Beaches, castles and heritage galore – Cambridge and Oxford’s sporting duels are canvassed by some truly magnificent backdrops. Whether its aesthetically sublime settings or raucous stands, every venue to make the final cut has its own unique appeal, and several are positively dripping in history. Two of the coliseums below stake a legitimate claim to be the spiritual home of their respective sports, and a remarkable four can boast of royal patronage. But among all the iconic places light and dark blue athletes tussle for supremacy, which is the ultimate Varsity venue?

8. Guard’s Polo Club

This Windsor-based polo ground reeks prestige and exclusivity – its president is none other than King Charles III himself, while patron joining fees stand at an eye-watering £45,000. For one historic match each summer, Oxbridge players lock horns on what is widely considered the world’s preeminent polo club, where the town’s royal castle is an omnipresent spectator.

7. Studland Bay

“Waves lap against the gorgeous sweeping beaches at this famed beauty spot”

Studland’s sand dunes offered a one-of-a-kind setting for this year’s Varsity Orienteering, in what is easily the most unique venue across the plethora of sports. As waves lapped against the gorgeous sweeping beaches at this famed beauty spot, Oxford and Cambridge competitors hurtled over the heather and golden grains in their bid for navigational ascendancy.

6. Royal North Devon Golf Club

The burden of the past weighs heavily over the University Golf Match. It is, after all, only fitting that the Royal North Devon Golf Club is the oldest course on English soil, for the Varsity fixture it hosts is the oldest amateur event in the entire sport. Alongside being exceptionally long in the tooth, the Devonshire course is also set apart by its four-legged inhabitants; a prevalence of horse and sheep has necessitated an idiosyncratic rule – if a ball nestles in a hoofprint, players can ‘drop’ without incurring a penalty.

5. Stone X

After The Varsity Match was uprooted from Twickenham in 2023, the illustrious fixture was forced to wave goodbye to over a century of history and one of the most iconic venues in English sport. Stone X – home to Saracens RFC – was always going to have impossibly large shoes to fill, but the far more intimate stadium has stepped up with aplomb. Its glitzy stands were plenty raucous for this year’s fixture, and the ground even has its own niche slice of rugby history, being the trailblazer for artificial pitches in English professional rugby union.

4. Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall

Delve inside the striking neo-classical façade of the Royal Automobile Club’s Pall Mall clubhouse, and if you can see past the full-size marble swimming pool and seven banqueting halls, you’ll also find four squash courts. The Club’s car-based name threatens to conceal a wealth of sporting significance; the Pall Mall courts are seen by many as squash’s spiritual home, with the standards around rules, court sizes and ball specifications – alongside the first international match – all being established there.

“History, tradition, beauty – Lord’s epitomises all three, and then some”

3. Cledara Abbey Stadium

Cambridge United’s endearingly scruffy stadium crackled with Light Blue fervour once again this March, with a heaving Main Stand providing an indisputably electric atmosphere easily worthy of the bronze medal position. Though it may not even hold a candle to the aesthetic appeal or historical significance that many on this list enjoy, come Varsity matchday the Cledara Abbey transforms into a near-unrivalled cauldron of Cambridge passion.

2. The Tideway

Countless scores of Olympians and bona fide rowing legends have done battle down the globally renowned 6.8km Boat Race Championship Course, raced upstream from Putney to Mortlake. No other venue draws in the thronging masses quite like the Tideway; this famed stretch of river is littered with a medley of viewpoints, and over 250,000 people pack its banks year on year to sneak a glimpse of what is perhaps the world’s most storied amateur sporting event.

1. Lord’s Cricket Ground

For all the wonderful stadia adorning this list, who else but the venerable Lord’s was ever going to take the crown? History, tradition, beauty – Lord’s epitomises all three, and then some. The ground is synonymous with cricket itself, being the very architect of the sport’s laws, and the stuff of countless fantasies for any cricketer. The juxtaposition of the stunning Victorian terracotta pavilion and space age media centre is among the finest vistas in world sport, and peerless heritage emanates from every angle at the legendary “home of cricket”.