In a week which has seen the University’s rugby union Blues take on both the cryptically named Major Stanley’s XV and Sydney University, it is only right that we at Cherwell turn our attention to the upcoming Varsity game. It’s only 14 days away.

Of course in rugby, two weeks is a long time. But at this stage in
the season we are well placed to take stock, and consider how our boys
will perform on the big- gest stage, especially as there is only one warm-up remaining before the big one. It’s now or never to stake a claim for a spot in a very long history.

The Tabs have had a mixed year so far too, with losses against professional sides Saracens and Bristol, but a resounding victory against National Championship side London Scottish will have done their confidence no harm as the run up to the Varsity game continues. 

One of the highlights of their campaign saw a particularly strong New College performance against Brasenose in which they scored sixteen unanswered goals. Things are not looking quite as good for Lincoln, who could be in danger of relegation after a run of four straight defeats, including a 14-3 rout by Teddy Hall.

Fed up of being subjected to inane rowing chat for weeks, even months on end? Exasperated at being rudely awakened at the crack of dawn by your over-zealous, Isis-bound flatmate? Well, things are about to become a whole lot worse, for this Wednesday sees the start of the annual Christ Church Regatta, the showcase rowing event of Michaelmas term. Regarded as an ‘introductory’ competition, a gateway event that can lead to incurable levels of enthusiasm for all things rowing-related (the crews comprise of novices who have only recently picked up an oar for the first time), the regatta rarely disappoints. The rowers’ inexperience, the tension of the straight knock-out format and the unpredictable weather conditions are all key ingredients which form the potent winter broth that is the Christ Church Regatta, a tasty recipe which delights the spectators dotted along the river Isis, hungry for drama, mishaps and mayhem. And so in preparation for this week’s rowing extravaganza, here is a preview of what you can expect to see over the coming few days, including the basics for those of you (un)fortunate enough to have remained hitherto untainted by the rowing endemic sweeping across Oxford’s student population.

What?

The Christ Church Regatta, Oxford’s main rowing competition in Michaelmas term. Run entirely by members of Christ Church Boat Club, it is Oxford’s largest college-run rowing event.

When?

7^th Week (27^th – 30^th November) – that’s four solid days of riveting rowing for you to enjoy. Racing is scheduled to take place from midday to dusk on Wednesday to Friday, and 9am to dusk on Saturday.

Where?

The river Isis. The inaugural race of this year’s regatta will begin opposite Christ Church boat-house, while the finishing line is approximately half way between Pembroke Boathouse and The Head. The remaining races will commence at Longbridges and finish at the same end-point. After the races, why not head over to the Head of the River pub to discuss the day’s major talking points over a hearty ale and some pork scratchings? The rowing chat need not end after the last boat has crossed the line.

Who?

The Christ Church Regatta is traditionally a competition for rowing newbies, those students who are having their first taster of the sport. Will the OUBC scouts unearth a hidden gem, a rough diamond, a Maradona of the waters at this year’s event? Who knows…

Why?

Because rowing is fun(?).

The Format

The rules are simple. Each boat comprises of a crew of eight and a cox, who then go head-to-head with another crew in a straight knock-out competition. Lose in the first round? Not to worry: you’ll be entered into the repecharge, a sort of competition for losers.

Crews to look out for

In order to formulate pre-regatta predictions, it is often useful to look at the results of the Nephthys Regatta – a warm-up event for its bigger sister which takes place the previous week. In the men’s section, Jesus College emerged victorious, easing past St. Hilda’s, St. Bennet’s, Wolfson and Merton in the earlier rounds before pipping Trinity to the post in the final. Under the guidance of their new, progressive coach Nick Fulton – dubbed “the Jürgen Klopp of rowing” – the Jesus men’s crew are certainly worth looking out for this year, and surely head into the event as favourites. As for the women’s section, look no further than Brasenose – 2012 and 2013 winners of Nephthys Regatta, they are bound to be formidable opponents and will be looking to replicate last week’s success as the Christ Church Regatta kicks off on Wednesday.

And so the stage is set for Michaelmas’ headline rowing event; with the Christ Church Regatta often proving to be a useful indicator of how strong a crew will be for the Torpids and Summer Eights in Hilary and Trinity, there is no reason

for you not to make your way down to the Isis this week for some oar-inspiring entertainment. Rejoice, for rowing is back! Again! 

The Oxford University Maroons and Coventry 2nds both came into Wednesday’s game with two losses and one win apiece, making this match the archetypal six pointer. At University Parks, tensions were high and sweat adorned both teams’ brows as the ball sailed into the air at kickoff.

Oxford were quick to establish their dominance with Worcester’s speedster Stephen Wilks opening the scoring to make it 4-0 to Oxford after Jake Whittaker failed to convert. Calum Lomas maintained Oxford’s momentum by steamrolling the Coventry centre and popping the ball up to Loftus, who scored directly under the posts for the first of a brace of tries in what was soon to become an unequivocal man-of-the-match performance. Whittaker’s second conversion could not have been easier yet confusion over whether the game was one of rugby league or crossbar challenge led him to fire a powerful effort into the horizontal bar, leaving the score at 8-0 to Oxford. Oxford’s fourth try epitomised the levelof control they had over the game, with Lomas catching the ball straight from the kickoff and running across and around the Coventry backline to streak down the touchline before offloading to Bentley, who stumbled over the line in a mouth-watering exhibition of proficiency that came a mere 30 seconds after the third try. The conversion was taken successfully by James Clark: a disgruntled Whittaker looked on wistfully as the ball sailed over the bar for the first of 5 successful kick attempts. Oxford continued to put pressure on Coventry throughout the first half, with Abeku Nelson and Joe Nour making numerous powerful runs whilst Loftus ran the backline like an approachable yet stern drill-sergeant. The key to Oxford’s success in the first half was their monopoly over possession, driven primarily by virtue of a firstclass defence.

The second half, however, told a different story. The home team’s 38-0 half-time lead added an element of apathy, building on occasional lapses in concentration from the first half such as Whittaker’s decision to shepherd a second row through the Maroons’ ranks. Despite this, Oxford did well, with occasional brilliance in defence resulting in risible unforced errors from the visitors that were met with scornful screams of ‘knocky knocky’ from an obnoxious sideline contingent. They also managed to keep the scoreboard ticking over, though at a slower rate than in the first half, scoring 22 second half points, including a pinpoint crossfield kick by Loftus for Bhaduri to score that chimed as it landed on a penny. Lomas completed his brace in the second half whilst Whittaker’s unfortunate day continued with his role in Coventry’s sole try of the day. An excellent first half performance secured the victory for the home team and the second-half saw the team do enough to secure a final score of 60-4 to Oxford.

Moving forward, things are starting to look up on all fronts for the fledgling club.

After suffering a 5-1 defeat away to Birmingham University 1sts in their first league game of the season, the Blues knew they would have a fight on their hands when they welcomed Birmingham back to Iffley Road last Wednesday.

The Blues got off to a rocky start, and in the first 10 minutes were very much on the back foot. However Oxford somehow weathered the early storm. Slowly the Blues started to play their way back into the game, mainly due to a tactical change by Blues Captain Jack Fletcher, who moved Pembroke captain Alex Tsaptsinos from a more attacking role back into defensive midfield, alongside the Blues Belgian player Elias Adriaenssens.

This formational change shored up the midfield and allowed the Blues to start playing the fluid passing football that they have become accustomed to at home this season.

The Blues began creating chances, as the Birmingham midfielders failed to pick up the overlapping runs of the Blues’ fullbacks, in particular left-back Aidan Barry who took every opportunity to overlap Blues winger Ezra Rubenstein to try and help provide an attacking threat.

Eventually the Blues got their breakthrough; a diagonal run from Matt Smith pulled away two defenders and this gave American Mike Essman time to whip in a deep looping cross which was calmly dispatched with a first time side footed volley by Peder Beck-Friis.

The Blues took a 1-0 lead into half time but they were by no means complacent, and an inspirational team talk from the captain let the players know they had done nothing yet.

There was another tough 45 minutes ahead and there was no way that this Birmingham team were going to roll over and give the Blues another home win.

In the second half the Blues came out strong, and they began to create more chances. The Blues continued to play some lovely football through the midfield and were constantly finding Ezra Rubenstein on the left wing, who all game caused the Birmingham right back a lot of difficulty.

However, Birmingham still carried a significant threat particularly through their impressive frontman and it was only due to the solid defending of Rich Smith and Mike Moneke at centre back that prevented Birmingham from equalising.

As time went on there was a growing sense that the Blues were going to score another goal. A great passing move culminated in a mazy run from Tsaptsinos which saw him chopped down in the area, and the referee awarded a penalty. Ezra Rubenstein did not waste any time at all in picking up ball and placing it on the spot, he then calmly stepped up and slotted the ball into the bottom right-hand corner, just beating the goalkeeper, who dived the correct way.

The final 20 minutes saw the introduction of some fresh new legs, and this allowed the Blues to see out the remaining minutes with only one slight hiccup.

With 10 minutes to go Birmingham had a goal rightly denied due to an offside flag, but apart from that Birmingham never threatened the Blues’ goal, and when the final whistle went Oxford celebrated a hard fought and well deserved victory.

There were mixed fortunes for Oxford’s boxers on Friday night as the first bouts of the season got under way in the long preparation for the annual Varsity match. Five OUABC boys faced off against boxers from the local Oxford Boxing Academy in their annual show at the Kassam Stadium.

The Oxford Boxing Academy, a club based in Northway, work under the mantra that “boxing is misunderstood by people who do not box”. As an amateur club covered occasionally by the likes of Sky Sports, they were always likely to prove a tough challenge at this foetal stage of OUABC’s season.

Sadly this proved true, as the local club got the better of the University boys in three of the five outings, but there were strong positives to be salvaged from a brace of victories from the University’s pugilists.

It was a debut showing for Heman Joshi (Teddy Hall), Richard Beck (Somerville) and Stephen O’Driscoll (Somerville). Jack Straker (Queens) had his first bout as a Dark Blue having boxed on his year abroad in Lyons last, and this marked the third outing for returning Blue, and this year’s captain, Ian Holland (St. Benet’s).

Joshi opened proceedings, tipping the scales at 74 kg, and facing the more experienced local Zeeshan Moughal who had two bouts to his name. Joshi looked tentative initially, his opponent showing more confidence in letting his punches go early on. But, dominating the centre through his superior strength, Joshi scored some nice straight jabs in the first round and seemed to be leading on points. Moughal reined in his swinging, and started to box in a more careful, albeit cagey, fashion. Joshi grew in confidence in the final round, using his size to dictate the pace and leaving the judges to award him a majority decision.

Fortunes took a bit of a nose-dive for the Oxford boys in the next few bouts, however. In another Middleweight match, Straker faced Nasser Balayo – whose speed and dynamism belied his thickset physique.

Straker worked ceaselessly in the first but was unable to gain ground on Balayo or break through his cast-iron guard. After both boxers settled in and started to swing a little, Straker caught some heavy shots – initially remaining resolute – yet by the third round Balayo’s sharp inside-work and fluent head movement meant he was breaking through with enough frequency to tip the decision unanimously in his favour.

Up next was Stephen O’Driscoll who was – quite literally – fighting an uphill battle from the start. Joshua Rigby towered over O’Driscoll by a good few inches and was able to hold him on the ropes for the majority of the bout’s duration. O’Driscoll managed to elude his adversary’s reach to begin with, but was rarely able to move past the jab and score. One clean backhand from Rigby spelled a standing-count for O’Driscoll in the first round from which he easily recovered, but Rigby reprised the same move in the second, at which point the referee elected to stop the contest despite the protestations of O’Driscoll – who was beginning to assert himself and insisted he could continue. Blue Richard Beck was next, and also on the wrong side of a premature stop-page in his welterweight contest. Beck faced an awkward southpaw, and both looked tentative in the first round as they tried to find their range. The contest livened up significantly in the second with both boxers displaying a range of shots many of which landed. Nothing separated them at the beginning of the third, but Beck began to wear and his opponent capitalised, forcing a standing count. Beck recovered but fell victim to a textbook backhand immediately as the fight resumed. At this point, the ref called a technical knockout against Beck with barely seconds left in the round, leaving Oxford with a third disappointment.

Skipper Ian Holland was to restore some dignity after a string of tough losses in the most technically pyrotechnic bout of the evening. It started poorly for Holland, facing Adam Howard at 74kg, with his opponent landing a big left bodyshot instantaneously.. Holland was visibly stunned but quickly recovered. Howard’s oeuvre seemed to be decidedly one-note, as he alternated between his original shot and a big right hand to the head for the first two rounds both of which Holland shrugged off repeatedly. Despite his opponent’s aggression, Holland kept the fight technical and scored freely. He was the more expressive boxer throughout and the result showed with a majority victory. Howard stopped gunning for the knockout and began trying to box Holland in the third and final round, which was more evenly scored, but had left himself with too large a deficit – he took defeat ignominiously, refusing to shake the OUABC boy’s hand after the decision was given to Holland.

Despite the losses, prospects look bright for OUABC. At the same show last year, James Watson and Mikey Davis both suffered defeat and went on to win by knockout in Varsity. As club president Jack Straker told Cherwell a few weeks ago, “the coaches have said that they have never before seen a squad this strong at the start of the season”, and on that basis it is definitely worth dwelling on the positives from last week’s showing.

Next term is action packed for OUABC, with all five of Friday’s boxers, and a fair few others, boxing at the Oxford Union in the third week of Hilary. The club will be defending the Varsity crown in 7th week.