With tantalising finishes, raw emotions, commitment, energy, and matches that kept everyone gripped all the way to the end, Varsity 2025 had it all, and this is the story.
Nail-biting, tantalising finishes, raw emotions, commitment, energy, and matches that kept everyone gripped all the way to the end. Varsity 2025 had it all, and this is the story.
BNU Dance Club
It all began with Dance on Saturday 22nd February. Competing in Tap, Ballet, Jazz, Street, Contemporary, and Wildcard at Reading dance comp and, despite a creditable effort, narrowly lost out on winning their point by 0.02%. Showcasing how sport is won or lost by such fine margins.
Sunday 9th March
Men's football 3’s and 4’s fought hard during their matches, unfortunately losing 3-2 (Men’s Football 4th Team) and 4-1 (Men’s football 3rd team) respectively.
Both Hockey teams played on Sunday, gaining 2 valuable points. Women's Hockey winning 2-1, thanks to goals from Lia Wilkinson and Karina Patel. The team held firm in the final moments giving us our first Varsity point. Having secured second place in their league, Men's Hockey, already league winners, went in 1-0 up at half time with Harry Lloyd scoring his first goal of two. Jerome Osoba scored halfway through the second half and then Harry scored again with the last strike of the game delivering our second point with a convincing 3-0 win. Celebrations at the end with both teams coming together highlighting the comradery there is within both clubs.
This left the score at 3-2 heading into Wednesday 12th March with Men's Badminton, Men's Basketball, Men’s football 1’s and 2’s, Women's football (headline fixture), Netball 1’s and 2’s, and Women's and Men's Volleyball left to play.
Varsity Game Day
Wednesday finally came, and it started with Men’s Badminton. With Roehampton running out 7-1 winners, with the highlight for Bucks being Lewis Pain and Johannes Roche winning their doubles match.
Netball 2’s started their fixture just after the beginning of the badminton match, storming the first 2 quarters to hold a lead of 11 points. 23-23 was the score after the third quarter as Roehampton came back. Both teams continued to match each other all the way and the final score was 31-31. Meaning both teams took half a point. Netball 2’s stand-out player being Nicole Efemini playing as GS.
Over at the Roehampton sport and fitness centre, Womens Volleyball started with a strongly contested first set and with the crowd raising the roof, played the best they’d played all year. Unfortunately losing the first set, despite valiant efforts from captain Julia Irvine Roca, Jenna Ferreira and VPAB Wren Sell, the trend of the first set continued as Roehampton ran out 3-0 winners. At this stage the score was 5.5-2.5 in Roehampton’s favour.
Netball 1’s was the next team up and convincingly won every quarter of their match, coming out with an outstanding 22-50 win. With special mention going to Mercy Oyebo. Who, by all accounts, had a 100% shot success rate. (That’s 3 wins in 7 days, winning the Cup, League, and this fixture)
Barn elms was the venue for the next set of fixtures. Men’s Football 2’s undoubtedly played their best match of the season. With the match looking like it would end 2-2, heartbreak struck as Roehampton scored in the last minute of the game. Notable mention goes to Michael Simpson, who, as captain, led the team admirably and put in a player of the match performance. In addition, Michael also bagged an assist. The 2 goals for Bucks were scored by Caleb Yue and Freddie De Ronne.
Halfway through the Men's football 2’s match, the Men's Football 1’s match began. Managing to endure the pressure from Roehampton in the last 20 minutes of the game they came away with a well-deserved 2-1 Win, which is their first of the season. Matty Forster, Sertorio Seli (1 goal) and Joel Ampabeng were their stand-out players.
Comfortable league winners Women's Football were the Headline fixture and the match showed exactly why. Daisy Thompson starred in this game as Bucks WFC ran riot with a 7-1 victory. Daisy had a goal involvement in every goal scored, 3 goals (Hattrick) and 4 assists. An outstanding performance by all. As they have done all season.
While all of this was happening at Barn elms, Mens Volleyball were trading sets at the Roehampton sports and fitness centre. A stunning performance bringing home the incredibly important win and the vital Varsity point of the day, coming into form at exactly the right time of year.
After 4 sets were played, it came down to the deciding 5th set. Selimon Omary and Richard Sho-Silva were in particularly phenomenal form. After a magnificent effort, Mens Volleyball won the final set 15-10 to win the match 3-2. Unknowingly at the time to students, bringing the overall Varsity score to 6.5-6.5.
This left Men’s Basketball as the deciding point, ready and pumped to seize victory. First quarter was a wakeup call. Drawing 11-11. Second quarter, they were up 33-27, but knew they had more to give. Third quarter, Bucks started pulling away, 57-40. Nathanael Watkins with endless 3 pointers, with Aidan Kelly and Desmond Hadi making key steals to dominate the proceedings. Last quarter and after the gap started to close ever so slightly (8 at one point), Bucks asserted their dominance once more and saw out the match 75-55 winners. Queueing an eruption of cheers and celebrations, particularly from the University of Roehampton bar.
Players of the day
Roehampton chose the Womens Player of the Day, so Bucks chose the Mens Player of the Day. Which was duly given to Richard Sho Silva for his incredible effort during the Mens Volleyball match, his passion and level of care to help Womens Volleyball as a coach didn’t go unnoticed either.
There it is, 2 years in a row, back-to-back, Varsity Champions. Who thought the Roebuck trophy was going anywhere?…. We certainly didn’t. Massive congratulations to all that competed, those that came to support and to everyone that helped make Varsity a special occasion.