The Oxford University Polo Club triumphed in its 117th annual var­sity contest on Sunday, crushing their Cambridge counterparts 14-2. It was Ox­ford’s 60th win in the fixture and the widest margin in Oxford’s favour since 1914, cementing Dark Blue dominance in what is one of the set-piece matches in the polo calendar. Played out at Guards following the Old Etonian vs Old Harrovian warm-up game, it was Oxford’s tenth varsity win in 15 years.

Oxford dominated from the first chukka in the blistering Berkshire sun, with George Pearson putting Ox­ford ahead almost straight away with a quick neck shot goal. The Christ Church fresher soon doubled his tally, moving Oxford up to a smart 2-0 lead by the end of the first chukka. Pearson’s hot form persisted into the second chukka, with a narrow miss right at the start. Cambridge then made a move, regain­ing position, but was ridden off by the Dark Blues’ star player Lawrence Wang. With a handicap of -2 and six years of polo playing behind him, Wang’s vast experience was evi­dent in the second chukka as the Tabs strug­gled to get a foothold in the match.

With Cambridge ailing, Oxford hit cruise control, building up a 6-0 lead by the end of the second chukka with two more goals from Pearson. A formidable part­nership between Vere Harmsworth, an­other fresher, and Pearson in the centre of the pitch effectively denied Cambridge possession, propelling the ball time and again towards the Tab goalmouth. A quick change of mounts for the third chukka ensured Oxford’s momentum continued unabated, their vigorous style of play overawing the Light Blues. An audacious nearside shot from Harmsworth, followed by another punchy volley from Pearson put Oxford 8-0 up. With the match turning into a Dark Blue whitewash, Cambridge support­ers were seen retreating into the pavilion and even the commentator suggested this was a painfully unequal encounter.

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Oxford did not let matters lie there, how­ever, reaching double figures by the end of the third chukka at 10-0. Acrimony broke out as Cambridge frustrations flared, a number of fouls breaking up play across the pitch. At this stage, Oxford supporters were seen hast­ily Googling the fixture’s history, wondering if we were on for an all-time record Dark Blue win. Cambridge’s inability to get anywhere near Oxford’s ‘D ring’ ensured victory was all but in the bag.

The fourth and final chukka saw another change of ponies from Oxford quickly bear fruition. Pearson rammed home another goal and Harmsworth fol­lowed this up with a ‘mil­lionaire’s shot’, taking the score to a cool 12-0. Some impres­sive techni­cal play from Louis Maddi­son, Oxford’s number three player with a hand­icap of 0, denied Cam­bridge posses­sion. Maddison ‘hooked’ the ball, using his stick to prevent the Tabs from striking the ball by blocking their stick during the swing, seiz­ing possession and perform­ing an ambitious dash for the Tab ‘D ring.’

The whitewash was sadly be­smirched by a penalty awarded to the Tabs midway through the fourth chukka. As the commentator asked, “Is there a chance for them?” Cambridge managed to chalk up something on the score board. Another pen­alty for the Tabs followed a few moments later and suddenly the Light Blues seemed on the verge of a fourth quarter comeback with the score at 12-2. With a minute to go, though, Oxford crushed such aspirations, a neat backhand from Wang and then another goal leaving the final score at 14-2.

The victory took Oxford three ahead of Cambridge in total wins at Varsity level. The contest has been played almost continu­ously since 1878 and has a good claim to be the single longest running polo match. Past OUPC coaches include Winston Churchill, who used to ride down from Blenheim Palace to test out his charges on Port Meadow. Ox­ford polo perhaps suffers from a reputation as excessively well-to-do, but with over 100 active members of all standards, it ranks as one of the university’s fastest growing sports clubs. The polo varsity has also led the way in gender equality at Blues level, with women (Jacqui Broughton, Oxford and Emma Tom­linson, Cambridge) captaining both Light and Dark Blue teams in 1994 for the first time in the history of any mixed university sport. Recent years have seen the standard of the contest soar; the 2013 match in particular is noted as perhaps the most impressive post-war performance with the addition of Lanto Sheridan to the Dark Blue side.

And with another varsity win under its belt, OUPC seems to be going from strength to strength. 101 years on from 1914, when Ox­ford triumphed 19-1, Oxford seem to be re­prising their dominance in this staple of the British sporting summer calendar.

Although this is sadly our last issue until Michaelmas, the world of Oxford sport continues. In a bid to keep you up to date, we take a look at the ‘best of the rest’.

Cricket varsity is arguably one of the biggest sporting events in the Oxford calendar. After the Boat Race and rugby varsity, the cricketers manage to give themselves the most time to shoe the Tabs.

On 12th June, the varsity campaign kicks off, with both the men’s and women’s Blues T20 matches away at Cambridge. Then, on 27th June, both Oxford and the other place descend on Lords for the one day varsity match, for women and men. Finally, and hopefully to complete the hat trick of Dark Blue victories, the men’s Blues travel to Cambridge for a second time, for their four day varsity match. Lets hope for a Tab shoeing five times in a row.

You may have thought/hoped/prayed that with the last day of Summer VIIIs came the last day of rowing. You would be wrong. Oriel, who are currently men’s Head of the River, host their annual Oriel Regatta on 13th June, on the Isis. This is a day of side-by-side match racing, so there is a chance to see the cream of Oxford’s crop in boats other than VIIIs, and maybe we can actually answer the eternal RowChat ques­tion… who is the fastest on the river?

On 5th and 6th July, both Blues teams will take on their old rivals in the tennis varsity at the Moor Park Golf & Tennis Club. The teams have had a strong season, and will be looking to avenge their losses from 2014. The second, third, and fourth teams take on the Light Blues in Cambridge on the weekend of 20th June.

In the realm of athletics, the Oxford and Cambridge athletics teams are joining forces on 29th June to take on a team from across the pond, from Harvard and Yale. This will be the 45th match between the two sides, and will take place at Oxford’s very own Iffley track, so is perfect spectating fodder for you poor souls still here in 10th Week.

We are entering the final stages of Croquet Cuppers 2015, and the cream is rising to the top. Gone are the eager freshers, chilled out second years, and procrastinating finalists. The only players left are serious about their croquet, and will continue to battle it out until the end of term.

Though September is a very, very long way away, pre-season is the way to go for those attempting to make university teams next year. More than that, pre-seasoners are able to feel superior to those little freshers who join in Freshers’ Week, as they already have all the stash. Result.

Founded in 1952, OUCKC is one of the oldest university paddlesport clubs in the country. This year the Oxford Uni­versity Canoe and Kayak Club has gone from strength to strength, seeing an increase in the number of new members attending Sunday training sessions and trips and be­coming members of the club. The year kicked off in early Michaelmas with the BCU Student Safety Seminar at Plas y Brenin in North Wales; a weekend of essential training about transport, club health and safety, training schemes and trips abroad, as well as skills coaching on whitewater.

Matthew Coulson, Chris Booth and Thomas Leissing then competed in the BUCS Whitewater Race on the Washburn in Yorkshire, coming 4th with a time of 9.30.6 minutes (the winning time was 8.44.7 minutes). This counted as one of the four varsity competitions against Cambridge (whitewater, free­style, marathon, canoe polo). The freshers enjoyed a trip to the River Usk in South Wales, a Grade 2/3 river, with those who had just learnt to paddle running three sizeable drops successfully under the coaching and leadership of more experienced club members and alumni.

In Hilary, a trip to the River Dart in Devon saw freshers and new members paddling the Upper, the Loop, Lower Dart and the Tawe: ranging from Grade 2 to Grade 4 white water. A group of 15 members attended the National Student Rodeo freestyle competition at the Nottingham HPP White Water Course at the end of 7th Week, with Ben Coulton gaining second place in the men’s expert category, and Chris Booth gaining third place in the men’s intermediate category. The women’s canoe polo team also enjoyed competing in the Division 2 National League Ladies Canoe Polo Tournament held in Stratford-Upon- Avon.

In Trinity, OUCKC attended the BUCS Canoe Polo Competition at Hatfield Water Park at the end of 0th Week. They ranked 27th over­all, achieving one win and losing four games. Trips were also led on the Tryweryn in North Wales, and at the International White Water Centre in Cardiff. The varsity match was held in Oxford this year at the end of 2nd Week, with more women than men competing from Oxford. On the Saturday, the women’s Canoe Polo team beat Cambridge 4-0, with the help of GB Polo Player Sophie Louth, while the men lost 6-5. Oxford women gained the top three places in marathon, and the men came in first, second, and fourth places, scoring 26 points, beating Cambridge’s 19. On the Sun­day the freestyle competition was held, as well as the women’s white water race, which was won (just) by Cambridge. Oxford women won the freestyle, again taking the top three places, and Oxford men came first, fourth, and sixth, scoring 22 points, just losing to Cambridge’s 23.

Canoe Polo Cuppers was held at Port Meadow at the end of 4th Week, and was won by St Anne’s, taking the trophy away from last year’s victors Merton. Six different teams, many of whose members had never kayaked before, fought hard to score goals and all pro­vided veritable competition for one another.

This year, five club members gained awards. Chris Booth, Matthew Coulson, Han­nah Theaker, and Helen Tatlow were awarded Half Blues for competing in at least three out of four of the disciplines in the varsity match, and Sophie Louth was awarded a Discretion­ary Full Blue for her achievements represent­ing GB in Canoe Polo.

As well as competitions this year, weekly Sunday sessions are held for whitewater skills development and canoe polo training at Port Meadow, marathon training every Friday morning, rolling clinics at Iffley pool, and intermediate development sessions were held on Wednesdays in Trinity. The club is currently fundraising for a new shed on the Port Meadow site, under the leadership and organization of the President Anja Mizdrak. This shed will store the boats and kit, and will be shared with the Keble College Boat Club. A number of fund-raisers, including a quiz at St Anne’s, a raffle, and cake sales at Trinity ‘Come and Try it’ open day for all members of the university have been a few ways in which money has been raised. Individual sessions for JCRs and MCRs supporting the fund-raising have also been held at Port Meadow, with coaching provided for beginners.

OUCKC will finish the year with a summer dinner at The Varsity Club, and the annual trip to Pem­brokeshire in order to go surf kayak­ing.

Before most people had even realised that it was in fact happening, the French Open has been wrapped up for another year, as Serena Williams made history yet again in becoming only the third player to reach the landmark of 20 Grand Slam titles. Men’s champion, eighth seed Stan Wawrinka, dogged by off-court issues, shocked the world by defeating tennis robot and world number one Novak Djokovic on the way to picking up his second major title.

In Britain, the Aegon Championships get underway on 15th June, before it hands over to the one of the main events in the summer sporting calendar at the hallowed courts of the All England Club. Wherever you look, there is an absurd amount of tennis to look forward to.

Closer to home, tennis is a year-round sport. Both sets of Blues teams got their BUCS league campaigns underway in Michaelmas, with the men competing in the Premier South division and the women in the Midlands 1A.

Oxford is in its seventh consecutive year play­ing in the top flight of university men’s tennis and is coming off the back of a strong 2013-14 season, in which it finished second. However, the 2014-15 season got off to a rough start with losses against Bournemouth and Exeter, five sets to seven and two sets to ten respectively. In November, it began to right the ship with a 10-2 thumping of Premier South basement dwellers LSE, as well as narrowly defeating an Army team five sets to four in a friendly fixture.

Despite this, the rest of the month brought mixed fortunes for the Dark Blue men, as a tough 2-10 loss against Bath marred two convincing victories over Imperial and Bour­nemouth in the return fixture. Unfortunately, this poor fortune followed the team through­out December and into the new year, seeing it limp home to fourth place in the Premier South. The Oxford men only managed to take one win and a draw from five fixtures, suffer­ing convincing defeats at the hands of Exeter and Bath, before falling to rivals Durham in the quarter-final of the BUCS cup, which knocked the Dark Blues out at the semi-final stage in last year’s tournament.

The women’s Blues, by contrast, took on and handled all opponents with ease from start to finish in the Midlands 1A group, but were mar­ginally edged out from clinching the division by a similarly skilled and tenacious Warwick 1sts side. From October through to March, the Dark Blues were in unstoppable form as they cruised past the likes of Birmingham, De Montfort, Warwick 2nds and Nottingham 2nds with relative ease. It was Warwick 1sts, however, that were to be the Dark Blues’ undo­ing, as the only team that they were unable to defeat, with each fixture ending in a 6-6 draw.

Despite the disappointment of not claiming top spot in their league, the women’s Blues en­tered the playoffs regardless, with promotion still well within their grasp. Their opponents proved no match for the Dark Blues as they ran rampant, clinching promotion to the Premier Division.

With the BUCS leagues all wrapped up by the end of Hilary Term, OULTC headed to Florida for ten days, where it handily defeated teams put forward by the Florida Institute of Technol­ogy and Kiwi Tennis Club. This warm weather practice and acquisition of decent tans all-round may prove key in their preparation as the OULTC squads prepare for their varsity showdowns. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th teams will take on their Light Blue counterparts in Cam­bridge over the weekend of 20th June, before the Blues take to the grass at the Moor Park Tennis Club in Rickmansworth for the 125th varsity match. After defeat for both the Dark Blue men and women in 2014, both squads will be out for revenge in a Varsity that should not be missed.

Weekly promotions, weekly relega­tions and constant drama have char­acterised the mixed touch rugby tournament held every Saturday morning this Trinity Term. The competition has attracted many players, truly galvanising interest in rugby across the university, with mixed teams from an unexpectedly large number of colleges taking part.

The teams are split into five divisions, with the top and bottom team at the end of each set of games being either promoted or relegated. Each team has seven players with a minimum of two women on the pitch at all times, which has been a great success in not only boosting the number of women playing rugby in the tournament, but in increasing interest among female players in joining the university teams next year. Indeed, two weeks ago, Oriel fielded a team of four women and three men and still managed to remain in the top division, demonstrating how the skill of the women (none of whom played for the university) was more than enough to hold a team.

With only two weeks left of the league this term, the intensity is truly heating up with teams battling it out to be in as high a division as possible for the final weekend of matches. Of course, with the league for­mat having been in use since the start of term, many teams have had varied fortunes, with some teams rising through the divisions after a slow start whilst others have faltered after initially strong performances.

The real risers in the last few weeks of action include New College who, despite starting off in the lower divisions, has recently put out a strong team with a large turnout and has subsequently rattled off a number of convincing perfor­mances. In consecutive weeks, they were promoted to the premier division, the highest tier in the competition. Here New did not falter and con­tinued its remarkable run of form by remaining in the division, playing in a solid style and never appearing out of place. In the top part of the competition, other teams have stood out for consistently performing at a high level for several weeks. Balliol, for instance, has remained in the second tier for three weeks now, a testament to its resilience and consistency in the competition. Oriel too have excelled in the competition, with its promotion in the first week of the competi­tion being backed up by excellent perfor­mances that have seen them push repeatedly for the top of the Premier Division. Moreover, Oriel has had one of the greatest number of female players of any team, a testament to their teamwork and the attempts within the College to increase interest in playing amongst women. Oriel’s vice-captain for the tournament and a university rugby player, Imogen Duffy, told Cherwell, “Here in Oriel we are proud of the fact that we have remained in the top echelons of the competition whilst retaining a large number of women players each week.” The benefits of the mixed touch competition are evident in the inclusivity of the tournament.

However, other teams have been less successful in their results, which have seen them slip down the divisions over the course of the last few weeks. The Worcester Wookies, having been in division one, the second tier, for several weeks, are now in divi­sion three, an unfortunate outcome con­sidering its excellent start in the first few weeks of term. Similarly, Corpus Christi, which admittedly has a small pool of players to choose from, was unable to maintain the level of play in the top division and has subsequently fallen into division one.

Thus, the fluid nature of the mixed touch rugby league is what is so exciting as the weekly battles for promotion and avoiding relegation have injected an intense element to the competition, which has garnered much interest for the tournament. With the end in sight, the competi­tion is becoming more exciting and the conclusion promises to be every bit as enthralling as the weekly battle.

Having enjoyed plenty of sporting glory on both land and water so far this year, Oxford will take its fierce sporting ri­valry with Cambridge to the skies next month.

From 2nd to 3rd July, the Oxford University Gliding Club (OUGC) will be competing in the annual varsity match. Competition among members for the highly coveted Half Blue sta­tus is reaching its peak, with the captains now in the process of selecting the first team.

For those unfamiliar with the sport, gliding involves relatively small, manned aircraft that are aerotowed into the sky by powered planes before being released at the desired altitude. A glider, which has no engine, relies on streams of rising air caused by geothermal phenomena to stay airborne or even gain height.

A flight itself can theoretically be limitless. The club makes expeditions each year to areas of natural beauty, all the way to Talgarth in Wales, Portmoak in Scotland and Edensoaring in Cumbria.

As well as a leisure activity, gliding is also a competitive sport with points awarded for duration of flight, height climbed, distance travelled and even aerobatic manoeuvres.

In the 2014 varsity match, Oxford soared to a 525-478 victory over Cambridge – a result that wasn’t quite neck-and-neck, but certainly wasn’t a walk in the park. Oxford will have to be at their best once more to ensure another victory this year.

Over the past 12 months, the OUGC has really taken off – quite literally. Oxford is currently the sixth ranked university gliding club in the UK, and has its sights set on ascending into fifth place this weekend, when several of its members will be completing a series of major cross-country tasks. The club’s president, Jonathan Pedde, told Cherwell, “We joined the national university ladder at the start of this year, and have slowly but steadily been working our way up.

“I think that we have a good chance of win­ning as we’ve got a really good team this year. I’m sure that the folks from the other place are going to put up a good fight, so it should be an interesting match.”

Two OUGC members competed in the Junior Winter Series (the national competition for people under the age of 26), and with nine new solo pilots and one prestigious silver badge-ranked pilot, the club will be looking to record a sixteenth victory in 25 years next month.

The club, which accepts students and staff from the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, is always looking for new members, and its doors are always open to complete beginners.

No prior experience is needed to get involved, and once you have paid for a year’s member­ship, full training from qualified instructors is free of charge. After roughly a year’s worth of hard training, a novice can expect to make their first lone flight and even participate in inter-university matches.