The London Varsity Series makes an epic return from 13-18 March! Brace yourselves as KCLSU and GKT sports teams gear up for battle with rivals TeamUCL. With 31 fixtures spread across London over six action-packed days, the stakes have never been higher.
Where it all began…
Our journey began 20 years ago as a Rugby Union match and is now a grand sporting event against our arch-rivals, UCL. The rivalry between King’s and UCL goes back over two centuries. In 1826, King’s was founded as an Anglican counterpart to the secular London University, now known as UCL. This rivalry played out in historic ‘Rag’ events, where challenging authority was combined with fundraising for charity. These lively encounters often required police intervention!
Our rivalry soon developed into mascot captures. King's centurion mascot, Reggie the lion, faced repeated kidnapping attempts by UCL students who hid him across the UK from Inverness to Surrey. In response, King's engineering students filled Reggie with concrete to make it more difficult to steal him away. He now lives peacefully protected in a glass box outside The Vault.
However, King's students weren't innocent either, frequently kidnapping UCL's mascot Phineas and even playing football with the preserved head of UCL's spiritual founder, Jeremy Bentham. Now, the rivalry plays out during Varsity, and our teams will fight to take back the trophy back from UCL next month.
2023 recap
With a final standing score of UCL 17 - KCL 12 in the 2023 London Varsity Series, we narrowly missed out on bringing the Jeremy George Cup home. Despite last year’s disappointment, KCL still dominated many fixtures and some of our teams, including American Football (16-14), men and women’s Basketball (66-52 and 64-61, respectively), Ultimate Frisbee (10-9), are chasing repeat victories in 2024. Following an 81-78-win, King’s Athletics also hope to secure a fourth win against UCL in 2024.
Meanwhile, our Volleyball and Hockey teams are seeking redemption after their hard-fought losses last year. Following a narrow 22-20 loss to UCL, men's Rugby on the final day of the competition, who controlled much of the game with a halftime lead of 14-3, experienced disappointment and hope for a big comeback this year.
New contenders, same spirit
This year, Varsity returns bigger and better than ever with the introduction of Handball and Muay Thai to our already impressive lineup. While Rugby remains the biggest event with a colossal 1000 tickets up for grabs, the Hockey fixtures are a close second with 250 tickets available for men’s and women’s fixtures next month.
Tickets are likely to sell out for many fixtures this year, so keep your eyes peeled on our social media and newsletters for news of when tickets go on sale.