By Holly Sampson, BA Arabic
Last week saw SOAS go head to head against London Met in the 2018 North London Varsity. For those who don’t know about varsity, it is an annual sports tournament between two competitive universities and involves a whole range of sporting endeavours. The competition spans over three days and was back, bigger and better, this year with SOAS being keen to win the title of Varsity champions off last year’s winners, London Met. In order to win this title, SOAS needed to score more points than London Met, with each activity or sport being worth one point per win.
The first day kicked off with Men’s Futsal, which is a version of 5-aside football, and resulted in a point for SOAS as they secured the win. This was followed by Women’s Futsal and a very narrow 7-6 loss. By the time 8pm came around the crowd in the Science Centre was ready to go and Netball 1s did not disappoint. SOAS Warriors 1st team gave it their all against London Met in the most tense match in all of varsity. Despite over half of our supporters not having a clue about the game or it’s rules they kept the SOAS spirit (pardon the pun) high as they clung to the edge of the benches. With a 28-28 draw at full time the match was taken to extra time where unfortunately pressure peaked and London Met were able to score 3 goals leaving the final score 31-28 to London Met.
With a brilliant ending to the first day, SOAS were ready to go for the second day of Varsity that was due to include: Rugby, the Quiz, ESports and Mixed Volleyball. However, due to the weather the rugby pitches were frozen and so both the men’s and women’s matches have been postponed! The quiz and ESports were another brilliant win for SOAS. Mixed Volleyball quickly became a highlight of the day with lots of students coming along to show their support. Despite putting on a brilliant show, SOAS narrowly lost.
The final day of Varsity was met with even more mayhem as the weather took a turn for the worse and London was confronted with the Beast from the East. With the snow in mind, Cricket and Football were both postponed. However, the indoor sports continued at full speed with wins for both the tennis and badminton teams. Then came the Netball 2s who blew London Met out of the water with an incredible 33-12 win. “Cheered on by the supporters who were brave enough to make it through the Beast from the East” Holly Sommers, captain for this match, described the Netball 2s as playing with “a confidence that comfortably secured the precious Varsity point”. This set the stage nicely for the final events of the day, Men’s and Women’s Basketball. With London Met putting on fantastic half time entertainment, the evening was enjoyable for all. The basketball teams put on great performances, despite their losses, and Varsity closed with a 7-6 lead to London Met.
However, SOAS can still win it back! With so many matches being cancelled due to bad weather, it has been decided that Varsity shall carry on! Keep your eyes out for the new dates for Men’s and Women’s rugby, Men’s and Women’s football and Cricket! With 5 matches left to be played in Varsity 2018, the win is still very much within SOAS’s reach, and all support would be highly appreciated at these upcoming fixtures!