The exams were over, the sun was shining on a warm day, and the end-of-year student festivities were under way for many; but for the select few members of the Oxford and Cambridge croquet teams it was once again time for the serious business of the annual Varsity Match. Once again the Hurlingham club, and in particular the Oxford and Cambridge alumni amongst its membership, had generously offered to host the match.
The Oxford battle-bus arrived in good time for the scheduled 10am start. Their team of 7 was well motivated to avenge the 8-1 defeat by Cambridge the previous year, Oxford's heaviest defeat since 2001. It aso contained a lady player, Alannah Chadwick, for the first time since 2000. In contrast, the Cambridge team emerged a little sheepishly from the Hurlingham building a few minutes past the appointed hour... and with only 5 players. The missing player? - none other than the Cambridge captain Jack Sydenham, who it transpired had made the mistake of catching the train to Kings Lynn that morning instead of Kings Cross, along with three of the team's mallets. Oops! So the morning doubles games had to start with the Cambridge team having to borrow some (rather good) Hurlingham club mallets, with one of the Cambridge balls deemed onto the court, and with the unfortunate Cameron Telfer of Cambridge having to do his best to stem the tide of Oxford hoops by Edward Harrison and Alannah Chadwick while only able to take strike with one ball on that court.
The Varsity match doubles games usually get off to a slow start as the players come to terms with the superbly maintained Hurlingham courts, much faster and smoother than the assorted patches of rough college grass that most of them are used to; though by most club standards the Hurlingham courts would be regarded as medium-paced with easy 1/8" hoop settings. This year was no exception. On the top court it was half an hour before the Oxford captain Charlie Sharpe finally made his first hoop with a break to 1-back; on the second court by this time just one hoop had been made by each side; and after an hour on the third court, where the solo Cambridge player was stoically defending against the odds, the Oxford pair had only managed to make 7 hoops by the time that a breathless Cambridge captain finally appeared with his clutch of mallets.
It had been agreed to put a time limit on the doubles in order to stop in time for lunch at 1pm - one must have the right priorities, after all, when a Hurlingham lunch plus wine and beer is generously provided by the club's alumni. As the time limit approached it was evident that it was going to be a close-run finish on all three courts. On the third court the late-arriving Jack had been doing his best to claw back the 7-hoop deficit, but in the end fell just one hoop short. On the second court Oxford's Archie Bermingham made his third hoop to give Oxford a 5-4 lead with just minutes to go - a slow game indeed. On the top court - drama! By the late stages Oxford's Charlie Sharpe had made it to rover with his own ball, but Cambridge's strongest player Dan Twentyman was in with a break which he needed to take from 5 to peg and peg out for a +1 lead after the time limit, conceding a contact in the process. Success!... but Oxford still had one more turn, and Dan had made a serious tactical error before pegging out by leaving two of the other balls in the middle of the court. Spurning his available contact, Charlie made a 6-yard roquet to cut another ball to within a few yards of rover, made a good approach, ran the hoop and pegged out to give Oxford its third +1 win in the doubles. So 3-0 to Oxford at lunch.
Play resumed after lunch at 2:15 with the usual six games of singles. It is debatable whether a modern tendency towards less alcohol consumption led to greater caution, but the impression amongst the spectators was that progress in the singles games was generally slower than usual too, with one exception: Charlie Sharpe took control of his game in unequivocal fashion, making breaks with decent diagonal spread leaves and keeping his opponent Dan at bay. Dan missed with his long lift shots into corner IV, failed to capitalise on the other few opportunities that arose, and Charlie sealed a convincing +26 win after just an hour and 40 minutes to take the Oxford score to 4-0. But none of the other five singles games came close to finishing in the allotted 3 hours and 15 minutes. There were fairly comfortable wins on time of +8, +15 and +9 respectively for the Cambridge players Jack Sydenham, James Faulkner (in a playing style that was heard described as somewat avant-garde) and Cameron Telfer, and rather closer wins on time of +2 and +3 for the Oxford players Edward Harrison and Adrian Fernandes. The latter was in spite of Adrian dribbling through rover with one ball, and unsure of what to do next then shooting back though the hoop and accidentally pegging himself out when the scores were close and his other ball was still only for hoop 2. But fortunately for Adrian his opponent Benjamin Illingworth didn't know how to take advantage of Adrian's error, repeatedly failing to join up with his partner ball to make faster progress or prevent Adrian from scoring; so Adrian was able to retain his slender lead until the time-limit was reached. The six singles games were therefore shared between the teams, and the morning doubles were decisive in giving the match 6-3 to Oxford.
The trophy was presented to the Oxford captain Charlie Sharpe by a visiting Australian croquet celebrity, the ladies world-ranked no. 4 player... and proud mother Alison Sharpe.
 The Cambridge team |
 The players |
 The Oxford team |
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Photo gallery |
Scores (Oxford names first) | |
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all games Level Advanced
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See also:
Oxford University Association Croquet Club
Cambridge University Association Croquet Club
Varsity match archives (1961-)
