Sports Editors Abyan Memon and Joel Lim recap the 2025 Varsity fixtures as the 2026 Varsity season kicks off.
King’s College London opened the 2025 Varsity series at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, with the Tennis clubs kicking us off. KCL Tennis ended a 5-year Varsity losing streak with a 4-1 win. The Men’s Doubles proved particularly exciting, with a three-hour long matchup seeing KCL fight back from 2-5 down and take an 11-9 tiebreaker on their way to the victory. Whilst KCL Cycling fell short of a victory, they put on a confidence-inspiring display in their return to Varsity after several years and will look to carry that momentum into this year’s fixture. To round up Day 1 of the Varsity season, King’s GKT’s Hockey teams matched up against UCL’s RUMS teams. The Women’s team piled up three goals to RUMS’ nil, including a “spectacular game-winner” from Lucy Perkins. The Men’s team ended their up-and-down season with another victory for King’s, giving King’s a 3-1 lead heading into Day 2.
The quieter Saturday saw only KCL Hockey fight UCL Hockey at Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre to try and extend King’s lead. KCL were matched up against higher-ranked UCL clubs in the BUCS league. Despite this, the Women’s team proved worthy competitors, using their clean passing and connections to hold UCL from taking the lead. However, heading into the final stages, tied 1-1, UCL was able to capture another score to win the fixture. The Men’s matchup saw a more fierce attack from UCL, culminating in a painful 8-0 defeat for KCL. Both clubs will be motivated by last year’s losses to bring home a victory this year.
Heading into Day 3 the series was tied 3-3. Looking back, Day 3 was the most critical day of the series, a collection of narrow margins for UCL that turned the tides in their favor. The day started with KCL Thrown looking to add to their streak of Varsity victories and recent Nationals appearance. However, disaster struck in a close fixture in the form of an unfortunately-timed drop that led to a UCL score for a 14-13 victory. Both Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse clubs looked to make a comeback after rocky starts, but only one came to fruition. Whilst the Women’s team gritted out a tough fought 14-10 win, the Men’s fell short 6-7, despite an impressive final quarter defensive effort. UCL clinched a third one-point victory of the day in the Muay Thai fixture. However, this victory came with a highly controversial decision in the second decision fight. Yet another KCL team experienced the narrow margin loss theme of Day 3 as the KCL Regents lost 12-13 to the UCL Emperors in the American Football fixture. UCL snatched the victory on the only successful extra-point conversion of the day. The water at Uxbridge proved to be a beacon of hope for King’s. Both the Swimming and Water Polo clubs crushed UCL, bringing home 152-144 and 12-5 victories to end Day 3.
King’s faced more losses on Day 4, allowing UCL to improve their series lead from 7-6 to 13-7. The KCL Fencing clubs headed into their Varsity matchup following a successful season from all four teams, achieving 1st and 2nd places in their BUCS divisions. Unfortunately, UCL shut down KCL to take home the double victory in Fencing. The Squash teams faced a similar fate, after the Men’s 1s and Women’s 1s making it to the LUSL Finals, KCL lost both Varsity matchups to UCL’s Squash teams. Both UCL Table Tennis teams shut down the King’s teams 8-2 to stack on two more fixture wins for UCL. Day 4 came to a close with a 6-4 win for King’s in Kendo.
The second half of the Varsity features opened with a slew of greatly anticipated fixtures, featuring KCL Karting and GKT Football. At this stage, King’s needed great results from the rest of their fixtures to turn the momentum against UCL and claw themselves back from a 7-13 deficit. Newly KCLSU ratified KCL Karting club put up a distinguished fight against a more seasoned opponent, who enjoyed a crucial home-ground advantage, with the eventual score of 398-127 in UCL’s favour. The highly anticipated GKT Football features, however, reinvigorated hope in the King’s sporting community, with both the Men’s and Women’s team dominate their games, winning 4-1 and 7-0 respectively. Both teams pushed ahead early on in their games and never looked back, capping off the day with impressive victories from both the GKT Men’s and Women’s teams.
This was followed by an intense and nail-biting contest between King’s and UCL’s medic Rugby teams the following day. In the most spectacular fashion, King’s GKT Rugby team snatched victory away from the hands of their rivals in a game that ended in a penalty shootout, as the GKT team edged a 4-3 win over UCL. In a similar fashion, debutants, KCL Futsal, alongside KCL equestrian, women’s basketball and netball teams, did King’s proud with impressive performances that outclassed their rivals. Unfortunately, however, in a highly anticipated and historically King’s dominated Athletics feature, the Reds narrowly lost out in a tightly fought contest, with the final score of 192-169 capping off a shock win by UCL’s Athletics team. Coupled with defeats in the Men’s Basketball, E-sports, Boating and Badminton games, this meant that UCL crept closer to the esteemed Varsity title, ending the day off three victories away from making it mathematically impossible for King’s to make a dramatic title comeback.
Varsity 2025’s penultimate day boasted hugely awaited games between King’s and UCL’s football teams, with both games ending in a narrow 3-2 and 2-1 loss for King’s Men’s and Women’s teams, respectively, as UCL continued their charge towards the overall title. An additional win by UCL Netball secured it for them, marking their 22nd win over the Reds. However, King’s GKT Netball team still faced incredible pressure, as GKT’s hopes of securing a clean sweep in all their fixtures rested on their shoulders – and deliver they did, trumping over the UCL medics team in a confident 42 – 26 win. This win by the medics perfectly encapsulated the continued sporting excellence of GKT and concluded a historic showing by King’s medic teams.
The final day of Varsity was closed off by the Men’s and Women’s rugby teams that delivered a spectacular and hugely entertaining contest. King’s Women’s team sailed to a 24-0 victory while the Men’s narrowly missed out in a heartwrenching 24-20 loss. This wrapped up the 2025 Varsity Edition, as UCL claimed the Varsity title with an overall score of 24-18 and a three-peat over King’s. While recent history may be in UCL’s favor, they will have to face up against motivated, hungry and determined King’s teams this year in a Varsity that beckons to deliver entertaining, competitive and exhilarating contests.
