Oxford won the 126th Varsity football match on penalties after a pulsating 1-1 draw at the Abbey Stadium on Friday night. A stunning 90th minute free kick from James Kelly forced the shootout in which a brilliant save from Dwayne Whylly, and five flawless shots from the Dark Blues, ensured a famous victory.

Despite the excellent condition of the pitch both sides seemed to struggle early on and the game was scrappy and nervy. It was Oxford who managed to take the early initiative, creating three clear cut chances that really should have been taken. First centre back Elliot Thomas sent a header woefully wide from close range, then just three minutes later the same player had another header cleared off the line and eventually scrambled away by the desperate Cambridge defence. Oxford’s best chance of the half fell to Adam Zagajewski minutes later. Having found himself completely free in the box he failed to connect with his header at all, giving the light blues another huge escape.

Oxford were made to pay for their wastefulness in front of goal on the half hour mark. In one of Cambridge’s first forays forward, Matt Stock cleverly turned Thomas in the box and went to ground. Referee Lee Mason showed no hesitation in pointing to the spot to give what was a clear penalty. Mark Baxter stepped up to calmly slot home and put Cambridge into a lead they barely deserved. Oxford appeared rattled by the goal and nearly conceded again soon after, Whylly having to acrobatically tip Baxter’s swirling corner over the bar.

After the half time break, Oxford continued to dominate, but could not find the breakthrough they needed. Despite plenty of possession they were unable to convert it into any goal scoring chances. As the sides tired both managers brought on substitutes. The energetic Ben Quigley came on for Oxford, offering some solidity in midfield and allowing Julian Austin to move into a more forward thinking position. Despite this good intent every Oxford attack was comfortably dealt with by the impressive Cambridge backline.

Oxford were leaving themselves open at the back and the lightning fast Danny Kerrigan was causing major problems on the break for the dark blue defence. With only a few minutes remaining he appeared to have won his side a second penalty when he went down under a clumsy challenge in the area. Premier League referee Mason waved away the loud appeals however, much to the frustration of the majority inside the stadium.

This frustration was even more keenly felt when Mason awarded the Dark Blues a contentious free kick seconds later after a foul on Quigley. But there were no complaints about what followed. Kelly stepped up to curl an unstoppable effort over the wall and into the bottom corner – sending the Oxford players and supporters into delirium. An extra fifteen minutes was therefore required, but the players were obviously exhausted with several collapsing with cramp during the period. It seemed that both sides were happy to accept the lottery of the penalty shoot out.
Quigley calmly put the Dark Blues into the lead, and then Oxford’s second match winner came to the fore. Keeper Whylly flew to his right to tip Baxter’s effort onto the post, the ball dribbling back across the line and away, agonisingly or beautifully depending on where your loyalties lie. Successful penalties from Austin, Laurence Ball and Kelly meant that Cambridge’s Kerrigan had to score his penalty to keep the light blues in the contest.
Once more Whylly flew across his goal to keep the ball out, cuing the Oxford celebrations.

But the drama was still not over. Mason ordered the kick to be retaken because Whylly had moved off his line to make the save, and the second time around Kerrigan found a way past. So it fell to Thomas to take the kick that would ensure dark blue victory. Showing composure that was absent from his earlier chances he calmly struck the ball into the corner, and sent his teammates into ecstasy. Winning a Varsity match is always sweet, but from these celebrations it appears that winning it in this dramatic fashion in your opponent’s back yard may just make it even sweeter.

Blues captain Leon Farr extended thanks to the travelling support that made Oxford’s football Varsity victory “all the more special.”

The game was being played at the Abbey Stadium, home of Cambridge United, because the usual venue, Fulham’s Craven Cottage, was unavailable. This meant that this year’s Blues not only had to accept a Conference rather than a Premier League ground, they were also faced with a crowd overwhelmingly supporting the Light Blues. A few hardy souls had made the journey from Oxford, but they were very much in the minority.

When asked about the fans after the game Farr told me, “They were brilliant. It was obviously like an away game for us. You had 700 or 800 of them and only 50 or 60 of us, but it was great playing to your own hardcore select band of away fans.” The Oxford fans certainly made themselves heard, especially when James Kelly curled in a fabulous last minute free kick to send the match into extra time. Farr said of his team’s saviour, “He’s a quiet lad, but I don’t think he’ll be quiet about that for much longer. It was an absolutely brilliant strike.”

Farr also had nothing but praise for the blues goalkeeper Dwayne Whylley whose incredible save in the penalty shoot out put his side firmly on course for victory. “Dwayne is one of the most talented footballers I’ve ever played with in my life, and he’s got the character to match. The save he pulled off today was nothing short of sublime. Absolutely incredible.”

Farr worked incredibly hard for his team in centre midfield during the game, putting in a display full of the heart and passion that makes Varsity events so special. This was appreciated by the often fiercely partisan Cambridge support as they applauded Oxford receiving the trophy. Farr believed his side deserved to win due to the amount of chances they created in the first half, but in truth Cambridge will feel hard done by having led for so long. Even Farr admitted the equaliser was “a little close to the bone.”

But how does it feel to win in Cambridge? “It’s incredible. I’m absolutely ecstatic.” And, judging by the roar that greeted his arrival in the Dark Blues’ changing room following our conversation, his teammates concurred.

The Blues suffered their first defeat of the season on Monday in the Parks, against Oxfordshire, a minor counties side. Despite a promising start to the season so far, claiming an earlier triumph against Oxford Cricket Club to win the ‘Town vs Gown’ trophy, the Blues struggled to match Oxfordshire in both batting and bowling, and lost by 4 wickets.

Blues captain Raj Sharma (Mansfield) won the toss and chose to bat on a bitterly cold day, with blustery conditions, interspersed with the occasional sunny patch. In the overcast conditions, conditions were tricky, yet Oxford openers, Robin Thompson (Worcester) and Nick Meadows (St. John’s) put on 16 for the first wicket before Meadows edged a ball that seamed away to be caught behind. This brought Avinash Sharma (Green Templeton) to the crease, and together with Thompson, they proceeded to add 71 for the second wicket. The pair scored quickly, as the two ran superbly between wickets, putting pressure onto the fielders with a succession of quick singles. Sharma punished anything full in length with some crunching drives, whilst Thompson rotated the strike to allow his more aggressive partner the lion’s share of the strike. When spin was introduced into the attack in the tenth over, Sharma went on the offensive, looking to hit over the top at every opportunity, before he eventually holed out to mid on. However, from 87-1, Oxford collapsed to 113-5, as the Oxfordshire spinners bowled tightly to restrict the scoring. Rain arrived after 33 overs, and after a brief interlude, Dan Pascoe (Lincoln) and Tom Bryan (Worcester) joined forces to rebuild the innings, and the pair batted sensibly to add 93 for the 6th wicket, before Pascoe was caught off the penultimate ball of the Oxford innings for 55. This left Oxford with a below par score of 208-6 from their 50 overs, Bryan finishing unbeaten on 38.
Knowing that they had not batted as well as they might have done, the pressure was on the Blues to come out firing on all cylinders. Unfortunately, both Nick Buchanan (Hertford) and Andrew Shakespeare (Worcester) struggled with their line, and the Oxfordshire opener Kaufman took full advantage, as he raced to his fifty.

The rain returned after five overs of the Oxfordshire innings, and when play resumed, the county side were chasing a revised target of 186 from a total of 41 overs.
Kaufman then continued where he had left off before the break, before he was dismissed for 68 from 52 balls, the Oxfordshire openers having put on 102 for the first wicket. Oxford managed to exert a great deal of pressure on the opposition batsmen, with Sharma going for just 10 runs from his 6 overs and spinners Pascoe and Thompson picking up five wickets between them.

However, it proved to be a case of too little too late, the damage to Oxford’s chances having been done earlier in the match. The runs were knocked off in 38.3 overs, with Oxfordshire finishing on 187-6, to win by 4 wickets.
Despite the defeat, Blues captain Sharma praised the resilience of his team. ‘It’s always going to be tough when you don’t quite get enough runs on the board, but I thought we stuck at it really well.’

Although the end result was disappointing for the Blues, particularly as it was the first match of the season in the Parks, there is a lot of one day cricket still to be played between now and the Varsity match at Lord’s on the 4th July, and the Blues will look to bounce back this week when they play the Duke of Norfolk’s XI.

The name Beth Tweddle may not instinctively roll of the tongue of followers of mainstream sport. Mind you, neither would gymnastics. Despite a injury-prone career, Tweddle has constantly defied the odds and proved all her critics wrong. At the age of 24, an OAP in gymnastic years, Tweddle has gone where no British female gymnast has gone before, winning numerous British, World and European titles and crowning it all with an MBE. The only major accolade to elude her during a remarkable career is an Olympic medal. With London 2012 just over the horizon, a medal of any colour in her home country mark the perfect finish to a sparkling career. Here Tweddle reflects on her remarkable path to stardom, how she’s helping to inspire the next generation of gymnasts, and what the future holds for both her and British gymnastics.

AK: Gymnastics wasn’t your first passion, so when did your love for gymnastics first start off?
BT: I was a very hyperactive kid. I tried all sorts of sports: ballet, swimming and one of my dad’s friends took me along to the local gymnastics club and I absolutely hated it. It was only when I did my first competition that I realised that this was the stage I wanted to be on and I never looked back after that.

AK: Obviously you’ve had a fantastic career and some people say you’re the best British female gymnast ever. What’s been the highlight of this illustrious career of yours so far?
BT: It definitely has to be the world title at the O2 Arena last year just because everyone’s always known me for my bar work, and the floor work was a bit of an added bonus. So to come out with the World Title having had the disappointment of not even qualifying for the bar only three or four days before made it all the more special and showed people that I’m not just a one trick pony and I can do other stuff other than bars.

AK: If you’re going to be really critical of yourself where would you say your weakness lies?
BT: I think the artistry on the floor. I’m not the best dancer in the world! I know that and I think the judges know that so I have to work harder on the skills and the leaps to cover it up!

AK: A lot has been talked about regarding your age. You’ll be twenty-seven when you appear in London. Is age a barrier in gymnastics?
BT: It can be if you let it be. I think the main thing is I’m clever with my training and I work closely with my trainer and physios. After every major international I get time off to let my body recover and when I’m training for the events I don’t necessarily do the same sort of training as what I did when I was fifteen or sixteen. I just believe that with age comes experience and hopefully I can take that experience away and use it to my advantage.

AK: Do you still feel that there’s quite a lot of pressure on you given that you’re the stand out figure in British gymnastics?
BT: I think obviously gymnastics is seen as a little girl’s sport and every parent wants to put their little girl into gymnastics. Hopefully by having the likes of Lewis Smith who won Olympic Bronze and Dan Keatings who won a silver at the World Championships last year, little boys can look up to them as a role model. Their profiles are only just starting to build whereas my profile has been around for a while. Hopefully they’ll help to spur on the younger kids to get involved and not just go down to the local football pitch!

AK: Do you think the future is a bright one for gymnastics in this country?
BT: Definitely. Our Romanian coach was there at the weekend when we won team silver and it was the first time we’d ever come above sixth so to win a silver medal was a massive achievement for British gymnastics both on the girls and boys side. He said ‘I’ve waited eighteen years for this results and its finally come.’ A lot of people gave him stick over the years saying ‘You’ve not got the results, you’ve not got the results,’ and he was saying ‘It takes time, it takes time.’ Obviously he spotted us when we were tiny tots and it’s taken that ten to twenty years to come through and finally it has started to come through.

AK: If we look past London 2012, you’ve talked about working in schools and local communities in trying to promote, amongst other sports, gymnastics, how important do you think it is to give kids the opportunity to do something with their lives?
BT: It’s a massive thing. Sport for me has given me passion in my life. For me it has kept me off the streets and it has given me something to aim towards and if I can give one child that opportunity then I’ve done my job. Kids get such a bad reputation these days but at the end of the day I don’t think they’re bad kinds – they’re no different to what we were. That’s why I’ve set these academies up in deprived areas of Liverpool. It gives them the opportunity to have a go at gymnastics. When the Olympics come, I think the uptake on gymnastics will go over the wall. Every parent wants to take their kid to gymnastics because it’s on the TV so much! So hopefully we’ll have the same effect with the Olympics in 2012.

How many of us don’t just love throwing a Frisbee around on a nice sunny day? It’s leisurely enough and you can impress your friends by launching a Frisbee high into the stratosphere or by making a good catch.

So why not try it as a sport and play ultimate Frisbee (I’m sorry, I mean Ultimate, to use the official name).
To play Ultimate, all one needs is an empty field (ideally one 40 metres by 120 metres) and 13 friends to make up two teams of 7. The pitch is then split up into a 70 yard playing field with two 25 yard “end zones” on either end. Then one can start to play Ultimate to their heart’s content and so give a nice little twist to a leisurely summer game of Frisbee.

It is a very easy sport to play with one really only needing to know the basic rules. Firstly that once a player has caught the Frisbee, they then cannot move until they have passed the Frisbee to another teammate. Secondly they then have ten seconds to pass the Frisbee to a teammate and they are counted down from 10 by an opposing player within 10 yards of them. Finally (and quite importantly) it is a non contact sport and so defenders cannot physically obstruct or tackle the opposing team. Having said this, the game is refereed by the players and so you never know what you might get away with.

The aim in Ultimate is to score more points than the opposing team, with a point being awarded to a team if they successfully complete a pass to a teammate within the opposing team’s defensive “end zone”. The game ends once a team has reached 15 points with at least a two point advantage or after an agreed period of time for those of you who aren’t that confident in your goal scoring abilities.

This exciting sport is now played, believe it or not, by over 60 universities in the country, including by our very own Oxford University. In fact, the Oxford Ultimate team has some form of practice almost every day of the week amd there are many teams that you can get involved in. Alternatively, you can get in touch with your college Ultimate captain (yes there is actually such a thing) and play at a more casual standard, or even take part in cuppers this term.

To start with, however, in a moment of boredom or avoiding of revision, why not just go to your college gardens or parks and through a Frisbee around with mates and give Ultimate a go? What better way to spend a summer afternoon is there? I mean anything with a name like Ultimate has got to be pretty cool.