We may not have bought the trophy back to Bath this year, but what an amazing day!
What a day!
On Wednesday, we had our annual Varsity with Cardiff Met, with Cardiff hosting this year for our eighth Varsity. It was a day of many ups and downs, with close-fought games, drinks drunk but – most importantly – smiles all around. It was a pleasure getting to go around all the games to see so many Bath student athletes representing us throughout.
First, to address the elephant in the room – the score. In what is hopefully the only time, Cardiff Met managed to finally get a win over us, after seven consecutive years of Bath victory. In an almost-scripted fashion, the overall score ended in 61-60 to Cardiff Met, a shock that saw Duck Norris fall to his knees.
Before we discuss those final few moments, let’s go back to the start of the day, where 28 coaches lined up at university to take our 360 athletes and 1,000 spectators to Cardiff, ready to give it our everything, all showing their blue and yellow Bath colours. Tickets sold out in under an hour, showing how many students have pure Bath spirit.
The day opened with Badminton, in which one of our biggest clubs crushed the competition, winning with an overall score of 14-5. Next came Cricket, which ended in narrow defeats in both the men’s and women’s teams.
The events on the indoor track were nothing short of a pure spectacle. With a variety of different athletic events on show, the competition remained tight all the way to the end. Our athletes ran, jumped and sprinted in their respective fields with both universities going all the way. A controversial mascot race saw Archie the Dragon of Cardiff shoving Duck Norris off the track, but Bath never faltered, and our amazing athletes won both the relays in the end to clinch Athletics 49-47.
Another quick victory came in the Tennis, where our players performed flawlessly, winning every single match to take Tennis comfortably 9-0. Well done to our Tennis players, you delivered an incredible performance!
A loss in Netball narrowed the scores between Bath and Cardiff. By now, the sun was fully out, the atmosphere was charged and electrifying, and you could not look anywhere without seeing a Thatcher’s in hand. Our Cheerleaders were bringing the glitz and glamour, and keeping morale high with some truly amazing performances!
The games kept coming thick and fast, with our Women’s Lacrosse taking another win, with a score of 18-7, an amazing victory for our girls in blue and gold. A bitter loss in Men’s Futsal on penalties closely followed by close losses in Wheelchair Basketball and Women’s Basketball. It was clear by now that the Cardiff teams were putting everything into every sport, but Bath is Bath – we will never back down. With victory under bright blue skies in Women’s Football, the scores were again basically even. A tranche of victories saw the tight bout remain so, with Bath Women’s winning in the Volleyball 2-0 and Cardiff Met winning an extremely close contest in the Women’s Water Polo.
Another trade off in Hockey, with the Women’s team taking a very impressive win, and the Men’s putting in a valiant effort – it was beginning to become more and more clear that the day would be decided in the final few sports.
Men’s Water Polo suffered a similar fate to the Women’s, another loss by a single point, as Bath and Cardiff Met settled for a 24-24 draw in the Men’s rugby, the two Super League sides pushing each other to the very limit.
And then, there was four contests left, with the scores currently 51-49 in Cardiff Mets’ favour. This was turned around, as the Men’s Volleyball won 3-0, including an amazing 11 point run to clinch it.
Three matches to go.
An eighty-fifth minute goal decided the Men’s Football, ending in a narrow 1-0 loss for Bath, whilst our Women’s Rugby dominated with a 41-17 scoreline. This meant that the day was still yet to be decided as Men’s Basketball headed into their final quarter. In a tense series of events, Cardiff Met managed to narrowly take it, and winning Varsity for the first time.
It may be a defeat, but Bath still showed resilience, spirit and determination to the bittersweet end. I know that all our clubs will be ready for next year, and I am sure that the trophy will return home to Bath, where it rightfully belongs.
I must give a few thank-yous for the event. Firstly, I want to thank Cardiff Met and all their staff for hosting us, they put on an excellent event and have been pivotal in ensuring Varsity continues to get bigger and better. I would also like to congratulate Cardiff Met on the victory, your athletes showed true grit and level of ability and are very deserving of the win! Enjoy it whilst you still can!
Next, I want to thank my fellow SU Sport staff, many of you may not realise the amount of work and time they put into the organisation and execution of the events. This is extended to the entire media and marketing team, who have taken so many photos throughout the day and ensured the event has been promoted, streamed and blogged regularly and efficiently. One further extension of this goes to ALL staff, so many different parts of these events need contributions from everyone, so a huge THANK YOU to all of them.
Next, I must thank my Sport Exec, who has assisted and helped the delivery of this event as well. They were instrumental in ticket and t-shirt collections and have really made the life of the sporting staff much easier!
Another thank you to all our spectators that came all the way to Cardiff Met, you cheered and supported Bath till the last moments and this did not go unnoticed. I hope that we have the same turnout for many years to come.
Continuing, I want to give a massive round of applause to all our athletes. You have made Bath proud, regardless of result, and wearing blue and gold has been a privilege for my time in Bath. Thank you for representing us year after year and showing Bath’s team spirit is as strong as ever.
One final thank must go to Duck Norris, who was at Varsity ALL DAY. He was more animated and excited than ever, and he is just as proud of every Bath athlete as I am.
Until next year,
Olivia x