🟣 Last week, I travelled to my university city of Sheffield to help out with the annual Sheffield Varsity!
🤾 Varsity is an event which takes place in late March of each year, and features several fixtures in a variety of sports between Sheffield University and Sheffield Hallam University. There are many other similar Varsity events in other cities around the country at around the same time.
🧑🦯 I was lucky enough to play in the 2022 Sheffield Varsity Dodgeball fixture - an excellent contest which saw Hallam defeated 19-7. Prior to that, I also played in an intramural event in 2020, although the main Varsity event itself was curtailed due to the pandemic. As a graduate, however, this year I stepped up to referee the dodgeball fixture, of which there were two this year (a firsts and a seconds fixture).
🙌 The refereeing experience was interesting, to say the least. I have always considered myself a fair and decent referee, but the situation really put my skills and abilities to the test. The hall was very loud, emotions were running high and it was difficult, perhaps impossible, to make calls that pleased everybody. It certainly gives a new perspective to the sport, and sport in general. The results of the fixtures were split - Hallam 2s defeated University 2s 15-7 and University 1s defeated Hallam 1s 14-6. This marked the first point ever won by Hallam in a dodgeball fixture, which was a hugely impressive moment.
⚽ Following the conclusion of the dodgeball event, we made our way up to the Sheffield Hallam University Sports Park, and watched a number of outdoor sports take place, including the Men’s 1s Football fixture finishing 1-1, the Men’s 3s Football fixture finishing 3-3 (including a guest appearance from Nasser Hussain!) and Hallam beating University 4-0 in the Men’s 4s Football fixture (there was more on than just football, promise).
(Apologies for the poor image quality, we should really invest in a proper photographer…)