The Oxford Blue

The man who began the Varsity match tradition was Charles Wordsworth of Christ Church College, Oxford. In June 1827 he arranged a two-day cricket match against Cambridge at Lords. This was shortly followed by the first Boat Race between the two universities in 1829, and was rowed over two-and-a-quarter miles between Hambleden Lock and Henley Bridge. The second Boat Race was not until 1836, and was rowed over more than double the distance, from Westminster Bridge upstream to Putney Bridge.

It was in this race that one of the Cambridge oarsmen tied a light blue ribbon to the bows of the Cambridge boat (the colours of his school, Eton College). The colour dark blue was then ascribed to Oxford because it is the colour of Christ Church College, and the Oxford crew sported white jerseys with dark blue stripes during the race. These colours have remained over the years and now sportsmen who have represented Oxford in a Varsity match against Cambridge in a Full Blue sport are entitled to wear a dark blue blazer.

At the last count in 1999 there were 77 different Varsity Matches (men's and women's) with new ones being added each year, one of the most recent being Mixed Lacrosse. Squash has always been one of the prestigious 12 Full Blues sports, which has recently been extended to 14 with the inclusion of Basketball and Yachting. Whether the team involved is the Rugby XV playing at Twickenham in front of a crowd of 70,000 or the Hockey 3rd XI in front of a modest home crowd, the varsity match is still the most important fixture in any Oxford team's calendar. The training and hard work that go into the run-up to Varsity are exemplary.