Oxford Students Stage Noisy “Rag”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 886, 1 February 1930, Page 22

Oxford Students Stage Noisy “Rag”

■ XFORD celebrated its recent win at Twickenham in characteristic “Rugger Night” style at the Dominion Theatre. The performance, at the request of the police, was cut short by half an hour. The artists were subjected to a constant fire of catcalls, whistling and shouting from the undergraduates. Corridors and refreshment rooms were used for Rugby scrums, and the play was carried on amid scenes of rowdyism. Many angry members of the audience, their evening spoiled, demanded their money back. The manager, Mr. Oscar Barrett, was assaulted in one of the bars by an undergraduate, but was able, in his own words, “to render a good account of himself.” “I quite understand,” Mr. Barrett told a Daily Chronicle” representative, “that ‘Rugger night’ must be carried out with a certain amount of

jollification. But things have gone a bit too far, and I am sorry for the ordinary members of the public who had their night’s entertainment ruined. “From the back of the stalls and in other parts of the house I have not been able to hear one completed sentence or song. “It is a great pity that these young men do not come under the jurisdiction of their university when visiting London. I hesitate to call their behaviour hooliganism, but it seems a curious commentary on the standard of education set up at the universities.” At the fall of the curtain there was a concerted rush by three or four hundred students toward the cloak rooms and the vestibule, where a "friendly" free fight took place. The hero of the match, Mr. Robson, who scored seven of the nine points by which Oxford beat Cambridge, was recognised and given a great ovation. He was seized by dozens of admirers and chaired in the Tain, hatless and coatless, across Tottenham Court Road. Students gathered outside the theatre

aDd blocked the traffic. An exttd force of police had to be summoned to clear them c-ff the street. As far as is known the damage done does not compare with that at the Hippodrome and Palace Theatres on a similar night two years ago. On that occasion the curtain at PC’ theatres was rung down 101 through the performance. At the *■ minion Theatre it. was consider wiser to struggle through with tnew programme rather than to disappo.® members of the public who hail P* 1 for their seats. Cambridge Subdued By contrast, Cambridge were, £ S!m paratively orderly at the Adeip Theatre. Part of the show was “washed o by the din. . , . One undergraduate arrived wuu large megaphone, but a constAP shadowed him and took care to® l was never used. Whenever the strument was raised for action * constable was on the spot. . Finally, in disgust, the Light Bi placed the megaphone on his b like a dunce's cap, and left theatre.