St Mary’s Brings Home West London Varsity 2023 Win

The West London Varsity returned to St Mary’s University, Twickenham for the first time in five years this spring, with St Mary’s making the most of the home advantage and taking the win for 2023.

With teams from a multitude of sports – representing all levels – competing on the day, and a total of 30 fixtures, the first team to score 16 would see themselves as successors of the day. The result came down to the last few fixtures, with the overall score seeing St Marys’ finish on 17 points to Brunel’s 13.

The West London Varsity is a core part of the St Mary’s Students’ Union’s annual series of fixtures against the Union of Brunel Students. It’s an opportunity for students from both Universities to compete in a variety of sports including cricket, badminton, netball, football, weightlifting, rugby league, futsal, lacrosse, athletics, table tennis, volleyball, tennis, cheerleading, basketball and rugby union.

At the end of the event, St Mary’s Students’ Union’s Caitlin Finn lifted the trophy, and echoed her gratitude and appreciation to all staff involved in the event, and appreciation for the sportsmanship and honest gameplay displayed throughout the day by both Universities.

Caitlin commented: “Varsity 2023 was a huge success all round. Our first varsity on St Mary’s campus and our first Varsity win since 2018. Varsity is one of SMSU’s biggest events of the year, and it was amazing to see our work alongside the Sport St Mary’s team pay off! We are so proud of all of our Simmies. Win lose or draw, each and every player, spectator and volunteer made the day as wonderful as it was!”

Varsity 2023 – The journey to 16 to win!

• Fixtures began with Indoor Cricket and a St Mary’s win, starting the total score at 1-0 to St Mary’s
• Men’s & Women’s Badminton fixtures shared one a piece, leaving St Mary’s 2-1 up at 10:00
• Men’s Rugby Union saw Brunel deliver a well fought win to make things 2-2
• St Mary’s Men’s Lacrosse picked up the first points off campus with a win, a close fought win for Brunel in the Women’s Basketball brought them back to an event score of 3-3
• Women’s Lacrosse finishes in shortly after, taking St Mary’s back into the lead, 3-4
• In Football, Men’s 1s, 2s & 5s delivered a round of 3 draws, taking scores to a close 5.5 – 4.5
• Victory in Weightlifting and Powerlifting for St Mary’s saw the lead open up to 7.5 - 4.5
• Men’s Basketball saw a victory taking St Mary’s to 8.5-5
• Brunel were victorious in Women’s’ Volleyball, closing the gap to 8.5 – 5.5.
• The Netball 1s delivered a convincing victory for St Mary’s, taking the score to 9.5 – 5.5.
• The second round of football fixtures brought drama and tension, and a hopeful lead of 11.5-6.5 to St Mary’s
• Dance & Women’s Rugby didn’t deliver points for St Mary’s, and Brunel’s ‘level 3’ Cheer stunt group, proved themselves more than worthy opponents being awarded the win from the judging panel, narrowing the gap to 11.5 – 7.5 to St Marys
• Brunel picked up all 3 available points in the Tennis and Table Tennis taking the gap to just one point, at 11.5-10.5
• Men’s Hockey, Netball 2s and Rugby League all delivered wins for St Mary’s, increasing the score to 14.5-10.5.
• Brunel took points for Men’s Volleyball, taking the score to 14.5-11.5 ahead of the final few fixtures of the day
• A 0-0 draw in Women’s Hockey left the scores at 15-12
• Netball 3s went to Brunel, and tensions heightened, with the score moving to 15-13
• Men’s Futsal and Women’s Futsal wins took the final score to 17-13 to St Mary’s