Reasons Why Leeds Varsity Is The Best!

Leeds Varsity, the biggest, most exciting display of University rivalry there is. Each academic year, the Gryphon's take on our local rivals in our annual sporting competition to fight for the infamous Varsity Victory title. Here are 7 reasons why we think Leeds tops all other Varsity's!

It's a whole year long!

Tyron Louw

The Leeds Varsity calendar kicks off in January with our Cross Country Varsity. We work our way through the calendar month by month with american football, rugby league, T20 cricket, and Social League Varsity, getting everyone well warmed up for the big finale!

Each year we get bigger, better and even more creative!

Leeds Varsity

The crowds get bigger, more teams get involved, and each year there is something new and exciting for everyone to get involved with. Last year, we introduced a brand new Varsity opening event, netball. 350 of you joined us at the Leeds Beckett Sports Arena and saw the Gryphons beat Beckett who were in the league above.

We cram a heck of a lot in to one massive finale day!

Leeds Sport

Last year there were a whopping 64 fixtures in total! Sport takes over campus for a day and spreads out in to the wider community. There's a distinct Varsity Buzz in the air!

The Rugby finale is played at the Headingley Carnegie Stadium, home of treble winning Leeds Rhino's

Leeds Rhinos

The big finale of the Leeds Varsity boasts one of the biggest University rugby matches in the entire country. We couldn't host a whopping 14,500 students if we didn't have the amazing stadium that is Headingley Carnegie. If its good enough for the 2015 treble Rugby League Champions, it's good enough for us!

There's STASH!

Who doesn't love stash?! Get your University of Leeds green Varsity T-shirt, lanyard, mug and pen from Gear and become the ULTIMATE Varsity fan!

Everyones involved

Varsity is just for sporty people right? WRONG! Last year we introduced parkrun Varsity whereby student, staff, or alumni can run in the Woodhouse Moor parkrun and whichever university has the most participants will win! This year its back so join us on September 30th to be a part of it.

We have THE best crowd...

Tyron Louw

In the 2015 Leeds Varsity finale, we had over 15,500 students attend. Almost 10,000 of those were from the University of Leeds - what a turn out!

This year we're going EVEN bigger than last year, continuing our 24 hours of nail-biting Varsity action, we're adding a brand new hockey event. Be sure to keep an eye out for more details on this years event but for now pencil in the 3rd and 4th of October to your diaries!