Christ Church JCR has voted to declare war on Brasenose College, in its fourth week General Meeting on Sunday evening. The motion came after Brasenose JCR’s declaration of war against Christ Church one week previous.
The debate centres on the controversial result of mixed lacrosse cuppers held on Saturday of third week. Members of the Christ Church team raised an objection to the collaboration of Brasenose with players from LMH, in the composite ‘Blazenose Hall’ team. This triggered a playoff, which ‘Blazenose Hall’ lost, giving Christ Church a place in the semi-finals.
The motion, which was passed by a simple majority and noted that Brasenose was an “immature and stroppy college”, mandated Christ Church JCR to appoint war ministers to collaborate with Lincoln JCR and Lincoln war ministers, which is already at war with Brasenose. Lincoln and Brasenose are famous for a long standing feud amongst undergraduates.
Juliette Aliker, a first year History and Politics undergraduate at Christ Church who voted against the motion, said “despite our reputation, Christ Church is a really friendly col-
lege and I believe this attitude should be reflected in the general interactions of its members with other colleges in the University. College wars, although amusing, spur an inter-college rivalry that can easily be taken too far.”
The declaration of war follows a Brasenose motion which kickstarted the idea of a paintball fight against Lincoln. It is unclear whether Christ Church will get involved with the paintball fight. The Brasenose motion noted “current war efforts against Lincoln continue to run smoothly, with recent developments including tapping communication lines of key opposition leaders.”
The motion creates mutual antagonism between two of Oxford’s most famous colleges, who last went to war with each other in Trinity Term 2014. Although previous college wars have involved pranks played by war ministers and tampering with opponent colleges’ property, the tactics of Christ Church, Brasenose and Lincoln in the most recent spark of conflict are as of yet unclear.
