Today’s news will come as a relief for those who have been following the drawn out saga of the sports centre.

The idiosyncrasy was highlighted in 1973 by Michael McCrum, the Master of Corpus Christi, and has been on and off the University’s agenda ever since.

Between 1995 and 1998, plans were drawn up by the University and a local developer for a new sports centre to be built in West Cambridge. The land was acquired the following year and by 2000 the centre had been granted planning permission.

This flurry of activity was followed by a decade of stalemate. Progress has remained slow, with the University concentrating on rejuvenating their science facilities, extending housing for staff and post grads.

Despite influential voices such as Kelly Holmes, Cambridge MP Julian Huppert and Olympian Andrew Baddeley lending their voices to the campaign, the target of £50 million was widely dismissed as excessive.

In true Cambridge style the proposal got lost somewhere between endless committees.

During the 800th year fundraising campaign, donors who wished to remember their time on the pitch rather than in the lab were told that the closest that their cash would get to the abandoned project would be to fund ‘unspecified causes’ which might or might not be sport-related.

This week’s development marks a turning point, arguably the biggest since this campaign began.

No one has previously committed themselves to seeing the project through.

The location of the West Cambridge site.

Hopefully with a Vice Chancellor who is a keen sports fan himself and  who oversaw the expansion of sports facilities at Imperial College London, the plans have a chance of getting off the ground.

As one Blues swimmer told me yesterday, “Cambridge has waited an awful long time for this”.

Ever come home after a night out and have a strange craving for beans on toast? Sometimes can’t be bothered to be social in hall and just want to retire for the night with pasta and iPlayer?

Hope you aren’t at Caius then, as the college have disconnected the last remaining hobs in their student kitchens.

The unexpected move is the latest in a long run of bizarre Caian food rules, such as forcing the undergrads to buy forty hall tickets at the beginning of each term and cancelling their boozy dinners.

The decision has been met with outrage from students, particularly as Caius food is notorious for its dubious, some claim overpriced, delights: anyone who has sampled a Caius ‘taco’ will, apparently, understand.

The undergraduates are fuming, one student told The Tab: “it’s difficult enough to keep within my budget when I can plan what food I’m going to cook, but now it’s impossible. I chose my accommodation because it was somewhere that I could cater for myself.

“Forcing us into hall every night might be good for the college’s bank account but it certainly isn’t helping my overdraft.”

The college are taking a hard line, with the Senior Tutor Dr Holburn blaming the college’s Student Union for misleading students into thinking that they were competent enough to cook without burning anything.

Students are beginning to fight back: becoming creative with microwaves (which apparently can be used to make cakes), and George Foreman grills, which cook pizza nicely.

A third year student, who probably should know better, told The Tab that his attempt to use a candle to heat up soup “went fairly disastrously”.

Leading Cambridge academics are up in arms about the plans, which could see "gross idleness" and “an unreasonable refusal to carry out a reasonable request” made punishable by sacking. 

Previously academics would have to have committed “conduct of an immoral, scandalous or disgraceful nature” before being shown the door.

But dons now fear that refusing to change a class to fit in with the demanding extra-curricular schedules of supervisees coud soon be grounds for dismissal. 

Presently, a don can’t be fired without the democratic agreement of his peers, but these new proposals would allow the University to bypass the Regent House vote and fire academics with impunity.

Academics are concerned the move is financially motivated, and believe this could be a measure designed to cut down on staff costs.

Many are claiming that the step is being taken to make it easier to make widespread redundancies as the recession starts to take its toll on higher education funding.

The credit crisis has dramatically affected University endowments, which fell by over 30% this year. Government spending on higher education could fall by a quarter.

Accounts published last November revealed the Uni’s £19m deficit, and with staff costs accounting for more than half the budget, it is clear why the dons are getting worried.

It's not just Cambridge who are feeling the pinch, with Universities up and down the country having to make cuts.

Spending on higher education staff nationwide has dropped to its lowest proportion since records began 15 years ago.

Seven universities, including Thames Valley and London Metropolitan, are thought to be on the verge of collapse, struggling to cope with the recession.

A group of outraged dons have set up a group to fight for their freedoms.

They have had the right to vote on any dismissals for 500 years, and the University has provided a haven for dissidents and rebels as a result of this.

One of their main concerns is that the measures would make it easier to fire academics who held outspoken views.

A fellow who criticised the government (who largely fund the University) for example, could be quickly ushered out, even if they were backed by colleagues.

Dr Mike Clark, a reader in pathology, said that academics needed to be able to: "espouse views that might not be widely accepted and which could even bring them into conflict with those in positions of authority."

The rebel dons are struggling to prevent the University from stifling their freedom of speech and adopting an Alan Sugar ?'you'?re fired'? culture.

They have also accused the University of trying to conceal the radical reforms in the middle of a vast document, '?squatting in the middle like a knobbly toad?.'

Their campaign is becoming more and more of an embarrassment for the university officials, and was this week splashed across national press. 

They are also blogging online, calling the proposals an '?idiocy'? and warning that '?opposition is mounting rather than fading away?':

The vote will take place this term.

A group of 40 vets in Cambridge,  including several students, have helped to piece a dog back together after she was left for dead in a horrific car crash.

Ruby, a three year old lurcher, had to be transferred to the University Vet School from Huntingdon because her injuries needed expert attention.

The accident left her with two broken legs, a broken sternum, a broken toe, a dislocated knee, ruptured ligaments, skin wounds and massive internal bleeding.

Her legs were so badly broken that they ‘looked like puddles’.

Five weeks, several operations, 4 metal plates and £11,500 later she was back on her feet and wagging her tail at the Cantabs giving her round the clock care.

She has always been a troublemaker, her family nicknamed her ‘the hooligan’, but now the press are calling her “the bionic dog” after her miraculous surgery.

Luckily the dog was insured for 10 grand. Her owner admitted that “if she had not been insured we would have had to put her down”.

Ruby is expected to make a full recovery.

The Tab is offering a £50 reward to anyone who catches the Cambridge flasher.

In the last couple of weeks there have been incidents involving the notorious flasher in the Newnham area, Grange Road, Clarkson Road and Storey's way.

The man in question seems to target student hostels. He doesn't approach people on the street, preferring to wait outside a ground floor window. 

Girls working on their essays with the curtains open have frequently got an eyeful.

Police hoped that the culprit had been caught in 2008 when a man was sentenced having admitted to exposing himself over 100 times, mainly to students. 

Despite conceding that he needed help the man still maintained that his habit was not sexually motivated.

All the female members of St John's have been cautioned to take care, as many of the colleges hostels lie within his preferred territory.

Head Porter Paul Doxey warned: "Ladies…the flasher is back. I thought he had disappeared due to the cold weather but clearly not. Let me know if you are unfortunate enough to encounter this idiot."

Have you had an unwelcome visit from the flasher? Help The Tab catch Cambridge's night time menace! A photo or any evidence leading to his identification will be rewarded with £50. Email news@cambridgetab.co.uk with information.

Lottie Unwin and her partner in crime Jo Hall managed to get to Sharm el-Sheikh, coming fourth overall in the challenge.

92 couples took part in the annual RAG Jailbreak, leaving Parker's Piece at 9am on Friday with the aim of getting as far away from Cambridge as possible within 36 hours without using any of their own money for transport.

In total, the teams travelled an astonishing 98,710 km, giving an average of 1073 km per team (to put that in perspective, Monaco is 1038km from Cambridge.) This comfortably beats the figures from last year, when 88 participants covered 85,039 km (an average of 966km per team.)

The most popular destination was Paris (where eight teams ended up) although one team only made it as far as Stansted.

The winning four jailbreak teams were:

• Washington, USA (Nick and Reza)
• Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (James and Alexandra)
• Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Angharad and Luke)
• Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt (Lottie and Jo – The Tab's team!) 

Nick Millet and Reza Khorasanee, both from Fitz, made it to the US capital – a 7322-mile round trip – entirely on donations from the public raised by performing simple magic tricks.

They set off from Parker's Piece in Cambridge dressed in tuxedos at 9am on Friday morning and performed street magic to raise cash for train tickets to London.

They used the cash to buy two tickets to New York, and blagged a further 50 dollars on landing to bus tickets to Washington.

Nick, who returned to the UK with Reza on Monday, said the whole event had been ''exhilarating'', and they had raised £600 in sponsorship for charity.

''The whole surreal experience really makes you believe in the kindness of strangers.''

The Tab's Lottie and Jo pose with a suspicious looking Egyptian butcher

Two teams travelled more than 621 miles (1000km) without flying, using trains and hitchhiking to get to Alicante in Spain and Bratislava, in Slovakia, respectively.

Homerton's Chloe MacKenzie and Alana Hutton-Shaw met Chris Tarrant while Giles Moody and Thea Behbahani from Tit Hall bumped into the England Rugby team.  James Vincent and Ally Daniel also from Trinity Hall were escorted out of Stansted by police.  

The Tab will keep you up to date with stories as they come in. Among the best one so far are a team giving up after a high speed police chase and another pair being arrested and handcuffed outside the channel tunnel having been dropped there by a Slovenian truck driver!

In the mean time we're just pleased to have beaten Varsity after their cancellation of both Tab v Varsity football showdowns last term!

Read the story of Lottie's journey in her live updates thread here.

Cambridge residents have had to deal with massive transport cock ups thanks to rogue weather conditions.

Trains all over the country are being affected but the roads are just as bad.

The police had to be called in to deal with dozens of drivers who span off the road and crashed into trees.

26 crashes happened in just two and a half hours on the A14 and A11 thanks to treacherous black ice.

The council is struggling to fill up gaping potholes in the roads caused by freezing water.

"The pavements are like ice rinks", said one sales shopper.

"No one has bothered to put grit down."

One Labour politician made national news this holiday when he got so fed up with the state of the roads that he delivered a shovel to the council in protest.

And it doesn't look like its going to get any better.

Coming up is more snow, freezing -6C temperatures and severe weather warnings for Cambridge.

Prize for the weirdest problem facing motorists? A herd of pigs escaped from a truck and the M11 had to be shut down.

Check out the ridiculous video:

Pigs on M11

Shocking figures have revealed the difficulties women face trying to play sport in Cambridge.

The Tab has exposed the complacency of high-ranking university employees towards the issue.

Nationwide the percentage of women who play sport drops by 50% between sixth form and higher education, while there is virtually no change in the number of men playing sport regularly.

The stats are not down to a lack of demand: 68.4% of female students would like to play more sport, 80% feel they have been failed by shortcomings in funding and facilities.

Speaking to The Tab, CUSU Women’s Officer Natalie Szarek said: “There is definitely a problem in the University with inequality between men and women’s sports. All students should have access to sports facilities that meet their needs.”

Full blue women’s sports struggle to get the funding that they need to cover their costs.

In 2008, for example, the women’s lacrosse team received just over a grand from the university.

This sounds like a lot (although it is around half of what their male counterparts received that year) until you consider that the cost of driving one team to Exeter and back in a minibus is £814.

A lacrosse player at Durham would have access to full time professional coaching support, fitness and nutrition programs, free physiotherapy, video analysis, holiday training advice, time management mentoring and most importantly, a structured fundraising program that allows all of this to happen.

Here? Well you get a pat on the back if you win Varsity and that’s about it.

The women’s teams who manage to keep their heads above water financially are those who are connected to a high profile men’s sport.

Rici Marshall, women’s Rugby captain admitted that they are “incredibly lucky due to the association with the men’s rugby club and their sponsors.”

The problem is that, firstly, women’s sports should not have to rely on the generosity of another team to secure adequate funding, and secondly, many teams do not have the advantage of being linked with another successful club.

When asked by The Tab what they were doing to address this problem, Tony Lemons, Director of Physical Education for the University of Cambridge, completely failed to come up with a solution for women’s sport.

He advised women who were struggling to simply “merge” with a men’s team in order to “benefit from shared resources.”

The Ospreys aim to raise the profile of women’s sports, and do a good job of attracting corporate sponsorship.

However, they have been devastated financially by the theft of £50,000 worth of donations intended to finance their clubhouse.

A crooked local accountant made off with the money and has never been brought to justice.

The Hawks club offers grants to students who excel in their sport, but 85% of Women’s Blues interviewed by The Tab had no idea that these were available. Clearly these need to be publicized better in order to reach out to top level female sportswomen.

University authorities are currently being pressured into acting by the implementation of the Gender Equality Duty, which has recently come into full force.

Before, women would have to prove that they were being individually discriminated against. Now it is up to the University to prove that they are sorting out the problems.

They wrote a report two years ago listing all the things they needed to do to stamp out sexism.

Typically, they have not backed up their promises with actions.

Aiming to bridge the gap between men and women’s sports came low down in their priorities list, with the highest priority being given to cutting down the numbers of drinking societies.

So how do we relate to other Universities?

A recent study compared the sports facilities of 11 top universities. Unfortunately, it specified that Cambridge had been excluded, as we don’t have enough facilities to warrant being compared with the others.

The Tab have put together their own figures.

Loughborough, Exeter and Sheffield have three times the amount of gym workstations as us, most of the other Universities on the list more than doubled our figures.

To put these figures in context, there is one piece of machinery here for every 236 people.

That is a lot of people to fit on a treadmill.

This is particularly serious as going to the gym is the second most common form of exercise that women participate in regularly.

Joining a gym like the Glassworks costs £420 a year, not many students want to spend a third of their first term’s student loan on getting access to facilities that the University should be providing.

While it is perhaps not realistic to compare our meagre provisions with Loughborough, renowned for its sporting prowess, we should certainly be able to compete with Oxford, especially since so much pressure is put on sports teams in the build up to their Varsity match.

Unlike Cambridge, Oxford is doing something positive about their problems.

The Tab got hold of a leaked report commissioned by their Sports Department which outlined a planned spend of over £30 million pounds to improve their university sports centre and build new facilities in order to “create a culture of excellence around sport that matches the University’s approach to almost everything else it does”.

Oxford are also implementing a policy allowing university sports teams to train on underused college pitches, a solution that could potentially be successful here.

Unlike Cambridge, Oxford is doing something positive about their problems.

Cambridge needs to do something quickly. The government is on their backs.

Targets have been set to force them to allocate enough resources to eliminate unlawful discrimination. They will have to produce concrete evidence that they are actively solving the problem.

Acknowledging the issue is no longer enough.

The University needs to come up with some solutions and it is possible to radically change things.

In America Title IX legislation meant that colleges had to allocate equal resources, schedule the same number of events, have the same amount of coaches and cover men’s and women’s sports with the same level of publicity. Female participation in collegiate sports increased by 456%.

The stats speak for themselves.

Greater cooperation between sport on a college and a university level will help, as will increased commitment to funding.

But ultimately the university has to back up their promises with actions. If they want their sports teams to compete with other top universities then something has to be done, and soon.