Varsity 2013 to be Held OUTSIDE Term Time

The date and venue for Varsity 2013 has been announced (well, by Portsmouth at least) and somehow it is not only to be hosted by the enemies, but also outside […]


southampton varsity 2013The date and venue for Varsity 2013 has been announced (well, by Portsmouth at least) and somehow it is not only to be hosted by the enemies, but also outside of Southampton’s term dates.

Portsmouth announced this on 12th December, yet the only mention from SUSU was in VP Sports Development, Dean Jones’ mid term blog with a little line stating that Portsmouth were hosting, and no mention of the date. The first time Southampton students learnt of this organisational shambles was when the UPSU facebook event was found for Varsity and realised that SUSU is on holiday by then. It would be quite nice if SUSU was to announce it soon, this is generally the one day of the year that people outside the AU take an interest in sport.

In the past four years Southampton have always hosted and won the event, so in all respect it’s surprising it’s taken this long for Portsmouth to host, with most Varsity days alternating between the two rivals. Reports from inside SUSU suggest that we would have struggled to host this year anyway with there already being an intramural backlog of matches. Portsmouth will be hoping this home advantage provides a first win in the competition, but this is just one factor that they’ve had go their way this year.

March 17th to many people may not seem to controversial, it is a Sunday, but this actually lies outside the terms dates for Southampton. It seems shocking that the two student unions agreed on a date where Soton students could all have gone home. Normally at the end of term there is a race for who can get out of Portswood the fastest with Highfield Campus becoming a ghost town overnight. Is the pull of a day in Pompey going to make people stick around when they could be at home, with parents waiting on them hand and foot? Possibly not.

The SUSSC Ski Jump will have already started, which students will have already paid for while some sports teams may even be on tour from this weekend, which will obviously prevent them putting out a strong team…  Surely there was one weekend in term time that could have been used?

One idea that had been suggested, is to hold matches on different days, like some sports do every year. But this idea pretty much defeats the idea of a ‘Varsity Day’ if half the scores are known before Southampton arrive on the 17th. Portsmouth seem to have everything going their way this year so, maybe this is some cunning plan to lure them into a false sense of security. Hopefully this stupid choice of date does not affect the day or the result, and we’ll only have the weather to contend with.

Dean Jones, VP Sports Development, told The Tab:

The date of this years Varsity tournament was largely determined by the availability of facilities, with the 17th March being the only viable option. Portsmouth fist suggested the date based upon the only viable option when securing sufficient internal and external facilities to ensure a similar or larger scale event than in previous years. I am very confident that Southampton can put out our strongest team for Varsity, as every year there are several individual contests that are played on separate dates due to teams being unavailable on the main competition date. The Varsity and Alumni day officer has taken a lead on the organisation of the event, but had very little to do with the choice of date and venue.

Will you be able to attend Varsity even though it is during the Easter holiday? Let us know in the comment section below.