Review of the Day

Championes, Championes, Ole, Ole, Ole!

The University of Bedfordshire Bulls beat the University of Northampton; successfully defending home turf, breaking the 1-1 deadlock and reclaiming the Varsity Cup.

As the curtain closed on another Varsity event, the series now sits at 2-1 to the University of Bedfordshire. After taking the early lead in the swimming on Friday 24th, the Bulls went into the contest with a one-point lead. The goal was now to keep it. One staff member said that “everyone was really looking forward to the event… After such a great start to by the Swim team last week, all we need to do now is win five events…”.

The early morning events of Archery, Men’s Football (1) and Netball kept athletes and spectators from both universities on their toes. University of Bedfordshire took an early 2-0 lead in the events after winning Archery, but saw that lead vanish as the University of Northampton closed the gap by taking both the first football game in a heart-breaking penalty shootout and in a hard-fought netball match. 

Kudos must be given to both sets of fans for creating such an atmosphere that any athlete would relish the chance to play under.

The afternoon events began with a friendly mixed volleyball matchup that didn’t count to the overall event points. Both teams were delivering scoring shots and creating rallies, but Northampton ended up claiming the victory. 

One student said, “the whole Varsity experience was amazing. Being able to play Volleyball for the university is really great and I can’t wait for the next one! Every student at university should get involved with Varsity because it’s really a great time…”. 

The competitive events soon took off back at the Polhill Campus with both Basketball and Women’s Football taking to the stage. Whilst we attempted to put up a fight, the result wasn’t was close with Northampton winning the basketball in convincing fashion.

The same couldn’t be said about the football though as the Women silenced the naysayers delivering a strong tutorial in effort, teamwork and resilience. After being down early on, the women never gave up and equalised taking the game to the dreaded penalty shootout. The women however held their nerves and after being down in the shootout, a couple of stellar saves from the keeper and some well-placed penalty kicks saw them overcome Northampton and take the victory.

A brief pause in the outdoor action saw a majority of the spectators take to the Sports Hall to watch the Cheerleading teams in action. With some spectacular stunts, lifts and flips, the cheerleaders performed their routines with such energy the crowd could only shout in support. This event however did contribute to the overall totals and Bedfordshire took the lead once again 4-3 after seven events. 

Physical Activity at Beds

During the course of the day, we were fortunate to speak to students (both as athletes and as spectators) as well as University staff who organised the whole event. Beds SU took the opportunity of Varsity to chat to students about their perception of and engagement in physical activity. The relevance of active opportunities within the student experience and how can its development be supported. 

One athlete mentioned that “we haven’t had a coach or training sessions since last year, yet we’ve only lost one game”. A statement like this is true testament to the calibre of student athlete we have here at the University of Bedfordshire. Another student said, “I am very happy we got the first win in this year’s Varsity matchup and I’m looking forward to continuing playing the sport at uni.” With this just being a small sample of information regarding your active experiences, we are eager to find out more...

Whether it's Sports, Social, Home, Fitness, or other activities, we want to hear from as many of YOU by completing a survey to help us better understand the needs and interest of the student body in relation to physical activity. We are here to help every student at the University of Bedfordshire get the most out of their university experience.

The survey is live and available here. We will share a report shortly after.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us via help@bedssu.co.uk.

And now for your regular scheduled programming.

The action resumed with three matchups taking place. Rugby, Hockey and Men’s Football (2) took to their respective pitches. Whilst the Rugby was a very tense matchup, Northampton eventually took the win. One student did say, “it was a bit of a slow build up and it wasn’t helpful that our guy got carded for a fight when it wasn’t his fault…”. 

The hockey, however, was a different story. Though many of the team had doubled up, playing Women’s Football earlier, (and one even tripled playing volleyball earlier in addition to the two) the sheer drive and determination drove them to a strong performance which saw the University of Bedfordshire dominate and take the victory. 

The football was a tale of two halves. After Beds taking the lead to begin the game, Northampton then came back with the hopes of getting to a shootout. However, it was not to be as the referee awarded a penalty just as the game was reaching its climax… which we converted; taking the win and extending the overall lead which after three events, became 6-4. If you’ve been keeping score along the way, you’ll now know that it was at this point that we had clinched the Varsity Cup!

And with the good news in already starting to circulate, the Bedfordshire faithful packed the stands for the final event of the day which was Futsal. It did not disappoint. The Northampton fans came and filled their section hoping to cheer on their side. It began with a Northampton score which ignited the Bedfordshire team and fans. As the game went on tensions rose but it did not deter the Bulls. Bedfordshire came away with the victory and ended this edition of Varsity 7-4.  

The end of the night wasn't lacking either. To celebrate the return of the lost Varsity Cup, University of Bedfordshire students packed out the Hub and danced the night away at the Beds SU Varsity Afterparty. Why can’t every Wednesday be Varsity?

We hope you all had a great time and cannot wait until the next one. 364 days and counting until we defend our Crown away at Northampton!

Check out our Flickr Gallery of all the day's images!