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Mascots and Spanner Treasure Hunt
by Simon at 20:06 28/05/03 (History of RCS Mascotry)
To describe the fortunes of RCS mascotry in the last twelve months as anything less than fine would be nothing short of an injustice.
Once again the Union has kept its hands well and truly on Theta, our 7-foot stainless steel thermometer mascot, whilst pulling off a cunningly planned and daringly executed snatch of Guilds Union's violable mascots, the 4-foot brass Spanner and an overlarge Bolt.

The snatch, and the subsequent treasure hunt organised to enable Guilds to retrieve their mascots, proved to be the highpoint of mascotry at IC last year.

The successful plot revolved around the fact that Physics I's Martin Watson had a namesake, in Chemical Engineering I. So, from the time of the Electrical Engineering Freshers' dinner to the snatch six weeks later, Martin posed as a fresher Guildsman. He attended Guilds Rag stunts, Union meetings and frequented the C & GU office.

By the time of the Guilds Christmas Union meeting Martin had become so trusted by the Guilds mascot bearers that he was asked to use his car to bring Spanner and Bolt to the Union meeting.

Like RCS, Guilds use as many as half a dozen cars to transport their mascots to Guilds functions. Martin was told to park his Allegro car somewhere in South London, from where he would drive the mascots to the next rendezvous point en route for College.

From there on the capture of Spanner and Bolt was a piece of cake. Shortly after mid-day on Tuesday 14th December Guilds' Jerry Cummin transferred the mascots from the boot of his car to that of Martin's hired Allegro. Martin then drove the Allegro round the corner to the waiting J4 van. The capture - an obvious embarrassment to Guilds who had almost given us their mascots - was the first time Bolt had been nicked, and the first time Spanner had been out of Guilds hands since Mines (RSM) swiped it in 1973.

The treasure hunt that followed the capture of Spanner and Bolt enabled RCS to exact some revenge for the treasure hunt Guilds had organised after they had nicked the 'old' Theta in November 1974.

Then the RCS Exec had been made to enter the Union Bar in drag. The revenge was sweet for the 1974/5 RCS Executive, all of whom were able to make it to the Bar to see the Guilds top three enter in drag. That event came near the end of the five-week long treasure hunt, which started on Christmas Day. Then the Guilds top three Executive - Steve Dearing (President), Dave Lord (Vice-President) and Mike Wheatley (Hon. Sec.) - who were involved in enacting all the tasks and clues, had to write out in longhand the full text of the Queen's speech. This had to reach their RCS counterparts by the first available post.

The treasure hunt resumed at College in the spring term. Guilds were required to buy clues off RCS from £10 - £30 a time. They were allowed to raise the £170 eventually needed for the hunt through a separate rag stunt. The £170 was put towards RCS's rag totals.

The hunt involved many arduous tasks: from appearing in drag, to a gruelling 4 legged race round the College, to polishing 80 pairs of shoes in half an hour in the Junior Common Room, to searching for an envelope tied to the axle of an unspecified car somewhere in College(!), to collecting a clue from Chingford post office, to taking photos of the Guilds Exec with other Colleges' mascots.

The captured mascots were finally handed over to Guilds on February 10th in Beit Quad to a reception that included a smokescreen and maroons.

(this article was originally published in the RCS Union Handbook for the year after the theft)

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