Keble clinched the Rugby Cuppers trophy last week, in an exciting triumph for this pow­erhouse of Oxford’s college rugby.

After many rounds of fixtures spanning Michaelmas and Hilary, the three Rugby Cup­pers competitions reached their dramatic conclusions on the eve of the city’s May Day cel­ebrations at the Iffley Road Stadium. Six squads had earned the right to battle it out on ‘Super Finals’ day in what proved to be a fantastic spectacle and also a testament to the quality of rugby being played across the university.

First up, at 3.30pm St. Peter’s took on Pem­broke in the Bowl Final. On the day, St. Peter’s were the much better side in what was certainly the most one-sided contest of the ‘Super Finals’. They ran riot and dominated all phases of the game from the first whistle to the last, running away to a convincing 78-10 victory.

A highlight for St. Peter’s was a spectacular try from fullback Matthew Brady that left their opposition’s spirits truly (Pem)broken. In spite of this hefty defeat, the Pembroke players de­serve credit for a gutsy performance in which they did not give up and kept playing hard until the full-time whistle to ensure that the post-match touchline beers were well-earned on both sides.

Topically, seeing as it is election season, the second game of the day gave the baying student public exactly what they wanted: a masterclass in harmonious coalitions, as St. Anne’s/St. John’s took on Corpus Christi/Somerville in the Plate final. As the winners of the 2014 Cup competition St. Anne’s/St. John’s went in to the clash as favourites on paper, with current OURFC captain George Messum anchoring the back line from outside centre and fellow Blue Tom Reeson-Price providing them with a strong presence in the back row.

Ultimately, it was Reeson-Price, switching to No. 8 from his usual second row position, who proved the difference. Thanks to his powerful hat-trick of tries, ‘the Saints’ eventually ran out 39-17 winners over Corpus Christi/Somerville.

Then came the showpiece event that every­one at Iffley had been waiting for, the Cup final between Keble and Teddy Hall. Both colleges have dominated the rugby scene in recent years sparking a fierce rivalry on and off the field, with reports of Keble fans behind enemy lines in Teddy Hall with “SHOE” banners really tak­ing the pre-match mind games up a level.

The atmosphere at Iffley was similarly elec­tric as the teams took to the pitch, Teddy Hall with two Blues giving presence to their back row and Keble’s dynamic back line featuring former Varsity Man of the Match Sam Egerton at scrum-half and 2014 OURFC captain Jacob Taylor at fullback. For the expectant crowd, it was clear an enticing clash lay ahead.

The first half was very evenly contested thanks to scores by Keble captain Jonathan Mitchell and his teammate, left winger Sam Steinert, with full-back Jacob Taylor knocking over one conversion from two. As to not lose touch, Teddy Hall hit back through fly-half Tom Dyer, who slotted a penalty through the uprights, and centre Jack Calvert, who snatched an interception and raced in to score. Consequently, there was very little in it at the break, with Keble marginally ahead 12 – 8.

As the lights came on for the second half, it was suddenly a different story, as Keble began to find their stride, building phase after phase leading them to eventually dominating large swathes of both possession and territory.

Whether this was due to inspiration from Keble alumnus Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, who tweeted in support of his former college, we’ll never know, but whatever was said at half time certainly helped change the tide of the match. Inevitably, Keble were clinical with their second half dominance and as they grad­ually pulled away from Teddy Hall, who were only able to notch a solitary penalty through Dyer in the second half. By contrast, Keble ran in a further three tries through winger David Peberdy, scrum-half Sam Egerton and centre Oakley Cox. Taylor chipped in further with the boot, converting two of the second half tries and adding two penalties for 12 total points on the day.

Keble’s victory was certainly deserved as they once again reasserted their dominance at the top of college rugby’s totem pole, claiming their 11th Cuppers title. Having fallen at the final hurdle, the Teddy Hall XV and their loyal supporters will have to wait until next year for another shot at their 33rd Cuppers crown.

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A combination of outstanding strength in depth, some crafty tactical play and well-taken kicks ensured victory was never out of Keble’s grasp. Teddy Hall were left exposed in the second half, run ragged by a suddenly embold­ened Keble side, hungry to take the trophy.

Congratulations to the victors, commisera­tions to those who fell short, but most impor­tantly: see you next year to do it all over again.

These last few weeks have been chaotic mix of highs and lows for the Oxford University Yacht Club. The Sunsail Weekend event in Portsmouth became the scene of a tense and stormy annual Yacht Varsity, with Cambridge defeating Oxford for the third year running to reclaim their crown.

Buoyed by the earlier success of the men’s dinghy team against Cambridge under Edward Scallan in the Cam Cup, yachting skipper Tim Joy led his crew in a race as much against the tempestuous weather as the experienced Cambridge team. As gusts of up to 83 knots tore down the race course, Cambridge made a stunning start and built a firm early lead, the Cambridge decision to play it safe with two reefs and no kite paying huge dividend. Joy’s team raced excellently to eat away at this lead and solidify their position at the head of the chasing pack, threatening Cambridge consistently for pole position particularly in the last third of the course. It was, however, not to be; calm seamanship and excellent race management by the Light Blues allowed them to cross the line, battered and drenched, but ultimately in first-place.

Despite brilliant performances by the entire team during the race, the foundations laid by early tactical decisions proved too much for the young Oxford crew. With the racingcommittee deciding that it was too dangerous to hold any further races, an energised Oxford crew lost the chance to make up for the loss and Cambridge claimed victory by default.

Luckily the BUCS Student Yachting Championships, also in Portsmouth, allowed a chance for redemption days later. Consisting of the best yachting teams in the  country, Oxford and Cambridge competed consistently for second place behind world-champions Southampton.

Though a full set of races was lost to awful weather, Oxford raced brilliantly on the final day to overtake Cambridge and secure second place overall. The Dark Blue crew adapted cannily to the much reduced wind of the final day of racing, managing a fantastic closing stretch and not only winning the chance to represent England at this year’s Student Yachting World Cup in France, but also inflicting revenge for the previous week’s close defeat.

If this season proves anything, it is that often yachting can be as temperamental and difficult to predict as the waters they race on.

A relatively young club with a rapidly expanding membership, OUYC should not be disheartened by the loss of their varsity. The talent shown in their successful outing at the national championships demonstrates the rapid development of both the skill and steel which defines great sailing crews. Looking forward to next year’s yacht varsity, and this term’s dinghy varsity, the entire OUYC is very much in the ascendency; Scallan looks back on a “successful season for both sides of the yacht club”, one not only of honours but also of consistent development.

Ping. An email flew into my inbox on Monday informing me that the fate of the Oriel rugby team hung in the balance unless I attended something called a Good Lad workshop. My reaction was summed up by the Cherwell editor looking over my shoulder, “So you’re a ‘Bad lad’ then are you?”

But my initial understandings of Good Lad were soon disabused as it fast became apparent the rugby team really might be discontinued. I did a bit of googling and – contrary to my expectations – this thing looked intriguing. Judging from the website it looked like Alcoholics Anonymous met post-match changing room chat. Begrudgingly I told myself I would give up an hour of precious pre-Lola-Lo’s time to attend.

And I couldn’t have been more wrong. My ignorance soon gave way to a pretty keen interest. There were 19 of us there, seated in a circle and the class was led by two cool doctoral students Will and Dylan.

Good Lad was set up a few years ago by a group of graduate and post-doctoral students who wanted to change the conversation about lad culture and gender relations. They’ve hosted workshops with the university football, hockey and rugby teams, 20 college sides, Vinnie’s club and even the Saïd Business School. Recently the campaign has become quite high profi le. The Guardian, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times have all run features about it, whilst it has received endorsement from the likes of McKinsey’s Dominic Barton and ex-Vice Chancellor John Hood.

Good Lad works exclusively with men, but doesn’t preach. Rather it’s about exploring gender dynamics and complicated situations we might found ourselves or our mates in on nights out. At its core Good Lad is about going beyond the bare minimum and exploring what’s the best thing to do in any situation.

We got the ball rolling with a couple of ice breakers. How acceptable was it to tell a girl she’s hot? Or to buy her drinks with the intention of chatting her up? Already there was some ambiguity in the room. We tended all to agree that neither was drastically wrong. The real sticking point came when we started discussing what was a lad? A couple of definitions were bandied around; association with alcoholism, immaturity, disrespect. You get the picture.

Soon we reached the crux of the workshop: the clash between a minimum standards approach and a ‘positive masculinity framework.’ To the uninitiated this was buzzword central but the gist was straightforward. Essentially the whole point of Good Lad is that a rigid, inflexible approach to sexual encounters, based around legal obligations really doesn’t get us that far.

Will, one of the group leaders, talked us through a few examples which started to problematise matters. First of all we were in a bar with our team. One of our mates started dancing topless, miming sexual acts in front of two women: what do we do? Next up we were in a club and see a friend groping a girl’s arse after she’s asked him to stop. Finally we found ourselves back in a girl’s room at the end of a night out. This particular girl seemed uncertain about having sex. What was the best approach?

Pretty key to all of this was thinking about the other people ‘in the room’. As Will put it, “you don’t have to take a survey,” but it’s worthwhile pausing to consider who’s actually in play. What was refreshing was the conversation had moved well-beyond the standard ‘don’t rape someone’ formula. At the start we were talked through some pretty shocking statistics; one in seven women report that she feels she’s been sexually abused. But as someone in the discussion pointed out that all too rarely registers as so few of  us would ever put a woman in that position. Good Lad looked at this from a new angle. The assumption was less that all men are rapists and more that we could behave so much better.

As Josh Carpenter, one of the Good Lad cofounders, put it to me, “a lot of conversations/ workshops about gender dynamics focus on bare minimum responses like ‘don’t rape someone.’ Obviously, we all know better than that. But most guys want to be considered to be ‘good lads’ by their peers, respected by their teammates, and ultimately, satisfied with who they are as individuals.” The raucous debate which ensued in this Good Lad workshop seemed to vindicate that. There was a real acceptance that gender dynamics are complicated, that we’re not mind readers, but that the burden is on men to behave as well as they can.

So whether or not I was a ‘Bad Lad’ before I went to the class is still open to question. But I’d urge every college and university sports team to sign up for this programme. Walking out of that workshop I felt pretty sure this is one of those great, Oxford-grown initiatives we can justly be proud of.

Two weeks ahead of the 141st Athletics varsity match, a huge number of Oxford athletes took to Bedford to provide a glimpse into varsity match fortunes and to give them a chance to compete against the best athletes in the country with inter­national representatives and medallists in almost every event.

Sadly there were a few notable absentees for Oxford who would have been at the fore­front of their events, who were missing due to a variety of reasons, many preserving their bodies for the varsity match.

Most notably though, Oxford were missing their talismanic Men’s Captain, Sam Trigg. On paper the class act of his Triple Jump field, the athlete was forced to miss the champion­ships as a condition of the scholarship he has obtained to jump in the US from next year, at New Mexico University.

Despite not fielding a full strength squad, the weekend can most certainly be consid­ered a success for the Dark Blues, whose presence in almost all races and field compe­titions overshadowed a comparatively tiny Cambridge team. The highlight for Oxford saw first year postgrad Miles Unterreiner, fresh from a glittering athletics career at Stanford, take an outstanding silver medal in the 10,000m as he was narrowly beaten by Jonny Hay, a GB senior international.

In addition to this, Oxford athletes made the finals right across the board, with many also picking up their Full Blue standards in the process. Our women’s throwers proved they were going to be hard to beat, with Oxford discus record-holder Christina Nick making the finals in discus and shot, joined by compatriot Anna Niedbala in the discus, both attaining the Blues standard. Also jumping the Blues standard were Ezra Leonce and Women’s captain Montana Jackson in the triple jump, both making their respective fi­nals and showcasing the strength of Oxford’s jumps team even without Trigg.

Further Blues standards were beaten on the track by George Gundle (400m), who narrowly missed out on making the final of the 400m, and Emily Moss, who did make the final of the 1500m only to have to pull out on the morning as a precaution. A number also only narrowly missed out, including fresher Louis Rawlings in the 800m, who showed a clear ability to run faster but was limited by the tactical nature of his races, though doing extraordinarily well to make the final in a high class field. In a similar position, Will Christofi and Jamie Parkinson both placed in the top 10 of their 5000m final, but both found themselves victim to a very slow and tactical race, not suited to their abilities. Further finalists on the track included three who set high personal bests in the steeple­chase, Dani Chattenton with 7:26 for 10th in the Ladies 2000m race, Alex Howard (6th, 9:16) and Aidan Smith (11th, 9:33) in the Men’s 3000m race.

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Commenting on the overall performance of the squad, men’s captain Trigg appreciated the difficulties of competing against sport­ing institutions such as Loughborough and Bath, but praised the strength of the squad as a whole, noting the number of Oxford athletes in finals. He finished by adding that “running, jumping and throwing against the best in the country, we showed that we’re not just a place for brains and we can be competi­tive against the best in the country”.

Somerville emerged victorious in this year’s Netball Cuppers, defeating Keble in the final, with the 2014 champions, Teddy Hall, losing at the semi-final stage.

Twenty-nine teams, up on the twenty from 2014, entered to play for the coveted title of Netball Cuppers champions 2015, a tourna­ment played over a single day at the Marston Community Centre. It is truly remarkable that over 200 girls came out for the colleges, as well as plenty of supporters for each team. Netball can generate something of a bad reputation sportsmanship-wise, yet Hebe Westcott, the OUNC Cuppers and League secretary, com­mented on the smooth mixing of novices to OUNC players, with “plenty of apologies for stepping on toes, which is a really nice con­trast to BUCS”.

The matches were short and sharp, with four pools of seven or eight and mixed ability in each team. Eight teams made it through to the quarter-finals, with an upset as League winners Oriel lost to a strong, tall Teddy Hall side. Teddy Hall and New then lost in the semi-finals, setting up a Keble versus Somerville final. The Keble support should be com­mended, with the majority of the rugby team, and even the captain’s mother, turning out to shout. However, this support did not quite give the boost needed as Somerville emerged triumphant.

Somerville were strong throughout the tournament, especially in defence. Harriet Dixon, the Goal Defence for the Blues, as well as a Blues fencer, was invaluable for the college team, dominating their defence and preventing the conceding of many goals throughout the day. In the first half, Keble appeared dominant, but Somerville put their heads down and pulled away to victory.

One of the intentions of the tournament is to foster team spirit amongst colleges and sporting competitiveness, which may be missed in a term of revision and exams. This was particularly apparent in the umpiring by every college, and the respect shown for decisions. The popularity and strength of net­ball was evident in the fact of many colleges entering more than one team, and even an appearance by Osler House.

Netball is the perfect way for many people to become involved in sport, and turn out for their college, with leagues running through Michaelmas and Hilary terms. In all divisions except Division One, each team may have a male player, and mixed netball Cuppers are being held later in the term. An OUNC mem­ber commented that all teams and players came with a “brilliant attitude”, and it was a great tournament for all involved.