A Conversation for Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK

Bridges

Post 1

Jan^

Clare bridge has two stories attached to it.
1. Q. How many balls are there on Clare bridge?
A. 13 7/8
One ball has a slice cut out of it (the penultimate ball on the left when coming from Old Court), supposedly to win a bet about the number of balls on the bridge, in the 18th Century. Rumour has it that Anton Gill (Clare 1966) has the missing slice, but you'll have to ask him about this.
2. An apocryphal story is that some undergraduates made a polystyrene ball and pushed it off the bridge, with great groans and effort, onto a punt full of Japanese tourists. The tourists jumped out of the punt, fully clothed, hung about with cameras, while the ball landed softly in the evacuated boat. I sincerely hope that this is true.

A note for punt pole pinchers - Trinity bridge is the lowest, so is a better bet than Queens', but Trinity porters patrol the bridge during the summer, so be careful.
smiley - smiley


Lies.... uh, Stories

Post 2

Martin Harper

I always liked the following story....

walking on the grass in many colleges, including Queens, is strictly verboten. So one day, a pair of students thought up a plan (over a beer, of course). One dressed up as your typical tourist, complete with camera and dumb expression. The other dressed up as a porter. During a busy summer, tourist-student walked brazenly onto the grass. porter-student shouted at him, then drew a fake pistol, and shot tourist-student, who collapsed in a heap, fake-blood pouring from the fake-blood container he had on him.

All the other tourists screamed and ran for their lives, causing much merriment. The porter-student was sent-down for impersonating a porter, firing a fake gun, and causing a stampede. The tourist-student was also sent down....... for WALKING ON THE GRASS.


Bridges

Post 3

Charlie Croker

Another story told to me, and apparently not made-up as it was told to me by the grand-son of the man involved.
Q: How many of the 14 balls on Clare bridge are original?
A: Thirteen. For a bet, a tradesman from Portsmouth came all the way up to cambridge and stole one of the balls and, at great personal risk to his lower back, carried it back to garden, where it still stands today.


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