Brief news: troublesome teenagers and playful plaques

Protect our pints

A recent proposal by Cambridge University researchers to serve beer in ⅔ pint measures instead of traditional pints has been attacked by Tim Martin, chairman of JD Wetherspoon. Martin called the proposal to serve “schooners” instead of pints “a bit stupid”. He disagrees with University researchers, led by Professor Dame Theresa Marteau, who propose that smaller portions would reduce alcohol consumption. So, much to the relief of students, it appears our Spoons pints are safe – for now.

You have to play!

Across Cambridge, 10.6 plaques were put up with rules urging spectators to be more playful. Part of Cambridge’s new ‘play laws’, the plaques ask the public to jump in puddles and wave to birds. Those who find one of the new plaques will be able to follow a QR code to get more information about the laws and the stories behind them. The plaque collection includes those titled ‘Wiggle Bottom Park’, ‘Loiter well’ and ‘Jumpers for goalposts’. The final 0.6 plaque will be half legible, symbolizing how the project was funded by section 106 contributions from developers which were secured by Cambridge City Council during the planning process.

Egg on your race!

Police attended the annual Cambridge Town and Gown running event on Sunday (6/10) due to teenagers throwing eggs. Participants were running in support of Muscular Dystrophy UK, with the 10km loop starting and finishing at Midsummer Common. A Cambridgeshire Police spokesperson said “officers patrolled the town center” during the race. They “spoke to stewards about problems with anti-social behavior and responded to reports of teenagers throwing eggs”. However, the event still went off without a problem.

The University Challenge called into question

RuPaul’s Drag Race star Marcus Crabb’s drag character Kate Butch took to X to criticize University Challenge for allowing Oxford and Cambridge to enter multiple teams. Butch described being “almost militant about the fact that I think Oxford and Cambridge shouldn’t be allowed to do the University Challenge 30 times a year, it’s not called College Challenge is it”. This sparked fierce debate over X, with some defending the decision, arguing that university teams from Oxford and Cambridge “would be essentially invincible”. But others say “it’s not fair to other collegiate universities like Durham.” Host Amol Rajan, who attended Downing College, Cambridge and was previously editor-in-chief Universityhas not yet addressed the debate.