Cambridge Judo put in a fantastic performance at this years Varsity competition. Oxford had once again produced four very skilful and experienced teams, however after an intense afternoon of spectacular throws and grappling Cambridge won three out of the four matches.
2009 Varsity Team
The non-student city team was the first to fight and a win here not only shows that the core, lasting members of the club are at a high standard but also has a huge impact on the team moral for the rest of the day. The fight was close however after four ippons the Cambridge team secured a 4-3 win.
The Cambridge men’s B team came out and produced some impressive judo against heavier Oxford opponents. They won 7 of the 8 fights to claim back the B team trophy.
Having not won Varsity for seven years the Cambridge women stepped up and put everything into their fights. Alexie Frize-Williams (St. John’s) fought a tough fight and was unlucky to come out with a draw. Dan grade Cambridge Captain Catharina Casper (Corpus Christi) was up against Oxford’s best player and despite performing well was eventually beaten. This left Lisa Kleiminger (Fitzwilliam) and Jessica Alsiö (Clare) needing to both win by ippon. They handled the pressure well. Lisa threw her opponent with a series of tomonages and then finished her off on the ground with a hold down. Jessica then took little time getting hold of her opponent and applying a vicious strangle. This left the match at a draw and so the drawn fight was replayed under golden score rules. Alexie came back onto the mat and gave everything she had, however the result went Oxford’s way. Each year the standard of women’s judo in Cambridge is improving and it won’t be long before they achieve success against Oxford.
The Blues contest saw the highest standard of judo that has been fought at the Varsity match for a long time, with a total of twelve Dan grades between the two teams. Oxford weighed in much heavier, but despite this it was a close match. After the eighth fight the teams were tied at 4 each with wins for Cambridge coming from from Scott Bolingbroke (Robinson), Gary Chandler (Emmanuel), Philipp Oberhumer (Queens) and Seb Nadal (Trinity). Philipp’s fight was selected to be replayed and so he once again stepped up against the Oxford Captain. This was a golden score contest, but Philipp ipponed his opponent with a massive hip throw to win the match.
After receiving a crushing defeat at Oxford last year Cambridge has fought back strongly and come away with a much deserved result.
– Kane, Men’s Captain