In view of the recently published Sloane Ranger Handbook’s failure to mention the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, I feel as if I should fill everybody in. The RAC has always been and will always remain THE country destination for those of us Sloanes wanting a taste of rural life and a party palace at our disposal whilst maintaining the pretence of studying for a degree.

The RAC’s students leave their country boarding schools and move up to Cirencester via their gap year in some third-world-country (of course only in places where one can help the needy whilst getting a tan or get in a bit of off-piste fun)  as the latest representatives of a long lineage of landed gentry preparing to take over the reins of their families’ centuries-owned country estates. In reality the gentlemen spend most of their time loitering in their tweeds, guns on their shoulders, speaking loudly into their mobile phones to plan their country pursuits – shooting, polo or other tomfoolery such as ‘bicycle polo’–as well as the next night out on the lash down at ‘The Tunnel (Sloane approved pub crammed full of RAC where the best selling drink is vintage Veuve Clicquot). Sloanes will be reassured to hear that the ladies look as if they have stepped out of a Jack Wills advertisement and wander about the locality ordering cosmopolitans in yokel pubs whilst complaining to each other about how difficult and stressful their degree is.

The RAC academic year revolves around the notorious RAC balls. But the May Ball has established its reputation as one of the highlights of the Sloane’s social calendar. Despite the RAC having only around 200 students the May Ball attracts hundreds of  guests each year. Previous editions have played witness to polo matches on the lower field with riders dressed in DJs and ball gowns; as well as guests arriving in private helicopters. This year, excess was still very much on the cards given that the theme was Las Vegas casino. The usual suspects Mr Fin Gun - dressed in white tie and tails - and Mr Edward Harry Darbishire could be seen staking their all at the roulette wheel. Gun is known by most to be one of Gloucestershire’s most eligible bachelor’s (often sighted as the REAL LIFE Rupert Campbell-Black) and infamous party goer (next time you see him ask him to tell you the story about when he mounted the Bronze horse at the Bicester Hunt Ball) was as always on superb form leading the dancing and consuming his body weight in Champagne. Superstar drum and bass DJs Pendulum played a mixed set to an eager crowd and many dancers achieved the extraordinary feat of dancing rather convincingly in a maxi dress to drum and bass whilst sipping cocktails without slipping or falling.
Although one notable exception was Mr Daniel Fields whose notorious ‘Deer Dance’ enables him to exploit the space around him as fellow revellers get scared of being ‘deered’ in the face. The more dedicated party goers made it from 8.30 pm through to 7am in order to appear in the annual RAC May Ball Survivors photo which is the chance for all to prove that they went, they partied … they survived.