Student drinking - it's not all bad. . .

Student blogger James Ashford discusses student drinking, including how to play ring of fire, becoming friends with Rupert Grint and the shame of the morning after.

Today I leave Shrewsbury, returning once again to Sheffield. It is with a heavy heart that I wave my handkerchief in the general direction of this wonderful town of flowers - the few weeks I've had at home over Easter have been an emotional rollercoaster.

I'll look back and smile at the times spent having a swift half pint with friends in the local discotheques, both Onyx and indeed Blu. I'll laugh raucously, thinking of the evening I spent cutting chewing gum out of my hair with kitchen scissors. It seems that coming home is somewhat like being at university – drinking is involved.

It's very easy to criticise drinking. It's bad for your health, it feels awful the next morning and it makes you do ridiculous things. Some of the worst decisions you make come after having had a few too many.

It's not all bad though. Of the seven or eight amusing things that have happened in my life, I'd say that approximately some of them have happened after a tipple or two.

Becoming close friends with Rupert Grint, exploring the catacombs of an abandoned cathedral, and drinking gin with the Holloways after claiming to be their support act have all happened after, and undeniably during, the consumption of alcohol.

Though the photographs will inevitably resurface and end any career I can scrape together, that's okay, because all I really need are the hazy memories and jaundice tinge of a job well done.

All my friends, and many people I don't like at all, have endless stories of drunken debauchery. These inevitably start with some form of drinking game. For the benefit of the more distinguished reader, I will give an example of what these involve. The most popular drinking game is probably Ring of Fire, also known as King's Cup and rather charmingly, Circle of Death.

A table is cleared. In the centre is placed a large cup, and spread around the base of the cup is a deck of cards, shuffled and face down. All willing participants take it in turns to draw a card from around the base of the cup. Each card is assigned an instruction. For example 3 is me – the person who takes the card must drink. King is contribute – you have to pour a little of your drink into the cup at the centre of the table. Whoever gets the last King must drink the 'dirty pint' from the centre cup. If the circle of cards is broken, the same applies.

On the face of it, the game looks like a mere excuse to get drunk and cause mischief. In reality, it is so much more than that. The 'waterfall' rule teaches endurance. The 'rhyme' rule reminds us of the beauty and complexity of the English language. The 'mate' rule can make friends of enemies, and brothers of friends.

Before you take a dim view of student drinking, it helps to remember one thing: Winston Churchill is the most respected and liked British Prime Minister of all time, won the Nobel Prize for Literature, beat Nazism, was granted a state funeral and is widely regarded as one of the most influential people in modern history.

And he was always smashed.