A s per usual, Trinity term plays host to Cricket Cuppers, the pinnacle of college cricket at Oxford. This year 29 colleges are vying for the chance to play at Uni Parks in the final, when hopefully the weather will remember that this is Trinity, and is therefore not meant to rain every day. The road to cricketing glory this year (at least for St Catherine’s and St Hugh’s) began with a wet, muddy bowl-out, in which a traffic cone was very nearly used for the wicket. Perhaps not the ideal first step.

This was a scene roughly repeated across Oxford, as few teams were able to play games on the often waterlogged pitches. The idiosyncrasies of the OUCC Cuppers rules means cuppers games are scheduled for a Monday, with the reserve day, should the game need to be cancelled for bad weather, being Thursday. If this slot is missed, as has been fairly common this year for obvious reasons, then a bowl-out ensues. This involves the stumps being placed at one end of the nets (the pitches were too wet for even this curtailed version of the game) and a set number of bowlers trying to hit them, whilst the team’s batsmen watch on helpless.

The reigning champions, Worcester, failed to meet this somewhat unusual challenge as St Catz won their second bowl-out in two weeks to progress to the quarter finals without yet playing a match. Balliol, Brasenose, Trinity, Keble and last year’s runners up, New/St. Hilda’s have also all progressed into the quarter finals, while there is a degree of disarray in some sections of the draw, with first round ties yet to be decided.

Whilst the journey to Uni Parks so far has been bizarre and enjoyable as a result, all those involved in college cricket will be desperate for the weather to continue its erratic, but discernible, upward trend towards some sun. If it doesn’t then you have to wonder how many people will turn up for a bowl-out to decide the final in 6th week. The most that can be said is that at least it’s more spectator-friendly than a coin toss.

Trinity term isn’t host to many of the marquee Varsity matches, at least not until towards the end when cricket takes the stage, but this can give lesser-known sports the chance to flourish.

On Sunday 13th May Oxford Triathlon Club competed at their annual Varsity match, again held at Grendon Triathlon in the heart of Northampton. Triathlon is one of the fastest growing sports at the moment, and one on the whole dominated by British athletes. This weekend saw Britain complete the double in the World Triathlon Series race in San Diego with Helen Jenkins and Jonny Brownlee winning the men and women’s races respectively. The omens are good for the Olympics!

Back at Grendon the Varsity wave set off at 9:00am, with around 50 Oxbridge triathletes churning up the water of Grendon lake. Open-water swims can be fairly brutal, and this was no exception, with a large bunch of triathletes fighting to occupy a small stretch of excruciatingly cold water, bursting their lungs to complete the 750m swim as quickly as possible. Cambridge triathlete Alex Young was the first athlete out of the water and onto the 20km bike course. It was a fairly smooth course with a couple of small climbs in it. The race then finished with a 5km run.

Young’s lead proved unshakeable, and the first Oxford man home was Lee Harper (Merton) in 3rd place, leading from the front as always with a quick result of one hour, five minutes and eight seconds, taking the podium in his final race as OUTriC President.

However, the men’s Blues match was won by a dominant Cambridge performance, a result which was gratifyingly reversed in the women’s Blues match as Oxford comfortably beat Cambridge by over fifteen minutes. Sophia Saller (St Catz) came first and Hannah Johnston (Pembroke) second, with Cambridge triathlete Madzia Kowalski rounding out the podium in third place.

In the seconds matches OUTriC demonstrated the depth of its talent, with the men destroying Cambridge by 95 points to 150 points (the lowest score winning), and the women’s second team containing some fantastic individual results, though they won by default as Cambridge failed to field a full team.

After some strong performances at BUCS Sprint Triathlon the previous weekend, four Oxford athletes were looking to satisfy the stringent Blues criteria at Varsity. All four had their efforts rewarded, with Sophia Saller getting a full blue, and Hannah Johnston, James Felce (Oriel) and Iona Richards (St Catz) taking home half-blues.

It was a fine climax to the triathlon club’s season, winning Varsity 3:1. Whilst Varsity and BUCS Sprint triathlons are the main focus of the club, many of its members race longer distances. OUTriC will be racing at the standard distance National Championships triathlon in June in Shropshire, which is made up of a 1.5km swim, 40km bike and then 10km run. A number of athletes are also preparing to compete at the infamous Ironman distance, which comprises a 3.8km swim, 180km bike, followed by a full marathon.

The seconds’ match demonstrated the breadth of talent in the club, with the majority of our triathletes having started the sport from scratch when they started Oxford, and the club can look forward to another successful year under its new President Hannah Johnston.

Last Wednesday, about 325 of Oxford’s finest sportswomen gathered in the Natural History museum to witness history being made as the Atalanta’s Society launched the very first official Blues presentation evening to be held in the University. Until now, despite the international prestige attached to an Oxford Blue, there has been no formal recognition or ceremony to denote its achievement. This Olympic year, Atalanta’s decided it was time for Blues to be awarded in style.

The evening saw sportswomen from over 30 sports receive Blues which, despite the commitment and often extremely high standard of the players, aren’t for’ally recognized within Oxford. Eloise Waldon-Day, current President of Atalanta’s, commented, “This underwhelming arrival of the much-vaunted Oxford Blue is emblematic of a wider issue. Up until now, the university establishment has seemed to disregard any sport that wasn’t male, or rowing. Atalanta’s was therefore delighted that the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, William James, accepted his invitation to represent the university and acknowledge the high performance of its female athletes.’

Waldon-Day went on to explain the reasons behind the inauguration of this event: ‘The Atalanta’s Committee all agreed it was a shame that there was no official presentation of Blues. I was disappointed in first year when my Blues certificate was handed to me months after Varsity before a training session, creased from someone’s rucksack. But many sports don’t order certificates at all.’

This is partly because the procedure for ordering Blues was previously left very much up to individual clubs – a problem Atalanta’s has addressed by subsidizing the certificates and centralizing the process. The sheer numbers present at awards evening itself demonstrated the enthusiasm with which such an idea was received among the clubs. Many captains, when replying to the invitation on behalf of their teams, voiced their excitement and pleasure that such an event had been organized.

Karolina Lada, the women’s volleyball captain echoed these sentiments: “The Blues Presentation Evening was a delightful and elegant culmination of a year of the highs and lows of a year in women’s sport. It proved a valuable reflection on our own accomplishments; a sense of personal and team pride shared in the beautiful surroundings”.

From the minority of men present, Out of the Blue provided musical entertainment, and gifts from sponsors Deutsche Bank produced much excitement too. There was also a display of Blues jewellery on the night, designed as a female alternative to the Blues blazers by ex-Cambridge Blue Laura Davidson.

Atalanta’s acts as a social complement to the Women’s Blues Committee, with membership offered to any girl who has competed at the highest levels of her chosen sport: in a Varsity match. This inclusive criteria of entry for women is almost entirely opposed to that of the Vincent’s Club, which admits men as much on social merit as much as sporting ability.

As such, Atalanta’s is the perfect body through which to host an evening designed to officially celebrate the achievements of Oxford’s sportswomen. Lada commented: ‘I sincerely hope this tradition will continue for the sake of mutual appreciation of the importance of sporting excellence in so many women’s lives – notwithstanding the challenges of an Oxford degree!’

Waldon-Day added: ‘Deutsche Bank were extremely accommodating in helping cater for such numbers and have agreed to sponsor the awards evening for the next few years, so this looks like the beginning of a new Oxford tradition! Word on the street is that the boys have already begun discussing one of their own for next year; a couple of centuries slow off the mark perhaps, but better late than never.’

Brasenose came out on top as College Sevens Champions after a keenly contested tournament, with 24 teams taking part. Although the tournament, held at Iffley Road, did not quite attract the raucous crowds or breathtaking skills we are accustomed to seeing on the IRB tour although St Peter’s chunky playmaker Luke Jagoe claims he ‘’came close to a Waisale Serevi level of jazz’’. Either way, this won’t matter to the victors as they were able to reclaim some of the pride lost during their double-relegation season.

With only one team from eight pools of three, the first round saw some of the traditional heavyweights of the college leagues fall at the first hurdle. Christ Church and Keble, two teams that have enjoyed good seasons in the Premier Division of college rugby, were knocked out at the pool stage by the eventual finalists, St Hildas and Brasenose, with Brasenose sending an early warning to the other teams by scoring 78 points in their three 10 minute games. It soon became clear that the teams playing the best brand of ‘Sevens’ rugby, keeping the ball alive, avoiding contact and moving the ball laterally across the pitch waiting to find an opening, would triumph. In contrast, those teams that played in a more conventional manner of keeping the ball tight around the ruck area, driving the ball up the middle of the pitch and working through the phases would come unstuck against teams that moved the ball around the park and possessed the speed to run in tries from 40 or 50 metres. On the whole, the teams that adapted best to Sevens won their pools, often overcoming teams that had been playing in higher leagues than them in the regular season, with performance in the 15 man game not a good indicator of how a team would fare.

As the competition heated up at the quarter final stage, some six or seven hours after the first pool match had taken place, Pembroke proved this to be true, outscoring the reigning Premier Division winners and Cuppers Champions Teddy Hall by 3 tries to 1 to win 15-7. Another team found in the lower reaches of the college leagues, St Hildas, put Oriel, the other 2012 Cuppers finalists to the sword 26-10, with the pace of Ali Shipman and George Darrah out too much for Oriel to handle. In the other quarter finals, Brasenose put in another clinical performance to run in 5 tries to dispatch New 26-5. The highest scoring quarter-final saw St Catz and Lincoln score a combined 48 points. St Catz led comfortably through tries from the aging Chris Copplestone, Ross Williamson and young prop Dean Irvine, who had the crowd on their feet with an outrageous goosestep and then proceeded to burn the Lincoln winger on the outside, to the adulation of the crowd. Clinging on for a 29-19 victory in the end, St Catz proved they are now once again a force to be reckoned with in college rugby following a double-promotion back up to the Premier Division and a narrow Cuppers semi-final defeat.

In the first semi-final, Pembroke came out the victors over St Catz in a topsy-turvy game. Leading by a couple of scores at half-time, after some telling runs from Will Rowlands, Pembroke struggled in the second half, with St Catz striking back to gain the lead with a couple of minutes left. However, on the last play of the game, a speculative pass saw Pembroke intercept and score under the posts to win a thriller 33-26. The second semi-final proved to be just as exciting, with Brasenose and St Hildas, the two teams that had looked the most dangerous throughout the early stages going toe to toe. In what was probably the game of the tournament, Brasenose emerged as winners 19-12, but it really could have gone either way. After this, the final was somewhat of an anti-climax. In the end, Brasenose ran out as winners quite comfortably by 26 points to 7, with double try-scorer Ben Claxton playing a starring role.

What was most encouraging about the tournament is that it showed the strength in depth of rugby in Oxford. Colleges not necessarily seen as ‘rugby colleges’ and those that had not fared particularly well in the league of Cuppers flourished. None of the four semi-finalists competed at the top end of the Premier Division this season, and with decent teams such as Christ Church, Univ and Exeter failing to make it out of the group stages, next season certainly promises to be one in which more teams than ever compete for places at the top of the tree. If the form showed by some of the teams during this Sevens tournament is carried over into the regular season next term, college rugby will no longer be defined by the dominance of a Teddy Hall-Keble dichotomy. Special mention should go to OURFC for organizing such a successful event, and with around 200 players taking part, there is certainly scope for more Sevens to be played in Trinity term, provided finalists can be persuaded to leave the library.

As the rain continues to wreak havoc on English domestic cricket, it is perhaps more appropriate to look at slightly dryer settings: namely those of the Indian sub-continent and the gaudy carnival of Twenty20 cricket that is the Indian Premier League (IPL). Launched in 2008, the IPL was one of cricket’s most glamorous tournaments, promising explosive batting, cheerleaders and Bollywood all mixed together.

But five years on, observers are starting to feel the hangover of the Twenty20 party: stadiums go unfilled, TV ratings are plummeting and international teams appear to be suffering, with their best players away for the better part of three months. The inevitable question must be asked: is the IPL and the culture of Twenty20 franchise leagues damaging the quality of international cricket? Certainly MS Dhoni needs no reminding that after IPL 2011, he has lost 8 consecutive Test matches abroad, while even his coveted ODI team have failed consistently in the last year.

Worryingly, such an assertion seems strongly justified when looking at that current situation in Indian cricket. With the decline in popularity of India’s domestic first-class tournament, the Ranji Trophy, the IPL has become virtually the only platform for young players to gain exposure and recognition. They do this by sacrificing technique, painstakingly learned for survival in the longer formats of the game, for an aggressive brand of “slog-style” cricket: low on technique, but high on smashing sixes and getting pay checks.

In the IPL, with its flat, dry pitches, this form of cricket is highly rewarded, but does players absolutely no favours in the more demanding and ultimately more respected Test arena. The consequences have indeed been grave. India’s team, composed of IPL superstars like Jadeja and Ashwin, unable to cope with the swinging ball and bounce of pitches abroad have been found wanting: accustomed to merely twenty overs of aggressive batting and seam bowling, they simply haven’t cultivated the discipline and technique needed for longer formats of international cricket.

But the implications are not just there for India. When international players actively choose to play in the IPL, they are essentially removing themselves from international selection for almost three months. The problem comes when six or seven of the country’s top players, eager to cash in on the lucrative salaries that the IPL offers, decide to do just this. Moreover, the IPL further crowds the international schedule with yet another fixture and overwhelms participating players with a staggering 74 matches played in the gruelling heat of the subcontinent. Take the experience of Kevin Pietersen this year. After a tough winter in the UAE and Sri Lanka, he immediately flew out to Dehli for the IPL and is now back in the England side with absolutely no rest in between. Such a schedule can only serve to weaken players, and damage the balance of international teams.

But perhaps even more pertinent is the question: do fans even want the IPL? This year’s ratings are dropping week by week and approximately 3 million less people are watching the tournament on TV this year. Moreover, whatever the commentators would have us believe, the camera cannot hide the ugly, empty stands in places like Chennai and Jaipur which are becoming regular features of each match this year.

So is it an overstatement to say that the IPL is killing cricket? I still believe it is however. Let us not forget it has provided a lucrative and extensive platform for players, who would otherwise still be unknown, to rise into the ranks of national sides. Witness the careers of Ashwin, Raina, Warner and Marsh. With better communication with the ICC, the IPL could be integrated into the international calendar, hence eliminating the risk of players having to choose between club and country. Whatever the accusations that the IPL is “just not cricket”, it is undeniably entertainment in its most glossy form, smartly packaged with all the colour, culture and vibrancy of India. Despite Australia, South Africa, England, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka all trying to emulate the product, the IPL still remains the Premier Cricket League in Twenty20 cricket, and for this, it surely deserves some applause. There are of course concerns that must be addressed, but I firmly believe that the tournament, when executed and integrated properly is “crickertainment” in its most exciting form.