In glorious sunshine, competitors, supporters and Old Blues gathered on the scenic playing fields of Tonbridge school for the final event of the three days of competition. First came the run for the 1960 Old Blues, the Cambridge team now bolstered by the a couple of new additions. Fiercely contested, though with some individual interpretations of the course the event was won by Cambridge with Don Broom in first place in a highly respectable 3m 49s.

Following this, the traditional Old Blues Biathlon Challenge had a non-traditional result with Cambridge pulling out a surprise victory with a late surge which left Tristan Robbie, as usual on the Oxford anchor leg, with too much to do. Oxford got a good start as Paul James, part of the Cambridge Old Blues’ President Collective, slipped at the start and was unable to make up the ground despite his renowned sprint. Oxford OB President Lees made the most of the inside bend and handed over marginally ahead. Oxford extended their lead but by 800 m Cambridge had begun to draw level. The handover to Jamie Dixon and your correspondent was virtually simultaneous but despite being succeeded by James Whetman, the combined efforts of the ’95 and ’96 and champions was not enough to out do the ’99 champion. Oxford maintained their lead until 200m to go when Cambridge broke through and with a solid final leg from Mark Chacksfield taking over five metres ahead of Robbie, the Cambridge team cruised home for their first victory in this event for some years.

The real drama of the afternoon was about to unfold in the women’s race. Oxford needed over forty seconds per competitor on their opponents – having been in similar situations in the last three matches and finishing desperately close to the victory that has eluded them since 1990, Oxford had fired themselves up for the run of their lives. Cambridge were aware of the threat and knew they had to run solidly to avoid losing their lead. As they set off, Hasell predictably stormed off into a lead that would never remotely be challenged. The race then settled down with Grosvenor clear of Whitehouse in third, and then a trailing group of Thompson, Boyd, Lloyd and Markwardt. As the race progressed, this order remained stable, so the crucial factor would be the time gaps in between the competitors. Hasell going through the first lap in 3:20 was streets ahead of the field, but Whitehouse was sustaining her position behind Grosvenor and the middle of the field was dominated by light Blue. Crucially at the back of the race, Cochrane was bravely holding on to Arrand despite running on a stress fracture, and Anderson was some way further behind. At the second lap, a brief calculation showed it to be desperately close with Oxford ten seconds up on what they needed. Urged on by the crowd, Hasell’s solo run came to an end in an astonishing 10:09. Grosvenor extended to pull away from Whitehouse for second place. Further back, Arrand was being caught up and Cochrane took her at the top of the hill. Arrand clung on behind and with 100m to go kicked for home. Passed in the finishing straight, Cochrane was unable to respond and crossed the line in tears, but calculations were already being made which showed that victory was within grasp. As the clocked ticked on and Anderson finally made it home, Oxford supporters hardly dared believe what their sums told them, but the official scorers soon confirmed an Oxford victory in the run by 950 points, enough to steal victory for the first time in ten years.

As the men lined up for their race, the question everyone was asking was would Smale be able to stay within five and a half seconds of Candy, the margin required to hold onto his lead? Candy has recently run under 10 mins for the 3km distance while Smale’s run is his main weakness, but as the field settled down, it became clear that he wasn’t going to give up without a struggle in this his farewell pentathlon. Sticking to the shoulder of the current GB Junior international, Smale’s face was a mask of concentration and determination and try as he might, Candy could not shake him off.

Meanwhile, Funder was disappearing from view, splitting three minutes for the first kilometre, and holding on to come through to start his final lap in 6:06. At this stage he needed a sub three lap to match the 1998 record, and without the competition Barnes had on that occasion, this was going to be a hard task for an individual run. As Funder came through to take the tape in 9:26 the drama was unfolding in the last three hundred.

The pack that had been together for the whole race of Hulatt, Kelly, Smale and Candy was starting to break up with Hulatt kicking some way out. Candy did not respond and Smale sensed his opportunity. With 200 to go he edged past and took 5m out of his opponent. Kelly fought back, and as he overtook Smale Candy was dragged along and in the final run in Candy sprinted for the line and edged it by a metre. But it was not enough and both he and Smale knew it. As the new Champion went to shake hands with his adversary the disappointment was evident on Candy’s face. But with three more attempts, it is surely a matter of time before he takes the title, and judging by this year’s performance, Keith Shindler’s 1993 record could be under serious threat in the next few years.

The team result was never in question and as the final Oxford runner came in the team were already celebrating their fourth successive victory, bringing Oxford into the lead with 22 victories to Cambridge’s 21.

Saturday 8^th April (Morning)

The ride event of the Varsity Match has seen plenty of drama and white knuckles from competitors and spectators alike, but never more so than this year. The standard of riding was expected to be high with an unusually large number of experienced male riders, but this was not enough to avoid some of the disasters.

First to ride was the Oxford women’s captain Lloyd. Letting the pressure of the situation get to her she looked tense in the first part of the course and fell at the second part of the double. Recovering quickly, she went on to complete the course, but her score was down on what she might have hoped for. The next three riders all were eliminated – Markwardt for Oxford got stuck at fence 3 and having attempted three times, she went back for another go. Both teams must make a greater effort to ensure that their riders know the rules for competition as Arrand and Anderson also fell foul of attempting jumps in the wrong order after refusals. A more experienced rider, Grosvenor restored some stability to the competition riding clear on Boris. Whitehouse followed, whose ride has caused problems in the past, but she completed the course to put her into a stong position going into the final event. The final four rides were of a high standard on some tricky mounts and Boyd was especially impressive, winning the ride with the fastest clear round, again on Boris.

First up for the men was Harland, bringing years of experience to bear on Chester, dropping only two poles. Smale on Dotty had a job to keep his fiesty horse in check and achieved a very fast time though picked up a few penalties. Kelly on Boris looked comfortable most of the way round with one unsettling moment over fence 3whch was well recovered. His clear round would eventually win the event for the men. King had a much more challenging task on Lulu, a horse with an extraordinary jump. Taking off nearly vertically over the first fence, King did well to stay on and continued to control this difficult horse exceptionally well, especially over the treble.

Graham-Brown followed with a relatively uneventful round on Snoopy. Seymour, very much a novice rider, wisely opted to retire having presented his horse at the first jump – his horse had caused some problems in the first round and safety of horse and rider should be the first consideration. Next up was Frith, another inexperienced rider, though with a Varsity match round under his belt from ’99 he was hoping for a sympathetic horse and some good fortune. He had neither. Losing control as he approached the first jump he found his horse heading towards another jump and desperate to avoid elimination for jumping a fence out of turn, he fell. The clock had not started so he was able to remount and prepare for the round, but never looked comfortable, and when he had a refusal at the middle part of the treble his horse wheeled away and jumped fence 2.

More drama ensued with the next Oxford rider Funder on Lulu the horse which had given King so much trouble. Riding with enormous confidence and determination, he drove the reluctant horse over and occasionally through the fences and kept his cool admirably. After three refusals at the treble, he suffered the same fate at fence eleven, sensibly checking with the judge that it was safe to go on, and rode a direct line to the final fence, clearing it to huge applause. Hulatt for Cambridge attempted the course but progressed only as far as the third jump, losing control and jumping out of turn. Candy following him needed a decent ride to keep himself in the lead and got round with minor problems – scoring under a thousand meant that the record was probably out of reach. Everything would hang on Measures’ performance to see who would claim the individual title. The next rider was Gandy, another novice, whose composure belied his inexperience, even if his unorthodox style gave it away! He did enormously well to finish the course but his celebrations were premature as his horse circled away from the final jump and tragically jumped out of turn. This unfortunately earned him elimination for his afforts, though he should nevertheless be proud of his acheivement.

The final round should have been a formality with Measures certain ti get round with little difficulty. Inexplicably, he jumped the wrong fence, thus ending his campaign for the title in a way that no-one would have wanted.

Going now into the final phase, as the sun shines on Tonbridge playing fields, the men’s competition looks fairly well sewn up with an Oxford lead of over five thousand points. The ladies’ competition however is nailbitingly close with a Cambridge lead of 850 points their buffer against the onslaught led by the ’99 Cross country Varsity match winner Hasell.

Friday 7^th April (Evening)

The superb 25m pool has seen some spectacular swims – 1996 saw the epic battle between Jamie Dixon and Ed Egan while the ’98 event was memorable for the women’s first heat - swum at blistering pace, both Lisa Willcocks and Emily Deriel scored over 1200 points. This year’s event was every bit as exciting as in previous years.

The gutsy swimming started early in the ladies first heat with Anderson and Cochrane smashing their PBs by fifteen and twenty seconds respectively! Cochrane looked a stronger swimmer and began to establish a lead but Anderson held on to come in five seconds adrift in 3:15.

In the women’s second heat it was a race in two halves – the Oxford pair of Grosvenor and Markwardt were always going to be behind Arrand and Boyd, sensibly they swam their own race and didn’t follow the blistering early pace set by Arrand, who swimming without goggles, covered the first 100m in 1:15. She held on as Boyd, fractionally behind for most of the race, turned up the power down the final length to pull equal, setting a six second PB in 2:38.5. The Oxford girls were also pushing each other on, Grosvenor setting the pace to come in just over three minutes taking 8 seconds off her PB, Markwardt achieving a similar margin a few metres behind.

The story was similar in the final heat with the leading Cambridge swimmers some way in front of the evenly matched Oxford pair. Despite lack of time in the pool due to illness Whitehouse lead from the blocks coming in for a 2:28 – by no means her best but respectable in the circumstances. Thompson followed a third of a length while the Oxford pair, stroke for stroke all the way made their final turn. Hasell just stroked past Lloyd to get the touch by an arm’s length – both girls shaved four seconds off their best.

In the men’s race, the first heat was dominated by Graham-Brown, whoswimming on his own found it difficult to maintain his early pace (32 seconds to 50m) and just slipped outside his PB. Some way behind, Harland was maintaining a strong pace to make it an Oxford one-two. In Heat 2, any Oxford hopes of achieving a similar feat were put under pressure as King stormed out in 30 seconds for the first 50m. Half expecting him to blow up at such a pace the crowd went wild, as behind him Measures and Frith battled it out for second. Frith dropped off the pace as Measures started to close the gap on Kingbut his late effort was not enough and King held on to smash his PB by five seconds, finishing in a time which would have won the previous year’s match at 2:17. Measures took another two seconds off his PB set at Millfield last year; behind them Kelly for Oxford had caught Frith, but the Cambridge captain just out-touched his Oxford counterpart by 1/100^th of a second.

The stage was set for a storming final heat – expectations were high and Matt Barnes’ record of 2:15 was under serious threat. Three contenders for the men’s title lined up alongside each other as the pool hushed for the starter’s orders. Off the gun the swimmers hit the water as one and as they surfaced, Hulatt in the outside lane was in the lead. At the turn there was precious little in it, except Funder was marginally behind. At the 50m mark in 30 seconds dead they held the pace to 75m before Hulatt started to slip back, and at the 100m mark the clock read 1:04, with Candy about an arms length ahead of Smale. They stayed together stroke for stroke with Smale starting to make a bid for the lead, but into the last 50 Candy responded and made the last turn half a second ahead. The crowd were screaming them on for the last 25 and gathered around the starting blocks to see Candy get it by a forearm. The clock stood at 2:07.7 with Smale less than half a second behind. Hulatt was virtually unnoticed as his brave swim brought him in 3 seconds inside the old record. Funder also dipped under the 1998 mark, making him the fifth swimmer to beat this time in a Varsity Match since Emily Deriel’s 1997 record in the women’s event!

In the first event of the Old Blues’ Biathlon Challenge, 13 swimmers for Oxford lined up against 10 Cambridge athletes for a relay over 800m. The Oxford Old Blues’ President lead off against ’97 Cambridge captain Mark Chacksfield. Cambridge had the edge at the first changeover but Oxford gradually built up a big lead. This was eaten up as the second female Oxford swimmer faced a continuous supply of male athletes, but a huge swim from Matthew Coates fought Oxford back into contention. Going into the final leg of the relay Oxford had a lead of a few metres and Euan Lees held off the powerful challenge from ’96 champion Jamie Dixon to reclaim the hipflask which Lees, confident of victory did not feel necessary to return to the competition.

Friday 7^th April (Afternoon)

Coming out of the first round of fencing amongst themselves, Cambridge led the men’s fence – Harland for Oxford had failed to win any of his bouts against his teammates so lacked the 392 points for the crucial first hit. The Cambridge lead was quickly eliminated as Oxford won 24 out of 36 of the first round exchanges and thereafter Oxford never looked threatened, eventually winning with a margin of 954 points representing a 22 hit victory plus two first round weapon warnings against Cambridge.

The real drama came in the tussle for individual places – Smale took an early lead by vanquishing all his teammates, but fell behind against Oxford losing first to Graham-Brown in the first bout, and then to Measures and Kelly. After a strong start, Candy also dropped a few in his first encounter with Cambridge, while Graham-Brown was pulling alongside Measures to lead the field with 9 victories out of the first 11. There was little to decide between them as they came out of the second home round, all except the Oxford President scoring four hits, so it came down to a thrillingly close chase as the leading four all reached the thousand point barrier.

With only two bouts remaining each it was looking as if a three or four-way barrage was in the picture, but with Measures’ second victory over Smale it was left to Candy to equal his 17/22. Duly hitting the less experienced Hulatt, Candy set himself up to meet Measures in a barrage. To shouts of ‘come on Ben!’ a cheering Oxford crowd saw Measures fleche – Candy parried and hit Measures with a riposte to win his second event. Favourite to win the swim, he will take a healthy lead into the final day, with Measures and Smale closely matched for second place – the difference between them currently represents nine seconds in the swim, which will be a close call.

Measures will be confident after swimming well at last weekend’s international, but Smale will be racing Funder and Candy in what will surely be a record-breaking final heat. Kelly, currently lying in fourth place will lose ground to Smale in the swim, but racing Measures in the second heat will give him the motivation he needs to stay in touch with the leaders. He has the strongest run of the four but will need an error free ride to stay in contention.

Further down the field, King is breaking away from Funder and Graham Brown, both now on equal points, but will find Funder making up some ground in the swim. Barring the unfortunate circumstances of last year when King was sadly eliminated, he can expect a safe ride as can Graham-Brown - Funder’s ride is more of an unknown but has shown good style in recent matches. This observer predicts Funder moving up into fifth closely followed by King, while the Oxford President will need the run of his life keep up the challenge

Friday 7^th April (Morning)

Going into the fence with a comfortable margin the Cambridge women’s team might have been confident of extending their lead in an event which they have dominated in recent years. The closest Oxford have come to victory in this phase was last year when Hasell and Grosvenor memorably cut swathes through the more experienced Cambridge fencers to bring the scores to within one hit less a weapon warning. This year Oxford would briefly taste victory until an error on a pool sheet was discovered and the scores brought level.

As usual the first round of the competition was the teams fencing amongst themselves – an opportunity for the athletes to compose themselves, try out a few moves and get used to the atmosphere of the hall. The event was well attended with parents, supporters and the men’s teams giving encouragement and advice. The first round provided an early indication of form with Cochrane coming away without defeats whilst Hasell and Grosvenor struggling to find the touch of the previous year. For Cambridge, Thompson and Boyd dropped only one while Arrand had failed to register the crucial first hit which puts a disproportionate number of points on the total. This quickly arrived in her first bout against Cochrane, and with a couple more early defeats for Oxford it looked ominously as though Cambridge might regain the supremacy shown in the 1998 match. Grosvenor and Markwardt pulled some hits back to finish the round in touch of the Light Blues.

Respite came in the form of the second intra-university round, but soon it was back to the fray as the teams faced each other for the second time. Clearly Oxford had settled into the competition and were looking more relaxed as they clawed back the hits one by one. Women’s captain Lloyd came through strongly picking up four out of five victories as did Thompson for Cambridge, losing only to Cochrane whose long arm and frightening determination swept away the opposition. She was starting to make up ground on Thompson for the individual competition who by this stage had dropped only three hits and only one against Oxford. But Oxford edged inexorably into the lead and going into the final round, Cambridge were behind by four hits, a margin of 136 pentathlon points. Initially Oxford looked to continue their run and increased their lead further, but a late surge by the Light Blues lead by their President Boyd prevented their collapse. Particularly crucial were the victories picked up by the less experienced Anderson. While the indefatigable Thompson ploughed through to win the fence with an impressive 21 victories out of 27, Cochrane won her final bout to bring the teams (as it eventually turned out) level, and earn her a well deserved 1000 points.

Having extended her lead with comprehensive victories in both skills events so far, Thompson has made a pretty strong case for it being her year to win the individual title and is well placed to emulate Claire Tuck’s 1999 skills triathlon clean sweep. However the women’s competition contains a number of capable and experienced riders who will be looking to deny Thompson her hat-trick. Among them are Pony Club riders Boyd and Lloyd, who finished the fence equal on 16 hits and now lie joint second in the competition. With closely matched biathlons the competition between these two will be tense. Very close behind is Whitehouse, who will easily make up the 8 point gap with her strong swim. She will need a careful ride however for her biathlon to keep her in front of the Pony Club pair.

Thursday 6^th April

Under pressure like that of the Varsity Match shoot even experienced competitors can find their usual confidence and technique deserts them – the weight of individual expectation and enormous importance attached to team victory has frequently produced both personal bests and personal worsts. Though one can never in pentathlon put one’s finger on a particular event and say that was where the competition, individual or team, was won and lost, the capriciousness of this phase of the match makes it a substantial hurdle to be overcome by those wishing to cover themselves in Varsity glory.

The long and worthy list of athletes to have fallen at this hurdle was joined today by Sara Grosvenor whose disastrously low score of 92 effectively ended her chances of achieving a Full Blue this year and left the Oxford ladies trailing by almost a thousand points after one event. It seemed that all the misfortune that might have been distributed a little more evenly amongst the other competitors fell on her shoulders. Though Lucy Hasell and Selena Cochrane were disappointed with their scores, (Selena’s 152 is more than many have achieved in their first Varsity Match), Veronika Markwardt’s 171 puts her in the company of Lisa Willcocks and Helen Hutton as one of the few Oxford ladies to break the 170 barrier in a Varsity Match in recent years. Delyth Lloyd was not far off with 169 and is shooting with a consistency which suggests she could well be joining that club next year.

The lead of the Cambridge team was built up on the sure foundation laid in the first detail by the two most experienced members of the squad and in fact of CUMPC, Pippa Whitehouse and Harriet Thompson, who shot accurately and with the composure of veterans of six Varsity matches (between them). This was followed by an impressive performance from Fiona Boyd equalling Delyth on 169, setting up what will be an interesting contest between this closely matched pair, and capable efforts from the two novices, Jenny Arrand and Jody Anderson, whose scores of 149 and 138 respectively show promising potential for the future.

In the Men’s event nerves of steel were displayed by Josh Funder and Ben Candy who routinely held their sight pictures for ten seconds longer than the rest of the detail and released their shots in the last few seconds. On shot eight, Ben fired as the clock reached one second left…and scored 10! Ben’s patience and strong arm held, scoring a superb 179 to win the tankard for best overall shoot in the competition, though not without competition from the superbly consistent 178 from the other Ben (Measures) who not only scored 89 in both his first and second ten shots, but equal numbers of 10s, 9s and 8s in both halves of the series. Consistency was very much the pattern amongst the Oxford side and an especially commendable score of 163 from Rob Harland in his first full pentathlon rounded off an excellent team score of 5556 pentathlon points, surely one of the highest scores in this event from either side. Cambridge were unable to match this performance and despite the efforts of the experienced Adrian Smale (175) and newcomer Paul Gandy (170) proceeded to drop over 800 points on this event.

In the individual competition it is early to be predicting outcomes, but in the men’s event there is little to separate the Junior International trio of Adrian, little Ben and big Ben. Josh and Pete have a lot of work to do to make up the ground they have lost and will need to make few mistakes in the remaining skills events if their strong biathlons are to help them recover some positions. The fence might prove to be crucial in separating the other three, all of whom should do well in the phase. Though Smale is favourite to win the fence he needs to make up a lot of points on Candy to make up for a weak run.

Amongst the women, Harriet has made an impression with her early lead, though whether her retirement (!) after last year’s match will mean she suffers from lack of match fitness remains to be seen. She certainly has the advantage of experience which is of enormous benefit in this competition and her determination to win the title which has eluded her on three previous occasions could prove a crucial factor. Another experienced athlete who hasn’t yet won the individual title is Pippa. Having shot herself into a good position over her Oxford rivals she will be hoping that her recent illness doesn’t hold her back in the physicals. From the Oxford side, captain Delyth Lloyd is in the best position and is hungry for success in the fence. Her solid ride and fast-improving swim could see her challenging for a place, while you cannot rule out defending champion Lucy, who will be going for a PB in the swim and could well smash her own phenomenal run record. If she fences as well as she did last year (losing to Claire Tuck in a barrage) her huge biathlon score and solid ride could still claw back her initial losses.