The Battle of the North: A Look Forward

A preview of next Wednesday’s inter-university Christie Cup between Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester.

Christie Cup leeds university Manchester university sport university of liverpool

For many students, next Wednesday will just be another day spent tearing their hair out in the Sydney Jones as deadlines loom menacingly on the horizon. For the university’s finest sportsmen and women though, April 24 is an altogether different day… one they’ve been looking forward to since the start of term.

Next Wednesday marks the 127th annual Christie Cup, the second oldest inter-university competition in the country.

It also marks the chance for Liverpool’s finest to put those upstarts from Leeds and Manchester in their place.

The men’s football is always competitive

This year’s Christie takes place in Manchester and will feature fierce competition across 28 sports.

The first seven of these occurred last Wednesday, seeing Manchester top the table by half a point from Liverpool, with Leeds a further point behind.

Yesterday’s victorious volleyballers

Manchester are strong favourites to retain their crown.  A look back at recent winners is pretty bleak for Liverpool, who’s last win came 1991 before many of this year’s competitors were born.

Manchester’s monopoly of the ‘noughties’ and beyond, having won 10/13 since the turn of the century, doesn’t bode well for either Liverpool or Leeds. The one thing Scousers don’t lack however is sporting optimism (it’ll be our year next year ey Liverpool fans?) so there’s no doubt our students will give it their all.

Booooo!!!

The current BUCS table doesn’t exactly make for pleasant reading either.  Liverpool is currently sitting in 35th place, 26 places below Manchester and 19 below Leeds. It could be worse though, John Moores are currently 59th and Hope 113th.

If travelling to Manchester next Wednesday- despite the rumours of a ‘celebratory’ night out in Tiger Tiger- doesn’t take your fancy then you can always wander down to the Docks and take in the Canoe Polo that’ll be hosted there between 14:00 and 16:00.

Why not have a break from revision and take in the canoe-polo at the docks.

Regardless of the final result, Christie Cup is always an day brimming with anticipation, excitement and fierce competition.

It would be nice to finally win something at the end of it for once. After all, if you’ve had to go through the displeasure of spending the day in Manchester you at least want something to show for it.

 

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