St Paul’s School, Barnes
Saturday, 17th February 2024
Oxford Men’s captain, Vivek Thakrar, was able to introduce two schools champions, Shiloh Wu and Genesis Nsenga, plus an accomplished Basque pelota player, Ander Iraizoz, as his top three Singles players, with last year’s captain, Teddy Monro-Davies, at number 4. This made for very close games in the top half of the Men’s Singles. 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. Colin Ng’s 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. Here again Oxford were 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 full results from the Men’s Match, the Sparrows versus Beavers, and the Women’s Match.
Oxford Men’s VIII
Oxford Men’s squad
Oxford Women’s VI
Cambridge Men’s VIII
Cambridge Men’s squad
Cambridge Women’s VI
Oxford win all three trophies
Oxford Men with the spoils
Oxford Women triumphant