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HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE

Heather Hall
October 4, 2018

On the 3rd October 2018 history was made when the University of Leeds beat local rivals Leeds Beckett University to win their first ever Leeds Varsity.

Leeds Varsity is an iconic event in the city of Leeds’ sporting calendar, and consists of fixtures across the year culminating in one final day of competition where 50+ fixtures are played and the winner is crowned.

For the past 13 years Leeds Beckett have walked away with the trophy but this year was the turn of the Leeds Gryphons.

Going into the final couple of days of competition the gryphons were up 4-2 following the cross country, american football, Intra-mural varsity, cricket and futsal fixtures being played earlier in the year.

On Tuesday night two openers were played, Netball and Hockey. First the women fought hard in the netball and in the second half built up a small lead which they maintained to win 48 – 41 taking a point from Beckett. Over in the Hockey we weren’t so lucky with both men’s and women’s games ending in a draw and Uni losing out narrowly on penalty flicks.

This made the score 5-4 going in to the final day of fixtures.

All our students fought valiantly throughout the day with great determination knowing that every point really does count. Some of the highlights were badminton and volleyball taking a clean sweep of wins, volleyball men and women even won in straight sets. Over in the pool water-polo won both men’s and women’s fixtures to make that their ninth year undefeated.

Our men’s and women’s football first teams also won with the men coming back from 3-1 down to draw 4-4 and take the game to penalties.

Meanwhile on the hockey pitch our women’s fourth team made it look easy, winning by a huge margin of 13-2.

Many other teams had close games and narrowly missed out on points but everyone put in a huge effort, including the large crowds supporting each fixture throughout the day.

All the results from the day can be seen on the Leeds Varsity website here.

With so many fixtures happening throughout the day staff and students checked the website regularly to check what the final scores were, and just before the Rugby Union final took place it was confirmed.

The score was 30-28 to the University of Leeds, an historic moment.

Suzanne Glavin, Head of Sport and Physical Activity at the University said

“We are so proud of how all our students performed across the various sports competitions, they gave it their all, demonstrating skill, fitness and expertise.

Our joint UOL and LUU staff teams have been exceptional in providing fantastic support to our students to enable this to happen. A true partnership in action.

We so hope that all University and Union staff can share in this success and wish our Leeds Gryphons well for the academic year on and off the field.”

Following the rugby union finale game played in the Emerald Headingly Stadium in front of over 10,000 people (in which Beckett took a significant win) Leeds University Union Activities Officer, Lauren Huxley and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tom Ward, had the pleasure of collecting the overall varsity winners trophy.

 

A proud moment for everyone at the University of Leeds.

Lauren said,

“We WON VARSITY! For the first time ever we triumphed over Leeds Beckett in the overall scores and took the Trophy! So a huge congratulations to everyone who was involved, we are so proud of every team, every member, and everyone who helped with the fixtures and events in any way!”

Bring on next year!

3 points away from Varsity History

Lucy Wood
October 10, 2017
Cheer leaders holding up UNI signs

Into its 13th year of the competition, Leeds Varsity 2017 was as competitive as in recent years, resulting in the Gryphon’s narrowly missing out with an overall score of 32 – 29 to Leeds Beckett University. The score reflects the closing of the gap between the two where just one or two fixtures could have clinched it for the University of Leeds.

Leeds Varsity, the ultimate university sporting competition see’s University of Leeds take on local rivals Leeds Beckett in a calendar of fixtures beginning in January and finishing with a grand finale in October. The October events kick started on the Saturday with parkrun Varsity in which 177 students, staff and alumni got out of bed at 9am to represent UoL and claim an easy victory over rivals Beckett who only managed a mere 36.

Following last year’s successful introduction, Varsity Netball returned with well over 300 spectators who cheered the University of Leeds as they took on the Beckett side who currently play in the BUCS league above. Despite a highly competitive game, Beckett came out on top to win the game 38-29.

2017 saw the introduction of another new Tuesday night event; Varsity Hockey where both the Men and Women’s first teams took to Sports Park Weetwood to battle it out for two all important Varsity points. With close results in both it was Beckett who claimed both points with the men winning 1-0 after a goal in the last five minutes. In the women’s game, the final score finished 3-1 to Beckett despite an impressive drag flick converted by the University of Leeds’ Katie Hopkisson.

The finale Wednesday was packed with intense competition and both universities battled hard against each other throughout the day. The Gryphon’s started the day off trailing 8-2 so had to work hard to try pull some points back. They dominated in the pool, effortlessly winning both the Men and Women’s Swimming gala and securing victories in both Men & Women’s Waterpolo making them undefeated for the 8th year running.

There was fierce competition elsewhere at The Edge with the University hosting the Basketball and Korfball. After some hard battled fixtures, the University came out on top in the Korfball with an impressive 13 – 4 victory. However, Beckett did the triple in the Basketball with victories in all three fixtures.

Indoor rowing, usually a certain victory for the Gryphons, ended up being voided as a fixture due to Beckett racing rowers in incorrect categories.

Over at the Gryphon Centre, the home teams took easy victories in the squash with 4-0 and 5-0 victories. It was a different story in the handball though, with Beckett securing wins in both the men and women’s games.

Meanwhile up at Sports Park Weetwood, it was evenly match in the women’s football with the Gryphons 3rd team taking a 2-1 victory, the 2nd team just missing out as a result of penalties, and the 1st team losing 2-1. In a dramatic extra time finish, the Women’s Lacrosse team edged the victory over their rivals 6-5. A comfortable win in both Men’s Hockey games added two points to the Gryphons tally.

Down the road at Beckett, the university netball teams put in a sterling performance with wins from the 3rd and 4th teams with the 2’s only just missing out 35-33. Beckett used the home turf advantage with a white wash of victories in all 6 tennis matches for the second year in a row. Playing away didn’t deter volleyball with 3-0 wins in both men and women’s fixtures.

The Varsity day culminated with the men’s rugby union finale at Headingley Carnegie Stadium. In an unusual year with the crowds separated behind the goal posts, the overall scores were nail bitingly close leaving the rugby union side going out on to the field trying to reduce the gap to just a single point. The boys put in a valiant effort but it was a physical, league above, Beckett side who pulled away with a 29 – 8 victory.

Claiming that final Varsity point settled the scores at 32 – 29. Congratulations to Leeds Beckett University for their overall victory and well done to all players, coaches, volunteers, staff and spectators for the huge commitment and dedication to Leeds Varsity 2017. Thank you also to RAG for raising an impressive £362 for a fantastic cause, State of Mind, and to our student media societies for their coverage of the game.

A full list of the results can be found here, and keep an eye out on our social media channels for photo’s and videos from the day.

 

Varsity Hockey Comes to University of Leeds

Lucy Wood
September 5, 2017
male hockey player dribbling the ball ready to be tackled by male opponent

Leeds Varsity are excited to announce a brand new event in the 2017 series. Varsity Hockey will see the University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University battle it out for two Varsity points on the Tuesday evening the night before Wednesday’s Big Finale.

With both the women and men’s teams taking to the field, the event is set to be an evening of fierce competition. Given the clubs are two of our largest sports societies, the atmosphere is set to be electric. Even if you’re not familiar with the game, there will be commentary to keep you informed on the game and more importantly, the score.

To keep you entertained, there will be performances from LUU’s Freestyle Dance and Leeds Beckett Dancers on the night. Refreshments will be available from Dodsons catch Fish & Chips, our exclusive caterers for the evening, and drinks will be available from the view bar.

When? Tuesday 3rd October. Gates open 6pm. Women’s 1st XI pb 6.45pm, Men’s 1st XI pb 8pm.

Where? Sports Park Weetwood. Limited parking is available on a first come first served basis or the venue can be easily accessed by the number 1 or 6 bus from outside Parkinson steps for just £1 with your student card.

How much? FREE

If that’s not enough to convince you, hear from the club captain of the women’s hockey club herself, Molly Bret:

“We are extremely excited to be hosting the new hockey opener event this year! With all the hard work gone into planning the event we are sure it’s going to be a great evening and it would be great to see as many people there as possible. So please wear your uni colours, show your support and we will do our very best to grab hold of that much desired varsity point!”

To find out more about other Varsity events, head to the official Varsity Website or head to the Leeds Varsity social media channels; Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Leeds Varsity parkrun, be a part of the series

Lucy Wood
August 15, 2017

Leeds Varsity are excited to announce that following last years success, Varsity parkrun is back for 2017.

If you’ve always wanted to be involved with the greatest sporting event in the university calendar, you can! So how does it work?

Each runner and volunteer will score a point for their University, the University with the most points wins parkrun Varsity.

When? Saturday 30th September, 8.30am

Where? Woodhouse Moor

How? Register with parkrun then simply turn up on the Saturday morning wearing your University colours to take part. Staff, students and alumni are welcome. parkrun is a 5km run which you can take as slow or as fast as you like. If you are keen to get involved but can’t run, don’t worry, you can volunteer for your University and you’ll still count towards your universities total. There will be 3 funnels after you’ve finished, you simply need to make your way down the funnel allocated to your University and hand in your token.

Who wins? You will only score a point for your university if you register and wear your University colours. The University with the most participants (runners and volunteers) will be the parkrun Varsity champions!

Helpful Information for on the day

  • Register beforehand
  • Print off and bring your barcode
  • Leave bags and coats at the finish line not the start line
  • Get to the start line for 8:50am
  • Please listen carefully during the run briefing
  • It’s a run not a race, you’re an ambassador for your university. Please be considerate to other runners and park users
  • Wear your university’s colours, GREEN for Uni, PURPLE for Beckett.
  • Try to seed yourself on how fast you think you’ll be able to complete the run
  • Cross the finish line the third time it comes into sight
  • After crossing the finish line stay in order until given a finish token
  • Get your barcode and finish token scanned at your University-specific scanning station

Brand New Varsity Event Comes to Leeds

Lucy Wood
February 17, 2017

On Friday 17th March, our Rugby League team will go head to head with a side made up of the best rugby league players from universities across Yorkshire in order to be crowned Yorkshire Varsity champions.

This year, we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of student rugby league, which originated here at the University of Leeds, with a week of events culminating with our brand new Yorkshire Varsity event. This will see the Leeds Gryphons take on the ‘Best of Yorkshire’ at Headingley Carnegie Stadium as a curtain raiser to the Leeds Rhino’s vs Wakefield Trinity Super League fixture.

As the event falls on St Patrick’s day, there will be facepaints, irish dancing, and plenty of pre-match and half-time entertainment. Finish the night off at Leeds University Union for a St Patrick’s day fruity, our official Yorkshire Varsity after party.

Get involved:

Tickets for students cost only £13 and include entry to both the Yorkshire Varsity game and Leeds Rhino’s Super League fixture, plus a free drink voucher. Tickets are for the South Stand, the standing terrace along the side of the pitch, undercover, providing a great atmosphere for St Patricks day.

To purchase your tickets, visit the Leeds University Union helpdesk, call 0371 423 1315, or visit the Leeds Rugby Store at Headingley Carnegie Stadium.

To book online, head to the Leeds Rhinos website and follow these steps:

  • Go to the Rhinos v Wakefield match on the home games page
  • Select South Stand Student ticket and proceed to checkout
  • Input the promotional code varleeds to redeem this offer
Fruity Early Bird Tickets:
With the hotly anticipated St Patrick’s Fruity sure to be a sell out, we’ve got 40 discounted tickets left to sell alongside the Rugby League Yorkshire Varsity tickets. These are available from LUU helpdesk. 

Please note all bookings are subject to a £1.50 booking fee and when booking online please DO NOT select the ‘Print @ Home’ option as it will not generate your free drink voucher.

Buy now

Varsity Is Back, Be Part Of It

Lucy Wood
December 2, 2016

Leeds Varsity back already? Yes, you’ve read that right. With the New Year comes the new Leeds Varsity 2017 series and we hope you’re as excited as we are!

Kick starting this year’s series is our Cross Country Varsity. Into its 6th year, this annual event has seen some impressive names battling for those all-important Varsity points; Alistair and Jonny Brownlee, Gordon Benson, Non Stanford and Tom Bishop to name a few. Don’t let that put you off though, because anyone can take part in this fantastic event.

Much like our parkrun Varsity, students, staff, alumni and members of the public are welcome to take part in this event. The top 6 women and top 12 men finishers will then gain points for their respective universities. With two separate races, an 10km male race, and a 6km female race, there are a total of 2 points up for grabs (more than the Rugby Union finale!). Last year the University of Leeds took both points and the cross country club will be looking to start the season as they mean to go on, and retain wins in both events.

So how do you get involved?

Student runners from their respective Universities will be pre-registerd by their coaches and are required to bring £2 on the day which goes straight to the race charity.

All other entries can be made on the day at the Leeds Beckett track pavilion on Saturday the 14th January. The women’s race will begin at 2pm on West Park fields (adjacent to Leeds Beckett) and the men’s at 2.30pm, so please arrive at least an hour before your race. Please bring £3 to enter the race, all proceeds go to the Hope Pastures charity who use your donations to rescue, rehabilitate and re-home horses, ponies and donkeys in need. You’ll even get to meet a few of their beneficiaries on the day!

The University of Leeds cross country coach, Greg Hull, has high hopes for the event:

“Varsity is always a fantastic day in the cross country calendar, seeing not just our students, but staff and members of the public taking part in an inevitably great race. The rivalry between the University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett’s students is friendly but fierce as in all Varsity fixtures. I’m confident we’ll maintain our winning ways this year and pick up 2 points to start the series”

If you’d like to participate in the event but have further questions, please email sport@leeds.ac.uk.

Record Breaking Leeds Varsity

Tilly Hall
October 6, 2016
uni rugby team cheering winning varsity 2016

Record breaking crowds of over 15,535 people watched The University of Leeds beat Leeds Beckett University in the Rugby Union finale event at Headingley Carnegie Stadium to round off an amazing few days of competition.  

The 12th year of the competition between local rivals, The University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University was as competitive as ever and resulted in the final score of 32 – 31 in favour of Leeds Beckett University. This was one of the closest Leeds Varsity competitions ever where just one match could have clinched it for The University of Leeds.

This year saw the introduction of a new event, parkrun varsity in which over 100 students turned up to represent the University of Leeds and take an easy victory over counterparts Leeds Beckett University. There was also another new headline event with the women’s netball taking place on the Tuesday night with well over 300 spectators who cheered the University of Leeds to victory.

The finale day itself was packed with intense competition and both universities battled hard against each other throughout the day.

The University of Leeds started the day off in style with a comfortable win in the indoor rowing, followed on with a strong start in pool for the biathlon who later went on to win both the men’s and women’s as they did in 2015. The university continued to dominate in the pool, effortlessly winning both the men and women’s swimming gala and water polo making them undefeated for the 7th year running. There was some fierce competition down at The Edge with the University hosting the badminton, volleyball and korfball. After some hard battled fixtures, the University came out on top in the korfball with an impressive 12 – 7 victory.

Meanwhile up at Sports Park Weetwood, the men and women’s hockey teams dominated over Leeds Beckett winning 7 out of their 8 fixtures with only the women’s 1st team narrowly missing out on a victory. Having suffered some heavy defeats in the previous year, the women’s football club also dominated, and took a clean sweep of victories against our local rivals.

Back indoors, the university netball teams put in a sterling performance with wins from the 2nd and 3rd teams. The impressive Tuesday night victory 33-29 clearly inspired the other teams to victory.

Fixtures were split evenly this year across the two Universities and it seems Leeds Beckett University enjoyed a home turf advantage with victories in all 6 tennis matches, both men and women’s lacrosse and the men and women’s handball.

The Varsity day culminated with the men’s rugby union finale at Headingley Carnegie Stadium. The overall scores were nail bitingly close leaving the rugby union side going out on to the field with everything to play for. With a record breaking attendance of 15,535, the 2016 Leeds Varsity is officially the biggest ever. The boys held their nerve and gave it their all to secure hard earned a 20 – 9 victory against league above side Beckett.

Coach Mark luffman said:

“The hard earned victory is a fitting reward for the boys as it shows just how hard the team have worked in pre-season and how much progress they have made over the past year. It was not an easy Beckett side to beat.

The crowd were fantastic and it’s great to have the support of so many students to give the team that extra boost when they need it.”

Claiming that final Varsity point settled the scores at 32 – 31. Congratulations Leeds Beckett University for their overall victory and well done to all players, coaches, volunteers, staff and spectators for the huge commitment and dedication to Leeds Varsity 2016. Thank you also to RAG for raising money for a fantastic cause, climbing out, and our student media societies for their coverage of the game.

A full list of the results can be found here, and keep an eye out on our social media channels for photo’s and videos from the day.

 

Varsity Teams Up With parkrun

Lucy Wood
September 20, 2016
student running in fields

Leeds Varsity are excited to announce another brand new event in this years series. This year, we have teamed up with parkrun to bring you our very own parkrun Varsity.

If you’ve always wanted to be involved with Varsity and help your University score those all important varsity points, now you can! So how does it work?

Each runner and volunteer will score a point for their University, the University with the most points wins parkrun Varsity!

When? Saturday 1st October, 8.30am

Where? Woodhouse Moor

How? Register with parkrun then simply turn up on the Saturday morning wearing your University colours to take part. Both staff and students are welcome! Parkrun is a 5km run which you can take as slow or as fast as you like. If you are keen to get involved but can’t run, don’t worry, you can volunteer just turn up in your colours and you’ll still score a point for your University. There will be 3 funnels after you’ve finished, you simply need to make your way down the funnel allocated to your University and hand in your token.

Who wins? You will only score a point for your university if you register and wear your University colours. The University with the most participants (runners and volunteers) will be the parkrun Varsity victor!

Helpful Information for on the day

  • Register beforehand
  • Print off and bring your barcode
  • Leave bags and coats at the finish line not the start line
  • Get to the start line for 8:50am
  • Please listen carefully during the run briefing
  • It’s a run not a race, you’re an ambassador for the University of Leeds. Please be considerate to other runners and park users
  • Wear your university’s colours, GREEN for Uni, PURPLE for Beckett.
  • Try to seed yourself on how fast you think you’ll be able to complete the run
  • Cross the finish line the third time it comes into sight
  • After crossing the finish line stay in order until given a finish token
  • Get your barcode and finish token scanned at your University-specific scanning station
  • Our Get Out, Get Active team have recently set up their own run club so if you’d like a club to run for, please select Get Out, Get active – Uni of Leeds run club when you sign up.

New Varsity Event

Lucy Wood
September 16, 2016

Each year Leeds Varsity gets bigger and better, like last year when the rugby finale reached a record breaking attendance of 14,232.

As much as we love the climatic rugby fixture, we also know that Varsity is about more than the finale. We have over 60 fixtures across over 25 sports in just one day making it an incredibly unique event. With this in mind, to make this year even greater, we’ve added in a brand new event – The Netball Varsity Opener.

woman about to throw netball

On Tuesday the 4th October, our University of Leeds Netball first team will journey over to the Leeds Beckett Sports Arena where they will go head to head with Leeds Beckett first team in a fierce battle for that all important Varsity point.

The game will begin at 7.30pm making this the first ever 24 hour varsity. Doors will open at 6.30pm, with refreshments available in the fanzone and pre-game and half-time entertainment from both Universities dance and cheer teams, this is an event not to miss.

“It’s an honour and a privilege to be the captain of such a special & prestigious club. It’s my 3rd varsity and its such an enjoyable event. All the club have been training extremely hard throughout pre-season and the atmosphere and excitement is building the closer it gets.”

Club Captain Beth Horridge

 

Tickets are available to purchase online now and cost only £2.

Buy now

 

If you would like any more information on Leeds Varsity please head to our website or follow us on social media @leedsvarsity and Leeds Varsity – Uni Fans.

Varsity Spring Round-Up

Lucy Wood
May 20, 2016

At the end of the academic year, a number of teams take part in showcase Varsity events including American Football, T20 Cricket and Rugby League. This year saw Leeds Beckett dominate the spring events leaving it all to play for in the October Varsity Finale.

First up in the 2016 series, our American Football Leeds Celtics team headed up to Sports Park Weetwood for a highly contested battle against Carnegie. Having previously never scored a touch down in any Varsity events, the Celtics managed an impressive 3 this year, but couldn’t quite hold on to victory with the final score 41-26 to Leeds Beckett.

amf cheer

A few weeks later the men’s and women’s T20 cricket sides took to the field in the annual Tommy Hardman memorial match. The weather managed to hold out for the fixtures but unfortunately, even with the support of George the Gryphon, the University of Leeds couldn’t produce a win and both teams were beaten by strong Leeds Beckett sides.

cricket huddle

The final Varsity event of the Academic year took place on 12th May with the Rugby League boys curtain-raising for another hotly contest local derby, Leeds Rhinos v Castleford Tigers in the Super League. A promising University side put up a strong battle and a highly contested first half with a fantastic break away try. A strong Leeds Beckett side showed their experience in the second half and managed to take the final score to a convincing 38-6 at Headingley Carnegie Stadium.

Rugby League

That leaves the overall score at 2-2 leaving it all to play for come October!