URN

NTU 141-5, UoN 143-6

Cricket post-match interview:

The University of Nottingham rounded off a victorious Varsity series on Friday with a win in the cricket at Clifton Campus.

A beautiful sunny day helped to attract a healthy crowd of 700-800 people as Trent batted first. The home side started brightly, and it took until the 16th over for Uni of to take their second wicket. That however was the beginning of a late flurry of wickets as NTU went from 119/1 to a final score of 141/5.

UoN lost batsmen more quickly than their hosts, finding themselves 59/3 at one point, but always maintained a satisfactory run-rate to reach their attainable target of 142 with 3 overs to spare.

Nottingham Varsity 2015 stands at 12-8 to the University of Nottingham after 10 straight days of sport. The series is won, with just one event left to go, which is cricket on Friday 5th June. No pressure on the cricket club, but at the start of this series I predicted the green and gold army would win 13-8 in URN's series preview.

After a perfect opening night at the basketball, UoN went on to extend their series lead to 6-1 at the ice hockey. They never relinquished that lead. A good weekend for Trent, including two wins at the football and one in men's rugby union, reduced Uni's lead to 8-6. Fortunately, the rugby league team put to bed the previous year's 40-12 defeat to win 20-12 on the Sunday, giving Uni of a 9-6 Varsity advantage that effectively removed any doubt as to which university would take the Varsity crown.

It was a particularly important win for the green and gold army because defeat in rugby league would have allowed Trent's American Football side to level the series at 8-8. As it panned out, the closest Trent got to UoN was 0-0.

UoN 142-72 NTU

Swimming post-match interview:

After already accomplishing overall victory in the Nottingham Varsity series 8-11 yesterday, an air of complacency could have entered the minds of Uni of swimmers preceding today’s races against Trent in the pool today knowing we had already won. This could not have been further from the case however as the Uni swimming team took a professional and focussed approach to complete a resounding and comprehensive 142-72 triumph at the campus swimming pool widening the gap to 8-12 in the series. The team also maintained an undefeated varsity record against Trent who lost a meagre 3 races out of the 22 against our fierce rivals today.

UoN 4-2 NTU

An unbelievable comeback from UoN saw us clinch the Varsity series in the Men’s Hockey, with a 4-2 win.

The game began with ferocious pace, with both teams earning early short corners. NTU’s GB International Chris Proctor making more use of it with a commanding flick into the top corner. He then doubled NTU’s lead with a fantastic solo effort from another short corner, beating three UoN runners before lifting it just beyond Dan Darby into the UoN goal.

An animated team-talk from the UoN coach obviously paid dividends in the second half, as UoN came out looking like a completely different team. The first half had been a story of squandered short-corners and goal-mouth scrambles, but UoN began to show much more dominance, nullifying the best players in the NTU side.

UoN’s James Gall had a short corner flick illegally blocked on the line, resulting in a penalty flick to UoN. GB International Harry Martin converted with aplomb. Shortly after, a rapid counter-attack from UoN saw Jonny Ruiz convert from close range meaning the tie was level and UoN were looking more and more like the team who would go on to win.

UoN 1-0 NTU

Women's hockey post-match interview:

After an intense battle, and a strenuous effort from both teams, the University of Nottingham notched up another win in the women’s hockey. Despite putting in a resolute performance, the Trent goalkeeper was finally beaten by a rebounded effort just three minutes from time to secure a deserved, if somewhat fortuitous victory for the University.

In hurricane like winds, about 150 fans took their places at Highgate to see an evenly matched game, where for all of the attacks from the University of Nottingham, they failed to make any of them count, including three short corners. Trent on the other hand looked dangerous on the break away and themselves could not be written out of the game.

It never looked like being a repeat of last year’s 7-0 hammering for the University of Nottingham, but they were on top for the majority of the game but could not beat the Trent goalkeeper. She made numerous top quality saves to deny many promising attacks, some of which brought cheers from the watching crowd.