News from the PvP and the Varsity Match

February 27, 2026RLDNews

February 2026

February 2026 has been a good month for Cambridge Fives, with a highly successful Past versus Present on the 14th and a winning Varsity Match on the 21st.

18 Sparrows volunteered to play the Present in the three matches now played at the PvP. The Past, represented by Charlie Brooks, Elliot Malone, Tom Chase, Andy Pringle, Sarthak Garella, Ashwin Ahuja, Ian Jackson, Laurence Cook and Ed Pyman, were a little too strong in the Men’s Singles, building a lead of 104-70, which they then increased, as is usually the case, in the Doubles, so that the Past ran out winners by 303-181. Excellent practice for the Varsity Match a week later.

The Women were able to play a competitive match of 6-a-side, in which again the Past, consisting of Holly Nugent, Harriet Fearon, Juliana Murphy, India Blaksley and Cameron Roker, had a little too much experience for a Present squad, all of whom have taken up Fives at Cambridge.

The Mixed Doubles match for the Ted Isaacs Trophy was a contest of high quality, in which Ed Hyde and Savanna Leboff needed three games to beat George Crawley and Helena Tunks — surely the best match of the day.

In the evening 55 people gathered at Pembroke College for the 77th Jock Burnet Dinner, where they enjoyed the customary excellent food, were treated to “a few words” from Deputy President Ian Jackson, men’s captain Jack Pyman, women’s captain Catherine Abercrombie and past president Bob Dolby, and trophies were awarded. Probably a record number of photographs were posed for.

A week later the squad tracked down to St Paul’s School to contest the Men’s VIII, the Sparrows/Beavers VI and the Women’s IV.

The Women’s team of Catherine Abercrombie, Lauren Osborne-Patterson, Katie Parry and Charlotte Bruce faced an uphill struggle to cope with the experienced Oxford Women’s IV, but can be proud of the way they fought for every point, which led, for example, to two games going to 16-14. It was the 12th Women’s Match, now 8-4 in Cambridge’s favour.

The Sparrows VI lacked experience in the third pair. Had the contest been four-a-side Cambridge would have won by 9 points, but as it was Oxford maintained their grip on the Fist of Iron in the usual jolly match, in which Isaac Mellis-Glynn became the first player to represent both universities in this particular contest, this time on the side of Oxford.

The Men’s Match turned out to be every bit close as expected, though not quite as close as last year, when CURFC won by just 7 points. We were without stalwart Ben Yass but new half-blues Matt Ord and Archie Glover played their hearts out and, with the support of Emrys Thursfield, Marcus Cloke Browne, James Milburn, Jack Pyman, Leo Walton and Rob Menhart, we built a lead of 17 points after the eight Singles matches.

Extraordinarily, the hard-fought Doubles matches ended up as a tie, 193 points each, so that Cambridge won for the second year in a row, this time by the 17 points garnered in the Singles. Crucial in the final score were a win of 15-0 achieved by Jack & Leo in their match at pair 3 and four straight wins by Archie Glover & Rob Menhart. Captain Jack was suitably thrilled to be able to flourish the Jock Burnet Trophy once more at the end of proceedings.

Several of the light blues will be leaving Cambridge at the end of this year. We look forward to seeing them return to represent the Past and we hope very much to see them continuing to play the game wherever they can find a club to join.

Click here for further details of the Varsity Match