A shady, semi-official annual event at Imperial College, London.
As part of rag week, the main objective is to have plenty of
anti-social fun under the shield of charity fund raising.
Despite the complicated (and misleading) name, the premise behind
the SNKPJ is very simple. A
dozen male students sign up, usually under the influence of alcohol or
peer-pressure. They collect pledges of sponsorship. Come Saturday
morning they get tanked up on dutch courage once again and
pile into an unmarked van to be dropped off outside posh department
store Harrods. Assuming conditions are good, and PC Plod is
nowhere to be seen, our kamikaze students will jump from the van
wearing nothing but shoes, bow ties, and their
invisible parachutes. The race is then on to get back to the
students union quadrangle past one mile of dense London traffic and
crowds of confused tourists. Unlike an ordinary race, the winner is the
one who turns up last.
This race obviously requires spirit. Quite apart from being
uninhibited enough to bare all to the world, the runners must worry
about the dangers of being apprehended by the law or molested by
perverts. The latter concern ultimately forced the abandonment of this
short-lived tradition.
This came about as the runners were in preparation for the year 2000
race. A brave female fresher decided she would win glory by being the
first woman to run the race. The race organisers hum'd and ha'd
over this for some time before refusing on safety grounds.
Her case was taken up by an over-zealous male feminist union officer
who brought up the issue in a meeting. This act destroyed the union's
plausible deniability and the event was banned by college bureaucrats.
The SNKPJ WILL
return...