University of Gloucestershire Student Union President Luc Brown says that the University are “really excited” to host this year’s Varsity clash with the University of Worcester.
With last years event cancelled due to COVID-19, it has been a long time since the two University’s have gone into battle. In 2019, the competition ended in a draw, so both teams will be keen to get one over their rival.
There was lots of doubt surrounding whether this year’s event would go ahead, and due to COVID restrictions, there will only be outdoor sports taking place – much to the frustration of those who compete in sports like table tennis.
Following the postponement of the tournament just over 12 months ago, plans for this years events have been in the works for well over a year, and Brown says that it has taken a lot of hard work to ensure that the games go ahead safely.
He said: “We’re really excited. Everybody at the SU is raring to go for next week. 25 months is a really long time to wait and lots of our students who are part of Varsity are just so excited to get out there and do what they love doing. We are really excited to go. For the last 15 months, safety has had to come first and we’ve had to make some really difficult decisions like how we play and who plays. I’m just really excited, and all of the people who can play are really lucky and fortunate to be playing in this year’s Varsity.
“We have to make sure that every event goes as smoothly as possible with Worcester coming down for 10 out of the 11 matches, and we’re going up on Monday for the netball. I’ve been working a lot on the livestreaming element so that every student can watch and cheer on their mates. George Berry – our sports officer – has been working very hard preparing everything in a really safe manner. All props to everyone for organising a really great and really safe Varsity.”
With Berry and a number of other people working hard to get the event on, Brown’s main role has been focusing on the livestreaming of the competition. To reduce the risk of COVID, 10 of the 11 events will be played in Gloucester – giving the UOG team the chance to give extensive coverage of Varsity.
“We’ve been really lucky to be working with staff and students of the school of media to get crew. Our TV crew and sports journalism crew have been sourced entirely through our lecturers. The list of people coming to cover the games is brilliant and we’re unbelievably lucky.”
