After weeks of anticipation, the biggest weekend in DUAXC's calender finally arrived. And what a weekend it was to be! For the strong fresher contingent it was their first BUCS experience, whilst others were bidding a fond and emotional (Yvonne!) farewell. The 6 hour journey down to Cardiff had the potential to be a tedious affaire, but thankfull the boys at the back were saved by Alex Robinson's IPAD. Pat, Alex and Martin were left forlon as Nick Butler marched to a victory in the inaugral DUAXC virtual monopoly championships. For the rest there was what can only be described as a game of eye spy the redefined big! Six hours later we arrived at the hostle, dwarfed by the impressive Millenuim stadium.

After frequenting the local eating establishments it was time for the tradition motivational speech by the captains. After a rousing, Martin Luthert King like speech, everybody was left feeling rejuvinated and well and truly up for the race to come. Any remianing tensions were quickly forgotten as Yussuf Karuner provided a moment of comedy gold by taking a tuble over the hotels hammock. Everybody was hoping for an unevntful night, but such hopes were quickly dashed, certainly for Rory and Yvonne, who had to deal with the plonkers at the hostel double booking the tripple room. This was to the dismay of our three lads, who seemed  keen for a cosy night with some of the Glagow team! There have been unconfirmed reports of Kat O'Mahony mistaking Sophie Davie for an Australian Back-Packer also. The events of the race itself can be read in the seperate report, but the social activities continued after the race in the form of the girls getting ready for the evening to come as the lads enjoyed England beat Scotland with a beer or two. The match was especially enjoyable for Nick Thomas as Charlie Hodgson's try won him the sweep stake. It was to be a big night for Nick...From the hostel we headed to zero degrees for our meal. Despite the cold temperature it was a fine establishment. Social sec and the biggest name in DUAXC, Jack Hillier decided to mix the meal up a bit by trying to change the clear gender divide of the weekend by sitting everyone boy girl. Pete Davison did not approve and showed his discontent by vomitting over the table.

Two hours and a few drinks later it was time to explore Cardiff. It was decided that Varsity would be the next port of call. Yet we some how managed to end up in the neighbouring Lloyds bar. Well some of us did anyway... Dan and Ed conveniently ended up having a romantic date for two in Varsity and Alex S and Suzanne forgot their ID so ended up having a Macdonalds date. Next up was a pub with a Welsh name that I have forgotten next to the SU. It was here that the fun and games began. In here Yussuf took Man the man of the match award for some steely and determined running. Dick of the day was a tighter affaire with Nominees including Alex for spending the B race on the toilet rather than cheering eveybody on, Alex and susanne for the ID incident, yet Outside bet Jack Hillier took the award (and the dirty pint)! The rest of the time in the pub was spent downing dirty pints (Rory will want to forget how Yvonne comfortably beat him in the captains challenge and), boat racing (unless you were a member of the post grad team who pulled out) and chundering in the toilet (if you are Ed).

 It was from the pub with the Welsh name to the student Union. Unless your name is Nick Thomas in which case it was to the doors of the SU only to throw up everywhere and be bared enterance! It is well know that the Cardiif SU is were Romantic dreams are made and some DUAXC members who will remain nameless ( CC + RF, P 'the mildert molester B + SD and unconfirmed reports of JH and EW????) made the most of this repuatation - unfortunately the photographic evidence is censored! The Night was hilarious some of the highlights including Alex's worrying stong affection for Lucy Reid's dad, Jacks abuse of 7 ft tall rugby players and members of the Glasgow team, Yvonne's emotional exit, Rob Torch's detrermination to get a Macdonalds amongst other things. The next day, Andy, Martin and Ed amazingly managed to get up for a casual 12 mile run so were by far the freshest on the coach journey home....which is were this story ends!!!