Friday 11th July 2025
Blog Page 2211

Saints kickstart stuttering season

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Both teams went into this match desperately hoping for a victory; after two straight defeats, the Saints knew that if they were to stand any chance of surviving in the second division they had to win. Worcester, on the other hand, were coming off the back of a drubbing by Magdalen and needed the points to restart their season and avoid being dragged into a relegation dogfight.

However, it was the Saints, who took to the field sporting a new kit, that struck the first blow. From the kick-off they pressured Worcester at the breakdown, forcing mistakes and gaining territory. After driving the ball deep into the Worcester half, stand-in fly half Evans-Young switched the direction of play down the blind side and crashed over the line. The subsequent conversion fell just short, in what was to be the start of a poor display of place kicking. With their two first choice kickers out injured, the Saints will be glad that on the day it wasn’t close enough for these missed opportunities to matter.

However, it was clear that Worcester were not going to lie down and let the fast pace set by the Saints intimidate them. The inspiration they were looking for came from their own fly-half, with his brand of powerful running and elusive side-step, borne of his time spent playing Blues rugby league. But his team mates were unable to capitalise on the holes he punched in the Saints back line, whilst the usually temperamental kicking boot of Evans-Young allowed his team to get out of trouble and play the game in the Worcester half. Having survived a period of pressure, they created a second try, with a well worked scrum resulting in Jonathan Ward crossing to make the game 10-0.

Although both teams seemed quite evenly matched it was becoming clear that the clinical finishing of the Saints when presented with chances was the difference between the two. As conditions deteriorated, and handling became more difficult, the scrum became more of a factor. The experience of Oliver Adams at tight head against the seemingly inexperienced front row of Worcester led to several being wheeled in the Saints’ favour. However, with several players out of position in the back row, scrum half Henry Fraser was given no protection allowing the Worcester scrum half AJ Campbell to torment him throughout the game, constantly disrupting Fraser’s service from the set piece.

As half time approached, the previously reliable Saints defence fell asleep from a lost line out, causing a dog leg in defence which was taken advantage of by the quick hands of the Worcester backs, sending their winger over in the corner.

Clearly angry at having allowed Worcester back into the game, the Saints immediately replied after half time. A well worked switch in midfield gave livewire centre Ben Butterfield the space he had been craving as he left three defenders standing in his wake before diving over. However, they were unable to capitalise, as they insisted on giving penalty after penalty away, before Worcester finally took advantage of poor Saints defence around the fringes, and scored from short range.

Despite having seen their lead diminish, the Saints seemed galvanised by the try. The break in play also saw the introduction of a number of late arrivals in the Saints line-up, with outside centre Josh Stone making the most obvious impact with some crunching tackles in midfield. As the fresh legs of the Saints began to make a difference, second row Johnny Crockett finally started to make his height tell and dominated the lineout, both offensively and defensively. It was from one of these set pieces that the next try came, a disciplined maul from the Saints allowing number eight Charles Steward to touch down.

The final nail in the coffin came in the form of a try by Saints winger Balakrishnan, quiet until that moment, who cut a good line from another blindside move. All that was left to do was for Steward to claim his second of the day from another maul, putting the game beyond reasonable doubt.

With their first win of the season, the Saints have made things interesting at the bottom of division two, with both of today’s teams, plus Christ Church, all contenders for the drop. It will be a nail-biting end to the season as all three of them attempt to secure survival, and the Saints will hope that they can maintain this form into next week’s game against Magdalen.

ANNE’S/JOHN’S 32
WORCESTER 10

 

Corpus/Linacre regroup to level Lincoln

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This league one clash between promoted Corpus/Linacre and relegated Lincoln promised a tantalising spectacle, pitting two teams with something to prove against each other. It appeared to be running predictably, with ex-premiership Lincoln controlling a scrappy game to score either side of the half, until Corpus/Linacre suddenly netted a pair. As the final whistle blew at 2-2, the match had provided high octane entertainment without answering any questions; both teams will be relieved to have avoided defeat but also regret failing to carve out a win.

Corpus/Linacre kicked off, but Lincoln claimed possession and swarmed past the right-back to win the first of a series of throw-ins. Corpus/Linacre were reduced to repeatedly booting the ball up-field in defence, and could not contrive any convincing response. Lincoln though, lacked the penetration to capitalise on this pressure. Their tall number 12 was unable to make his presence felt, except for one neat dummy past two defenders, as the game began to assume a back-and-forth rallying.

Corpus/Linacre started to have some joy down the left, mostly due to the impressive Carl Gaffney. Lincoln still appeared the stronger in this haphazard game, however, withtheir defence unflappably dealing with their opposition’s. Although Corpus/Linacre created a chance from a corner, Lincoln generated a far more purposeful air.

‘Lincoln’s goal was bombarded’

Left-back McMurray shuttled up and down the wing with vigour, enabling striker Josh Thomas to shoot wide, and soon after centre-mid Biggs made an aerial pass to the right wing that resulted in Webber scrambling through a cloud of defenders to poke the ball in by the far post.

Corpus/Linacre responded to this setback with genuine energy. Their captain produced a good run on the right, but lacking support had to settle for a corner. From this, Lincoln’s goal was bombarded, twice requiring goal-line clearances, but once again Corpus/Linacre could not put the chances away. Miletic again led his team forward, but was neatly cut off by centre-back Morten. Lincoln’s defence perhaps looked more solid than it was, lacking any real test. Indeed, when Miletic ceased looking to his team-mates and pressed forward alone, he managed to cut through and was stopped only by the keeper sliding at his feet.

Lincoln looked comfortable, but suggestions of flaws in their play began to show in the second half. They claimed a second quickly, Thomas exploiting his pace to rush through a buckling defence and tap past the keeper, which should have made the game theirs. For a while, this seemed so; Corpus/Linacre threw themselves forward but still seemed to lack edge. Their centre-forward Francis Carr threaded through to Gaffney, who could not quite match the speed of Morten, appearing swiftly to close him down. A free kick soon after turned into a tame trickle to the Lincoln wall.

‘A draw was a suitable result’

Corpus/Linacre’s energy did pay off though as Carr benefitted from a nice pass from Miletic to make a simple finish, Lincoln’s absent defence at fault. Lincoln themselves felt this, re-discovering their aggressive intent; Thomas shot wide, and Biggs scooped over.

However, they clearly felt restricted by the pressure, pulling every player save Thomas back to defend a corner. There could be no solution to Tom Guest though, who curved the ball over the defence with a spectacular overhead kick into the top left corner.

Corpus/Linacre were invigorated, while Lincoln, pushed out of their comfort zone, couldn’t struggle back. Gaffney and Carr combined again for the latter to shoot onto the cross-bar, and any Lincoln counter-attacks were quickly stifled.With both teams chastened, the frenetic final few minutes yielded no further score, and a draw was perhaps the only suitable result for a game of such sudden switches and reversals.

 

True Blues or mercenaries?

Matt Evans-Young: Against

Do you imagine that Joe Roff, the recently departed ex-Australia rugby player, went through the same interview process as many of the people that are reading this article?

I can’t imagine a nervous Joe sitting in front of several tutors being grilled as to why he chose Politics, Philosophy and Economics. To be honest, I would have loved to have read his personal statement. The same goes for Anton Oliver, the Dark Blues’ newest superstar recruit, as well as almost all of last year’s Blues boat. Let’s not kid ourselves: most these athletes probably weren’t offered a place at Oxford because of their academic prowess. Do you think that 3 people in last years Varsity boat all just happen to have an interest in management research, or is there perhaps something about the degree and about the way in which these people passed Oxford’s stringent entry requirements that prompted them to choose it?
I obviously know the argument for letting athletes of this calibre into our University; while they get a Masters of some description for their year here, they give back to the University, be it in the form of coaching, prestige or just simply success. I’m sure that those of the opinion that this type of recruitment is a good thing will point to the fact that Oxford has a long tradition of sporting excellence in certain fields, and this is just adding to that history.

But is it not tarnishing our reputation in some ways? Oxford has produced many fine rugby players, there’s no doubt. People such as Stewart Barnes have gone on to represent England. But this was in the days when professionalism in sport was nowhere near the level it is now. Players of the quality of Barnes nowadays would be going straight into the premiership, skipping out university entirely. Now the only way we can get players of the same standard is pick them up after their illustrious careers have ended. Why has Oxford produced so few footballers of note? Maybe because football has been professional for much longer than rugby; perhaps we should accept that sport itself has moved on. Although some may point to America as a place where the best talent in the country is courted by universities, we must remember that this is because, in sports such as American football, the draft system means that these athletes wouldn’t be able to make it as a professional without the development with which college athletics provides them. That is not the case here. Watching the boat race last year, it was hard to empathise with the Oxford team, a mix-match of various world championship competitors, all but one of them on a one year course, perhaps killing time after not making their respective Olympic squads. How is the average student to relate to these people? We won! Fantastic! But does that prove we’re better at sport than Cambridge, or just better at recruiting?

The ultimate goal for anyone taking part in sport at this university is a Blue. This policy of trying to lure the best talent possible with promises of easy qualifications and special treatment surely has a detrimental effect on the undergraduates who strive to reach the top of Oxford sport. Granted, there are several undergraduates in the OURFC squad, and they are performing very well, but what can you imagine would be said to an aspiring hooker with hopes of appearing at Twickenham? Probably something along the lines of “sorry mate, we’ve got the most capped All Blacks hooker of all time, good luck in the second team”.

What we have now is Oxford and Cambridge operating a form of ringer system in the blue ribbon sports. It’s the playground equivalent of someone getting their big brother and his mates to play in a kick around. These teams do not reflect the Oxford student population as a whole. How many of the Blues rowers do you see down at Park End on a Wednesday? And if they do not represent the university, if the university has no real affinity with them, then what is the point? The recruitment process for these top sports is essentially just a free meal ticket for retired pros and idle world champions, with a degree in management research at the end of it.

Sean Lennon: For

Now this isn’t what I’m here to argue, but to say that all these sportsmen are academically inferior is frankly a myth. Pretty much all of these supposedly suspicious sportsmen have sterling backgrounds.

OUBC President Colin Smith, for example, this year a silver medallist in Beijing, has a degree from St Catz. Nick Brodie, 2008’s victorious Boat Race cox, completed his undergraduate degree in Geography in Oxford, and a whole host of the others have degrees from institutes as prestigious as Yale, Harvard and Imperial. Even Anton Oliver, former New Zealand rugby star turned blue, not only possesses a degree from his home in Otago but also openly aired concerns that he was accepted into Oxford for his rugby prowess alone. Notably, it is reported that such concerns were dismissed by the admissions tutors.

Yet like I said, that’s not what I’m here to argue. Frankly, I don’t actually care what degrees the elite sportsmen of Oxford are pursuing. This is after all a sports column, and what matters is that these lambasted individuals are elite sportsmen. Universities (yes, even the creaking halls of Oxford and Cambridge) are centres of sporting excellence across the globe, no matter how much that annoys academics. In America, they are the foundation for professional basketball and American football, while at home Loughborough can be seen as a sporting academy for anything from athletics to cricket.

Why then are we supposedly immune from this worldwide trend? Academic snobs may scoff, but Oxford is inarguably a centre for all manner of sporting excellence from athletics, to rugby, and to, of course, rowing.

In this last category, our influence is not just current, but historic; the boat race has been a feature of the British sporting calendar for well over a hundred years. It is numbered alongside such milestone events as the Grand National as one with its terrestrial TV rights protected to keep it in the public eye. Clearly then, the Boat Race is as much of an institution to Oxford as college sport is in America. With this in mind what exactly do the naysayers propose? To restrict Oxford sporting entry to British undergraduates? Rubbish. The standard of rowing would fall catastrophically, and what was once an Oxford tradition would plummet to the depths of mediocrity.

Yet in no way do the benefits end here. Allowing the top sportsmen from across the globe to compete for Oxford can only be beneficial for other sporstmen. How much will the current rugby squad be learning from the professionalism and experience of Anton Oliver, or the current crop of British oarsmen from Olympic medallist Colin Smith? The evidence is indeed in the results. Just last week OURFC took a professional outfit, Worcester Warriors, to pieces, while previous young British rowers such as Smith himself, Andy Triggs-Hodge and Tom James have gone on to great heights after having rowed with the best at Oxford. Really, those with the most vehement complaints are those who can’t make the squad, but to be honest, if they aren’t good enough, they might as well go home.

Aside from the sheer standard of the sport, does it not fill the rest of us as spectators with pride at the brilliance of our sports teams? Not only is the Boat Race watched by millions worldwide, but our rugby and football Varsity games are played in professional grounds. The rugby is at Twickenham on Sky Sports One, for God’s sake! I’m sure very few of the massive crowd cheering on our boaties to an enormous win over the Tabs this year really cared who was in the boat. With the college system being so divisive, something has to fill us with communal pride and the brilliance of our sports teams is largely it.

So for tradition, sporting class and communal pride, lay aside your complaints and get behind our star sportsmen, because at the end of the day, doesn’t everybody just love to win?

Interview: Ross Biestmen

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How has training been going? Is there a good team spirit?

Training is going very well. We have been working very hard to build a strong team and team spirit and morale is high. There is a general attitude around the club that every player is concentrated on constant performance improvement and a genuine determination to succeed.

What is a typical day in the life a rugby blue?

I am reading for an MSc in Management Research so mornings start early with breakfast and time in the library, then classes, followed by a strength and conditioning session. Training begins in the early evening. Following training I usually head over to Tesco so I can cook a big meal. Then it’s back to the books and off to bed to do it all over again.

What’s the level like, having played most of your rugby in America?

The standard here at Oxford is amongst the highest I have ever had the privilege to be a part of. Rugby in America is still growing with most of the youth still concentrated on other sports.

You’ve had a good start to the season. What do you put this down to?

Our undefeated record is testament to the team’s dedication in pre-season and work in between matches. What’s great is that the players and staff are not satisfied with just a victory on the scoreboard. The entire team will dissect the game-film and learn from mistakes made and how to capitalize in the next match.

Has Anton Oliver been a positive influence on the team?

First and foremost, Anton is a great teammate. Not only does he have the ability to have great moments in the game, he also helps us all become better students of the game. Anton has brought almost 15 years of elite level professional experience to the team. But you realize that he is another teammate trying to earn a degree and play rugby for one of the world’s most elite Universities, just like the rest of us.

Do you think the widespread use of graduates at the top of

Oxford sport is unfair on aspiring undergraduate sportsmen?
I enjoy the fact that graduates have the opportunity to continue playing with OURFC. By the same token, it does build some competition for spots on the field. What is great about OURFC is that selection is based on merit, giving every player an opportunity to earn a spot.

Do you fancy your chances in Varsity?

We are improving every week as a team with a Varsity victory in December as the final goal.

 

Review: All Roads Lead to Rome

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All Roads Lead to Rome is yet another attempt to put a new twist on Shakespeare’s classics. However this time it actually works.

This original combination of Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra focuses on the two pairs of ‘star-cross’d lovers’, drawing out the romance and tragedy seen in both plays. Charged with sexual tension the passion of the two couples is the dominant theme throughout the production, with the chemistry between Matt Maltby and Charlotte Norris, as Romeo and Juliet, especially believable. While the panting breaths and groping hands can seem slightly overindulgent at times, the overall impression of great love, and lust, is portrayed effectively by the cast. Culminating in a beautiful orchestrated final scene, which simultaneously depicts the famous final moments of each pair of lovers, the audience is left with a powerful impression of the terrible fates that befall them.

The star of the show was Alex Bowles, who offered a very accomplished performance as the conflicted and troubled Antony, torn between his love for Rome and for Cleopatra. Not only this, but Bowles also provides able portrayals of his additional characters in the Romeo and Juliet, making a particularly good Friar Lawrence. However, it was this use of only the 4 central cast members to play all parts that led to the key weakness of the play. While this restricted cast was the correct choice as far as direction was concerned, unfortunately not all the actors were able to switch between characters convincingly, with Maltby’s Octavius Caesar, in particular, leaving something to be desired.

In their primary characters, however, the casting is excellent. Ellen Buddle manages to tackle the complexities of Cleopatra’s discordant character, capturing her grand yet at many times histrionic manner well. While Charlotte Norris, as Juliet, seemed rather tense at times the youthful, helpless love between her character and Matt Maltby’s Romeo is portrayed wonderfully, although perhaps with a little less naivety than other productions!

The fusion between plays is achieved successfully, with effective use made of both lighting and props to signal shifts from one scene to the next. Proficient direction, from Will Maynard, meant some complex jumps and synchronizations between plays were achieved effortlessly, drawing out dual themes, without losing track of the separate plots.

Overall ‘All Roads Lead to Rome’ was an interesting, innovative and most of all enjoyable production. Despite only lasting an hour it manages to bring out the key elements of two of Shakespeare’s classic plays, and will leave you with a powerful impression of the heartbreaking endings of these two doomed love affairs.

4 Stars

 

Accidental Death of an Anarchist

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Burton Taylor Studio
4h Week, Tuesday 4 November – Saturday 8 November, 7.30pm

Whenever I go to see a piece of political theatre or theatre with some political implications – be it Antigone or Julius Caesar – I cringe at the thought that the director might forcibly update it to some big political issue of the day, be it CCTV cameras, the ASBO generation, or (in most cases) American foreign policy. Luckily, this time-neutral production of Accidental Death of an Anarchist promises to earn its merit relying mainly upon the play’s comedic brilliance, and leaving the spectator free to make any links to our present situation on her own.

The play is probably the best known by the Nobel laureate Dario Fo. It is based on a real event in 1969, when an anarchist protester, accused of being involved in a bombing massacre previously that year, died in police custody, falling to his death from a fourth story window of a police station in Milan. By the time Fo wrote the play the truth was emerging: the attack was in fact committed by the Italian far-right in a ‘red terror-esque’ scheme aimed at placing blame upon the politically emergent communists. Fo uses a pointed mix of farce and absurdity to expose the alleged complicity of the police and state in the affair.
A Maniac (Johnny Rhodes) is a prisoner held at the station, who manages to convince the policemen that he is a magistrate investigating the eponymous accidental death. As the policemen bend over backwards to explain the increasingly incriminating evidence the Maniac produces, the humour of the resulting situations ranges from the superintendent telling “What’s bad about a dead baby” jokes to pure slapstick, such as the loss of a glass eye, which is then slipped on. This production exploits the grotesque potential superbly: there are false limbs aplenty and we even get a full Scooby Doo style chase at one point.

The play’s attack on the authoritarian understructures of modern politics may feel a bit black-and-white at times. The characters are neatly divided into ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’, with a dogged, “democracy-loving” journalist on one side and a pack of corrupt cops on the other. Still, this modern classic contains some cutting material, which is excellently conveyed by Polar Bear’s production.

4 Stars

 

First Night: The Last Train Out of Here

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Written and directed by Helen McCabe, The Last Train Out of Here is a brand new script which seeks to explore familial relationships and an intricate love triangle as they reach their climax in one emotionally charged night. Except they don’t quite.

Set in a small town in East Lancashire, the play explores the relationship of two brothers, Rob (Andrew Bottomley) and Sam (Tom Bishop), and their new step-sister Nikki (Prudence Buxton), while articulating Rob’s overwhelming desire to escape from a town where he doesn’t belong and break out into the real world. Things are further complicated by Rob’s feelings for Nikki, who he has been sleeping with for the past month, and the revelation that it is in fact his brother that she is in love with. Throw the discovery of letters between Rob and Sam’s parents which make the boys familiar with past events they had been oblivious to into the mix, and it is hardly surprising that the play ends with a dramatic confrontation and suicide attempt.

Prudence Buxton gave a strong performance as Nikki, while both boys tended to fall flat at times. Part of the problem was a lack of chemistry between the characters, although this became less apparent as the play went on. The relationship of older and younger brother was stretched too far at times, with Andrew Bottomly an overly awkward, ‘good’ older brother, and Tom Bishop rather too petty and childish as the younger brother. However, the heart-to-heart of the final scene revealed both as good actors able to capture with poignancy their characters’ struggles with identity.

The last scene was certainly strong, but would have been more powerful if there had been a clearer build-up of tension. Instead, much of the beginning of the play seems to focus upon the three teenagers arguing simply for the sake of portraying the clichéd ‘dysfunctional family’ backdrop upon which the play clearly depends. The script is also sloppy at times, repeating details which we have already been told. And the box from which the revelatory love letters were produced could have done with being bigger, to make the audience believe that they had been concealed at the bottom. These may seem minor points, but the proximity of the audience to the actors in the BT make details like this extremely visible. Aside from this point, however, the set was very good and the staging well choreographed.

It is subject matter which has been treated before, but this did not make McCabe’s script less honest. Although melodramatic at times, it was also a powerful exploration into many of the difficulties which teenagers grapple with in their private lives. Enjoyable may not be the right word to describe a play which was hardly cheerful, but it was compelling. And as an audience member commented at the end, ‘That’s just like a scene out of my house,’ suggesting that elements of McCabe’s portrayal resonated with us all.

3 Stars

 

Somerville-Jesus Ball cancelled

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Somerville College has been forced to cancel the proposed Somerville-Jesus Ball following the resignation of their Bursar over the long vacation.

Students were informed that given that Jesus College did not have the capacity to hold a Ball and that Somerville only had a temporary replacement for their departed Bursar, the event would have to be postponed until the following year, 2010.

A third-year who wished to remain anonymous said, “It’s heart-breaking but I understand why the college has had to make this decision”.

 

Palin for feminism?

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Palin fever has enthralled both voters and non-voters around the world, inspiring vehement hatred or fervent devotion. Her shock nomination as VP left ‘feminists’ with a dilemma; support her because she’s a woman and all that represents in terms of ‘progress’, or not, due to her beliefs which hardly support women.

Feminism retains its position as an easy slur, although is re-branding its image. Defined as a belief in equal rights and opportunities for men and women, aren’t we all feminists? The spotlight today is on ‘Sex And The City’ feminism; demonstrating that woman can do it all, and look great, therefore not stifling their femininity. Questions about their political priorities aside, recent revelations that the Republican Party spent $150,000 on Palin’s wardrobe demonstrate the extent to which women are judged on their appearance and thus society’s expectations.

Sarah Palin is a self-proclaimed feminist, although has since refused to ‘label’ herself as such. However, Ann Friedman, a prominent journalist has commented of her, “a woman candidate is not the same thing as a woman’s candidate.” Will Palin represent woman and their agenda? More to the point, should she? Her fierce anti-abortion stance or legislating to make women pay for their rape test kits in Alaska hardly improves the lives of women as human beings, let alone ‘advancing progress’. This lack of focus on women’s issues, has secured her widespread criticism from feminists in the US. However, that not what she’s there for. Feminist groups may criticize any candidate for not advancing their issues, but simply because she’s a woman, this shouldn’t be her job, it should be to promote policies that are best for the nation.

As a role model she shows that women can pursue a career successfully and have a family, integral to feminist beliefs. While some believe her gender will garner the Republicans votes, her ill-informed answers and indecision on policy are more likely to disaffect voters. Or at least I’d like to think so. Her overt sexuality also seems to be winning over voters, traditionally seen as anti-feminist on the grounds of objectification. Is it important how she makes it to the top? Or chiefly that a woman does, increasing society’s acceptance of it.

Perhaps her greatest contribution to feminists is the re-inspiration of the debate surrounding feminism, no longer an issue exclusively reserved for liberals. Her ‘female agenda’ reduces to, in her words, “No woman should have to choose between her career, education and child.” A conservative woman in a leading position in one of the most conservative organizations could just indicate shared values and irrelevance of gender as an issue.

Floods strike Wadham rooms

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Three finalists at Wadham have been forced to move rooms after their accomodation was struck by sudden flooding on Thursday night.

The students suffered extensive damage to their personal property after warm water started pouring into their rooms through the ceiling. Wadham’s JCR kitchen and laundry room also suffered some damage, and the college’s fire alarm system was affected by the deluge.

The exact cause of the flooding is as yet unknown. However, plumbing work was being carried out on the hot water system on the affected staircase on Thursday afternoon. The water appeared to be falling from the attic at the top of the staircase and completely soaked through two floors to reach rooms as far down as the first floor of the building.

“Water falling from the ceiling over my bed”

One of the students whose room was flooded said, “I first noticed the flooding when I heard what I thought was a tap that I had left on in my bedroom. I looked around and saw that there was a quick stream of water falling from the ceiling over my bed.

“Within half an hour, there was hot water falling from all the corners of my room. The atmosphere was like a tropical rainforest. I managed to move most of my valuables out of the room, but the people living above me, who weren’t in their rooms at the time, weren’t so lucky.

“College staff have been very apologetic, but it’s still a massive inconvenience to have to move all my stuff to a different college where I don’t know anyone and to have to get all my clothes and bedding laundered and dry-cleaned.”

Two of the students have been moved to new rooms on college premises. However, since there were no free rooms for finalists on the Wadham main site, the third has been relocated to nearby New college until the flooded rooms have been repaired.

Wadham has offered to pay damage costs and compensation to all three students whose rooms were affected.

This disruption to Wadham college life comes as building work continues all over the college, causing noisy drilling, scaffolding over the college’s front quad and a shortage of rooms for students and tutors.