For the 44th Modern Pentathlon Varsity Match, the two university clubs once again coverged upon the playing fields of a top English public school, this time Charterhouse in Surrey. Organiser James Whetman had done a great job, not only to secure this marvelous venue (suitably close to London for Old Blues and spectators) but also to gain new sponsorship from bankers CIBC World Markets.

Oxford arrived expecting to maintain their recent dominance in the men's competition (only one novice in the team to Cambridge's three) and with strong hopes of retaining the ladies' team trophy after last year's historic victory. Another innovation this year was the reserves' match, which allowed five further competitors (three gentlemen, two ladies) from each university to experience the Varsity Match atmosphere in a shoot-swim-run triathlon.

While the reserves shot well to finish only 116 points behind a Cambridge team with one international and one half blue marksman, Oxford's ladies went one better and nosed in front by 84, due in large part to Delyth Lloyd's excellent 175/200 (1036 pentathlon points). This, it would turn out, was just the first twist in a competition which would remain tight throughout the weekend.

The only drama in the gentlemen's shoot came from an unexpected interruption over the public address system - not an announcement that Cambridge had left their best shooting in the practice range, although this had proved to be the case. Last year's individual runner-up Ben Candy went one better than his 179 on that occasion, and Oxford took a commanding lead of 1,248 into the next phase.

Of all the graphs that we, the Old Blues, produce to detail the statistics of the Varsity Match, there is none so telling as "Where the fence was won and lost". While Cambridge's Alasdair Baker, a Scottish international epeeist, took the overall honours with a superb 18/22, Oxford's Matthew Gisborne was busy slicing through the light blues to finish net +7 against the opposition, losing only two hits and one double defeat. Of the novices, Justin Yeoman of Oxford came out best, with 10 hits and 790 pentathlon points. Oxford added another 294 to their lead in the overall team event.

Delyth Lloyd was another who performed well in the crucial bouts of her competition, finishing the ladies' fence with 15 hits for 864, and net +4. Veronika Markwardt took one more hit to finish equal second with Cambridge's Boyd and Arrand on 16, while Harriet Thompson's 17 hits won her the event and 932 points. Cambridge took the ladies' fence event by 272, and thereby went into the third event ahead by 188.

Good swims from Oxford reserves John Riches, Imran Akram and Rich Bowdler versus some low- and non- scoring efforts by the Cambridge boys saw our reserves take their event by over 1000 points. In the ladies competition there were massive personal bests all round (notably Delyth Lloyd again, with a tremendous 2:38), while the star of the show was Oxford's Tina Agnew (2:25), a blues swimmer and a tremendous pentathlon prospect. Boyd and Thompson of Cambridge also produced 1,000 point swims, and once again the event was terribly close. The dark blues won the swim by 302 points, taking them back into a slender overall lead of 114.

In the gentlemen's competition, Oxford's strength in depth showed in the earliest heat - Yeoman and Harland taking 795 points out of their opposite numbers. Further up the order things were closer - Ben Candy of Oxford won his second individual event with 2:07, while light blues Travis Brown and Cahir King followed him in with 2:14 and 2:18 respectively. Another event was notched up to the Oxford boys, this one by 849. Sadly the same could not be said for the Old Blues Challenge - Cambridge's strength here goes some way to explaining the weaknesses of their current team, and they cruised home with something to spare, despite the efforts of Oxford's Olympic champion Stephanie Cook.

Sunday 8^th April

Sunday dawned bright and clear - a little too early for some of the Old Blues after the previous night's curry - as the teams gathered at Pachesham Equestrian Centre for the riding phase. A tight, twisting course had been set to test the riders, but the horses provided were of the highest quality, and found their way round without, in some cases, a great deal of rider input. There were a couple of falls but no disasters; Travis Brown of Cambridge had never intended to ride, but might have regretted his decision after watching one very inexperienced team-mate make his way round safely. Oxford's Ben Measures made up for last year's moment of madness with a faultless round (having checked with the judges beforehand exactly which was the first fence) and this was matched by his colleagues Ben Candy and Rob Harland. The ladies, for the most part, rode very tidily, and again the lead swung, this time to Cambridge.

Going into the run, the Cambridge ladies were now 209 points ahead in this phenomenally close competition. From the starter's command it was Cambridge captain Fiona Boyd who led from the front, with Oxford captain Sara Grosvenor following. With Agnew, Lloyd, Mackie, Thompson and Markwardt together in the middle of the race it became clear that Oxford would make up more than the required deficit in this final event, as the three other Cambridge girls fought well but dropped gradually off the back. There was drama on the individual front as well - Harriet Thompson had been 205 points ahead of Fiona Boyd, and only 48 points ahead of Oxford's Lloyd. With Boyd out in front, Lloyd running strongly and Thompson looking tired during the middle lap, all three had a chance of the title. In the final lap, new sensation Tina Agnew broke free into third, and Thompson came back gutsily to catch Lloyd and Mackie. The final analysis showed that Thompson had done just enough to hold on to her individual title, with Boyd a tantalising 9 points behind and Lloyd another 39 back. On the team front, Oxford had won the run by 1016 points and therefore retained the team trophy by 807.

The gentlemen's run was actually closer, although the overall result was way beyond doubt. Veteran Pete Kelly strode out ahead of Candy to deny him a fourth individual event; four Oxford men took the first five places, and the event was won by 740 points to give them a clean sweep of all five phases. Candy had come close to another goal - 22 points away from Keith Shindler's 1993 record - but had secured the individual title which eluded him the year before. Strong backup saw Measures and Kelly take 2nd and 3rd overall for Oxford with scores over 5000 points.

In the first of the other two races, the dark blue reserves ran very well to take 1,166 out of their opponents. Overall, Riches, Bowdler and Akram took the first three places individually and Oxford's Jennie Wallace was best lady, in 6th. The Old Blues also won their leg of the Biathlon Challenge, but excessive foul play from both sides saw the event annulled and the hip flask trophy was magnanimously handed over to Cambridge after their swim victory.

All in all, this was a splendidly organised Varsity Match in a superb venue, notable in particular for the closeness of the ladies'event and Oxford's second victory since 1990. Thanks go to match organiser James Whetman, sponsors CIBC World Markets, Pachesham Equestrian Centre, the authorities at Charterhouse School and the vast army of Old Blues who put so much effort into making this event one of the high points of the British pentathlon calendar.