Varsity

The 34th Varsity match, hosted by Cambridge on May 5 2007, was dedicated to Tsz Fok, an extremely enthusiastic, dedicated and valued member of the Oxford team who died two weeks prior to the match in a bike accident.

The constitution was changed earlier this year so that the Varsity Match became a nine-couple match, with six couples instead of eight in each heat, and only couples from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge were allowed to compete, regardless of whether they had danced for either university during the academic year. The B team match was renamed the Challenge Shield, and this year remained under old rules. However, from next year both matches will be nine-couple matches.

This year both the Varsity match and the Challenge Shield were won by Cambridge.

Varsity team
Best Oxford couple: Ozzie Uhiara and Sarah Farrell
Best Oxford ballroom couple: Ian Preston and Clive Wooley
Best Oxford latin couple: Ozzie Uhiara and Sarah Farrell
Best Oxford newcomer: Ian Preston and Clive Wooley, Alex Grey and Tamasin Graham
Black horse trophy: Alex Robinson and Mairi McGuiness
The Richardson-Cuniffe trophy for hard-work went to Mairi McGuiness and Maciej Kula (previous partners)

Challenge Shield
Best couple (also best Oxford couple): Martin Bird and Vicky Stimson
Best ballroom couple (also best Oxford ballroom): Martin Bird and Vicky Stimson
Best newcomer (also best Oxford newcomer): Martin Bird and Vicky Stimson
Best Oxford latin: Martin Bird and Vicky Stimson

The Tsz Fok Memorial Trophy
Coaches Neil and Lorraine had decided earlier on this year to donate a trophy which was to go to the most enthusiastic and dedicated couple on the team and they had already chosen Tsz Fok and Erin Lane as the couple to give this trophy to. When Tsz tragically died a couple of weeks ago, it was decided that the trophy should be dedicated to the memory of Tsz and it was presented this year to Tsz and Erin by Neil and Lorraine.

Open Results
Oxford was extremely successful in the open competitions; on the Ballroom side Toby Riedl and Romy Fursland were placed 1st in Novices, Saiqi Lu and Laura Bury won the Intermediate category and Martin Bird and Sarah Ward-Jones got first place in both the Basic Foxtrot and Advanced. On the Latin side, Maciej Kula and Joanna Bagniewska won Beginners Latin (and also Oxford best beginner couple), Roger Abbott and Helen Hanlon won Novices, Jerome Clarisse and Chloe Morris won Intermediates and Ozzie Uhiara and Sarah Farrell won the Basic Rumba.

IVDC (The Nationals)

Held at the fantastic Blackpool Winter Gardens, host venue to the annual British Open, the Nationals took place on Saturday 10 March. It was another successful day for the dark blues; in the Ballroom section Oli Zeldin and Maria Kyriacou won sixth place in Beginners Waltz, Glen Lacki and his partner Anna Winestein came fourth in Beginners Waltz and third in Beginners Quickstep. Odin Muhlenbein and Natalia Diaz came fourth in novice and Alex Robinson and Vicky Stimson came third in intermediate ballroom, two very good results. Martin Bird and Sarah Ward-Jones, who were unable to practice for the two weeks prior to IVDC, came sixth place in Advanced Ballroom, whilst Nick Faull and Sarah came third in Ex-student Ballroom and Sugi Kaviraj and his partner Jo Shearer won it.

On the Latin side, Meg Ramakrishnan and her partner Faisal Rahman won fourth place in Beginners Jive and Jason Holland and Alice Pocklington won fifth place in Novice and Matthew and Pippa came fourth in Advanced Latin. Again, we were successful in the Ex-student category, with Ozzie Uhiaria and Elsa placing fifth and Dave Weston and his new partner, Leah, coming second to Tristan Neagle and Indika for I.C.

In the team match, Oxford won the C team trophy and placed a respectable second in D, B and A. Special mention goes to Martin Bird and Sarah Ward-Jones who won the Team Quickstep. P>

SUDA

Oxford had a successful day at SUDA, which was held in Bath this year. In the Open competitions, we had a couple in each final of the four beginner competitions and Oli Zeldin and Maria Kyriacou were placed second in the Waltz. In Ballroom Toby Riedl and Romy Fursland were placed second in Novice Ballroom and in Intermediate Ballroom, Victoria Stimson and Alex Robinson were also awarded second place. Special mention goes to Sugy Kaviraj and his open partner, Jo who won Ex-Student’s Ballroom. Oxford was equally successful in the Latin competitions; Jerome Clarisse and Chloe Morris placed fifth in Intermediates, and Sarah Farrell and Ozzie Uhiara were third in Advanced.

espite the fact that we were missing some of our top couples, Oxford won second place in the A team match and won first place in both the C and D team matches. Particular well done goes to Kim Brownlee and Christoph Ortner who won first place in the Waltz final.

Sheffield

Sheffield was a fairly good day for Oxford; in the Ballroom opens Oli Zeldin and his partner, Maria Kyriacou were placed 2nd in Beginners Waltz and 4th in Beginners Quickstep. Martin Bird and Sarah Ward-Jones were placed sixth in Advanced Viennese. On the Latin side, Colin Lieu and Helen Pearce did particularly well in Intermediate Rumba, coming 3rd in the final and Ozzie Uhiara and Sarah Farrell won 2nd place in Open Samba. With some of our best couples missing, Oxford A got a very respectable second place in the team match.

Nottingham

Nottingham was yet another successful year for Oxford. Despite some very stiff competition from Cambridge and Imperial college and with one couple down following a foot injury, the Oxford A, B and C teams were each placed second in their respective divisions and the D Team won their event.In the Ballroom opens, Martin Bird and Sarah Ward-Jones, one of our new partnerships, were placed first in the Advanced Five Dance while Richard Wassal and Helen Hanlon came first in Novices. On the Latin side, a beginner couple, Maciej Kula and Tania Mann, did very well and won Cha and came third in Jive. Richard and Helen won the Novices, Bilal Khan and Alice Pillar won Intermediates and Matt Jones and Pippa Underwood came first in the Advanced Five Dance.

Warwick

OUDT has continued its long winning streak at Warwick. All six Oxford team made the division one semi-final, A team won first place for the fifth year running, and B team won second place.

In the Open rounds, Oxford took the floor by storm: Oxford couples were placed 1 to 6 in the final of the Advanced Ballroom, with Martin Bird and Sarah Ward- Jones taking first place, and Oxford also placed 1 to 5 in the basic waltz, again with Martin Bird and Sarah Ward-Jones taking first place, who also won the Warwick 4 dance. Alex Robinson and Vicky Stimson came second in Intermediate Ballroom, Alice Pillar and Bilal Khan won second place in Intermediate Latin, Ozzy Uhiara and Sarah Farrell took first place in Advanced Latin, as well as Basic Cha. All in all, an extremely successful day for Oxford.