News Digest

Cambridge Uni boy’s club brings back jelly wrestling after two-year ban

A Cambridge University drinking society is bringing back its female jelly wrestling contest two years after it was axed for being sexist. The Gentleman Wyverns, a male-only club based at Magdalene College, said the controversial event will return for its 86th garden party next month. In previous years, it involved two bikini-clad female students fighting in a jelly-filled paddling pool, with the winner given a cash prize. This year, male wrestlers will be allowed to compete too.

[This is] not part of some cheap ruse to see women get down to their bikinis.

Club spokesman in a blog post.

The Wyverns have issued an open invitation to other student societies to enter “the first annual Jelly Wrestling Cuppers”, with the prize of “eternal honour, college pride, glory and honour” up for grabs. Undergraduate Natalie Holroyd said she believes the contest is “damaging to the mental health of women with body image issues and eating disorders”. Writing for The Cambridge Student newspaper, she added: “Just because the men are now allowed to join in doesn’t erase what jelly wrestling means to those who attend the event, and those who feel threatened by it.”