The “Varsity” matches between Oxford University and Cambridge University go back to 1873 in an almost complete sequence, broken only by World Wars. The latest in the sequence took place last month at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall in London.
Oxford top board Tom O’Gorman won his game, and thereby completed a remarkable record: he becomes the first player in the entire series to score 4/4 with all games on board 1. He is only the sixth player ever to score 4/4; this was achieved twice in the twentieth century and three times in the nineteenth. Congratulations!
All four of his games are available in the games archive here:
vs. Harry Grieve, 2021.
vs. Matthew Wadsworth, 2022
vs. Miroslav Macko, 2023
vs. Koby Kalavannan, 2024.
John Saunders has reported on this year’s match at BritBase, with all games, and photos of both teams and the playing venue.
He has also covered the entire series in great depth at the same site. From this, we can extract the records of other Irish players in this series over the years.
Very few other Irish players have played for Oxford. I see only [but see update below]:
Hon. (later Sir) Horace Curzon Plunkett (1874-77),
John Moles (1969-72), and
John P. Redmond (1992).
For Cambridge, I see
C. H. O’D. Alexander (1929-32),
John Francis O’Donovan (1937-39),
R. C. (Colin) Kennedy (1958-59),
Alan Ludgate (1964-65, 1967),
Brian Kerr (1965-66),
Brian Kelly (1998-2000),
Ryan-Rhys Griffiths (2017, 2019-20), and
Conor Murphy (2017-20).
Of these, the only players with plus scores were C. H. O’D. Alexander (+3 =0 -1) and R. C. (Colin) Kennedy (+2 =0 -0).
[Update, April 12, 2024 (edited for clarity April 15, 2024): David McAlister noticed that three names were missing from the lists above (from memory; without having to check BritBase!). Many thanks.
Oxford:
(later Sir) Richard Whieldon Barnett (1884-88)
Cambridge:
Victor Coates, a.k.a. Arthur Cootes (1926-27)
Nick Patterson (1968-69).]
