The London Varsity Series makes an epic return from 21-28 March!
Brace yourselves as King's and GKT sports teams gear up for battle with rivals Team UCL. With 45 fixtures spread across London over eight action-packed days, the stakes have never been higher.
A brief history
Our journey began 20 years ago as a Rugby Union match and is now a grand sporting event against our arch-rivals, UCL. The rivalry between King’s and UCL goes back over two centuries. In 1826, King’s was founded as an Anglican counterpart to the secular London University, now known as UCL. This rivalry played out in historic ‘Rag’ events, where challenging authority was combined with fundraising for charity. These lively encounters often required police intervention!
Our rivalry soon developed into mascot captures. King's centurion mascot, Reggie the lion, faced repeated kidnapping attempts by UCL students who hid him across the UK from Inverness to Surrey. In response, King's engineering students filled Reggie with concrete to make it more difficult to steal him away..
However, King's students weren't innocent either. They frequently kidnapped UCL's mascot, Phineas, and even played football with the preserved head of UCL's spiritual founder, Jeremy Bentham. Now, the rivalry plays out during Varsity, and our teams will fight to take the trophy back from UCL this month.
2024 recap
With a final standing score of UCL 18 - KCL 13 in the 2024 London Varsity Series, we narrowly missed out on bringing the Jeremy George Cup home. Despite last year’s disappointment, KCL still dominated many fixtures, and some of our teams, including Women's Basketball (66-59) and ultimate Frisbee (15-3), are chasing repeat victories in 2024. King’s Athletics also hopes to secure a fifth win in a row against UCL in 2025.
Meanwhile, our Tennis, Handball, and Lacrosse teams are seeking redemption after hard-fought close losses last year. Following a narrow 10-7 loss to UCL on the final day of the competition, men's rugby, which at one stage led 7-5, experienced disappointment and hopes for a big comeback this year.
New contenders, same spirit!
This year, Varsity returns bigger and better than ever with a record 45 fixtures. Back our Water Polo, Kendo, Karting and Futsal teams as they take on Varsity for the first time, and cycling with its epic return to the Varsity line up for the first time since the pandemic. Rugby remains the biggest event, with a colossal 500 tickets up for grabs!
We have locations all around London. To find further information on fixtures, locations, times, and dates, click here.
Grab your tickets for the Offical Afterparty, parties at Guy’s Bar and The Vault, as well as some Varsity merch from the Union Shop. Show your support to our King's and GKT teams. Tickets are selling out quickly, so run, don’t walk!