Lincoln bars Lucy Pinder

Glamour model Lucy Pinder was banned from serving drinks at Lincoln College last term after a student won a Daily Star competition that featured her as its prize. Pinder, the page three girl famous for not allowing full-frontal pictures of her 32G breasts, was supposed to visit the winner’s local pub and pour drinks with £500 behind the bar.Second year lawyer Ian Brownhill received a call from the newspaper on 1 March congratulating him on being a possible winner. Since his “local pub” was the Lincoln College bar, he needed approval from the bar manager and college administrators for Pinder to visit. Although bar manager Simon Faulkner agreed, college authorities opposed Pinder’s visit.Brownhill said, “I was obviously completely shocked to have won the contest, and only ever entered for a laugh. At no point did I imagine that the College would end up in a national newspaper.”When authorities refused to allow the event on the grounds that Pinder was not a JCR member, JCR President Alasdair Henderson proposed a motion to have her made an honorary member.In a letter to Pinder inviting her to become an honorary JCR member, Henderson said the model held a “high-profile position in the hearts of Lincoln students, women as well as men”.The College still opposed the event, saying that press attention of this nature would be damaging for both the College and the University. The college authorities refused to comment on the case.Dissatisfied with Lincoln’s refusal to host the event, the Daily Star questioned the Lincoln authorities, the JCR president, OUSU and the University Press Office to find out why Pinder was banned.After receiving no response from the College, two reporters arrived uninvited taking photographs and interviewing undergraduates. Their visit resulted in a two page spread in the 8 March issue of the Daily Star. One student was quoted in the story saying the JCR was “gutted”. The article then called the College “prudish” and said it was full of “dusty professors”. Pinder, the newspaper argued, was “too hot for the College to handle”.They believed that Lincoln saw the competition as sexist and hoped to convince them to accept Pinder. “The dons have not just made fools of themselves and insulted Lucy. They’ve also let down their students. Lucy would have injected some fun and excitement into their lives,” the story said.Lucy Pinder’s mother, Jenny, said, “We did feel that possibly the more, shall we say, old fashioned element, think that Lucy’s career choice makes her an unsuitable visitor to the hallowed halls.” She added that “Lucy was amused and philosophical” about the events and that the model would like to send her thanks to Brownhill for entering the competition.Henderson said that he thought Lincoln right in its decision not to allow the competition to go ahead. He said that the College “didn’t appreciate being put on the spot and having to cover for a misunderstanding over allegations of sexism”.Henderson added that, although it was “a bit of a hassle, the whole thing was very funny indeed”.When asked what he thought of the incident, Brownhill said, “Obviously I got the lads’ hopes up, but sadly it wasn’t meant to be.”ARCHIVE: 0th week TT 2005