The Club

Information for new athletes

C. U. Athletic Club was established in 1857. It is the oldest club of its kind in the world. For history etc click here.

The club exists to provide competition and coached training for athletes (track and field) of all abilities with the primary focus of winning the summer Varsity Matches held in late May in either Oxford or Cambridge. There are four matches: Men’s Blues, Women’s Blues, Alverstone’s vs. Centipedes (Men’s 2nds) and Alligator’s vs. Millipedes (Women’s 2nds). In each match there are two competitors from University per event. It is spots on these teams that you should aim for and use as motivation for training!!We provide regular coached training sessions for all events. For our current training schedule click here.

We will be holding a freshers’ event at the end of freshers’ week where you can come and meet us in the setting of a light training session. More details will appear on the website closer to the time. In the meantime if you know that you are coming to Cambridge in October and are already a keen athlete then please get in touch with Laura Duke, CUAC President at lmd42@cam.ac.uk who would be happy to hear about your results this year and discuss your place in the club in the coming year.

Worried you aren’t good enough? The club is very welcoming, but we are particularly keen to hear from people who are about the ‘Half Blue’ Standards or better. These are those listed as ‘Alverstone’ for men and ‘Alligators’ for women on the standards page - click here to open up a new window.This said the club does not operate a selction-to-train policy and are happy to work with anyone prepared to commit to their training.

Joining:
Joining CUAC costs £40 for one year. It is essential to join if you wish to compete in a Varsity team. However, the brilliantness of CUAC means you will want to get involved long before any official clashes with The Dark Side (Oxford), so come along, meet the rest of the club, train with us, come on our socials, and become a part of one of the oldest and best sports clubs in the university!

Some benefits of joining:
Use of the track and modern facilities at Wilberforce Road
Technical coaching
Free competition entries
Transport to matches
Subsidised accomodation at major competitions
Subsidised warm weather training at Easter

There are of course fantastic socials and the legendary post-Varsity party!

CUAC enters loads of competitions each year - several indoor meets in Lent term, and weekly competitions throughout Easter term leading up to the Varsity Match. All competitions are open to any CUAC member, and these cater for all abilities - from open meetings and inter-college competitions for the ‘just-for-fun’ athletes up to elite standard BUCS ( formerly BUSA) championships. Additionally we have THREE varsity competitions during the year - Freshers’ Varsity in November, Indoor Field Events and Relays in February, and The Varsity Match in May. For further details see the fixture list here. Primary selection for these matches is based on cuppers results - cuppers is open to any member of the university, so come down, support your college and get selected to compete in the BIGGEST Varsity team in the university!

If this has persuaded you, or if you would like more information about CUAC, please contact Laura on lmd42@cam.ac.uk. If you fancy joining up, please send a cheque payable to ‘C U Athletic Club’ to Andy Lomas, Churchill College. You will also need to complete a membership form which can be obtained from Owen Churton (otc21@cam.ac.uk). N.B. If you would like joint membership of CUAC and our sister club: Hare and Hounds - the University Cross Country Club, just make the cheque out for £48. Simple. Hope to see you at the track soon!

Information about committee members, coaches, and squad leaders is availabe via the menu to the left of this page.