34th Oxford vs Cambridge Orienteering Varsity Match

[Updated – added link to results] Just back from the varsity match, which was in Stockholm this year. Up to 6 inches of snow on the ground made for physical as well as technical courses, with the temperatures ranging from 2 degrees celsius down to a Baltic (literally) -15. In the event, almost everyone got around their courses, and there were some fine individual performances.

Oxford achieved a “clean sweep” of trophies, for the third time in as many years, moving the Oxford/Cambridge winning totals over the years ever more towards par. Oxford were so confident they didn’t even bring the trophies to Sweden…

Ed Catmur won the Men’s individual for the third time – the first Oxford man to do so, although Cambridge have matched this feat three times. Newcomer (to Oxford, not orienteering!) Cerys Manning won the women’s. Duncan Archer, a former varsity champion himself, got the best time in the Men’s A on the day, running for JOK, the ex-Oxford club. He narrowly beat Nick Barrable.

In the crucial beer race, JOK rightly won back the trophy, having been “won” last year by a suspiciously small tab Cambridge team won last year by Oxford Uni. Finally, the JOK/DRONGO trophy for the best ex-university team was re-awarded to JOK. Hopefully we’ll get around to engraving it this year.

See also:

• Photographs
• Historical Table
• Results (official website)
• Full write ups and map analysis (soon)