Inter-varsity is back - and it's about more than rugby!

Ultimate Frisbee will be one of the sports on the Intervarsity programme from 31 August to 1 September

Cancel all plans for the weekend of 31 August through 1 September, dear Ikeys.

Nearly 20 years after the last edition was played out in pre-democratic 1993, the (in)famous multi-disciplinary UCT-University of Stellenbosch (US) inter-varsity weekend is back. Busy league schedules and crowd control issues are cited as the main reasons the two fierce sporting rivals have not locked horns in a dedicated sporting weekend since then.

Sports fans will be grateful that the two universities reckon they have now ironed such bumps out, and the inter-varsity weekend will see Ikey and Matie athletes from no fewer than 26 disciplines facing off against each other.

Friday 31 August begins with cycling sprint trials in Jameson Hall, and moves to - among many others - tennis, squash cricket, a canoe dice on Zeekoevlei Dam and a variety of martial arts demonstrations. The more bloodthirsty sporting connoisseurs who yearn to see more-than-figurative Matie gluteus getting kicked can rub their hands in glee at the taekwon-do and judo bouts scheduled for the evening.

The two universities' underwater clubs cut the Saturday ribbon with a social dive at Miller's Point in Simon's Town, with fast-paced Ultimate games and the typically bruising rugby clashes drawing the curtain on what the universities hope will be the first iteration of an annual event.

The first official inter-varsity meetings took place in 1911 when UCT (then known as the South African College, or SAC) played two rugby matches against the Victorian College (now the University of Stellenbosch), with SAC running out 9-0 and 10-0 winners.

In his history of South African rugby, the late Dr Louis Babrow related one professor's assessment of the inter-varsity as a day when "enthusiasm expresses itself 'in unintelligible noises from dark mutterings' to 'swelling waves of animal cries and nightmarish roars', as our teams hurl themselves at their opponents or crash through in a mighty foot rush. Students are exalted in this glorious contest; may we shout ourselves hoarse as we witness a fluctuation of fortunes."

Are you not entertained?

Download the Intervarsity Programme.

Download the Intervarsity relay route and poster.

For more information contact UCT Sport & Recreation.