Everything you need to know ahead of Nottingham Varsity 2025

Varsity season is officially underway with NTU taking the first win over UON in Ice Hockey at the start of February, beating the green and gold 7-5.

However, if you can’t wait to scratch that varsity itch here is everything you need to know ahead of the upcoming events, where you need to be and when and if you fancy going along to show your colours be sure to read to the bottom to find the link to tickets!

Thai Boxing

Thai boxing is the next event, and the first of the March schedule, kicking off on Sunday 23rd March. This is a type of martial art using punches, kicks, knees and elbows and is great for anyone looking for a fight-night atmosphere. NTU currently hold the title against UON so it’ll be up to them to keep a hold of it on home ground.

The event will be taking place at The Level, inside NTU’s SU building, and will start at 1pm with doors expected to open at 12:30pm.

Netball

Next up is Netball, taking place at UON’s David Ross Sports Village (DRSV), and is due to start at 5pm with doors opening at 4:30pm on Monday 24th March.

NTU took the crown in 2024 with UON hoping to stage a mighty comeback this year, impressing the home crowd. Both teams are full of talent with the NTU 1’s currently competing in the Premier North 1 division and the UON 1’s topping the table in the Premier North 2 division. These teams have been known to feed into national netball teams, such as Loughborough Lightning and the newly established Nottingham Forest Netball Team, so this is definitely one to watch.

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And if that wasn’t enough, the netball marks the start of a double-header evening, followed by another exciting event that you’d be silly to miss.

Futsal

The event last year that either ruined or made your day returns as the second event running on 24th March.

UON took the win last year in the final varsity event of the season, also marking UON as the overall series winners. NTU will be hungry for the win this year and it all kicks off directly after netball.

Both sides 1s compete in the Men’s Premier North division, with NTU sitting in third and UON sitting in sixth. The last two BUCS fixtures between the two saw one draw and one win for NTU, but playing in front of a home crowd may help UON to put on the pressure alongside their want to defend the title.

This fixture will take place at DRSV and is due to start at 7:30pm, with doors at 7:00pm, but of course we’d recommend already being there after supporting the netball before!

Lacrosse

Making it’s return to varsity we have two lacrosse fixtures featuring both the men’s and women’s teams. These games will take place on Tuesday 25th March, both at NTU’s Clifton Campus. Doors will be at 4:30pm with the women’s game starting at 5pm and the men’s due to start at 7pm.

This will be a great double-header with the NTU men’s 1s going undefeated in their BUCS season and well underway on their cup run, but being closely followed in the same league by UON, and with both teams proceeding to the semi-finals of the national championship.

Both women’s 1s compete in the Women’s Premier North division, with UON topping the table and beating NTU in both of their BUCS fixtures against each other.

Basketball

On the same day but over at DRSV we have one of the most popular events of the season, basketball! This too features men’s and women’s games with doors at 5:30 for both and women’s tip off expected at 6pm, followed by the men’s at 8:15pm.

Last year both away sides put in huge performances to take a double win at David Ross, the women’s game was incredibly tight with the final score being 74-79 to NTU and the men’s team putting in a dominant display winning 62-108.

Currently, the NTU men’s 1s sit in second in the Premier North division, with the UON 1s sitting in third in the Men’s Midlands Tier 2 division. As for the women, NTU women’s 1s sit second in the Women’s Midlands Tier 1 division and the UON women’s 1s sit fourth in the Women’s Premier North division.

This is not one to miss.

Super Wednesday

Super Wednesday is an action-packed day full of a wide variety of sports. This goes across two days, the first of which takes place at NTU with doors opening at 12pm on Wednesday 26th of March with the second taking place at UON on Wednesday 30th of April. 

As this isn’t just one fixture timings for each are still being finalised so our recommendation is to keep up to date with the UON and NTU Sport social media pages, alongside the official Notts Varsity fixture page to keep up to date with the who, what, when and where.

Last year saw UON take wins both home and away, so NTU will hope to claw some back this year in an event that can define the title.

American Football

The final event in the March line-up sees a return of American football, featuring an NTU team that has been playing in the Premier North division after promotion and is in contention for the National Vase, and a UON team who has played in the National Premier division and is in contention for the National Championship.

The event will take place on Friday 28th March at DRSV with doors at 5:15 and kick off expected at 6pm. So if you have post-Super Bowl blues and want a fix of American football be sure to head down, it’s also on a Friday so no one has early lecture excuses…

Men’s Football

Moving into the April varsity fixtures we kick off, literally, with men’s football and this year it’s big because it’ll be played at the home of Notts County, Meadow Lane. 

Last year saw a dramatic win for Trent on penalties in a closely fought game, another one that UON will hope to claw back as Trent have been on a bit of a winning streak in this fixture. Both teams have competed in the Men’s Premier North division this year, with the UON 1s proceeding to the next round of the National Championship.

As mentioned the game will take place at Meadow Lane on Monday 28th April. Doors will open at 5:30pm with kick off expected at 7:00pm.

Rugby (Union and League)

Here’s one for those of you riding a Six Nations high, and for those of you who just want to go to a game where you can have a beer. Women’s Rugby Union and Men’s Rugby League will go head-to-head on Wednesday 30th April at Nottingham Rugby Club in West Bridgford. 

UON took a double win here last year and rugby league specifically have been quite strong in the varsity fixtures. Both men’s teams compete in the Southern Tier 1 division, with UON currently topping the table and both teams met in the quarter-final of the Men’s National Trophy – nice of them to arrange a varsity warm-up.

The NTU ladies Rugby Union team compete in the Women’s Midlands Tier 1 division where they currently sit first, the UON ladies sit compete in the Women’s Premier North where they sit third.

The women’s game is due to start at 1pm, followed by the men’s at 5pm.

Cricket

Cricket makes its comeback to the varsity line-up this year as the final event of the series, and could potentially be a title-decider. The game will take place on Friday 2nd May and is due to start at 5pm at Clifton Village Cricket Club, based on NTU’s Clifton Campus.

Both 1s compete in the Men’s Indoor Midlands C division but what would be sweeter than taking the varsity comeback crown?

That is all the information you need to prep for the 2025 Notts Varsity Series!

If you want any more info about timings, last-minute changes and everything in between be sure to follow both UON and NTU Sport, alongside Trent TV and NSTV your student TV stations running coverage on all the events and the teams themselves!

As promised, if you fancy going along to any, or all, of the fixtures the link to grab tickets can be found here.

Happy Varsity!