The annual Turl Street Dash has been banned by both Jesus and Exeter College authorities, following violence last year’s event and national media attention.
The Dash is a long-standing tradition involving Jesus students participating in a bicycle ride around Oxford finishing on Turl Street, usually preceded by heavy drinking.
But students at both colleges were warned that any attempt to participate in a Dash this year would result in heavy punishment. This follows the events of last Hilary term, when the Dash escalated into a drunken brawl between students at Exeter and Jesus.
In response to the fight and the press coverage it received, Exeter’s Junior Dean and Jesus’ Dean outlined their intention to punish those responsible and ensure
that the incident would not be repeated.
Last week, Exeter students were informed by e-mail that the “Turl Street Dash is banned” and that any students found participating would be “heavily disciplined.”
Jesus JCR President received an email to similar effect. In the e-mail, the Dean of Jesus College warned that, “After the fracas and adverse national publicity of the event last year you should know that I promulgated a ban on the event.”
The e-mail also cautioned that anyone found organising or participating in the Dash would “incur my severe displeasure.”
In February of last year, Cherwell reported on the events of the Dash which ended in violence between the colleges. The Sun ran the story under the headline ‘Uni-Cycle Riot’. Jesus students were reported to have come out onto Turl Street to cheer on competitors in the bicycle race. Chanting and swearing degenerated into fighting between some Exeter and Jesus students. The subsequent fight allegedly left students injured and bicycles damaged after they were thrown around in the street.
Students were also reported to have urinated on the walls of their rivals’ college and a small group of Jesus students attempted to break into Exeter.
But rivalry between the two colleges dates back centuries. It is believed that in the 1960s, Exeter students fed a flock of pigeons laxatives before letting them loose in Jesus’ Dining Hall. The Jesus retaliation to this incident reportedly involved varnishing Exeter toilet seats.
Jesus College’s Alternative Perspective notes that “The Jesus/Exeter feud has been going strong for several hundred years after the initial street battles and shows no signs of abating.”
The Dash itself is not associated with violence. The nature of the Dash is one secretively protected by Jesus College members.
“The ban would have been re-imposed regardless”
One Jesus undergraduate, who wished to remain anonymous, said that, “only a few are privy to the whole story behind the Dash and I’m not going to share it!”
He also noted that the Dash is usually banned by college officials every year.
He said, “The ban would have been re-imposed regardless of whether or not there had been a fight.”
He also said that, “The punishments received as a direct consequence of the fighting were entirely proportionate.”
Second year Exeter lawyer, Alice Loughney summed up popular student opinion at both colleges. She commented that the so-called enmity is “definitely not taken seriously, it’s more of a harmless friendly rivalry.”
The future of the Turl Street Dash remains uncertain.
