In 1999, OUWRFC entered its 12th season of ‘quality tab bashing’ (I’ve still got the poster) and added to one of Oxford rugby’s golden ages - 13 consecutive Women’s Blues Varsity wins, the founding of the Panthers, a BUSA Championship, and multiple players banned from city centre nightclubs. A quarter of a century later, the elegant glamour that characterised the total rugby of OUWRFC 1999-2002 was once again thrilling lucky passers-by in the University Parks. The silky skills of our combined 100+ international caps saw us gliding over the autumn grass with our customary combination of pace, power and pinpoint passing.
Oh, alright. We barely broke above a trot, stopped every 5 minutes to catch our breath, accidentally kneed each other in the head a couple of times, dropped balls we’d once have caught in our sleep, swore a lot in Swedish, went to bed early and couldn’t walk properly for about a week afterwards. Mind you, some things never change: we didn’t walk onto the pitch at Iffley Road because we’re still scared of Terry, Vinnies still can’t cope with us, and chucking a ball around with your friends is still as much fun in your fifth or sixth decade as it was in your second or third.
So, a big dark blue thank you to Julia Kendrick (St Hilda’s 1999) for kicking us enough times in the backside that we all made it back up to Oxford, to Julia, Bex Syed-Sherriff (Balliol 1994) and Kate Whyte (Lincoln 1998) for organising the dinner at the Iffley Road Pavilion, to the current women’s Blues captain Alex Wilkinson (Keble, no idea what year but just a lot younger than us, OK?) and her teammate Grace Gibson (Magdalen, also young) for joining in our Parks kickabout and, finally, to Alex and the men’s captain Luke Wyllie (St Hilda’s, still very young) for meeting up with us for drinks afterwards. You’ll be reassured to hear that we were as good at that part of the day as we ever were.
And, no, we’re not going to wait another quarter century before doing it all over again!
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