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The time of year has come again when the University of York meets one of its oldest and fiercest rivals. From 30th April – 2nd May, the University’s various sports teams will travel to Lancaster University to take part in the annual Roses tournament. Despite this being the 46th tournament, the competition is as fierce as ever, especially as York are aiming to achieve an unprecedented fourth consecutive victory and Lancaster seek revenge for 2009’s embarrassing 194.5-79.5 defeat. Here we take a look at some of the highlights of the weekend and access York’s chances of retaining the Carter James Cup.
The Tournament actually starts on Thursday 29th April when the Men’s 1st cricket teams will travel to Lancaster Cricket Ground in the hope of taking the first four points. The rest of the events will take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, in what promises to be a truly thrilling tournament.
Lancaster will be determined to get their revenge for their defeat last year
Last year, York’s Badminton teams all performed extremely well, especially the men who dropped just one set, and their president Andrew Robert told The Yorker that they are “very confident going into this year’s Roses after such a huge success last year, and there are high expectations to achieve the same result.” Injuries mean that Alex Chu has moved up from Men’s B and Andrew Robert from Men’s C to make his first appearance for the B team, but this hasn’t affected their confidence and Robert added that they’re “looking forward to taking solid victories in each discipline.” The Mixed team and Men’s 2nds are in action on Friday and then the Men’s 1sts and Women’s 1sts play on Saturday and, with 14 valuable points available, these are events not to be missed.
On Saturday morning, the Men’s and Women’s fencing events take place, with each event offering four points. Becky Ellis, the Fencing Club President, said that “after a very successful season for both teams, we have high hopes that the teams will meet the standards they've set for themselves throughout the year”. A few fencers can not participate due to busy exams schedules but Ellis doesn’t think that this will affect their chances of winning. She said “with the women now in the league above Lancaster, this should be a chance for new captain Louise Highton to shine.” The Men’s event might be closer as they are in the same league as Lancaster but Ellis is expecting a “tough and exciting match for new vice Captain Tom Jones to lead.”
The rugby teams also feel confident heading into their matches, which will take place on Saturday and Sunday. Robert Grant, the Rugby Club President, criticised “Lancaster's refusal to maintain a sporting attitude and schedule it in the middle of exam week” but told The Yorker he believes that this Roses “has the potential to be one of the best and most closely contested.” He confidently assessed their chances of winning the rugby matches, saying “all three teams have had superb seasons, with both the 1XVs and 2XVs finishing top of their leagues.” The squad has prepared well and spent five days of the Easter break training in Salou. Grant admitted that “our Roses fixture against Lancaster is always a tough challenge, with the atmosphere surrounding the game adding to the occasion” but added that he is “more than confident that with the squads we have got we will be able to replicate last year's success and produce another 5-0 whitewash.”
Various football events will be played over the whole weekend and there is excitement about all the games, from the indoor football to the College Select team. The Men’s 1sts will be hoping to emulate the 4-0 rout they achieved last time Lancaster visited York but Greg Gardner, University of York Football Club President, said to The Yorker “I really don't know what to expect”, as memories of York’s poor results on previous visits to Lancaster are still fresh. He added “we've had an incredibly strong season, but Lancaster 1sts got promoted in the equivalent West division, so we should be fairly evenly matched.” He rued the depletion of the squad due to exams, and also pointed out the short amount of preparation time, as, with less than a week to go, there will only be time for one training session and one practice match before the competition. However, he didn’t see these as excuses and added enthusiastically “I know we've got great strength in depth in this club so the players who take to the pitch will be more than capable of dishing out a few home truths.”
Unfortunately, there will be no rowing events at this year’s Roses. The weekend chosen for the Roses clashes with a BUCS Rowing Regatta, in which both York and Lancaster are competing. Rowing is the event which historically started off the annual Roses tournament in 1965, after the Vice-Chancellor of the University of York, Lord James of Rusholme, proposed a boat race against Lancaster, so it is disappointing to see it absent this year. This will be only the 10th time in 46 years that rowing has not featured in the Roses tournament and we look forward to its return next year.
On a brighter note, this year’s Roses tournament welcomes some new sports: cycling, rounders, running, debating and It’s a Knockout are amongst the sports making their debuts. However, they will only be exhibition events and no points will be accumulated by the winners. Neil Cattell, University of York Cycling Club president, said “all of the members of the cycling club are extremely enthusiastic and eager to get cycling in the Roses” after many failed attempts in the past and he hopes that cycling will officially be a part of the competition next year. One of the club’s members, Annabel Sill, is particularly looking forward to it as “the weather looks to be warm and sunny for once” and Cattell added that the team are “looking forward to having some fun” after competing for the BUCS team time trail in Cambridgeshire two weeks ago.
Rounders will be another of the exhibition events and their participation completes what has been a very exciting year for the club. After only being ratified last year, Rounders is a very new sport for the university and Beth Miller, the Rounders President, said “it is exciting that we get to play at Roses, which is such a massive part of York’s sporting year.” However, she added that “as rounders is a summer sport, we have actually done very little preparation due to the bad weather in spring term” but this hasn’t affected their spirits and they are “going to experience the entire competition and support all the teams, hopefully having a good few games of rounders at the same time!”
The closing ceremony will take place at 4.30pm on Sunday. Last year, it was clear by Saturday afternoon who the winners were, as York outshone their opponents in nearly every event to claim a stunning 194.5-79.5 win. However Emily Scott, York’s Sports President, thinks that it will “be a nail-biter this year” as “Lancaster will be coming out hard, determined to get their revenge for their defeat last year.” With each of York’s team going in with their confidence and expectations high, let’s hope they can repeat their fantastic performances of last year and create history by winning the Roses tournament for the fourth consecutive time.
Good luck York!!
The Yorker will be following all the weekend’s events through a live blog, so keep checking the site for updates of results and scores.
You can see the full timetable of events for the whole weekend here: [1]
Also take a look at Emily Scott’s blog on the YUSU website: [2] It includes loads of information about travel details, accommodation and the social events.
If you want to go to Lancaster to cheer on the University of York, then visit [3] or the YUSU Student Centre to buy tickets for the bus journey and also for the social events that Lancaster University will be putting on in the evenings. The deadline is Wednesday 28th April.
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