Cambridge’s University Hockey Club (CUHC) has been fined £300 in damages following a smash-up at a social in a curry restaurant. The incident was deemed to be “unacceptable behaviour” by a club member, and allegedly left the team lucky to escape without facing criminal repercussions.

In a WhatsApp message sent to the hockey club’s group chat, a member of CUHC blasted the team for their actions, stating that the incident could “have been very bad for our reputation, this could have escalated into criminal damages”

They added: “Last night’s behaviour was simply unacceptable, especially in a venue that is not ours […] We need to have some pride in our reputation.”

Following a “long chat” with the Curry King owner the team agreed to pay a total of £300 in damages, in order to cover for the mess caused. This could have supposedly escalated into criminal charges, according to the message, but did not as both the club and the restaurant’s owner reached an accord.

The Club is set to return to the site for their next social, in spite of the damages caused by the team’s raucous behaviour. This was agreed on the condition that the team was willing to abide to the “basic standards,” expected of them.

“As I’m sure most of you will know, we are still booked into Curry King on the 16th, and they are happy for us to come,” the text message read.

The group were also urged to take “some pride in our reputation,” which a club member feared could have been “seriously damaged” by the incident.

Every member of the Hockey Club was subsequently charged £2.61 to pay for the total damages alleged by The Curry King meaning that at least 114 individuals were called upon to take ‘collective responsibility,’ for the incident. However, Varsity understands that a minority of students were involved in misbehaviour at the social.

CUHC is the university’s largest mixed sports club, with around 90 players, relying on an annual subscription of £290 from its members to cover costs such as transportation, umpiring and coaching. The hockey club has full club socials normally every other week, according to its University website page.

Curry King is a restaurant located in Central Cambridge on Bridge Street. It has been described as “excellent,” and having “very well flavoured” dishes by reviewers on the Facebook group Cambridge Curry Community.

The site where the restaurant is based has historically been subject to bad behaviour. The Bombay Brasserie, another curry restaurant that was located at the site, faced an “unusually high rate of damage,” with 20 to 30 glasses broken on average, per night.

In 2008, students were barred from bringing their own wine into the two restaurants. “There is too much mess around, too much noise. I don’t want students to ruin our restaurant anymore,” said Giash Uddin, manager of the Bombay Brasserie.

The Bombay Brasserie’s Cambridge branch has since been dissolved; shutting down in 2011.

This comes after Corpus Christi College banned all undergraduates from formals for two weeks following “unacceptable behaviour”. An email sent by the Dean of College, Andrew Sanger, specifically referred to “large amounts of vomit on the floor and in the shower” as well as “faeces on the floor and in the bin”.

Following the incident, the Corpus JCR “Chunder Blunder Funder,” a fund which he said “exists for scenarios like this to compensate cleaning staff,” along with the individuals responsible for the mess to write a letter of apology to the staff.

Last year, St John’s College’s sports teams were given 130 hours of community service following their behaviour at a sports day swap with the University of Oxford. The teams were seen battering the grounds, allegedly trashing Balliol College’s bar, committing poor behaviour at swaps, and leaving broken glass, and mud and urine in the changing rooms, on Oxford’s CCTV.

Following the incident, the College’s Dean called an “urgent meeting” with the teams’ captains. He criticised the team for their conduct, stating that “security staff reported our students drinking beer through funnels, and then sliding on beer spilt on the floor”.

Curry King and Cambridge University Hockey Club were contacted to comment.

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