The Varsity Match 2023

The Varsity Match is an annual competition between the karate clubs of Cambridge and Oxford Universities. In the match, which is usually held in February, two men's teams and a women's team from each university compete in kata, team kata and kumite for the three team titles and the overall trophy, the Enoeda Cup.

Competition Report

On Sunday 5th March, the Cambridge University Karate Club and the Oxford University Karate Club met in the University of Cambridge Sports Centre for the 2023 Varsity competition.

The competition kicked off at 2pm with individual kata. First was the men’s category: while Oxford gave some tough competition and won the individual category by 2 points, the Cambridge men did not back down from the competition. Following this was women’s individual kata. Oxford failed to produce any women’s team at all, so the Cambridge team took the win uncontested. Cambridge’s women still performed exceptionally, however, with the highest scoring kata performed by Rose. The mixed category was last, with Millie Johal topping the group with her outstanding Papuren. Rose and Millie shared the highest score of the day with 24.6.

Team kata followed after a few minutes of preparation time. The men’s team, comprised of Ewan, Nirmay and Alex with Jamie on standby, performed a brilliant Gojushiho Sho against the Oxford men’s team, scoring 24.5 and beating Oxford by 0.1. Oxford did not produce a women’s or mixed team kata; Cambridge, therefore, won both categories uncontested. Each team’s performance was worthy of the win, however. The women’s team (Maya, Fizz and Ellie) performed Gankakku, while the mixed team (Rose, Millie and Grace) performed Anan. Following the team katas, Elizabeth and Grace performed two fantastic katas for exhibition.

Team kumite started promptly at 3:30 pm. Competing for the men’s team were Callum, Alex, Oliver and Nirmay. Alex and Callum had particularly impressive second fights, scoring a decisive 4 points each on their Oxford opponents. The Cambridge women’s team had no opposing Oxford team to fight, thus winning the category automatically. Similarly, the Oxford mixed team could not produce a female fighter, thus Millie automatically won both of her fights. The other mixed team fighters, however, (Jack, Ewan and Aiden) fought valiantly against Oxford, especially Jack (who won both of his fights), concluding a fiercely fought competition.

The overall points were:
Men’s
- Cambridge
- Kata: 32.0
- Kumite: 27.0
- Oxford
- Kata: 22.0
- Kumite: 21.0
Women’s
- Cambridge
- Kata: 48.0
- Kumite: 48.0
- Oxford
- Kata: 0
- Kumite: 0
Mixed
- Cambridge
- Kata: 45.0
- Kumite: 36.0
- Oxford
- Kata: 9.0
- Kumite: 12.0

Well done everybody, another fantastically fought Varsity!

Overall

Winner of the Enoeda Cup 2023:
Cambridge