CUTTC rewrote the history books at the table tennis Varsity match last weekend, where both Men’s teams beat Oxford 10-0 – the first time since records began, 66 years ago.

The men’s second team had a shaky start as Raphael Assier went 7-2 down in the final set against Arjun Gopalaswamy, but excellent use of a timeout and relentless Cambridge support allowed him to claw back to an 11-9 victory. Doug Speed entertained the crowd with spectacular off the table play, winning both singles matches 3-1. Teeradej Kittipassorn kept a clean sheet, and Christian Staudt gave a solid performance, dropping only one game. Justin Drake and Rick Chen cruised to victory 3-0 in the doubles whilst Assier and Speed clinched the doubles 3-2.

The men's first team had a similar start as Hamish Yeung beat Jingyu Sun 12-10 in the fifth, after a disputed edge/side ball. Captain Shaun Hall showed no mercy against captain Phil Hartley, winning 3-0. Josh Bleakley and Jan Natolski had no problems, winning both singles with relative ease. Both doubles matches went to five games, but Cambridge raised their game to take the final sets. Hall had a close game with rival Sun, but managed to clinch a victory, aided by coach Bleakley's tactical advice. Yeung followed with some exhibition play against Hartley, winning 3-1.

Unfortunately, the women's team didn't share the same success due to losing three nail biting matches close in the fifth game. Sasha Tsai and captain Nga Nguyen lost to experienced players Maitreyi Shivkumar and Susan Chai whilst Vanda Ho and Yudan Ren gave an impressive performance and won their singles. Both doubles matches were lost in the fifth, with Nguyen and Ren losing with an unbelievable 17-19 score. The result was a 4-6 loss.

This adds to the string of success that CUTTC has seen this term – they have reached the semi-finals of the British Universities knock-out tournament, to be held in Sheffield on the 12th March, and plan to send a team to the European University championships over the Summer in Kazak, Russia to take on Europe's finest! The team also swept the floor in the CDTTL tournament earlier on this term, winning all five titles.