Early on, Trent’s indiscretions at the breakdown were crippling them and had it not been for lack of a goal kicker, Uni may have been ahead at the break. As a result of this, Uni were forced to kick to the corner instead of taking the three points, which for much of the game did not matter because of the numerous breaks from Eitan Humphreys. He was darting through the Trent line at will and  scurried over from close range to give Uni an early 5-0 lead, while around the fringes, Humphreys and Uni’s back row of Joe Williams, Owen Jackson and Captain Jack Cooper, were making great strides. However, when the ball was spread wide, Notts looked a little static, Nick Fraser spurning a great chance in the far corner after twenty minutes because of a slight hesitation that allowed the Trent defence onto him.

In contrast, Trent’s backs looked sharp, and had it not been for some ferocious Uni defence, in particular from big David Priest, Trent may have been out of sight by half time as they were efficient with what little ball they had. A neat grubber through from Trent’s outside-half that was poorly fielded by full back Rob Cleary, pinned Uni in their own twenty-two and after multiple phases, Trent fly-half broke through injured Michael Hall’s tackle to put away his winger to level at 5-5. Just before half-time, Fraser was sin-binned for having his hands in at the ruck which allowed Trent to score their second try and take a 12-5 lead into the interval.

In the second-half, Uni took the game by the scruff of the neck. The scrum was unstoppable and the back five of the scrum carried terrifically. More Trent indiscipline gave Uni a lineout five metres from the opposition line. A great driving maul ensued and Cooper flopped over for Uni’s second try. Uni’s forward ferocity was unrelenting and Osinibi powered over from fifteen metres only minutes later with at least two of Trent’s ailing XV hanging of his back. With twenty to play, Uni were in a commanding position. Uni looked relatively comfortable with the pack retaining dominance over both set pieces but failed to make use of their prolonged periods of territorial superiority.

With two minutes to play, Trent’s outside-half, on the wrap around, scythed through Uni’s defence and tried to put away the winger. Fraser slapped down the pass and the ball trickled over Uni’s try line for Trent to touch down. The game ended 17-15.

Uni were the better side; their pack at times was on a different planet to Trent’s, but lack of a goal kicker and a slickness in the back division cost them. Uni were forced at times to play ten man rugby, and were heavily reliant on Humphreys for their cutting edge. If forwards decided who won every game, Uni would have won by twenty points. It was a game decided upon very fine margins.

This result brings the Varsity Series 7-5 in our favour, with both the womens’ and mens’ football coming up on Friday night.

Will Cook

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The game did not get off to the best start as the much bigger Trent pack took hold of proceedings and were quickly leading 10-5. However, Uni composed themselves and as they managed to get more possession, their level of skill started to show. After some sustained pressure, a great line from outside centre Sadie Burton on the switch cut through Trent’s defences and from second phase fly-half, Izzy Joris shipped the ball wide for Gemma Robinson to score in the corner.

This brilliant move gave Unit the confidence to get the ball through the hands, where the Trent side looked much more vulnerable. Uni finished the half with a 15-10 lead after a period of resolute defending, started by a brilliant covering tackle from Ellie McWilliam which was supported by her team, in particular Katie Williams.

Trent once again came out stronger and their powerful team levelled the game at 15-15, but this was not too late for Uni, as they hit back with two quick tries. A great snipe from McWilliam send Stephanie Weedon over the line and from the resulting kick-off, Emma Lumley scored a superb individual effort while she gathered the kick to storm through Trent’s defences, swatting players as she went. After MacKellar capitalised on a few phases of pressure by skinning her opposite woman, the game looked out of Trent’s reach with the scores standing at 15-32.

As Uni relaxed into the last quarter of the match, they rung a few changes and these fresh legs took the game further away from Trent. Burton and Jorris capped off their performance with fitting tries.

Jake Batty

To see our upcoming pictures of the Rugby matches, please ‘like’ our Varsity Facebook page. 

To see our upcoming pictures of the Rugby matches, please ‘like’ our Varsity Facebook page. 

Having grown to love foreign languages and having fostered a desire to be fluent in as many tongues as possible, you can only imagine the constant torture that I have given my own father over his decision not to teach me Turkish as a child. I have always grilled him about my floundering speech and over-excessive use of hand gestures at family reunions; about my inadequacy to order a kebab at the local Turkish take-away and my failings to follow simple instructions and directions. But the one time when Turkish would have proven to be invaluable to my own safety was in the summer of 2005, when I decided to go paragliding in Ölüdeniz, a charming town situated on a postcard lagoon of the Turkish Riviera.

My mother, being my mother, sent my father off to the local tourist stand to barter with the paragliding tour operator in Turkish and returned ten minutes later, ashen-faced brandishing a receipt. Our flight was booked for the next day at the crack of dawn, under our family name ‘Mustafa’, and my godmother and her daughter decided to join in the fun.

Before the jump, we had a 90 minute drive up into the mountains in a jeep where my mother’s nervous but hysterical laughter drowned out the instructors words of encouragement as we were told about the running jump that we were about to make off the mountain side. I am not sure whether it was the fear, the altitude or a mixture of both that during the ride up the mountain prompted my godmother to leave the following answer message on her elderly mother’s telephone: “Hello Mum. It’s Tina. Having a lovely holiday in Turkey. Shanice and I are about to jump off a mountain.” Cue nervous hysterics from my mother. “Love you lots. Bye.”

At the mountaintop, I was greeted by my personal pilot who smiled profusely after I gave him my receipt, handed me a helmet and strapped me into the harness.

Before I knew it, I was running. Within seconds we had caught a breeze and I was soaring into the sky and gliding through the valleys of the mountains before hovering over the Mediterranean. From that height, I was able to see the entire lagoon, the Greek island of Rhodes but not my own impending doom. After half an hour of gliding, free-fall tricks and high-speed descents, we were coming down to land and picking up quite a speed.

Suddenly, the pilot shouted at me in Turkish. “What did you say?” I tried as we came to our final plunge.The pilot shouted again in Turkish, this time more panicked. “I don’t speak Turkish. What did you say?” I tried.
“Stand up!” He managed in English.

By this point, it was too late. I remember seeing my dad with a video camera on the shoreline. After that was pure carnage. My knees buckled as I tried to stand and we crash-landed onto the promenade. The sheer force of the rough landing thrust me forward on my bare legs, painting the concrete with blood as I went. The upside…I broke the poor pilot’s fall.

He unclipped himself from the harness and gave me a grave stare. A stare that wasn’t concerned with my bleeding knees or his gushing elbow but a stare that said, “shame on you! A Turkish boy that speaks no Turkish.” Needless to say, my father then received a stern telling-off from the pilot about his son’s uselessness in the Turkish language. Something along the lines of “he has the blood of a Turk, he should speak like a Turk”, but as this accident proved, I could have been lost in translation.

Sam Mustafa

In my final semester at university, and possibly a bit too late in my degree to really make use of the findings, I decided to investigate whether a first really is worth the hassle. Should anyone sacrifice other aspects of university life to attain the highest classification? Is it really worth spending late nights (which turn into very early mornings) in the library, declaring a self-imposed Facebook exile and generally avoiding all social interactions that do not focus on seminar presentations or tutor meetings? Will a first really make that much of a difference in the job market?

A simple scan through graduate schemes and job adverts makes for some pleasant reading. Most only state that a 2:1 degree is necessary for an application to be considered, with some schemes such as Teach First and the Civil Service graduate schemes even considering applicants who gained a 2:2 classification. A few emails sent out to former Nottingham students and the outlook is even more promising. The majority state that they are in good careers after graduating with a 2:1; one is even on a graduate scheme with a 2:2 degree.  So far the rumours appear to be true: a first isn’t a necessity.

However, before you get too excited about job prospects with an average 2:1, there is more to this than meets the eye. After many interviews with employers, graduates and careers advisors, the same response keeps arising. They all mention the role of extracurricular activities and work experience.

In the current job market, the need to outshine others applying for the job is essential. Applicants have to show that they’ve gone above and beyond what is normally expected of a university student. Evidently, if you’ve managed to get a 2:1 but have been on the committee of a society, been actively involved in student media and held down a part-time job, you’re showing that you’ve got skills that employers are looking for and are therefore far more employable than someone without these activities.

Stephen McAuliffe, director of the Careers and Employability Service here at Nottingham, explains that “whilst a first shows that you have achieved academic excellence and have the skills that employers are looking for, it is the ability to show how you can deploy these skills that will make you stand out”.

For example, if you can illustrate that you have used your research, organisational or logistical skills in an environment that will be similar to what they are expecting from you in the job, you will instantly be more employable. This could be something as grand as a work experience placement with their company or even something as fun as organizing socials for your rugby team. Each of these experiences show that you have used the skills that a degree instils within you in a practical way that companies find beneficial.

These ideas are all backed up by employers. In a recent poll on the Association of Graduate Recruiters website, an overwhelming 93% of graduate employers said that they would prefer to hire someone with a 2.1 and work experience over someone who achieved a first in their degree.

Mohit Malik, campus manager for the Royal Bank of Scotland, explained that RBS have similar criteria when recruiting graduates to their company and said that “now, more than ever, these experiences are very important”. With the current unstable job market and the fact that 25% of 2011 graduates are now unemployed, it would obviously behove undergraduates to make themselves more employable. He continues, “Companies are looking for people who can make a quick start to their graduate career and have been proactive enough to get some work experience, which in turn provides them with key skills needed in the corporate world, differentiating them from the crowd”.

This need to be a well-rounded applicant is even more apparent in the dreaded interview. On the phone or in person, candidates need to be able to reel off a list of achievements and fit them to the criteria required by the company. Unless you’re incredibly persuasive and a fantastic orator, managing to show how your degree is the best example of everything the employer is looking for, such as working with others, solving problems and taking the initiative, employers aren’t going to be happy with answers only revolving around your degree; employers are looking for a variety of responses from a multitude of activities.

Malik Mohit highlights this point well when discussing the typical answers to the question “tell me about a time you have worked in a team and faced difficulties”. He suggests that the usual response revolves around a university project with one member not pulling their weight and whilst that is still a good response, “when a candidates gives us an answer based on work experience, it’s a different approach from the norm and one based on an environment similar to which they are applying for”.

Another common interview question revolves around something such as “so what else did you do beyond your degree?” and if the only response you have is to either look blankly at your interviewer (“there was something beyond my degree?”) or say something about your ability to drink your body weight in Starbucks coffee and Red Bull on all-nighters then you may as well get up, shake the interviewer’s hand and leave.

Other interviewers will instead focus on a candidate’s drive and commitment to the company itself, something that they cannot glean from a degree classification. Carl Gilleard, Chief Executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters, explains that if a candidate can demonstrate their determination to work for a company, they are instantly more employable. For example, when asked  “How soon can you start if offered the post?” one candidate says not until they can arrange transport, but another says immediately and highlights how they have thought about this problem already, they are showing the motivation and enterprise that companies require ? there is clearly no question about who will get the job.

Whilst some employers may be impressed with the sheer intellect and drive that a first requires, most employers are looking for the whole package. A degree teaches you some of the key skills that are at the top of every employer’s wish list: teamwork, presentation, hard work etc, but it is imperative that a graduate has shown ways that they have developed these skills far more in a non-academic environment. Someone with a good degree (from a good university, often an unwritten subtext), with a CV full of examples that highlight how they have developed these skills, shows a lot more than the academic prowess that a first class mark typifies.  A first is an amazing achievement but should not be the reason for not participating in other activities and it will not guarantee you a job on its own

Unless you’re one of those superhuman university students who manages to get a first and does a ridiculous amount of extracurricular activities (speaking for the vast majority of the student population, we want to know your secrets), employers will almost always choose someone who shows that they can deploy the skills that they have learnt at university in a way that will benefit their company.

Lucy Kenderdine

This new ‘legal high’ is on the rise, and the reality is that more and more of Nottingham’s students appear to be currently entering into this world. If you haven’t yet come across this new drug, it is referred to by journalists and the older generation as ‘roflcopter’, but you are much more likely to hear it referred to as ‘MKet’ ? a name which for many of you might ring a few bells with that notorious fad of ‘MKat’, but the effects of this new kid on the block contrast vastly to the soaring highs and never-ending lows of the Mephedrone days.

Essentially, it is a derivative of the popular street drug Ketamine, and produces similar dissociative and numbing effects (for those of you who are unaware of what Ketamine is, it is a white powdered form of horse tranquilizer that is now a big part of the UK drug scene).

The key difference between Ketamine and methoxetamine, apart from the fact Ketamine is currently a class C drug, is that ‘Mket’ is a much more potent version, whose effects last longer and are more pronounced upon its users. Not surprisingly, it is known to induce some strange and bizarre trips, and anecdotes of the effects of this drug make for some interesting reading.

A student at Nottingham (who wishes to remain anonymous) has tried the drug on a few occasions and reported that “time distorts on it, space is abstracted and your brain seems to figure everything out, while at the same time is unbelievably confused. My ability to do things, like move and even speak seems to go, and my body feels overwhelmingly numb”.

The inherent risk with Ketamine and Methoxetamine is that taking too much at a time will inevitably lead to the infamous ‘K’ and ‘MKet’ holes. Another anonymous source recounted a time when he entered one of these notorious ‘MKet holes’ after taking too much:

“I felt as though nothing was real and I was the only person who existed in the world, kind of a Truman Show reality. Then my mind became detached from my body and I couldn’t escape from this sinking feeling. It is very hard to describe how I was feeling in words, but I guess looking back, it kind of felt as though I was dying”.

So the question I assume you are all currently asking is, why on earth anyone would consider doing this to themselves? In fact, the reasons for the rise in Methoxetamine are quite numerous. It can be ordered over the Internet, just as Mephedrone could, and delivered to your door, no questions asked, for around £25 a gram. Despite overwhelming warnings that this chemical is not meant for your nostrils from the sites that you can buy it from, the drug is not illegal, and this must play a big role in its current rise on the scene. Also, any drug which is brought around halls of residence in the likes of Nottingham, Bristol and Leeds will invariably become widespread very fast, owing to their wild ‘everyone is doing it’ culture.

The extreme effects of the drug are rare, and although Leicestershire police have linked the drug to the deaths of a couple, there have been few reported casualties to date. A more common and comical side effect of the drug is for its users to lose control of their bowels. In an interview with NME, Ben Patashnik commented, “The St John’s Ambulance crew at Creamfields first noticed it when they found people standing upright, totally alone and zoned out, with pants full of shit”.

However, more serious health risks are not yet known, because the drug has not been tested, and no one knows what the long-term effects of using it will be. This leads to the bizarre and ironic situation, whereby it may very well be safer to do illegal drugs, such as Ketamine, for which testing has revealed much more about the health risks associated with it, while the potential harm of the legal drug, MKet, is very much an unknown and scary entity.

It is clear to me that given the powerful psychological trips it induces, MKet will never replicate the overwhelming popularity and binge culture which Mephedrone did, and still does to a lesser extent, but the drug still retains an augmenting danger. It is currently not illegal in the UK because its makers have allowed it to come out in the ‘grey market’, which is effectively the government’s blind spot on its drugs policies. By simply changing the molecular structure of ketamine slightly, and not advertising the drug for human consumption, supply of MKet in the UK has been allowed to flourish over the past few months.

It seems evident that MKet is allowed to be bought and sold with such ease, not because it’s not a dangerous drug, but because the Government is too out of touch and slow to prevent it from becoming a widespread problem. Their failure to realise and react to the situation is part of a larger battle the Government is currently having with the drugs industry and ‘legal highs’, and with the example of the rise of Methoxetamine, it is clear that the Government is currently losing the battle.

Jack Gilbert

But the encounter versus Trent is more than just a game of rugby for this group of players and tomorrow will be the last time many represent the Uni. Next year, NUWRFC will be without Katie Williams, Izzy Joris and Sadie Burton – the team’s three most influential players – who will depart having left their own mark on the team. The team will move on and progress, with individuals such as Lucy Ryall, Violet Coppin and Emma Lumley already showing promise and having established themselves in the team.

Having taken on Trent twice already this season, the team is fully aware of what they will bring to the party. But the success of this season, be it promotion, awards or cup wins will mean nothing to this highly motivated squad if it’s the pink side of Meadow Lane celebrating. This is without a doubt the most eagerly awaited women’s rugby match between these two in recent years with Trent’s steady decline coinciding with University’s steady rise. At the end of the game we will see once and for all who the superior women’s team in the city is.

Rory Stone

It begins, as most Burton films do, with a prologue; a fantastically gothic montage detailing the mortal life of Barnabas Collins (Depp), his transformation into a vampire and the subsequent curse laid upon his entire family by a witch (Eva Green). Then in 1972, two centuries later, Barnabas is freed from his imprisonment and returns to his mansion, Collinwood, to find a family even more dysfunctional than the one he left.

While Dark Shadows is Burton and Depp’s eighth collaboration together, they have still managed to create a film that feels very different to any of their previous work. Yes the dark humour still remains, as does the isolated, misunderstood protagonist that instantly conjures up images of Edward Scissorhands, Willy Wonka and Sweeney Todd, but there’s something else that stands out. Perhaps it’s the fact that (as surprising as it sounds) the two have never made a vampire movie before, or possibly because the cast does such a good job at portraying the strangest group of people since the Addams family; Chloe Grace Moretz is brilliant as the angst-ridden teenager, as is Helena Bonham Carter’s role of the alcoholic psychiatrist, Dr Hoffman, and Depp, the main attraction, never lets his standards fall.

Scripted by Seth Grahame-Smith (author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), the film certainly boasts the feel of a soap opera, with various affairs and family scandals being discovered at every turn, but diehard fans of the original television show are bound to be disappointed. This is the world of Tim Burton: a place packed with gothic imagery and tortured characters, a world in which absurdity prevails – Dark Shadows is more a re-imagining than a remake. It’s not completely different from its predecessor however – the characters are the same, the plot is vaguely similar and Jonathan Frid (the original Barnabas Collins, who sadly passed away last month) even has a small cameo – but when Alice Cooper makes an appearance on stage at the Collinwood house party singing ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’, you know you’re dealing with a Tim Burton project.

Okay, it might not be Burton’s finest moment; it may lack the gravity of Ed Wood and the simplicity of Edward Scissorhands, but Dark Shadows is a fast-moving, character-driven piece of entertainment and certainly an interesting addition to the already varied portrayal of the vampire legend.

Felix Taylor

Completed by vocalist/‘keytarist’ Sparkles*, guitarists Luke Owens and Alex Parvis, bassist Jonathan Kogan and drummer Leo Taylor, the band derive influence from Japanese animation. Mixing traditional rock riffs, twiddly solos and catchy synth melodies, Area 11 play, what they have dubbed ‘Gaijin rock’ – a mix of Japanese pop and rock with more familiar Western music. The band have already experienced the sweet taste of stardom after their scarily catchy parody of Basshunter’s ‘All I Ever Wanted’ (titled ‘Dota 2 Beta Key’) was viewed by over 1.6 million people on YouTube. Having released their EP ‘Blackline’, toured around the UK and, recently supported Basshunter at Nottingham’s Rock City, big things are in store for these guys.

Josh Levy

Their second album, ‘Fashion Nugget’, released in 1996, is by far the band’s greatest achievement; it is their most cohesive work. From start to end, the album demonstrates CAKE’s crafted approach to song writing as well as their keen ear for a strong pop melody. Lead singer John McCrea’s witting, half-spoken, half-sung lyrics, fraught with humour, are wonderfully set against the versatile instrumentation with a heavy use of countermelody, rhythmic syncopation and layering.

Perhaps the most surreal moment on the album is the band’s mournful cover of Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’, and along with Willie Nelson’s ‘Sad Song and Waltzes’ and Osvaldo Farres’ ‘Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps’ CAKE demonstrate their superb ability to take songs and make them wholly their own.

Unfortunately, their later work would ultimately be an attempt at regaining their artistic peak – their follow-up album was ironically entitled ‘Prolonging The Magic’. The great shame about CAKE is that they occupy something of a middle ground; the plethora of genres that comprise their sound ultimately make them somewhat alienating for any devoted fan of any of the genres they oscillate between. Still, it remains one of my favourite albums ever because it continues to gain my appreciation with every listen.

Ben James