A re-cap on the historic Varsity 2010

A re-cap on the historic Varsity 2010

Unless you have been hiding in your room with your head firmly buried under your duvet for the last two months, you will be aware that Christ Church has recently taken part in some form of sporting event.

With more games than ever before being played in this hotly contested competition, and the added pressure of playing up the hill at the dreaded UKC, one month on and Christ Church is still in reflection of what was one of the most dramatic Varsity’s of recent years.

With Christ Church taking an early lead after winning the swimming the attention of the University turned to the Rugby. On a bitterly cold March evening an impressive number of dedicated fans, both Christ Church and UKC, made the journey to Canterbury Rugby club to show their support for the men and the women who battled it out to get some more early points on the board. However, an impressive UKC women’s team brushed aside the Christ Church girls leaving the men to fight for some rugby pride. But yet again, in a closer contested match, another impressive UKC outfit gave the Christ Church men a firm seeing to eventually ending up with a 13-7 lead.

After the opening day of the competition over and done with, and the scores being seemingly level, everyone’s attention turned to the Wednesday two days later, where the majority of the fixtures will take place and will undoubtedly be a pivotal day of sport.

It was an assured fact that football was going to play a key role in the race for the Varsity Crown 2010 with a total of nine games being played across the day. For the first time in a Varsity competition, Christ Church was able to equal UKC in the number of football teams as the top four teams of the newly set up Intramural Football League at CCCU won their right to represent their University against the respective top four teams of the highly regarded college football at UKC. This meant that football in Varsity 2010 saw the highest number of games to be played under a single sport in the competitions history. And it got off to a perfect start for Christ Church with all four of the men’s BUCs teams wining their games and the women’s BUCs team also earning a point for CCCU after a thrilling penalty shoot out after 90 minutes which saw the scores tied at 4-4.

However, UKC began the much anticipated fight back, which saw three of the Intramural teams cleanly dispatched from the competition. As the day drew to a close, and the flood lights of the 3G pitched got called in to action, the last Intramural team to make their mark on the contest entered the pitch. A cold and windy evening saw both teams commit many mistakes and very little football played, and unsurprisingly after 90 minutes the game was level at 1-1. Due to a delayed start after a Christ Church player was rushed off to hospital with a torn Achilles in the game before, this final and pivotal football game was taken straight to penalties and it was the CCCU boy’s who’s nerve held strongest winning the game 4-3 on penalties.

As the main Varsity day of 2010 came to a close UKC found themselves guarding a narrow lead with the scores at 16-14 with two games still to play, meaning for the first time in Canterbury Varsity history the games could be a draw.

The attention was now full focused on the two remaining games of the competition; Women’s first team Hockey and American Football.

On the evening of Friday 12^th of March the Christ Church students showed how much this competition means to the University. Even though the rain was pouring down and the temperature was bitter, around 100 Christ Church students made the journey up the hill to cheer on the hockey girls in a pivotal match. As the rain got heavier the songs from the Christ Church faithful got louder as the spurred the girls on to take an emphatic 4-2 victory against a very strong and impressive UKC team.

With this well deserved win in the bag for Christ Church the results of the competition hinged on the American football game, the first American football game in Canterbury Varsity history. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite the fairytale ending every Christ Church student was hoping for as a strong UKC team beat an inexperienced Christ Church who had only played 3 games prior to this meet. So unfortunately UKC came out victorious in the final game of the competition and effectively were victorious in the final tournament standings winning 17-15, however, there is know doubting that Christ Church is getting closer to that first Varsity win and the importance of the competition grows with every year.

By Samuel Francis