Coming back from three years of defeat, Cambridge University Karate club came back to complete a total whitewash of Oxford in this year’s Varsity match last Saturday.

The match kicked off with the kata competition (prearranged sequences of strikes and blocks). Strong performances from Simon Picot and Tom Johnson won both the A and B team competitions. This significant points advantage was topped off by two fantastic team kata performances by both the men’s  A and B teams. The Cambridge women were initially put on the back foot by a number of experienced Oxford girls but a superb team kata by Madeline Wood, Charlie Gray and Libby Boyd edged Cambridge in front  before the fighting half of the competition.

However, Oxford were still dangerous, even when behind. But Steph Mctighe opened the fighting for the Cambridge women against the Oxford captain and Mctighe’s skilled, strong fighting overpowered the far more experienced Oxford fighter to record a vital first win for Cambridge. This was followed by a win for Charlie Gray and in the second round of fighting Steph, Charlie and Madeline Wood all won to complete a fantastic victory for the women’s team. Cambridge’s Captain was up first for the men’s A team against the Oxford captain and comfortably out-fought him to get the men off to a great start. This was followed by solid wins for Nick Worth and Tom Johnson before Paul Smith rounded off the first round of fighting with the move of the match, surging forward, he knocked his opponent’s front hand down and, with lightning speed, scored a perfect punch to the face, rewarded with an ippon (full point).

The superiority of the Cambridge side was now truly apparent and the men’s B team confidently defeated the Oxford B team with wins for Tom Auld, Gareth Bradley and Thomas Holroyd. The match finished with the second round of fighting for the men’s A team who controlled every bout  resulting in a 9-1 thrashing of the Oxford fighters. The final scores saw a clean sweep of Cambridge victories for the men’s A team who won by 102-28 points, the women’s Team won 60-42 and the men’s B Team won 90-40.

Ian Macleod