Whippets

Our first recorded mention of a Whippets team is in the fixture card for the 1983-1984 season. Prior to this, fixtures are noted for “O.U.R.F.C.” (that is, the Men’s Blues), “O.U.G.R.F.C.” (that is, the Greyhounds), and “ ‘A’ XV”. This would have been a development side for the Greyhounds – in essence, a third XV – and we have records for this team in our records to 1955, but it may have been originated earlier. Indeed, the earliest Greyhounds’ fixture card in our archive, 1961-62, lists matches for both the A XV and the Freshmen’s XV (who only played in Michaelmas term). Based on these early fixture cards, the Whippets played similar teams year-on-year: Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes), Blackheath, Sandhurst, Northampton, Rosslyn Park, the Teddy Hall college team, RAF U21s, and the Harlequins, before their Varsity Match against Cambridge in late November.

It wasn’t until 2023 that the Whippets played the Cambridge Men’s 3rd team, the “Centurions”, both as non-age restricted teams. When there was an U21 Varsity Match, the OURFC Whippets would play the CURUFC U21A side, with the last contest being in November 2014, when the Whippets triumphed by 54 points to 10 at Iffley Road. It is great to see that both clubs are now running three senior men’s representative XV’s, when other university clubs are seeing a reduction in teams.