ARCTIC conditions did not stop farming students from making a fast buck for charity in 1991.

Playing fancy dress rugby, monkeying around as Tarzan and eating toothpaste sandwiches were just some of the pranks that helped students at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester to rake in funds for local charities in the annual Rag Week.

On the Monday morning, a group of students with stockings over their heads charged into GWR Studios radio station in Wotton Bassett and kidnapped Neil Greenslade, alias ‘Hungry Howard’, the GWR DJ.

On Tuesday, the fundraisers made £70 selling pancakes and a further £800 was collected when hypnotist Eddie Burke asked 20 students to volunteer to be put under his spell, putting two under his spell and turning them into Tarzan and Jane before making them howl like chimpanzees.

Wednesday saw the boys take on the girls in a fancy dress rugby match and in the evening the Iron Man competition commenced which involved students eating and drinking stomach churning concoctions.

The week was rounded off with the traditional Rag Ball, a huge charity knees-up attracting more than 1,000 people.

Ed Stroud, the Rag treasurer, said they hoped to have raised over £15,000 to be donated to four charities, the Sue Ryder Foundation, Home Farm Trust, the Kiernan Foundation and Save the Elephants.