Sports Editors Joel Lim and Abyan Memon take one final look at the 2026 London Varsity Series.
Varsity season has officially concluded! This year’s series featured impressive displays from KCL’s athletes who battled with courage and intensity throughout the 8 days. While the overall results swung in UCL’s favour, who secured a dominant overall win of 32-13, many positives can be taken away from the series by the Reds.
This Varsity series saw the inclusion of many debutants from King’s, offering a glimpse into KCL’s sporting future. Many games, such as the highly anticipated Rugby showdown, saw record attendances as King’s students poured in from all over the city to support their friends and the university. This year also saw a band of new venues host Varsity games, from the Varsity staple Lee Valley in East London to King’s own New Malden Ground in West London. Fixtures stretched as far as Hertfordshire, where snowsports and karting battled it out against their UCL counterparts.
One of the most impressive performances this year belongs to KCL Futsal, who dug themselves out of a 3-0 deficit to capture the win in the penalty shootout. This game spoke of the journey that the team had gone through this year, as they ended the year off strong with crucial wins in the league, following a string of losses early on in the year. This display was also emblematic of King’s fight and tenacity this Varsity, as they rode the wave of adversity with confidence and eventually overcame it in a way befitting of champions.
A moment that will add the most fuel to next year’s series came at the end of the first day, when RUMS Hockey clutched the 2-1 victory on the final attempt of the Men’s game, giving UCL its first game of the series and preventing GKT clubs from repeating the clean sweep from 2025.
Day 3 saw the most action of the series, delivering a slate of exciting matchups, with most going down to the wire. Defined as the day UCL established their crucial series lead, it also showed just how evenly matched the two sides were and how competitive the games turned out, holding true until the series-closing rugby games on the final day.
Here are the consolidated results from every matchup:
| Hockey Men’s Medic | 2-1 (UCL) | Football Men’s Medic | 2-1 (KCL) |
| Hockey Women’s Medic | 5-0 (KCL) | Football Women’s Medic | 6-2 (UCL) |
| Volleyball | 2-1 (KCL) | Table Tennis Men’s | 8-1 (KCL) |
| Tennis | 3-1 (KCL) | Table Tennis Women’s | 8-1 (UCL) |
| Hockey Men’s | 7-1 (UCL) | Snowsports | 8-1 (UCL) |
| Hockey Women’s | 2-0 (UCL) | Handball | 20-18 (UCL) |
| Powerlifting | 76.4-72.2 (UCL) | Futsal | 5-5 (5-4 Penalties) (KCL) |
| American Football | 42-36 (KCL) | Netball | 54-51 (UCL) |
| Muay Thai | 2-1 (UCL) | Basketball Women’s | 72-57 (UCL) |
| Lacrosse Men’s | 9-7 (KCL) | Basketball Men’s | 83-75 (UCL) |
| Lacrosse Women’s | 20-9 (UCL) | Equestrian | UCL |
| Ultimate Frisbee | 15-10 (KCL) | Karting | 325-200 (UCL) |
| Athletics | 172-166 (UCL) | Duathlon Women’s | KCL |
| Cycling | 13-8 (UCL) | Duathlon Men’s | UCL |
| Swimming | 177-143 (UCL) | Rugby Medic | 29-21 (UCL) |
| Waterpolo | 20-9 (UCL) | Snooker and Pool | 17-13 (KCL) |
| Fencing Men’s | 132-119 (UCL) | Pole Fitness | 680-665.7(KCL) |
| Fencing Women’s | 130-127 (UCL) | Football Women’s | 4-1 (UCL) |
| Kendo | 4-3 (UCL) | Football Men’s | 1-0 (UCL) |
| Badminton | 10-1 (UCL) | Rugby Women’s | 27-17 (UCL) |
| Netball Medic | 42-21 (KCL) | Rugby Men’s | 24-19 (UCL) |
| Squash Men’s | 3-2 (UCL) | Golf | 4-0 (UCL) |
| Squash Women’s | 4-1 (UCL) |
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