It was common practice for members of some universities and polytechnics to raid other academic centres in order to capture their rival's mascot. This was invariably a stuffed animal. Scores of students would cheerfully brawl in crowded streets, throwing buckets of water, flour bombs and smash windows. Magistrates, no doubt remembering their own adolescence, would usually take a lenient view of these activities, much to the irritation of policemen, who were rarely subtle enough to see the difference between middleclass buffoonery and working class hooliganism.