A Golden Year
From the darkened, sodden rugby pitch to the sun-drenched cricket square, this has been a year of virtually unrivalled success for Oxford's sportsmen and women. Along with the highs there were of course lows but looking at the overall picture, the university sports scene can surely never have been in better shape.
The rugby union team take the team of the year award, just shading the rowers: the performances of the rugby team have been truly outstanding this year. After an uncertain start to the season, they rallied to put in several disciplined and stylish displays culminating in a heroic three-point victory over Cambridge to secure a third successive Varsity triumph. Despite victory in the Varsity match, the highlight of the year has to be the game against Australia. The 52-27 defeat ranks as a terrific result against a side whose players boasted over 150 caps between them. Rubie was the star of the show; his pacey play and brilliant try will linger long in the memory.
The Rowing squad were not to be outdone as they defied the odds, the tide and the weight of history to take the Boat Race in one of the closest finishes of all time. Their victory over a stricken Cambridge side simply defied belief, such was its dramatic ebb and flow. The tideway has seldom seen such drama as a Cambridge man collapsed and Oxford powered back from behind to snatch victory apparently from the jaws of defeat.
Whilst these major triumphs stand proud at the top of the bill, we should also not allow the victories of teams and individuals in other sports to be overshadowed. Russell Barker led the polo squad to Varsity triumph and the karting team defied all the odds to take the contest with Cambridge despite opposition complaints.
The men's athletics team swept the board in their tie, making the most of home advantage to destroy a weak Cambridge side.
The footballers will be disappointed they couldn't live up their billing. They failed to get out of the group stages of the BUSA tournament, in spite of an excellent win over Loughborough, while the Varsity match ended in a stagnant 0-0 draw.
On the college front, Magdalen's mens' football double, Queen's rugby sevens win, Brasenose's mixed hockey triumph and Oriel's titanic effort to retain their positions as heads of the river were all highlights of a dramatic and exciting year.
Oxford's sportswomen produced a fairly mixed bag of results with various teams likely to be feeling frustrated at the way their seasons turned out. The women's boat club had a triumphant year winning every possible race at Henley and convincingly beating Cambridge in the Boat Race. This was a huge boost for the club after losing to the Tabs by the smallest of margins last year. In Eights, Pembroke remained head of the river, whilst New women were the only first division crew to win blades, storming up to third.
The Womens rugby blues on the other hand had, by their standards, a fairly mediocre year, due mainly to them having a very slow start to the season. Coming third in their BUSA league ensured the Blues still qualified for the knock-out stages but this was as far as they were going to get, being beaten by UWIC 46-0. There was also disappointment in the Varsity with the team going down 29-5. Several of their players however are off to the England academy for trials.
The Blues netballers had a decent BUSA campaign, winning seven of their ten games. This was still only good enough for them to come third in their league, meaning they had to face the tough opposition of Northumbria who beat them 35-29 on their way to the semi-finals.
Oxford's footballers similarly managed to qualify from their group but were unable to make it past the first round of the knock-out stages, losing to Brighton 1-0. Notching up some impressive wins, including a 10-0 victory over Northampton, the team managed to slip to several narrow defeats, causing them to finish fourth in the league. The seconds however managed to make it to the semi-finals of the BUSA trophy competition before the eventual winners, the mighty Loughborough, beat them 5-2.
The story stays the same with the Blues hockey players, who qualified for the knock-out stages by coming fourth in the league, but again came up against tough opposition in the second stage of the knock-outs, losing 10-2 to Exeter in the semis.
The lacrosse Blues were narrowly denied the chance to go through to the knockout stages of BUSA through goal difference.
Meanwhile Oxford's women cricketers are progressing well through their BUSA group with several impressive victories already under their belt; Cambridge should be worried.
Bring on next year!
13th Jun 2002