Saturday 18th April 2026
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Matsubara: Lifelines

Mia Simovic
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Matsubara: Lifelines

Dynamic red and orange patterned planes of abstraction framing icy-blue Himalayan skies – Matsubara’s Tibetan Sky B (1987) seems to embody the essence of her exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum. The woodcut, inspired by her visit with her husband to Tibet in 1985, hosts a conversation, one that is sparked by contrasting complexity, pallet and energies evident in her representations of the elaborately decorated monasteries and the palpable coolness and expanse of the landscape beyond.

This dialectic is a recurrent theme throughout her exhibition which displays an assortment of woodcuts; ranging from buildings and figures for book illustrations, to organic forms from over 60 years of artistic endeavor. Yet despite their eclecticism, all images are unified in their invocation of a time, a place, and of the artistic varieties which compose her culture and heritage. Growing up in Kyoto, Matsubara’s father was the head priest at the Kenkun Shrine where she spent much of her childhood and often performed. These formative years are manifested in the pinto figurations of traditional Japanese lifestyles and dwellings, her continual references to landscape and setting, and her desire to marry spiritual and physical beauty. Likewise, each woodcut is mounted on silk panels, reminiscent of Japanese folding screens, suggesting a peripheral connection with her homeland within the typically modernist exhibition space at the Ashmolean.

Beyond geographical influences, the dynamism and diverse subject choices can be traced back to a concert she attended by Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar, whose highly emotional and intimate performance is depicted in a figurative and grey-scale woodcut (1962). This sense of excitement and momentum distinguishes this exhibition; Matsubara’s retrospective is a collection of defining moments catalogued in a series of joyous compositions, but which sensitively allude to wider cultural tropes.

Image: Naoko Matsubara, Foliage A 1992 © Naoko Matsubara. Photo: Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford)

William Blake

William Atkinson
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William Blake

William Blake was never the artist he wanted to be, nor the one we want him to be. As with all the great Romantics, both our view of him and his view of himself are a bit too, well, romantic. The Tate Britain’s new exhibition on him is labelled “Rebel, Radical, Revolutionary”: “an artist for the 21st century”. Blake was a man of his time, but one who made a career out of revolting against it. He didn’t do that because he was some ur-Lenin, a Jeremy Corbyn of 1800 making a career out of countering an ill-defined establishment. No, William Blake was what you might call “a bit of a character”. In layman’s terms, he was bonkers.

I came to Blake as most schoolkids do: the tiger. Plus, seven years at public school meant I had my fair share of singing Jerusalem. But unlike his poetry, Blake’s art has seemed more mysterious to me. Those who know about it will have images in their heads of huge muscle-bound Gods fighting Satanic serpents; or men with big white bushy beards poking life into their world with their fingertips; or swirly, colourful scenes of pretty angels in near-psychedelic environments. It’s like Michelangelo on a bad trip. Often, even, rather terrifying.  

But the Tate’s exhibition sets out to establish Blake’s position as an artist as well as a poet and to chart the whole of his not-inconsiderable career. Confronting you upon entry is his beautiful Albion Rose. It was chosen no doubt because it’s emblematic of his work for the popular imagination. It portrays a serenely powerful nude figure ringed by beautiful colour with their arms open onto the world. Albion is a central character in the complex and unwieldly mythology Blake created – think Tolkien, but less film-friendly – which runs through much of his work. As such, it could be said to be a good start to an exhibition on his life. But it’s also signifies the kind of Blake the exhibition consciously or unconsciously pushes. The figure embodies the liberating power of imagination; this is Blake the free spirit railing against the chains of conformity. This is Blake, implacable opponent of everything from traditional marriage, to contemporary politics, to mainstream Anglicanism. It’s nice that the next picture along is a supposed self-portrait, as the message of the curators is clear: Blake’s a Rebel Rebel, (though his face ain’t a mess).

The impression we actually get is that the vision of Blake as an ‘implacable maverick’ isn’t wholly accurate. Some of the featured work is impressive: I particularly liked watercolours of Joseph and his brothers (despite them lacking a technicolour dream coat) as well as early works based off his mythology. But this sits alongside the jobbery that he produced in order to make a living. In a section entitled “Money”, we see Blake’s commercial engravings. A lot of the information provided is interesting, and fitting for Blake: we’re told of a few of his patrons including the Earl of Egremont’s mistress and Jo Jonson, a noted radical. He also illustrated works by Mary Wollstonecraft whilst working on his more famous watercolours at night. But unfortunately for the Tate, they’ve already inadvertently let the cat out of the bag. The great secret about Blake is clear: he could be just as much of a hack as the rest of us.

Of course, the man had to make a living. But it’s not alone in the exhibition in taking the shine from Blake’s idiosyncratic image. We learn about the role his long-suffering wife Catherine had in assisting with colouring his engravings and finishing his work after he died. For a supposed loner, she was one of many who helped him along his way. The famous collection of aspiring artists that worshipped at his feet when he was going as grey and beardy as his pictures were just the latest in a long line of friends and patrons who, somewhat bemusedly, supported him throughout his life. It begs the question as to why the Tate wants to market the exhibition through Blake’s image as a maverick whilst going so far to undermine it.  

The answer’s simple. The popularised version of Blake that this exhibition seeks to promote is fundamentally revisionist. It’s a product of the 1960s’. Contemporary academics working in the arts and humanities sought to reinvent him as a precursor to one of them; some sort of quasi-hippie, all free love, psychedelic visions and railing against the system. He was an obvious candidate; not only a writer and painter, but a friend of Tom Paine, eulogiser of the American Revolution and author of the theme tune of radicals the length and breadth of England. No public-school classical education a la Wordsworth and Coleridge for Blake; he was the son of a Soho shop-owner but driven by visions and his own force of personality to charge against his qualms at his contemporary society. He was the perfect fit for a generation of artists and curators of the Vietnam, LSD and Woodstock generation. It’s this vision of Blake that the exhibition, rightly or wrongly, tries to push. Creaking under the stubborn refusal of Blake’s actual idiosyncrasy to conform to this model, it almost causes this exhibition to collapse under its own agenda.

Which would be a shame. Not only because it would miss what makes Blake so fascinating, but because it would rob you of the parts of this exhibition that are really worth your time. By that I can only mean Blake’s unique, brilliant and rather terrifying imagination. Yes, there’s a lot here that’s underwhelming. He repeats the same pictures repeatedly and he can’t paint an animal to save his life: the tiger in the original Songs of Experience collection looks more like a cuddly teddy bear.  

But for all that the entry price can still be justified for one room. Coming about three-fifths of the way in, it shows Blake at the peak of his imaginative and artistic abilities. It is wonderful. It features images drawn from Milton, Shakespeare and Blake’s own mythology. There’s Newton charting the world from the bottom of the sea; King Nebuchadnezzar reduced to a mindless animal through his affliction of madness. They are so vivid, so striking and so utterly unique. This is the Blake we want to see: resplendent in his magnificent idiosyncrasy rather than pigeonholed into a political agenda.

The rest of the gallery is peppered with other similarly great works, from his horrifying muscle-bound Ghost of a Flea to a terrifying Cerberus clenching the soul of its victim. A highlight were his representations of the recently deceased (for him) PM William Pitt and Lord Nelson as classical heroes fighting monsters and serpents in a heavenly dreamscape. I can’t see that being done for any recent Prime Minsters, but that’s Blake for you. The only big serpent in the artistic garden is the supremely idiotic choice by the gallery to hang some pictures in a replica of an 1809 exhibition of Blake’s work. Nice in theory, but lamentable in practice; the space is gloomy and shadow-filled, meaning that the watercolours are even harder to see than they were after 200 years of fading. Though, to give the Tate their due they rectify their mistake on an opposite wall.

Blake long dreamed of making his works 30 metres high in order to act as national monuments. Via some helpful projection the Tate have shown us what could have been. The power and detail is incredible. It’s partnered with a computer mock-up of a small print blown up as a tapestry in Blake’s local church, another dream fulfilled.  It’s another good idea and well executed. But it’s also sad. Both these visions show that Blake’s mind and imagination were too big for typical constraints, and that he never had the chance to realise his visions how he wanted. Ultimately, this exhibition never truly shows the extent of Blake’s genius, as he never got the chance to.  

He was a man in his own world. Not only in the sense of seeing visions of angels and demons or by remaining stubbornly different throughout his life. Blake was a man who lived in and through his work. He used it to view the world wholly uniquely. His work was essential to his sense of himself and his personal world: he once attacked a Westminster schoolboy who mocked him as an apprentice engraver. I imagine that was because he felt attacking his work was such a powerful personal slight. His wife once said she didn’t see much of him since he was “always in Paradise”. That Paradise wasn’t only his visions, but his work through which he realised his own personal understanding of reality. He never fully managed that. That’s the thing that both curators with agendas and us as gallery-goers need to know. We can never truly know Blake; his world and his work were his own, and since he’s gone, we can’t every fully know what he was trying to do. It’s a good thing he was a fan of Milton; it is, in a very real sense, a Paradise Lost.

Bolton may be gone, but it is the President who has the most dangerous foreign policy

Nicholas Monaco
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Bolton may be gone, but it is the President who has the most dangerous foreign policy

For just a moment last month, a divided Washington came together to marvel at the defenestration-bytweet of John Bolton, the West Wing’s resident uber-hawk. In his 520 days as President Trump’s national security adviser, Bolton acted on his extreme beliefs, driving the world towards conflict with Iran and taking a bureaucratic hatchet to the processes that traditionally steer U.S. foreign policy. The bonfire of American prestige that is the Trump administration has left many hands dark with soot, but his are blacker than most.

While Bolton will be little missed, he and Trump were always something of an odd couple. Hired on the strength of his brash Fox News performances, Bolton functioned as a muse and a vessel for Trump’s most aggressive, unilateral, nationalist instincts. But consistency is not one of this president’s virtues.

There is another Trump: one who loves to make deals, no matter their terms; one who craves approval, even from the world’s worst. The dissonance between these two personas – between his provocations and his willingness to back them up – has become so dangerous that some of Bolton’s critics even found themselves hoping that his dogmatism might temper Trump’s strategic OPINION nihilism. In the weeks before Bolton’s departure, as Trump invited Russia to the G7 and the Taliban to Camp David, those contradictions evidently proved too great to stomach.

Bolton’s exit comes at a turbulent moment. While the Persian Gulf seems to have temporarily stabilized, violence can flare up with no warning, as with the September attack on Saudi oil facilities. North Korea’s arsenal continues to expand, apparently unaffected by Kim Jong Un’s ‘love’ for Trump.

Closer to home, Venezuela’s crisis is crushing its people, destabilizing the region, and entrenching a hostile regime in the Western Hemisphere. Most importantly, what began as a trade dispute with China has hardened into a comprehensive, explicit competition for global influence that looks likely to continue for decades.

Above all this now looms the House of Representative’s impeachment inquiry, the first in American history to focus on a president’s actions abroad. The evidence that has already emerged is damning. Trump appears to have weaponized American foreign policy against his domestic political opponents, leveraging the powers of his office to coerce at least one foreign nation to intervene in the 2020 election. Impeachment will consume Washington for the coming months. It will be the prism through which the president sees the world.

What that means for the world is anyone’s guess. Will Trump quickly seal a cosmetic trade deal with Beijing to goose a weakening economy, or will he double-down on China-bashing to motivate his base? Will ending the so-called “forever wars” in the Middle East, irrespective of the situation on the ground, prove an irresistible opportunity to bolster his deal-making bona fides? What does any of this look like refracted through the far-right media, Trump’s last line of defence?

Whatever he does, Trump will not lack enablers. Bolton’s successor – Robert O’Brien, formerly a hostage negotiator – brings the thinnest resume to the post in decades, having only recently made a name for himself by shepherding A$AP Rocky, that prisoner of conscience, safely home from Sweden. A review of his career and writings (‘What Would Winston Churchill Do?’) serves as a road map to the once proud GOP foreign policy tradition’s descent first into cliché, then self-abasement. He is John Bolton without the mustache – or, it appears, the spine. And there are many more like him.

Ultimately, though, everything comes back to Trump. Confident in his judgement and freed from advisers that sought to control his impulses, he now sits alone in the cockpit of the American state. All the institutions, processes, and norms that should serve as guardrails lie demolished or ignored. With those hands firmly on the control-wheel, the United States will increasingly look to the world like its president himself – whipping back and from between warmonger and dealmaker, bully and coward, a source of fear and an object of scorn.

‘Blustery declarations, backed by unsustainable commitments, do not regain the strategic initiative,’ wrote Philip Zelikow, an American historian, in 2017. ‘Instead, they invite exemplary humiliation, this American generation’s version of Britain’s “Suez”moment, that some of our adversaries will eagerly try to arrange.’ Such a moment feels fast approaching, but only one thing is sure. For the foreseeable future, the United States will have no foreign policy beyond the self-preservation of Donald Trump. To a president who will not distinguish between national and personal interests, ‘America First’ has only ever meant ‘Me First.’

DEBATE: Should private schools be taxed?

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DEBATE: Should private schools be taxed?

Adam Wilkinson-Hill: Yes, doing so will benefit children in state schools

What do 54% of journalists, 67% of British Oscar winners, and 74% of judges have in common? They are part of the privately-educated 7% of British society that grotesquely dominates the country’s leading professions.

I don’t doubt that many of the privately educated students reading this have worked incredibly hard to win a place at this great university. But their achievement means nothing for thousands of students in the struggling state sector who, despite working just as hard, don’t have nearly as many opportunities.

Millions go to underfunded state schools. They deserve the same chance to succeed academically, but they are put off. Perhaps this is sometimes due to intimidating stereotypes, but all too often, it’s because teachers must choose between using their to help students apply to top universities or aiding students whose families face crises and rely on food banks.

I welcome Labour’s new policy to integrate private schools into the state network. I recognise that it will require great legislative determination and cultural change to work, but I believe it’s a needed step towards creating a system which is as blind as possible to the number in your parents’ bank account. Labour’s policy is so radical that, for many, taxing private schools is more appealing. Whether as a stepping-stone or a compromise position, we should do so.

Why are privately-educated individuals dominating the upper echelons of British society? It would be insulting to suggest that it was because they were just “born brighter” (let alone the near-eugenicist drivel coming from some commentators). Rather, it is because the short, exclusive ladder from private school to high-paid job is made of one thing: connections.

If the point of a private education is making those connections, then people are paying for a commodity, just like private health insurance. This commodity too should be taxed, with revenues directed towards state schools. It’s shocking that Eton has been subsidised to the tune of millions of pounds whilst other schools can’t afford new textbooks. Classifying private schools as charities is also unjustifiable. Charities are organisations that promote the common good.

Having a tiny elite dominating politics, law, journalism, and culture is definitely not in the interest of the British public. Look at the mess we’re in right now. The answer is simple. We must tax private schools, ring-fence the money for state schools, and create a state education system fit for the 21st century

Yusuf Hassan: No, there are unintended, expensive consequences

aising standards in state education requires investment. But the independent sector should be treated as a valuable resource – not the enemy.

Government austerity measures have failed to ringfence the education budget over the last decade. In England, nearly a third of local authority secondary schools are now in deficit. 90% of English secondary schools are cutting creative subjects. 40% of state sector teachers intend to quit the profession within five years. Shockingly, spending on adult education has almost halved since 2009. Much of this is attributed to cancelling entry level and level 1 courses, often taken by disabled learners and refugees.

This unsustainable situation requires action. One policy proposal that has recently gained traction is the idea of placing taxes on private education. This could be done by collecting full business rates, after stripping private schools of their charitable status. VAT could also be levied on school fees. The money raised would be funneled into state education.

This well-intentioned plan could have unintended consequences. Either option would inevitably increase the financial burden on parents paying for private education. This could lead to students quickly moving into the state sector, swelling class sizes and stretching already set budgets to breaking point. Smaller private schools, especially those serving families in the ‘squeezed-middle’, may not be able to absorb the pressure. Some schools could be forced to close, leaving staff jobless. As private schools generally have more staff per pupil, not all staff would conceivably find employment in the expanding state sector.

Astonishingly, the policy is expected to cost more money than it raises. Private schools classed as businesses rather than charities will be eligible for VAT recovery. In addition, the 600,000 students currently attending independent schools are estimated to save the government £3.5bn annually. External research suggests that in the policy’s fifth year, the Government will experience a net loss of £416m.

Instead of this, legislation could be introduced to mandate real partnership between the state and independent sectors. All private schools could be required to sponsor state schools. This is a workable plan behind highly successful sixth forms like the London Academy of Excellence (LAE). In a nutshell, this ideological plan to tax private education is misguided. Although the policy aims to enhance state education, in reality it would further destabilise an already struggling system.

Greggs comes to central Oxford

Sofia Henderson
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Greggs comes to central Oxford

In early September, news broke that Greggs was finally making its way to central Oxford after observers spotted job advertisements in OX1. As someone whose local high street boasts not one, but two Greggs, it’s been a long time coming. Back at school, there was no better place to stop and get a quick coffee on your walk there, or a doughnut on the walk back from half an hour spent half-heartedly playing Badminton at the local leisure centre for PE. Its sausage rolls, glazed doughnuts and chicken subs brought me joy and comfort for years. Yet it also harbours dark memories.

Yes, in sixth form I was briefly employed at Greggs, and having to wear a hairnet under a red cap and pretend I didn’t hate my life every time someone I knew from school walked in soon took its toll. The burns I got from forgetting not to touch hot trays full of pasties served as a painful reminder of the tragedy of now working at a place I had once loved so much.

After handing in my notice, I’ve been reluctant to go back out of shame for abandoning my disaffected coworkers. Yet even after a taste of suffering, when I arrived in Oxford last year, the new-found emptiness in my life soon became apparent.

So often have I entered Tesco to find no sausage rolls in their hot food cabinet. And what student even goes to Pret? Surely that’s somewhere people are forced to go to when stranded in central London in the middle of a day out. Greggs is somewhere you look forward to visiting, not somewhere that makes you feel guilty for buying a £6 baguette. Not only do they provide delicious pasties, they now sell the famous vegan sausage roll, along with sandwiches, salads, soups, and sweet pastries. It’s a range of variously unhealthy snacks and lunch offerings that is simply unmatched. Greggs is worthy of being the nation’s largest bakery chain, with 1,953 locations. So, where has it been?

Oxford seems to be behind the times when it comes to providing for students. The next-biggest scandal after there not being a Greggs in central Oxford has to be there not being a Wilko. While students everywhere else across the country have a cheap and easily accessible option for buying stationery supplies, kitchen utensils and homewares, we’re left with… Ryman? Or that shop in Westgate with clearance adverts plastered over every surface? It may be the cynic in me, but this seems like a class issue. When am I ever going to shop at Jack Wills? Why is it there?

This Michaelmas, I will be eagerly awaiting the opening of Greggs. As an ex-employee, and part of a friend group at home in which 3/5 of us either used to work at Greggs or work there now, I know from experience the effort that goes in to provide the wholesome, unhealthy comfort food Oxford’s students not only need, but truly deserve.

Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Review

Mattie O'Donovan
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Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Review

Jim Henson was a master of entertainment: I’ll hear nothing to the contrary. The Muppets were a genuine delight and, no matter how much Oxford has ruined you, you know that’s true. No doubt you may also have seen the deliciously weird Labyrinth, complete with tight-clad David Bowie. Henson’s original 1982 Dark Crystal, however, seems always to have had less cultural traction: it’s a ‘cult-classic’ for sure but it was flawed even in Henson’s own eyes, and its praise and love in the public eye certainly don’t represent its groundbreaking nature.

Netflix’s decision to relaunch this IP, then, is perhaps surprising, but the swell of nostalgia that has so far surrounded it proves they might well be on the money. It’s a prequel rather than a remake, setting out to tread new ground (niftily escaping accusation of destroying childhoods). To be clear, it’s a great success: beautiful, binge-able and genuinely staggering. Its failings are evident, but really little more than splitting hairs.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more star-studded cast than is drawn together here. Overall, they’re extremely good. Taron Egerton, as one of the show’s leads, does start off a tad wooden, but anyone who has seen the original Dark Crystal knows that this is in keeping with its spirit. Genuine gems shine through. Awkwafina steals scenes as always, and Eddie Izzard’s brief appearance is extremely funny.

At a whopping 10 hours the series is expansive, but also greedy. Apparently drawing on Henson’s wider plans and writing, there’s a genuine depth to the world.  It’s certainly not just fantasy copy-paste: while the early plot flirts with the predictable, there are some novel and exciting things at play here. Simultaneously, it’s effortlessly watchable. You don’t need to be a die-hard fan of the genre (read: as much of a colossal nerd as me) to lose yourself.

Now time for the criticism. It’s overly long, and consequently the plot meanders. I found myself, by episode 8 of 10, looking for some sense of conclusion. With the whispers of more content to come, could Netflix not have closed the book on a job well done, without stretching it thin?

It’s tonally that the issue of length really emerges. This is not a children’s show: Sesame Street it is not. The original was always praised for its dark and somber tone (if you saw it at all, it haunted your childhood nightmares), and here the prequel delivers in heaps. There are some genuinely shocking and upsetting scenes. Sure, it’s not exactly Tarantino, but be prepared for some surprises. Intertwined is perhaps a more traditional, soft tone (friendship is, after all, magic don’t-you-know), and some classic larger-than-life slapstick straight out of Henson’s playbook. This combination inevitably comes across as slightly odd. I suppose the critics will cry that this is the point, that the mix produces something both sweetly sincere and grippingly threatening. But for my money, the extraordinary length of the series causes too many flicks between tone. It’s all just a little bit jarring. Commit, as the series draws to a close, on which tone to side with.

The real victory here, however, is in form. Never have puppets looked so good, and so incredible believable. Of course there’s CGI at work here, but the meat of the show is effortlessly tangible. It’s a refreshing return to the cinema of real things, a move that Jackson and Weta Workshop championed then so ruthlessly abandoned (to universal criticism). We can only hope that Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance ushers in a new age of physical effects. Henson, I have no doubt, would be proud.

Nu Jazz – How it Began

George Newton
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Nu Jazz – How it Began

Although Nu Jazz has existed since the 1990’s, the current wave of Nu Jazz artists is emerging as a firm favourite among teenagers and young adults, particularly across Europe. Starting with musicians such as Finley Quaye -the son of Jazz musician Cab Quaye- the Nu Jazz movement represents a shift in musical taste whilst still honouring and respecting the legacies of the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Thelonious Monk and Dave Brubeck. Melodies and rhythms are being adapted and remixed into fresh new music produced by contemporary musicians such as Loyle Carner, Tom Misch and the London-based Nu Jazz band: The Ezra Collective.  

Nu Jazz, as it is often named, is a musical genre that incorporates aspects of various genres to create an innovative and refreshing approach to jazz, thus blurring the staunch conceptual lines of musical genre. Reggae beats, rapping and samba-style chord progressions are all present in Nu Jazz and can often be heard and appreciated in new releases. 

An abomination? I think not. Jazz puritans may claim that Nu Jazz provides the platform for temporary ‘one-hit wonders’ to corrupt the integrity and beauty of jazz in its original format and splendour. However, the evolutionary nature of the Nu Jazz movement demonstrates that these musicians don’t only recognise their roots in the greats that were contemporary to our grandparents’ teenage years, but also recognise the need for jazz to evolve to maintain its popularity among the youth of today.  

What’s more, the opening of new jazz clubs around the country – including Peggy’s Skylight in the Creative Quarter of Nottingham, illustrates the increased presence of jazz in people’s playlists. This means that rather than acting as a detriment to the integrity of jazz, Nu Jazz in fact provides jazz with a new musical platform and audience, expanding the reach and the richness of the genre; a phenomenon that in no way detracts from, and rather reinforces, the musical splendour and the listenability of jazz.  

Maintaining the presence of jazz in new music is crucial to keep the genre alive and current, whilst encouraging those who know little, if anything about the genre to delve into its richness. In this way, Nu Jazz acts as a portal for many who simply have no experience with jazz. 

While bands such as Koop are more readily associated with jazz in its traditional format, artists such as Le Club des Belugas, Bonobo and the Ezra Collective incorporate the sought-after rhythms of the present day including some Reggae drum beats which are particularly present in the Ezra Collective’s song: ‘Colonial Mentality’. Many Nu Jazz bands utilise this new format to explore political themes, mental health problems and the experience of adolescence; Loyle Carner also runs a charity called ‘Chili Con Carner’ that runs cookery classes for teenagers with ADHD. 

The reshaping of conventional jazz into Nu Jazz provides listeners with a fresh perspective on the jazz that many of us admire. In this way, Nu Jazz is a celebration of the jazz that has preceded it and a glimpse of what is yet to come.  

England emerges from their Summer of Cricket

Freddie Freeman
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England emerges from their Summer of Cricket

After the most exciting cricketing summer in recent memory, what is next for England?

The 2019 vintage of English cricket will undoubtedly go down as one of the finest the country has ever seen. From the dramatic Super Over to bring cricket’s showpiece trophy to England for the first time ever, to Ben Stokes’ Headingley heroics, we have been treated to some truly unforgettable moments, memories akin to those of Botham’s ’81 heroics.

Yet England undoubtedly have work to be done. Although a World Cup triumph and drawn Ashes series is a highly respectable outcome, had the last test at the Oval gone Australia’s way, this most remarkable of summers would have been soured. This summer was Trevor Bayliss’ last as England coach, and despite achieving his primary brief of bringing English white ball cricket out of the dark ages, England’s red ball form has gone backwards. An undefeated home record somewhat masks England’s unconvincing form away from home, including humbling defeats in Australia, India and the West Indies.

So, the overriding question emerges: What next for English cricket? In terms of the management set up, victory at the Oval to give the Ashes a more respectable 2-2 score line will provide some attractiveness to the prospect of continuity, with Graham Thorpe and Chris Silverwood, the current batting and bowling coaches respectively being considered for the top job. However, a more wholesale change, both in culture and personnel may be in order. The most dramatic element of this comes through the possibility to split the role in two parts, with one coach for the white ball formats and one for Tests.

Andrew Strauss recently added fuel to this fire, saying that, “you can’t play and prepare at the same time. If you’re playing one series, you need someone preparing for the next series. It’s very hard to do that when there’s only one coaching team.”

That said, Director of Cricket Ashley Giles, the man who will ultimately make the decision is thought to be keen on keeping one coach for all formats. Either way, the employment of a new coach is made doubly complicated by the allure of shorter term franchise T20 contracts to many of the world’s premier coaches. This said, Gary Kirsten, Mickey Arthur and Otis Gibson have all been considered for job, although Jason Gillespie is the standout, having proved his pedigree with back-to-back Championship triumphs with Yorkshire, as well as Big Bash glory with the Adelaide Strikers. Whether he would take the job is an entirely different matter.

Regarding on-field matters, the next couple of years will be a transitional period, building to the Ashes Down Under in 2021-22. Whereas the four-year cycle from 2015 was geared at improving white ball cricket, the next four years will focus on Test cricket. With this in mind, despite the inaugural World Test Championship there will most likely be a series of changes to the playing set up.

Although his captaincy is far from inspiring, Joe Root is set to continue as England’s Test captain. Root’s tenure has yielded mixed results, and he seems to lack the feel for the game so vital in Strauss and Vaughan successful captaincies. That said, there is no obvious candidate to take over the job. Some have clamoured for Stokes to take over, yet history suggests that the responsibility upon an all-rounder becomes too great a burden when captaincy is added, with Flintoff and Botham famous captaincy flops.

The winter tours to New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka offer the chance to blood young talent. England’s desire to do this was confirmed by the selection of the T20 and Test squads for New Zealand. The T20 side is full of young talent, with Somerset’s Tom Banton and Worcestershire’s Pat Brown the ones to watch.

In the Test arena, Dom Sibley looks certain to open with Rory Burns in the longer format. Sibley was the stand out opener on the 2019 County circuit, having plundered 1324 runs at 69.68. This will see him get the nod in front of 21-year-old Zak Crawley. This tour may prove too early for Crawley, with an average of just over 30 in his fledgling career, but the selectors’ see him as an exciting prospect for the future which has seen him make the squad.

Denly is likely to shift to 3 again, allowing Root to return to his favoured number 4 slot and Stokes to return to 5. This ultimately gives England’s batting order a greater semblance of stability. The middle order will be completed by Ollie Pope, who has dominated for Surrey in the past two seasons. His first-class average of 58.79, is the 13th highest of anyone to play the game, and he represents England’s most exciting batting talent. He will likely fit in behind Stokes at 6, which will prove an easier platform to launch his Test career than batting at 4 against India last summer.

This middle order reshuffle left England in the awkward position of having to drop one of Bairstow or Buttler, with both considered “luxury” batsmen. Neither had a red ball summer to remember, but Bairstow’s long term stats since his stellar year in 2016 represent a worryingly regressive trend. This tipped the balance in Buttler’s favour, and the selectors have hinted that they see any potential return for Bairstow as a specialist batsman.

In England’s bowling ranks, Anderson has failed to recover from successive hamstring injuries and misses out for the New Zealand tour. However, he is expected to
return for the subsequent trips to South Africa and Sri Lanka. The resurgent Stuart Broad and the break through star of the summer Jofra Archer will lead the attack, although with the overs that both have bowled this summer, their workloads will need careful monitoring. Add to this Leach, Woakes and the exciting all-round prospect Sam Curran, and the bowling attack seems strong.

With the injuries of Anderson, Ollie Stone and Mark Wood, a spot in the squad has opened up for the talented Lancashire pace bowling prospect Saqib Mahmood. Similarly, leg-spinner Matt Parkinson has been picked as Jack Leach’s understudy following Moeen Ali’s decision to take an indefinite break from red ball cricket. Like Crawley, Mahmood and Livingstone may find their playing opportunities limited this winter, but both have time on their sides at just 22 years of age. The experience they will gain on this winters’ tours will be invaluable.

English cricket is entering a new period of transition, with a batting line up at least on paper as stable as it has been for years, and a bowling attack with as much firepower as any in recent memory. As seems inevitable with English cricket, there will be highs and lows, but there is one thing that you can guarantee. It will not be boring.

Art Heist- bold fourth wall breaking drama sees Oxford grads take on the ‘Art World’

Katie Knight
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Art Heist- bold fourth wall breaking drama sees Oxford grads take on the ‘Art World’

This review is tinged by the regret that I missed last year’s much-lauded Lights Over Tesco Car Park, and all the hope and expectation which accompanies it. As such, this is the first encounter I have had with Poltergeist Theatre, the award-winning, now New Diorama-sponsored theatre company which is composed entirely of Oxford grads. It’s hard to follow up a great breakthrough act: but, despite (fortunately or unfortunately) having seen the former to compare it to, all I can say is that Art Heistis intensely watchable. 

Art Heist is continually playful and inventive, exploring the possibilities of what it can do rather than what it should, trading strict sensibility for a sense of fun. This is largely to its benefit: there is little continuous narrative, and none of it makes a huge amount of sense, but neither of these points really feel like they matter.

The primary conceit is simple: three thieves attempt to steal a priceless painting on the same night, each with different levels of experience and motivation, each unwitting of the other. At times it seems to tease something deeper – there is a touching monologue about the value of a coin, anecdotes regarding famous artworks, and a beautiful description of a pastoral scene described by security guard Alice; but as soon as this is mentioned it’s inverted immediately once again, as if in danger of becoming too serious. Those hoping for the moral which is teased in both the description and show itself will likely be disappointed. But the sentimentality isn’t an afterthought – there’s a genuine heart to the production, a sense that each character believes wholly in what they’re doing and their individual purpose.

If anything, the narrative feels somewhat more akin to a Dragons & Dungeons game than a traditional story – the choose-your-own-adventure methodology works, for the most part, and rightfully descends into chaos when control is wrested away. The sense of making it up as they go adds to the charm of the individual heist members, as their characters are quickly cobbled together with the lightest sense of control.

When there is a turn from the continually playful tone to something darker, it is incredibly effective – so much so that I wish it was done a little more. The audience interaction which occurs periodically throughout serves to break up what there is of a narrative, successfully breaking the fourth wall between the performers and audience (though not appearing to serve much purpose beyond inducing mild embarrassment). Eventually, the audience interaction builds to a climax, though even at its clearest its purpose still feels somewhat opaque. None of the confusion detracts from the show’s sheer entertainment value, however, and its slick and skilful execution ensures professional control has a hold over something that could quickly have devolved into an unintended mess.

Most inventive are the multimedia elements of the production – an on-stage video camera is used plentifully, detailing humorous close-ups and side-action, enabling the parallel narratives which run at the show’s heart to be efficiently displayed. Usefully, it also allows members of the audience at the back to see what is happening at the bottom of the stage, although this action does sometimes still get lost due to the constraints of the venue. Lighting design is similarly well-planned, and of vital importance in a show whose central conceit, in classic Mission-Impossible fashion, revolves heavily around the use of laser sensors. A pitch-black scene in a hall of statues is particularly effective, with each thief-to-be freezing as a statue as soon as a torch is shone upon them.

Alice is an engaging narrator, and the characters are uniquely compelling in their own fashion. It’s not a show with a strong moral at its core – though it is often teased, just below the surface – but it does prove a slick and entertaining hour, and a worthy entry into the Poltergeist canon.

Art Heist is at New Diorama from the 15-26 October.

OURFC fourth in world university invitational tournament in Tokyo

Lucy Tansley
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OURFC fourth in world university invitational tournament in Tokyo

This September, a twenty-nine-man squad of Oxford Men’s Blues’ rugby players, led by captain Ed David of St Hilda’s College, headed to Japan for the World University Rugby Invitation Tournament. The competition was held in Tokyo, and for the Blues’ side, who stayed with host families, followed by a stay in the former Olympic village in the city, it provided an excellent opportunity for competitive preseason matches before term kicks off. Eight teams representing eight countries from all around the globe took part, creating a university-level parallel to the World Cup which is now underway in Japan. The tournament was first established in 2015, when Oxford hosted the competition for teams coming from some of the most prestigious universities and leading rugby nations in the world, including New Zealand and South Africa. The next tournament will be held at Bordeaux University in 2023, to coincide with the World Cup taking place in France.

Prior to the start of the competition, the Men’s Blues had their first match of the season in Sagamihara, Tokyo, playing one half against the professional Mitsubishi DynaBoars side, and the second half against the amateur All Mitsubishi team. The first match of the season, the Oxford side took a while to warm up, but they came to half-time only down nine points, with a score of 19-10. The second half saw a resurgence in form, and the Dark Blues scored ten tries, while successfully holding off the other team from gaining points, leading to a 66-19 victory, and a very successful start to the tour. Players stayed with host family Mitsubishi employees for a few days to soak up the Japanese culture, and had a tour of the Mitsubishi factories before their first game. As the Rugby World Cup is currently taking place, several of the men’s team encountered some international rugby stars on the streets of Tokyo, including Ireland’s Johnny Sexton and Rory Best, and the All Blacks’ Ben Smith and Aaron Smith.

On the first day of play, Oxford got off to a good start against the Japanese team, from Waseda University, beating them 3-0. The narrow victory nonetheless put the team in a good position for the second day of competition, which started with a fixture against the Siberian Federal University, which also resulted in a victory for the Dark Blues, who beat the opposition 8-0. However, later in the day, they suffered a close defeat to the University of Sydney, who won 10-8. This placed Oxford second in the group, leading them to be matched with reigning champions, the University of Cape Town, in the top half of the semifinals. The South African team proved too strong, and beat the Dark Blues 15-0, before going on to win the final against Bordeaux University the following day, and retain the WURIT title. Oxford played their third-place play-off against Sydney again, but lost 10-5, leading to a very respectable fourth place finish, and the conclusion of an enjoyable trip to start the season. Since returning to England, the men’s side have had several other games before the BUCS season starts, including fixtures against the Croatian national team at Iffley road and against the Army U23s team.

While the men’s side were in Japan, the Oxford Women’s Blues rugby team headed for a tour of Gibraltar. The sunny climate allowed for strength and conditioning training on the beach, and a lovely location to start preseason training. Their first fixture was against the Equipo Femenino de Rugby Bahia in Algeciras. They got off to a comfortable start, finishing the first half with a score of 25-0. Although the Dark Blues’ defence was tested more in the second half, the team came away with a victory of 47-0, with tries scored by Meg Carter, Helen Potts, Ailsa Clark, Meryem Arik, Jessi Abele, Amber Kirwan and Sile Johnson.

For the second match of the trip, the women’s side took on Club de Rugby Atletico Portuense. Following another dominant performance, the team came away with a win of 58-0, proving them to be a formidable force on the trip so far. Tries came in this fixture from Katie Collis, Sile Johnson, Amber Kirwan, Connie Hurton, Zoe Nunn, Nina Jenkins and Maddie Hindson. The tour to Gibraltar also included a visit to a local school, a climb of the Rock of Gibraltar and intense training ready for the coming season.

Overall both they, and the Men’s Blues side enjoyed useful and enriching preseason tours which will hopefully indicate success for the coming term.

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