THE UNDISPUTED CHAMPIONS

Middlesex University won the 2019 Varsity Championship against London South Bank University for the third year running. Middlesex University won nine out of thirteen competitive matches. These were held across ten venues, spanning over two days. The Varsity Championship contains a series of sporting events that occur over a few days. At the end of the event, the team that won the most matches wins the championship. Middlesex University has been competing against London South Bank University since 2016.

The event opened with a tie breaker at the Men’s Futsal Match. It came down to penalties, where Middlesex’s team narrowly won with 3-2. Meanwhile, the Men’s Basketball team went into their match in outstanding form, having won the last 12 competitive matches on the bounce. They failed to bring home the win though, narrowly losing the match by 3 points.

The conclusion of the first day left both Universities head to head with wins. The second day began with two wins for Middlesex University, as the Mixed Badminton team and Women’s Rugby team dominated their matches. The Middlesex Badminton team defeated LSBU with the final score of 7-2. In the Rugby Match, Middlesex obliterated LSBU’s team under the leadership of their captain, Summer White. Their final score was 41-10. Lauren Stansbury was selected as the star performer of the match. She credited their coach, Michael New, for this success.

Women’s Football and Women’s Netball was next, where LSBU managed to even out the playing field by taking home two out of three wins.

Their Football team won against the Middlesex team with a bitter sore 3-1. Meanwhile, the Netball team managed to score one win for Middlesex, narrowly scraping just above LSBU in the first match. But then LSBU dominated in the second, leaving the home team with a score of 31-49. While the netball matches were going on, there was the Women’s Basketball Match where the Middlesex team suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of LSBU with the final score of 26-85, making LSBU winner of both Men’s and Women’s Basketball matches. At the end of the Women’s Basketball match, Middlesex and LSBU were neck and neck with both the teams winning 4 matches a piece with 5 more matches to be played.

What followed was a wave of victories from Middlesex teams. This included the Men’s Rugby team with the score 57-10, the Men’s Football team with the score of 3-1, and the Mixed Hockey Team who won a closely contested match with the final score of 2-1.

The day concluded with another victory for Middlesex at the Trampoline Match.

This made the final score of the Varsity Championship 9-4 in favour of Middlesex University.

The event itself was a massive success for the Sports Office at Middlesex University, who have spent the last few months organising it.

Particular mention goes to Taiwo Oniti, the Sports Development Officer, and his team for being instrumental in these arrangements.

Men’s Basketball “fought neck and neck to the last second” but the MDX team “narrowly missed out on the victory.”

Quoted from the Sport & Recreation Newsletter - May 2019