Leeds’ drunken Otley Run goes from high spirits to public menace

Headingley, the Leeds suburb where the Otley Run starts. Photograph: Duncan Cuthbertson/Getty

For decades, donning a fancy dress costume and trying to complete the Otley Run has been a rite of passage for students living in Leeds.

The pub crawl takes in some 15 pubs, depending on who you ask, beginning in Woodies Ale House, on Otley Road in Headingley, and ending a couple of miles south in the city centre – if participants make it that far, which they usually don’t.