== 2014 ==
See [[This year we were blessed with some fantastic weather for the Annual varsity match. The Oxford team came to Gransden for 2 days, where a strong performance on the first day secured their ultimate victory, with the scores at '''525 to Oxford, and 478 to Cambridge'''. Oxford brought their Astir-CS (single seat), and ASK-21 (two seat) gliders to fly in the competition, while Cambridge flew their ASW-19 (single seat) with one of CGC's SZD-Juniors (single seat). Flying for Cambridge, was: * Joe Roberts* Malcolm Morgan* Monique van Beek* Bonan Zhu* Nadanai Laohakunakorn And for Oxford: * Chris Ballance* Hayden Peacock* Adam Bozson* Qin Cao* Max Chamberlin The first day was particularly challenging, with thermic activity not starting until quite late. Matters were made harder by a stiff 15-20kt wind from the North East, something which hurt competitors piloting the lower performance ASK-21 and SZD-Junior gliders more. Cambridge were also plagued with an instrumentation fault in their flagship glider, G-CUGC, where the Variometer (vertical speed indicator) was not functioning at all. The results for the first day were as follows: {| class="wikitable"! Team !! Pilot !! Duration !! Height Gains !! Points !! Normalised Points !! Total|-! scope="row" rowspan="4" | Cambridge| Joe Roberts| 0:33| 4600 ft| 125| 62| rowspan="4" | 141|-| Malcolm Morgan| 0:48| 4800 ft| 144| 72|-| Monique van Beek| 0:14| 0| 14| 7|-| Bonan Zhu| 0:15| 0| 15| 7|-! scope="row" rowspan="4" | Oxford| Chris Ballance| 0:53| 6500 ft| 168| 84| rowspan="4" | 219|-| Hayden Peacock| 0:50| 7500 ft| 200| 100|-| Adam Bozson| 0:23| 1900 ft| 61| 30|-| Qin Cao| 0:09| 0| 9| 4|} After Oxford had made so much out of what little the first day had to offer, some excellent flying was needed from Cambridge if they were to be in with a chance. Luckily the weather for the day was shaping up to fantastic: Although much of the wind from day 1 remained, thermal activity in excess of 6kts netto was forecast throughout the day, with convective cloudbases up to 5000ft. Full results were as follows: {| class="wikitable"! Team !! Pilot !! Duration !! Height Gains !! Points !! Normalised Points !! Total|-! scope="row" rowspan="4" | Cambridge| Joe Roberts| 0:49| 7200 ft| 193| 79| rowspan="4" | 337|-| Malcolm Morgan| 0:50| 8200 ft| 214| 87|-| Monique van Beek| 0:49| 6200 ft| 173| 70|-| Nadanai Laohakunakorn| 0:48| 9800 ft| 244| 100|-! scope="row" rowspan="4" | Oxford| Chris Ballance| 0:50| 9400 ft| 238| 97| rowspan="4" | 306|-| Hayden Peacock| 0:50| 5200 ft| 154| 63|-| Adam Bozson| 0:49| 7700 ft| 203| 83|-| Max Chamberlin| 0:47| 5300 ft| 153| 62|} Despite fierce competition, and 1/2 their team still flying with one of the most crucial soaring instruments malfunctioning, Cambridge still managed an exceptional performance edging ahead of Oxford by 31 points. This still wasn't enough to counter Oxfords day one achievements, '''giving ultimate victory for the 2014 Gliding Varsity to the University of Oxford'''. Many congratulations to all who competed: everyone had an enormous amount of fun, and there was some truly phenomenal flying. We look forward to next year when we can challenge Oxford once more, at their home airfield. ; Author : Joe Roberts; Submitted : Thu, 04/09/2014]].17:45
== 2013 ==
See [[In a closely contested varsity match at Bicester, Oxford won by 371 points to 352. Captain Malcolm Morgan and Joe Roberts represented Cambridge against Chris Ballance and Matt from Oxford. === Day 1 – Saturday 31st August === With a day of good soaring forecast, check flights were done in the morning and the competition begun in earnest. Each pilot would submit their best flight of the day for scoring and scores would be normalised for comparison over the two days. With the strong soaring conditions flights up to the maximum time of 50 minute were easy, so both teams were trying to maximise their score by flying as close to 50 minutes as possible and with out incurring the 6 point penalty per minute over, and scoring as many height gain points as possible, by climbing and descending repeatedly to get 2 points for each 100ft of height gain. Both teams were flying K-8 single seat gliders. Six flights were submitted for scoring, both Malcolm (Cambridge) and Matt (Oxford) taking advantage of the improving conditions though the day to improve on their original scores. Notable flights were Chris (Oxford) doing the largest single height gain of 3,500 ft and Joe (Cambridge) performing a successful scoring flight on his first flight in a K-8. {| class="wikitable"! Name !! Duration (min) !! Total Height Gains (feet) !! Score !! Normalised Score|-| Malcolm (Cambridge) || 50 || 6,300 || 176 || 100|-| Matt (Oxford) || 45 || 6,300 || 171 || 97|-| Chris (Oxford) || 45 || 5,700 || 159 || 90|-| Joe (Cambridge) || 47 || 5,100 || 149 || 85|} At the end of the day Oxford has a small lead with 188 to Cambridge's 185 points. Rivalry was put aside as the team retired to the bar. === Day 2 – Sunday 1st September === With the score so close the competition heated up for the second and final day of the completion. The conditions had changed. It was a 'blue day' meaning there were no clouds to mark the locations of the thermals, and strong winds bringing wave interference from the welsh mountains. The day started slowly with both teams waiting for a layer of hazy cloud to clear and signs of thermals. Malcolm (Cambridge) made the first move launching at 12:45, and submitting another 50 minute flight, by using side slipping to descend 2,500 ft in two minutes. Oxford soon followed with Chris (Oxford) getting the highest climb of the day. {| class="wikitable"! Name !! Duration (min) !! Total Height Gains (feet) !! Score !! Normalised Score|-| Malcolm (Cambridge) || 50 || 3,900 || 128 || 100|-| Matt (Oxford) || 49 || 3,600 || 121 || 98|-| Chris (Oxford) || 50 || 3,200 || 114 || 95|-| Joe (Cambridge) || 51 || 2,100 || 86 || 67|} Despite Cambridge's best efforts Oxford had managed to slightly extend their early lead to give a final score of Oxford 371, Cambridge 352. Both teams retired to club house for celebratory pizza before returning home. We would like to thank OUGC for organising the Varsity Match and to Windrushers Gliding Club for hosting the competition. We look forward to next years match. ; Author : Malcolm Morgan; Submitted : Mon, 02/09/2013]].10:40
== 2012 ==