The Swimmers arrived at the Oxford pool at 8am after hopping on the coach at half five! A couple of yawns (and a significant amount of complaining about the Oxford pool) later, the seconds dove straight into their match.
Ultimately, the sleepy swimmers were to be disappointed, with Oxford taking the win in both the Seconds and Blues matches, despite a massive effort from the women’s blues in drawing their match 45-45. We did, in both matches, manage to narrow the gap overall compared to last year. A warning to the Oxford lot!
The Water Polo players decided to show up at a significantly more reasonable 12:30pm, armed with Tesco meal deals and enough cardboard signs to block out the light at Iffley Road pool. With the Men’s seconds annihilating Oxford 15-3 and the Women’s seconds clinging to their 7-6 lead throughout the entire final quarter, adrenaline was high for the blues matches.
The threat must’ve been tangible in the Oxford team as the commentating for the Men’s blues turned sour. Nevertheless, the men fought through four quarters with an ultimately tied score of 11-11 and only lost after 7 penalty shootouts. One spectating swimmer declared “watching this is more stressful than picking my dissertation”. The women’s blues, shattered after a highly strung day, unfortunately fell short 3-12 to Oxford after a few early goals snuck past.
Alumni Varsity was a huge success; we had teams for the 4x50m freestyle and 4x50m medley relays as well as a bursting full team of 15 Water Polo players! Due to the more friendly attitude towards the water polo match shared by the Alumni teams, no score was kept, however we have been told by the Oxford side that they won.
Varsity results from all sports are available at: https://www.sport.cam.ac.uk/student-sport/varsity-matches/varsity-matches-2025-26
The Seconds Swimming Team
WWP Blues after their match
Alumni Water Polo Match