Monday 4th May 2026
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Ed David named OURFC Blues captain for 2019

Cal Flintoff
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Ed David named OURFC Blues captain for 2019

The OURFC Men’s Blues have announced the election of Ed David as captain for the forthcoming 2019 Varsity campaign.

The St Hilda’s student replaces Dom Waldouck with immediate effect and will take the reins for a set of Hilary term fixtures that includes an away clash with Bristol University next Wednesday, as well as home matches under the lights at Jackdaw Lane against the Navy, Welsh Crawshays, and the annual visit of the touring side HSBC Penguins.

A statement on the Blues’ website refers to David’s first year with the club, in which a string of eye-catching performances in the Whippets, underlined by an “85 metre solo try”, and Under-21 Varsity matches earmarked his early potential as a match-winner at Twickenham. A debut in the starting XV soon followed against the Army in Hilary Term 2015.

A 5th year medical student, David is now already a 3-time Blue and made his debut in the Twickenham showpiece from the bench in the 12-6 victory over Cambridge in 2015, at the time a record-breaking 6th consecutive dark blue Varsity success.

Since then, things have not always gone the way the winger may have hoped when he initially burst onto the scene. Playing at 14 in the 23-18 reversal in 2016 and the 20-10 loss last campaign, David has tasted defeat in both Varsity starts to date and has therefore experienced both sides of the emotional outpouring upon the final whistle. A sour note at the time, it is these disappointing days that ultimately fuel the desire to come back better, and that stand him in good stead to convey the true meaning of a victory on the day.

Oxford regained their Varsity crown this year with a slick attacking performance, putting Cambridge to the sword 38-16 in a match defined by powerful carries and puncturing offloads as the light blues were stretched in the second half. Wingers Tom Stileman and Danny Barley, on debut, both went over in the corner, but David was forced to sit out the occasion after dislocating his shoulder in the high-quality warm-up contest against the Canadian International side a month earlier.

Once he realised the injury couldn’t be overcome, one teammate tells Cherwell, he selflessly placed the team ahead of his own agendas, a facet of his off-field personality that was key in the decision to vote for him.

The handing over of the captaincy took place in the Pavilion off Iffley Road on Monday night, a congregation of the 24 matchday Blues from December, in which each of the candidates, David and two opposing others, were required to provide a speech detailing their vision for the club, as well as their qualities and approach to the game.

That David succeeded, is a superlative show of faith from his team-mates despite his injury setback, and also conversely a reflection of the magnanimous way he has handled the cruel blow: “He [David] gave a very candid speech and everything he said was very genuine and the ideas for the club he had going forward were fantastic. He also stands out for his playing ability as he is definitely one of the most consistent performers, and despite his injury early last term he made every effort to firstly get back to fitness and secondly, once he knew he wouldn’t make it, put everything into the campaign as a whole, and definitely put the team ahead of his own agendas.”

The 2019 Varsity campaign marks the 150th anniversary of the Oxford Uni Rugby Club, founded in 1869, and the team will embark upon a journey to Japan in September to compete in the World University Rugby Invitational Tournament, commemorating the landmark year.

A full list of OURFC captains can be found here. The Women’s Blues captaincy will be decided at the back end of Hilary Term.

The Year in Fashion: 2018’s Best and Worst Trends

Cherwell Fashion
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The Year in Fashion: 2018’s Best and Worst Trends

Bum Bags – Adam Large

Whether you know it as a bum bag, belt bag or fanny pack, one thing is certain: there is absolutely no reason why one should wear such a garment on a night out. Regardless of the ‘vibe,’ it’s hard to pull off such a look whilst fumbling in the dark for Rizlas out of a pouch that’s barely big enough to hold a pet hamster. This 90s revival might have been endorsed by the likes of A$AP Rocky, but that doesn’t set a sartorial precedent for everyone. The envisioned look may be a too-cool-to-care, Skepta-meets-Stella-McCartney exhibit, slinging the monstrosity around one’s shoulder whilst exerting an ‘effortless’ cool. The tragic reality probably falls closer to American-tourist-visits-East-London-for-the-first-time. I hate to crush anyone’s groovy dreams, but Bridge Thursday is no NASS Festival (although the toilet situation often suggests otherwise). Besides, is any sort of bag really necessary when you’re going ‘out out’? As if the utility-pocket craze hasn’t ticked all our boxes when it comes to travelling light. But of course, in the name of fashion, why NOT add in the maximum number of superfluous carrying containers – I can only hope there’s enough room in there for ego.

Teddy Coats – Ailin Cheng

Out with the flimsy trench coat, the garish, bin-bag-esque material masquerading as a windbreaker, the extravagant faux-fur monstrosities, the school-trip-to-Wales style parka, and go all out with the teddy coat. The world has finally come to its senses and hailed a worthy creation to be the coat of the year.

The teddy coat offers a much-appreciated combination of aesthetic appeal and functionality. It spares one the dreaded choice of dark winter periods: whether it is worth being swathed in an abominable assortment of layers for the sake of preserving one’s extremities, or to grit one’s teeth and smile through the cold in a skimpy – but totally super cute – excuse for a coat. The fuzzy lining of the teddy coat is the antidote to all these pains. No more shall the phrase ‘Winter is Coming’ strike fear into our hearts, and I, for one, will actually look forward to busting out full teddy-bear mode this January.

Cycling shorts – Isabel Nield

We hated them in Year 9 gym class. We mocked their presence on the cover of dated workout VCRs. We cringed as middle-aged men took back the roads, emulating a Lance Armstrong-style figure with fewer muscles but more integrity (and the excuse, at least, of trying to get fit). Why, then, have cycling shorts suddenly become a legitimate fashion choice?

We are lucky enough to live in a time where we’re no longer limited in terms of our clothing options. Gone are the days when dressing up to go out meant sacrificing mobility (or else, risking indecent exposure) – we’ve got jumpsuits! Playsuits! Actual proper ‘suit’ suits! Now, more than ever, we have precisely zero need for stretchy, synthetic fabrics that somehow succeed in flattering literally nobody. They may have been acceptable in the 80s – but please, let’s leave them there.

Yellow – Sarah Williams

Yellow was less than mellow in 2018: the year saw the colour spread beyond its usual summer range of bikinis, sunglasses and sandals, and ended up on just about every imaginable item of clothing and makeup, traceable back to Margot Robbie’s yellow eyeshadow back in April. Some even rocked it head-to-toe – see Amal Clooney leading the way with that iconic royal wedding outfit. That was in May, but the sunflower shade even spread to our winter wardrobes, with coats ranging from canary to neon in stores. But how did the infamously tricky hue – somewhat reminiscent of egg yolk and hazmat suits, lest we forget – become so popular? Possibly because, apart from producing some of the best looks of the year, it has a little meaning behind it. Yellow has been dubbed the colour of Generation Z: emblematic of a positive, hopeful, and bold youth; a sartorial form of protest against what was another year of Brexit and Trump exhaustion. Yellow looks good, and it makes us feel good. That’s a trend that cuts the mustard for me.

Is Boxing in Danger of Losing its Prestige?

Oliver Donaldson
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Is Boxing in Danger of Losing its Prestige?

Floyd Mayweather took on the Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa on the 31st of December in an exhibition match in Tokyo. This was a farcical end to what has been an incredible year of boxing, with Mayweather laughing throughout the contest and his 20-year-old opponent left weeping after failing to throw a single punch inside the first 30 seconds, falling to the canvas three times inside the first two minutes and throwing in the towel after just 136 seconds.

The difference in presence in the ring was palpable as a boxing rookie was dismantled by a man considered to be one of the best boxers of all time. Despite the ludicrous nature of the bout, Mayweather claimed that he made $9,000,000 from the encounter. This fight, another brash promotion by Mayweather and his team, has galled many boxing purists who have denounced the bout as a ridicule of the sport.

Indeed, Mayweather came into the fight ten pounds heavier and four inches taller than Nasukawa, this was significant considering that the 20-year-old professional kickboxer had never previously competed in a straight boxing match.

“It was all about entertainment – we had a lot of fun,” Mayweather said after the fight, confirming that this was a completely insignificant non-event. One can therefore understand that people within the fight game are unhappy. This mismatch and the money and attention it generated seemed insulting to those who have dedicated their lives to becoming boxers, just like it would be a mockery to kickboxing if Mayweather entered such a sport.

For boxing purists, the boxer should focus on their profession and the kickboxer should stay in their own lane. These are two completely different sports – like hockey and rugby. People in the fight see this as a hoax because the (paying) viewing public are sucked in by the hype of the bout, even though the conclusion is practically foregone, and millions of pounds is generated by a contest that is of alarmingly low quality.

Yet the question has to be asked: if the quality of a contest is inevitably going to be so poor, why are we still transfixed by it? It is simply because this is a boxing match after all, and the phrase “a puncher’s chance” exists for a reason.

If we look back to the commercial success of the white-collar amateur boxing match between the Youtubers KSI and Logan Paul in August 2018, another significant boxing event which took place much to the ire of boxing purists, it is clear that the technical and competitive quality of a contest is not at the forefront of the average viewer’s mind.

After the success of the 2017 McGregor-Mayweather fight, Mayweather and his team have learned to tap into this casual boxing audience by focusing on the crossover appeal – athletes highly regarded in different combat disciplines challenging Mayweather’s unbeaten boxing record.

Although this is not strictly boxing in its purest form, it has never been dressed up to be. People seem to forget that, at the age of 41, Mayweather has officially retired from boxing and is therefore at the stage in his career where he will only make fight comebacks for matches which offer him sufficient financial incentive and little threat to his unblemished record.

His bout with Nasukawa, a threeround exhibition match without judges, for which Mayweather didn’t really have to train, is blatantly for show and “entertainment”. It is all too evident that these kind of events aren’t even pretending to be sports anymore.

This may be an extravaganza, but it is also a business model and a commercial project. Being a boxing purist and a businessman are entirely different and that is the reality of the boxing profession today.

The hype is taking over the boxing – and for those who have worked their entire lives to make a living in the sport, that must feel like the biggest gut-punch of all.

2018’s Cultural Highlights

Amber Sidney-Woollett
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2018’s Cultural Highlights

Though 2018 has been a rocky year politically, environmentally, and globally, it has also brought about some incredible new cultural landmarks. As a fan of tarot cards, I’d characterise the “mood” of 2018 – as reflected in the following cultural highlights – as ‘The Tower’. The Tower invokes destruction and chaos, but reminds us at the same time that without fire, nothing new can come.

‘Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race’ has become essential to our current understanding of race-relations, ironically sparking an international conversation. There was the Netflix controversy over its Communication’s Chief’s use of the ‘N’ word which led to uproar over their Strong Black Lead advertising campaign which conveniently debuted after the scandal.

Under these circumstances Riverdale, the once enchanting teen TV masterpiece has begun to lose its flow, with the latest season falling short of fans’ expectations.

Bodyguard gripped the nation at the end of summer with its political intrigue and life-threatening mystery. The end of 2018 also brought another BBC adaption of an Agatha Christie this time swapping out the beloved David Suchet as Poirot for John Malkovich, whose attempt at a Belgian accent was pretty dire and inconsistent through the 3-part drama.

Forget In The Thick Of It, political memes are the newest form of satire – Theresa May running through a field of wheat being a particular highlight. Brexit-themed books have become a prominent feature in all leading retailers with Five Escape Brexit Island, Bruno Vincent’s spoof on the Enid Blyton classic, casting long shadows over the political future of Britain.

On the 19th of May, we finally had something to celebrate with the Royal Wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the actress known for her portrayal of Rachel Zane in the American television show Suits. The happy couple are now expecting their first child. More joy ensued in July with the long-awaited arrival of Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again. Lily James made an excellent young Donna and the reworking of songs helped create a delicious collage of ABBA lyrics, and New College was even lucky enough to feature!

In a more sombre turn of events, the centenary of World War One in November brought with it Rob Heard’s installation the ‘Shrouds of the Somme’ at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Comprised of more than 70,000 shrouded figures, this installation evokes the tragedy of The Battle of the Somme with each figurine representing a British Commonwealth serviceman who died fighting in this battle, without a known grave.

Oxford-centric cultural highlights (or blows) include the closing down of the beloved Purple Turtle, as they couldn’t negotiate a renewed contract with the Oxford Union. Many people, including me, remain sceptical about the movement of Plush to the PT’s grounds. In terms of museums, the ‘Spellbound’ exhibition at the Ashmolean was equal parts intriguing and creepy. It was interesting how they lifted an entire section of ‘love’ padlocks from Liverpool, although it does force you to consider our – perhaps stupid – dependency on superstition to fulfil our sense of self-worth. 

If you’ll allow a little superstition here, however, and accept the Tower as the tarot card of 2018, it provides the perspective that without a little chaos, nothing new can come. Even the less thrilling cultural moments of the year have paved the way for 2019 to be extraordinary.

May’s Brexit deal has been overwhelmingly rejected: all the government can hope for now is damage control

Oliver Shaw
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May’s Brexit deal has been overwhelmingly rejected: all the government can hope for now is damage control

Writing just three hours after Theresa May suffered the worst Commons defeat in modern British political history, I’m not entirely sure what should, or will, happen next.

One thing is clear: Britain cannot crash out of the European Union without a deal. Nor can Parliament renege on Brexit. Tonight, Theresa May got one thing right: to go back on the biggest democratic decision in UK political history would be an outright betrayal of the British people.

No matter how imperfect it may be, an improved deal with cross-party appeal must be concocted in order to minimise the shock of our rapidly approaching departure. Disruptive Brexiteer backbenchers, the true architects of this mess, should be reminded that no withdrawal agreement will be perfect, that they will have to give way on the question of the Northern Ireland backstop if they are to make sure Brexit takes place at all. Even the Prime Minister, so frustratingly wedded to her disastrous handiwork, has repeatedly admitted that her deal was far from perfect.

There were certainly big question marks over May’s deal, but Labour cannot vote down a revised agreement on purely party-political grounds. Perhaps it would be different if we had months or years left until exit day. We have ten weeks left, and No Deal looks more likely by the day.

Extending the Article 50 negotiation period is an option and would provide a little wiggle room for Theresa May (or her successor) when it comes to the question of the backstop. Yet it also raises the problem of Britain’s continued membership of the EU until the new deadline and would be a boon to campaigners for a ‘People’s Vote’. Parliament must focus, however it can, on achieving the smoothest Brexit possible in the circumstances. Let’s face it, a whole new referendum campaign will only get in the way.

In the long term, there is little doubt that this government’s days are numbered. But should Britain go to the polls again in the next few weeks – whether in a general election or any kind of second referendum – it would only offer more instability and uncertainty, distracting from the real issue at hand.

Admittedly, tomorrow’s confidence motion tabled by Jeremy Corbyn will probably come to nothing – we think. In fact, the Prime Minister could use her position to the government’s advantage. She knows that both Conservative and DUP MPs, even those who voted against her efforts, dread the thought of handing Corbyn the keys to 10 Downing Street. In the eyes of many Brexiteers, a Corbyn government might only increase the risk of a second referendum, or of a Brexit even more watered down than Theresa May’s.

It is astonishing that after everything the government has been through, the Prime Minister still managed to one-up the Leader of the Opposition. Responding to the cataclysm, she was cool, prepared, stony-faced. She’s had weeks to draft her response to the defeat. Now, in theory, she can return to Brussels brandishing the results of the vote as evidence for the universal hatred of the deal. That is the best we can hope for, if we want to avoid desperately stockpiling food and medicine over the coming weeks.

Make no mistake, Theresa May’s authority has entirely collapsed. Her dogged, at times admirable, determination has descended into a fundamental entrapment in an impossible situation. This is no longer a question of Conservative politics, or of the Prime Minister’s job security. Britain is entering uncharted waters, the air of constitutional crisis hanging over Westminster tonight.

This government is doomed, wrecked, consigned to infamy. Nevertheless, there’s no time for resignations, leadership contests, elections or referendums.

Now it’s about damage control – and time’s running out.

So that’s how Bandersnatch works, but did it snatch our respect?

Isabella Welch
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So that’s how Bandersnatch works, but did it snatch our respect?

When a new technology comes to the forefront, often art communicating that new technology in the mainstream merely floats around superficial ideas surrounding it. Except in this case Netflix has spent a significant amount of money enabling people to do with their remotes what could have been installed in the 80s; people are talking about Bandersnatch a revolution in the TV industry, but as the episode itself shows, this technology has been around for decades.

I’ve spent hundreds of hours working on ‘choose your own’ adventure games (mostly now referred to as interactive fiction, because they’ve moved so far beyond their original book format, and the ‘choose your own’ brand name). Working on text-based adventures was my big teenage passion, and as I’ve spent so long arguing myself for interactive fiction to be the next step in the future of immersive artwork, it’s been fascinating to see this format finally come to mainstream attention.

From a design perspective, Bandersnatch falls into a lot of traps. Choices are quite infrequent and always binary, whereas it’s standard for most interactive fiction games to allow you to choose almost every line of character dialogue. It’s fine as an introduction, but it’s ultimately incredibly basic as an example of the format. Many of the choices are meaningless and lead you towards instant failures you have to rewind, or you get railroaded where the choice you make gets overwritten and the opposite happens anyway. Because of all the dead ends, I didn’t necessarily feel much was at stake, since I could end up getting killed or forced to take an action regardless of my input.

It is very likely that Bandersnatch takes inspiration from one of the more famous visual novel game series Zero Escape (starting in 2009), the premise of which is that certain individuals can see into different pathways of fate, and learn information from the player’s successes or failings in those other paths. The speeches on the nature of clairvoyance and pathway convergence by Will Poulter as Colin are some of the most memorable moments of the episode, and the episode is at its best whenever there is a recognition of the player’s presence, and the primal fear protagonist Stefan has at the concept of Netflix watching over him. However, as with all Black Mirror episodes, Bandersnatch tries to say too many things at once. At times life seems presented as inherently futile and deterministic, at others it seems that this determinism is presented as a result of human consumerism (and Netflix use), at other times the bondage of fate and inevitability of certain outcomes (think of the ending where Stefan boards the 8:45 train) is presented as beautiful. Black Mirror is strong when it engages in social commentary, but one ending will feel like it backtracks on social commentary made by another, rather than working together as a cohesive entity to try and question what fate is.

Above all, I think that interactive fiction deals with emotive response in an entirely different way to other artwork. You are the player, characters are your friends or enemies, and because their relationships with you are determined entirely by your actions – when you feel that fraction of real feeling as a result of your own responsibility for what has happened in the game, that’s the mark by which I would judge its success. There’s a reason why so many interactive fiction games include strong romance subplots (for example the Choice of Games publisher). Interactive fiction novels, which can reach millions of words in length, and contain thousands of player choices are the closest substitution current technology has for a real relationship. This desire for an escape into another world you have more agency over, where decisions are clearly presented, and where if you just take the right steps anyone can love you – these are some of the key temptations of interactive fiction. Hence, I would say that the USS Callister episode of Black Mirror is as much about the cruelty of an interactive media world the player has agency over as Bandersnatch, wherein a developer uses a simulation to enact fantasies about his real-world relationships.

Choice in a piece of media doesn’t devalue the decision-making process we face in real life, as Bandersnatch often suggests – instead it brings that piece of media terrifyingly closer and closer to real life. Look at the forums of interactive fiction fan communities – they aren’t filled with people obsessed with the butterfly effect, who have started to see life cynically as a series of algorithmic choices, as is reflected Bandersnatch. They’re filled with people who love having complete control over their friends, as long as they are fictional, and want to live in worlds where the meaning of their actions is made clear through a mapped-out pathway. I mention this because Bandersnatch is about the existential crises behind interactive fiction developers, and I think it doesn’t get to the heart of the enwrapped, tortured obsessions with controlled worlds that fans of these games can have.

Bandersnatch is perpetually exciting, and many of its gimmicks put a smile on your face. A lot of Netflix shows try to inject themselves with cliffhangers just to make themselves ready for binge-watching addictions. Bandersnatch is a single entity that contains a lot of jokes about demands for action in entertainment and all its frustrating dead-ends that encourage you to keep watching mocks Netflix effectively. But it is not really a social commentary about consumerism in television, nor about determinism, nor about the issues of applying game logic to life, although it seems to try its hand at all of these. As much as I hope this kind of technology is used in more and more mainstream media, I doubt this quite messy episode will be the breakthrough to start it. 

What’s on: Txking Oxford by Storm

Diren Ozcelik
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What’s on: Txking Oxford by Storm

TxkeOff and Land, a branch of the I2L Entertainment company alongside Déjà vu and Arcade Party, is set to bring the best of Hip Hop, Grime, Rap, Trap, and Afrobeats to the very heart of Oxford: its leading independent live venue and cocktail bar, The Bullingdon- on 6th March 2019.

Having taken over Marseille in the summer of 2018, the company has previously been met with a sizeable public reception, which is a mere indicator of what is in store for Oxford in early spring!

The company supplies only the hottest artists in the UK music scene whilst simultaneously upholding an international appeal, not least owing to its deliverance of an inclusive clubbing experience that caters for audiences of all ages, backgrounds, and colours.

What can you expect from TxkeOff and Land’s March visit to Oxford?

The event, designed particularly for the local students within the Oxford area, Brookes University and Oxford University students alike, is due to accommodate some of the hottest names in the UK music scene. These could potentially include rap legends, the likes of Chip and Abra Cadabra, to name a few, as well as artists that have recently established themselves within the music scene with their club bangers, like Russ and Unknown T, amongst others.

These artists will, of course, be preceded and introduced by some of the UK’s most renowned and iconic DJs/producers, the company teasing of prospects for the likes of Tim Westwood and/or Kenny Allstar to fulfil these roles whilst maintaining the mystery of the acts that are due to perform on the night.

So what’s in store for Oxford?

A multitude of acts that have shaken up the music industry from their very entrance, telling their tales of life on London’s streets through the genres of UK rap and drill; some that have been rapping since they could speak; some that have risen to popularity through their creation of viral hooks and dance moves; potential artist collectives, comprising of various artists who cannot be constrained to a single genre but who work in unison to collaborate their music.

TxkeOff and Land’s visit to Oxford will no doubt bring a new energy to the city, offering an elite clubbing experience to all its attendees with live artists performing. It is set to transport a new culture to Oxford, to shake up the mainstream, and to take Oxford by storm!

TxkeOff and Land comes to The Bullingdon on 6th March 2019

 

Insta – @txkeoffandland

 

Knight Of: read the one percent

Juliet Garcia
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Knight Of: read the one percent

The independent publishers Knight Of have launched a crowdfunding campaign to open a permanent children’s bookshop in Brixton, selling books which have a BAME protagonist to fight against the lack of diversity in literature for younger readers.

Aimée and David Stevens set up Knights Of after leaving Scholastic and ever since the pair have been dedicated to publishing more inclusive children’s fiction, in which ethnic minorities are not pushed to the sidelines or forced into demeaning stereotypes, but are given accurate representation. This is a particularly pressing issue given that less than 4% of the publishing workforce in Britain is non-white and a report in 2017 from the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) exposed the disillusioning statistic that out of its 9,000 children’s books published that year, only 1% had a BAME main character.

As a celebration of the company’s birthday, Knight Of decided to set up a #ReadtheOnePercent pop-up shop in October and were overwhelmed by the response. Stock was sold out in mere days and they were met with tearful responses by parents and their overawed children who finally, for the first time, saw themselves in the books lining the shelves. Knights Of are now raising money not only to recruit a permanent professional bookseller to run their shop, but also to open pop-up stores around the country, with projected locations including Liverpool, Birmingham, and Edinburgh. The pop-up shops would be intended to forge lasting, positive relationships with independent bookshops in order to meet regional consumer demand for more diverse children’s fiction.

Although their original intention was expand access and attention to books by writers of colour, the shop has now expanded its range of books to include disabled, neurodiverse, and LGBTQ+ characters. This is already making a valuable impact, with one Twitter user commenting “As a disabled child, I was desperate to see myself represented but all of the books I brought home were medical. I fully support the inclusive pop-up bookshops and can’t wait to visit.” Knights Of have now raised over half of their £30,000 target and the campaign has caused a stir in the publishing world, which has seen editors offer their services as a reward for large donations and signed book auctions held to help their mission.

Displayed resplendently in the shop window and across its airy, white interior are some of the best reads in children’s fictions, including For Every One by Jason Reynolds and Alesha Dixon’s Lightning Girl, as well as their very own Knights and Bikes: an adventure book series set on a sleepy island and about the courage of two friends. This year has been a landmark year for diverse children’s fiction, which saw the commercial success of books such as Tomi Adeyemi’s West African-inspired debut Children of Blood and Bone and Natasha Ngan’s acclaimed LGBTQ fantasy Girls of Paper and Fire, based on Asian mythology.

Yet, the reality remains that not enough books like these are signed by agents or published in the first place. When collating a beautiful, handpicked selection of books in which BAME characters are not singled out for their ‘otherness’ but rather celebrated, Knights Of often had to seek out tiny publishers or look through backlists. Knights Of have been adamant that this fundraiser should not be interpreted as a charity case. More diverse children’s literature is not a luxury; it is a commercial necessity and a duty to a younger generation who deserve to see themselves in the books that they read.

If you would like to donate, visit https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/readtheonepercent

Andy Murray – the champion we didn’t deserve

Greg Ritchie
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Andy Murray – the champion we didn’t deserve

Before Andy Murray, British tennis was in nowhere land. No other sport possessed such a high standing in British national identity and yet such a miserable dearth of homegrown success. The green and pleasant lawns of Wimbledon had become a vestige to an England of old, which once upon a time dominated a very English sport. It was now only an annual home to excessive Pimm’s consumption and a regular cycle of very noble disappointments.

Andy Murray changed all that. A gangly frame of a boy, bludgeoned with constant heckling from pundits and spectators alike, he fought his way to the top and restored British tennis’s pride. And boy, did he fight. Tim Henman – a great player possessing an even greater character – came firmly from the British tennis establishment. He had family members who had played at Wimbledon and a grass tennis court in his back garden. Murray’s rise to the top, meanwhile, reads more like an epic. While clearly being blessed in having an incredibly dedicated coach as a mother, he had to constantly endure: whether it be living with the trauma of the Dunblane massacre, having to spend his teenage years abroad to further his development, or forever battling the pain of a chronic knee injury, Murray’s rise was a Hollywood tale of perseverance like few others.

When he finally got there, the off-court challenges did not stop. He was not the darling of British lawn tennis clubs as Henman had been before him. Instead, the tabloids christened him ‘Mopey Murray’: he was too frank, too ill-mannered, too not English. An off-the-cuff joke about supporting anyone but England at the 2006 World Cup became a running saga, haunting him for years. It was perhaps no surprise that he was so unwilling to speak about his views on Scottish independence, only revealing his support for a Yes vote with a last-minute tweet. Once again, the same knuckleheads came calling with more vile abuse, attacking the dedication of a man who had contributed more to British tennis than anyone else this century.

If it was not his politics, it was his family. The media asked why he was not more like his personable brother Jamie, who had won the nation’s hearts when he was the first Briton to win a Wimbledon title for twenty years with partner Jelena Jankovic. When Andy’s success finally made him too much of a British institution to receive so much unjustified derision, the haters gleefully maintained the barrage on his mother Judy. Invariably portrayed as the snarling tiger mum with a devil stare to boot, she became so self-conscious that she had her teeth whitened and straightened.

Yet what the media lampooned him for was also what made him a success. It was his competitive drive, so often portrayed as ungentlemanly, that won him his titles and restored the pride of British tennis. It was his frankness that made him such a great feminist, repeatedly ridiculing the institutional sexism that surrounds the sport. And it was his family that has helped push him to glory, making the sacrifices to pay for his training in Barcelona when the Lawn Tennis Association would not spare a penny of its large endowment. People even began to like his personality. What was once portrayed as dourness is now rightly seen as his dry wit. The man who was oft-portrayed a petulant boy was now winning over the country with a tearful tribute to the supporters who had stood by him and kept him going.

Time and time again Andy has proven those haters to be nothing more than envious bystanders, watching from afar as this lad from Dunblane tears apart the global tennis circuit. He emerged from one of Scotland’s darkest day to become the country’s greatest ever sportsperson, and – by many reputable accounts – the greatest British sportsperson of all time, while at the same time inspiring millions with how far a mixture of perseverance and basic decency can get you in life. For that, all we can do is thank him while we savour the swansong of his playing career. I fear it will be a while before we truly realise what we’ve all lost.

Technical difficulties delay Union term card release

Cherwell News
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Technical difficulties delay Union term card release

Traditionally released during 0th Week, the publication of the Union’s term card has been delayed due to technical difficulties with the society’s new app.

The Union intended to coincide the release of the term card with the introduction of their app to “maximise the publicity”, according to the Union President Daniel Wilkinson.

However delays when Apple held the app in review because of problems with its software.

Wilkinson told Cherwell: “There has been a slight delay on what we thought the timeline of release for the app would be due to the registration process taking longer than expected.”

The online term card will be released at the latest by tomorrow, with the physical copy pidged on Friday.

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