The Queen's College Record 2023

Reports and College Activities
RUGBY CLUB
Louis Simms, Captain
As per usual for the regular league
season, Queen’s holds a colourful
record of victories and losses,
mostly made up of the latter.
With many matches played with
three colleges making up two
sides we managed remarkable
consistency through the year:
Mr Rowan-Hamilton threw up
after matches almost without fail; Mr Cowen was late almost as much as he was
unnecessarily penalised; Mr Kyd was more ghost than man (not because he was hard
to tackle, but because he was simply only there in spirit); Mr Higdon returned as an
Old Member, every week; Mr Kelly was simply very good at every step; Mr Fraiser
injured more of our own than the opposition; Mr Butcher took the approach of a
marathon runner and achieved a (consistent) six mph at almost every point in the
match; Mr (sticky fingers) Turner caught all balls chucked his direction, and some that
weren’t. Perhaps the only anomaly in the season was the presence of some new
recruits, with standout ‘man of the match’ performances going to Mr Craven. All in
all, we recorded some famous victories against Lincoln, Oriel (if Mr Kyd’s tries in their
colours are counted as our own), and Wadham.
However, in a pleasant turn of events, we were fortunate to compete for, and win,
some silverware this season. The first came during cuppers, where we made a
historic and gallant jog at the Bowl final, narrowly missing out in a tense final versus
Christ Church. In characteristic fashion the score was 7-10 to Christ Church with eight
minutes to go, the final score being 7-31. This gave us a valuable insight into what
this team could really achieve, and went on to raise silverware at 7s cuppers. Joy of
joys we heralded in the Queen’s of old, with performances on the day reminiscent
of our 78-0 victory over Trinity (29/11/2012).
I’m happy to say that such a successful season was tipped off with an equally
successful tour to Ghent. With an historic victory over Ghent veterans, the
difference in score was remarkably like the difference in average age, with a
20-points between the two teams. With just one loss in the group stages, Queen’s
went on to (jointly) win the tournament with Wiveliscombe, a team who compete
in south-west 1st division. Needless to say, the winnings were spent immediately
at the tournament bar, converted into ‘Ghent-tokens’ which were useful for buying
beer and chips, and that was all. Other extra-curricular victories go to Mr Fraiser
for pizza (box) eating contest, Mr Richmond (import) for most pull-ups, Mr Cowen
for turning the heating off the most, and there were also some stellar sock-off
performances throughout.
62 The Queen’s College | College Record 2023