This year has been a hugely successful year for the Oxford University Trampolining Club. The club has both grown in size and in skill and this success was continued into the annual Varsity Match against Cambridge held on the 4th March. Both sides fielded strong teams. The Dark Blues had 13 competitors divided into A, B, C and a reserve team. Held at home, the fixture had been eagerly awaited by both Oxford and Cambridge alike. The Oxford Trampolining Club has always struggled against a Cambridge club which is better funded and larger when it comes to Varsity, with us only having won twice in the club’s history. This year, however, we were able to reclaim our trophy following an excellent display from all our competitors.
In trampolining four individuals compete twice in each team. The first routine is a set routine and the second is a voluntary routine, competitors are marked on form only in the first routine (assuming they make it to the end!) and on form and difficulty in the second. From these scores the highest three for set and the highest three for voluntary count towards the club’s overall tariff.
The day began with the B team. Anne Bast, Corinne Tomsett, Andrew Turner and Verena Schenzinger were competing for Oxford. All those competing performed excellently. A special shout out should be given to Andrew Turner who, despite being in his fourth year, had been yet to complete a Varsity competition without ‘crashing out’ in one of his routines! This year all of the Oxford B Team achieved the full 20 moves. The B Team contributed an overall total of 136 points to Oxford’s score, with scores from Anne Bast, Andrew Turner and Verena Schenzinger counting towards the total.
After the reserve team, in which Oxford’s Millie Dunlop scored an impressive 42.1, came the C’s team. There was a moment when Oxford feared that Daniel Sherlock might not make it after an incident involving the baking of some cookies. Which, incidentally, upon arrival turned out to be a flaming success. When we finally had a team ready to compete we saw some truly excellent trampolining. This team in particular included several competitors who had never trampolined before Michaelmas and it was great to see people trying out new sports and getting the opportunity to compete in them. Hannah Glover, Laura Stone, Daniel Sherlock and Amber Barton competed in this team and although there were a few more crashes than in the B team (maybe the burning incident threw Daniel off balance slightly) they still managed to score a fantastic 138.5 points with every competitor contributing towards the final total.
Finally it was time for the A Team to compete, with the competition so tight it seemed clear that this would be what decided the final results. Competing was Emma Richardson, Richard Healicon, Philip Elders and Philip Baker. This stage of the competition was truly breath-taking to watch (if you could bear to keep your eyes open!) There was some excellent trampolining by both Oxford and Cambridge alike. The A Team contributed a whopping 156.9 points towards Oxford’s total, securing both victory for the club and 1st and 2nd place for Oxford’s Richard Healicon and Emma Richardson who scored 54.9 and 54.3 respectively. This also saw the fresher Emma Richardson secure a Full Blue. Overall Oxford had scored 431.4 whilst Cambridge scored 424.7.
The day was rounded off with a fun round of Roulette Synchro which saw Cambridge and Oxford competitors paired together and given a quick warm up to try and memorise a routine at a difficulty both could compete at and then perform it in perfect* synchronicity. This was great fun and a great way of getting to know the Tabs, who turned out to be quite nice actually. This was won by Laura (Oxford) and Ryan (Cambridge) with a score of 35.3. Laura had only started trampolining in Michaelmas so it was great to see her doing so well.
Overall the day was a great success and it was brilliant to be able to reclaim the trophy from Cambridge. The club really has had an excellent year and it was so brilliant to be able to see the hard work of all those involved paying off in tangible results. Having had so many new people join in Michaelmas it was great to see their progress and to be able to compete so well against a club with significantly more funding than our own. Anyone who is interested in trampolining and getting the chance to compete against Cambridge in next year’s varsity should contact any member of the committee. It would be really great if we could continue our increase in membership into the next academic year.
*My synchro partner and I may have missed this memo, scoring an impressive 3.2 points between us.
- Corinne Tomsett
04/03/2017
