Beer pong President wins 37 games in a row

Rhodri Norman Davies is the second year President of Aber’s Beer Pong Society and is undefeated this year after winning all 37 of his games.

Originally from Neath, Rhodri came to Aberystwyth to study Sport and Exercise Science and soon found himself setting up one of the first beer pong societies in the country.

He told The Tab: “I haven’t lost this year yet, each night any player is allowed to ‘Challenge Mr President’, but I went 37 games without a loss.

“Sometimes even as many as six games in one night which left me slaughtered – especially after winning a whole tournament. I found last year, that the more drunk I got, the better I got.

“As the night goes on I get more perfect games.”

President Rhrodri with one of his trophies

Rhrodri set up the society last year and hasn’t looked back.

He said: “I found that it was a good bonding exercise between all the flats in my accommodation block. We had some American Football boys over for a house party, and they wouldn’t normally talk to us but they jumped right in with beer pong.

“We did a few tournaments which was fun, but one of the ultimate frisbee lads said why didn’t I just go for it and become a society. That way I’d get a lot more people into it rather than keep it as a little niche group.

“It was a messy night after Yokos or Pier that I just thought ‘you know what? I’m just gonna do it’ and it kind of went out from there.”

Rhodri in action

It wasn’t all smooth sailing though. Resistance from the university was initially stiff, with the Societies Officer reluctant to permit a society that seemingly encouraged drinking.

Rhodri added: “We had some hassle from the Union early on because of being a drinking-sports society, the societies officer at the time didn’t like the idea of it at all but I just pointed out that they allow the Real Ale Society.

“One of the big things people don’t realise is that you don’t have to drink to be part of our society, we have about ten people who are complete teetotal and half the club didn’t drink for Stoptober.”

One of the variants of games played

Typically with beer pong, games get repetitive and drawn out – so how does Rhodri keep everybody interested in his passion?

“Our members invent new games almost every week so it doesn’t get boring. We’ve played battleships beer pong and a rugby world cup pong with 15 cups per side. We don’t play traditional beer pong all the time and I think that’s what people like.

“We’ve done joint socials with RocSoc and had almost 100 people between our groups, which was fun having the oldest and the youngest societies together.”

They even do costume socials

Things have taken a more serious turn this year with national singles and doubles tournament on the horizon at the end of the semester – including a £300 prize. But the society desperately needs more money to expand.

This can be difficult, as Rhodri said: “We are currently looking at a sponsor, but alcohol companies don’t really want too much publicity with us because of the whole Drink Aware campaign. The World Series of beer pong are the guys in charge and have even given us the opportunity to go to Las Vegas and play a competition and all we have to pay for is flights.

“We have jug deals at the bar in Kane’s like £7 for a jug of lager, £8 for a jug of cider – we play in pairs so you end up only spending about £10 each per night for a few games. Kane’s give us all the space we need on our social nights on Wednesdays at 8pm.”

They normally have two tables running at once

Rhodri had some words of advice for any would be challengers: “I always say for people starting out, aim high – don’t try being fancy with bouncing or direct shots. But to be honest it’s all practise and you’ve got to find your style.

“My favourite drink for playing with is lager, mainly because I know where my limit is with that. Don’t be the guy who tries to play with coke and spirits because you will end up getting really messy. Drink with what you’re comfortable with whether that is squash or cider but just don’t do spirits.”