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Varsity

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Summary
This is normally held annually, either at [[Gransden Lodge ]] or OUGC's home airfield at RAF [[Bicester]], and is the traditional opportunity for us to show our skills against "the other place". The rules are simple: teams of 6 attempt to soar locally for up to 50 minutes, gaining one point per minute, climbing for 2 points per 100 ft, and then to land before the 50 minutes are up as there is then a deduction of 6 points per minute. Flights which receive no points for time are not allowed to claim height gains. Women on the Varsity team can get a half-blue if they already have perfomed a 1 hour solo flight. Men can also get a half-blue from the Women's Blues Committee (subject to approval from MBC).
== Results ==
''This record is incomplete. If you know any details of past varsity matches, please add them to this Wiki, or email the current [http://cugc.org.uk/about-club/[Committee#Current committee/ |Webmaster]].''
{| class="wikitable"
| 1999 || ||
|-
| 1998 || X[[BGA ladder|Cross-Country Ladder country ladder]] || Oxford 14671 Cambridge 13112
|-
| 1997 Aug || RAF Bicester || Oxford 80 Cambridge 40
# Each pilot can enter only one scoring flight for each day of the competition. A day should be declared void if it is not possible for at least three members of each team to fly.
# Teams must record on their own logs the takeoff and landing time for each scoring flight made by a member of their team. Failure to do so renders a flight invalid. An observer from each team shall be present at the launch point during all flights.
# A [[GPS trace|barograph trace ]] must be submitted for a flight to be awarded height gain points. If this is not available only time points will be awarded for the flight. It is the responsibility of each team to make sure a working barograph is carried in each scoring glider.
# Instructors may fly in scoring gliders and may verbally assist the competitor. They may not physically fly the glider at any time. The only exception to this is to maintain normal safety.
# All flights made during the days of the competitions are potentially valid scoring flights. At the end of each day, teams will submit the takeoff/landing times and trace for the best flight made by each team member.
# Flights making their final turn below 300ft will not score, nor will land out flights.
== Past reports == === 2019 === Report by Charlie Brooker. ==== Day 1 ==== Scrub! Despite getting up very early, the decision was made to scrub Tuesday due to low cloud. CUGC instead watched a brief display of old cars on site at Bicester and played card games. ==== Day 2 ==== [[File:Varsity2019Day2.jpg|thumb|right|The team on Day 2.]] Despite a poor start to the morning with solid cloud at 900ft and broken at 600ft, the weather improved over lunch. While the weather wasn’t kind enough to gift us with thermals for our standard height-gain competition rules, the cloud did lift enough for the bad weather rules: spot landings!  The rules for this event were decided upon beforehand as follows: A marker would be set up on the ground, visible to all pilots approaching for landing. The pilot would then have to touch down and roll to a stop as close to the line as possible. Wheel brake was strictly forbidden; all flights were taken in two-seaters and an instructor would be sat in the back of each flight to verify the lack of wheel brake. The distance between the glider’s main wheel and the marker would then be measured in Chris’ feet (Chris-ft). This distance was then added to 30 then 3000 would be divided by this result to give the score (i.e. with a distance, d, the score = 3000/(30+d) ), thereby giving a higher score for those who land closer to the marker.
There was time for each team to attempt their first two spot landings on Wednesday afternoon, leaving Cambridge with a score of 86 and Oxford with 68. ==== Day 3 ==== [[File:Varsity2019Day3.jpg|thumb|right|Both teams on Day 3.]] Thursday saw a markedly warmer weather; perfect for the beach but still no soaring to start with. So, it was agreed that the first round of spot landings would be completed, by which time some soaring may be possible. Cambridge scored a decisive lead in the spot landings, with CUGC flights from Hugh and Bonan both scoring above 60 points.  As hoped, the sun came out and thermals began just before lunch! OUGC’s Chia-Man getting a 32-minute duration flight to give Oxford a clear soaring lead to begin with. The conditions were tricky; making one wrong decision left you low, scratching for height-gains and looking to land. OUGC scored very highly after lunch as well managing two 35-point soaring flights from Philipp and Arthur. CUGC’s best soaring flight was Timo’s 21 minutes. Once the thermals had stopped and the hangar had been packed, the task of tabulating the scores and discovering the winner began.  Warning: boring technical details in this paragraph… To enable easier comparison between the scores for spot-landings and the scores for the soaring flights, both sets of scores were scaled and translated individually. This was done in such a way that the mean for the spot landings was 100 and the standard deviation was 15; the same was true of the set of soaring flight scores. This meant that the scores for each team could then be summed to give the total scores. Also, since Oxford’s sixth team member was unable to come to Varsity, Cambridge selected their five best soaring flights and their five best spot landings. ==== Summary ==== After significant calculations, the final score was: '''Oxford 1009 – 990 Cambridge''', a win for Oxford. CUGC would like to send a big “Thank you!” to OUGC and Bicester Gliding Club for hosting us; the clubhouse is very nice and the airfield seems to have an unlimited number of landing areas! We look forward to hosting OUGC at Gransden in summer 2020. {| class="wikitable"! Team !! Pilot !! Normalised Spot Landing !! Normalised Soaring !! Total|-! scope="row" rowspan="6" | Cambridge| Charlie Brooker| 111.1| -| rowspan="6" | 990|-| Bonan Zhu| 113.2| 89.3|-| Chris Barrott| 111.1| 84.0|-| Timo Wilken| -| 102.7|-| Hugh Hudson| 112.6| 96.0|-| Hayk Saribekyan| 83.9| 86.6|--! scope="row" rowspan="5" | Oxford| Chia Man| 85.9| 117.4| rowspan="5" | 1009|-| Philipp| 92.1| 121.4|-| Francesca| 107.1| 96.0|-| Arthur| 110.6| 121.4|-| Antoine| 72.4| 85.3|} === 2018 ===
The match was held from June 20th to 22nd, with the 21st being 'the day of the decade' with numerous 750km flights being conducted around the country.
'''==== Day 1:'''====
Day 1 was weakly soarable, but we made the most of the day with both teams completing check flights and getting some practice in. Thursday andFriday were forecast to be big days so we werelooking forward to the two day match. TheVarsity match task is simple: points are earned foreach 100ft of height gained within 50 minutes,with points also being awarded for time up to 50minutes. However, points are taken away after 50minutes so it is important to judge your flight timewell.
'''==== Day 2:'''====
[[File:Varsity2018Day2.JPG|thumb|right|The team on Day 2.]] The conditions on the second day were perfectlysuited for the first scoring day. The match beganat noon, with an Oxford pilot launching first.CUGC’s president Chris Barrott launched soonafter, completing what turned out to be the secondhighest scoring flight of the day in the [[Junior]],earning CUGC 280 points. He managed to makethe most of the strong conditions and achievedover 10,000ft of height gain. The next Cambridgepilot to launch was Tomasz Cebo, who completedan hour-long flight in the [[:Category:CU|ASW19b]]. Just like theyear before, he forgot about the 50-minute flighttime limit – however he managed to find thermalstowards the end of his flight that were so strongthat this didn’t turn out to be a disadvantage,earning him a score of 238. Next in line wasCambridge’s captain Nat West. Launching in the[[K21]], he didn’t have as much luck finding strongthermals, achieving a score of 147 during a 49-minute flight. An hour later, Tomasz Ceboattempted a second flight and managed to improveupon his previous flight with a score of 255, thistime adhering to the 50-minute flight limit. HughHudson completed the last scoring flight of theday for Cambridge in the K21, achieving 209points. Oxford put up a strong performance on the firstscoring day. Artur Doshchyn achieved 323 points,by far the highest score of the day. After thesecond day, Oxford was leading the match with432 normalised points vs Cambridge’s Cambridge's 384.
{| class="wikitable"
! scope="row" rowspan="4" | Oxford
| Artur Doshchyn
| 239139
| rowspan="4" | 432
|-
|}
==== Day 3 ====
'''[[File:Varsity2018Day3.jpg|thumb|right|The team on Day 3:'''.]]
The conditions were mostly blue and provided amore challenging day – a chance for a Cambridgecomeback, perhaps.A small grid formed at the end of runway 04 andlaunching started at about 11:30. The matchstarted at shortly after noon with the Oxford K21taking the first launch again. Cambridge pilotBonan Zhu launched right after in the ASW19b.He manged managed to connect with a thermal at 800ft andthen climbed to 3000ft. Despite the sky beingblue, he found an energy line near the airfield androde along it. A flight duration of 49 minutes wasachieved, gaining Cambridge 177 points. Thesecond Cambridge pilot was Hugh Hudson. Hescored 164 points in his flight with fourrespectable climbs in a K21. In the meantime,Tomasz Cebo was flying in the ASW19b and heachieved the highest score of the day in his thirdflight, 237, in six climbs. Afterwards TimoWilken performed the fourth scoring flight of theday. He achieved a respectable score of 156 withtwo long climbs. The conditions started todeteriorate around 15:30 with increasing difficultyto connect with thermals off the winch. DanielMorales Valdivia was the fifth pilot to attempt ascore. He took off in the [[Perkoz|SZD-50-3 ]] with safetyinstructor Peter Warner at 1509 but had to landshortly after. At this point the thermals hadbecome too weak, yet he still managed to achievea respectable score of 55 given the conditions. Wewould also like to thank Cambridge pilot Stepan Chrz who acted as launch marshal to ensureefficient operation for both teams and kept thelogs up to date.In the meantime, Oxford achieved a score of 190and 184 in their first two flights but then struggledto get away for the third one. Two more successfulscoring flights of 50-minute duration wereachieved later in the day, despite weak conditions.Due to the fantastic performance of Cambridge’spilots on the second scoring day, Cambridge madeup for day one and won the Varsity match with ascore of '''814 vs Oxford’s 802'''! === 2016 === This year Gliding Varsity was hosted by Cambridge at their home airfield, Gransden Lodge. As it proved difficult to find a date that was suitable for as many pilots from Cambridge and O*ford as possible during summer, the event had to be postponed to late November. Usually the competition is based on cumulative height gain, but as there are few thermals this time of the year, both teams agreed to do spot landings instead. The rules for this event were decided upon beforehand as follows: A line would be set up on the ground, visible to all pilots approaching for landing. The pilot would then have to touch down after the line, but come to a halt as close to the line as possible. The distance between the position where the glider stops and the line would be used to determine the score – since a smaller distance equals more piloting skill, it was decided to evaluate the score as 10,000 times the inverse of the distance in meters. In other words, the smaller the stopping distance, the better. For some, the events of that day started earlier than for others. The O*ford team had to leave the other place at 6:30am whereas most of the Cambridge team members decided to start off the day with an unhurried breakfast to gather strength and be prepared to face the gruesome challenges of competition day. All pilots met at the airfield at 9:00am. After every pilot had a chance to introduce himself, the aircraft were removed from the hangar and transported to the launch point. Andrew Watson, CUGC’s experienced instructor, did check flights with the O*ford pilots to make sure they were fit to fly solo. After all preparatory actions were taken, the match was ready to begin. Chris Barrott, a CUGC fresher with a solid background in gliding, started off the match by scoring a phenomenal 73.2m in the PZL [[Junior]], the shortest distance achieved that day in the Junior. Considering that this aircraft does not have wheel brakes, a significant handicap, this was all the more impressive. But CUGC was yet to make use of its most fierce weapon, experienced Polish glider pilot Tomasz Cebo. Flying the [[K21]], he scored an incredible 54.1m, the shortest distance achieved during the entire competition. O*ford’s hearts sank in despair. Next in line was Bonan Zhu, long-time CUGC member, who scored a respectable 82.6m in the Junior, despite the lack of wheel brakes. Bonan was followed by Nathanael West, CUGC’s captain, who, in light of his team mates’ successes, was determined to deliver a top score as well. He was able to compensate his lack in piloting skill by utilising his arm strength to pull back extra hard on the wheel brakes, thereby scoring 54.9m, less than a meter behind Polish weapon Tomasz. Next was Vikram Giri, CUGC’s president, who made an ambitious effort in the K21, however unfortunately during review of the video footage it was determined that he touched down a couple of feet before the line, thus invalidating his otherwise flawless attempt. German mathematician Matthis ‘the brain’ Lehmkühler concluded the match for CUGC with the most ambitious attempt of the day, pushing his glider to the absolute limit. However his landing suffered from the same problem as Vikram’s, he as well touched down a bit too early. To summarise, CUGC managed to deliver an impressive overall performance, achieving a total score of '''625 points vs Oxford’s 496'''. {| class="wikitable"! Team !! Pilot !! Aircraft !! Distance !! Score !! Total|-! scope="row" rowspan="6" | Cambridge| Chris Barrott| Junior| 73.2| 136.6| rowspan="6" | 625|-| Tomasz Cebo| K21| 54.1| 184.8|-| Bonan Zhu| Junior| 82.6| 121.1|-| Nat West| K21| 54.9| 182.1|-| Matthis Lehmkuhler| K21| Under-shoot| 0|-| Vikram Giri| K21| Under-shoot| 0|-! scope="row" rowspan="6" | Oxford| Charlie| K21| 73.3| 136.4| rowspan="6" | 496|-| Elliot| Puchacz| 209.7| 47.7|-| Anthony| K21| 75.2| 133.0|-| Julie| Puchacz| 230.3| 43.4|-| Dinant| Junior| 74.0| 135.1|-| Cecilia| K21| Under-shoot| 0|-|}
=== 2014 ===
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 [[K21|ASK-21 ]] (two seat) gliders to fly in the competition, while Cambridge flew their [[:Category:CU|ASW-19 ]] (single seat) with one of CGC's [[Junior|SZD-Juniors ]] (single seat).
Flying for Cambridge, waswere:
* Joe Roberts
; Submitted : Thu, 04/09/2014 17:45
=== 2013 ===
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.
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.
; Submitted : Mon, 02/09/2013 10:40
=== 2012 ===
; Cambridge team
Conditions strengthened somewhat as the evening approached: Chris and Natasha took the opportunity to improve on their earlier scores, but it was not enough to close down the healthy Cambridge margin which was maintained until the cessation of flying. We hope to repeat the strong performance at next year's contest to be held at Bicester airfield, the home of OUGC.
=== 2011 ===
; Cambridge team
Meanwhile, James landed his flight after 28 minutes in the air, scoring 71 points (bringing Cambridge's total to 88) and setting Oxford a target of 49 from Natasha's flight to win. At this point it was approaching 6pm and it wasn't clear how long the thermals would continue. We thought it would be close, but as Natasha continually found thermal after thermal to stay up we realised that the match was slipping away from us. Just after 6pm she landed after an excellent flight, scoring 89 points and handing Oxford a comprehensive victory.
=== 2010 ===
; Cambridge team
The 2010 Varsity match was held during the Inter-University Gliding Task Week at Bicester airfield, the home of OUGC. Saturday was unsoarable so on Sunday 8th July a team of four pilots from each club rigged their gliders in anticipation of the good weather. Philippa Roberts, Cambridge Captain and Lukas Brandt, Oxford launched first to test the conditions, they were closely followed by Graham Spelman, Cambridge and Rory Barker, Oxford. Lukas and Philippa flew a very close match with only 2 points between them; unfortunately for the Cambridge side Rory beat Graham by 72 points. Tragically the weekend's flying was cut short by the death of Miss Amy Barsby in an accident. Amy, 25, a pilot from Trinity College Dublin contributed a lot to university gliding and we would like to take this opportunity to recognise that contribution.
=== 2009 ===
On the weekend of the 27th/28th June 09, Cambridge University Gliding Club travelled to Oxford University's home club at RAF Bicester for the 2009 Gliding Varsity Match. Their aim was to keep the Varsity Cup for the sport of soaring the sky at Cambridge for another year. The five person team knew they were up against tough competition, as the Oxford team held the advantage in qualifications and experience. The Saturday started with a real surprise for a gliding competition; the weather was fantastic! The airfield was set up quickly and the necessary check flights made by the visiting team, to familiarise themselves with the airfield and local airspace (there is a nearby parachute drop zone – not a good place to be in a glider!). With these chores completed, Julia and Becca kicked things off for the Cambridge team, flying in K13s, and both gaining very respectable scores of around 130 points (1 point per minute, up to 50 minutes, plus 2 points per 100 ft sustained height gain). However, Oxford countered with two very good flights, as Lukas and Felix went off in their hotships, into the best of a good day's weather. Their better gliders and slightly dubious pull-up tactics led to some truly amazing scores of 235 and 276 points, gaining between the two of them more than the entire Oxford team last year. Peter then flew in a borrowed glider, making Cambridge's best scoring flight yet. Most of the remaining members of both teams made their flights that afternoon, and the evening showed Oxford out in the lead. Sunday's weather was not quite what Saturday's had been, but there were still plenty of thermals about, so there were many efforts from the Cambridge team to better their previous scores. Peter made another impressive scoring flight of 212 points, in CUGC's new glider; an ASW19 with the tail letters CU, but no one else was able to improve in the slightly poorer weather.
=== 2007 ===
After a defeat at home in 2006, Cambridge arrived at RAF Bicester eager to take back the Varsity Trophy. As was the case for much of the season, the weather was proving to be rather uncooperative. However, by early afternoon the sky cleared enough that the match could begin. Soaring conditions remained very difficult and both teams found it hard to make significant height gains. In the end though, a trio of strong performances from Nick Laux, Adam Spikings and Peter Buchlovsky sealed the day, with us eventually winning by 112 points to 85.
=== 2006 ===
Sadly, the match was pushed back to August from projected dates in June due to weather and other uncontrollable delays. When the day did arrive, the visiting Oxford side was on excellent form, with Cambridge struggling to put out a whole team due to the holidays. After a hard day’s competition in difficult conditions, Oxford won by a fair margin, leaving Cambridge disappointed but keen for the replay in 2007.
=== 2002 ===
; Cambridge team
: Paul Flower & Charlotte Morley
=== 2001 ===
; Cambridge team
: John Hingley, Paul Flower, John Glass, James Lloyd-Hughes & Tom Bishop
=== 1998 ===
; Cambridge team
: Pete Thelwall, Jay Rebbeck, Debbie Thomas, Stuart Crawshaw & Stephen Madle
=== 1997 ===
; Cambridge team
: Pete Thelwall, Debbie Thomas & Stephen Madle
=== 1995 ===
; Cambridge team
: Stuart Crawshaw, Henry Rebbeck ,Mark Williams, Alex Parr, Ian Lewis & Kingsley Reavell
=== 1994 ===
; Cambridge team
: James Chappell, Stuart Crawshaw, John Moore, Mark Williams & Henry Rebbeck
=== 1993 ===
; Cambridge team
: Jagdip Grewal, Harjinder Obhi, James Chappell, John Moore, Malte Grosche & Stuart Crawshaw
=== 1992 ===
; Cambridge team
: Damian Debski, Malte Grosche, Stuart Morgan, Harjinder Obhi, Peter Topping, Matthew Turnbull & John Moore
=== 1989 ===
; Cambridge team
[[Category:Advanced Gliding]]
[[Category:Competitions]]
[[Category:Reports]]
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