The Cuppers competition upto this point has been unpredictable and as we head towards the semi-final stage we can recap on what has happened thus far in the tournament and also look ahead towards the final matches.
Last year’s finalists, Queen’s, have put up a strong challenge thus far, with a confident victory over Brasenose getting their challenge off to a good early start.

Perhaps the most impressive achievement in the tournament has, however, been that of Worcester who have got two teams through to the quarter finals. The first squad was tipped to make that stage, and victories over Wadham, Wolfson and Magdalen proved those predictions to be correct. The victory against Magdalen was particularly notable given the strength of their opponents; McTaggart and Thompson had proved a great doubles’ combination.
However for Worcester seconds to progress so far has been something of a revelation. A victory over an understrength Exeter side was perhaps expected but to beat the tradtionally strong New College in the last 16 was certainly a turn up for the books.

Looking ahead to the final stages there are three teams that stand out.
Last year’s winners St Catz have looked strong so far as they cantered to a series of victories; don’t bet aginst.
Queen’s also look a strong force with a squad of Carpenter, Grainger, Bowden, Hazzard and Pickles a match for anyone.

However Worcester 1 look to be the best pick as they have the deepest squad and having failed to mount a strong challenge last year they will be keen to impress in 2007’s competition.
Although the weather hasn’t helped this year, watch out for cuppers to dominate the end of term.Stuart Williamson

When ten Aboriginal men go off on a fishing trip, it becomes apparent that a young man has taken a fancy to another man’s wife. Her husband starts to tell him a tale: ‘A long, long time ago…a story far before long ago. Before we can remember.’ The black and white film blurs into colour as we embark upon a tale of two brothers’ love for the same woman. As the narrator puts it, it is a tale of ‘too many words, but not enough women’. This conflict over a woman leads to confrontation with another tribe in which a stranger is murdered. The upholding of tribal law, revenge, courage, love, and loss are all invoked in the course of the conflict. The story is simple, and told simply, but with a humour and emotional power that belies its naiveté. The director makes effective use of juxtaposed shots; sweeping panoramas of Northern Australian landscape cut suddenly to a close-up of the swollen belly of a naked young woman. Different languages reinforce this sense of contrast as the narrator speaks in English, but the actors in various local dialects; in fact, this is the first feature-length film in an indigenous Aboriginal language.

One hundred and fifty spears, ten canoes, three wives…trouble’ reads the film’s tagline, and when it gets it right the story is just that – funny and affecting. These funny moments are somewhat undermined as the sub-titles often reveal yet another melodramatic and doom-ridden epithet. Also, the director’s attempt to make a film which satisfies both local tastes and a Western cinema-going audience’s proclivities can stall it in platitudes and politically correct snapshots. Its greatest asset is David Gulpilil as its narrator, whose lively and witty voice-overs fully exploit the comic scenes. The film attempts to explore Aboriginal culture and beliefs, where we came from, why we’re here and where we’re going using local tribal people whose first ‘acting’ attempts are spot on. For a patient viewer, the film is a powerful exploration of Australia’s cultural heritage.

1 June
Renoir, Barbican,
Key Cities
Lucy Karsten
 
 

Catz came into their Cuppers quarter-final fixture against Trinity with a rather weakened side compared to the winning combination that secured Cuppers Victory at the beginning of term.

Not only the no.1 player, Blues’ Tim Weir, but also Matt Brooke-Hitching and Vadim Varvarim were unable to take their place in the 1st VI due to finals.
Outrageous weather conditions and nasty post-Summer Eights hangovers were a tough combination for both teams to deal with, but they braved it out, showing their commitment to Cuppers, making it onto the Catz/Trinity courts at 9.30am.

Play was possible due to the surprisingly good drainage of the courts which meant that the playing surface was not impinged upon too significantly and so conditions for the players were not too dangerous under foot.

Having the advantage of a bye in the first round, Catz had knocked Somerville out of the competition with a convincing win. With two years of Cuppers glory behind them, they approached the match with confidence.
Trinity had not been so lucky, with a tougher road to the quarters, but Oriel and Teddy Hall had both been defeated en route, so the squad were in high spirits and, more importantly, on an excellent run of form.
In the 1st round, Catz’ 2nd pair, comprised of Captain Alex Iltchev and Ryan Taylor, began with a solid victory against Trinity’s 3rds (Horatio Cary and Sian Roberts), only dropping 2 games.

The Catz top two Luke Reeve-Tucker and Lukasz Schachic met their match in Andy Luke and Russ Jackson, the Trinity 1st pair, with strong serving and some great doubles play from both sides.

Catz’ consistency paid off however, resulting in a close 6-4, 7-5 win which put Catz 4-0 up overall.
In the Second Round, Reeve-Tucker and Schlachic overwhelmed Trinity 3rds in little time, whereas for Iltchev and Taylor the game wasn’t so easy. The pair valiantly fought back from being 2-4 down in each set to draw level and eventually produced a shock 2-0 win against Trinity 1sts.

Being 8-0 up meant that only 2 more sets were needed to secure passage into the semi-finals for Catz.
Trinity were not willing to concede without a fight however, and the Trinity 2nd pair, Oli Plant and Captain Matt Johnston, played up to their opposition in the Catz 1sts and managed to halve the match. Catz’ 3rd pair, Jaroslav Broz and Peter Roberts, were under pressure to perform to secure victory for the defending champions, but they lost the vital fixture against the stronger Trinity 3rds.

Returning to the courts, having assumed the win after good play early on, Iltchev and Taylor came up trumps and produced some faultless shotmaking to take the first set against Plant and Johnston, securing Catz a place in the Semi-Finals with a dominant victory.

With finalists coming to the end of exams and the promise of some more tennis-suited sunshine in June, Catz’ prospects look good, with promise of a third Cuppers victoy.

They will face Worcester I in the semi-finals, who have paved their way to the semis in convincing style.
For Trinity, the season looks all but over, but with good young players in their ranks they will be confident of mounting a more serious cuppers challenge next year.
Alex Iltchev

This is not a work of art,” announces Czech surrealist Jan Švankmajer in the prologue to his 2005 film Lunacy. “It is a horror film … an infantile tribute to Edgar Allen Poe.” It’s also a philosophical allegory juxtaposing absolute freedom and repressive authoritarianism. It follows Jean Berlot, a young man suffering a recurrent nightmare in which two menacing hospital orderlies force him into a straitjacket to be taken away by a mysterious Marquis (based on the infamous Marquis de Sade). Appalled by the blasphemous, sado-masochistic orgy to which he is witness, Jean attempts to leave but only becomes more deeply entangled in the Marquis’ perverted games. Poe fans will recognize The Premature Burial in this first half, while the second, based on The System of Dr Tarr and Professor Fether, moves the action into the madhouse which is Švankmajer’s vision of the human condition.
This bipartite structure is only part of the film’s resistance to a single action. Immersion in plot and character is impeded by a series of deliberate anachronisms calculated to remind us that the story, set in early 19th century France, is actually an allegory of the modern world. The action is also punctuated by stop-motion animation in which human flesh comes to life in variously grotesque and comic sequences.

This is not horror in the usual sense. The range of responses it demands goes far beyond heart palpitations and seat-gripping. Overtly philosophical dialogue prompts intellectual engagement with the problems of individual freedom, but this is complicated by the appeal of individual characters. Pavel Liška’s Jean is by turns appealingly sensitive and frustratingly gormless, while Anna Geislerová intrigues as seductress Charlota. The piece is, however, dominated by the erratic energies of Jan Toiska’s Marquis. As the action progresses it is both increasingly farcical and menacing, with much more at stake than Jean’s future. The refusal to cordon off a generic realm to which violence and madness can be restricted makes the film horrifying in a deeper sense, as Švankmayer harnesses the powers of the gothic and grotesque for his disturbing political fable. Entangled in a mess of contradictory impulses and responses, with each potential avenue towards a solution closed off, the audience is left, like Jean, in a mental straitjacket.

While the ambitiousness of the film is largely successful, the animated sequences which play such an integral role in Švankmajer’s earlier works here verge on incongruity. Initially fun and satisfying in an “infantile tribute to Poe” kind of way, they become tedious and fail to mesh meaningfully with the main fabric. But this is a minor glitch in a captivating film – despite its intellectual and artistic baggage, it is consistently surprising, frequently repulsive, and often funny. Whether or not it’s a work of art, it’s anything but dull.

1 -14 June
BFI Southbank
Laura Bridgestock
 
 

What’s love got to do with it? Emma Bernstein on the gurus who would guide you to the perfect pickup
You might expect that the art of seduction had changed since 1 BC, but you would be mistaken. Thanks to Ovid’s Ars Amatoria, published that year, the Roman was well schooled in all manner of sly tips and tricks, which bear more than a passing resemblance to those proposed by today’s praeceptores amoris. But there’s a difference. Whereas the scandalous advice of the Ars Amatoria caused a sensation (rivalled only by a certain birth the following year) and resulted in Ovid’s extradition to the Black Sea, nowadays, the authors of dating manuals can enjoy the reverence and gratitude of their lonely-hearted readership. Undoubtedly the most notorious of the numerous guides to seduction is Neil Strauss’ 450-page tome, The Game: Undercover in the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, which has achieved cult status among its lovelorn disciples.

This is no simple, step-by-step instruction manual for the wannabe lothario. Rather, the book chronicles Strauss’ initiation into the “seduction community” and his transformation from a “formless lump of nerd” into his alter-ego, Style, the “master pickup artist”. Here, seduction is a field dominated by professional predators, relying upon mind control, hypnosis and persuasion techniques. Lest there be any doubt as to the credentials of The Game, Strauss’ own proficiency is confirmed when an incautious Britney Spears gives him her number.

One seduction method beloved of the pickup artist is ‘negging’, which is “to actively demonstrate a lack of interest in a beautiful woman by making an ambiguous statement, insulting her in a way that appears accidental, or offering constructive criticism”. Whilst it beggars belief that classic ‘negs’ such as “you look great – are you wearing make-up?” would melt hearts, ‘negging’ apparently has the dual effect of empowering the pickup artist and making the woman vulnerable. Other methods of seduction rely upon neuro-linguistic programming, “a form of waking hypnosis”, which uses repeated mesmerising hand movements and “flirtatious hypnospeak”. Yet its amoral techniques and nouveau jargon have only served to increase the allure of The Game, whether as a glimpse into a fascinatingly sordid enterprise or as a guide to follow with religious fervour.

However, in terms of sheer notoriety, a serious contender to The Game comes in the unlikely form of The Rules – Time-tested secrets for capturing the heart of Mr Right, its exact opposite in every way. Where The Game uses advanced mind-control and invented terminology, The Rules espouses the traditional approach, and is bloated on its own self-hype. The two authoresses assure readers that they too can “make Mr Right obsessed with having you as his by making yourself seem unattainable”, by  simply following their 35 rules. Their credentials are all in the book’s dedication: “to our wonderful husbands”. Quasi-scientific justification is offered for women playing hard to get; “men are born to respond to a challenge” and that “biologically he’s the aggressor”.

Can a “good marriage” really be based upon such superficial rules? Women are advised that “if you have a bad nose, get a nose job”, are told to limit phone calls to ten minutes and to end the date first. The publications of The Rules had feminists up in arms, but the authors argue that their empowering methods enable every women to get what she wants, namely “a marriage truly made in heaven”.

 It remains to be considered whether the approaches of these two very different books get results.

As we near the end of another Oxford year, I met up with Paul Arrich to look back on his time as Oxide Radio Station Manager.  Paul’s first words on his term as Oxide’s main man was that it was “very hectic”. Nevertheless, for all the hustle and bustle that accompanies the position Paul still looks back with a great deal of fondness.

Before running for Station Manager Paul had always told me that there were many changes and improvements he wanted to instigate. A year on I was curious to know how the reality of the situation corresponded to his original vision. Paul said that there were a lot of things that he would have dearly liked to have achieved but that part of being Station Manager was reconciling yourself with the necessity of compromise.

However, Paul still cites with great pride the relocation of the Oxide studio from a dark, little (and, I would like to add, sweltering) cupboard to a spacious well-equipped room on the top floor of the OUSU building. He also claims that this year has seen the complete revamp of the Oxide website and the remodelling of Oxide as something of a brand name through posters, an array of Facebook groups, and even Oxide Apparel in the form of a particularly garish red t-shirt which I have been known to wear proudly to many a glowsticked Nu-Rave affair.

Even though there are only a few weeks left of the year, Paul is not taking his foot off the accelerator – straight after the interview he was heading for OUSU council to oversee a crucial vote on a separate constitution for Oxide. If passed it would, among other things, guarantee the station complete editorial independence. This would allow it to have whichever guests it wants, thereby avoiding a recurrence of the messy situation in Hilary when, under its no-platform policy, OUSU prevented Nick Griffin, leader of BNP, from appearing on a topical politics show.  

So what does the future hold? Paul’s aim for the coming weeks is to conduct a series of interviews in search of his successor, something he looks forward to with both relief and regret. However, he will not be leaving Bonn Square behind entirely as he has been elected JCR Affiliations Officer for New College. Somewhat surprised, I asked Paul if he thought he might be a little in love with OUSU, to which he reacted as most self-respecting  20 year old males would. He baulked at the thought, realised the violence of his reaction, then laughed it off seeking refuge in semantics; “Well, love’s a strong word!”

More often spotted balancing his cello on the back of a bike, softly-spoken music student Duncan Strachan is lesser known as the front-man of this nine piece indie-folk collective, based at Catz during term time and found touring the highlands and islands of Scotland in the Vac. Bringing together endowed feminists, hippie mothers, maths lovers, ex-choristers and prospective poets, The Pagans are, in folkloric terms, a witches’ brew of magical musical potions. And collectively, they’ve stuck their greedy little fingers in every kind of musical pie that Oxford has to offer – from running a regular club night “Indulgence” to playing for the Oxford University Orchestra.
The line-up – nine people, twelve opinions, according to Strachan – features a core of guitars and the bell-like tones of the Fender Rhodes piano, balanced with more traditional acoustic instruments such as fiddles, saxophone and clarinet. The similarity of forces begs comparision with the quasi-theatrical instrumentals of chamber pop bands such as Arcade Fire or Broken Social Scene but The Pagans sit just as easily with acid/freak-folk like Animal Collective or Joanna Newsom. Cruising atop the instrumental forces, vocals from Siobhan Wilson and Strachan on Standing on the Threshold take the tenderness of Vashti Bunyan or Newsom but forgo child-like fragility in favour of an edgy intensity, pushing their ranges to the limit.

I’m keen to understand how Strachan squares his tutorials in baroque counterpoint and techniques of composition with song-writing for a completely different genre. He’s keen to explain that although borrowing tone rows from the second Viennese school can help to create a structure for an album which links the sound-world of each piece – less an explanation than a further layer of bafflement – these sort of techniques are only used to guide and not to restrict the creative process, which places equal emphasis on composition and improvisation. With four composers contributing songs, they’re not above using themes to create an overall character. The Pagans’ forthcoming album ‘Witches,’ which will be released on their own fledgling record label ‘Heretical,’ is a concept album based on Celtic Folkore. Reminiscent of Fairport Convention’s ‘Tam Lin,’ ‘Witches’ goes beyond old-style folk narratives by underlining ballads with Debussyian modal harmonies layered with footstomping drums.

Whether it’s the effect of quality library time with books on post-modern musicology or not, The Pagans aren’t content to be just a band about town. Duncan fills me in on their forays into film, politics and amateur music therapy. “Using Shostakovich’s 8th quartet, symbolic of a voice speaking out from under Soviet oppression, we made it into the local papers for performing outside the Chinese Embassy in Edinburgh in protest against their treatment of the Falun Gong.” Nice. Other projects include an album investigating environmentalism and performing in a Nativity play with autistic children.

Having supported Scotland’s leading exponents of Celtic fusion, The Peatbog Faeries, and post-punk London scensters Revere, who are soon to be featured in an MTV documentary, The Pagans’ potential fans seem to sit amongst crossover-classical, jazz, folk-indie or alternative pop listeners. However, what really drives them is the spirit of Prog-rock; the will to experiment and fuse ideas together melded with social ambition. Strachan claims that “Even when we’ve got a sound we love, we don’t want to stay in the same place.”
www.myspace.com/scotlandpagans
 Ottwell Bab

His legal advice greenlighted Britain’s most controversial foreign adventure since Suez. Kate Greasley talks to the attorney general on justifying Iraq 
 He is the man whose legal advice facilitated the invasion of Iraq. Lord Peter Goldsmith, attorney general since 2001, presented his final memorandum to the government on 17 March 2003 concluding that the proposed use of force in Iraq was lawful. This sparked the ignition for a war which has lasted over four years, claiming the lives of 146 British troops and an estimated 15-30,000 Iraqi civilians, not to mention billions of pounds in government funding. As the government's original grounds for war have been revealed to be shaky, the role of Lord Goldsmith has been portrayed as less impartial legal adviser, more puppet under the sway of the political pressures which led to Britain's most disastrous foreign foreign policy entanglement since the Suez crisis.

 At a time when Tony Blair was attempting to galvanise Parliament into action over Iraq with frenzied claims that Saddam Hussain was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the release of Goldsmith’s advice – which affirmed the legal validity of war on the basis that Iraq had committed a ‘material breach’ of ceasefire agreements according to UN Resolution 1441 – was just the boost Blair needed. Since then, the infamous WMD must have been hit with a paralysing bout of stage-fright, for they never made their allotted appearance. The void left by the absence of Blair’s only firm platform for an invasion was deeply felt. While Blair faced accusations of engineering fake grounds to enter an unjustified war, Goldsmith was demonised as a Blairite puppet.

All rather sensational for a man who has spent most of his career dusting off cases in the archives of commercial law and promoting pro bono work for the poor and legally under-represented. In fact, the first thing that strikes me about Lord Goldsmith is just how disassociated he seems to be from the nuances of political spin and scandal. Straight-laced and serious, he has a firm but fair headmaster rapport: perfectly docile so long as you keep your shirt tucked in, but you wouldn’t want him to catch you having a fag behind the bike sheds. His speech is candid and economical, without much embellishment or hyperbole. I wonder if it is these qualities that have enabled him to adjust to such a highly politicised position from a place of relative inexperience.

He adamantly rebuts any implication of political naivety. “I knew quite a bit about public life before I joined the Government”, he maintains, before reeling off a CV of international conventions, organisations and associations that would impress even the most consummate political nerds. Goldsmith certainly seems to have made an almost seamless transition from the world of the wigs to the world of politics, helped along by his long-standing affiliation with the Labour Party. After a successful career at the bar following his degree from Cambridge, he was appointed a Labour life peer in 1999 before his promotion to attorney general in 2001.

Nevertheless, the ruthlessly public nature of political office will eventually take its toll, and in February this year Lord Goldsmith became the latest in a long line of executive members to get stung when the Mail on Sunday reported that he had been having an extra-marital affair with Kim Hollis, Britain’s first Asian QC. “There obviously are big differences and the public spotlight is one of them,” he says.

Yet whatever snipes can be made at Lord Goldsmith, passivity on the job is certainly not one of them. As the leading mouthpiece for legal issues in Britain he has argued forcefully on an array of legal and political topics, ranging from anonymity for the offenders in the James Bulger murder case to the closure of U.S detention camp Guantanamo Bay. He has recently welcomed controversial recommendations by the Law Commission to move manslaughter by provocation up a category to second degree murder: “The difference between the ‘least bad murder’ and the worst manslaughter may not be that much of a gap in terms of culpability.”

He strongly defends the incitement to religious hatred laws, eventually forced through by Labour last year after a long-haul legislative crusade. Dismissing any suggestion that such laws will operate to stifle free expression about religion, he is at pains to emphasise the government is in favour of outlawing “hatred of people by reference to their religion, not of the religion itself… It is not the same as a blasphemy law.” Maybe not, but there is something in his unreserved enthusiasm that recalls the distant lashings of the Party whip.

Indeed, for some, this party-political cheerleader impression may seem worlds apart from the man who flew to Washington D.C. in 2003 to scrap with the U.S administration for the fair trial of British detainees in Guantanamo. Speaking about it now, it is apparent that the subject still strikes a chord: “I think that Guantanamo is wrong in principle; I think its wrong in practice. It sends a message that the West stands for injustice when the West really is the one place that stands for justice, tolerance and fairness”.

However, the Guantanamo fiasco pales in comparison to the controversy for which he is currently known and probably will be remembered. Tentatively I broach the subject of Iraq, wondering how he will account for the questions surrounding his legal advice. His answer is that of a man who has been asked this question a thousand times or more: unsearched for, perfectly intoned, yet still somehow convincingly sincere.

“Part of the reason it has been so controversial is simply because the war has been so controversial,” he explains. “People have been deeply disappointed that when the invasion occurred those weapons of mass destruction were not found.” He insists, however, that the scare over WMD was not at all “critical to the legal advice” which recognised the legality of the war on the original basis given by the UN in 1993 in Resolution 687. This authority had “never been cancelled” but “only ever been suspended on condition that Iraq complies with the ceasefire conditions”.

“It never did. And this was confirmed by UN Resolution 1441.” The point he makes is relatively clear: the connection between the alleged WMD and the legality of war in Iraq is merely a misguided illusion that has been cultivated in public opinion. The real ground for war rested on an unrelated UN resolution which preserved its potency and was taken up again in 2003 in what he labels a “revival of original authority”. However assuredly expressed, there is something strained in this testimony which simply doesn’t seem to cohere with the government’s zealous sermonising of the WMD threat in the prelude to war, and his attempt to retrospectively downgrade its relevance to the question of legality doesn’t quite convert me.

What is more, his explanation suggests not only that the invasion was legal, but that it always has been legal ever since 1993 – another  caveat which leaves me slightly incredulous. Then there is the residual question of the curious divergence between the first and second versions of his memorandum which remains unaccounted for and a major source of cynicism about the underlying political forces working the pullies backstage.

Of course, no one views Lord Goldsmith as the bad man in the Iraq affair. You will not find his name smeared indignantly across anti-war posters or working its way into protest chants. Rather, he is characterised more as the weak and wavering subordinate – a kind of Igor to Blair’s Frankenstein.

In person, there does not seem to be much that is weak and wavering about him, and even in the face of my scepticism, I can’t help but believe the sincerity of his conviction about the legality, if not the overall justification, of the government’s decision to go to war. A part of me is even inclined to shrug off some necessary degree of partiality as inevitably bound up with the nature of his position.

The overall impression is that of a progressive, legally astute professional, whose political career, rightly or wrongly, has been eclipsed by the blundering mess that is Iraq. With this in mind I ask him what he would be doing if he hadn’t made a career in law or politics. For the first time in the whole interview he pauses to think, before replying tactfully,

“Enjoying academic life.” Perhaps it is a shame that he isn't.

Ah me, but it’s refreshing to listen to a band with such a varied and distinctive sound. What make this six-piece from Raleigh, North Carolina interesting is that their album consists of such an eclectic mix even within individual songs. Probably the best song on ‘Be He Me’ is the opener, Brother which begins as an ethereal folk ballad, before morphing into a stomping, post-rock Arcade Fire-esque finale, bringing itself to a rather abrupt end.

The album continues, first into sunny pop and then the electronics and experimentalism of Carry Around, an aural union of Air and Gorillaz. Bull and the Goat is The Kinks given a frantic modern edge, while the four tracks that close the US version are all modelled on the acoustic side of ‘The Bends’ era Radiohead. The UK version is given an extra 3 songs. Ease My Mind begins as a dreary acoustic number, until country fiddles appear, whilst River Run juxtaposes an upbeat verse, that sounds like it’s being played on the piano in the saloon of a Western film, with a chorus of mournful crooning over melancholic trumpets. The closer Misty Coy recalls the early electronic experimentation of Pink Floyd. The bonus songs are intriguing, but at 15 tracks and over an hour long, ‘Be He Me’ could do with some trimming.

Annuals have interesting ideas, but their first effort lacks any notable melodies. Strong vocal lines are sometimes sorely lacking, sometimes brilliantly compensated for. Most of all this album shows ambition and promise; in a couple of years, they could be legendary.

Jacob Lloyd

THE OXFORD University Freemasons’ Lodge is at the centre of a national campaign to recruit undergraduates into the organisation.

The 'University Scheme', started by Assistant Grand Master of the Freemasons David Williamson, targets Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Durham, Manchester, Sheffield and Birmingham, in addition to Oxford and Cambridge universities.
The scheme is the result of success by Oxford and Cambridge masonic societies in enlisting students. In a statement, the United Grand Lodge of England said, “Oxford and Cambridge have proved just how popular Freemasonry can be at universities. I hope we can help to make those same wonderful experiences available to more prospective masons.”

Geoffrey Bourne-Taylor, Secretary of the 'Apollo' University Lodge on Banbury Road and former Bursar of St Edmund Hall, said that the organisation took in huge numbers of undergraduates every year. “They come in droves, they're queuing out the door,” he said. “We can barely take in any more than we do already. Around 50 undergraduates join a year, seven to eight are initiated at every meeting.”

Bourne-Taylor said that out of 350 University Lodge members, around 30 were current undergraduates and between 50 and 100 were recent undergraduates.

“We have an awful lot from Brasenose and Christ Church, five to six members from Teddy Hall, and three from Pembroke,” he said.

Bourne-Taylor said that many prominent public figures were active members of the University Lodge, but could not disclose their identity. “I can think of a dozen household names who are still members, who don't come as often as they used to because of public commitments, but they take it [freemasonry] with them.”

To become a Freemason, members must profess a belief in a supreme deity and be prepared to have any criminal convictions scrutinised. Only men may join the University Lodge and be of good character and reputation.
Bourne-Taylor said that entry was open to all, but existing links to members were important. “If your father's a Freemason you've got a head start. If one joins, then the whole rugby team joins.”

The University Lodge allows special privileges for Oxford students, including the opportunity to join at an early age. “The qualifying age for Freemasonry is generally 21 years, but the Lodges of Oxford and Cambridge have the unique distinction of exception from this rule and may initiate members under this age,” its website states. “Members pay half of what normal Freemasons would if they're under 25.”

Chris Connop, spokesman for the National Grand Lodge of England, said that students were attracted to a number of the organisation's moral virtues. “Freemasonry is a positive force in society, it encourages members to be good citizens, to uphold the law, and encourages values of tolerance and understanding. It supports old-fashioned values as a lot of young people find themselves bored with current youth culture. The type of people attracted are usually traditionalists,” he said.
In changing times, it gives them something to get their bearings from. They love the formality, they love the dining, and they love the egalitarianism. Last Saturday we had 110 people at a meeting. It's very convivial, but I've never seen anyone drunk.”
Connop also emphasised the Lodge's charity work, which was undertaken to support the University. “We support the undergraduate hardship fund in the name of the lodge, giving up to £4,000 a year,” he said.

Jenny Hoogewerf-McComb, OUSU Vice-President (Women), said that the all-male nature of the Freemasons made them seem out-dated, but initiatives to involve students suggested positive future changes. “Personally, as a feminist, the concept of all-male networking clubs is a bit old fashioned. This shows that they're changing focus, and might one day admit women.”

Bourne-Taylor responded by defending the all-male nature of the University Lodge. “I think women don't like that sort of thing, it's as simple as that. I think men tend to gravitate towards clubs. There are two Grand Lodges for women, who are fiercely independent,” he said.

Britain has an estimated 270,000 Freemasons and there are around 11 million worldwide. The University Lodge claims to be the oldest University club, founded in 1819 at Brasenose College with the permission of the Vice-Chancellor. Prominent former members include John Radcliffe, Cecil Rhodes and Oscar Wilde. Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and Prince Leopold were former members and Masters of the Lodge.

Obligations are those elements of ritual in which a candidate swears to protect the "secrets of Freemasonry", which are the various signs, tokens and words associated with recognition in each degree with. A person must achieve the title of Master Mason before he is entitled to participate in most activites.