STUDENT CHAMPIONSHIP 2025 By Charlie Sharpe
Singles winner: Charlie Sharpe, University of Oxford Plate winner: Ptolemy Chapman, University of Manchester Doubles winners: Charlie Sharpe & Teodoro D’Agos.no, University of Oxford
On the 26th and 27th of July, the Oxford University Associa6on Croquet Club (OUACC) proudly hosted the annual Student Croquet Championships – a pres6gious tournament where the skill levels range from ‘why are you holding that big hammer upside down’ to ‘I’ve spent every waking minute of the last 12 months prepping for this tournament’. This year, students travelled across the UK and Europe to par6cipate, with entrants from four universi6es: the usual suspects – Cambridge, Oxford, and Manchester – and an interna6onal wildcard from Bocconi University in Milan. Unfortunately, we missed out on the usual presence of the mighty Aston Wade and Teddy Wilmot‐Sitwell (former OUACC President). The weekend’s play kicked off bright and early – painfully early, some might say – with a doubles match between Oxford and Manchester at 8am on Saturday. Despite most players being over a month into their (not so healthy) summer holiday sleeping rou6nes, they took to the lawns with fire in their eyes, proving once again that associa6on croquet is as much a ba7le of wits and strategy as it is a test of who can stay awake for 3 hours straight. By 2pm, sleep‐ induced delirium was reaching record levels, but the warriors were fed and the enthusiasm to get the singles underway was intoxica6ng.
Midway through the first round of singles, Cambridge’s duo Jack and James (J & J) had a sudden realisa6on: they had no accommoda6on for the evening. Fortunately, their friend Jamie had been tasked with finding somewhere to stay, but the task proved more difficult than an6cipated. In response, the trio (J & J & J) developed a detailed well‐thought‐out plan to simply sleep next to the lawns in the park, minimising the next morning’s travel 6me and maximising that evening’s much needed shut‐eye. However, a&er a spontaneous agreement that the evening would consist of a night out in Oxford, this grand plan lost its appeal as it would require J & J & J to drunkenly climb a 15‐foot bayonet‐topped fence under the light of nothing but the moon and a distant streetlamp. Instead, they booked a late‐ night bus to some off‐grid Airbnb.
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