The Tab goes out with the Vets’ Rugby Team

Team photo at the start of the night

The Vets’ Rubgy team had the privilege of the Tab’s company as they invited us to their ‘fox hunting’ social. This involved 3 guys dressed as foxes hiding in pubs on Hardman Street.

Then freshers dressed as hounds, guided by the ‘hunt masters’, had to find and catch them. Every pub the hounds go into though they have to do a pint. Everyone else was in the ‘field’ following on in full dress.

Social sec Oscar Griffiths in full hunt-master gear

Social Secs Oscar and Jordan giving out the whisky

Full dress basically involved a hell of a lot of tweed, as one member said ‘this is just a good opportunity to wear our tweed – and we’ve all got some!’

Our tweedy attire did mean that we got some funny looks from Scousers as we trekked up and down Hardman Street.

The Foxes

We all met at the Cambridge where the Social Sec, Oscar Griffiths (lovely name) gave us all a glass of whisky and introduced the society as one where ‘whiskey and tweed is encouraged by all’.

We challenged him to see how fast he could neck a pint later in the night and this was the result.

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I make that 5 seconds, a solid effort but not as fast as this rapid chugger

Is this the Philharmonic or a 19th Century gentlemen’s club?

It’s fair to say that the team were pretty posh, as we were sitting in the Philarmonic surrounded all resplendent in tweed, shirts, and ties I had a brief glimpse of what it would be like to go out with the Bullingdon Club (although the Vets were much nicer and probably clever than big Dave C from number 10).

For some the night was just about chasing tail

As one well-bred rugger bugger said ‘Don’t write that we’re posh wankers… I mean we are but don’t write it!’

All the tweed seems to have given this chap the horn!

The team introduced us to their complex set of rules. The most important one seemed to be the ‘animal rule’ – when a player joins the society they are given a toy animal that they must hold onto for their whole 5 years of university. If they were found not to have it on them – or if it was found to have been badly looked after – the culprit would be taken to the pub there and then to down a pint.

A fresher – who looked remarkably like Freddy Mercury with his Movember attempt – have to down a pint upside down because he had committed the cardinal sin of trying to pass off someone else’s animal as his own.

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Just a little silhouetto of a man

Along with a variety of other rules anyone could shout ‘shark attack’ at any point which meant everyone had to get on a table (or anything above ground level) or face having to neck yet more pints. This game saw us get kicked out of the Distillery as a surprise shark attack made everyone jump on tables and knock glasses all over the place.

One fox down…

The ‘hounds’ were pretty good to be fair, they caught two of the foxes in the Flute after about an hour leaving one fox alone for the majority of the night. Once he’d been flushed out in a pub off Renshaw Street everyone could get back to focusing on the serious business of drinking. So we went off to Ca’vas for some chili tequilas and from there on in the night got hazy.

The hounds baying for blood

We did get to ask some of the lads what was so good about being part of the society. James Portsmouth compared it to white water rafting ‘challenging but ultimately satisfying… but with more beer and penises’, while Dan Bell said it serves to ‘Separate the men from the boys in a vet school over populated by females’ and Aaron Lutchman had a pop at the Medics ‘I guess it’s like the Medic RUFC, but so much better’ – meow.

Team photo at the end of the night – slightly worse for wear?

The Tab’s night out with the Vets’ was a good laugh, it saw copious amounts of beer, whiskey, and tweed. The complex web of rules also made for entertaining viewing when someone had to do a forfeit. Overall the Vets’ Rugby lot were a good laugh and gave the Tab an insight into how the other half live!

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