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Issue Five Semester One 28th October - 3rd November

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Ripple Front Cover.pdf 1 10/24/2013 5:14:52 PM

Culture Lifestyle SportFeaturesA Guide to Diwali

Emily Barker Interview

Get Spooky A Round-up of the Week

In this issue...

NewsUnion Council Elections Results

2

by Samuel OsborneEditor-In-Chief

Up for debate

Last week The Ripple featured an excellent debate between Laura Muse and Sarah O’Ro-urke, who disagreed on the issue of women’s liberation officers. Response to this debate seemed overwhelmingly positive, and it would be great to have more de-bates of this nature in future. If any of the readers of this paper should wish to put their views forward within these pages, please don’t hesitate to contact one of the editors.

Scary special

With the run up to Halloween, our Lifestyle section features some excellent articles, which should give some ideas for plac-es to shop for costumes, as well as a great recipe for Pumpkin Soup! This year I’m completely unsure of what to dress up as for Halloween. For the previous two years, I’ve stuck by my tried and tested Zombie costume.

Perhaps this year, in keeping with my role as Editor, I’ll have to go as Rupert Murdoch...

Mixed media

What ever is an Editor’s col-umn for if it can’t be used for self promotion? Next Monday (4th), The Ripple will be join-ing LUSH, LUST and the Media and Communications society, for a Mixed Media Bar Crawl. We’ll be visiting some of Leices-ter’s greatest bars, and aim to finish the night in Republic.

In keeping with the week’s cos-tume bonanza, The Ripple will be attending dressed as sailors. Make sure you keep an eye out for us next Monday night!

This Week’s Team

Editor & Designer: Emily Gussineg155@le.ac.uk

News & Opinion Editor: Sarah O’Rourkesor3@le.ac.uk

Features: Karina Maduroakm38@le.ac.uk

What’s On: Nikki Skinnerns317@le.ac.uk

Culture: Emily Bonehameb190@le.ac.uk

Lifestyle: Katie Masterskmm36@le.ac.uk

Sport: Conor Wickhamcw274@le.ac.uk

Executives

Editor-in-Chief: Samuel Osborneso104@le.ac.uk

Deputy Editor: Alexander Frenchajwf1@le.ac.uk

Operations Team

President: Christopher Everettce70@le.ac.uk

Secretary: Mel Agnew

Advertising and Marketing: Lau-ren Swain

Print and Distribution: Hollie Brookes

Online Development: Vicki Clarke

Events: Olivia Milizia

Write for us...If you have an idea

for an article or would just like to

be assigned articles, please email the sec-tion editor relevant

to your idea or tastes.

For general enquiries email:ripple@le.ac.uk

by Christopher Everett

Just three years ago, Union Council was seen by many as being largely politically Con-servative. But this year, we have taken a sharp left turn, after a slate of 22 candidates support-ed by Socialist Students and Labour Students snapped up around one third of available

seats.

The record 1,300 vote turnout is the Union’s highest in recent years. However, with that fig-ure only representing approx-imately 13% of the on-campus population, it remains plainly obvious that most students re-main disengaged from Union decision making.

It has been suggested that part of the problem this year has been financing the elections; running voting stalls, managing publicity and sheer work hours runs up a weighty cost, but pro-vides only a limited scope to at-tract turnout.

It has also been suggested that the sheer number of elections taking place may have put many voters off, which is something that Sean Kelly-Walsh, Engage-ment Officer, believes will be changed next year.

The autumn elections, often seen as a rite of passage for the new Engagement Officer, tend to be a watermark for fu-ture success in the office. The turnout increase of nearly 30% would boost support for any second term bid from Kel-ly-Walsh in next year’s Sabb elections.

This election has proved the power of student groups in swinging results. Labour Stu-dents won 16 out of 17 backed candidates. Brad Marshall, the Chair of the Labour Socie-ty, masterminded a campaign for the Postgraduate position, which will now be seen as La-bour’s most successful yet. Marshall joins Sabbs Sean Kel-ly-Walsh and Michael Rubin in a trio of influetial Labour leaders on campus who have taken an increasingly involved

approach within the Students’ Union.

Labour is joined by another big winner this election: Socialist Students.

Under the auspices of the re-cently returned President Dan Fahey, Socialist Students backed six candidates across Union Council, winning in each elec-tion.

Speaking to The Ripple, Fahey confirmed that they would be “looking to work with Labour Party members.” He later added, “We’re not partisan, and I actu-ally believe in debate, with rea-son, evidence and compassion.”

Fahey claimed that a party line would be used only on a case by case basis “if it’s tacti-cally useful; when we’re fighting for ordinary students’ interests.” Fahey has been careful to re-move Socialist Students from the previous stigma that would see them shunned as immod-erate: “We don’t in anyway way want to be seen as a separate, hostile grouping though, as we believe our ideas will bring on some really productive debate.”

Brad Marshall told The Ripple that Labour would not be “in the business of creating a Un-ion Council Bloc,” stating that it would be up to individual members to decide whether or not they support or oppose pro-

posals.

“I don’t want a partisan council where people don’t think they can work with particular fac-tions! I for one am willing to work with anyone from Trot-skyites to Tories to ensure the best possible policies for stu-dents.”

When asked whether Labour would be pushing a party line, Mr Marshall stated “We won’t be pushing a party line on an-ything.”

The Ripple contacted Conserv-ative Future, but at the time of print had not received a reply.

Election results announced

Newly-elected Liberation Officers

Michael Rubin and the newly-elected Postgraduate Officer, Ares Navarro

Some of the students elected to the Society and Community Zone, with Union President, Dan Flatt

My night at the Highcross Student Takeoverby Liu Jiao

Highcross was full to the brim with students last Tuesday, with a whole heap of discounts, en-tertainment and pizzas. Several students, especially the interna-tional students, eagerly antici-pated the Takeover so that they could stock up on woolies and warm clothing for the coming winter. Student Wei Meng, who has only been in Leicester for one month, coming all the way from China, told me she was incredibly excited for the night to begin. “I cannot wait to buy a pair of UGGs,” she said!

Highcross staff were very wel-coming to students and rushed off their feet by the crowd at-tracted that night – though most of the students were only there for the free samples!

By eight o’clock, there were about 100 people queuing out-side, and even though it was cold, the line kept on growing. But not everyone was happy. Two students complained, “So many people are crowded here.

I am tired of waiting and the music is too loud.”

Lots of the stores had DJs play-ing music and the body-pop-ping music blasted from all over Highcross. The music was enjoyed by many, and lots of students danced along whilst shopping.

As promised, most of the stores offered the discounts for stu-dents, including some food stores. “I cannot believe Super Dry also has discounts,” said one student, looking very ex-cited.

But not all stores were so gen-erous. “We never have any dis-counts,” said a staff member at Zara.

The event lasted for more than three hours and all the stores closed down around midnight.I surveyed some students who attended the event to gauge their thoughts about the night. Forty percent of students con-sidered this event was interest-ing and wanted to take part in it

next time. But they were in the minority! Another forty percent of students thought the shop-ping experience was terrible, and the remaining twenty per-cent of students thought it was boring.

A massive ninety percent of students that I surveyed were not satisfied with the discounts. They wanted bigger discounts, and some even wanted the Takeover to last longer. “If it lasted longer, I could buy more stuff,” said Jomploy, a Thai stu-dent.

The questionnaire also dis-played the shopping motiva-tion of students; eighty percent of students admitted that they were shopping only because the discounts.

Despite this, I had a brilliant time. Even though the Student Takeover only happens once a year, I know that my friends and I will be talking about it for a long time to come!

Editor’s note

Edited by Sarah O’RourkeNEWS

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Are we gingerly accepting the future of liberation?by Harry Wells

This week I sat down this week with Alistair Robinson, who is currently applying to the Union to create his new society, the GRSBAT, or Ginger, Redhead, Strawberry Blonde & Tangerine Association: a liberation group for gingers.

Although when I first learned of his plans I reacted with a de-gree of disbelief, some thought on the matter has shown it to be a far more interesting and thoughtful idea than meets the eye. Alistair says that “The GRS-BAT is a society that wants to do two things; firstly to make it clear that discrimination or bul-lying isn’t OK no matter what group you are part of, even if it is socially ‘acceptable’ to bully a certain group and secondly, to encourage members to not set themselves apart from society in a position which draws more abuse than otherwise. This year, we’d like to become a formal as-sociation, gain in numbers and have fun.”

Clearly redheads on campus do not suffer from systematic oppression in the ways that, for example, LGBTQ students do; particularly bearing in mind that nearly all of them will be

white, there is a dimension of this movement which seems more like parody than reali-ty. Alistair acknowledges that “from an ‘on-campus’ perspec-tive we have to be aware of how distant such things [ginger lib-eration] can seem in different minorities of our society.”

However, he wouldn’t call the issues gingers face particularly trivial. “The bullying of ginger people is primarily a very Brit-ish problem, or rather an Eng-lish problem (of course being ginger in Scotland, Ireland and even Wales isn’t considered par-ticularly abnormal). Whether you believe it’s rooted histori-cally in anti-Celtic sentiment or not, for some reason, the Eng-lish have always had ‘a problem’ with redheads. Why? A group of us were talking to a Canadian friend who was shocked to hear that British ‘politeness’ is often not indicative of acceptance, but simply a refusal to break taboo out loud. Thoughts don’t matter to us, and as long as you have some friends who you can trust not to ‘tell’, your backward views and jokes are of no concern. Is it that bullying ginger people isn’t seen as taboo, and is just an out-let for the racism and discrim-ination we feel about others on a daily basis? If white people in

the UK can’t even stop being racist to themselves, what hope is there for genuine attitude changes towards other groups?”

This is where its importance lies; as a perfect example of the dangers of selective liberation. As a very new concept, the idea of campaigning to “protect” gin-gers, particularly when they are used so much in mainstream comedy, seems almost laugha-ble in itself to most people upon first learning of it, and I was cer-tainly close to chuckling. Even Alastair had to acknowledge that in terms of jokes, he “found the colour orange very useful in organising the society!”

What is to say, though, that this reaction was not exactly the same as the reaction that gay liberation groups thirty years ago, or black liberation groups before that, or women’s liber-ation groups before that were met with? We consider our-selves, in the United Kingdom, to be at the cutting edge of pro-gressive thought; many people are proud to call themselves feminists, to vote for equal marriage and to adopt diversity policies, because we have been brought up around these libera-tion campaigns. When a totally new subset of liberation begins

to coalesce in front of us, if we react with nothing but derision and mirth, are we not acting in the exact same way that people before us did? People we call “backwards”, “bigoted”, and “on the wrong side of history”?

This isn’t to suggest that all the shades of orange on campus should take to the streets and protest, or attempt to equivocate the issues they face with those that other liberation groups face; but this isn’t Alistair’s goal. He wants to challenge the idea of gingers as comedy, saying that “jokes shouldn’t be ob-sessed over at all because the hair shouldn’t be looked at as a weakness, much like with other liberation movements and their defining characteristics”; and si-multaneously show that this can be done in a way that doesn’t damage a group’s relationship with wider society. “Redheads have quite a lot to offer really, in that we’ve always sought in-tegration. People know us, we’re everywhere and our integration and avoidance of each other is a behavioural mechanism learnt from early on precisely to avoid the jokes, etc.”

“We don’t want to self-alien-ate and appear hostile,” says Alistair, “but integrate in a

positive way which doesn’t rely on ridiculous myths and tired jokes. Therefore, the GRSBAT doesn’t discriminate against its members, all are welcome and we are against censorship.”

His intention is to inform, ed-ucate, and hopefully provoke thought and debate. And as a journalist, I can only call that a noble goal.

by Alistair Robinson

On October 31st, Universi-ty staff will strike as part of a dispute over pay. But why should we as students and the Students’ Union support our staff in their strikes?

These strikes aim to bring the UCEA quickly back to the ta-ble, and with our support that can happen with a minimum of disruption. UCEA, a company hired by universities to man-age the pay-scheme for all staff below on the pay-scale and in-cluding lecturers, walked out of negotiations, forcing the unions to take industrial action. In the national negotiations, negotia-tors for UCEA walked-out very early into talks when UCU re-vealed the results of a Freedom of Information request, show-ing that senior management had awarded themselves an av-erage annual increase of 2.5% whilst other staff pay had been near-frozen at 0.5%.

This industrial-action sees three unions, the UCU (University and College Union), Unite and Unison trade-unions, working together for maximum bargain-

ing power. Unless employers make a better offer, this autumn and winter could be dominated by a long campaign of escalat-ing action. Balloting may also open again on October 31st for another round of strikes a week later, the indication is that that this strike is only the beginning. Actions short of a strike will also begin on November 1st.

The strikes are not just about lecturers’ pay, but about every pay-grade in UK universities below the lecturers too, i.e. all support staff, catering staff, porters, security, cleaners, lab technicians and admin workers. In fact, all the staff who interact with us students on a daily basis and who work hard to ensure that our university maintains an excellent standard. With the in-troduction of £9000 tuition fees, and the much higher fees for in-ternational students, we should be concerned that there has been a 13% cut into the pay of our teaching and support staff. Ultimately, it effects the quality of our degrees and the overall performance of the universi-ty. With the university already shown to be performing excel-lently, investment into the staff would propel us further. We pay

for the best and should expect the best. Instead of taking the somewhat limited view of The Tab poster Chloe Maycock that strikes will be “striking fear into students’ hearts” we should see this as an opportunity to rally with our staff and help improve both our university and our-selves.

Universities can afford it! The UCEA and the universi-ty management have justified the higher increases to upper management by arguing that it is more important to retain top-level staff than those low-er down. Staff representatives, however, counter that it is the staff lower down that have more interaction with the students, and note that the Vice Chan-cellor received a £7000 pay rise in 2011/12, and received a sim-ilar increase this year despite his imminent retirement. The UCEA claim that universities cannot currently afford a fairer pay-scheme is at odds with the recent findings that UK univer-sities have reached a £1 billion surplus this past year, and in the case of Leicester that there is enough funding for vanity pro-jects such as statues, the re-pav-ing outside of the Fielding

Johnson Building and the mul-ti-million pound renovation of the previously derelict College Hall on Knighton Road.

A list of institutional values the University has published online includes a commitment to pro-viding a ‘personal, supportive experience’ for students. The Living Wage has been prov-en in studies to decrease staff turnover by up to 25%. With increased staff retention, sure-ly a more personal experience would be had, with campus celebrities such as Geoff, a Head-Porter at Beaumont Hall becoming more common an oc-currence.

The Students’ Union policy has supported strike action in a pay-dispute for University of Leicester staff previously in 2010, but this year the Students’ Union Executives are too wor-ried of treading on the Univer-sity’s toes to take a pro-strike stance. Officially, the reason-ing behind not supporting the strike is that “the Students’ Un-ion will not support any action which will harm the education or experience of our students”. The Union warns that action could rumble on and escalate

to marking-boycotts unless the UCEA returns to talks with a better offer, and so the Students’ Union’s interpretation policy could lead to prolonged disrup-tion to education.

Harry Wells, Distance Learning Officer, said “This is essentially going to be shutting the barn door after the cows have gone; the policy is poorly worded and needs amending.”

With the NUS supporting the strikes nationally, our Students’ Union’s position is looking even more absurd. If students rally behind staff in their strike ac-tion, standards will be driven higher long-term and there will be less disruption to education. It is down to us and the new-ly-elected Union Council to ral-ly in an effort to stop the horses bolting from the barn too.

Why should we support staff strikes?

OPINION

Alistair Robinson, founder of GRSBAT

Edited by Sarah O’Rourke

4

by Riti Desai

Diwali (also known as Deepa-vali, which translates literally to ‘a row of lights’) is one of the most eagerly awaited festivals celebrated by millions of Hin-dus, Sikhs and Jains worldwide. The word ‘light’ itself reflects the joy and delight associated with this celebration. In the spiritual sense, this refers to looking in-wards and lighting the lamps within, in order to get rid of the ignorance and darkness that lies inside of us. Many identify with the rituals of lighting divas (candles), letting off fireworks, indulging in lots of delicious food and distributing gifts as part of the occasion. Sounds a bit like Christmas doesn’t it? Well for Hindus (Sikhs and Jains), it pretty much is, but without Santa Claus of course!

How is it celebrated?There is no one way that Diwali is celebrated but it is common practice to start the day by vis-iting the temple or doing puja at home, to receive blessings from God. The rest of the day is spent cooking (and eating) delicious food, cleaning and decorating the home, visiting family and friends, and exchanging gifts. Devotees dress up in their finest attire, often going out especially to buy new clothes. Intricate-ly designed divas are placed in every corner of the house, so not one spot in the home is left in darkness. At the front door, a rangoli pattern is crafted us-ing coloured rice and powder (if you happen to visit Belgrave road in Leicester, you will see many houses with these pat-terns at the doorsills). In the evenings, people tell the whole world they are celebrating Di-wali by putting on the loudest

firework display. The day after Diwali marks the Hindu New Year. On this day, worshippers visit the temple to thank God and pray that the upcoming year is a positive one. In many temples an Annakut (Anna - food, Kut - mountain) is of-fered, which is a grand array of vegetarian food arranged in an aesthetically-pleasing manner in front of the Lord. The Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neas-den, London boasts over 1000 specialties, which after being offered to God, are distributed among the devotees as prashad.

The originsIn Hinduism, Diwali is celebrat-ed primarily to mark the tri-umph of good over evil. There are several origins behind this one teaching - the most well known story is the return of Lord Ram to his kingdom Ay-odhya, after being exiled into the forest for 14 years by his step-mother Kaikeyi. The re-turn of Lord Ram and his wife Sita to Ayodhya was on a dark, moonless night and their peo-ple lit divas to guide them in the right direction. The celebration not only honours the return of the rightful king back to his throne, but also the defeat of the demon Ravan by Lord Ram. Another story behind Diwali is the slaughter of the demon Nar-

akaasura by Shri Krishna.

For Jains, Diwali acknowledg-es the attainment of Nirvana (Moksh) by Lord Mahavira, the last Tirthankar or leader.

Diwali is also celebrated by Sikhs but is known as Bandi Chhor Divas (translating to ‘prisoners’ release day’) and marks the release from prison of the sixth Guru (Guru Har-gobind) and 52 other kings and princes in the year 1619.

Outside IndiaThe festival of Diwali is not only celebrated in India, but by millions all across the world, where those who observe the auspicious festival reside. The grandest celebration outside India is in Leicester itself, which boasts one of the largest Indian populations in the UK, with over 28% of its residents being of British Indian origin. On this day, the entire ‘Golden Mile’ in Leicester is closed off to expe-rience cultural entertainment, Indian food and fireworks.

As Hindu students at universi-ty, it can sometimes be difficult to celebrate the event, espe-cially when you are away from your loved ones. Every year, the Leicester Hindu Society tries to make it as homely as possible with a special Diwali aarti and a trip down to Belgrave road to mark the occasion. This is not just for Hindus but for everyone and anyone who wants to expe-rience Diwali!

The Diwali lights switch-on took place on October 20th at Belgrave Road. Diwali Day takes place on November 3rd.

Times are changingThe way Diwali is celebrated ap-pears to be changing, primarily for the better. One of the mes-sages that appears to be pre-dominant is celebrating Diwali ‘without crackers’. Many cities, especially in India, are promot-ing the idea of enjoying Diwali devoid of fireworks due to the pollution and health hazards it possesses. Furthermore, with conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease being most prevalent in South Asian population, many are opting for the ‘sugar-free Diwali’, although we all know that Indians can’t resist a good laddoo!

HELP! I have gotten myself into trouble with the law while travelling abroad!

by Krina Merchant Pro Bono Chief Officer

Foreign travel is exciting and a time to explore. It is, however, not a time to break local laws. When considering travelling to any foreign nation, it is imper-ative that you make yourself familiar with the customs and norms of that culture. Educating yourself is the first step to avoid-ing unintentional conflicts. A simple web search should re-veal some basic laws travellers should abide by. While it is not possible to know every law of a foreign country, ignorance will not suffice as a valid excuse. Ex-ercise reasonable caution and certainly do not commit any acts that would be considered criminal in your home country.

If you find yourself getting ar-rested while abroad, the first thing you should do is contact your consulate office. Under the Vienna Convention on Consu-lar Regulations, which most na-tions have signed, your consul should be notified immediately upon your arrest. Ensure that they have been notified, as they will provide you with available options, as well as connecting you with a lawyer. If you can-not afford a lawyer or there is no legal support system available for your nationality, the consul can connect you with charities that may provide financial aid. The consul is also able to pro-vide an interpreter, and con-nect you to family and friends if you require. It is important to keep in mind that embassies will not provide legal assistance, immunity or evacuation simply because someone is in trouble with the law.

If you are convicted of a crime abroad, the most obvious im-pact will be on your status in that country and possible de-portation. Deportation is gener-ally carried out in very serious crimes and economic offenses, and minor crimes usually result in short sentences and commu-nity service requirements. If you are imprisoned abroad, there are options to request a transfer to a prison in your home coun-try. This is normally only possi-ble if there is a prison swapping agreement between your home country and the country you are imprisoned in.

Every year, a large number of travellers get in trouble with foreign laws due to varying drug laws. Here are some tips to avoid getting in trouble with drugs overseas:

- Obey the law! Do not take pur-chase, take or travel with drugs - Lock your bag- Do not leave baggage un-attended or in the care of a stranger- Never carry anything into or out of the country for someone else- Ensure prescription medicine is properly labelled and in origi-nal packaging- Ensure your medication is not considered illegal in the country you are travelling

It is a traveller’s worst nightmare to be stranded or imprisoned while abroad. Stay smart and exercise common sense when planning activities, otherwise that great flight and hotel deal will turn into a prison cot! Safe travels everyone!

A rangoli pattern

Belgrave Road during Diwali

by Alice Tuckley

Breast cancer awareness char-ity CoppaFeel! have recruit-ed student volunteers to head up teams across the country. Known as Uni Boob Team, student volunteers will be pro-moting the CoppaFeel! SMS re-minder service which sends the recipient a free text reminder to check themselves each month.

CoppaFeel! is a breast cancer awareness charity that educates young people on the impor-tance of checking regularly and

knowing the signs and symp-toms of breast cancer. It is a breast cancer charity that spe-cifically targets young people. Founded in October 2009 by Kristin Hallenga, who was mis-diagnosed twice at age 23 and now lives with secondary breast cancer, CoppaFeel!’s mission is to ensure that breast cancer is diagnosed at the earliest stage possible. If diagnosed early, treatments are more effective and survival rates higher; the best way of doing that is to get everyone, including students, around the country checking

regularly.

Each year CoppaFeel! instigates a new campaign; this year it is all about signing up your fin-gers (aka your ‘little soldiers’) to check your boobs. Themed around the army, students will be invited to go to recruitment stations, manned by the team, to receive enrolment cards and medals for enlisting their fin-gers to CoppaFeel!.

Campaign founder, Kristin Hal-lenga, said, “You have an army at your fingertips. Use your little

soldiers each month to Coppa-Feel! your boobs. Early detec-tion saves lives.”

By cultivating a strong student presence, CoppaFeel! wants to eradicate the taboos and com-mon misconceptions around checking from a young age. CoppaFeel!’s goal is to make you, and the people around you, realise that the sooner you start checking in life the more com-fortable you will be knowing what is normal. CoppaFeel! also aims to stamp out late detec-tion and misdiagnosis of breast cancer. This will be achieved by ensuring that people know the signs and symptoms of breast cancer, know what their

breasts normally look and feel like, check regularly throughout their lifetimes and have the con-fidence to seek medical referral when they detect abnormalities. Transferring this habit into later life could one day save lives.

CoppaFeel!’s aim is to be at every University in the UK. This year the campaign is being supported by boohoo.com who have equipped teams with lots of merchandise and are offering a 20% discount at boohoo.com for every student who enlists their little soldiers! This will further help the teams promote CoppaFeel!’s important mes-sage: knowing your boobs could save your life.

We will be hosting a whole range of activities. To join the

team contact your Uni Boob Team Leader, Alice Tuckley, via tweeting @UBTleicester. Also, like the ‘Coppafeel Leices-ter Uni Boob Team’ Facebook group to find out about what’s going on, when to enrol your little soldiers and receive your 20% discount for boohoo.com.

Twitter: @uniboobteam Website:www.uniboobteam.com For more information contact Sarah Magee: sarah@coppafeel.org or 02034 404 395

PRO BONOFree Legal Advice

This week: Travel Trouble With the biggest celebrations outside India taking place here at Leicester, get to know a bit more about Diwali

The Festival of Lights

Breast Cancer Awareness MonthAs Breast Cancer Awareness Month draws to a close, we’re here to remind you to keep checking all year round.

FEATURESEdited by Karina Maduro

5

Monday 28th October to Sunday 3rd Novemberby Mona O’Brien

With many schools and col-leges off on their mid-term breaks this week, many of us might be feeling a tad jealous! So it’s a good thing that there’s a lot going on this week to make us happy to be here at Uni. Whether you’re looking for laughs or a good scare Leicester’s got it all!

Monday 28th OctoberAre you brave enough to enter the eerie basement of the Ab-bey Pumping Station and hear the tragic tale of the Ghostly Engineer – Robert Richard-son? If you are then get your winter woollies and some sen-sible shoes on get to the Abbey Pumping station for 7:00pm for a tour you’re unlikely to forget in a hurry. (£3 entry.)

If you’re more musically mind-ed then you could check out Woolf Alice who are playing in The Scholar. Or why not come and listen in on the Education Zone in the ARC at 6:30pm where the union council officers will discuss the ideas that were submitted via Change It or Ex-plain It survey. This evening Amnesty are also screening the film Girl Rising in the Attenbor-ough Film theatre.

Tuesday 29th OctoberThe Students’ Union Annual Member Meeting will take place in the Rattray Lecture Theatre from 6.30pm, the annual report and accounts will be present-ed by the Executive Team as well as discussing future plans with members. Everyone is en-couraged to attend, engage and question.

Or if you’re after some music

The Feeling are playing in the O2 Academy.

Wednesday 30th October As part of Leicester’s Diwali cel-ebrations Daljit Nagra’s telling of the Ramayana will take place in Leicester Central Library. This powerful and ancient epic tells of Rama’s quest to rescue his wife, Sita, from the Lord of the Underworld. Booking is es-sential though the event is free, contact central-library@leices-ter.gov.uk.

Starting today the Continental Market will be setting up shop, until Sunday, with all kinds of delights on offer in the city cen-tre, and you don’t even have to trick or treat for them!

After dark it’s time to get spooky, kicking off the Leicester Uni Halloween Festival, with the Halloween Bar Crawl in-vading three venues and ending up at Red Leicester. Be sure to get creative with the costumes; humans won’t be getting entry!

The Union Council officers will also be back in the ARC with the Student Life Zone and the Society & Community Zone.

Thursday 31st October - HALLOWEENThe Halloween Festival contin-ues with Sosho’s Dead #Famous so it’s time to get dressed up as your favourite departed celeb-rity. There will be prizes on the night!

However, if you’d rather scream with laughter then why not go see Ed Byrne’s ‘Roaring Forties’ at De Montfort Hall, 8pm. A self-confessed “miserable old git” since the ancient age of 23, Ed will ensure you get around that mid-life crisis – so take notes for later!

Friday 1st NovemberIf you’ve not overdone it on the sweets yet then see Hallow-een out in delicious style with the Baking Society’s Hallow-een Tea Party in the Common Room from 6-8pm. Don’t for-get to bring along some of your own lovely concoctions!

If you’re not dead yet then get down like a monster at SHABANG! Monster Mash! Tonight promises a Halloween stage show with zombie dancers and free glowsticks (everybody

loves glowsticks)!

Saturday 2nd NovemberFor those interested in the spo-ken word and literature there’s a Creative Salon with Jean Bin-ta Breeze & Guests featuring presentations, live readings and performances at Embrace Arts, 6pm.

For the music lovers there’s Ox-jam @ The Y Theatre with local bands doing it for a good cause (£8 in advance or £10 on the door) or the Queen Extrava-ganza at the O2 Academy to get you bopping away to Queen’s greatest hits!

Finally, for the artists and craft-ers amongst you all there’s Di-wali Delights; go try out some Diwali crafts such as rangoli at the Newark Houses Museum (£2.50 for activities).

Sunday 3rd November

Today is Diwali Day and for the biggest celebrations out-side of India go to Cossington Street Recreation Ground for fireworks and a whole host of events on stage!

Or if you’re in need of some retail therapy after a long week then why not take a peek in at the Vintage Fair at Just the Tonic and see if you can spot a bargain.

By Rohini Jhally

Tired of the classic student diet of pasta, cheese toasties and microwavable pizzas, and looking for a place to get some decent and filling food? Then look no further than our de-finitive top ten, guiding you to all the restaurants you’ll need to get you through a semester of hangovers, exam stress, or when you simply can’t be both-ered to cook… without break-ing your budget.

1. Jones (Queens Road) Fa-mous amongst students being ideally located in the centre of Queens Road, this small yet ex-tremely comfortable little bistro is quite simply amazing. Serv-ing up their famous full English breakfast (perfect to combat a hangover) as well as lots of oth-er delicious dishes available, this classy yet fair priced bistro with its generally relaxed vibe is defi-nitely one worth a visit.

2. Zucchero World Buffet (Charles Street) If you’re feeling like you haven’t eaten properly in days, then this world buffet is just for you. Offering a very generous mixture of world cuisine such as Indian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Mexican, this all you can eat buffet charges only £8 if you fin-ish before 7pm. Serving you up with at least 12 starters, 30 main courses and ten dessert options, this place is ideal for the mal-nourished student to fill up on their main food groups.

3. Bar Dos Hermanos (Queens Road) This 1940’s Cuban Amer-ican bar is perfect if you’re look-ing for a more exotic night out. Our Ripple favourite has to be their Roasted Red Pepper tapas, but don’t stop there as there are loads more to choose from all at very reasonable prices of £1.65 each or four for £5.75.

4. The Old Horse (London Road) If you’re hankering after some good ol’ pub grub to fill you up, then The Old Horse is exactly what you’re looking for. This traditional pub is perfect with its warm and welcoming atmosphere, generous portions and friendly staff. Our Ripple pick has to be the classic bang-ers ‘n’ mash but there’s tons more on offer too; be sure not to miss out on their Sunday carv-ery!

5. Real China (Highcross) Be-ing right in the centre of the main shopping hub, this orien-tal buffet restaurant is ideal for a mid-shopping break or after a trip to the cinema. With its au-thentic Chinese decor, this ele-gant restaurant offers starters, a sushi bar, grill, main courses

and desserts all in one fixed price of £6.95 for lunch and £12.95 for diner.

6. 1923 (University of Leicester Students’ Union) How could we make a list of top student eats without including our very own 1923? This extremely popular restaurant right in the heart of our buzzing Students Union is one of the highlights on campus, especially at lunch and peak times, when it’s almost impossible to get a table! Meet-ing the needs of hundreds of hungry students every day, the very friendly and helpful staff always manage it with a smile, providing you with an informal and relaxed cafe atmosphere as well as great prices.

7. Handmade Burger Company (Highcross) Boasting a selec-tion of over 40 handmade burg-ers to chose from, with both meat and vegetarian options available, a choice of stuffed burgers, sliders and rare-breed Farm Burgers, this restaurant really does cater for everyone. With burgers starting £6, and a 15% discount for students, this makes a great choice for hungry students on a budget!

8. Agra (London Road) What restaurant list in Leicester would be complete without a curry house? This restaurant, ideally located near the train station, is a curry house favourite amongst students with their cheap prices and welcoming atmosphere, its perfect for both intimate dining or big groups offering tradition-al Bangladeshi, Halal and Indi-an food. Their extensive menu has something for everyone!

9. The Dry Dock (Putney Road East) A definite student favourite, it’s our beloved Dry Dock, offering food, drinks, pool tables, TVs and just about everything else a student needs to get through the week, and being a part of the yellow card scheme makes it all the more satisfying. This boat shaped pub offers traditional pub food with amazing deals like ‘2 for 1’ on desserts all day every day and two meals for £7, they really do cater to the student cliental. Just make sure you have ID!

10. Las Iguanas (Belvoir Street) Serving food cooked with ‘Lat-in love’, this Mexican restaurant is another choice favourite if you’re looking for a more ex-otic evening out. Offering a se-lection of tapas, food to share along with other South Ameri-can cuisine all at decent prices, this restaurant will definitely show you a fun nights dining! Our Ripple favourite has to be the Taco Sharing Tray.

Amnesty International Screens GIRLRISINGBy Mel Agnew

On October 28th, the Amnesty International Society is host-ing a private screening of the award-winning GIRLRISING. The film is the culmination of six years of work. The team set out to investigate how to end global poverty and what we discovered was a simple, yet el-egant truth: that educating girls is the highest-return investment you can make in breaking cycles of poverty. The desire to spread that truth led them to make this film.

GIRLRISING tells the stories of many girls’ struggles to be educated. These stories intend to bridge the gap between us and them, and the film seeks to demonstrate that everywhere in the world, what all young girls want is an opportunity to be young and a chance to learn. The film is dispatched by 10 x10, an organisation that fights for educational equality for un-derprivileged girls. Narrated by some of the most recognizable female voices of today, join Am-nesty International and support The Girl. We are GIRLRISING!

By Nirmalsaradha

SOCIETIES? SPORTS GROUPS? EVENTS?

Buy this space from £20

Email ripple@le.ac.uk

Pick of the Week Leicester’s Top Ten Student Eats

WHAT’S ONEdited by Nikki Skinner

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Babyshambles: O2 Academy Leicester, 15th October.

by Conor Heslin

The first time I encountered Pete Doherty live was just over three years ago. He was leading his first, and best loved band, The Libertines, in a triumphant main stage comeback set at Reading Festival 2010, and the performance remains one of the greatest I’ve ever seen any band produce. Pete and The Libertines were musically tight, looked healthy and seemed co-herent, and songs like ‘Up the Bracket’ and ‘What Became of the Likely Lads’ sounded as vital and as wonderful as ever; a cel-ebration of British music, and all it can achieve, at its absolute best. This was a long, long way from the experience of watch-ing Pete play live in 2013.

With rumours circulating from early afternoon that Pete was too drunk to come out and meet

the fans who were waiting for a glimpse of their idol, with other band members announcing he was having a ‘creative moment’ and even more disturbingly that things were getting ‘a bit cracky’ (yes, that sort of crack) on the tour bus. It was this worrying thought which stayed with me as the clock crept slowly past 9pm, with no sign of Pete or any of the other band members.

But then, a mere twenty min-utes late, the ‘Shambles stride on stage and dive straight into ‘Delivery’, from 2007’s Shot-ter’s Nation, and for a while, all seems well; Pete looks con-fident, sober, and sounds like himself. The greater role given to Mik Whitnall and Drew Mc-Connell on new album Sequel to the Prequel is apparent on songs like ‘Nothing Comes to Noth-ing’ and ‘Farmers Daughter’ which sound well-constructed and cleaner than most of the older songs live, but the crowd still only really go wild for old favourites like ‘Pipedown’ and ‘Killamangiro’.

As the gig goes on, it becomes painfully apparent that all is not well in the strange world of Pete Doherty; he’s drinking heavi-ly and its showing. He spends much of the latter half of the show slurring, throwing booze at fans, and even lying down on the stage for a while. Audience and band members alike share awkward glances, and although there are still moments of charming, spontaneous playful-

ness, like the random interludes of ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ be-tween songs, but you’d struggle to talk about the evening with-out mentioning the spectacle that Doherty makes of himself for much of it.

This being said, the evening is not a complete disaster, due simply to the fact that Doherty is still a hugely charismatic and talented songwriter and per-former; the undoubted high points of the set come in the form of a ramshackle, raucous version of the Libertines flag-ship song ‘Time for Heroes’, which remains of the greatest pieces of British songwriting of the last twenty years, and a beautiful version of Doherty’s anthem to a mythical England, ‘Albion’.

These songs should be held up an as an example of exactly what Doherty can do when he isn’t dependant on intoxicants. Based on what I’ve seen in Leicester this week, the future of the Babyshambles, and of Pete Doherty, is still hugely un-certain, but if he can just keep himself healthy and clean long enough to write another song as perfect as ‘Albion’, he can prove all those who think of him as a waste of space drug addict that he’s capable of being much, much more. The ‘Albion’ doesn’t exactly sail on course as it once did, but it wouldn’t take all that much to bring it safely home.

Bill Bailey: De Montfort Hall, 14th/15th October.

by Beth Calder

A veteran of the circuit, Bill Bailey has delighted audienc-es with his alternative comedy for almost three decades – a testament to his phenomenal talent and range of skills.

With regular appearances on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, QI and various other panel shows, as well as his role in the cult classic Black Books, Bailey has remained popular, and indeed relevant throughout the years. His current tour, Qualmpeddler, is the culmination of all of those years of experience. Never one for run of the mill jokes, Bailey prefers to challenge his audi-ence with an intelligently criti-cal, albeit surreal, commentary

on the issues facing us all using a mixture of audience partici-pation, musical interludes and bizarre video segments.

Sailing close to the wind with his opening satirical ‘tribute’ to the late Margaret Thatcher, Bai-ley immediately sets a slightly darker tone than fans may be used to. He goes on to call Da-vid Cameron a ‘man ferret’ and derides the coalition as a sham.

Such criticisms are peppered with lively musical intervals such as the oddly satisfying reg-gae remix of the Downton Abbey theme, and a manic rendition of classic pop hits played with an array of horns.

It could never be said that Bai-ley lacks enthusiasm and as he bounds across the stage, it is ob-vious that he is genuinely enjoy-ing himself - his genial attitude is infectious. As an old hand in the comedy game, it’s clear he knows where his strengths lie and he sticks to them, show-ing newcomers how it’s done. Qualmpeddler is paradoxically whimsical yet fiercely intel-ligent; Bailey never stoops to the crude levels of some of his contemporaries to get a laugh. This is alternative comedy at its finest.

by Oliver Wright

Le Week-End is a film that shows off what we Brits do best: wit and realism. The film is based around a married couple who travel to Paris for a weekend break to celebrate their 30-year anniversary. However, we soon realise that this weekend get-a-way is not to be filled with the passionate romance that Paris promises, but will instead prove a severe test of the strength of their relationship.

From the start frostiness seems to hang in the air as the cou-ple barely acknowledge each other while sat together on the Eurostar. If they do exchange a few words, it is only when ne-cessity forces it upon them such as when Nick (Jim Broadbent) awkwardly squeezes past Meg

(Lindsay Duncan) to use the facilities. Okay, so to a young person this distinct lack of inti-macy might seem typical behav-iour for a married couple (after 30 years surely you’ve exhausted every possible topic of conver-sation) yet these initial signs of a tension serve as a prelude of things to come.

As soon as they arrive in Paris it becomes apparent that Nick has made a terrible mistake; he’s gone and booked one of the shabbiest hotels around. Naturally, Meg is unimpressed to say the least. But as the film goes on such ‘falling outs’ be-tween the two become more serious and we begin to realise that this is a couple who have hit rock bottom. This is brought off by a few confessions. Firstly Nick, a lecturer, admits that he has lost his job and Meg, for her part, confesses that she has late-ly considered splitting up with Nick having questioned what there is to stay together for now the kids have left home. All this pent up discontent coming to the surface at once makes for some pretty vehement argu-ments between the two which

ultimately brings their marriage to the brink. So it’s safe to say that this film needs some comical moments to prevent the mood becoming too dark and it does. In fact, Hanif Kureishi intersperses mo-ments of comedy in between the couple’s spats so brilliantly that we often forget that we are potentially watching a marriage crumble before our eyes. Some might find the drama in this film a bit too low-key. This is not a film intended to horri-fy, shock or in any way get the heart racing. It is nonetheless a very touching film that com-bines witty banter with a touch of frivolity and bucket loads of deep-felt emotional moments. If this quintessentially British approach is what tickles your fancy then Le Week-End will be right for you.

Le Week-End will be at Phoe-nix until 31st October.

Reviewed thanks to Phoenix Cinema: www.phoenix.org.uk

Bastille: O2 Academy Leices-ter, 17th October.

by Jack Sadler

“I am the worst dancer in the world,” confesses Dan Smith, Bastille’s shy frontman. But re-ally, it doesn’t matter. What he lacks in rhythmic capability, he more than makes up for in getting the crowd to do plen-ty of dancing of their own. If anything, his rather low-key presence parallels the band’s minimalistic set up; the stage is sparsely dressed (save for a large drum which causes the mem-bers to look elated when it’s their turn to hit it) and is punc-tuated with enigmatic shots of running wolves and speeding cars.

Walking out to the Twin Peaks theme, with its mysterious chords, and dressed entirely in black, Bastille themselves fol-low this look. Smith then says a quick “Hello” before the band proceeds into the title track of their debut album, ‘Bad Blood’. This occasionally brooding brand of synth-pop has proved to be very popular, which was clearly evident during an ener-getic rendition of recent single, ‘Things We Lost in the Fire’. Plenty of jumping and drum thumping created an exception-ally memorable performance of what is a fairly repetitive song.

The band also introduced three new songs throughout the night. The first, ‘Campus’, is a Vampire Weekend-like track

that sounds refreshingly sum-mery. The other two, ‘Blame’ and ‘The Draw’, are more gui-tar-oriented but they produce a promising sound.

Between these new songs were excellent performances of al-bum highlights, ‘Weight of Liv-ing, Pt. II’ and ‘These Streets’. An interesting moment arrived when the group inexplicably broke out into a cover of City High’s 2001 hit ‘What Would You Do?’ It’s an odd choice for a cover but it seemed to wor

As the set was beginning to draw to a close, Smith donned a grey hoodie and climbed on to the balcony during the brilliant breakthrough single, ‘Flaws’, his hood protecting his wildly coiffed hair. Singing through the crowd, Smith then returned to the stage for the explosive finale, before they all left to the sound of everyone cheering riotously.

Bastille resurfaced a minute lat-er and courted excitement by

talking about a song that “ap-peared on a mixtape” – it was, of course, current single, ‘Of the Night’, an interesting interpreta-tion of two 90s dance classics. It’s a great song and went down a treat. The night came to a close with the track that put the group on this road, ‘Pompeii’. Its infectious vocal refrain makes it perfect for a closer, one that saw everyone chanting along, including support act, To Kill A King, who joined the group for one big final performance.

Bastille’s set was mainly a se-lection of the most memorable and upbeat songs from Bad Blood that proved that despite their music occasionally evok-ing the darker side of synth-pop, they could still provide the bright fervour to get the crowd moving. Although they’ve been around a relatively short time – and although the album is a somewhat mixed bag – Bastille’s enthusiasm shows they’re in it for the long run.

Image by Wiki user Cecil

Image by Flickr user Nic Redhead

Babyshambles: Does the ‘Albion’ Sail on Course?Some promising elements amongst a ramshackle, slightly de-pressing set from the troubled Peter Doherty and Babyshambles.

Bill Bailey: Qualmpeddler

Bastille Storm the O2 Academy

A Film for Le Week-End

CULTUREEdited by Emily Boneham

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The Australian folk sing-er speaks to The Ripple about home, touring and ‘going electric’.

by Alexander French

Over the past decade, Austral-ian-born singer-songwriter Emily Barker has built up a cult following in the UK with her intricate, emotive folk songs. Backed by multi-instrumental trio The Red Clay Halo, Emi-ly has toured with artists in-cluding The Waifs and Frank Turner, and performed with the latter at last year’s Olympics

Opening Ceremony.

This month, Emily returned to Leicester to play a packed out show at the Musician. Donning an electric guitar throughout much of the set, Emily show-cased songs from her rock-in-fluenced new album, Dear River, alongside her more tra-ditional early compositions. We chatted to Emily before her per-formance. Here’s what she had to say…

On her sound:

“I’m a singer-songwriter writing in a folk/country/rock style. Neil Young is a big influence on my music. I grew up listening to his records as well as other 60s/70s folk revival singer-songwriters such as Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. When I was a teenager I discovered Aretha Franklin and soul music and she, along with Koko Taylor, Betty Lavette [and] Billie Holiday, inspired me to sing.”

On her roots:

“I’m from a little country town

in Western Australia called Bridgetown. I first came over the UK in 2000, and suddenly ten years went by! I started out backpacking and doing a few open-mic nights and one thing lead to another. It seemed that there were more opportunities for my music here than in Aus-tralia at the time. I’d love to gig more and have a bigger profile in my home country though. I’ll be heading over a few times next year to try to get things off the ground a bit more there.”

On The Red Clay Halo:

“I met Gill Sandell at the Cam-bridge Folk Festival in 2002 when we were both guesting with The Broken Family Band. Gill plays accordion, piano, flute, guitar and does backing vocals. I then met Jo Silverston at a gig in London and loved her cello playing so asked if she would be up for coming down to the Brixton recording studio where I was working on debut solo record Photos.Fires.Fables (2006). Thankfully she said yes, and when I asked her if she knew a great violinist, she

recommended Anna Jenkins. I write the songs on my own and once I’m happy with them, I bring them to the group and we arrange the parts together.”

On working with Frank Turn-er:

“Frank first saw us at a gig in Brixton, a venue called The Windmill. He really liked our music and invited me out on the road back in 2008 to support him on a headline tour. Since then, the girls and I have played on his records, toured exten-sively with him both as support and backing band and shared his biggest moments including the Olympics Opening Cere-mony and Wembley Arena. We will most definitely collaborate in the future together.”

On playing to bigger crowds:

“I actually don’t find it too dif-ficult to create intimacy in larg-er venues. It certainly can be helped with the right lighting and sound, and definitely banter in between songs is important to give things a personal touch.”

On latest album, Dear River:

“The album is all about ‘home’. It’s my personal story: growing up in the South West of Austral-ia, travelling the world, and then settling in the UK. But along the way, I tell the story of others and cover sub-texts and themes of emigration, exile, colonialism, Indigenous Australian politics, etc. [The rockier sound] was partly a response to playing in larger venues, also touring with rock and punk bands [and] also

wanting to keep things fresh and challenging.”

On Leicester:

“I lived in Leicester for a year and a half, so it holds a special place in my heart. We seem to have a strong fan-base there, so it’s good to come back and vis-it!”

Dear River is available now via Linn Records.

by Richard Fallon

Although still awaiting a re-lease in the UK, this latest film of Bong Joon-ho (The Host, Mother) is far from obscure. It broke records for the num-ber of admissions in its first week in its native South Korea. It’s based on a popular French comic (Jean-Marc Rochette’s Le Transperceneige). Its cast is, almost without-exception, non-Korean. The story is set in a frozen apocalypse where all the human survivors travel endlessly on a colossal train, the poor at one end and the rich at the other. A revolt begins and travels along the train in the hopes of discovering its secrets and righting its wrongs, but dangers await in every carriage.

Interestingly, Elysium, Neill Blomkamp’s recent social com-mentary that ran on similar tracks, was also heavily pro-moted in Korean – far more than the rest of Asia in general. Whereas Elysium saw criticism for a fairly shallow and basic

portrayal of social segregation in the future, Snowpiercer does things a whole lot better. The premise is hardly cerebral but it’s the execution that makes the film a far more entertaining watch than the summer’s Holly-wood disappointments. Bong’s stylishness – a stylishness which has come to be associated with South Korean cinema in general but in fact can be attributed to a small circle of directors – allows the film to embrace its comic book origins without ever re-sorting to self-parody, the fate of so much many such films.

Chris Ryan is the staunch pro-tagonist, Curtis, and the sagely John Hurt plays his mentor Gil-liam. These characters oppose Tilda Swinton’s tyrannical Ma-son, who is in charge of keep-ing the train’s proletariat down. Swinton more than anyone acts as if she’s in a comic book movie, and the result is that she walks the aforementioned line of self-parody very dangerous-ly. Her performance is hypnotic and the exaggeration is more credible in the delirious macro-cosm that is train’s world, where all worship The Sacred Engine. The only Korean faces are those of Song Kang-ho, perhaps most familiar for his work in The Host and The Good, The Bad, The Weird, here playing a genius drug addict, and Go Ah-sung as his resourceful daughter.

Nearly all the film is in Eng-

lish, and the scenes that aren’t are subtitled (even in Korean cinemas) or dealt with via the wink-and-a-nod plot device of a universal translator. And yet, despite its easy accessibility and the strong reputation of a cer-tain kind of South Korean film abroad, Snowpiecer looks to suffer an awful fate: The Wein-stein Company currently plans to cut around 20 minutes from the film’s foreign release, a de-cision which infuriates Bong. The film in fact was already be tightly-cut and well-paced, something which can’t be said for many recent blockbusters – a certain Le Hobbit comes to mind – and the film can only suffer from such tampering. Worse is the implication that Western audiences still can’t handle what is, in actuality, some of the best that South Ko-rean cinema has to offer.

Milton Jones: De Montfort Hall, 19th October.

by Mattie Allen

“My name is Milton Jones and it’s Saturday Night in Leicester. Who will join me in the after-life?”

Delivering a lightning-quick, laugh-a-second show, Milton Jones is well and truly on top form. With support provided by his own ‘grandfather’ (Jones on a scooter wearing RAF goggles) and the hilarious and surely headline-worthy but unfortu-nately-named Chris Martin, the night begins as it continues: raucously.

Martin muses upon several top-ics in his slot, reserving particu-lar hatred for baths, which he sees as the ultimate invitation for a burglar, commenting that you’re “naked, too slippery to escape” in that situation. It is Jones however, as expected, who outshines his extremely differ-ent support act, delivering one liner after one liner in a relent-less assault on the ribcages of all in attendance.

The loud-shirted, messy haired Jones’ one-liners are anything but grating, and actually follow a surprisingly cohesive struc-

ture. It’s always a worry when a comic is seen on television as a one-trick pony, but Jones has refined his art to such an extent that he could spew observations for eternity whilst holding a captive audience. Or perhaps an audience captive.

Another surprise is his audience interaction; a woman leaving the room is berated by Jones, who quips “I thought she’d nev-er go! I can do the clever stuff now”. He wryly smiles as he asks a woman doing an Events Man-agement degree what she’s going to do with it. His observations are just as slick as ever, with such gems as “I hear we have a group from the camouflage so-ciety... well done!”

Out of his comfort zone is where Jones shines in this show

though – the man is actually far more versatile than you might think. In his stint playing his grandfather, there is a segment that can only be accurately de-scribed as an octogenarian rap breakdown. This musical inter-lude is not the only peculiar fea-ture in his show though, since as well as audio effects, Jones makes use of visuals in the form of a projector throughout his show, with home-made slides and anachronistic gags such as the “buffering” icon appearing again, and again, and again, and again...

Whether asking the questions that nobody wants to know the answers to, such as “Have you noticed how all the pine forests smell of air freshen-er?” stating that “Missiles don’t even sound accurate”, or noting that “The obese agoraphobic is very much the elephant in the room,” Jones is never afraid to stretch the boundaries of what is acceptable to the nth degree, and it is this, as well as his sharp delivery and expert timing that establishes him as one of the premier comedians in Britain at the moment. If you can, check him out, because it’ll be one hell of a night.

Image by Tom Morris

The central characters on the trainImage by Flickr user cine-asie

Director Bong Joon-hoImage by Georges Biard

Milton JonesImage by Flickr user drewm

An interview with Emily Barker

A High Speed Experiment: Snowpiercer

Milton Jones: King of One-Liners, but No One-Trick Pony

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There will always be something magical about Halloween, but more often than not this magic gets left at home instead of be-ing channelled into a fantastical costume. Throughout my child-hood I spent many a Halloween dressed as something ridiculous and then spent most of my teens as some overly sexed up ghoul-ish creature. Yawn. If there’s any variety to be found in costumes, turn to Leicester’s magnificent range of vintage shops that lurk hidden in the streets surround-ing Highcross. Dare to be differ-ent this year and use Halloween as an excuse to find a plethora of new treasures for your winter wardrobe.

Only a stone’s throw away from Leicester market, Cank Street plays host to Dollymix Vin-tage and Pink Pigeon: a double whammy for vintage lovers, as the two stores come together giving us lucky shoppers a vast amount of 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s clothes to through which to rummage. Falling magically in line with this season’s trend of velour comes the costume idea of the French clown. Most 60s dresses and blouses I found in these two stores had an un-deniably Pierrot vibe to them. Pierrot is a stereotypical charac-ter of pantomime and Comme-dia dell’Arte whose iconic look is often replicated as a costume idea. It’s easy for even the vin-tage baby to do: take any high

neck 60s shift and add some white ruffle or a bold white collar; paint your face the icon-ic white with a little black eye make up and there you have it. C’est facile!

I was further inspired by the array of glamorous little black dresses I came across. Any vin-tage-loving girl will have a cock-tail dress inspired by the 1920’s and the ease of transforming this into a costume is unbeliev-able. Grab some white tights, white gloves, a string of pearls and get ready to paint yourself grey. Go one step further if you can and add a teeny blackboard to scribble your silent dialogue on. The great thing about this costume is the effortless so-phistication it exudes: you look classy yet kooky and have created a costume out of al-most nothing. If you’re not the proud owner of a cocktail dress, (I personally think every girl should be), both The Wardrobe and Gladragz Boutique down on Church Gate are currently stocking some incredibly glitzy glam cocktail dresses that will make a wonderfully timeless addition to your look.

For the hardcore vintage dress-er, Halloween is hardly fancy dress. More often than not, people give you funny looks on the street wondering why on earth you’ve decided to spend your Wednesday dressed as Dita Von Teese. Embrace this, ladies! Sod the funny looks, go all out for Halloween and ghoul

yourself up in your ‘costume’. At the moment I’m really into Victorian fashion: think dresses with tiny waists, huge skirts and high necklines, which would be a fantastic costume. Whilst trawling through the rails at The Vintage Room on East Bond St. I came across several wonderful dresses suited for a Victorian look which were all priced below £30. It really isn’t that difficult to add a new dress to your wardrobe, and for a fan-tastical Halloween costume you shouldn’t really need to think twice. If you don’t think its cos-tumed enough just add an um-brella, a spoonful of sugar and bam: you’re Mary Poppins!

This Halloween, take the oppor-tunity to divert your path away from the yellow brick road that leads to Highcross and spend some time cross country, ex-ploring the wonders that hide behind the high street. Even if when it comes to the 31st you decide not to dress up, not to trick or treat and not to freeze yourself silly on the bar crawl, you can treat yourself to a vin-tage masterpiece and the trick’s on the rest of Leicester.

There is a saying that ‘everything is bigger and better in America’, and for Halloween Americans go all-out to make this a reali-ty. By now, most UK students are contemplating outfits whilst being bombarded by advertise-ments for various club events and bar crawls, but other than a big night out or watching a scary movie with the flat mates, there’s nothing else spooky in which to participate. Particu-larly as anyone planning to go trick or treating over the age of twelve is viewed with suspicion, extra police are at the ready to stem any Halloween tricksters regardless of whether they’re operating under the influence of alcohol or a sugar-rush.

However, in an American col-lege Halloween is not just a one-night event. Here, the count-down for Halloween starts at the beginning of October, at the latest. Not having door decora-tions, a six foot inflatable, or at least a plastic pumpkin outside the door, will gain you a repu-tation as a spoil sport. Events are varied and not restricted to campus though do expect to see ominous messages from Halls staff inviting students to the basement on Halloween.

Before this, the local Corn Maze will open on the first of October with discounted rates for students. An English maze is normally about the size of half a football field and gener-ally no taller than the average

15-year-old and in urban areas they are pretty much non-exist-ent. American Corn Mazes are everywhere with an openspace and the designs are also very intricate, with the one in Utah being based on two horses nuzzling encased by the usual circular labyrinth of misleading dead-ends. This renders its level of difficulty fourfold, making it necessary to go early as it has been known to take up to four hours to navigate a way out. At weekends, locals intensify the experience by adding an addi-tional dimension to the deco-rated maze: they install actors dressed as ghosts and zombies who primarily follow and oc-casionally barricade half of the group into a wall of the Maze refusing to release them from their grip.

If this experience isn’t claus-trophobic enough, why not try getting buried alive? For most people this is a fear that they’d prefer not to live out, but in America for a small fee of $8 this emotional torture can be experienced. Start the adven-ture by climbing into a coffin

with a friend or partner and feel yourself go six feet under, accompanied by creepy crawl-ies or a live rodent. After a few

minutes the coffin will tip and the chase to escape will begin. The only places I’ve seen some-thing similar in England is in the big theme parks, and even then the rodents were definitely not real. A lot of the events are family-run experiences that will have been going for decades, so expect to constantly have to reassure locals that being bur-ied alive or chased for hours is a lifelong dream, otherwise the look of disappointment in their eyes will be more haunting than the ghost girl that’s been stand-

ing in the corner for the last hour.

Residential Halls will not hold back either. In Utah, the uni-versity staff organise a cam-pus-wide event where students who register are provided with Nerf guns to protect themselves

from the randomly selected zombies. Imagine the Atten-borough Tower being used as a fortress from which to shoot your enemy down whilst riding up and down the paternoster, watching friends being turned into zombies. It would definite-ly be an experience that would be prioritised over lectures, that much is certain.

There is one thing though that Utah can’t compare on and that is the grand finale. The Leicester

Halloween bar crawl is always a night to remember whether it is Leicester vs. DMU as it was two years ago, or separate uni-versity bar crawls like last year. Nothing can compare to getting dressed up and taking on the city, often in negative temper-atures doused in fake blood, with oddly coloured cocktails or other lethal alcoholic concoc-tions. The rose tinted hair and mild hypothermia that will be around on campus for the next few weeks will serve a reminder of the epic night and the fancy dress photos will resurface as profile pictures for the next few years to come.

Unfortunately with Utah being a dry campus, which means that no alcohol can be consumed, makes ‘club-nights’ a huge let down in comparison and al-though they attempt to compete with ‘dry-club nights’ it really doesn’t compare to the Leices-ter experience. Overall Hallow-een in America, particularly at a university, is fantastic, but be willing to release the child inside or else events might fall short of expectations, particu-larly if residing on a dry campus or being under the age of 21.

The party season is officially underway: it’s Halloween! Some might see Halloween as an ex-cuse to dress up, go out and overdose on sugar (from sweets, and in the case of a student, al-cohol). But not many people as-sociate this time of year with any particular foods of substance: at Christmas there’s turkey and eggnog, the sale of apples over Bonfire Night most probably doubles, not to mention the fact that we have a whole day dedi-cated to pancakes (sort of). Of course, every Halloween we buy pumpkins and carve them, but why is it that we don’t all eat them? As Halloween draws ev-er-closer, I’m going to show you how to carve your pumpkin and then eat it by making a tasty, thick, autumnal pumpkin soup.

What you need: 1 pumpkin (a 3kg, medium sized, pumpkin serves approxi-mately 4-6 people) 1 onion 2 cloves of garlic 2 tsps cinnamon 700ml vegetable or chicken stock 125ml double cream Salt Pepper

How to convince everyone you are actually Jamie Oliver:

1. Roughly chop your onion and garlic and put in a pan with a splash of oil. 2. Hollow out your pumpkin. This involves cutting a circle out of the top of your pumpkin and scraping out all of the seeds, as you usually would (don’t throw the seeds away; you can roast or fry them later and serve them with your soup, or eat with an-other dish - chicken or fish work best). Then hollow out your pumpkin. I made the mistake of trying to cut out chunks using a knife but its curved body makes this almost impossible without cutting all the way through the pumpkin. In the end, I found scraping at the insides, rather violently, with a spoon worked best. 3. Once you’ve hollowed out your pumpkin as much as you can, cook the onions and garlic on the hob for about five min-utes, until they start turning golden brown. 4. Add a dash of salt, pepper and one teaspoon of cinnamon and stir well. 5. Add the pumpkin and cook on a low heat for 10-12 minutes, adding one more tsp of cinna-mon. 6. Then add in your vegetable or chicken stock, bring to the boil and leave to simmer for a fur-ther 10 minutes. 7. Stir in the double cream and check for any additional season-ing. 8. Take the broth off the heat and blend. (A hand blender will do. They cost less than £5 and really do become a student kitchen essential.)

9. Serve with a drizzle of double cream.

Not only is this recipe sur-prisingly easy – making your own soup always seemed like a daunting task to me – but you also still have your pumpkin ready to carve for Halloween. So after a cold, wet day you can treat yourself and your mates to a warming soup before you don some ridiculous outfits and the rest of your Halloween becomes a blur. And what better way to help you in your quest for ulti-mate hedonism than Halloween themed drinks in the form of Black Magic Jelly shots. They’re incredibly easy to make, but should probably come with a warning, so here it is: Warning! The following recipe will cause extreme euphoria, loss of control and possible al-cohol induced trauma.

1. Melt one packet of blackur-rant jelly cubes in a measuring jug and fill to 650ml with fresh summer fruits, red currant or blackcurrant juice. 2. Fill to one pint with vodka and stir. 3. Pour the mixture into in-dividual shot glasses and put in the fridge to set for about 4 hours. So, there you have it. Pumpkin soup for six and enough jelly shots for 30 – seems propor-tionate, right? Happy Hallow-een!

by Hannah Philips

Glamour Ghoul Frightening Food Jess Buckley cooks up perilous pumpkin soup and vodka jelly shots

It’s Halloween Y’all!Imogen Butler experiences Halloween in the USA

LIFESTYLEEdited by Katie Masters

9

The Ripple has teamed up with Rockstar Promotions - the guys behind Friday’s biggest night out, Shabang - to help all you students in search of the perfect hangover

cure.

All you have to do is send us a picture of your hangover cure, and explain to us what it is.

We’ll then print the winning cure in the Ripple.

The winner will not only get the fame and thanks of every suffering student, but also 2 free tickets to Shabang.

Send in your cures to ripple@le.ac.uk. Please provide a telephone number to contact you on if successful.

Last weeks winner:“Popcorn is fantastic as a pick-me-up the morning/afternoon after a heavy night out. I don’t know whether it’s the salt, the iron or the fact that I love it that makes me feel bet-ter, but whatever it is - it works!”

By Laura Sampson

Halloween is fast approaching and is by far one of the biggest events on the university calen-dar. So, it’s of paramount im-portance that you look great. I always find that Halloween is one of those events where you buy a great fancy dress outfit and then it ends up stuffed in a ball at the bottom of your ward-robe, never to grace the light of day again. However, there are many great outfits on the high-street that are complete-ly versatile and, with the right accessories, can be made into a bewitching Halloween look but would also not look out of place on the dance floor of Shabang or Republic.

Gorgeous Vampire

Fancy dress doesn’t always have to be full-on. Make a statement with this gorgeous form-fitting red dress with embellished lace collar.

It would be perfect for a night out in the union, but could eas-ily be accessorised, making it the perfect purchase for your Halloween party. The red and black monochrome look is bang

on trend, and gives it a gothic, vampy look. Just add fierce tal-ons, heels, blood red lipstick and a cape, the latter which can be purchased from Claire’s ac-cessories. Or, for a cheaper al-ternative try Leicester Market: they have loads of material stalls selling plain black material that can easily be made into a fabu-lous and dramatic cape.

Wednesday Addams

Wednesday Adams is the styl-ishly spooky poster girl of our generation. Grab a black Pe-ter Pan collar dress with white contrasting detail, add striped black tights, DMs and a cross and chain and the compulsory centre parted plaits, and you’ll be good to go. This swing dress by Pop Boutique is ideal for the Wednesday Addams look. Again, the contrasting black

and white makes it bang on trend, and the simple look of the dress means it is a great day-to-night piece that could be dressed down for a lecture. Make sure you keep your make-up to a minimum: add a small amount of talcum powder on top of your foundation, to make you look eerily pale and myste-rious. Also, pay greater atten-tion to your brows: use eyebrow pencil to give them a more de-

fined look.

Bewitched

PVC is a huge trend this Au-tumn/winter, and Halloween is a great opportunity to both experiment with new materials and textures and buy that PVC skirt that you’ve been lusting after. This black PVC skirt from Topshop would be ideal for a witch costume. Accessorise with a witch’s hat,

from the Haymarket’s Top Girl, and killer talons and heels, and you’ll be ready for the haunting hours. Make sure your make up is bold. Try a plumb couloured lipstick, and a dark smokey eye, buy some false eyelashes to en-hance your appearance and give yourself long, beautiful lashes.

Zombie School girl

Dressing like a schoolgirl is a bit of a ‘thang’ this season, so take it one step further for a spooky yet stylish Halloween outfit. Chan-nel Cher from Clueless and wear a flirty tartan mini skirt with a crisp white shirt, over-knee socks and a black choker necklace. Not only will you look bang on trend with your cute little tartan skirt, but you’ll also look frightfully scary. To save money, re-use your outfit that you wore to the Freshers’ school disco night and just accessorise

differently: think ripped tights and fierce make up. To really achieve the zombie

look, you need to use a very light powder to the face and neck. Use some fake blood where you feel appropriate, and try to achieve a smudgy, smoky eye to make your eyes look hol-low.

Dress to Impress this Halloween

£19.99 www.daisystreet.co.uk

£30 asos

£38 Topshop

£17.99 New Look

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Buy this space from £20

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Northampton 17Leicester 14

University of Leicester Men’s Rugby Union 3rd team travelled to Northampton after their dis-appointing opening day defeat to Nottingham. This week the side was skippered by centre Sam Shorten and featured a number of new talent including Angus Littleford in the second row, Jack Todd at outside centre and Martyn Steel at full-back.

The game began encouragingly and the scores were level at half-time after some gritty defence from Leicester. Northampton 2s were camped in their half for much of the first half. Despite lack of ball and a struggling set-piece the back three looked strong. Isaac Turner was able

to break through tackles al-most at will, Duleep Vasudevan had enormous pace and Mar-tyn Steel displayed exception-al hands. Things were looking good elsewhere on the pitch too. The back-row of number eight, Jamie Crook, and flank-ers, Harry Tillyer and Dominic Hawkins were very effective. There was pace in abundance in the half-backs too as scrum-half, Joe Thomas and fly-half, Callum Jamieson picked holes in Northampton’s weak defence almost at will. Jack Todd scored an impressive opening try for this mainly Freshers XV.

The pressure on Leicester continued in the second half though and they found them-selves under their posts again. Two Northampton tries brought

the score to 17-5 and Leicester looked out of it. However, they decided to turn to their bench. Patrick Roberts and Conor Wickham both entered the fray whilst Dan Ashton and Jack Griffths returned from shoul-der injuries earlier in the game to complete the comprehensive changes. Suddenly, Leicester had a new spark about them. The scrum was holding up bet-ter and the backs were getting better ball. Northampton then had a man put in the bin for re-peat offences at the breakdown. Martyn Steel was then able to cross the line about excellent hands from the backs and break from Roberts. Steel ran an excel-lent line and Roberts was able to toss the ball over a few North-ampton players to find his team mate. Steel was then able to run

it in under the posts and Jamie-son duly converted to leave the score at 17-14 to Northampton.Leicester now had all the mo-mentum and remained camped in Northampton’s half but were unable to score. The closest they came was from a number 8 pick from a scrum but Jamie Crook was unlucky to see the referee’s decision go against him.

It was a valiant effort from this young squad and a much-im-proved performance from last week. The man-of-the-match plaudits were shared between half-backs Callum Jamieson and Joe Thomas.

The team is away (again) against Coventry next week and do not play at home until late in No-vember.

Image by Keith Tonks

Northampton Nick It

by Conor Wickham

A few weeks into the BUCS season and Team University of Leicester currently sit 59th in the BUCS league. That’s up an encouraging 5 places from their position at the end of last year and shows promise for a top 50th finish. It should be duly noted that De Montfort University sit an appalling 84th sandwiched between Edinburgh Napier University and Aston.

Leicester currently sit on 301 points, level with the Universi-ty of East Anglia, and only 38 points of the University of Sus-sex in 50th position. Leicester is, however, a whopping 1187 points off first-placed Lough-borough. The biggest contribu-tors so far this year have been Lacrosse (38), Rugby Union (37) and Basketball (35). Men’s Lacrosse 1s are the biggest sin-gle contributory team with 22 BUCS points despite losing both of their games this season including a 19-2 defeat to Not-tingham Trent.

Fencing, last year’s biggest con-tributor and arguably the most successful team of the 2012-2013 BUCS season, have man-aged to amass 21 points so far despite losing both games in fairly narrow affairs to War-wick 1s and Cambridge 2s. The Men’s Fencing first team cur-rently find themselves bottom of Midlands 1A after 2 games. It should be noted, however, that they are one of the few Leicester teams to be competing at the 1A standard.

After this week, a number of

Team University of Leicester teams remain unbeaten includ-ing Women’s Basketball 1s who defeated Nottingham away from home.

This Wednesday saw some im-pressive results. Men’s Tennis

racked up a 10-2 victory against East Anglia to keep their 100% record while Men’s Football 2s sneaked an away win against Bedfordshire allowing them to get their first points of the sea-son on the board in Midlands 5B. Also in football, the men’s 3rd team dispatched Harper Adams with a remarkable 5-1 away win to follow up last week’s draw. This means they sit in sec-ond in Midlands 5B – unbeaten and ahead of their 2nd team rivals. There was also an im-pressive victory for the Netball 3rd team away to Northamp-ton. They currently sit atop of Midlands 6B with an impressive points difference of 72. There

was joy also for women’s bad-minton who completed an 8-0 thrashing over Newman Col-lege in response to last week’s opening defeat to Coventry. In rugby league, Leicester anni-hilated Nottingham 2s with a 46-0 score line. Following their

42-4 win over Birmingham last week, this means they are at the peak of Midlands 2A with two wins and an incredible 84 point difference.

In Hockey, Leicester Women’s 2nd team beat their Lincoln opponents by scoring 5 and keeping a clean sheet. Follow-ing last week’s 3-0 demolition of Worcester, they are currently unbeaten and sit 3rd in Mid-lands 4B. The Men’s 1st team also recorded an away victory over Birmingham City by scor-ing 5 goals of their own. They currently top Midlands 3B with 2 wins from 2. An all-Leicester hockey affair ended with a 7-0

victory for the Men’s 2nd team over the 3s. The result of the day certainly game in a two o’clock fixture at Stoughton Playing Fields as Leicester Men’s Rugby Union 2nd team beat De Mont-fort 1st team by 22 point to 18. This was enough to lift them off the bottom of the table and re-pair some of the damage from last week’s defeat to Derby.

There was also disappointment as golf failed to record their first win losing at home to East An-glia. Women’s tennis also failed to follow up last weeks close loss to DMU with a win as they suffered defeat at home to Not-tingham Trent in Midlands 2B. Leicester football 4th team were able to get their first points of the season on board as well with a 3-3 draw away to DMU. Else-where, Leicester Men’s Rugby Union 1s suffered their first de-feat with an agonising 27-24 loss to Nottingham. Netball 2s suf-fered a heart-wrenching defeat against Anglia Ruskin. Men’s Football 1st team could not fol-low last week’s remarkable away victory over DMU with a win as they lost 6-2 also at home to An-glia Ruskin. Women’s football opened their campaign with a good 0-0 home draw with Ox-ford 1s in Midlands 2A.

It certainly seems that Leicester are poised to push hard for a top 50 finish this year.

Northampton Netball have Nothing on LeicesterNorthampton 28Leicester 48

by Cat Wood

University of Leicester Netball 3rd team travelled to North-ampton to attempt to continue their fine start to the season. Things went pretty much to plan as Leicester recorded a vic-tory by a 20 point margin.The first quarter started well for Leicester as they had the 1st centre and scored straight off it. Their dominance became clear-er as the game went on as they started to turn balls over. The quarter ended with Leicester leading 12-5.

The second quarter began in much the same vein. The stand-ard of Leicester’s play slipped slightly and their passing began to get scrappy but they were able to maintain their lead. At the half-way stage, Leicester’s lead remained 7 as the scores were 20-13.

Leicester’s team discussions at the break obviously made a difference in the second-half as their play improved. They cer-tainly were not going to settle for a simple and easy victory. One member of the team de-scribed it as: “getting their mojo back”. At the end of the third

quarter the score was 36-20 to Leicester who had opened up an impressive 16 point lead.The 4th quarter was a chance for Leicester to make a few changes as Northampton begun to tire. It was impressive that substi-tutes could fit in so easily to the team without affecting the play. Leicester ran riot and ended with a 20 point victory, 48-28.

Team:Lauren Brain Courtney Billings Grace Haspel Becky Hayward Grace Brady Cat Woods (c)Efua Obetoh Mads Edwards

The State of Sport

SPORTEdited by Conor Wickham

11

Kathryn, a final-year student of International Relations from Grayshott coxed at school after she tore almost all the ligaments in my ankle playing hockey. De-spite this non-traditional way of taking up the sport she prom-ised me she enjoyed it saying: “I like rowing because I am re-ally competitive and it’s a really competitive sport”. Perhaps her darkest secret is that Leicester was not her first-choice and she ended up going through clear-ing. She seems fairly happy with the result though saying: “It’s turned out pretty well.”

In first year, Hanna admitted that she wanted to be in John Foster Hall (who wouldn’t real-ly) but eventually she ended up residing in Lasdun, about which she says: “I was actually happy about in the end because I reck-on I had a lot more fun”. Kath-ryn did have one complaint

though as she remarked: “The food was grim in halls though”.

Returning to Rowing she says: “We haven’t had any competi-tions yet but so far things have gone well”. ULBC remains one of the biggest sports clubs at our university at this year seems no different. They’ve got about 70 new members this year so par-ticipation continues to be big. There have been a few setbacks however: “The university have messed us around a bit and taken away half of our facilities because they are apparently too

expensive and need repairing,” Katryn remarks. The struggles do not end there though as she continues: “Rowing is an expen-sive sport and really we need an injection of money in order to start being successful all round.”

The next big event for rowing is BUCS Indoors (competition

on rowing machines), which is 16th November and then 4’s Head of the River (on the Thames) on the 30th November. Socials have apparently been very successful so far. Kath-ryn is full of praise: “Kyfer, one of our social secs, is doing an amazing job. The first few were messy and last week we won free entry so a cheap social this week!” There’s no denying that Rowing is a sport that requires dedication. For the Seniors, training is almost every day and then there are water outings in Nottingham at the weekend.The Novices do land train-ing about 3 times a week and then have outings either at the weekend or on a Wednesday in Leicester. Fitness is also a mas-sive part of the sport as Kath-ryn notes: “We have our own circuits twice a week, which are really good and great for getting fit”.

Kathryn is apprehensive about the year ahead saying: “Plans for the season are a bit up in the air until we find out what happens with our facilities. We hope to get some good publicity for the club through Alumni, Varsity and charity events to gener-ate some funding and be more successful”. The Boat Club Ball on the 23rd November, which includes Alumni, is the next big social event and Kathryn is keen to stress that: “anyone is welcome to come”.

Club Captain ChatKathryn Hanna - Rowing President

BUCS Results and Fixtures

The ARC Team and Andy will win the Leicester Run on 16th November!

Leicester 52Coventry 63

by Michael Gambe

Our second game wasn’t going to be any easier than our first as we were playing against ex di-vision one team, Coventry. The team was without guards James Dyde (Captain) and Dominic McDonaugh due to injury.

We started off slow, offensively we just were not clicking. Again turnovers were a problem but this time around it was our lack of free throw conversion that arguably cost us the game. The same as in our first game we trailed from the start but it was late in the fourth quarter where Leicester suddenly had a burst of life supplied by the youth of the team which led us to reduce the deficit to only six points with only 2 and half minutes left

on the clock. We did our best to close the gap but a flurry of (jus-tifiable) fouls and efficient free throw shooting from Coventry saw us lose the game 52-63.

It was a positive show from the team and a marked improve-ment. We are definitely getting close to that first win and next week at our home game we hope to finally gain a victory by defeating 4th placed University of Bedfordshire.

Men’s 1st Team Basketball Comes Close