Saturday 16th May 2009 was a record breaking day. Wilberforce Rad played host to the 135th Varsity Sports and CUAC were looking to go one better than the 3-1 home victory in 2007.
All teams went into the match with high hopes thanks to a great indoor season, a fantastic US Tour (that time partnering Oxford), an astonishing BUSA performance, and lead up competitions with PBs from all areas, and the Alverstones team had long been targetting the biggest ever victory in the seconds match but what transpired was quite remarkable.
The CUAC Men’s domination was something to behold. There were amazing performances from all members of the team. The day saw great PBs from Humphrey Waddington and Mark Dyble, dominant performances from Louis persent and Ben Richardson take his tally of Varsity wins to an incredible 13! The victory was certainly emphatic, equalling the largest ever winning margin of 49 points (129.5 to 80.5). The Alverstones set a new record for the largest ever winning margin in the second team match, winning by 134 points to 76 (an astonighsing 58 point margin). Victory for this team was perhaps always expected but one this emphatic will certainly be treasured. The quality of the current men’s team can perhaps best be displayed byt the sheer number of full blues performances this year. There have already been 21! Compare this to the usual 14-16 over the last 6 to 7 years (and the mere 12 in 2007, the year of the last record breaking CUAC win). Along with the quality improvements, the strength in depth is great and ever increasing. This can bee sen not simply through the record win, but by the fact that many Alverstones actually beat the Oxford blues in their event. This can be seen with the day’s final emphatic win in the 4×400m relay as both CUAC teams finished ahead of those from Oxford.
The Women’s Blues match was always predicted to be a more closely fought affair, and that certainly came to be. Thre CUAC Women’s Captain Lucy Spray led by example, winning the 400mH early on and following this up with 4 further wins including the 100m and 200m. She was ably backed by a very strong team and other event wins came from Emma Rowley, Kate Laidlow, Laura Duke and Emma Perkins. However, there were some great performances from the Oxford women too and the match was in the balance thoughout the day. Unfortunately by the time of the 4×400m relay, it was too late; Oxford has pulled ahead just enough to ensure victory. This meant that despite the comphrehensive CUAC win in that 4×400, Oxford crossed the line to win by a mere 3 points. The Alligators however showed that the Women have also been increasing heir stregnth in depth as they crushed the Oxford Millipedes 114 to 87.
It was a great day for CUAC, with record wins, some incredible performances and the usual Varsity Magic driving everyone on and more importantly bringing everyone in the club even closer together. The systems now in place are successfully nuturing top athletes, assisting progressing atheltes and encouraging new ones. However, the day was just a little too reminiscent of the Varsoty Match 2 years ago, when a similarly spectacular victory ended 3-1 rather than 4-0 because of just 2 points. That much sought after 4-0 will now be the central focus of the new committee.
Good Luck and GDBO.
Full results here
