gair rhydd PHOTOS: Jake Yorath & Harry Sutton
Monday April 04 2011 | freeword – Est. 1972 | Issue 949
Varsity victory Ben Price News Editor Cardiff University retained the Varsity shield, beating a competitive Swansea University in a full day of high quality sporting action. The 15th anniversary of the Varsity event kicked off at 9.30am with Badminton at the Institue of Sport in Pontcanna. This venue would play host to the majority of the day’s sporting action, before the eagerly anticipated finale at the Millenium Stadium. A wet start to the day did not prevent a large number of Cardiff
and Swansea fans from turning out early on to follow the day’s competition. Travelling Swansea supporters seemed to outnumber those of the home team, however, there was an equal number of fans from either University in attendance at the Millenium Stadium for the First Team rugby match. This year saw a record turn-out for the rugby’s evening kick-off, with 14, 789 in attendance. Despite victory for Swansea in the rugby, which saw Cardiff ’s adversaries lifting the Varsity rugby trophy, Team Cardiff won enough
events overall to put their name on the Varsity shield once again. The rugby match at the stadium was broadcast live by S4C, which drew an overall viewing audience of 134,000, with a peak audience at any one moment of 70,000. The day, in its entirety, was viewed as a success, however, it was not without its teething problems. Certain events, in particular those played outdoors, suffered a few issues regarding crowd control. This problem was most noticable in the First Team Football match. The game was stopped by the
match officials on more than one occassion as both sets of fans encroached on the touchline, consequently preventing the linesman from running the line effectively. The situation worsened at the end of the game as fans ran on to the pitch and surrounded the penalty box as both teams prepared for a penalty shoot-out. Police, present at the game, were unable to move the crowd back to the touchline, which meant that players had to take penalties in a very unnsatisfactory manner. Cardiff University’s Football Club captain, Lloyd Jenkins, said:
“As a club we are very unhappy with the organisation of the match in terms of safety, and we feel really disappointed given the extreme provisions for the rugby, while the second most popular sporting event can’t even get a barrier. “The penalty shoot out was a farce. The referee, police and stewards all wanted to abandon the game, so we just spoke to the opposition and mutually agreed to take penalties, but it was only for us to get a result, as officially the game was a draw.”
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