The Oxford University Cricket Club’s Varsity campaign got off to a wet start on Friday, as the men’s Twenty20 fixture was abandoned without a ball being bowled. Earlier in the day, the women secured a comprehensive victory against Cambridge, ensuring their dominant run of four straight Twenty20 victories.

The Oxford women’s team put in a dominant performance with both bat and ball to claim victory as the rain held off. Following a strong opening partnership of 28 by the Cambridge openers, good middle overs bowling and sharp catching saw Oxford restrict the Cambridge side to 77 from their 20 overs. Wickets were shared around the six bowlers used by Oxford, but the figures of captain Tina Gough (1-8 off 4 overs) and Ridhi Kashyap (2-10 off 4 overs) were particularly impressive. Oxford chase was comprehensive with a range of clean hit- ting and clever batting seeing the team chase the target in the thirteenth over. Eleanor Bath batted through the innings with a well-made 29 to see the team to victory, whilst an aggressive innings by wicket-keeper Lucy Stuchfield (31 off 24 balls) was instrumental in the team’s victory. This win marks the fourth successive Twenty20 victory for the women and they will be hoping to continue their good form when they face Cambridge again on June 20 at the Lords Nursery Ground.

Disappointingly for the players, the fans that had come out to watch, and the sponsors in attendance at the men’s, the match was not able to begin. Following a lunch reception for the players and guests, which included former England players and Oxford and Cambridge Blues Vic Marks and Michael Atherton, the rain continued to drizzle. Hopes were raised by news of a 4.30 pitch inspection, resulting in the players from both sides leaving the shelter offered by their changing rooms to partake in some preliminary warm-ups. The sites of Cambridge kicking around a football and the Oxford players throwing a vortex on the field of play, accompanied by the music that had been played throughout the day, appeared encouraging for the fans that had sought refuge and beverages in the Rose and Crown pub and sponsors’ tents. They would, however, be left disappointed as the 4.30pm inspection came to the conclusion that was feared by all in attendance. Concerns about the state of the bowler’s run-ups from both the ECB appointed umpires and the ground staff led to captains Gus Kennedy and Tom Elliott agreeing that the match would have to be abandoned. News filtered around the players and fans that had attended, a disappointing way to end an event that had a lot of effort put into it by many people.

The men’s attention will now turn to the 50-over and four-day varieties of the game, in preparation for the Varsity fixtures later in the summer. The 50-over match will be held at Lord’s Cricket Ground on Friday 20 May, while the First Class four-day fixture will be held at the Parks from 30 June – 3 July. The Blues still have much cricket in the coming weeks despite examination season being well and truly un- derway. The team travel to Cardiff this coming Wednesday for their last game of the BUCS season against Cardiff Metropolitan University. Oxford University’s BUCS campaign has been somewhat mixed, with disappointing losses to Bristol and Bath while securing dominant victories against Southampton and Surrey. The BUCS season has however provided an opportunity for many to get Blues cricketing experi- ence in the lead up to the varsity matches later this summer. Last week, first year undergraduate Richard O’Grady took the opportunity to bat at the top of the innings scoring a dominant 131 not out, guiding Oxford to victory against Surrey University. O’Grady dominated the Surrey attack despite battling cramps throughout his innings, hitting particularly strongly down the ground. Supported well by Sam Cato (41*) the duo ensured Oxford reached their target with ten overs remaining. Such individual performances are likely to be remembered when varsity selection comes around.

Red ball cricket will now be the focus of the Blues, with the Parks hosting five fixtures prior to the four-day game which is set to round off the summer.

Next week sees the Marylebone Cricket Club visit the Blues for a three day fixture, 2-4 June. The fixture should provide good preparations for the Varsity match offering, for many, the first chance of the summer to play some longer format cricket.

This week sees the biggest event in college rowing return to the Isis. Summer Eights takes place between Wednesday 28th May and Saturday 31st May between 11:50am and 6:45pm, except on Saturday when racing is between 10:45am and 5:45pm.

The traditional Bumps event, in which a number of boats chase each other in single file, with each crew attempting to catch and “bump” the boat in front without being caught by the boat behind, is expected to attract thousands of spectators to the boathouses and banks of the Isis. The crowd, made up of students and alumni, flock to the river to see the rowing but also to experience to bustling atmosphere on race day and perhaos even to enjoy a glass of Pimms in the sun.

Rowing on, the qualifying event for the race, took place last week, attracting crews of all abilities to take to the water in pursuit of glory, and a set of blades. The time trial event saw Mansfield M2 and Wolfson M3, and Jesus W3 and Green Templeton W3, come top of the men’s and women’s qualifiers respectively. The day’s action saw only one disqualification with Jesus M4 Captain evacuating the boat after the crew posted a time that would have seen them qualify.

The competition itself sees Pembroke chased by Christ Church and Oriel in the M1 division. Oriel M1 are favourites amongst the rowing faithful, with Malcolm Howard, president of the 2014 Boat Race winning OUBC, in their crew. The Women’s division 1 sees St. John’s followed by Wadham, Teddy Hall and Pembroke, with Wadham W1 looking strong as favourites. 

The top of the Women’s division is set to be a tight contest too, with St. John’s and Wadham hosting no Blues or university rowers.

Trinity is host to one of the most decorated crews, with Blues Constantine Louloudis and Michael DiSanto, and Isis rower James Fraser-Mackenzie rowing for their M1. They start in eigth position however, so are likely to make fourth or fifth spot this year, setting them in good stead for victory next year.

Sam Skillcorn, Vice Captain of Jesus College Boat Club, predicts that “Keble M1 are going to smash it from the bottom of division 1, since they have loads of internationals and ex-Olympians in their boat”. To mention only one of them; Tim Foster is part of their crew, and was part of the Sydney 2000 Olympic GB Gold Medal winning four alongside Matthew Pinsent, Sir Steve Redgrave and James Cracknell. 

Having only recently entered the rowing scene, Green Templeton have been on the rise since they entered the summer eights competition. Having moved up the divisons every year, they are now 11th in division 4, and are likely to continue their climb.

At the other end of the spectrum, Exeter are rumoured to have relatively poor crews, and don’t seem to be backing themselves either by only entering M1 and W1 boats. Both crews are rowing in division two, so will face tight competition.

Now in full swing, summer eights is set to be as exciting and as hotly-contested as ever.

A chant begins from one corner of Iffley Sport Centre as athletes in waistcoats and dresses return from the dance floor to the spectating area.

As the exhausted Quickstep dancers quickly grab a drink of water, two rival chants begin elsewhere around the main floor in support of Trinity and Teddy Hall. Finally, the compere – competitive dancesport’s version of a master of ceremonies – booms over the PA system the numbers of the competitors who have made the fourth round of the Jive. The chants are replaced by localised cheers as the successful couples take the floor.

For a moment, an anxious silence settles amongst the over 300 spectators and competitors. The atmosphere is still and tense in anticipation. Finally, the bouncing beats of Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman” come over the loud-speakers. Immediately, the colleges resume their raucous yelling as the couples take hold and fly into a flurry of kicks and flicks.

All this commotion is a result of Oxford University Dancesport Club’s annual Cuppers competition. Following on from Cherwell Sport’s preview of the Dancesport Cuppers competition in Issue 4 this term, we bring you the review. Over 200 participants from 25 colleges took part in the biggest dance-off of the year. In the competition, each college creates teams of four couples, each competing in either the Waltz, Quickstep, Cha Cha, or Jive. Each couple must be made up of at least one beginner and the teaching format is similar to that of Strictly Come Dancing. Experienced dancers teach beginners as much as they can starting anything between 3 weeks and 3 days before the event. Couples score points based on how far they advance in the competition. These count towards two categories – a team match and an overall college score. This year’s overall winners, Trinity College, recruited 40 dancers creating five full teams. By a 2.5 point margin, they beat Keble College, who fielded a team of 30 dancers. The best four-couple team went to Keble.

To get ahead in the game, some participants attended classes in Ballroom and Latin hosted throughout the year by the dancesport club, OUDC. The club’s Ballroom and Latin classes are part of a broader social and competitive dancing framework that includes the full-Blue competitive team, a beginner’s team, a competitive Rock ‘n’ Roll team, the Rueda Komrades, and a variety of social dancing classes in each discipline.

The competitive Ballroom and Latin main and beginners teams, along with the Rock ‘n’ Roll squad went head to head with Cambridge at the Varsity Match one week prior to Cuppers, in addition to five other competitions across the country in Michaelmas and Hilary terms. The highlight of the year is the Inter-Varsity Dancesport Competition at the Blackpool Winter Gardens Ballroom, where approximately 800 people from university teams across the entire country compete.

Many of the experienced dancers who compete for OUDC were on hand at Cuppers to captain the 25 college teams and coach the new, inexperienced dancers to victory. A lot of these now experienced dancers started their dancesport career after competing in a previous Cuppers event and then subsequently joined the Beginners Team.

Cherwell Sport’s very own editor attended the event out of curiosity and stayed for the whole competition. The level of skill involved with ballroom dancing throughout the university was very high, but was complemented nicely by an array of beginners getting involved.

Dancesport is arguably one of the fastest growing sports in Oxford, with a growing number of participants, and an increasing turnout from supporters each year. The Cuppers competition is definitely something worth getting involved in for dancers of all levels, and particularly beginners who want to learn the basics and perform them in a relatively short space of time. It was great to see the surprise and delight on the faces of the beginners that managed to progress through the rounds, with some going on to make the final.

The commentary team were also entertaining, and always on the ball, providing jokes, which were sometimes at the expense of the dancers, to keep the crowd entertained in the short intervals.

Even if only to spectate, make sure you get down to Iffley Road for the competition next year, as it really is a pleasure to watch and a great day out for both dancers and audience!