12.02.07 town v gown + germans

I've posted about the Oxford Union before. Normally this is the scene of polite debate over political and social issues, as well as a forum in which to see world leaders speak. Monday night it turned into a boxing ring!

Town vs Gown

There are 3 types of people in Oxford: townies, university students (the gown), and tourists. Tourists we all know about, and the gown have been well enough documented in this blog... multi ethnic, multicultural, over-educated, noisy, entitled feeling, drunk a lot of the time, etc. The townies are really pretty typical of small town Britons: trashier, less educated, chubbier, harder looking, track suit loving, girls dressing in very tight clothes on Friday night, drunk a lot of the time, etc. Sort of like if the Jersey shore were instantly transplanted to the middle of England. Predictably, tensions have run high over the years. There are fights now and again, and historically, there were even riots, and a battle once too place back in the 1300s. A couple dozen students were killed in that instance. As a symbolic punishment, the king required that once a year, the mayor of the town had to walk through town to a church with his hat off, and place pennies on the altar, 1 for each dead student. This was discontinued in the 19th century. The particular qualities of town and gown have changed a lot since then, but some amount of the tension remains, and everybody knows it.

Boxing!

So, the Union sort of make a joke of this by having an amateur boxing match called "town vs gown" where the Oxford University Amateur Boxing Club has bouts against various entrants from other Oxford non-University clubs. The spirit is very collegial and competitive in a positive way. This has the effect of turning the ancient debating chamber into a boxing ring. Fun fun fun!

normal

boxing!

I went with Florian and Juergen (Germans) and Matt (Kansan). Almost as entertaining as the match was Juergen's drunken screaming: "Kill Him! Kill the motherfucker!", alternating with what I can only imagine is the German equivalent. There were some tough looking boxing club types sitting in front of us, and they seemed to think Juergen was pretty funny. Some of the fights were just crap, and some really had a lot of heart. I particularly loved a fight between a Merton girl (go Merton!!!) and a townie from some local boxing club. They both gave it so much energy and kept going hard all the way through 3 rounds. Then at then end, they gave one another a big hug... it was really moving. There was another fight, between who I can't remember, where the Oxford kid came back halfway through the bout and just started whaling on the other kid... the whole room was on it's feet, roaring. That felt really good... kind of like when a corrida turns dangerous and dramatic and the whole ring goes silent. This was a great night!

Juergen, me, and Florian

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