TOURNAMENT REVIEW: 1877 VARSITY SERIES
The University of Cambridge have retained the Varsity Series championship, and with it taken an overall lead of five series wins to four over Oxford after taking this year’s competition in two games. The first was a remarkable pitching battle, in which Oxford took the lead in the third inning on a home run from Balliol’s Peter Fletcher. With pitcher Henry Smith from Worcester College in fine form, that single run looked for a long time as though it would be enough to take the game but St John’s man George Jackson kept Cambridge in it with good pitching of his own and just in time, they found form with the bat. With one out in the ninth, Frederick Watkins of Emmanuel got himself on base and then advanced to second on a hit from Sidney Sharp of Clare College. Next up was George Slater of St Catharine’s, and he made it three successive hits and brought Watkins home to score and level the game at 1-1. The battle went deep into extra innings, with pitcher Jackson for Cambridge remarkably going through fully fifteen innings and giving up only three hits in total. Oxford rarely looked like scoring, as substitute pitcher Ernest Wilson of St Catharine’s looked just as good. It was Cambridge who were recording the hits without getting a man past second base, but their chance came with a two-base hit from Matthew Gardner of Queens’ in the eighteenth, putting him on second with one out. With two out, it was Sidney Sharp again who found a hit, bringing Gardner round to win the game for Cambridge by a score of 2-1.
Oxford had to make home advantage tell in the second game, but disaster struck in the fourth inning as a fielding error allowed lead-off man George Jarrett of Emmanuel to reach base, before his college teammate Frederick Watkins followed with a base hit. With one out, William Bamber of Queens’ added a two-base hit to score Jarrett and give Cambridge a 1-0 advantage and then with two out, it was John Wilson of Jesus College who added another hit to bring both Watkins and Bamber home. Cambridge led 3-0 and with Oxford struggling to find baserunners, the series looked over. They would have to take any chance that came to get back into the game and the opportunity arose in the seventh, as Arthur Davis of Magdalen began the inning with a hit. An error gave Oxford a second baserunner and although Cambridge then got two outs on the next play, a hit from Balliol’s Peter Fletcher brought Davis in to score and reduce the deficit to 3-1. Magdalen man Christopher Kendrew added another hit and Oxford had two men on with pitcher Henry Smith having the chance to tie the game, but he struck out and Oxford’s chance was gone. They did not get another man past first base as Cambridge pitcher George Jackson completed a 3-1 victory to end the series. Unsurprisingly, Jackson was named Best Pitcher while Frederick Watkins took Best Player for his five hits in the two games.
Following discussions between the players following the second game, many felt that it was a shame that there was to be no third game on the following Saturday and a suggestion was made that the teams should play an exhibition game which would not count in the overall records of the Varsity Series. Opinion was split on that idea but a counter-suggestion came that the champions of each University, Christ’s College and Merton College, should instead play an exhibition. That idea was eventually agreed with Merton winning a coin toss for home advantage. The game will not be an official competition and no decisions have been taken as to whether it may be a regular event, at least when the Varsity Series finishes in two games. However, for this year the game has been played and it was an exciting afternoon which was largely decided in a poor third inning for Merton, who had led 1-0 but gave up five runs to fall into a very difficult position. They fought hard, but went on to lose 7-4 as pre-game predictions that Christ’s College were the stronger team proved to be correct. In other university news, it appears that there may be a new college-based competition in Scotland either next year or the following year. The four universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and St Andrews are discussing the formation of a small league which could provide teams north of the border with another source of players, as we have seen in England.