The 94th Varsity Match

St Paul’s School, Barnes
17th February 2024

Oxford were able to introduce two schools champions plus an accomplished Basque pelota player as their top three Singles players, with last year’s captain at number 4. This made for high quality play in the top half of the Men’s Singles, with Cambridge’s quartet of Marcus Cloke Browne, Emrys Thursfield, Ben Yass and Freddie Kottler ensuring close matches. In the bottom half, however, Oxford were far too experienced and consequently led by 121-54 after the Singles. In the Doubles, only Cambridge’s top pair, Marcus Cloke Browne & Freddie Kottler, could match Oxford’s first two pairs, while the remaining doubles matches went heavily in Oxford’s favour. Oxford thus ran out comfortable winners of the Men’s Match for the 7th consecutive time.

The Sparrows versus Beavers Match also went Oxford’s way by a record margin, with a severe mismatch in terms of experience. The Oxford IV were delighted to pick up the recently returned ‘Fist of Iron’, with a Cambridge victory in this contest now a distant memory.

The Women’s Match was to involve a six-sided contest for the first time. Cambridge had won the previous eight meetings but on this occasion Oxford were once again the more experienced team, winning every match in both Singles and Doubles. The stand-out player was former schools doubles champion Lena Barton, the Oxford captain, but Oxford generously awarded Cambridge’s Laura Smith the Pol Roger champagne for the Player of the Day, recognising her part in the nail-biting match of the day, the final game of doubles involving Laura and her partner Harriet Fearon against Oxford’s Eleni Kougioumtzi and Tami Erdenebulgan.

The 94th Varsity Match therefore goes down in the records as the first occasion on which all three matches have been won by the one university.

Results

Oxford University Men’s VIII beat Cambridge University Men’s VIII by 349-147

Oxford University Beavers IV beat Cambridge University Sparrows IV by 180-7

Oxford University Women’s VI beat Cambridge University Women’s VI by 241-54

Click here for detailed scores of the three matches

The Men’s VIII

The Sparrows IV

The Women’s VI