about it? Neither birther Republicans nor (what Bell calls) self-righteous British left- Emails & ists will care about someone wagging their fi nger at them and telling them what they “should” be doing. Comments I’m sure you realise this – arguing in poli- tics in the fi nal analysis is not about winning ADDRESSING THE BIG ISSUE? debates based on evidence or even winning COMMENT BLOGS for the greater good, it is about winning full Dear Sirs, stop. Isn’t this kind of emotive politics the Schmidt speaks The interviews and documentary (‘Hom- logical result of the fusion of mass media Hugo Schmidt argues that the world- lessness: A Big Issue?’) was well done as with politics? I don’t see this changing soon ending potential of nuclear weaponry a media exercise but the piece addresses without reform of the political system as a is a secondary consideration. The nothing. The vendors of the Big Issue are whole, no matter how many editorials like problem lies with those tyrannical the public face of homelessness but not the this are written. governments that possess them – and extent of it. Each month, in every British wish to use them. city, obituaries list the deaths of members Vince Garton, Cambridge of an economic sub-class. Alcoholism, drug via Varsity.co.uk addiction and violence affect large portions of society. What advancement will the cel- ebrated in society announce next when they Corrections intend to do nothing to challenge the conse- quences of these economic considerations on Varsity wishes to correct errors made in the vulnerable in society? edition 746 (4th November 2011) with refer- ence to the article entitled ‘Pack your bag, VETEMENTS James Elliott, Cambridge tourists’. In this article we stated that plans via Varsity.co.uk were being put in place by the council to Interview with Sophie Ellen ban tourists from the city centre, and that A graduate from Cambridge School HATE IN POLITICS these were being mooted by the city’s cur- Of Art, Sophie Ellen recently exhibited rent mayor, Cllr Hipkin. We recognise that a show titled “Sur Les Pointes” (On Dear Sirs, no such plans are being put in place and The Tips of the Toes), inspired by It’s all very well to point this out (‘Hate that Cllr Hipkin is in fact a former mayor of the beauty of ballet and fashion. she has no place in politics’, Charlie Bell), but Cambridge. speaks to Maria Dimitrova.
Varsity has been Cambridge’s independent student newspaper since 1947 and distributes 10,000 free copies to every Cambridge college, to ARU and around Cambridge each week.
E Rhys Treharne & Laurie Martin ed tor@vars ty co uk A E Andrew Griffi n assoc ate@vars ty co uk D E Joe Robertson d g tal@vars ty co uk D E George Shapter des gn@vars ty co uk N E Tristan Dunn & Samantha Sharman news@vars ty co uk C N R Matt Russell & Joanna Tang deputynews@vars ty co uk C E Felix Danczak comment@vars ty co uk S E Matt Blythe sport@vars ty co uk D S E Michael Taylor sport@vars ty co uk C S C Matt Dickinson sport@vars ty co uk M E Louise Benson magaz ne@vars ty co uk F E Kirsty Gray features@vars ty co uk A E Zoe Large arts@vars ty co uk T E Sophie Lewisohn theatre@vars ty co uk R L E Madeleine Morley & Helen Cahill rev ews@vars ty co uk F T Yinsey Wang, Chloe Spiby-Loh, Lucia Corsini, Aurien Compton-Joseph, James Evans fash on@vars ty co uk V TV E Millie Riley vtv@vars ty co uk P E Joseph Snelling photos@vars ty co uk
C F W Clemmie Hain-Cole and Freya Berry features@vars ty co uk F T C Megan Marsh, Rebecca Jacobs, Richard Stockwell & Tom Powell theatre@vars ty co uk F C India Ross, Alice Bolland & Charlotte Green f lm@vars ty co uk L C Charlotte Keith l terary@vars ty co uk V A C Holly Gupta, Louise Paterson & Jessica Cherry v sualarts@vars ty co uk M C Rory Williamson mus c@vars ty co uk C M C Hanna Grzeskiewicz class cal@vars ty co uk F C Jessica Donnithorne food@vars ty co uk VARSITV P M Alice Hancock & Natasha Pesaran product on@vars ty co uk C S E Patrick Sykes, Laura Blomvall S E Felicity Davies & Steph Davin subed tor@vars ty co uk Homelessness: A Big Issue? B A M Michael Derringer bus ness@vars ty co uk Half of Cambridge students have V B Dr Michael Franklin (Chair), Prof. Peter Robinson, Dr Tim Harris, Mr Chris Wright, Mr Michael Derringer, Miss Alice Hancock (Varsity Society President), Miss Charlotte Wu, Mr Rhys Treharne never given money to the homeless, & Mr Laurie Martin according to a VarsiTV documentary released this week. To see the full fi nd- NEWSPAPERS SUPPORT Varsity, Old Examination Hall, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RF. Tel 01223 337575. Fax 01223 760949. Varsity is published by Varsity Publications Ltd. Varsity Publications also publishes BlueSci and The Mays. RECYCLING ings and interviews visit the VarsiTV Recycled paper made ©2011 Varsity Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without up 87.2% of the raw material for UK newspapers in 2008 prior permission of the publisher. Printed at Iliffe Print Cambridge — Winship Road, Milton, Cambridge CB24 6PP on 48gsm UPM Matt Paper. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Offi ce. ISSN 1758-4442 website. NEWSPAPERS SUPPORT RECYCLING News Editors: Tristan Dunn & Samantha Sharman 11th November 2011 [email protected] www.varsity.co.uk NEWS 3
ANDREW GRIFFIN A new class of elite teachers Stephanie Barrett to make certain subjects irrelevant NEWS CORRESPONDENT in schools “on the basis that all we had known and learned had suddenly The Prince of Wales is to create become irrelevant, old-fashioned [and] a cadre of elite teachers to bring out-of-date” were “bonkers and likely neglected areas of study back to to end in tears”. England’s schools. The programme has been created in The Prince’s Teaching Institute has the hope that neglected areas of study introduced a two-year Master’s degree will be reintroduced into the school The four contenders: (left to right) David Sainsbury, Brian Blessed, Abdul Arain and Michael Mansfi eld for secondary school teachers, which is curriculum. to be taught by Cambridge academics. The innovative course description The Prince of Wales established states the degree will “help English Gerard Tully, President of CUSU, marches in the protest with a ‘Free Education is Not a Dream’ placcard this charitable institution in order to and History teachers develop their protect traditional subjects against subject knowledge and enhance their the rise of teaching in schools, which professional and academic standing”. places more emphasis on skills and Cambridge academics will provide Cambridge students join protests shuns a focus on knowledge. teaching and supervision through a combination of residential teaching Andrew Griffi n Even before the march, tension rose, and some scuffl es between police The Prince of in Cambridge, scheduled out of term- ASSOCIATE EDITOR between police and protesters was and protesters broke out. There were, Wales is behind time and online tuition. Cambridge students joined thousands high, as the Metropolitan Police had however, less than 30 arrests. the project to The deadline for applications is of protesters in London on Wednesday issued a statement discussing the pos- Travelling to London, one of two have Cambridge April, with the two-year part-time to demonstrate against government sibility of the use of rubber bullets. CUSU coaches – which together took academics degree running from September 2012 cuts to education and public services. This prompted demonsrators to more than 140 students to the pro- educate teachers to July 2014. Successful applicants The police presence was heavy, with chant: “You can shove your rubber bul- test – was pulled over by police, who will largely be able to dictate what as many as 4,000 police offi cers, accom- lets up your arse.” questioned the driver and examined The course will lead to a full is taught, which they will then study panied by dogs and horses, deployed In the event, rubber bullets were students’ placards. Officers then University of Cambridge Master’s both academically and pedagogically. on the march route. Some reports not used, and the protest, which stuck handed out leaflets to students on degree, with those that graduate It is, however, an important aim estimated that police outnumbered to the pre-authorised route, remained the bus, outlining regulations for the obtaining a Master of Studies (MSt) in of the programme that studies are protesters by as many as two to one. largely peaceful. march. Advanced Subject Teaching. focused on areas of the curriculum that The organisers estimated that over Police formed a line at the front of The march ended in a rally on Moor- This is not the fi rst time that the are under-represented in schools, not 10,000 students would be at the protest, the march, and forced it to move slowly gate, during which protesters were Prince of Wales has criticised modern least because the teachers themselves but less than a third of this number are along the route. surrounded by police and not allowed teaching: in 2008, he said that moves may be less familiar with them. believed to have been present. At times, this meant that tensions to leave.
Perella Weinberg Partners provides independent investment banking advice and asset management services
to leading companies and investors around the world.
We are currently recruiting for summer internships in our investment banking team in London, and would like to hear from penultimate-year students seeking a rewarding career in an intellectually challenging and collegiate environment.
To find out more, join us for drinks at The River Bar, Quayside (off Bridge St.) at 7pm on Thursday 10th November.
Candidates wishing to apply for an internship should submit a CV and covering letter to [email protected]
London New York San Francisco Abu Dhabi www.pwpartners.com 11th November 2011 News Editors: Tristan Dunn & Samantha Sharman 4 NEWS www.varsity.co.uk [email protected] Love project reaches its end ‘Beginning, Middle, End’, a Cambridge project about love, is drawing to a close – in Paris. Rivkah Brown has a look back at the journey
liver Rees is your average In early October, 800 romantic third year student. He is also texts, ranging from a simple “I love Oa hopeless romantic. Over you” to the rather more racy (and the course of Michaelmas term, he therefore unprintable), were sent to and a troupe of volunteers have been students at random across the Uni- making the days of students across versity. This was the ‘Beginning’. Cambridge. For the ‘Middle’ stage, 500 students It began last year, when Rees had awoke to fi nd roses in their pigeon the inspiration for anonymous pigeon holes. This, Rees says, was harder hole notes, nicknamed ‘Anonymous than you might think: “One porter Pigeon’. Next came ‘Library Whis- was being really diffi cult, so I threw pers’, an exam term pick-me-up the roses at him and ran away”. allowing users to send anonymous The idea behind the project is to messages from the library. track the trajectory of a relationship, Now, riding on the success of his from fl irtatious texting to more seri- Paris by night: one lucky couple who attend the ‘Beginning, Middle, End’ play will win a trip to Paris ous gestures of love, and fi nally to the The ‘Middle’ complexities of an individual relation- part of Rees’s ship. These Rees will explore in the “I like seeing real things – I don’t care ticket to ‘Beginning, Middle, End’. people’s lives”. project involved ‘End’. about the made up”. Rees insists that it is not necessary He accepts that the project is “in a sending 500 lucky For the fi nal chapter, Rees has put With the ‘End’, Rees hopes to make to have followed the project’s journey way a gimmick”, but insists that it is students a rose together a play, which will be put on people “feel more optimistic about from the very start to enjoy or partic- more than just a publicity stunt. Rees from an admirer next week. In it, he portrays three relationships, especially if they’ve ipate in the play. ‘End’, Rees says, will wants to encourage people to “do real relationships. If you are dubious had a tough ending recently”. “put the whole thing in context”. nice things for each other”, or even previous two enterprises, Rees, nick- about the authenticity of Rees’s love Indeed, the ‘End’ gets its happily- So why is Rees doing all this? To set “to make those connections which are named the ‘anonymous angel’, has stories, think again: he has sourced ever-after: the project will culminate people up? Not quite: Rees tells me harder to fi nd”. So here’s to lov e. embarked on his current mission them from 150 ‘relationship moments’ in two people being sent to Paris for his intention is not to act as a dating ‘Beginning, Middle, End’, to inject submitted to him online over the free. To be in for a chance of winning agency, but “to create a service that To book a ticket for the ‘End’ show, romance into the city. summer. As he tells me emphatically, the Paris trip, you need to book a adds some excitement or interest to visit beginningmiddleend.co.uk/end Dead body in Cam formally identifi ed Body found in Cam by rowers formally identifi ed as former Homerton Fellow Dr Julia Swindells
Siobhan Coskeran published poet. NEWS CORRESPONDENT He said: “Julia was a reluc- The Godmother tant academic star with a A former Cambridge city coun- strong political commitment cillor has paid tribute to his to women, and to those ‘on the university lecturer wife, whose other side of silence’ whose requests the pleasure of body was found in the River voices she worked so hard to your company Cam on Sunday. hear and represent. Dr Julia Swindells, a former “For her the Cambridge fellow of Homerton and a lec- Labour Party was the nearest turer in English at Anglia approximation she could fi nd Ruskin University before she to a church in which she could at her free, upscale, private resigned from her post in Sep- believe. Peer-to-Commoner dating website tember, had been suffering “She loved and cherished from extreme depression and colleagues and students with Julia Swindells, paranoia. whom she worked in the Eng- She went missing from the lish department at Anglia at Cambridge City Council, family home in Riverside, Ruskin University. Cllr Lewis Herbert said: “Cam- Cambridge, on Saturday 29th “But she dreamed of writ- bridge Labour Party was a October and her body was ing poetry and walking the major part of Julia’s extended found in the River Cam near hills close to her father in family and we will all miss her her home eight days later. Yorkshire.” terribly.” Cambridgeshire Police have A spokesman from Anglia Ben Bradnack, husband of Dr said that the 60-year-old’s Ruskin University has also Swindells, praised his wife for death is not being treated as praised Dr Swindells’ skill as her musical and literary talent. suspicious. an inspirational teacher and Mr Bradnack is planning a RSVP as a Commoner starting Free Lifetime Access to the Ben Bradnack, husband of widely-respected researcher, celebration of Dr Swindell’s life 11/11/11 at 11:11:11 GMT fi rst 1,000 registrants the late Dr Swindells, praised while the Cambridge Labour and anyone who would like to his wife for her musical and lit- Party paid tribute to her pas- contribute their thoughts can erary talent. She was known sionate activism. email him at benbradnack@ for her talent as a pianist and a Leader of the Labour group gmail.com News Editors: Tristan Dunn & Samantha Sharman 11th November 2011 [email protected] www.varsity.co.uk NEWS 5 An en-tour-prising venture “And on your left – a savvy student”: Varsity meets Andrey Pronin, who found a novel solution to the problem of graduate employment by starting his own tour company, called Oxbridge Tours
REN HUI YOONG Matt Russell Andrey Pronin, says, “People come NEWS CORRESPONDENT here to see the University. Why would they want to see the University? A Cambridge business started by two Because we’ve got 800 years of history students has shown that even when and we’ve got people who can give you graduate employment is down, it is an insight into this.” still possible to make money. Andrey, who studied PPS at Their secret is simple: knowing both Fitzwilliam, started the business the University and the city intimately. in the summer of 2010 with fellow Combining personal experiences third year student and Pembroke of studying at the University with alumnus, Christopher Dobbing, who a range of facts and stories, like has left since graduating and has been Marlowe being a secret agent, makes replaced by Ben Firman. Oxbridge Tours a unique proposition He speaks positively of the in a town fi lled with tourists. experience even though he often They offer public and private tours works 12 hour days: “This year we of both Cambridge and Oxford, but can see a lot of entrepreneurs starting unlike their rivals, they offer tours their own business; it is fascinating, led exclusively by students of the but also very hard to start one.” respective universities. Asked on how the business was doing in comparison with this time “We’ve got 800 years of last year, Andrey was slightly coy, responding only that, “If business in A Downing undergraduate room that can be rented by guests history and we’ve got July was one, now it’s fi ve”. people who can give you They average up to fi ve tours per day now and are used by two tourist an insight into this.” companies, but the ever-growing business and Andrey’s relaxed This is inevitably popular with demeanour belie some of the troubles tourists who fi nd trite details about faced by the young company. Corpus Christi is the fi rst stop in the 90-minute tour of Cambridge hall food just as interesting as Currently, the only direct Marlowe’s enigmatic past. During a competition in Cambridge is Blue tour last Saturday, questions ranged Badge, the council-backed private while the Tourist Information Centre, is having to battle against. Despite One of the main diffi culties they from asking about the history of tour operator, who had a monopoly on who employ Blue Badge, refused to receiving the support of the Vice- face at the moment, though, is the the University’s inception to what guided tours in Cambridge before the list them on their board, despite being Chancellor, university members and lack of new guides; a problem which accommodation is like within the arrival of Oxbridge Tours. required to as a public body. the wider Cambridge community, shows just how the far business has colleges. According to Andrey, the company It is not just the council but the Oxbridge Tours still struggle to progressed over the past year. As the director of Oxbridge Tours, is “frowned upon” by Blue Badge, colleges themselves that the business persuade some colleges to offer the Guides are paid £12.50 per hour and same preferential rates received by allowed to work a maximum of four An inspiring move, which Cambridge is one of the most though they offer it to Blue Badge. Blue Badge. hours per week to prevent academic visited sites in the UK and Andrey’s The college also blocked Andrey’s Andrey has also tried to set up studies being affected, but can also the University should project fi lled a gap in the market bid to rent a property on King’s base on King’s Parade and he had choose when to work. Training to be a help, not hinder for student-led tours in the city – Parade as a base for his company. guide takes no more than a week and and a much needed competition to This is symptomatic of a wider “The main reason I is free. Analysis the Council’s monopoly with Blue problem, namely that the Uni- PhD student and Oxbridge Tours Samantha Sharman Badge. versity is showing signs of being guide is that I’ve always guide, Victoria Osmond, says, “The Despite his obvious success and unwilling to change a system that’s loved showing visitors main reason I guide is that I’ve his enterprise is another the endorsement he has received been in place for decades. always loved showing visitors around inspiring example of entre- from the University’s Vice-Chancel- The University should be around the colleges.” the colleges and city and telling them Tpreneurial spirit in the face of lor, the issues facing Oxbridge tours supporting creative and entrepre- about how Cambridge works. It’s very a diffi cult graduate job market. highlight the ongoing inertia within neurial spirit in their students, found the money, an estate agent’s enjoyable being a guide; seeing the As reported in Varsity, we have the University. and should acknowledge that the approval and everything necessary, university and surroundings through seen an increasing number of gradu- It’s disappointing, for example, best way for tourists to learn about except the support of the landlords: the eyes of the tourists reminds me ates starting their own businesses that King’s College will not give Cambridge properly is through its King’s College. The college refused how special the place is, otherwise since the onset of the fi nancial crisis. Oxbridge Tours a reduced rate, even students. permission because it would not it’s very easy to be blasé about the benefi t them. place.” Oxford Tories in Nazi song scandal
Ross Kempsell In one source seen by Varsity, a nameless, told The Oxford Student: the past year “also showed members Joe Cooke, a former president of NEWS CORRESPONDENT short video fi lmed in the common room “Lots of people were singing it that of the society rolling around drunk on the Conservative Association, has at Corpus Christi College, appears to night, and indeed on many other the fl oor”. announced his resignation in protest A scandal is quickly engulfing show an inebriated student singing nights, and the general attitude is about the ‘debauched’ behaviour Oxford University after its student ‘Dashing through the Reich’, before that that was OK. The chants of many of his fellow members. The newspaper claimed that Tory students being chastised by another student. “The thing is, lots of members do supposedly took third year PPE student said: “It is had celebrated Nazism during Another photo shows two members fi nd that song, and songs like that one, place at thier disgusting and goes against everything meetings. dressed as former Prime Minister, absolutely despicable, though little alcohol-fueled the Conservative Party stands for. I Members of the University’s Margaret Thatcher, standing next to a is done to stop it. I am very worried “port and policy” am completely disillusioned. Conservative Association - whose coal miner outfi t bearing a sign which with the direction the society is going evenings “Unfortunately the majority of former presidents include several reads: ‘I love shafting.’ in at present.” National newspapers members are rich former public serving cabinet ministers – are said to Asked about the alleged behaviour, took up the story today, with the It noted that one picture showed a schoolboys who are far more have chanted songs with Nazi themes one member of the Conservative Daily Mail claiming that photographs student pouring port into a friend’s interested in drinking port than at their ‘port and policy’ evenings. Association, who preferred to remain from ‘port and policy’ nights during mouth through a pith helmet. discussing policy.” 11th Novem ber 2011 News Editors: Tristan Dunn & Samantha Sharman 6 NEWS www.varsity.co.uk [email protected]
So, you want a 3,000 word English essay written in 4 Writers earn days. How much will that be? 2.ii 2.i 2.i 1st 1st 30 (standard) (high) (standard) (high) £ per thousand words £368 £432 £512 £820 £900 Statistics from from Statistics the website: Selling your brain for cash Helen Charman & Tristan Dunn investigate a growing industry of Oxbridge students and graduates selling essays for cash. Is it morally correct for students to do this and more importantly, is it cheating?
Continued from Page 1 of the country’s fi nest academics we Speaking to a source at Oxbridge which is the fastest option the company are able to provide our clients with Essays, we were told that typically a offers. their exact grade requirements.” student will be paid a rate of £70 per The prices of the essays also differ They go on to add: “Our writers are 1,000 words written. according to subject, with a First Class experienced academics and understand This equates to roughly 25-35% of Medicine essay worth £855 and PPS/ the requirements for work at all levels the sale price of some essays. PPE coming in at the most expensive and grades, from As at A-level through The financial incentives behind at £890, whilst Natural Sciences essays undergraduate and Master’s 2.is; First working for Oxbridge Essays are clear, are a relative steal at £550. and Upper Firsts to PhD pass and but its moral questionability is more publishable material.” complex: does it count as cheating? Despite the exorbitantly high prices The company are adamant that “Speaking to a source at for essays, Varsity’s investigation it does not, saying that “ordering a the fi rm, we were told shows that students will only earn a model essay or dissertation does not The market value of a through the night just to meet that fraction of the sale price. make you a cheat. In fact, it usually students work deadline the next day. But did you rea- that typically a student shows that you are a hard-working lise that the value of, say, a 2,000 word will be paid a rate of £70 and conscientious student. The great Analysis Economics essay written in such a way majority of our customers have Tristan Dunn to a 2.1 standard, would be worth £504 per 1000 words written” been let down by their university to a desperate student? Dissertations and PhDs are, or experienced diffi cult personal arsity’s investigation this week These numbers only get larger when however, where the real money is, circumstances. They are looking brings another point of interest we add up the work of a student over with a 7,000 word English Literature for expert private academic help Vto light relating to the market the whole term. As can be seen in our undergraduate dissertation costing to make sure that they still get value of a student’s work. graphics above, the market value of a cool £1,680, with a 15,000 word the 2.i or First Class degree they Given the prices offered by such pri- a History student’s work with eight History dissertation valued at deserve”. vate companies for Oxbridge standard essays per term is around £4,000. So £4,675. Speaking to Varsity on the work, it may come as a shock to a stu- who said university students do noth- A PhD is understandably the most phone, a source at the fi rm insisted dent to learn just how valuable their ing of worth? expensive, with a full, “publishable” that writing for their company is work is. Should we be surprised by the fact PhD worth an incredible £11,230. not legal but agreed that there Few students at Cambridge realise that such a company even exists? Clients are able to choose was a moral question involved with that there is a lucrative market out Perhaps not. A university education the exact grade they would like writing for their fi rm. there for their work where your aver- appears to be worth a lot in terms of ranging from a 2.ii to a high First The university disagrees, however, age essay can sell for a few hundred future income, if we are to believe most which leads to the question of how and both Cambridge and pounds. surveys. Further, with the rise in the they can guarentee grades. Oxford have expressed strong We have all experienced that last number of graduates, getting that 2.i or To this question, Oxbridge disapproval of the company in minute feeling of writing an essay 1.i is increasingly important to ensure essays answer: “By using some the past, defi ning the essays as News Editors: Tristan Dunn & Samantha Sharman 11th November 2011 [email protected] www.varsity.co.uk NEWS 7
• Classics • Medicine One term’s • Essay • Essay 1x 3000 worth of work • 2,000 words • 2,000 words word essay, • 2.ii £195 • High First £820 • 2 weeks • Tomorrow in 4 days, = • Economics • Chem Eng • Dissertation • Full PhD classed 2.i £4,096 • 10,000 words £3,116 • 80,000 words £34,120 • First Class • Publishable = £512 • 7 days • 4 days historyAverage student:
JOSEPH SNELLING loans, we should just take what we can The University of Cambridge’s official stance on such companies get”. Not all students take this attitude, however, with Kate Henney, a fi rst year at Emmanuel College, saying that We would strongly disapprove of present she would be worried about someone else using her work as their own: “I or former students writing essays for other really don’t like the idea of someone people. Not only is it cheating, or complicit else getting the benefi t of my hard work, and it defeats the point of a with cheating, but it goes against the entire university education if you just use purpose of a university education, which is the skills you’ve worked on to help someone else cheat.” to develop one’s own ideas and skills The company emphasises that its services do not count as cheating as they state explicitly that the work is not to be submitted but merely used as research documents: “When TARGET: £175,000 used correctly, our model essays and dissertations are meant to be ‘learning aids’ which students use to improve their understanding of their university materials”. Yet the company has no means £ 150, 000 of ensuring this, and ultimately the Grab your gowns for Formal Freedom likelihood is that the students who he 12th of by the City Council. are paying out such large sums of November marks However, the Council money will submit the essays as TCambridge RAG’s were not at all confi dent their own work, raising questions 90th birthday, the original that student fundraisers about intellectual property as well as organisation having been would treat the appeal plagiarism. founded in 1921 in order with the reverence it was to help raise money for the due, and expressed seri- “In the current Poppy Appeal. ous concern about the £ 100, 000 Yet the term ‘rag’ has not appeal’s proximity to economic climate we always been associated ‘Bonfi re Rag’; a time of shouldn’t be limiting the with charity fundraising. year when students tra- In the late 19th and early ditionally caused them job opportunities for 20th centuries, it was a by- nothing but trouble. The graduates” word for any event which decision was taken by the caused a general public Council to exclude the £ 50, 000 On to the question of legality and disturbance, and was students of Cambridge the company claims the services they most commonly applied from the city’s fundraising provide are completely legal: “All in Cambridge to distur- effort. services provided by Oxbridge Essays bances between Town and In reality, the students are 100 per cent legal. Gown. These would take did not heed the Council’s “Legally, writing a model essay or place mostly during public wishes, and the Council’s dissertation is no different to writing celebrations when both fears were not realised. a good job upon graduation. plagiarism. a journal, newspaper article, speech or sides were out in force, Many students took to Nonetheless, the fact remains that A spokesman for the University of any other written material.” such as the annual ‘Bon- the streets to sell remem- the act of buying or selling essays in Cambridge told Varsity: “We would Oxbridge Essays is part of a larger fi re Rag’, which usually brance poppies, and the £ 20, 000 such a way is morally wrong. As can strongly disapprove of present or organisation, The Oxbridge Research ended up as a large brawl. townsfolk responded be seen by the University’s statement, former students writing essays for Group, which describes itself as “the The Great War of 1914 generously. they do consider such acts as cheating, other people or using essays written UK’s largest academic research to 1918 saw many student The following year, in although it is unclear what repercus- by others. Not only is it cheating, company” offering other services such members of the University 1922, the Council was sions a student found to be doing such a or complicit with cheating, but it as document editing and Oxbridge of Cambridge and many much more agreeable to thing would face. goes against the entire purpose of personal statements. The Oxbridge townspeople join the war student involvement, and But the incentives are there. Your a university education, which is to Research Group claims to employ effort and suffer injury or ‘Poppy Day Rag’ became average college bar job will pay you develop one’s own ideas and skills, not almost 2,000 academics from Oxford death. an established tradition just £7-£8 per hour. At £70 per 1,000 buy them in from elsewhere. Cambridge and Cambridge, suggesting that not When, three years in the years that followed, £ 10, 000 words, it is clear why some students students, in any case, have very heavy everyone at the university shares the after the end of the war, becoming an occasion of give in to the temptation and write for workloads and writing essays for other negative view of the organisation. Earl Haig founded the good humour between such companies. people would inevitably put their own Despite the condemnation of Haig Fund to support town and gown. The work we do here at Cambridge progress at risk.” Oxbridge Essays by the university ex-servicemen and their £ 5, 000 has great value. Most students see this Yet not everyone disagrees with and most people’s views about cheating families, both the towns- Many thanks to Mike value in terms of the future income the idea of selling your ideas to others: and plagiarism, it is clear that there is folk of Cambridge and the Petty for providing the they will receive upon graduation. But, a student who wishes to remain still both a market for the essays and student body were eager necessary insights into as is clearly shown by companies such anonymous told Varsity that “In the people willing to work for them, due to support the charity early 20th-century local as these, every essay you write has current economic climate we shouldn’t to the size of the fi nancial rewards through a the fundraising history. great worth. be limiting the job opportunities for offered, something likely to increase in effort that was to be set up graduates – we’ve all got huge student the current economic climate.
11th November 2011 News Editors: Tristan Dunn & Samantha Sharman 8 NEWS www.varsity.co.uk [email protected] Cambridge “What a stupid question” to launch Scourge of politicians and cantankerous former Varsity editor, Jeremy Paxman speaks tech college to editors past and present Rhys Treharne, Laurie Martin and Alice Hancock Helena Pike JOSEPH SNELLING NEWS CORRESPONDENT Cambridge University is to open a University Technical College (UTC) for up to 800 students in partnership with Cambridge Regional College (CRC). Backed by Lord Kenneth Baker’s Baker Dearing Educational Trust, it would teach technical skills to school children between 14 and 19 years old, whilst ensuring those under the age of 16 continued their academic studies for 60 per cent of the day. It would join the ranks of just two other UTCs around the Britain, although plans for a further 16 have been approved by the Department of Education. Based around the model of a nine to fi ve working day, its aim is, accord- ing to prime minister David Cameron, “to offer fi rst-class technical skills to those turned off by purely academic study.” With possible sponsorship from pharmaceutical and healthcare sec- tors of the city, it would specialise in healthcare, health sciences and labo- Quizzical: Paxman interviewed at the Union before his talk last Friday, 5th Novemer ratory science. The college would also work in con- e’s infamous for his on courses to learn how to say what Twelve times he meets various fl uffy it is, after all, a popular history junction with the Deakin Learning rebarbative – some they want regardless of the question forms of avoidance. written by a journalist – and one that Centre, a £6 million Addenbrooke’s would say combative asked and that’s very unproductive. Was this interview informative? will probably sell well. project that is yet to open. This is in – interviewing style. We need to fi nd a way through”. Is this an attack from the Left, the Paxman’s major gripe is that the the hope that students might learn HJeremy Paxman, grand inquisitor, And the best way to break through Right? Watching Paxman talk one is Empire has been elided in public skills required of NHS healthcare self-styled historian and quiz-show the rhetorical guard is to be robust. aware of his great theatricality. There debate, a problem which stems, as assistants or lab technicians. host. And yet he fi nds the shoe fi rmly ‘Very often it’s more productive to is a sense that sometimes the factual he sees it, from the didactic, stilted News of the plans has received on the other foot. attack from the left when they’re is compromised at the expense of manner in which history is taught in mixed reactions. Some have expressed Does he think this is always expecting an attack from the right’. It’s drama. British schools. In his speech to the concern over its economic viability. productive? “Do I think all interviews a nice sound-bite, probably rehearsed Union, he further bemoaned the ever- should be conducted like that? Of on the numerous occasions he’s been “I think it’s shocking growing distance between academic course not! What a stupid question!” asked about it. But is it true? and public discourse. Though he Even in reply, Paxman is combative. We ask if there are there moments that the only thing would not go so far as to condemn What’s happening in Cambridge? In a deft move of opprobrium masked when he sits up in bed and wishes he that got the students the sound-bite culture of television by joviality he turns the question back hadn’t asked that question, or gone journalism, which, according to one @rhystreharne on us: do we mean all interviews? Do down that path? “Yes, often there onto the streets was to audience challenger, was responsible Rhys Treharne, Varsity co-Editor we mean with politicians? He is ever are”, he says, unwilling to specify any. complain about their for that distance. Just described as ‘imperti- eager to seek clarifi cation, though There are notable moments – all Any historian of Empire is nent’ and ‘rude’ by Jeremy seems to not refl ect that clarifi cation with high viewing fi gures on YouTube payments from the inevitably asked the question: “for Paxman. He should know. on himself. – where politicians have met Paxman taxpayer”. or against?” Yet Paxman’s book seem Regardless of what he says, Paxman in a David and Goliath showdown. reluctant to pass judgement. We asked is perhaps most well-known for his The petty twigs and stones of him whether he had consciously set @Akilah_Jeffers fi ery TV persona. Michael Howard are no match for On current affairs he is loath to out to pen an even-handed account of Akilah Jeffers, 3rd year Englisher He is highly critical of the Paxman’s uncompromising tenacity comment: no prophecies for who will Empire – and, after we had exchanged contemporary trend of public fi gures in their 1997 Newsnight interview. win the next election. On the student a few more rebarbative remarks I just received an email well-trained in rhetoric. “We’re now “Did you threaten to overrule him?” movement he is far more animated: “I about the merits of our question, he from the BNP inviting me up against politicians who’ve gone Twelve times he launches the question. think it’s shocking that the only thing fi nally replied: “This thing that was to do a summer internship that got the students onto the streets so central to the lives of so many with them... was to complain about their payments people for so long cannot simply be from the taxpayer”. ignored”, adding, “It seems to me This reaction is not surprising. that a judgement has been passed on @itsmeacj Aurien Compton-Joseph, Varsity Fashionista After all, we expect Jeremy Paxman the Empire and it’s deemed that no to be grumpy about everything further discussion is required. I think It’s a sad day when the only – evasive politicians, slow-witted that this simply won’t do.” thing in your pigeon hole is quiz contestants, even Marks and But Paxman passes no obvious a pack of french verb conju- Spencer’s underwear. judgements himself. Indeed, when gations from your tutor. It makes logical sense, therefore, the main polemical thrust of the study that his latest literary enterprise – a is, as he summed up for us, that “there brief history of the British Empire are some things about [Empire] that @harry_carr – should display all the hallmarks of are disgraceful…and other things Harry Carr, The Varsitorialist Paxman’s cantankerous style. The that are rather admirable”, there is Bonfi re night: much like opprobrium, however, is not reserved scant room for disagreement (or even a pet, I ought to be kept for the devotees of Britain’s imperial originality). indoors. past, but rather for those who choose Paxman the combative journalist to ignore it. seems to fall for the same traps he Empire: What Ruling the World did accusses politicians of. Over interview Got something to share? to the British is, in essence, a potted style he is cagey. He claims that the history of our imperial past. The best kind of interview is one where Tweet us @varsityuk study is not problematised by imperial “you learn something”. One wonders University challenged: Paxman (centre) sits with his Lent 1972 Varsity team terminology or recent historiography; if we’ve succeeded on this. News Editors: Tristan Dunn & Samantha Sharman 11th November 2011 [email protected] www.varsity.co.uk NEWS 9 News in Brief Alumnus donates £1.4m Value of degrees made available to students
Information on the precise value of university degrees will be avail- able to students for the fi rst time, to Fitzwilliam College thanks to new data. This is part of a move by minis- Emilia Korczynska In recognition of Olisa’s generosity, ters to make university education NEWS CORRESPONDENT he has been elected as an 1869 Fellow more transparent, by revealing Benefactor of the college, an honour precisely what students will get Fitzwilliam College alumnus Ken bestowed on a supporter of “excep- for their money. Olisa and his wife, Julia, have donated tional munifi cience”. The findings will determine £1.4 million to support the college’s Ken Olisa came to Fitzwilliam in which places are best for get- new library and IT centre, opened in 1971 to read Natural, Social & Politi- ting a job, standards of teaching 2010. cal and Management Sciences, which and the quality of the university’s The new building provides 50 per gave start to his impressive career in research, as well as the amount of cent more study spaces and boasts technology. He was elected as presi- contact hours on each course. scenic views from its signature land- dent of the Fitzwilliam Society, the See more at varsity.co.uk mark – a tower overlooking the society of the students and staff of the college grounds and the University college, in 1973. Sainsbury Laboratory Library. Mr Olisa said: “My time at Fitzwil- named World’s Best Christine Roberts Lewis, the col- liam was transformative for a state lege librarian, said: “The standards school boy from the poor streets of Learning Building 2011 that we now provide in this library Nottingham. The College’s welcom- are envied”. ing and egalitarian atmosphere and The Sainsbury Laboratory has been Cambridge’s academic excellence named the world’s best learning Fitzwilliam gave me the privileged experiences alumnus Ken Fitzwilliam College Library building at the World Architecture which underpin my career. Olisa says it “only Festival in Barcelona. “It seems only right to repay some for over 10 years, acting as general people in London. Last year also saw seems right” to It was opened by HRH the of that privilege by helping Fitzwil- manager of their European, African Olisa named as one of the UK’s top repay the college Queen in April to house laboratory for its help liam and its students to achieve their and the Middle Eastern divisions, he ten most infl uential black men, in the facilities for scientific research potential.” then started two technology merchant Powerlist 2010. projects. While still at Cambridge, Ken banks, Interregnum and Restoration According to Helen Bettinson, Fitz- The jury said: “It is beautifully Fitzwiliam students have welcomed obtained a scholarship from IBM, Partners, which he chairs today. william’s development director, Mr. considered in terms of its human the gift to the new library, which they where he held various posts after Apart from his work in the indus- Olisa has remained involved in college scale, and for activities for research fi nd ‘a fantastic resource’. leaving the university with a master’s try, Ken holds several charitable life ever since his graduation in 1974. and learning.” “It is a very good time for the col- degree. positions. Olisa was awarded an OBE He has also made smaller contribu- lege”, said Trisha, a third-year medic. Since working in Wang Laboratories last year for his work with homeless tions to the college library before. 11th November 2011 Comment Editor: Felix Danczak 10 COMMENT www.varsity.co.uk [email protected] Comment
EDWARD EUSTACE Comment Question Space exploration may be just the ticket. It has the capacity to bring us together, and show us just how far our potential stretches: to the stars.
Yet there are several problems to be overcome before such a utopian vision, namely that the plurality of space progams are all nationally funded.
Who will ‘own’ Mars, when ‘we’ could mean Russia, China, or the US? Should anyone be able to stake a claim? Can humanity actually claim to ‘own’ another planet anyway?
We just pose the questions. You give us the answers. Let us know what you think on Twitter @ VarsityUK #comment One important step for man Even in recession, space exploration remains a vital part of what it means to be human
The international team, economic downturn space programs only by our ambition to fi nd ever- Grace Mitchell representing France, Russia, Italy the world over have suffered. Yet, more-overwhelming obstacles to and China, emerged from their self- in spite of the inevitable cut-backs, overcome. We have made our world imposed exile relatively unscathed, it is essential that space exploration smaller, and so we look beyond our varsity comment brings with one member of the crew, Diego remains a global priority – beginning own borders, up to the next great you a weekly guide to the Urbina, announcing upon his exit with a focus on sending humans to challenge for our technology and our best talks in cambridge from the capsule his hope that the Mars on schedule if at all possible. perseverance. n Friday 4th November, experiment would pave the way for To begin with, we may learn Over six thousand people tuesday 15th the longest space mission a real expedition to Mars, allowing much through the exploration of worldwide applied to be a part of the The Evolution of Morality Oin human history came to a mankind to “one day greet a new our solar system. Aside from the MARS-5OO experiment: over six close without ever having left the dawn on the surface of a distant but obvious scientifi c interest of such thousand people eager to exchange Location: Garden Room, surface of our blue planet. reachable planet”. discoveries, I would argue that – over a year and a half of their lives St Edmund’s College The MARS-500 project, conducted Though such a mission is not yet with dwindling natural resources for just the chance, as crew member Time: 13:00 at the Russian Academy of Sciences within reach, Jean Jaques Dordain, and the recent birth of our small Why: Are we humans essentially in Moscow and spanning an the director general of the European planet’s seven billionth inhabitant “Our ingenuity is altruistic beings whose natural unprecedented 520 days, simulated a Space Agency, has commented that – any opportunity to expand our state is to care for others? Or full-length manned mission to Mars. he is “convinced that this experience knowledge of the universe in which matched only by our are our moral codes the only The intention of this undertaking is the starting point of a much bigger we exist is to be welcomed. ambition to fi nd ever thing holding us back from utter was to observe the physical and adventure, which will be the fl ight The odds are slim that the solution selfi shness? A tour through the psychological effects of this long- to Mars.” to our problems lies elsewhere in the more over-whelming evolutionary history of morality term isolation on the six volunteers Both NASA and the Russian solar system, but it is a possibility obstacles to overcome” and its precursors suggests a third taking part, and assess whether an Space Agency intend to have sent which ought not to be ruled out. alternative – that we are neither actual journey to Mars would be manned spacecraft to the red Unless we choose to change our Romain Charles put it, to prove angel nor beast, but are by nature plausible in the future. planet by the end of the 2030s, and way of life, leaving the planet is an “that a human journey to the red moral strugglers and deliberators. The mock-astronauts lived in are currently conducting further inevitability. planet is feasible”. This stands as a windowless, one-hundred-and- But I confess that possibility of testament to the passion felt by Tuesday 15th eighty square foot capsule for the “Their only connection scientifi c advance alone is not why I many for space exploration – and The Limits of Science duration of the test, occasionally believe so strongly that a journey to it does not surprise me. carrying out experiments on with the outside world Mars is worth the time and money After all – assuming all goes Location: Plant Science “results” they had collected and came in the form of a spent. In an uncharacteristic burst forward as hoped – it is safe to Lecture Theatre, Downing Site even walking on the surface of a fake of idealism, I admit that in space assert that the fi rst human being Time: 20:00 Mars landscape during their thirty- phone line which had a exploration I see one of humanity’s to step foot on the red planet will Why: Is there anything scientists day “stay” on the surface of the twenty minute delay” best traits – that compelling urge (to write their name prominently will be unable to elucidate? Is planet. Their only connection with casually drop Cambridge alumnus across human history. there a limit to what we can the outside world came in the form research into conditions on Mars, George Mallory into the matter When one considers the MARS- know? Prof Atkins will examine of a phone line which had a twenty- with NASA launching a mission in at hand) to defeat a seemingly 500 experiment as an opportunity whether there is a closed door for minute delay and suffered from late 2013 devoted to understanding insurmountable obstacle just to take part in a landmark science, and if not, what might be occasional break-downs, mimicking the Martian upper atmosphere. “because it’s there.” achievement – a triumph of human behind the doors we haven’t yet as closely as possible the conditions Despite these hopes, it is Our ingenuity in making life endeavour – 520 days does not opened. of a real mission. unsurprising that in the face of easier for ourselves is matched seem so long. Comment Editor: Felix Danczak 11th November 2011 [email protected] www.varsity.co.uk COMMENT 11
Response: Democracy takes a back seat remember the Papandreou’s referendum suggestion terrifi ed Europe’s leaders – a dangerous development porter!
hasty exit looked more or less ollowing the faintly Patrick Fee inevitable. preposterous suggestion After negotiations with other Fby John Hipkin to impose European leaders, the plans for a an entry fee on the centre of referendum were abandoned and Cambridge, I was disappointed Papandreou agreed to step down to read of this paper’s approval, to allow the emergence of a new or, rather, enthusiasm for the national unity coalition government. scheme (‘Got a ticket to ride?’ 4th n 27th October, following It seems an excessive response November). seemingly endless nego- to a referendum which trusted in It is more than merely the Otiations in pursuit of a new the people of Greece. Almost two “income and interest these debt reduction deal for Greece, the and a half thousand years after they tourists generate for the local Eurozone leaders emerged with an fi rst began the great democratic economy” that was suggested as agreement which cut Greek debt in experiment, it appears that the the ‘predictable’ quarrel with this half and pledged another €130 bil- Greeks have been told that there is a proposal. As if the accusations lion in bailout money to be delivered time and a place for democracy, and of elitism levelled at some of the early next year. university’s institutions were The relief was palpable, market government services too. The people so successful that the West has been not enough, the idea that one of surges were predicted and Sarkozy “Greeks have been told cannot, therefore, always be trusted exporting it for decades, imposing it the country’s most important gushed that “the results will be a there is a time and a to want what is best for them. on far away places ruled by tyrants. historic locales and amongst the source of huge relief worldwide.” The There must be times when the The most popular retrospective most beautiful heritage sites Eurozone fi nally appeared to have place for democracy, government steps in to save the justifi cation for the war in Iraq should be subject to an ‘entry- pulled itself back from the brink. and that this isn’t it” people from themselves by ignoring is that Saddam Hussein’s brutal fee’, rendering it a commercial Europe’s new found serenity was the wishes of the people. This belief dictatorship was removed and enterprise is frankly laughable. however, short-lived. The following this isn’t it. The questions this raises is nothing if not despotic, however it democracy implemented in its stead. I fear that people living here day Greek PM George Papandreou for our democracies are diffi cult appears that Europe’s heads of state Papandreou’s referendum don’t quite realise their luck – announced his plans to put the ones. We are taught to value our have collectively decided what is however, the purest expression of the old adage about having your acceptance of the new bailout, and systems because of the infl uence best for Greece and are determined democracy which remains in our cake and eating it translates the austerity measures which came the people have on the government, that the Greek people must not be society, was condemned widely for all too easily to living in your with it, before the Greek people but what happens when we don’t consulted. the risked it posed both to the euro beautiful medieval city and in a referendum. The action drew want whats best for us? Is it the The great European bid for unity and to his country. Here we see the preventing free access too. John widespread condemnation from the duty of the government to ignore and equality seems to have been message once again: there is a time Hipkin has forgotten he isn’t media, from within his own cabinet our irresponsible desires? Or is chipped away at by the economic and a place for democracy, and this the porter from Macbeth, and and from the other European heads it despotic of the government to crisis until now we see only France isn’t it. that, in fact, when our friend the of State. assume it knows best? and Germany struggling to hold With the suppression of the Greek tourist is equivocating in front The markets plunged once more It is clear that the people of the jigsaw together above all referendum, rightly or wrongly, we of King’s Chapel, he is admiring into chaos, with the DOW-Jones Greece were against the terms of the else. Principles such as equality, have seen that democracy is a luxury the fantastic architecture of our dropping almost 300 points, along bailout and would almost certainly democracy and self determination afforded to calmer times. Whilst city. Photo-snapping tourists are with a 5 per cent decline on both the have voted against it. However, have all succumbed to the desire of Europe may speak eloquently and an inevitable presence in a place French and German stock exchanges without a further injection of bailout Europe’s two great powers to protect emotively on the subject of democracy, that is both a fairy-tale fantasy in a single day. Crisis meetings were money, Greece would be broke by the Union. it is clear that in times of crisis, our and an urban reality; supporters held, the question of a Greek exit Christmas, effectively halting the This idea runs contrary to all of governments believe that there are of this scheme would do well from the euro was again a serious implementation of welfare payments, the notions we hold dear, glorifying some decisions that are simply too to bear in mind the Guardian’s possibility and Papandreou’s own healthcare services and all other our system of democracy, a system important for the people to decide. astute observation that “one of the lesser-known recipes for happiness is to live in a place where other people choose to go on holiday.” Curiosity keeps the cat alive Imagine the consternation should London begin to charge for entry into the square-mile Britain’s higher education system looks out of date. But a focus on interest is valuable (motor vehicles aside), or Berliners lost their nerve with exists on both sides of the channel. the employment game. On paper, Yes, we pick up transferable the tourists who swarm the As in most countries in the world, doing a Media Studies degree if you communication and persuasion skills, Brandenburg Gate, and placed Frankie Hill French degrees are supposed to be want to work in the media makes can work to deadlines and survive bouncers by its colonnades. useful. If you want to work in law sense. However, as a lot of the on caffeine and ethanol alone for Many colleges already charge you study law, if you want to work universities who offer such courses long periods of time, but we forget entry fees, the least the city can in banking you study economics, and are universities-that-haven’t- most of our dates and quotations as offer pilgrims of culture is the so on. When I tried to apply for an always-been-universities, those soon as the year is over. And nobody generous open door to visit our internship with a consultancy fi rm, I keen graduates who have known for really minds. city. ne of the few downsides to a was told that I had to be at business a while what they want to do with It’s hard to feel too sorry about the In fact, these points are year abroad in Paris is being school to be even able to hand in my their lives get waltzed past by that fact that numbers of people studying symptomatic of Britain’s troubled Ojudged for the fact that you CV. No deviation from the normal historian from Durham who decided arts subjects such as English and tourist trade, where Chatham don’t seem to be doing anything career path is accepted. just last week, for lack of a better History are projected to fall with the Dockyard charges a £15 entry with your life. (Admittedly, not so The idea that, in England, what idea. increase in tuition fees, faced with fee and Warwick Castle, £20. very far from the truth.) When a matters is not what your degree the far greater problem of social Although these are government- new acquaintance subtly enquires is in, but where you got it from, “Britain stands to lose exclusion. But we must acknowledge funding problems, Cambridge as to what I’m actually studying, seems hopelessly outdated and more that what Britain stands to lose is is in the enviable position of I generally end up the recipient than a little counter-intuitive. As the only three years of the only three years of its education being a rich city where the dull, of some considerable disgust. And one Oxford economist I met whislt its education system system where learning is for sublunary complaints of entry-fee nobody conveys disgust better than waiting for an interview the other learning’s sake. and upkeep needn’t bother the a Parisian. week said: “Well, I wouldn’t worry where learning is for With no government core skill romantic visitor. Protection is Unimpressed by Cambridge’s about not having studied economics learning’s sake” targets or national curriculum, important, but not at the expense reputation, and unimpressed by or business or whatever. It’s not genuine curiosity is the primary of free entry. When the tourists my poor French, the fact that I like I’ve learnt anything relevant Applying for a British university is factor deciding what we learn snap, and come knocking at the supposedly learn languages labels anyway. It’s all a bit too theoretical.” an intelligence test, and your reward about. And though we live in a gate, don’t make Cambridge as me a loser, because what could Ironically, in the UK, with the for having proven that you are bright time of increasing austerity, this ‘cold as hell’. Find the porter’s anyone do with a knowledge of obvious exceptions of Medicine and (or potentially, well-schooled) enough idiosyncratic British tradition is one sense of humour, and relent: ‘O, Balzac apart from become some Law, those studying what should to go a good one is to be able to study we should not abandon. This freedom come in, equivocator!’ kind of teacher? Needless to say, logically be the most useful degrees something enjoyably useless for is worth facing the occasional CALLAN J. DAVIES the “those who can’t do...” mentality are often those who do worst in three years. European sneer for. Whether your ambition is to be a drilling engineer Help deliver miles off the coast of Brazil, an energy trader in the heart of London or a Bioinformatics scientist in China, BP can offer you the perfect start to your career. the greatest BP offers graduate career opportunities as diverse as they are challenging. As a proud partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, BP show on earth is able to offer graduates joining us, a unique chance to start their career with a summer secondment to the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). Are you up BP will give you the training you need, as well as pay and accommodation for this one off opportunity. for the challenge? Whatever you do, it will be your rst step in a career that will challenge you in every way. bp.com/ukgraduates Be part of it, a chance like this comes only once. Don’t miss out. Closing date for graduate applications 30 December 2011 To nd out more visit bp.com/ukgraduates BP is an equal opportunity employer.
5280_BP_Grad_Olympic_345x270_AW.indd 1 17/10/2011 17:24 The Varsity Magazine FASHION, FEATURES, ARTS & REVIEWS
ESCAPE P20
PLUS MIND MAPS P15, PET SHOP BOYS INTERVIEW P19 & BUCKET LIST P23 11th November 2011 Magazine Editor: Louise Benson 14 MAGAZINE www.varsity.co.uk [email protected]
LOUISE BENSON OPENING NOTES Lou se Benson Room of one’s own n Saturday I travelled further afi eld than normal, namely Othe journey to Edinburgh. More surprising, though, was the fact that I would be retracing my steps that very evening – all 400 miles of them. Flights, working out cheaper than lengthy bus or train tickets, had seemed the most appealing option, but the reality of those trawling queues encountered at all turns at airports quickly brought home the time I’d be wasting in what had at fi rst seemed so effi cient a trip. My sister having just begun her undergraduate life at the university there, we spent the day marvelling at expansive lecture sites, climbing steeply curved streets, and drank whisky at a student bar housed in a former library. All of this novelty, though, reminded me that the end of my time in Cambridge is fast approaching, with nights spent drinking the late night coffee that comes with an impending deadline becoming weeks that fl ash past before you know it. A friend of mine now takes great pleasure in announcing the fi nality of even the most insignifi cant events: anything from the watching the fi reworks display to eating in hall in the month of October is not allowed to slip by without a snippet of sentimentality. With such weighty waves of realisation and nostalgia washing over me as I sat sipping amongst Georgina the Edinburgh bookshelves, the time fl ew past without us realising Eliot is a – as if to make a case in point. third year Perhaps allowing a little more time undergraduate to be spent without rushing from student one place to another was just what at Corpus, I needed to slow time down, at studying least for a weekend. History of Art.
What’s it like having a set of rooms Symphonie Fantastique (4th Mvt) – Masquerade Suite, Galop – Aram now? Hector Berlioz Khachaturian So good! Last year my desk and ‘A guilty man’s Chaotic and discomforting, if only my bed were so close together they march to the because of its seemingly insincere practically became synonymous. scaffold’: moments of joviality. ecstasy and torment What do you think is the most as darkness arrives. Slavonic Dance No.8 – Antonín important non-functional object to It’s remarkable Dvorák have in your room? to think that this avant-garde Taken from the orchestral works Probably books, even if I never open work, fi rst performed in 1830, was that made his name, Dvorak’s them... I also really like the clock I’ve composed around the time Verdi was eighth Slavonic Dance is the most got now, which I sometimes forget still working on his early oom-pah- temperamental. Based on a ‘furiant’, actually tells the time because it’s pah operas like Un Giorno di Regno. a Bohemian dance, the work is so huge. sudden and spontaneous. It erupts Symphony No.10 (2nd Movement) – – repeatedly. What are you reading at the Dimitri Shostakovitch moment? A furious scherzo of intense Symphony No.5 (3rd and 4th I was enjoying Orhan Pamuk’s ‘The blackness and violence; light Movements) – Ludwig van Museum of Innocence’, but now I’m is at something of a premium. Beethoven Light and Dark wearily working my way through Shostakovitch is supposed to have At last, light triumphs over darkness the Part IIB reading list... traj. Autumnal air, however fragrant, String Quartet in E Major (1st Mvt) described this 2nd movement as “a as despair is vanquished. The 3rd always invites us to stay inside. It’s – Bedrich Smetana musical portrait of Stalin, roughly movement of Beethoven’s most What are the pictures hanging from an early indicator of the losing battle An Autumn speaking”. recognisable symphony reaches its pegs? that day plays with night. A chance to sunset set to conclusion on a persistent cadence, I’m doing my dissertation on celebrate, then, the interplay of light strings. Marked ‘Che Fasceste? Dite Su!’, Macbeth, fi nally giving way to an almighty illustrated alphabets. This is an and dark. By way of warning, you appasionato, Act 1 – Giuseppe Verdi crescendo and the exhilarating attempt to inspire (or remind) me should know that this is a mixtape Smetana’s opening Thunderous and eminently 4th movement. This transition is to work. of late classical and romantic music. movement is a work melodramatic; an opening chorus arguably the most uplifting moment Good; now that I’ve got the disclaimer of intense pathos. We might more as only Verdi can provide. Though in all of musical history. What are your favourite things to do out of the way (and most of you have readily imagine the cooling embers occasionally playful, for the best in Cambridge? stopped reading), we can proceed. of the evening as twilight inevitably results look no further than Riccardo Visit this website to listen to the Getting drunk and going on swaps consumes daylight Muti’s baton. playlist on Spotify: http://spoti.fi / (not really. See photo). Compiled by Rhys Treharne uez5PG Magazine Editor: Louise Benson 11th November 2011 [email protected] www.varsity.co.uk MAGAZINE 15 Recl m n the st rc ses ‘Subtle dom n nce’ Ar s omporozos-Ath n s ou on the often ne lected be ut of C mbr d e’s st rc ses, nd wh the should be brou ht to the fore round once more
MIGUEL SANTA CLARA taircases are not what comes about its symbolic function at the D dd & H s Sc r L uh Perh ps t s wron th t the to mind when one thinks of Paris opera house in the 1930s – a soundtr c to m n th s wee’s Cambridge. No, Cambridge place that overshadowed the actual p per w s our ed tors l u h n is all about grand facades, performance hall. High society t f ther l u h- arches,S chapels, gates, dining halls. ladies displayed their fashion and n t h s b b Identifi ed by a letter (‘x staircase’), gentlemen met for a casual smoke; But se rch for th s in college language the staircase is this social life of the staircase was v deo, nd ll w ll synonymous with a familiar ‘place’: a what opera was really about. become cle r student bedroom, a teacher’s offi ce – the vertical arrangement of college The social life Leon rdo t the life, yet hardly the epicentre of its N t on l ller daily unraveling. It is an interstitial of the staircase St rt n th s S turd , the most space, a passageway to the private, complete d spl of d V nc ’s overshadowed the p nt n s w ll be on show t the a means to an end. But in some occa- performance hall. N So much h s sions it may become the true focus of been wr en on the its occupants’ fl amboyant life: think show n the press of the role of stairs connecting vari- A more obvious divide between th t we’re d n to ous rooms around the courtyard of form and (perceived) function can o lon nd m e the Architecture Department, on the be seen, ironically, in some of the up our own m nd on evening of an Arc Soc party. structures that are more exposed the exh b t on A junction between the old and to the public eye. Take for instance the new, these concrete treads the Raised Faculty Building Come D ne W th Me are encased in a glass cabinet, staircases on the Sidgwick Site. The tv show’s def n tel been allowing those walking up and Seen by everyone walking under runn n for few ser es too down to gaze over the party crowd these buildings, but rarely used, m n – t me to t e th n s nto in the terrace while they are being these beautiful precast concrete our own h nds nd throw our own ser es of d nner p rt es watched in motion from outside, staircases are a great example of as if performing on screen. Walter early 60s modernist style. Their Wuther n He hts Benjamin described this ‘subtle materiality is pushed to the fore V s on r Br t sh f lmm er dominance’ of the staircase in a note of our perception, stripped of Andre Arnold’s th rd fe ture f lm s rele sed th s wee – be ut full ble d pt t on of Bront’s novel unnecessary frills, positioned almost disappears into the building’s inbetween the concrete pillars vast body, an invisible space in which that hold together the Faculty of anything could be hidden. Onl ne v deo dverts Modern and Medieval Languages. We can see in these elegant Youtube, V meo, 4OD – the The Cripps Building staircases at St constructions that lie underneath ll do t endless dverts when John’s are an even more surprising the city’s landscape a sense of ll we w nted to w tch w s 5 m nute cl p Most nno n of ll discovery: away from the college’s alienated modernity. Past symbols h v n the ver show th t ou’re neo-gothic chapel, these Grade II of technological progress, optimism tr n to w tch listed structures are far from a and anti-aestheticism, remain today be n dvert sed tourist attraction. Integrated in an in the shadow of Cambridge’s ancient to ou, s f open piloti, they lead to a complex of architecture; their time seems to the needed to student rooms, part of an ambitious have never come. Perhaps it is time bother development project completed in to reclaim them, appropriate and fi t 1967. Their clear geometric form them to our new urban dreams. C cl n n the r n Dre r utumn s es re here, 1. The Botanical Gardens. w th the prospect of c cl n I come to read here on sunny mornings. My to lectures favourite bench faces the pond surrounded by ver much Looking at how we imagine the spaces that yellow and red maples. When it starts to rain d mpened b we live in, we asked students to draw a map head into the tropical glasshouse to see some dr zzl streets and present a photograph of their view of astonishingly beautiful exotic fl owers. nd sudden Cambridge, and the places they most like to 2. The Fitzwilliam Cafe sl ps on wet spend time in. This week, Rose Hills reveals Once you’ve had your fi ll of Vermeer and the ro ds her favourite spots to read in the sun and distinctly gaudy Hapsburg jewels, head to why chelsea buns should be swapped for red the museum shop for postcards and fragrant velvet cake. LOUISE BENSON rosebud and white peony tea. 4000 pol ce o cers t the 3. Fitzbillies London protest m rch This classic Cambridge establishment has At l r el pe ceful protest, surel such returned, although this year I’m abandoning presence w s their Chelsea buns for slabs of their d sproport on te nd gorgeously decadent red velvet cake. unnecess r 4. The Dubious Chinese Supermarket. Dimly lit with ceiling high shelves of jars of ominously titled ‘chicken paws’, as well as a freezer section fi lled with sacks of unidentifi able animal parts. Their highly addictive salted wah plums make a venture inside tolerable. 5. The Flying Pig Pub Enjoy a pint in a candle lit pub whilst hundreds of pigs stare at you from the ceiling and walls plastered in posters of pigs ranging from the adorable to moderately terrifying. 11th november 2011 Featured Fashion editor: aurien Compton-Joseph 16 magazine www.varsity.co.uk [email protected] Where the Wild Things Are Photographer: Aurien Compton-Joseph
Models: Kirsty Gray, James Evans, Bryony Bates, Zoe Large
Bespoke Animal Masks: Special Thanks to Cecilia Lundqvist - [email protected] Featured Fashion editor: aurien Compton-Joseph 11th november 2011 [email protected] www.varsity.co.uk magazine 17 11th November 2011 Magazine Editor: Louise Benson 18 MAGAZINE www.varsity.co.uk [email protected] HARRY_CARR @ LIZZY BURDEN A NEW ONLINE PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT VISIT VARSITY.CO.UK/FASHION FOR THE PREVIEW FOLLOW UPDATES ON TWITTER X HARRY CARR PHOTOGRAPHY X VARSITY PUBLICATIONS GIRLS ON FILM Features Editor: Kirsty Gray 11th November 2011 [email protected] www.varsity.co.uk MAGAZINE 19
The most incredible thing MICROWAVE MASTERCLASS The Pet Shop Boys, the most successful pop duo in UK chart history, discuss ballet and success with Jack Carrington and make an exclusive announcement
THE PET SHOP BOYS t has been thirty years since Pet CHILLI ‘SIN’ CARNE Shop Boys Neil Tennant and Chris ILowe met as students in an elec- Jess Holland tronics shop in Chelsea. Since then they have gone on to become one of A vegetarian twist on a meaty the world’s most successful bands, classic, that’s seriously easy and selling over 100 million records and muy rápido! cultivating a unique catalogue of songs which straddles the fi ne line between Prep tiempo: 10 mins pop and art. Serves: 3 In the past year the pair have been hectically busy as usual. In March they 1 substantial onion launched their hit ballet “The Most 2 tsp oil Incredible Thing” at Sadlers Wells, 1 garlic clove before taking to the road to support 1 can of kidney beans Take That on the biggest tour in the 1 can of chickpeas history of the UK. Half a can of baked beans Somehow they also found time to 1 tin of chopped tomatoes write 16 new songs for their next 2 veg stock cubes album, which they are due to start Mucho chilli powder recording this month. Mountains of grated cheese As I arrive at the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Cooking wine’... airy Kensington offi ces, Neil – whose CLAUDIA STOCKER lyrics range from sincere romanti- cism to sardonic humour – makes a point of injecting a sense of Oxbridge rivalry into the proceedings. With- out prompting, he begins to recall the time he spoke at the Oxford Union: “Apparently it was the largest audi- ence they’d had since Ronald Reagan. It was a fascinating experience.” A few minutes later Chris arrives looking slightly agitated and mutter- THE TASTY BIT ing about the terrible journey across 1. Chop the garlic and onion as The Pet Shop Boys: Neil Tennant, left, and Chris Lowe, right, have been writing songs together for 30 years fi nely as you dare. (Maybe hold “Eight nights at off on the ‘cooking wine’ until the Wembley Stadium... I The conversation turns to Take a distinctly mischievous glint in his B-sides album in February, like an sharp stuff is out of the way.) That’s ‘Progress’ tour, for which the eye. Neil looks slightly exasperated. ‘Alternative’ part two. But we’re call- 2. Douse in oil and cook in a think only Steps will Pet Shop Boys provided a support “Don’t be ridiculous, Steps aren’t ing it Format,” says Neil, referring to grande microwaveable bowl for 1 surpass that.” set which one journalist compared to doing stadiums”. their classic B-sides collection from min, give or take 20 seconds. “getting Michelangelo in to paint the “Not yet, they’re not – this is only 1995. Chris sounds a little concerned. 3. Grate a generous portion of London. Fortunately, he spots the kitchen ceiling”. their fi rst comeback!” replies Chris “We’re not announcing that yet, are cheese. Try a little wine while you box of patisseries in my hand; his face So, how did it feel to be part of with mock sincerity, “Take That we?” wait. immediately lights up. “Oh, you’ve the biggest tour in UK music his- started out with arenas, now they’ve “Well why not – these things are 4. Crumble the stock cube in and brought cake! Well, that changes tory? “Well one of the reasons we set the template.” usually leaked through some Japa- then pour in the (drained) kidney everything of course,” he enthuses, did it was that they were perform- I ask Neil and Chris about the nese website anyway,” insists Neil. and chickpeas. Stir. Pour yourself “I’ll even have a cup of tea now”. ing eight nights at Wembley Stadium recent Time Magazine feature which “It’s all our B-sides from 1996 to 2009, another glass. As we sit down with tea and cake, – phenomenal,” says Chris between names their 1991 single ‘Being Boring’ starting with The Truck Driver and 5. Stir in the tomatoes after I begin by asking them about their mouthfuls of cake. as one of the 100 best songs since 1923. His Mate. Actually I think some of our draining about a quarter of the ballet – why did they decide to write “I think only Steps are going to Unwittingly, I seem to have stumbled best songs are B-sides,” he declares, juice. it? “As far as some of the critics are surpass that. Of course we’ll be sup- upon what appears to be an exclu- “Because on a B-side you can do what 6. Add ample chilli powder and concerned there’s always the slight porting them as well. We’re the band sive announcement. “I was listening you like”. pop the mixture back inside the whiff of a vanity project with these you come to for supporting mul- to some of our old songs recently, As elder statesmen of pop, the pair micro for 7 mins, stirring once things”, sighs Neil. tiple stadium nights”, he adds with because we’re putting out another seem somewhat disillusioned with the about halfway through. “We did it because we were asked current scene. 7. Once steaming hot, serve in to!” Chris interjects, “We didn’t just “At the moment, there’s no move- bowls, sprinkled with cheese. go to Sadler’s Wells and say ‘Hey, can 1986 ment I’m enthralled by,” says Chris, we write a ballet?’” The duo’s fi rst hit, ‘West End “I mean when I hear dubstep now I ON THE SIDE “We were asked to write a piece Girls’, tops the charts in both think ‘are we really still doing this?’ of music by our friend Ivan Putrov, the UK and the US. Although Chase and Status are good If you’ve got time, try it with rice. who’s a principal dancer at the Royal live. And they have this fantastic Ballet,” explains Neil, “And we wanted 1987-1988 idea where they split up and perform 1 mugful serves 1 person to do something like this after Closer Three number one singles separately.” to Heaven (The Pet Shop Boys’ 2001 – ‘It’s a Sin’, ‘Always On My “We should do that” enthuses Neil, 1. Pour the desired portion size musical). In a way it’s like writing the Mind’ and ‘Heart’. “Just ‘Pet Shop Boy’ - we could cover into a bowl and cover with boiling score to a silent fi lm, which of course the same number of venues in half water. we did for Battleship Potemkin.” 1993 the time, doing a DJ set,” he giggles, 2. Pop it in the microwave for 5 I ask whether writing a ballet The album ‘Very’ reaches “Of course, we’ll just play our own mins . If the rice has soaked up will change their approach to pop. number 1, includes global records off vinyl.” all the water, and is tender to the “It’s quite different to writing a pop hits such as ‘Go West’. With the new album set to be taste, you’re good to go! song – the structure is far less rigid,” released next Autumn, an upcom- answers Chris. ing B-sides collection and the return KEEP IT SPICY “You write a ballet to according to 2009 of their ballet to Sadler’s Wells, they Next time, splash out on kidney a set of themes, with longer melodic Awarded BRITs may well need to employ such time- beans in a spicy sauce to hot up sequences. And best of all, I don’t ‘Outstanding Contribution saving techniques. 2012 looks to be your November. (Positive effects have to write any lyrics”, Neil adds to Music’. yet another busy year for the Pet on love-life not guaranteed.) with a laugh. Shop Boys. 11th November 2011 Features Editor: Kirsty Gray 20 MAGAZINE www.varsity.co.uk [email protected] Cambridge Escape Cambridge can, at times, become devastatingly claustrophobic. Fortunately, Oliver Rees and Anna Fairhurst know some of the best places to visit when you need to escape the city
Madingley Hall This is yet another occasion when you realise how much Cambridge University owns. The beautiful sixteenth century house looks like something out of a Brontë novel as you approach up the hill from Madingley village. Would you believe it’s a conference and events centre as well as part-time hotel owned by the University of Cambridge? Admittedly there’s not a huge amount to do there – it’s private property so you can’t go into the house. But there is a lake and beautiful gardens (designed by Labcelot ‘Capability’ Brown if you’re into that kind of thing). What’s more, there’s a great pub round the corner in Dry Dreyton. (Very local – you will get a few stares!)
American Cemetery Three miles outside of Cambridge is the American Cemetery. Opened in 1956 on land donated by the University, the cemetery surprisingly doesn’t have the usual depressing feel that a lot of others do. There are clean lines of white stone and wall after wall of names etched in marble. Kept up by a dedicated team of groundskeepers and military personnel, the grass is always perfectly green and the American fl ag is always fl ying. Similar to the war cemeteries in Dunkirk, the Cambridge American Cemetery contains the headstones of over 3,800 servicemen who died fi ghting for their country in the Second World War. The whole space is inspiring and simply incredible – men younger than us who died fi ghting for freedom and against evil. Walking past the shining white headstones, it is impossible to think of your next essay or night out, simply because of the stunning beauty and sacrifi ce made by so many great men. Features Editor: Kirsty Gray 11th November 2011 [email protected] www.varsity.co.uk MAGAZINE 21
Milton cutting through dense trees and undergrowth, this nature Great pubs are hard to fi nd, especially deserted ones with reserve feels miles away from Cambridge yet it only takes trampolines and swings. And the bike ride there is half the 15 minutes to reach it. fun. The Lion and Lamb pub is beyond the industrial estate. Cycle along the river and onto the side with the towpath, After a relaxing bounce and swing, take the bridge over opposite Fen Ditton, and then take a left where the rowers the motorway back (preferably as the sun is setting) have to turn back to town. Go across the level crossing There’s a straight cycle route that will take you back to and then take a hidden left about a hundred feet down the central Cambridge on the road, and will have you home in path to enter Milton Country Park. Full of lakes and paths no time.
Fen Ditton the opening times. This village is the perfect place to It’s no less weird inside when you’re remind you how lucky we are to live left unsure as to whether you’re in so close to the countryside. a museum or on an open day at the A short walk along the river, heading garage of a steam engine enthusiast. passed the boathouses, you can roam By the time you get to Fen Ditton, amongst the cows on Midsummer you’ll be in need of light refreshment Common, appreciating the scenic (unless you opted for the 20p carton woodland and old English barges of apple juice at the museum), which moored up beside you. is fortunate because The Plough This is, of course, after you’ve passed pub is just beyond the church in the the graffi ti-ridden railway bridge centre of village. and the less than discreet chimney of (Note: the church is always shut so Cambridge’s one and only industrial don’t even try the door. It’s probably and science museum. because the village is neurotic about This is well worth a visit if you the threat from thieves – the crime happen to go to ‘Fen Dit’ between statistics on the notice board suggest very fi xed hours every fi rst Sunday of it must be one of the safest villages in the month, under a full moon – check England!)
Anglesey Abbey A little further afi eld, almost 6 miles outside Cambridge in the village of Lode, you’ll fi nd the Anglesey Abbey estate, now owned by the National Trust (who give you a big discount if you come by bike). You may think you’ve already seen enough English estates and period dramas to last you at least through your university years, but you’ll fi nd that Anglesey Abbey has a very unique history and character. The house was once a priory before it was transformed by a series of well-to-do families throughout the centuries (even Sir George Downing, founder of Downing College, made his home there). The Gog Mahog hills However, it wasn’t until the 1920’s that the house In a decree of 1574, Cambridge students were forbidden from really came into its own. The rich heir to a mining visiting the Gog Magog hills on the threat of a fi ne. Today, you dynasty in America bought the abbey to house are free to go whenever you wish. his eclectic selection of antique and contemporary The best route is to walk around ‘Wandlebury Ring,’ which furniture in a desperate attempt to establish himself was originally a hill-fort but is now a small sprawl of offi ces and as a fi gure on the English aristocratic scene. huts. The walk only takes about 20 minutes and takes you in a The eccentric bachelor fi lled the house with an complete circle; perfect if you don’t have much time! assortment of things from every period and style, The area was occupied in the Bronze Age and is rich with history. and made what, in my opinion, is a great house party Walk along the straight Roman Road and through the fi elds venue (though he never had more than four guests at and valleys surrounding Wandlebury Ring. It is almost always a time!). deserted so you have to say hello to the occasional dog walker. Beyond the house there are some beautiful modern Especially for medics spending time in Addenbrookes or those gardens, a working fl ourmill and lots of woodland at Homerton, the Gog Magog Hills give a great view of the city walks. they allow you to escape from. 11th november 2011 arts editor: zoe Large 22 magazine www.varsity.co.uk [email protected] All Aboard the US, Alessi remains endearingly escapism. “Music can be As she embarks upon her humble. Although by now an expe- the very best company US tour, Alessi Laurent- rienced performer, she admits that and that is all I hope that Marke of Alessi’s Ark talks “you never know how a show will be; my music is for others. although I have done quite a bit of Books are very special Robin’s Egg Blue to Rory Williamson about touring, there are always nerves and too but I don’t travel to her intensely personal, yet a feeling of the unknown, like it’s hap- any realm like the one I Formaldehyde, all-inclusive musical vision pening for the first time every night.” step into when listening A flowering womb: these scents remain Although she refers to the “routine to or playing music.” wenty-one year old Alessi you slip into” on tour, she still shows This sense of inclusiv- To remember Laurent-Marke, who performs some excitement about the explora- ity in her musical world You. Bowed like some daffodils in rain Twith a rotating line-up under tion it brings: not yet travelling in a is a common thread the moniker Alessi’s Ark, has come plush bus, taking trains becomes “ a throughout all of Ales- We gather you a long way in a short time. Having very simple way of getting around si’s work, even from And bind you in ribbon and silk signed with a record label just as she and a different way of seeing the the image of the “Ark,” turned 17, Alessi was nothing if not country.” the line-up of which Smooth for kissing, precocious; however, listening to this Time Travel seems to have marked “ebbs and flows.” This Bathe cold skin in lipstick and milk. year’s Time Travel, all thoughts of many such transitions for Alessi; she ethos even extends to the her youth slip away, outshone by a seems enthused about her “lovely medium through which online orders is something charmingly Something quivers confident and beautiful set of songs and very supportive” new label Bella of Time Travel are delivered: in a personal and DIY about this as a first On the other side of the sky. that more than justify their creator’s Union, which also brought with it charming bag hand-knitted by mem- foray into the musical world, a feel- early success. a different way of recording. “This bers of the Ark. What motivates this ing Alessi seems to have maintained; Our little girl Currently playing solo on tour in time I didn’t work with a producer, kind of inclusive gesture? “There is although admitting “there is nothing Shivers, ringed by your fieldstone eye. but instead closely with two nothing like human contact and plac- like the tangible side of a zine and engineers in the two studios ing the music in something handmade holding something that another has A baby bird I recorded in. It was a differ- hopefully feels a bit like meeting each made in our hands,” she still shares Chirrups in grass where our lips lie ent way of working, and more other and my saying thank you for recommendations in a similar way direct. I had a very special giving the songs a listen.” on the ‘Brain Bulletin’ section of her Loving the cold time working with Mike Mogis website. Hill of your forehead, a green shell [famed for ongoing involve- Where’s next for Alessi? “After ment with Bright Eyes] on the Music can be the very this tour, there’ll be a break from Under blank sky. first album and it was nice to best company and playing for a little while before plans Bright stamen in a crocus bell, try working in a different way for the new year and next album too.” that is all I hope that come together. I feel like I’m on the Roman candle This more hands-on my music is for others look out for inspiration. I hear looking Blasting, condensing the mist approach to recording has within is important too though.” resulted in a more mature Wherever she chooses to look, it’s Rolling in with record in its increased honesty Music as something beautiful to certain to result in an interesting and Sprung waves: I feel you below twist and emotional frankness. The share has always been a passion for beautiful venture. Indeed, with her title track contains the lyric, Alessi, starting as she did a fanzine heartfelt, almost handmade approach Bulbs in the earth, “now I can time travel just called ‘Brain Bulletin’ at 14, filled to songcraft and playing music, Alessi And we taste white tips of the roots lying in bed”, which provides with “drawings, gig reviews, a few is providing more than enough inspi- insight into one of the driv- short stories and recommendations ration for others from within herself. Now curling through Madeleine Morley ing forces of Alessi’s music: of things I wanted to share.” There Your tongue, and breathe, and send up shoots
With the sunlight Prisoned in soil that feeds on you Calling all the Shoots... Bursting apart Like clouds into robin’s egg blue. Harry Carr and Lizzy Burden talk to Varsity about their new studio photography project, previewed on page 18
Orla Polten Tell us a bit about the project… How do you choose who you work HC I like to know my subjects well How much do you see this as a project HC It’s essentially a follow up to the with? - that way we don’t need create an about fashion? work I did for The Varsitorialist, LB Apparently it’s a cliché but I found artificial atmosphere. Lizzy Burden, LB I don’t like the word ‘fashion’ the key difference being that we’ve The Fountainhead very inspiring. I who styles each shoot and offers because it has connotations of people 40 years moved into a studio. I want to use the like Howard Roark-types who aren’t creative direction, is ruthless and copying each other. For me the project new freedom to make each shoot feel willing to compromise their art. For wonderfully critical. I think she’s the is more about making beautiful images, a) more independent, though a narrative that reason I’m very frank with Harry, best thing that has happened to my and beautiful clothes contribute to will emerge through the constant but he says he’s growing to love it! photography in a long time. that whole. Maybe the outfits will be Sometimes it comes upon me then centrality of the subject. The photos Harry Carr more of a feature as we go on, but for swarms and takes hold: just rely and always convey an initimate moment, now I’m happy to just be ‘enhancing’ dependence-loving lean on you which is why we are also including Harry’s portraits. To realise that it’s down from here (from short films with each shoot. this high point) is never sad. I stop, find a How do you see the project developing level, watch us there You assisted Rankin over the Summer. in the future? What did you learn from this, and HC Varsity’s George Shapter and Joe b) how did you move beyond it? Robertson are building a website for HC It was invaluable to see inside the project, leading into a photographic later hanging from bedside such a thrill the business of professional fashion exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum to see the carpet pulse as blood careered photography; shoots were extremely next March. That’s going to be through trunk and into skull gruelling and focused, with the aim ambitious, so I feel I need to get past sick while sticking to a bed means being to get shots as efficiently as any technical hiccups in my very cosy looking at the cupboards horizontal possible. The creativity was obviously studio space. Beyond that, I really alone carving through feelings claimed impressive as well, but much of it was couldn’t say; for now it’s just a delight deftly wrung from surroundings over determined by a specific business for me to see the range of images that decades model. I have the luxury of solely can be created in a college set. focusing on whoever I am shooting; a Stephanie Davin more personal agenda which instantly Go to Varsity Online now to see the endows the images with more clout. first shoot, ‘Girls on Film’. Arts Editor: Zoe Large 11th November 2011 [email protected] www.varsity.co.uk MAGAZINE 23 Arts Comment A Very British Is the world a stage? In modern theatre, it’s getting close.
Obsession Rebecca Jacobs With the rise of period drama, the English country-house has become a ubiquitous icon of eeing the recent (brilliant and ‘character’ has to be represented by a an idealised British heritage. Yet behind contemporary depictions, Isabella Cookson fi n d s hilarious) production of One living actor. SMan, Two Guvnors at the Seeing the ADC’s production of traces of a more troubling reality National, which involved audience Arcadia last term got me thinking members directly in the action, made about this. In it Tom Stoppard t’s Sunday afternoon. The sky they often aggravated) the ill, but world of inescapable uncertainty and me wonder: what happens when we imagines and dramatises the world is characteristically grey; the we will them to heal the swooning confused national identity. merge the real and the fi ctional? And of Lord Byron, and fi ctionalises his Isoft threat of drizzle hangs in Marianne. Females grasp for The country-house is a why is the theatre such a good vehicle doings. His play The Invention of the air. Wellington boots are lined smelling salts in those rib-crushing, quintessential image of a British past; for this merging? Love takes this further, utilising the up and ready for a typical family circulation-preventing corsets, but one that embraces, in a microcosmic This play involved ‘real lives’ powers of the theatre as a vehicle for outing to the local, preserved for some reason we want to wear the sense, the rich and the poor. But it practically. James Corden appeals the concretisation of the legendary: country-house. There is something same. I would like to see myself as is an image. Of course, many of our to the audience for a sandwich as a the lives of A. E Housman and Oscar strangely comforting about this an empowered, intelligent female, ancestors did actually live, work in cure for his ‘hunger’; two spectators Wilde, and their encounters with one typically British, middle class scene. but sometimes I imagine myself in or work around land surrounding are called up to assist him. This was, another, are played out before our The sensation that comes over me is some long lost era, in which women country-houses. This is partly why of course, scripted; but what was not eyes. akin to the one I get while dunking had the political rights of an eight we all feel we have to right to an scripted was the man in front of me Stoppard brings to life fi gures we a digestive biscuit into a cup of tea, year old and a bustle attached to their opinion on the subject, a claim on who decided, at Corden’s request, to can only otherwise access through watching it go all soggy. Or how I backside. Why? its authenticity. But the security throw his NT café-bought hummus printed words. They cease to reside feel when I eat sponge and custard: And indeed, when? For as much it represents is a false one. People sandwich onto the stage. as pillars of a bygone age: the ‘person’ comforted, bored, curiously proud. as anything, the feelings that we often died of diseases now easily Corden reacted brilliantly to acting them displaces the tendency to generally attribute to this image are preventable, marriages collapsed, the shock – “why hummus? I don’t treat them merely as literary types. more genre-based than historically wars were waged, poverty felt. The want a vegetarian sandwich!” – but Stoppard does not crumble from the There is something founded. Does it matter if it’s in fears we have today could be felt the simple action seemed to me pressure of historical fi delity, the strangely comforting the Regency period or under the then. The structure of the country- to represent on more. The object risk that he is not recording these reign of Henry VIII? As long as blurred the boundaries between lives exactly as they were; he uses about this the house is big, the servants are audience and the untouchable stage. the stage as a method of bringing The country- quintessentially wearing frilly caps and the corset of The ‘temple’ of dramatic action, illustrious fi gures into an arena the damsel in distress is tightened, house acts as a seemingly cut off by a shimmering where they become tangible beings, British image it doesn’t seem to matter if there line, was shown to be permeable: just, something that, with books, is just was a plague in London, a war in metaphorical screen after all, a wooden platform. not possible. And all these emotions can be Spain or drastic change in the penal onto which we But isn’t this the point of theatre? One Man, Two Guvnors reminds expressed no better than when I law that year. Or if it does, it is Isn’t this what separates it from, us of the extremely physical nature watch a good old period drama. rarely the point. We are, in general, project our own say, novels – that we participate of the stage. Real people from the The cold heart of Britain is made to exposed to the parlour and even desire for security actively as spectators, bringing audience merge with ‘real people’ pump with passion, the stiff upper lip then not to the inane boredom that life to the action? Admittedly this playing imagined characters. melted at the rudeness of Mr Darcy would have prevailed. The feelings house did not protect them from capacity to ‘suspend disbelief’ isn’t Tom Stoppard makes use of this, or at the more shocking sight of poor that are evoked in us are not based reality in the same way it allows us to always considered desirable. Brecht presenting illustrious ‘characters’ old Mr Beebe running naked around upon a historically better past but escape ours. playfully chose instaed to distance as living people. We can smell the the lake in A Room with a View. an a-historical desire. We tap not so In her last novel Persuasion, the audience by telling them exactly smoke from their pipes; they wear Pastoral scenes are built up on top much into a deeper understanding of Austen herself gazes beyond the what what going to happen in each clothes we can see and potentially of one another, panoramic shots of our forefather’s (and indeed mother’s) nostalgic image of the country- scene via subtitles. But, as George feel. The theatre is apt for writing enormous houses are imposed upon plights as we do to our own romantic house. Unlike her other heroines, Santayana suggests, “the theatre, about real lives for precisely this us and intricate costumes display idealism. The country-house acts as Anne Elliot must “pay the tax of for all its artifi ces...has a kindred reason: it imagines historical fi gures delicate human forms: the everyday a metaphorical screen onto which we quick alarm”, being a sailor’s wife. movement to that of real life.” What’s as beings who we can see and hear. bourgeois life in a rose-tinted glass. project our own desire for security, She is not given a secure, elegant more, the theatre has the capacity to The capacity of the stage to represent If not historically accurate, fi lms like manufacturing an escape from our estate ruled by aristocratic values blend the real and the fi ctional in a these fi gures is unique. Playwrights Elizabeth or Marie Antoinette are at and tradition but the choppy, unique way through the fact that any should use it. least a spectacle to behold. unpredictable sea. While we might see with The Englishman’s ideal home is frustration that the furniture in these a castle; with a comforting sense of scenes are not quite in keeping with structure and moat for protection. the 18th century, we cannot cease But the feelings unearthed in us are Bucket List the desire to step into their satin situated not in national memory, Five works of art to see in the Fitzwilliam Museum before you graduate shoes. We know that leeches but in national imagination, on The Story of Cupid and Death on a Pale Horse didn’t really how we would wish it to be. Psyche: Part I William Blake, 1757-1827 heal (in fact 1 Jacopo del Sellaio, 1441-93 4 Blake boldly illustrates the Sellaio, taught under Fra Fillippo Revelation of St John – a terrifying Lippi with Botticelli, here manages vision of the Four Horsemen of the LIZZIE MARX to tell fi fteen episodes of a complex Apocalypse – with all his characteris- myth within one beautiful cassone tic impact and vivacity. panel. After the Wedding Young Woman Tuning a Lute Laurence Stephen Lowry Hendrick ter Brugghen, 1588-1629 5 The artist’s instantly recogn- 2 Inspired by Caravaggio’s isable stick fi gures, here huddled ‘Luteplayer’ of c.1596, the subject against the rain in their usual shades might be an allegory for the sense of of brown and grey. hearing, here ironically depicted with her ears covered by a turban. L’Umana Fragilità Salvator Rosa, 1615-1673 3 Notorious in his own time for his deeply sinister paintings, Rosa here depicts a baby signing the contract of mortality in the
presence of a skeletal figure. PHYLLY BLUEMEL 11th November 2011 Reviews Editors: Helen Cahill &Madeleine Morley 24 MAGAZINE www.varsity.co.uk [email protected]
FILM which reek of cinematography The Column The Future awards. The ethereal beauty of a young girl sleeping in a grave she has ★★★★★ dug for herself is almost unbearable, Centre for Mathematical and the reifi cation of Time into an Sciences animate yellow suit which envelopes July could surely stand alone as performance art in itself. I wonder if the indie-realism of which we are becoming tired is deliberate, rather than a default ANTONIA STRINGER ANTONIA to current expectations, perhaps serving to detach the abstract, to differentiate and glorify what we see in July’s looking-glass. The surreal is forever in shot, from the Escher ncongruously emerging from drawing in their apartment to an old man holding a toy on a spring, a the suburbs bordering Madin- “Hobbit-haired Jason” played by Hamish Linklater and dir. Miranda July gley Road, Edward Cullinen’s metronome which counts away the I punctuated with disarming pathos the hopelessness with which she world’s breathless seconds, unnoticed Centre for Mathematical Sciences is perhaps the most curious of the and philosophical insight, which stands idly by, watching the world by the characters. university department buildings. makes criticism of the fi lm as a whole move forward without her, resonates Perhaps, in titling her fi lm The Pavilions, not quite pagodas; its rather diffi cult. Scenes of Linklater’s with an angst reminiscent of The Future, July had hoped that her modular buildings recall the archi- supernatural manipulation of Graduate. Linklater’s hobbit-haired vision of cinema might be self- tecture of Java or Sumatra. time, culminating in a magnifi cent Jason is really just an indie upgrade fulfi lling. The irony is that regardless But this is a South-East Asia – summoning of the tides which could on Michael Cera, but, like Cera, he of its quality, the fi lm is not nearly with its unleavened, unrendered have been lifted straight out of the pioneer it purports to be. Its brick and grass-roofed lecture Exodus, are as haunting as any I Narrated by the cat exploration of time, not to mention hall – that is crossed with a kind have seen in cinema. The cat’s fi nite (standard) the film’s the use of creepy anthropomorphic of Bedfordshire ‘business-park f we were dying in 30 days, we lifespan, which one infers to be a animals, is territory trodden long ago chique’. Indeed the idea of the would certainly re-prioritise.” half-baked nod to Schrödinger, is the ludicrous quirkiness by Donnie Darko. Nevertheless, as self-contained business park IIn fact, in the surreal world of framework upon which a calculated is punctuated with a study of the ennui of a generation, dominates the feeling of Cullinen’s Miranda July, we would stop time study of time and reality is crafted. The Future is undoubtedly profound. project here. It is a system of entirely. Through the animal’s eyes, we see the disarming pathos and So nearly an extraordinary fi lm, buildings desparate to demon- The writer and director of Me and terminal stagnation of the young, who philisophical insight it ensnares us with gestures of strate its self-interconnection, but You and Everyone We Know returns throw away their lives on Facebook philosophy, seduced into believing happily denies (apparently) any with a similarly idiosyncratic account for fear of growing old, only to wake captures the aloofness of the era in all we are about to see something poetic, real connection with its immediate of the malaise of the young and up and fi nd that they are. his bland expressiveness. only to default back on the indie surroundings. bored, this time following a pair of Miranda July can be forgiven The fi lm’s polarisation of the oblivion where awkward silences Perhaps this illustrates the young hipsters (the director herself for her many offbeat affectations, blogosphere has been sensational, and meaningful looks so easily fi ll the schizophrenia – as far as social alongside a touchingly glum Hamish for she is intelligently self-aware, amassing an army of haters to rival minutes. July has tasted greatness, engagement goes – of the math- Linklater) for whom the decision endearingly poking fun at her that of Lars von Trier. The line and with a Golden Bear nomination ematical sciences specifi cally to adopt an injured cat, or leave it own dreaminess. She compares between culture and pretension in Berlin this year, we await a and academia at large generally. to certain death, conjures a rather herself to a local spinster, whom she is certainly overstepped at times, masterpiece that is surely on the Despite the benefi cient impli- disproportionate existential crisis. admires: “she’s totally carpe diem”. but the transgression is pulled off cards. Time will tell. india ross cations of ‘applied science’ all Narrated by the cat (standard), Her numerous dance scenes are as with deference, and more than Playing at the Cambridge Arts parts of the Centre are adjusted the fi lm’s ludicrous quirkiness is mesmerising as they are tacky, and compensated by exquisite set-pieces Picturehouse. (whether intentionally or oth- erwise) to a domain of enforced insularity. Whether or not Cul- MUSIC eventually consumed as it fades into READING we were informed, the (clearly linen built this apparent insularity the backing hum. talented) actors had had only about Atlas Sound - Parallax Cox consistently refuses to Hatch at the Corpus two hours of rehearsal time. This (after all we’ve all met mathmos, ★★★★★ we know what they’re like) ‘into succumb to the lures of pure pop; the Playroom kind of rough and ready aesthetic the building’ is moot. It might be songs on Parallex tread mysterious ★★★★★ was endearing: the ingenious something to do with the almost ground as they intermingle premise of ‘The Distinct Damnations permanently insular nature of discordant sounds to produce songs (Kennel)’, wherein a homeless man modern development in gen- that are at once accessible and he spoken word is a wonderful tries to switch places with a dog for eral – the number of new gated inviting yet disorienting. The double- thing, as we, the audience of a night, was highlighted by Amrou communities built in the UK has tracked high-hats on anxious ‘The THatch’s one-off return were Al-Kadhi holding between his teeth exploded. Of course, one is wont Shakes’ are always slightly out of reminded. Ellie Kendrick and Adam to point out at this point that the sync, off-setting the driving rock Lawrence are to be congratulated Works varying from ‘Oxbridge’ college itself is a kind of rhythm, whilst creating the feverish for ensuring that the night focused the concise and post-monastic gated community. atmosphere suited to a tale of a man on what was important, namely the Maybe it is merely wishful think- who has lost himself to fame. project’s unique status in a university clean... to the almost ing to contemplate academic Many tracks on the album’s second whose creative scene is dominated by disarmingly visceral buildings, modern or otheriwise, tlas Sound, the solo project half are reminiscent of Deerhunter’s theatre. that fully integrate with their sur- of prolifi c Deerhunter forays into ambient territory, but Corpus as a venue provided a plastic bottle wrapped with paper roundings. However, this doesn’t Afrontman Bradford Cox, has Cox’s approach here displays an the sort of intimacy and bareness brandishing the word ‘BONE’ on it. remove the fact that, despite the always seemed like an outlet for increased focus and dexterity. The required for a night that aired works Although this worked for Jack its many admirable qualities, the Cox’s bedroom experimentation, a reverberating keyboard notes and in progress. Even the name, ‘Hatch’, Belloli’s work, Tom Powell’s Centre is deeply unsatisfactory. loosening of the focused dream-pop slowly glitching synthesisers of sounds right, refl ecting the kind ‘Utterance’ would have benefi tted Perhaps its failure is a failure on leash of his other project. Take 2009’s ‘Doldrums’ make for an immersive anticipation that was evident before from some more direction. all our parts, to make an architec- full-length Logos: nebulous melodies dream landscape, which becomes a the show started. ‘Utterance’ dealt with a frustrated tural reality that fully lives up to and song structures fl oated in and out faint echo in time for Cox’s touchingly Thankfully, the writing did not couple trying to back each other into the capacity of our imaginations. of focus in an ambient, synthesized direct appeal to “remember your disappoint, with works varying verbal corners, and, as such, a slicker, Cullinen’s architecture is that landscape, which was occasionally friend.” from the concise and clean (Celine more polished performance would of a space-age that never was, cleared for the blissful pop of tracks Parallax, for all of its surface Lowenthal’s ‘copper coins’) to the have really brought out some lines. a ‘future’ of reduced solidarity, like ‘Shelia.’ increase in accessibility, actually almost disarmingly visceral, as These were unfortunately lost in its privatisation, increased fascina- Parallex sees a reversal of this proves more mysterious than the was the case with ‘dissatisfaction’ second half, although the laughter tion with 19th-century economic approach, with primarily acoustic skeletal song structures of Atlas by Mark Wartenberg. As ever, at Harry Carr’s frustrated mid- models. Perhaps it is inevitable instrumentation providing a more Sound’s previous work. This is some pieces stood out: Donald conversation exclamation, “You’re a that Cullinen’s Centre would accessible veneer under which subtle because of the predominance of Futers’ incomplete ‘Vis Itch’ was shit!”, was testament to the strength remind us of a business park--it electronic touches work to hint at pop sensibilities. In confi ning his brimming with subtle rhyme and in the writing. is merely a sign of our times, a underlying friction. ‘Amplifi ers’, for ambient tendencies to the periphery well-crafted alliteration, while the Most importantly, Hatch was a sad confi rmation of our failure to example, sees repeated, light acoustic of many of these songs, Cox has night’s closer, ‘Tony Harrison would showcase for some interesting and live up to a future everyone was guitar chords and Cox’s occasionally actually worked to make them more think me daft’ demonstrated James diverse work. It’s a shame last night capable of imagining, but no one tense, strained vocal delivery unsettling; the melodies are no longer Vincent’s obvious talent, while being was its only return this term, as more wanted (or was willing to) inhabit. supplemented by a constant drone cloaked, but they are constantly personable and amusing. of the same would be a welcome and lawrence dunn which sounds both subtle and vast. threatened by the atmosphere they Alongside the poetry and prose enjoyable treat for those of us who The fragility of the song’s structure is are built from. rory williamson scenes were performed, for which, enjoy new writing. salome wagaine Reviews Editors: Madeleine Morley & Helen Cahill 11th November 2011 [email protected] www.varsity.co.uk MAGAZINE 25
FILM (Amanda Fuller), a young woman succeeds in being disturbing but robs Yet the fi lm feels lacking. Perhaps Tracks with apparent nymphomaniac the fi lm of its potential poignancy this is because, due to unfortunate Red, White & Blue tendencies, and the tentative bond and much of its initial appeal. scheduling, it has come into ★★★★★ she seems to be forming with a kind- Admittedly, every action is competition with another depiction hearted, but clearly sociopathic, of the ‘American nightmare’, We new neighbour, Nate (Noah Taylor). The film ends up Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), In many respects this thread is the which manages to be both beautifully First Aid Kit - The Lion’s Roar nitially released in America in highlight of the fi lm, as Taylor puts feeling distinctly like a surreal and somehow believable, in a 2010, Red, White & Blue’s UK in an impressive performance, with a B-movie slasher way in which this is not. Swedish Irelease has remained relatively convincing accent to boot, fostering With such competition, with sisters First low profi le, not surprising for a fi lm genuine interest in their developing justifi ed in some form. Portrayed are Rumley’s blatant employment of Aid Kit deal relatively unknown, shot in 18 days relationship. the crimes of the desperate with no shock tactics, and some lacklustre in woodsy on a shoestring budget. Nonetheless, One can’t help but think that this villains in the traditional sense, which cinematography, the fi lm ends up folk music the critical praise it garnered for its would have been a far more likeable creates some interesting ambiguities feeling distinctly like a B-movie that is made realist depiction of the ‘American endeavour had the fi lm continued and evokes real sympathy at times. slasher - a disappointing end to some distinctive nightmare’ was enough to raise down this dramatic route. Yet this is Equally, the fi tting soundtrack, truly promising ingredients. by its almost my expectations just in time to be not the case. The fi lm soon descends some memorable dialogue and victoria green alarming directness. The subtle disappointed. into gore, with Nate acting the part Taylor’s, aforementioned, stand-out Playing at the Cambridge Arts acoustic strum that opens this The fi lm focuses upon Erica of the bloodthirsty revenger, which performance add to the appeal. Picturehouse. track does nothing to prepare the listener for the piercingly clear peals of the duo’s vocal harmonies; ART – but really, the works speak for and many of the diverse spaces of the because people enjoy looking at suitably, they rely upon simple and themselves. And lots of them are Fitzwilliam Museum are conducive to art, even if those people seem to timeless backing that allows their Love Art After Dark at defi nitely worth seeing: Millais, Titian standing, drinking and talking. normally be tourists in Cambridge. decidedly natural vocal power the Fitzwilliam Museum and many lesser known artists are all But really, these things were It only takes the excuse of an empty to unfurl and soar. Yes, you have ★★★★★ on show, all day every day. only there to make sure everyone Wednesday evening and something heard it all before, but there is a Getting the chance to see a private was having fun. And they were. free to make anyone go. special kind of magic about the view of the current exhibition of work Essentially, museums still exist holly gupta story weaved by these melodies o, it seems, we do love art after by Dutch artists was also a highlight. that will leave you dumbstruck MAYA BEANO dark. But not before, and only Having to book timeslots made sure and dreaming of woodland fantasy. Srarely. Hundreds of students the works weren’t impossible to see rory williamson attended the late opening of the if you were less than six foot. It also Fitzwilliam Museum, compared to meant that people planned to attend Linda Perhacs - Chimacum the minority who visit it at any other it, and then did, who might not have Rain time. otherwise. Most people have heard The free glass of wine helps, but of Vermeer, but what about Pieter de Parallax, apparently most of us are looking for Hooch or Gerard ter Borch? which has an excuse to visit the collection of Not that I didn’t enjoy the remained Cambridge’s largest and oldest art workshop for making cards. relatively museum. Because that was mainly Sticking sequins, fabric and bits unknown what was on show. Wandering around of photocopied portraits from the except in the maze of permanent galleries could museum onto each other was a niche online fi ll the two hours in itself. highlight – really. No-one would freak folk Short, and sometimes barely leave after its offi cial end, and we circles. Having received a little audible, talks helped to fi ll you in on were forced out. The three bands attention after being featured in particular artists, rooms or trends which played were also very good, “Apparently most of us are looking for an excuse to visit the collection” Daft Punk’s Electroma fi lm, this song puts Laura Marling and the so-called ‘modern’ like to shame. LITERATURE and suicide attempt. Winterson is necessary. “The one good thing about and constantly recast, in narrative The track is wonderfully cosmic famous for the story of her childhood being shut in a coal-hole”, she refl ects patterns. “I am short, so I like the and complicated; the soft, spacey Why Be Happy When and adolescence, a story told many on her childhood punishments, “is little guy/underdog stories.” vocals overlap in disorientating, You Could Be times before. The parts describing that it prompts refl ection”. “Read on Make no mistake: this is artful, hypnotic splendor, and the multi- Normal? an adult woman on the verge of self- its own”, she confesses, “that is an precisely crafted, almost ludicrously ple layers trickle down and around annihilation read differently, urgent absurd sentence.” Similarly, following well-written. Winterson describes you like the chimacum rain itself. By Jeanette and still raw. a description of her adopted mother’s standing in the yard, after ‘Mrs The song is perhaps about seek- Winterson eschatological pronouncements, ing silence and strangely enough ★★★★★ depression, and conviction that seems to sound like silence – if Jeanette is possessed: “our life at A memoir that silence could be made into a song home was a bit odd”. isn’t interested that slowly seeps into your mind. eanette Winterson is many Winterson does tend to over- madeleine morley things: woman, writer, woman generalization – “all adopted children in remembering writer, prize-winning novelist, blame themselves” – but that’s the so much as The Mountain Goats - JOBE, darling of the literary kind of writer she has always been: Thucydides II-58 world, lesbian icon, adopted child. fl amboyant, prodigious, gloriously acknowledging Who once described herself as “the self-involved, liable to go off on one - and reveling in Ironically only true heir to Virginia Woolf”, like an embarrassing friend with a Darnielle and has been variously accused of favourite rant. Winterson situates - the fictions of released arrogance, absurdity and genius. her own story within the framework autobiography this track Her fi rst, semi-autobiographical of larger ones – socialism, feminism, to celebrate novel, Oranges Are Not The Only Thatcherism – “this is the story of W’ has discovered her contraband his 25,000th Fruit, published in 1985, won the industrialization, and it has a despair library and set fi re to it, watching Twitter fol- Whitbread Award for Best First in it, and an excitement in it and a the books go up in smoke: “‘Fuck it’, lower. With Novel, was adapted for television by brutality in it, and poetry in it, and all I thought, ‘I can write my own’”. Too all his fl air for spinning yarns, his the BBC, and launched her literary of those things are in me.” good to be ‘true’ in the most reductive vocals describe a Biblical plague career. Yes, it’s sometimes self- sense, perhaps, but Winterson’s “spreading like a rumour”; a conta- I would say “the rest is history”, indulgent, but also very, very funny, writing is so seductive that, frankly, gion which, though escaped by the but it’s the personal ‘history’ of melodramatic, wry, then deadly who cares? Thucydides of the song’s title, still Oranges by which Winterson has Winterson calls her “mad” side serious. So, after a passage that reads As she writes later, “It is a true plights us in the form of gossipy most often been defi ned as a writer. a separate person, a “demented like a self-help manual, “what you are story but” – of course – “it is still a ‘Tweets’. The track itself rejects The cynical would see this memoir creature living inside”, and the pursuing is meaning, a meaningful version”. The pun on ‘aversion’ here, modern interference – old fans will as a cunning marketing strategy to story of their eventual reconciliation life”, Winterson performs one of the fi ction as at once turning away from rejoice to hear the Goats return reboot the Winterson brand (plucky is incredibly moving. “She may verbal sleights of hand that have and facing up to real life is classic to their painfully raw, lo-fi origins. Northern upstart with diffi cult have been a monster, but she was become her signature: “the pursuit Winterson. “I can’t write my own Accompanied only by a strumming childhood and tyrannically religious my monster”: Winterson’s remark isn’t all or nothing – it’s all and life; never could. Not Oranges. Not guitar, their lyrics urge us to “save mother goes to Oxford, writes prize- applies as much to the psychologically nothing. Like all Quest Stories.” now. I would rather go on reading the day” by “listen[ing] to the old winning novel, has tempestuous damaged parts of herself as to her Why Be Happy is a memoir that myself as a fi ction than as a fact”. The melody” – we addressees realise, romances with married women), Why formidable adopted mother. isn’t interested in remembering, fact is that she does this superbly. as the song reaches its life-assur- Be Happy is no Oranges 2.0. This book could almost be a ‘how- so much as in acknowledging – charlotte keith ing climax, that that is exactly The most moving sections deal to’ of heart wrenching. But Winterson and reveling in – the fi ctions of Why Be Happy When You Could Be what we are doing. zoe large with her mid-life psychotic episodes knows how to hold back when autobiography; a life understood, Normal? Is out now on Jonathan 11th November 2011 Theatre Editor: Sophie Lewisohn 26 MAGAZINE www.varsity.co.uk [email protected]
THEATRE based on Williams’s sister, Rose, who Tom, the narrator of the play and and words projected onto a screen, 10 Questions for... Glass Menagerie was given a pre-frontal lobotomy a simulacrum of Williams himself, snatches of music. Although these after Williams had left home, Laura’s is however somewhat lacklustre. effects are no doubt problematic Corpus Playroom silence is at the heart of the play: Only sporadically does Mateo to stage, they also provide an while Tom lyricises and Amanda Oxley capture his magnetism and additional depth to the play, and a Julian ★★★★★ babbles shrilly, her quiet presence creativity; far too often he comes justifi cation for the often heavy- lends their domestic bickering across as a petulant teenager. handed symbolism. Such unrealistic a tragic pathos. Although her This isn’t entirely his fault: the effects make Tom’s manipulation Fellowes n a stifl ing apartment in 1930s St voice is kept at a fragile whisper, directorial decision to cut almost of memory obvious. Without them, Louis, the Wingfi eld family long somehow every word rings clear and all of the expressionist aspects of Tom is no longer the conjurer he Ifor escape. Tom (Mateo Oxley), captivating. Her growing confi dence the play rob him of his position as tells us he is, and we don’t think to a discontented factory worker, under the encouragement of Jim, impresario of the action. Williams question his frequently melodramatic dreams of poetry and revolution; his her gentleman caller, sees her makes much of The Glass Menagerie representation of himself and of mother, Amanda (Victoria Ball), is transformation from brittleness to being a ‘memory play’, and the script the other characters. He’s merely a desperately trying to avoid a future warmth, a subtle and heartbreaking abounds with dreamlike effects - frustrated - and frustratingly angst- of poverty by marrying off his sister thing to watch. echoed soundscapes of lines, images ridden - young man. Laura (Laura Batey). But Laura is SOPHIE LEWISOHN The expressionistic touches that a strange, fragile girl, inhibited by a are retained provide some of the crippling shyness. When a gentleman most striking moments in the play. ulian Fellowes matriculated at caller (Will Karani) is found for In one particularly brilliant scene, Magdalene College in 1967 to Laura, the individual hopes of each of we watch Tom goad his mother by Jread English. He is an actor, the family members are fi nally lifted inventing a debauched double life novelist, Conservative peer, fi lm - only to be dashed. This is Tennessee for himself: as he jumps on a chair, director and screenwriter. His Williams’ most autobiographical painting images of opium dens and award-winning scripts include play, and perhaps as a result of this desperadoes, the lighting changes Gosford Park and Downton Abbey. his observation of character is razor so that the room is swathed in sharp. darkness, and his gesticulating What’s the nicest thing anyone’s Amanda, based upon his own hands seem to mould the shadows. ever said to you? mother, is a faded Southern Belle The lighting is used skillfully “Do sing that again.” whose forced vivacity and attempts throughout the play to emphasise to recapture her youth are at once the mood of the characters. It is Worst public moment? a shame that the music, which is Playing the Inspector in An so essential to the atmosphere, is Inspector Calls in Northampton There’s nothing like treated clumsily, with awkward Rep sometime in 1974 - I was some southern gothic transitions between tracks and absolutely rotten and the whole tunes jarringly cut off mid-note. fortnight was excruciating. to warm you up on a Still, these are minor quibbles. Magic power of choice? winter’s evening. This is captivating domestic Time travel. drama, fi lled with really excellent performances, and there’s nothing What’s the last thing you saw? grotesque and pathetic. This is a like some sweltering southern An extraordinary performance challenging part for a young actress: gothic to warm you up on a cold of Rigoletto by the Diva Opera Victoria Ball, however, inhabits winter’s evening. But the play Company. I had gone out of duty, the role wonderfully. Her lilting shines most in the moments when it to support a charity that is very southern drawl doesn’t falter once, picks up on some of Williams’s more important to my wife, but I and although she is often comically adventurous dramatic ideas. These stayed to be transported. over-the-top we are never allowed to brief departures from realism give What are you reading? forget the vulnerability behind her a glimpse of how this could be a play Franklin and Winston: An shrill gaiety. about how we remember things, and Laura Bately gives a magnetic not just a play about a memory. Intimate Portrait of an Epic Laura Batey with her gentleman caller, Will Karani Friendship, by Jon Meacham. performance as Laura. Supposedly megan marsh Guiltiest pleasure? Probably butter, of which I THEATRE eventually persuade him to give a plot device for the redemption of characters, alongside the strange mix cannot have too much. Scrooge & Marley up his cynicism and save himself Scrooge. This story is so well-known, of gravity and parody, rendered it from eternal damnation. But this so ingrained in the fabric of British somewhat unconvincing. Favourite Cambridge haunt? ADC My favourite cinema (there were production is called Scrooge and literary tradition, that to be exciting However, it was redeemed (like many in the town, then) was a Marley – and what role did Marley it needs a telling that feels fresh Scrooge himself) by these two sort of upstairs fl ea-pit called ★★★★★ play that was in any way different and original. This new, promised actors. Particular highlights included the Rex, where we used to go to from the story’s original telling? In framework would have been both James Swanton as both mother late shows after rather drunken his ‘Behind the Scenes’ column in rewarding and stimulating. But it and father of Tiny Tim; only slight dinners. Christmas Carol. We all last week’s Varsity, James Swanton became just another telling of the changes of accessories were used to know the story – even if the commented that something which Scrooge story. mark the shifts, with Swanton, in Fondest memory of Aone that springs to mind is had always bothered him ‘was the And this time restraint was this instance, donning a bonnet and studenthood? the Muppets or Catherine Tate’s unresolved fate of Jacob Marley. another reason why the production changing his voice in order to become Punting a girl along the backs version. Who can fail to be moved at Whilst Scrooge fi nds redemption, didn’t quite work. I left wondering Mrs Cratchett. Potts was similarly at four in the morning after the the sight of Tiny Tim singing ‘Silent Marley remains damned for eternity. whether this is a story that works impressive, transforming at one point Magdalene Ball in my fi nal May Night’, or satisfi ed at the redemption Exploring their partnership struck when it has to be cut. It seemed – a from Scrooge to Scrooge’s nephew. Week. The sun was just rising of the man who has now become me as fascinating.” compliment to Dickens – that the These actors are to be commended over St John’s and it caught her the stereotype for all Christmas- But was such an exploration details of the original telling are for managing to demonstrate these red hair, so it shone like a fl ame. haters? But this two-man production really developed? At the end of the necessary, and that, without them, character shifts – even if the need I was mad about her, but she was promised something different, a new play, Scrooge states: “and Marley? it fails to make sense, losing any to do this so frequently meant that not mad about me, so this was as spin on a traditional tale. It poised Marley was dead”, acknowledging degree of realism it might lay claim portrayals sometimes went over the far as it went… itself as a conduit to a novel way of that this character remains mainly to. For example, the character top. seeing these characters: “There has of Tim was given limited stage This production asked the audience Who would you invite to your never been a telling of A Christmas time before Scrooge’s compassion for visual input, to imagine these dream dinner party? Carol quite like this – Scrooge and became evident: “tell me, spirit, changes as real – a clever reminder Marilyn Monroe, of course, Marley go head to head, battling it whether Tiny Tim will live?” It has the visual power of the theatrical Anthony Trollope, Lola Montez, out for redemption.” to be said that this was followed experience. But, while there were Disraeli, Lord Byron, Lady And tell the story of Scrooge it by a humorous version of ‘Once in hilarious moments, it failed to offer Melbourne, Mrs Gaskell, Evelyn did. But, in terms of the substance of Royal David’s City’ by Tim - who anything substantially new. I felt Waugh and Vivien Leigh. They the plot, it all felt very conventional. cleverly turned into Scrooge himself the actors relied on their capacities would all talk too much and I It was very much traditional half way through (Potts plays both as exceptional performers to carry suspect Byron would walk out, take on the tale: enter Scrooge, characters). But, if this play is going the whole show. Scrooge, on fi rst for effect. berating Christmas: “you keep your to stage the conventional tale of the being visited in the night by Marley, Favourite joke? Christmas and I’ll keep mine.” He powering effect of these visions on remarks that “a night of unbroken I can’t tell jokes. They always is visited by the manacled Jacob Scrooge, does it not need to provide rest would be more conducive”. I am come out backwards. Marley informing him that he is to be a reason behind his sudden change? quite happy that I broke my rest to visited by three ghosts – Christmas This production denied the audience see this play – but it didn’t entirely julian spoke to sophie lewisohn Scrooge & Marley Past, Present and Future – who that: the limited capacity to develop convince. rebecca jacobs Theatre Editor: Sophie Lewisohn 11th November 2011 [email protected] www.varsity.co.uk MAGAZINE 27
SOPHIE LEWISOHN COMEDY The play’s inventiveness does Bird Pie not end with the music; gameshow Behind the Scenes elements maintain the surreal Corpus Playroom mood, and are an ingenious way of revealing the characters’ truths and ★★★★★ lies. However, similar innovation The Set would be welcome elsewhere, as much of the play is dominated by long Designer t is safe to say that Bird Pie is monologues. These could have the like nothing you have seen before same dramatic effect in half the time, Sonia Tong I– a Whodunnit told through so it feels a little like they are being the voices of those who have been used to pad out the play when the ‘done’. The massacre of the entire writer ran out of clever ideas. Crow family on a remote country The monologues are very well farm looks to be the work of the acted. Georgina Terry as the corpse psychopathic daughter, Rachel. of Rachel Crow does very well to However, she comes back from the draw the audience into such an dead, along with the other bodies, to odd play from the opening, while ‘The intimacy of the playrooms allows the singers to shine’ prove her innocence and oust the true Rochelle Thomas, playing Margie guilty party. And there’s music, too. Hooper, is convincingly shaken as the The musical element of the play true murder comes to light. Charlie impressive reading. Most notably the young Jacob, was going to hold et designers can often be does not dominate it, with only a Merriman’s believably psychotic experienced are the children, sourced Freddie Crossley’s ‘burnt’ hand only a fl ying visitor to the handful of numbers. Nonetheless, the Jacob grows into the play’s leading from the Young Actors’ Company during the curtain call, and for that I Stheatre. In one sense, we’re familiar melodies successfully add to fi gure and carries the plot to its grim based in Cambridge, who are all do not blame him. architects, and once we’ve done the surreal mood. Nothing in the play conclusion. exceptionally talented, and I am sure The production team has not our job, it’s done and we are conforms to theatrical norms, and the that the second cast (performing been particularly proactive with no longer necessary. Like the instrumentation was no exception The weirdest alternate nights on Wednesday and publicity, as it must be the only play girl in Inception. However, like to this. A clarinet accompanies a Friday) is equally excellent. in Cambridge for which I have not Inception, things can get messy keyboard and works delightfully well play I have seen The corpses are marked out by been fl iered this term, and the show on the way and we do need to be in the close setting of the playrooms. in Cambridge – a their sickeningly gory make-up, will need more publicity urgently along for the ride. The two constables, played by which looks incredibly realistic to lure punters away from the other The actual designing doesn’t Elizabeth Schenk and Iwan Davies, di erent, bold, even as close as the second row. So musical attraction on this week. Bird take too long – it usually seems are performed faultlessly. The innovative show grossly realistic, in fact, that I felt Pie is the weirdest play I have seen to take place over a two-hour intimacy of the playrooms also allows a little put-off, and I was relieved in Cambridge by quite some margin. drinks session with the director. the singers to shine without the when the corpses made way for the It offers something completely The most time is spent working intermediary of microphones, which Such a high standard is to be ‘live’ characters later in the play. different, a bold and innovative show out how what you’ve designed was exploited outstandingly by expected when the actors’ credits The make-up is so disgusting that that works – somehow. will actually stand up, or making Catherine Shaw as Dr Dubion. in the programme make such there was no way Ben Lynn, playing richard stockwell sure the technical director can physically build what you’ve THEATRE It is an opera in three acts, and in sexy diaper dance is going on and on with less broadcasting experience drawn. the fi rst act we are introduced to the and you’re not sure how much faecal might feel responsible”; Satan The ADC, try though it does, Jerry Springer studio audience of the eponymous singing is yet to come – but it proves entreats him to present a Special, is not a professional theatre, and the Opera Jerry Springer show – people who ultimately worthwhile. with confrontations of biblical my role can include the painting ADC eat, excrete and watch TV. Hearing proportions. The third act may have and building and suchlike. Which luridly obscene descriptions sung Hell for the been hell for the characters but it was is fi ne, we’re short of hands, but ★★★★★ beautifully to lush live music is heaven for the audience. In clever I wish people would remember inherently amusing, at least for the characters, heaven mimicry of the fi rst act the characters that carving things out of wood fi rst ten minutes. And by the time it’s for the audience are played by earlier freaks to have is not necessarily my forte just wearing thin, the jokes have started: appeared on the show – God played because I designed the thing! Jerry has made his entrance. It gleefully plunges into fresh by a love-rat, Eve by a pole-dancer. Set designers can’t really have Max Upton as Jerry Springer is a depths of obscenity and crudity This Opera has an incendiary past, an individual style. There is no revelation. In the only non-singing at every turn; surpassing itself as most non-hermits will know, but continuity at all between the role, he is an expert showman, with each fresh twist of depravity, what is striking is how little there is twisted metal pipe backdrop I guiding the action as he wrestles including a tantalising Klu Klux Klan that is worthy of offence and the lack did for DNA and the lavish 18th with the audience, his inner Valkyrie video (which is not a sentence I ever of any malicious intent. It is pointedly century interior of Arcadia. We and the devil. He has a great stage thought I’d write) that must have gratuitous, sure; but its aims are work on such a range of material presence and impeccably deft comic been an agony to fi lm. No sooner have TV culture, religion and the cult of that you have to just apply timing and uses the many one-liners we been given a glimpse of the video personality – all worthy targets that yourself differently every time. gifted to him by a brilliant script to than the stage is immersed with it accurately and amusingly skewers. I prefer abstract sets because of full effect. Jerry is needed and adored them, frolicking and tap-dancing. The This clever piece was intelligently the freedom you get. I don’t like by his audience: he speaks for them fi rst act draws to a spectacular close; staged. The balconies encircled working with box sets so much. and they love him. a nice inversion means Jerry’s ‘fi nal the studio on either side, giving You’re already constrained he drizzle outside may have We’re introduced to a series thought’ is his fi nal; he’s been shot, a gladiatorial, combative air that enough on a stage without deterred the rumoured of damaged people desperate for and the curtain falls to his prone body perfectly captured the atmosphere making an even smaller space to Tprotests, but they failed to their “Jerry Springer moment”; a and a burning cross dominating the of antagonism. A slim curtain at the work in. dampen audience expectation as the fi fteen second slice of humiliating stage. back raised to reveal a pole-dancing The worst thing a director’s curtain rose on Jerry Springer The recognition. As you’d expect, there The second act takes place in pole and, later, a divine throne. This ever asked of me was to create Opera to rapturous attention. And on are amusingly choreographed fi ght purgatory; Jerry is confronted by lovely parallel worked dramatically a set with leaves. I’ve had to the whole, the attention was justifi ed scenes and spectacular set pieces. his guests, who were killed after but they looked genuinely dangerous. collect real, fallen leaves for the – this production was explosive. There are times early on where you confrontations on his show. Jerry There were, of course, some minor stage twice now. It is hellish. wonder where it’s going – when the responds to this news with “a person and a few major sound and technical They dry and rot, and thanks issues, but to focus on them would to ADC safety regulations, you be petty and miss the point of the have to fl ameproof every single production in which Ben Atkinson’s one individually. And they go orchestration was superb and the missing and get thrown away singing excellent throughout: the and they smell. I hate leaves. vocal duel between Jesus and Satan For a future project I’m going was a particular highlight, lasting to have to fl ameproof hundreds an impossibly long time before the of leaves individually and excellent Steve could prize them then spray-paint them white. apart. Jerry’s journey from odious Sometimes you wonder about to empathetic culminates in the this job. dissemination of a series of moral The best part of set design messages far less esoteric than those is the moment when the actors in philosophy text-books, and perhaps start to enjoy the space you’ve more true. created, and add to it and bounce It’s diffi cult to begrudge this Opera off it. I really feel that’s a great anything – it’s shamelessly gaudy, appreciation of your work. confrontational and utterly fun. interview by fred maynard tom powell OSKAR MCCARTHY 11th November 2011 Listings editors: Helen Cahill & madeleine morley 28 magaziNe www.varsity.co.uk [email protected]
Theatre Tartuffe adC 19.45 (£8/£10) Don't “In this lively new take on Molière’s masterpiece, expect a multi-tiered wedding cake of comic abundance.” This week’s ADC mainshow is surely worth the walk to Jesus miss: Lane. See our review in the next edition of Listings Varsity.
Theatre Nightlife Event Rumours Spoonfed Self-defence WoLfsoN HaLL, CHurCHiLL CoLLege 19.30 tHe JuNCtioN 22.00 (£13 adv) tHe uNioN 10.30 (free) th A collaboration from the Churchill GODS and the Spoonfed returns to Cambridge to liven up Learn how to defend yourself in a fun, friendly Murray Edwards Madhouse Theatre Society. From the your Saturday night, which would obviously and safe environment. Sessions are open mind of four-time Tony Award winner Neil Simon, be extremely boring otherwise. to both men and women, and no previous comes a brilliant comical farce about the lengths experience is necessary. 12 people will go to to save face. Sat
Film Music Music Christ’s Films: Fast Five Martyn Joseph Cambridge Chamber CHrist’s CoLLege 19.30 & 22.00 (£3) tHe JuNCtioN 20.00 (£16 adv) th The latest and best in the ‘Fast and Furious’ An acoustic artist with an electrifying Ensemble franchise, this heart-racing film has a team of spontaneity, this colossally gifted and fitzWiLLiam museum 13.15 (free) top street-racers assemble in Rio de Janeiro to gracious Welshman has five Top 50 hits Playing pieces by Mozart and Schubert are pull off a hundred-million-dollar heist. to his name. Bob Harris has praised the Stephen Foster on the viola, Sarah Whitworth 13 ”outstanding lyrical intelligence” of his songs on the clarinet and Mark Fielding on the piano. while he was voted Best Male Artist in the Sun BBC Welsh Music Awards.
Talk Theatre Nightlife Clare Politics - Varieties Oedipus//variations on a Filthy Lucre I of secularism: religion vuetheme tHe vauLts 21.00 th a NiCe romaNtiC Comedy HoW LoveLy. JUYGIV A live music night that starts and the public sphere TGIUfitzPatriCK G UIG I UIG HaLL, UI queeN’sO UIPHU FCoLLege GUYUI UYII 19.30 HIH (£5/£6) H at the bar and ends on the dance floor. tHirKiLL room, CLare CoLLege 20.45 (free) IH Moving from one musical style to another, TOIt’s CELEBRATE the 2503th THE performance 25TH ANIVERSARY of “Oedipus OF THE Tyran- [HAN- Jonathan Derbyshire will discuss, among TONnus” ALDJASKL;DJAKLSJDLAS and Chorus 6 wants to call it quits, but the the night and the space will be transformed 14 other things, the French republican model of protagonist has different ideas. An imaginative from a relaxed bar to a strobe-y stupor. “laicite” and current debates within the UK on
Mon new adaptation of the Oedipus myth. the place of religion in public life. UO I UIOU
Theatre Theatre Talk Beginning, Middle, End East Language-mixing in th CorPus PLayroom 21.30 (£5/£6) CorPus PLayroom19.00 (£5/£6) Four couples. Four love stories. Truthful “Full of sex and fury, East is a sharp, poetry moments written by hundreds of anonymous affectionate and funny expose of life in JuditH.e.WiLsoN studio 19.00 (free) participants have been brought together in London’s East End...it is a rollercoaster of The launch of the English Society’s ‘Double Beginning, Middle, End, a new play by Oliver gripping theatricality, teeming with both visual Take’ talks on English literature, Dr Lyne 15 Rees. and verbal exuberance”. Well, their description will give a talk on mixed-language and certainly makes it sound exciting. macaronics in poetry. TueWedThuFri
Talk Music Theatre Incest and Folk-Dancing: Portico Quartet Grimm Tales th Two things to avoid tHe JuNCtioN 20.00 (£15 adv) adC 23.00 (£5/£6) Electronica meets 21st-century jazz in Portico bristoL-myers squibb LeCture tHeatre, This week’s ADC lateshow will be “mingling the dePartmeNt of CHemistry (free) Quartet’s melodic, rhythmic music that mixes imagination of the Brothers Grimm with the Sir Thomas Beecham said: “Try anything once the inspiration of Philip Glass and Steve Reich dark humour of Carol Ann Duffy” for a “jour- but incest and folk-dancing”. However, with a very contemporary kind of jazz improv ney into the woods you certainly won’t forget”. 16 inbreeding occurs more often than we think. that draws on dub-step, electronica, rock, Part of the CU Biological Society series. ambient and dance music.
Talk Nightlife Debate Byron’s war: the politics Klubnacht @ Kamorama- This House Believes th of the Greek Revolution bar There is No Future for Kambar 20.00 (£3/£4) LeCture bLoCK, room 2, sidgWiCK site 17.00 Nuclear Power Head down to Kambar for a night that promises (free) tHe uNioN 19.30 to be “one of Cambridge’s least missable A talk from Prof Roderick Beaton, who is Given the devastation of the Fukushima klubnachts.” Get there before 23.00 to avoid visiting Cambridge from King’s College disaster, Martin Horwood, Jean Llewellyn and 17 London. paying that extra £1. John Robertson and Tim Yeo discuss what place nuclear power will have in the future.
Comedy Talk Music Chris Cox: Fatal Distrac- The rediscovery of Ver- Kettle’s Yard lunchtime th tion meer and the reception concert: Amy Jolly tHe JuNCtioN 20.00 (£12) KettLe’s yard 13.10 (free) That skinny mind-reader who can’t read minds of genre painting Kettle’s Yard lunchtime concerts display the has won awards, been on TV, got a load of fitzWiLLiam museum 13.15 (free) talents of Cambridge University students. five-star reviews and sold out shows around Dr Meredith Hale of the History of Art This week see Amy Jolly on the cello. 18 the world and he’s somehow still getting away Department gives this Friday lunchtime with it. lecture.
Music Fun Exhibition Exhibition Outside London Jazz Festival Reindeer Petting Leonardo da Vinci: Hidden Heroes: The arouNd LoNdoN Nov 11tH-Nov20tH CoveNt gardeN Piazza, Nov 12- deC 24tH Painter at the Court of Genius of Everyday Now in its 19th year, this Festival continues As part of Christmas in Covent Garden, its mission to bring the very best of the global Saturdays see Santa’s trusty sledge-pullers Milan Things jazz scene to the capital, from busy streets to touch down for ever-popular, reindeer-petting NatioNaL gaLLery, uNtiL feb 5tH sCieNCe museum, uNtiL may 30tH the bubble the grandest of concert halls. If you want to sessions. All ages are welcome, so don’t worry Timeout gave the exhibition five stars, so this An exhibition about things in daily use that get away this week, this it the perfect retreat. if you think you’re too old. is clearly not one to miss are so commonplace we rarely think about them, including teabags and zips. organising an exciting event? think everyone should be attending? Need someone to go with? email [email protected], no later than monday on the week of publication. Whole new online events calendar on its way... 11th November 2011 Puzzles Editor: Tim Middleton 29 MAGAZINE www.varsity.co.uk [email protected] Varsity Crossword Set by Cookie Sudoku
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 The object is to insert the numbers in the boxes to Across Down satisfy only one condition: each row, column and 3x3 1 10 9 moved into museum (6) 1 10 (BC or otherwise) trains box must contain the digits 1 through 9 exactly once. 9 4 Penny, previously a secretary, here in our 10 (8) quit Pacifi c 10 (4,4) 2 Throwing out ex with 25 so 10 11 10 I should always be this when disturbed (9) 4 7 8 3 alone (7) 3 Alliance to an organisation (4) 9 8 2 6 11 Business degree 19 10 (7) 5 Members hugging at home 12 Look after windows for together (3,2,3) 7 9 12 13 example 10 (4) 6 Love managed to joke. Notice 13 Evangelist and Baptist another one of the ABC 10s 8 4 2 3 14 perhaps 10 of A&B (5,5) (10) 2 1 6 15 Flowers for Murdoch and 7 Washington returns and 15 16 17 Robinson perhaps (6) remains teeming (5) 6 2 5 1 16 Emergency wine in state of 18 8 Black Sea port rhymes with 6 3 18 19 (7) essay, we hear (6) 20 Doctor, irate in languor (7) 9 God, everybody! I get it now 4 5 8 7 20 21 21 Hidden in Yemen as Saudi (5) Turks are near this 10 (6) 14 Arranging Greg 1 2 10 (10) 7 3 6 2 / GARETH MOORE www.puzzlemix.com
22 23 24 Prince met sad break up in one 17 Contrived crime, more like chef of the ABC 10s (10) than gardener (6,3) Last week’s answers 26 18 ACROSS 24 25 26 May this be more commonly 10 seconds has a family fi rst (8) known as 15/5 (4) 19 Canine US forms irritant (8) 1 Infamy, 4 Acedia, 10 En famille, 11 Night, 12 Ashen, 28 First Greek woman fi nds sun 22 Nicks southern sponges (6) 13 Tenacious, 14 Suffocate, 17 Dolce, 18 Sires, 19 27 Fireworks, 21 Downwards, 24 Specs, 26 Lotus, 27 god after shipping company (7) 23 Inside, Doctor Who is Nostalgia, 28 Warder, 29 Lepton 29 10 no longer a tender month (7) sometimes called 10 (5) DOWN 28 29 30 The other half of an issue (3-2- 25 Revolutionary is in after half- 1 Icecaps, 2 Fifth, 3 Momentous, 5 Cynic, 6 Dog collar, 7 Artiste, 8 Plot, 9 Reindeer, 15 Firewater, 16 Afferent, 3) length (5) 17 Downstage, 18 Sod’s law, 20 Sustain, 22 Waste, 23 31 Take a punt on backs of Cam 27 Central character in 3’s Suss, 25 Eight
and climb in strong wind (6) phonetic ABC 10 (4) 3 4 1 5 2 9 8 7 6 9 8 7 3 4 6 2 5 1 30 31 5 6 2 8 7 1 3 4 9 6 5 4 7 9 3 1 2 8 7 1 3 2 5 8 9 6 4 2 9 8 1 6 4 7 3 5 8 2 9 4 3 5 6 1 7 4 7 6 9 1 2 5 8 3 1 3 5 6 8 7 4 9 2 11th November 2011 Sport Editor: Matt Blythe 30 SPORT www.varsity.co.uk [email protected] New generation of rowers baptised Anglia Ruskin, St Catharine’s and Pembroke take the honours at Queens’ Ergs
LUCY SCOVELL Tom Marriott endless gusto amidst raucous cheers evening; a blistering 01:20.4 from a ROWING CORRESPONDENT from the balconies. member of the Magdalene crew was Results-wise, in the women’s still only enough to see his team to a For those who don’t know, Queens’ division St. Catharine’s and Caius limp 10th place fi nish in the senior’s Ergs is arguably the fi rst big rowing were in a league of their own with fi nal. competition of the year and for many, an average time three seconds ahead All in all, there were some fantastic the beginning of their rowing career of the rest in the fi nal. However, it races but it being so early on in the at Cambridge. was ultimately St. Catharine’s though term there’s no telling who will come As the rowers take to the streets who snatched victory in the fi nal with out on top in Novice Fairbarns. of Cambridge in their droves this an average split time of 01:50.3. Whilst there were a lot of week, witness the ubiquitous Queens’ Special mention must also go to impressive times being displayed it Ergs t-shirt and you’ll appreciate the Murray Edwards and Emmanuel, is worth remembering that what you scale of this event. Indeed, it seems who were the only women’s boats can do on the ERG doesn’t necessarily that everyone has participated in this to get two boats (a novice fi rst and translate to such great form in a boat. competition at some point or another. second) into the fi nal, with Murray How the novices perform on the river The fi rst test for novices, Queens’ Edwards second boat outperforming could be very different, but there was Ergs is different to anything else their fi rst boat (displaying quite how certainly plenty of potential shown by on offer to Cambridge boaties. The little setting crews means at this all crews, with a lot of proud Lower competition involves ERGs (indoor stage). Boats Captains by the end of the rowing machines) in which crews The men’s novices, however, were event. of eight take turns to row 500m in a lot closer at the top end with Anglia The focus now shifts to training a relay style battle against other Ruskin, LMBC, Fitz and Jesus all together in an eight or four as the college crews. in contention. Ultimately though rowing season really starts to get Seemingly quite simple, but as Tom Ruskin’s enormous crew took it going with some great races to look Moore, a third year vet from Queens’ home with a brutal display of power, forward to this term. told Varsity Sport, “An event like this averaging an impressive split time of Bring on the Clare Novices and is very hard to organise and run.” 01:30.1. Emma Sprints. Although the night itself was In the senior race, which was plagued with technical diffi culties held for the fi rst time this year to Fastest Individual (the screen that showed each college’s showcase some of Cambridge’s more Novice Times individual placing frequently cut out), experienced rowers, victory belonged TIME COLLEGE this did little to dampen spirits and to Pembroke after a close battle with the MC-ing by Chris Clarke kept Christs. The format here though was 01:22.2 JESUS everyone up to date when the screens slightly different, with crews being 01:23.1 QUEENS’ came crashing down. mixed. With his booming tones from the This format certainly lent itself 01:24.0 ST JOHN’S stage, Clarke created an almost to an exciting spectacle as crews 01:24.1 ST CATHARINE’S gladiatorial atmosphere, announcing continously leapfrogged each other Powerhouse: Anglia Ruskin muscle their way to victory in the Men’s Novices each team’s entry to the hall with and indeed the fastest time of the 01:24.5 WOLFSON Blues golfers continue red-hot form Three wins on the bounce for the Blues as they make a blistering start to the season
CUGC Charlie Dewhurst Cumberland adding the icing on the Last weekend saw the Blues head GOLF CORRESPONDENT cake,to take the fi nal match score to Royal West Norfolk Golf Club to 9-6. for the fi rst taste of links golf this A superb last two weeks for the After an entertaining night in season. Blues golfers saw them win three London, indeed, better for some After safely negotiating the tidal fi xtures in ten days, building on than others, the Blues headed to road, the Blues were greeted with early season successes in October, Denham Golf Club for the second classic links conditions. A victory and making this the best start to a match of the weekend. for former captain and purveyor of Cambridge golf season in 10 years. Shrugging off the excesses of fi ne burgers, Andrew Dinsmore, The winning streak begun with the night before, they snuck ahead meant that the Blues were level a win against Hankley Common after the morning foursomes. The with RWNGC at lunch. Golf Club in Surrey. After quickly battling half of returning Blues Paul Captain Dewhurst and Club adapting to the challenging layout, Schoenberger and Nick Ramskill Treasurer, Schoenberger lead the the Blues ground out a win in the ensuring a 2.5-1.5 lead was taken afternoon charge with the buftiest morning foursomes to take a single into lunch. performance imaginable, shooting a point lead into the afternoon, which The afternoon session then saw 72 and winning on the last. Big wins proved to be an equally tight affair. the Blues dominate the Denham from the second and third pairs too side, winning all four afternoon saw Cambridge take the win 5.5- matches and the match itself by 4.5, a 7th win of the season, and The Blues squad this year has an emphatic 6.5-1.5. Ramskill and their 3rd win on the trott. tremendous depth fresher Adam Lewicki were the With reports from the other and a distinctly standout pair, winning against a place looking fairly positive too, international strong Denham pair with Ramskill the 123rd University Golf Match at fl a v o u r holing from off the green to win on Hunstanton Golf Club is set to be a the last. fi ercely competitive one as the Blues The midweek period saw the look to avenge the 8-7 defeat last With the first seven matches staging of the CUGC’s fi rst trial at March. played, the scores were soon even Royal Worlington, which was won The Blues squad this year has at 6-6, however the Blues showed by the captain, Charlie Dewhurst tremendous depth and a distinctly their mettle to take the last three. with an impressive 71 in the wind international fl avour, with players Robinson man, Lucas Birrell- and rain. Alex Silver, two time Blue from Germany, Singapore, Holland, Gray seizing the 8th point and the was the runner up, with Birrell- South Africa, America, Ireland, and match win, with fresher James Gray in third. Precision: Nick Ramskill (Emmanuel) hits a crisp iron shot en route to victory England. Sport Editor: Matt Blythe 11th November 2011 [email protected] www.varsity.co.uk SPORT 31
Commentary Box: Lessons to be learnt Rise of the As it happened... Continued from page 32 Cambridge University TEAMSHEET back row And, while the Blues’ line-out was vs UWIC again magnificent – Scott Annett 1 F. Austin Caius Sam Oakley and, in the second half, Emmanuel 2 M. Murdock St Edmund’s START Akiluyi dominated the air – the catch 3 N. Conroy Magdalene 3 and drive was not the expected force; 4 J. Ritchie St Edmund’s ollowing the Australia- demonstrated that international UWIC stumble off-side, once, even, Annett was stranded by 5 S. Annett (C) Clare South Africa quarter-fi nal back-rows have become stronger with Rob Stevens his pack and pinged for holding on. 6 S. Young Emmanuel of this year’s Rugby and more devious than ever. No converting the penalty. F 3-0 The kicking game, moreover, was 7 R. Malaney St Edmund’s World Cup, a Facebook page was matter how the IRB may tinker pursued too often and too poorly: 8 J. Kururangi St Edmund’s established. It called for Bryce with the laws, referees remain at 11 touch when sought was often missed; 9 D. Blake Hughes Hall Lawrence, the Kiwi referee who the mercy of the loose forwards. UWIC off-side again, and infi eld kicks provided no challenge to 10 R. Stephen King’s took charge of that match, to ‘never Increasingly so, because having a Stevens stretches the lead. 6-0 the UWIC back three, while even the 11 R. Stevens Jesus be allowed to referee a game of back-row who can slow down ball, 20 desperate cross-fi eld of the last ten 12 K. Cooke Hughes Hall rugby again’. To date, the page has kill opposition momentum, who in Missed tackle and a decent step fell some yards too short. 13 P. Loudon St Edmund’s more than 84,000 ‘likes’. some games can make more tackles lead the UWIC outside centre The Welshmen, by contrast, not 14 M. Thomas St John’s Lawrence’s performance had than an entire team, who can carry, under the posts. 6-7 least from the boot of skipper and fl y- 15 T. O’Toole St Edmund’s been risible. His inability to and who can steal opposition ball, half Roberts, found judicious touch establish any control over the is now the means to victory in 27 when needed and ran when they could, Replacements: Australian back row, particularly international rugby. Hands on the fl oor in front of the posts. Soft not when it was a last resort. 16 W. Briggs Magdalene David Pocock, was disgraceful. Indeed, look at RWC 2011 – this penalty. 6-10 Mistakes were made, then, and 17 K. Hegarty Fitzwilliam This was a match in which the was the tournament of the fl anker. those mistakes were punished, as 18 E. Akinluyi Christ’s Springboks had 76% of possession, Its enduring image may be McCaw better teams are wont to do. One such, 19 J. Kennedy Pembroke yet were turned over nine times by lifting the cup, but the performance 36 Saracens, arrives on Monday. Playing 20 S. Hunt Girton an Australian team which dived off of Thierry Dusatoir in the fi nal Unfortunate breakaway conceded, UWIC running Treviso on Sunday, the Londoners 21 S. Townend Downing its feet, which refused to release will never be forgotten. He single- the length of the pitch. will be nowhere near full strength at 22 M. G-King St Catharine’s in the tackle, and which used its handedly carried his team to the 6-17 Grange Road, likely not even a 2nd 23 H. Amos Jesus hands on the fl oor – all wantonly, brink of greatness. XV; with three games left before to all of which Lawrence remained Across the board, too, it was the HALF TIME Twickenham, the opportunity must be oblivious. fl anker who dominated. The horror 40 taken. Lawrence did more, however, of Welsh fans when Sam Warburton Return of the King: Blues than enrage the South African was dismissed in the semi-fi nal was captain Matt Guinness-King makes his long awaited The Saracens game is this sporting nation; he epitomised the proof of his importance to their comeback. Monday, 7.15pm at Grange substandard nature of arbitration team. In Sean O’Brien, Ireland will Road. at this year’s World Cup, the have a world-class blindside for 42 critical areas of which came at years to come. For the Springboks, Unlucky ricochet as PETER GILLIS UWIC fl y-half Rhys rugby’s most contentious yet Broussow and Burger – though Roberts collects his cherished point, the breakdown. entirely different players – have own chip. 6-24 Look at the fi nal. Craig Joubert established such places in the 57 seemed unable to penalise Richie pantheon that even Willem Alberts Blues clearance charged down McCaw, the greatest of cheats, for cannot force his way into the in ‘22, UWIC score under the coming in from the side and killing starting team. Even emerging posts. 6-31 the ball off his feet. Worst, though, nations have class in their back with three minutes left, was the row: Gorgodze of Georgia was missed offside with the French in many observers’ pick of the group 74 Latent tension an eminently kickable position. stages, while Namibian skipper threatens to spill out The ruck is fundamental to Jacques Burger carried his form for into full-scale brawl. rugby union: it makes the game Saracens onto the global stage. unique, and dominance in this area So while we may carp at the 78 will invariably result in victory. incompetence of Lawrence, Prop Fergus Austin leaves Consequently, refereeing the ruck Joubert, et al, we might look more the fi eld with a suspected is vital in establishing which team at the deviance which they must disloaction. has the upper hand going forward. police. For as long as back rows Getting this wrong, you get the improve, for as long as they bend FULL TIME game wrong. However, is this all the rules to their limit, the referee the fault of the referees? is only as infl uential as the back Likely not – this World Cup has row itself. Not their night: A rare mistake from the formidable Blues line-out Concrete Croydon too strong
Sohaib Chaudhry Come the second quarter, Croydon however, as James Whittle scored The third quarter begun well. With LACROSSE CORRESPONDENT upped their game. They took the the fi rst goal of his career, keeping greatly improved passing, the Blues Search: Best shot and lead; scoring quickly off a man-up Cambridge within touching distance. managed to score three goals in quick In a rare home game for the lacrosse situation, only to see the scores KATH MORRIS succession. best game ever Blues, visitors Croydon claimed levelled minutes later by a bullet Croydon responded however, and a narrow victory after a brave from Blues captain Carl Tilsbury. the Cambridge defence promptly fi ghtback from the Cambridge team This apparent equilibrium did not crumbled again. Going into the fi nal in the fi nal quarter. last long though; dropping passes quarter, the score was tight at 6-5 to Right from the off, both teams and going easy on ground-balls, Croydon. seemed evenly matched; a bullish Cambridge frequently gave up The visitors then scored right Cambridge defence successfully possession, gifting the Croydon side at the start of the period to leave restricted Croydon’s opportunities a glut of scoring opportunities. Cambridge with just 10 minutes to whilst the visitors themselves Whilst the defence had settled muster a comeback. But the Blues defended ably against Cambridge’s well in the fi rst quarter, they came duly responded with a score to dodges. unstuck during poorly-executed fast- ensure a dramatic fi nish. In the fi rst quarter, both teams break manoeuvres. Indeed, careless Having gained a vital man-up had reasonable periods of possession, defending and a lack of man-marking possession though Cambridge were Remember the days when but neither team were able to take meant that by the end of the second unable to fi nd a late equaliser, and Roger Federer could produce advantage. Cambridge passed well quarter Croydon had moved into a as the fi nal whistle went, Tilsbury’s winners on tap? Well, this in attack, but were impotent in front considerable lead. side knew they had let a result slip one’s not bad. Not bad at all. Matt Halliday (Clare) seeks possession of goal. There was some consolation, through their fi ngers. 11th November 2011 Sport Editor: Matt Blythe 32 SPORT www.varsity.co.uk [email protected] “International back-rows have become stronger and SPORT more devious than ever.” Sam Oakley on the increasing infl uence of the back row in rugby p31
LUCY SCOVELL Rugby Blues demolished Error-strewn performance sees the Blues crash to their heaviest defeat of season
PETER GILLIS
Queens’ Ergs – full report p30 RESULTS ROUND-UP On the back foot: Rob Malaney (St Edmund’s, left) and Nigel Conroy (Magdalene, right) attempt to slow down the relentless UWIC attack RUGBY BLUES 6 CAMBRIDGE UNI. 6 off-side. It could even have been more construed as careless and deserving ricocheting chip to scramble over the UWIC 31 were it not for a tight call on a forward of punishment, as was meted out Blues’ line. UWIC 31 pass. This was sharp. It boded well. by Pierre Tucker’s ninety-yard and The game was then killed, before BASKETBALL Following this opening salvo, unchallenged sprint home. even the hour-mark, as another BLUES 67 however, UWIC woke up. Soon, 11 points down at half-time, then, UWIC skirmish brought another MANCHESTER MET 63 Michael Taylor their game clicked and the Welshmen and the changes rang, the most unforced error from the Blues’ back- DEPUTY SPORT EDITOR tallied 31 unanswered points to infl ict signifi cant of which was the return line: a lazy clearance was charged HOCKEY the Blues’ heaviest Michaelmas defeat down, the ball sat up, and Rhydian BLUES 4 The wheels have not come off, but since Northampton ran in 11 tries at Some of the scores Roberts sauntered in for the fourth they are wobbling. Grange Road in October 2009. were fortuitous, of the night. BEDFORD 5 For the fi rst twenty minutes, this The Cardiff students presently but 25 point Explaining the margin of defeat LACROSSE had been a focused and disciplined lie in third in Division One West margins are not may not be easy. Certainly, some of Blues performance. The pack, the in the Welsh National League and forged from luck the scores were fortuitous, but 25 BLUES 6 alone core of so much good work this year, were BUCS fi nalists last year; their point margins are not forged from CROYDON 7 had owned its set-pieces and cleared pedigree was clear. luck alone; by the same logic, 25 point wholesale over the top of its ball; the First, outside centre Louis Messer of club skipper Matt Guinness-King. defeats are caused by more than rolling maul had made its familiar hit a line off a slickly-choreographed Sidelined for two months with a neck misfortune. and domineering bow; Don Blake move, breaking a front-row tackle injury, this was either the best or Defence, again, proved an issue, was skirting around the breakdowns, before stepping past the last line to worst stage on which to return. not least around the fringes and in 45 > while Tom O’Toole’s clearances were cruise under the posts. A few minutes As it was, the second half began the first channel. The scrum, too, fi nding touch and at a distance, too. later, the Blues infringed on the fl oor as the fi rst had ended – within two shook occasionally: wheeled in the last Twice the Blues entered UWIC and UWIC led 10-6. minutes, UWIC out-half Rhys ten, more worrying was a loss against 9 771758 444002 territory and twice they came away The second try was perhaps Roberts, denied moments earlier by the head, something with points, Rob Stevens slotting two unlucky. Still, throwing a loose pass a brilliant covering tackle in front extraordinary in modern « 31 penalties as the Welshmen strayed and dropping the ball could equally be of the uprights, gathered his own rugby.