We went to the 2025 Roses Opening Ceremony and here’s how it played out

Roses weekend finally came around again and the high tensions were back and better than ever.

We went along to Friday night’s opening ceremony and experienced the highs and lows of an intense basketball game and all the dramatics that Roses deserves.

The event commenced with some performances from York societies, such as Jazz, Cheer, and some music from the orchestra. The audience was instantly riled up and got right into the spirit of the event. 

Speeches from the organisers then followed, with Lancaster’s vice-chancellor, Professor Andy Schofield, standing up for his final Roses speech before his move to the University of Glasgow this October.

Then, it was finally time for the basketball to begin. The teams came out in a highly dramatic (and extremely warranted) fashion, with York even bringing out junior mascots from the York Eagles Basketball Club.

The game itself was unbelievably even, with the first quarter finishing 17-17. It continued in a relatively similar manner, with Lancaster holding a close lead for the whole game.

Half time brought us an incredible performance from the University of York’s Dance Society, while the score was York 32-41 Lancaster.

With just 7 minutes left on the clock, York started to dominate Lancaster’s defence, with some incredible shots that even had Lancaster students in awe. With it all tied 68-68, York then took two timeouts within the space of 4 minutes to try and pip Lancaster to the post at the last minute.

In a huge victory, Lancaster won the game, with the final score being 69-71. 

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The atmosphere was outstanding from a crowd in which Lancaster was the minority, which is to be expected considering how amazing the reds’ support has been so far.

The result meant that Friday night’s final scores were 50-87 to Lancaster, still with almost seventy fixtures to play for on Saturday.