As the Lent term comes to a close, many Queens' students have been busy representing the College and the University in the last few Varsity and Cuppers matches.
Varsity Boat Race
We are very excited that Laura Foster has been selected to represent Cambridge at the Varsity Boat Race on Sunday 7th April. Laura is an American PhD candidate at Queens', studying Archaeology, and rowed in the victorious Blondie crew last year. She is pictured here at the Queens' Blues Dinner in 2018, with Becky Hartwell, right, a lightweight rower.
Last weekened Freddie Markanday, Queens' PhD candidate, rowed in the Cambridge Lightweight Rowing Club Varsity race against Oxford, which was this year for the first time held on the Thames, on the same course as the main boat races will be held in a few weeks' time. Sadly, the Light Blues were defeated by a very strong Oxford side, but we send Freddie and the team our congratulations nonetheless.
Aussie Rules Football
On Saturday 16th March, Cambridge hosted the Australian Rules Football Varsity match. The conditions were tough for both matches with a strong wind locking the game in one half of the field for the majority of the time. Queens' students Dante McGrath (PhD candidate in Engineering) and Dylan Dexter (LLM) were playing for the Light Blues men's team, which fought a hard game but were defeated by 4 goals.
The women's team held on for a thrilling one goal victory - the first outright win in the women's Varsity fixture as the inaugural match last year was a draw. This marks the end of a memorable season for both teams who have formed a strong bond over the past six months. Both teams will re-group next season in preparation for the much-anticipated 100th Varsity fixture in 2020.
Photograph of the men's team, featuring Dyland third from left, back row and Dante fifth from left, front row. Credit Alexander Davenport.
Karate
Third-year Computer Science student Jamie Lowenthal and first-year Architecture student Eleanor Lee, both from Queens', are men's and women's captains of the Cambridge University Karate Club team, who won their Varsity match a couple of weekends ago.
The Varsity Karate competition is split into three equally-weighted teams: Men's, Women's and Mixed. The scores for each team are as follows:
Men's: Cambridge 96 - 0 Oxford
Women's: Cambridge 39 - 63 Oxford
Mixed: Cambridge 82 - 2 Oxford
Many congratulations to Jamie, Eleanor and the teams! See below for a full report from Jamie.
Photograph: the victorious Cambridge Karate team.
Cuppers Squash
Second-year Economics student Athan Siah is the captain of the Queens' Squash team, who reached the final of the Cuppers competition, which was held in Queens' last Saturday. Despite a strong performance, they narrowly lost to 2-3 to Churchill, so finished the competition as the runners-up.
Photograph: the Queens' and Churchill Squash teams. Queens' players from L to R: Armaan Kamerkar, Max Tan, Varun Babbar, Ben Robinson.
Absent: Will Rose, Athan Siah (captain)
Karate Varsity report, from Jamie Lowenthal
The Varsity match began with the Men's Individual kata (patterns/forms), where the Cambridge team of four gave an excellent performance and secured all the points available for this event. Next up, the Women's team faced tough competition from Oxford in the Individual kata event. The Women's team performed to a very high standard and the scoring was very close, with Oxford edging ahead 27 to 15, in this event. The Mixed team then performed their kata excellently, with the top three scores of the day being achieved by the Cambridge Mixed team. The Mixed individual kata event finished with Cambridge ahead 34 to 8.
Next came the team kata event, where each team of three must perform a synchronised form. Here, the Cambridge Men's and Mixed team triumphed over the dark blues. The Women's team unfortunately narrowly lost out to Oxford.
The final events of the Varsity match where the kumite (free fighting) events for each of the teams. Both Women's teams were strong. They put on a very impressive display of skill and agility. In the end, neither team was able to get ahead and the Women's event finished in a draw, 24-24. In the Mixed and Men's events, Cambridge managed to secure a comfortable lead.
The final results meant that Cambridge defended their Men's and Mixed successes of last year, while Oxford defended their Women's trophy. Having won two of the three teams, Cambridge won its 13th consecutive Varsity victory over Oxford!
If any Fellows, students or staff have news items they would like to be featured on the College website, please send them to the Development Officer (Communications)
Alice Webster acw69@cam.ac.uk and 01223 (7)46980
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