We ate Domino’s every week for a year and here’s what happened

The Freshers’ Fair; the place to give your email to 100 different stands that you spend the next three months unsubscribing to? Or the place where you get that gem that keeps you sane for the rest of the year?

For us it was the latter. Those of you who didn’t get an ‘Any Large Pizza for £5.99’ Domino’s wristband missed the biggest trick of the year. For the discerning arts students with more time than sense this was an opportunity for us to learn something new about ourselves.

So, with the sense of excitement that only science students ahead of three-hour lab sessions must feel, we decided to use our free Mondays to have every pizza on the menu, one per week, so that we could truly say that we knew our stuff when it came to pizza!

Turns out a lot of unforeseen things happen when you embark on such a project. Here's what happened:

We realised that eating pizza never gets easy

Also the fact that these meat-topped meals were so loaded with ingredients meant that eating them posed some real logistical issues that led to great embarrassment when dropped all down oneself.

We made new friends

The pride of the staff learning our names by the end of November and the fact that they no longer asked to see our wristbands was mixed with tinges of regret and the feeling that our lives had reached a new low.

This being said we did enjoy the rapport we developed with Steph, Steve and ‘the fat guy’ who worked and served us week in week out and watched us grow as pizza connoisseurs.

Our metabolisms couldn't cope with the challenge

If you don't dunk your crusts are you living life properly?

It was no surprise to learn that I put on a considerable amount of weight during my first year, 22 pizzas combined with very little exercise is never a winning combination. Freshers’ fourteen is not just restricted to the first week of the year it seems.

This being said, the prospect of another free Monday and a Friday this year and the fact we will be living in the Viaduct not tucked away in one of the Hill Colleges is already a worry, we won't be able to justify the extra calories by saying “the walk back up the hill burns most of them off”.

Turns out too much meat isn't good for you

The meat choices we usually crave are not all they’re cracked up to be. Not to be too graphic, but the adventure had a very profound affect on my stomach that made me thankful I didn’t have to sit through any seminars for the rest of the day.

And finally: rankings had to be made

In addition to the desire to consume all pizza variants in a truly obsessive manner, we decided to rank all of the dishes in order of enjoyment, so we truly knew which was best.

To save you the boredom of reading increasingly repetitive reviews of pizzas I present to you the top three in the table as food for thought…

Third place– Milano- Stupefacente as they say in Italy (apparently); the prosciutto on this is to die for.

Runner up– Verona- with the aforesaid prosciutto, chicken strips, thin base, fresh rocket on the side and a bit of chilli oil, what could beat it?

Winner– Bacon Double Cheese- apparently this can? The BDC shot to the top of the list as a dark horse, unknown to most Domino’s-goers, a magical blend of bacon, beef, tomatoes and extra mozzarella cheese.

And to perhaps underline my whole year I shall end by quoting Mrs. Lintott from Alan Bennett’s ‘The History Boys’ when she says “Durham was very good for history. It's where I had my first pizza. Other things too, of course, but it's the pizza that stands out.”

Although I had had a pizza before I came to university, not to brag.