On the last weekend in February, York will host Hull instead of York St. John for the first time in (now the White Rose) Varsity history. The tournament was only re-introduced last year; York rampaged to a 91-19 victory with St. John only coming out on top in three sports. The intention at first was not for St. John to be dropped from the tournament, but for Hull, along with Leeds Trinity, to be added to the existing set-up. This was an idea that St. John agreed with initially; indeed they confirmed their interest in a December meeting.
After coming back for 2011, however, St. John had undergone a change of heart, and issued Sam Asfahani an ultimatum: us, or them. Keeping a tournament format that almost ensures emphatic victory is bound to have some appeal, but it would not be a progressive move for a university looking to elevate its status. It would be roughly equivalent to, say, a teenage Steven Gerrard rejecting Liverpool’s contract offer and sticking around in Whiston for a kickabout with his little-known brother Paul.
Asfahani chose Hull – a choice that Ben McGladdery, his rival for York Sport President, admits is “a bold decision; a good decision on his behalf.” Sports teams can now expect a much tougher challenge, but is it tough enough? Hull currently have three points in the overall BUCS league table, putting them three points ahead of York, but the season isn’t over, and York scored 640.5 BUCS points last year, almost doubling Hull’s 340.5.
Football President Sam Clitheroe commented, “football-wise [the previous Varsity] was a good contest”, adding, “But I do think the change had to happen if varsity was ever going to become a big competition as all sports needed to be competitive and St.John simply didn’t offer enough sports to make it worthwhile”.
The transformation is one that Asfahani believes could make Varsity “as big as Roses”. This remains to be seen, particularly with regards to the immense historical importance that is quite literal when dealing with the 46-year-old tournament. Even then, it could prove to be one of the best moves of his term.
Varsity will, however, still have the problem of running alongside the BUCS league, which is nearing its end, and commanding the attention of teams involved. The rugby and hockey teams will not be able to play at all due to rescheduled fixtures from last term. The fact that this is the inaugural White Rose Varsity would suggest that any fixture congestion would be lessened in subsequent years, but, of course, BUCS will still go on. This makes the number of playing hours for those certain clubs that use pitches owned by the sports centre even more crucial; indeed, it is an issue that has been touched upon in the recent election campaign.
There is, however, a school of thought that has arisen quickly in the time between the announcement of the changes to Varsity and the actual eve of the tournament, namely the view that it should be treated primarily as a warm-up for Roses. This would be fundamentally the wrong approach to take, and although it might not necessarily result in a loss for York, it would not do either York’s teams or York Sport any favours.
Though Roses is undoubtedly the most high-profile and climactic event in the York Sport schedule, it is not the only thing in that schedule. If the students, or worse, the club captains, treat Varsity as anything less than an event that deserves to be won in its own right, then they are ultimately letting the side down by failing to see the bigger picture for York Sport.
For it is certainly possible for this university to move forward from this, and not rest on its laurels. York is consistently ranked in and around the top ten institutions in the country in the various newspaper analyses, and yet our BUCS position was 44th. Obviously, we are not Loughborough, and probably never will be; but we could be Brunel, or UWIC, or St. Andrews, all mid-sized universities who occupy considerably higher places than ourselves in the BUCS league table.
Evidently change cannot happen overnight, and indeed a paradigm shift of this sort would take years. This does not make it less of a target to aim at. A victory in Roses will be the most satisfying thing in York’s sporting life many years after all of us have departed, but that does not mean that it should be the be-all and end-all.
Progress is being made, and not only with the White Rose Varsity’s implementation. The Collegium with Durham, whose college and university sport are certainly something to aspire to, can only be a good thing. By arranging such fixtures and tournaments, by encouraging people to participate through this, or through lowering the York Sport membership, anything, York can look to elevate itself to bigger, better things in the distant, yet visible future.