Captain's Introduction
The Men’s Blues are looking forward to a challenging and successful season. We are aiming high – both in terms of our competitive goals and our ambition to make cricket as inclusive and accessible as possible within the University and wider community.
The competitive highlight of our season remains our rivalry with Cambridge University. Uniquely in Oxford sport, the challenge spans three formats. We play a T20 game at Lord’s in a double header with the Women’s Blues, and a 50 over fixture at Arundel Castle. We complete our season early in July with the four-day varsity match, contested this year at The Parks.
Aside from Varsity, we have a full and varied fixture list. We compete with other universities in the North/South Premier BUCS division, clubs in Oxfordshire and London, the Armed Forces, and with wandering sides which often feature OUCC alumni. We are especially excited to broaden our fixture list this year with matches against two academies for talented young cricketers: ACE and Sharks.
We have trained well through the winter and I am confident that the Men’s Blues will play a high standard of competitive cricket once again this season. In recent years, multiple OUCC members have been selected for Oxford’s combined UCCE side annually, with several OUCC graduates going on to represent county sides in the last decade.
As always, we are extremely grateful to everyone who enables the cricket programme at Oxford, including our sponsors, senior committee, coaching team, groundstaff and supporters. We always enjoy seeing members of the university, alumni, parents or any other cricket enthusiasts at our fixtures. The Parks is a wonderful place to play or watch the game; we look forward to seeing you there or elsewhere this summer!
Ben Swanson, OUCC Men’s Blues Captain 2023/24
