Why Varsity was the best thing to happen to KCL Hockey this year

The first official London Varsity Series has been a long time coming and, for the KCL hockey club, particularly the women’s first with their two promotions in three seasons, it was a chance to shine again and show how far the club has come.

With the hockey club opening the series, there was a lot of pressure to put things in King’s favour and to re-emphasis our presence as the best sports club at King’s!

UCL: historic rivals both academically and sports-wise and always marginally superior on the hockey front prior to Varsity.

Turning that perception around in front of such a huge crowd was an incredible experience for the hockey club and was demonstrative of how much we have achieved in the last few years. For the many third years in the team, it was a special way to end the season after a double promotion for both the girls’ 1st and 2nd teams – it was a night that will be memorable for a long time.

With both teams having had their individual success, it was very poignant to end on a double victory.

Revenge for being labelled the “Strand Poly”

Having done some casual stalking of UCL’s Tab, the comments about Kings were not particularly flattering – the term “Strand poly” was used in alarming frequency and there was constant reference to them being the “favourites to win”. Yet, we were super keen to put up a good fight: this wasn’t just about hockey, it was personal.

Some bonding with GKT

It’s fair to say, with Macadam and the historical divide between us and GKT, relationships haven’t always been harmonious between the two King’s sides.

However, GKT showed they were happy to let bygones be bygones as they came to support us against UCL. They were loud and proud, attributes we respect, and showed that we’re united against the common rivalry of UCL.

You have to stick together when you’re at King’s and we happily returned the favour at their Varsity match, lending to the possibility of joint socials in the future and maybe some repairing of the damage done in the past. Plus, UCL are far more irritating than GKT ever were. #werestrongertogether.

The power of the underdog

It was more than obvious that UCL thought they were going to win. The men’s team turned up in matching jackets (looking like a less attractive and more camp version of One Direction) with “victory” written on their backs. They had even arrogantly brought champagne with them.

Sadly for them, our hockey boys pulled off a spectacular turnaround. This was especially impressive as UCL had won their league two days earlier, so were brimming with confidence.

It was like watching Wigan play Man City in the FA Cup quarterfinals – we were heroes just as Wigan were.

The UCL girls had also secured their place at the top half of their league and irritatingly believed they were untouchable, which was only exasperated by their early goal.

Both the KCL women’s and men’s first teams sit in the league below UCL’s 1st teams and our men’s team were certainly not optimistic about coming out victorious.

It’s fair to say neither team looked like they would win on paper and, if this were a betting sport, our odds would have been high. Both teams came from behind, the women down 1-0 but coming back to a 4-1 annihilation, massively helped by President Jasmine Clarke’s superior pace down the right-hand side of the pitch proving too much of a challenge for UCL’ s defenders.

Equally, both teams hadn’t managed to beat UCL earlier in the season, with the boys drawing in a pre-season friendly and the girls narrowly losing 2-1 in a LUSL game at the beginning of the year.

It seems our boys knew they needed to do something special and that came with Captain Hugh Bushell deciding enough was enough and storming down the pitch to assist two beautiful goals from Ross Williams and Max Smith, and unlikely hero Oren Avram’s incredible top corner goal (even surprising himself with his technical ability).

Fan love

We celebrated every goal like we’d won the UEFA Champions League and, in true hockey style, we all had a few pints making us extra rowdy. With continuous screaming of King’s songs, spurred on by our mascot, Reggie, who had unfaltering stamina, we couldn’t even hear UCL (if they had bothered to sing that is) – we were happily drowning them out with our perfectly pitched rendition of “KCL CL CL CL”.

It just shows the importance of having people behind you. The support was brilliant throughout and we never gave up on our team.