The Somerville swimming team has come in first place in their Cuppers debut!
For the first time ever, Somerville College participated in the annual Swimming Cuppers, which was held at the Rosenblatt pool on Iffley road. Events included the 50m front crawl, 50m backstroke, 50m breaststroke, 50m butterfly, 100m individual medley, 4x25m front crawl relay and 4x25m medley relay.
Captain, Alessandro Pirzio-Biroli encouraged students to compete by offering limited edition Somerville Swimming caps. The ploy was a success, and gave Somerville a good chance for victory with a total 12 members on their team – Phil Behrens, Charlie Chen, Charlie Keen, James Goetz, Imogen Laycock, Nina Faure Beaulieu, Alex Crichton-Miller, Fran Green-Armytage, Dominique Vassie, Joe Baker and David Ellis.
The results were:
- Somerville – 174
- Magdalen – 130
- Hertford -113
- Pembroke – 96
- Jesus – 82
- Balliol – 72
- Teddy Hall – 72
- LMH – 59
- New – 46
- Mansfield – 39
- St Anne’s – 18
- Keble – 10
Alessandro described Somerville’s triumphant accomplishment:
‘We waited with bated breath for the results – David Ellis volunteered to sacrifice himself as an offering to the Drowned God in order to guarantee victory. However, this proved to be unnecessary, for as soon as Magdalen, our one true enemy, the only competitor in our ecosystem, the Communist Russia to our Capitalist United States of America, was declared to have finished in second place, we realised that we had actually won.
Upon this declaration of delicious news, euphoria ensued and the police had to be called to control the hundreds of screaming fans (reminiscent of The Beatles 1965 O’Shea Stadium Concert). I myself was pushed into the pool against my own will by our JCR President, Alex Chairman Crichton-Miller.’
Congratulations to the Somerville Swimming Team!