Oxford University Lacrosse Club

And so ends another season of Oxford lacrosse. Despite an uncertain start and a mid-season wobble, we managed eventually to turn ourselves into a decent match-winning side. Our new captain has a good basis on which to build as we enter a new league structure.

Plagued with injuries for the first half of Hilary term, we struggled to get full-strength teams out several times, and dropped a couple of games that we should have won, ending our Flags campaign and damaging our chances of finishing top of our league. In February things began to come together again, and other than a loss to eventual league winners Welwyn, we recorded some good results.

Cambridge's results also improved significantly during this time, suggesting potential for a close Varsity match on March 1st. Fortunately, it was not to be. Though it was a good and hard-fought game, Oxford showed their superiority in most aspects of the game, bringing the Varsity trophy home with a 12-4 win. The Oxford Iroquois beat the Cambridge Eagles 17-0 in the seconds game.

Four days later we were scheduled to head up to Sheffield to play the BUSA Championship semi-final against Bristol. Despite a comfortable Varsity win, we were aware that the standard in BUSA was likely to be higher, and were not confident of a win. To compound the problem, due to injuries and exams we travelled with only 11 players. Bristol turned up with 18 people who had been on a two-week drinking ban (we managed a maximum of three days, with Pete Cay still drunk from the night before). It became clear early on, however, that Bristol were not well-drilled and that we may be able to sneak a win, which we did by 10-6 at the final whistle.

After our game we watched a quarter of the Edinburgh-Portsmouth semi-final, from which it was clear that Edinburgh would prove much sterner opposition the following week. The next Thursday we headed up to Manchester for the BUSA final. It was a great game (despite the soggy pitch) and Edinburgh lived up to our expectations. Fortunately, this time we managed to get a full-strength team out. The quarter scores were all within one goal, with the lead changing hands a few times. As time wore on and both teams began to tire, our conditioning paid off and we started to feel more comfortable in the lead. Edinburgh fought back and got to within one goal with about a minute to go, but it was too little too late and Oxford took the trophy with an 11-10 win.

Despite a couple of shaky points, the season was a big success with a second place finish in the SEMLA East 1 division and wins in both Varsity and the BUSA Championship. The latter bodes particularly well as next season we will be withdrawing from SEMLA and entering the new BUSA league, which should offer more consistent and more competitive opposition.

Thanks to everyone who was involved this year, and good luck to all with next season. I now hand over to the new committee, which includes David Howie as Captain and Mehmet Noyan as Social Secretary.