2010 Men's Varsity
The 2010 Varsity Pool Match took place in Oxford at Riley's, Between Towns Road.
Report by Richard Walters (of Oxford)
Saturday: First Round of Singles and Doubles Round
The match kicked off on Saturday afternoon with the singles round, played across four tables. A strong start from the first four Oxford players saw the Dark Blues surge into a 10-2 lead, which then increased to 13-2 as veteran player Rob Gaunt won his match 3-0. With only Hugh Lund and Chris Jenkins of Cambridge winning their singles matches, Oxford went further clear with a 22-11 score line after 11 singles matches. Graham Sills of Cambridge was unable to make the first day, so his match with John Murray was postponed until the Sunday.
Oxford continued their fine form in the doubles, with a win for duos Mark Pitfield and John Murray, and Rob Gaunt and Ben Charlston, neither of whom yet to lose a frame. The next three Oxford pairs each won a frame in their matches, giving the team a strong 12 frame advantage going into the second day.
End of the First Day: Oxford 30 - 18 Cambridge
Sunday: Remaining Singles and Doubles, and Final Singles Round
With tales of inter-team shenanigans from the night before, including news that Lloyd Jones had managed to vomit over some of the Cambridge players, the second day got off to a lively start. Graham Sills began a Cambridge fight-back, winning his singles match 3-0 and doubles match 2-1 to reduce Oxford's advantage after the first two rounds to 8 frames.
First Singles Round result: Oxford 22 - 14 Cambridge
Doubles Round result: Oxford 9 - 9 Cambridge
Things started to get uncomfortable for Oxford as Paul Thomas pulled off a shock 3-0 win against Mark Pitfield, OUPSC President, in the first match of the final singles round. Cambridge then won four of the next five matches to get within touching distance of the Oxford team. However, their momentum was halted by Sam Packwood, who broke and cleared in his first frame and went on to win his match 3-0. It then became apparent that Cambridge had stacked their team in an effort to overcome the large overnight deficit, and slowly but surely the final four Oxford players ticked off the frames that brought them ever closer to the 46 frame winning total. Victory was clinched by Junaid Mubeen when he won only his second Varsity frame out of sixteen and first ever Varsity singles frame. He went on to win 3-0, as did a somewhat more sober Lloyd Jones, meaning that the final singles round was drawn 18-18 and Oxford did not lose any of the three rounds.
Second Singles Round result: Oxford 18 - 18 Cambridge
Final result: Oxford 49 - 41 Cambridge
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