Sports Night kicks off on a high for the new year

Wednesday 2^nd October saw the Beit venues host this academic year’s inaugural “Wednesdays @ Beit”, colloquially known as Sports Night and Felix sent their roving Societies correspondent, Barnaby Hilton-Royce on the scene on his first Sports Night ever to discover how the experience was for freshers and seasoned revellers this year.

Initially the night started off very slowly, with a relatively few numbers of people at Beit Quad- relatively few to what it would become, but it was an extremely busy night at both FiveSixEight and the Union Bar to begin with. Rugby and Netball had already claimed their territory within the Union bar, and when I first managed to squeeze into the tiny room, already filled to beyond capacity by Rugby in the middle, and Netball cooped off in the side, it was beginning to get rowdy, although rugby players familiar with the matter did comment that ‘it’s not even started yet’. Many were beginning to get inebriated by the megapints they tended to drink but were still conscious enough to comment on the night ahead. When asked about the night, one rugby member said it was ‘exciting’.

Outside the bars, there was more lively activity. Members of a group claiming to be from SOAS Orienteering were willing to be interviewed. Felix is unsure how they managed to get in. ‘So, for me… I describe ACC [Athletic Clubs Committee] or Sports Night as a girl, and when I talk to her, I feel amazing’. Said one member smoking outside. Ben James, another member from SOAS orienteering said they would sum up sports nights with ‘one word: mega-Carling.’

Felix was able to find a singular first year willing to talk about their first time at the event. ‘It’s a wild night, I’m scared to tell them it’s my birthday’. He had just turned 19 and was about to spend his evening with an unknown sports club.

By 9pm, what an anonymous source close to the matter would describe as the “big ones” – football, cricket, hockey, and rugby – had arrived, and people were slowly filling into Metric, the Union club and music venue. A female member from hockey was kind enough to be interviewed on the dancefloor: ‘join hockey to meet your future partner, housemate or best friend’. When pressed on the partner bit of her pitch (and whether hockey is incestuous, she clarified: ‘I wouldn’t call it incestuous, I would call it fate. I would call it like, you meet your best friends, and they might be more than that’. When asked if she had met a partner through hockey, the club member said: ‘not a relationship’.

Some enthusiastic sports club members wore costumes. Two netball team members were dressed as a can of Stella Artois, and a pack of Marlboro Gold (British cancer warning). Another, separate, anonymous source familiar with this matter clarified that it was because they were dressed as things men abuse. Other women, of unknown clubs, were dressed as the Teletubbies, or sporting fake facial hair.

By 10pm, our roving reporter had to head home, but the night was only beginning. Other reports indicate the atmosphere was positively electric, if a bit public school boy, and a fun night for those who attended.