Men's Varsity football winning team. Photo by Thomas Wesley

The 2024 instalment of Varsity has now finished, and although the overall points tally is strongly in Sussex’s favour, this does not reflect the spirited performances that the Brighton teams put in (nor how tight some of the games were towards the end)!

The Varsity series started on Sunday 21 April as climbers from Brighton and Sussex descended (and then ascended, and then descended again, etc. etc.) on Boulder Brighton for the first event, with Sussex coming out on top (literally) - 18-3 against Brighton.

The next day the focus shifted to the University of Sussex Sport Centre where volleyball got underway. The day started with a fixture between two of our development volleyball teams, a testament to the effort put in by the volleyball society to grow their sport. After that the women’s team took to the court, with Sussex ultimately coming out on top, taking sets 1 and 2 closely before being pipped to the post 25-23 by Brighton in the 3rd. Keen to quash any hopes of a comeback however, they took it up a gear in the next set, winning the fixture with a 25-14 finish in the fourth. Next up was the men, and wanting to improve upon the women's performance, they took it right to Brighton from the off, winning the fixture in straight sets, 3-0. By end of day Monday, Team Sussex were already firmly in the lead for Varsity at 3-0.

That Wednesday brought the first of the outdoor fixtures, with Sussex hosting men’s and women’s football, as well as women’s hockey. Hockey women kicked the day off, and after a very hard fought game, with each team taking the lead at points, the match ultimately finished in a draw, with Sussex and Brighton splitting the one point available. Women’s football kicked off next, with Brighton putting in a high quality display to win the fixture 7-2, despite a valiant effort from Sussex. The Men’s game came next, and keen to get revenge for the earlier loss, they started strong and kept on ramping up the pressure. Despite a red card in the second half, you wouldn’t have been able to tell they were a player down, eventually taking the fixture 3-2, with Marlon Campbell-Costa scoring a brace, and Danny Howick netting one to add another point to Sussex’s Varsity haul. End of day Wednesday saw Brighton bagging their first varsity points, but still trailing 4.5 - 1.5 to Sussex.

Fast forward to that Friday, 26 April, for the first of two rugby fixtures across the Varsity series with the first two sides to butt heads being the Men’s teams. Due to the history of this fixture throughout this season, the tightness of the scorelines, and Sussex’s 3 losses previously, tension in the crowd was palpable. The game started off close, with teams trading tries before half, before Sussex ran away with it in the second, finishing off with a score of 36-22. Player of the match for Sussex was the vice captain, Dan Leers, who ran in an impressive 4 tries!

Over the weekend of the 27th/ 28th, 3 more Sussex teams went head to head with their Brighton rivals, with our dancers converging on the ACCA for an evening of wonderful performances. Some highlights included contemporary, street dance and ballet, with Sussex coming out on top in the closest result of the series, 48.97 - 48.67. On the Sunday both archery and swimming had their fixtures, with archery shooting to a lovely mix of classical and video game music. Sussex came out on top with 3604 to Brighton’s 2474, whilst over in the pool Sussex were a class above, finishing 15-3 overall. 

The next Varsity event was on Wednesday 5 May, and was the busiest of this year's series. We had badminton, netball development, netball 1st team, basketball women and finally basketball men all being held over the A27 at the Brighton University Falmer campus. The day started with badminton, the only sport in this year's Varsity series played with mixed teams, and it was incredibly close, coming down to the last set of the men’s game right at the end of the fixture, where Sussex just pipped Brighton to the post, leaving the overall score at 9-8. Next up was development netball, with 2 Sussex teams and 2 Brighton teams battling it out in a round robin tournament to see who would come up on top. In the end Brighton were too strong for our teams, however Sussex performed fantastically and each of their three games were extremely close. The third fixture of the day was women's basketball. For the first quarter the two teams were neck and neck, and then in the second Sussex started to turn the screw only letting Brighton score once in the last quarter, ultimately winning the game with an incredible 21 point margin, 58-37. Up next, the Men’s basketball team had taken inspiration from the women before them, and immediately took control of the game. But as the timer ticked down Brighton started to find their feet, ultimately netting 2 free throws in the last few seconds to bring it to a draw! You could cut the tension in the hall with a knife as extra time began, with both groups of supporters making all the noise they could muster to will their team across the finish line, with Brighton just pulling away to take the game 79 -73. To close out the day, our netball squad put on a sparkling display to run away with the title and bag some more Varsity points for Sussex.

That Sunday, both Sussex and Brighton Cricket teams donned their whites and travelled to Hailsham for their instalment of Varsity, with the weather a wee bit iffy, both teams (and a large number of travelling supporters) settled into the Hailsham Cricket Clubhouse. Sussex batted first, and were all out for 130 for Brighton to chase after lunch. Starting slowly, Brighton gradually found their feet and started to get a bit more risky with their shots. Some paid off with a lovely arcing 6 for one of the Brighton batsmen, but not all did, as Sussex bowled them all out for 99. 

The last fixture of the Varsity series was the second rugby game, with the women taking to the field this time around. Despite being the last fixture of varsity, the energy levels across the crowd and players was still spine-tinglingly high as both teams ran out onto the pitch. The first half was extremely tight, with Sussex dominating both territory and possession, but after the break the Brighton team came out revived. With both teams down to 14 players at one point due to yellow cards, it was extremely tight at 10-10, until in the last 10 minutes Brighton forced their way over the try line to get the all important score, and after a successful conversion right in front of the posts, Brighton closed the game out 17-10.

After the final scores had been tallied, for the 8th year in a row Sussex came out on top with a score of 12.5 - 4.5, with the Varsity trophy starting to become part of the furniture! A special shout out goes to The Waves and Sussex Swallows, two of our cheer groups who provided some incredible halftime entertainment at lots of the fixtures with their seemingly gravity defying stunts and wonderful dance routines. Well played to all involved on both the Brighton and Sussex teams, and a huge thank you to everyone from Sussexsport and the Student’s Union whose collaboration made this year’s event possible. We are all looking forward to the 2025 instalment of the Brighton vs Sussex Varsity series!

Article by Ben McCrindle

Photograph by Thomas Wesley

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