Royal School of Mines wins the Bottle Match for the fifth year in a row

For the fifth year running Imperial’s Royal School of Mines were victorious in the Bottle Match against Camborne School of Mines, held at the Harlington Sports Ground on February 21st. Teams from the two mining schools went head to head in badminton, squash, netball, hockey, football and rugby in a weekend-long event hosted by the RSM, with a large contingent of CSM supporters making the journey up from Cornwall by coach. Friday saw the squash and badminton matches, held at Ethos. While RSM dominated the squash 5-0, they were not so fortunate in the badminton, winning 3 games, but losing 6 and the match to a CSM side featuring several players who are allegedly no longer students. RSM were also unlucky in the netball, with a strong CSM team featuring a particularly tall goal attack pressing their advantage, and the match ending a 72-22 loss of RSM.

Despite the scoreline the RSM were vocal in support of the team, with high hopes for the rest of Bottle Match. An early start on Saturday saw a highly enthusiastic but not particularly experienced RSM womens hockey team take an unfortunate loss despite a goal from fresher Alice Tidwell. The team kept their heads high and defended to the end, but to no avail, with the match ending 10-1 to CSM. The mens hockey went better for the RSM, who took an early 2-0 lead from an excellent aerial in to the D from Rowan Hedgecock tucked in behind the keeper by Chris Thomas, followed by a flying goal from Richard Price, assisted by a well worked pass across goal by Will Murray. Although CSM drew level again by half time, the second half saw RSM pull back ahead with a spectacular reverse stick finish from Murray before Anthony Vaquero sealed the match, putting the ball into the top of the net from a dummy drag flick from Bottle Match veteran Ben Bell.

The match ended 4-2, with RSM retaining (and briefly losing in the Union) the Sharpley Cup. As in previous years, the football was not particularly auspicious for RSM, with the match ending in a loss despite an enthusiastic performance from an RSM team who surprised CSM with a good press at the start, and delivered a much tighter game than reflected in the the 3-0 scoreline. The contest for the Bottle itself, the rugby, started with a few worrying moments for RSM, with CSM taking an early lead. However, RSM soon came to dominate the game, under the leadership of top Hollister model Freddy White, with tries from David Nielsen-Scott, Ed Durkin and James Cox. Despite a solid effort from the CSM team, who had two disallowed tries, the match ended 19-7, with RSM retaining the Bottle for the 5th year running. The Bottle Match is one of the social and sporting highlights of the year for both RSM and CSM students, with an after party hosted by the RSM in Metric.

However, supporters and players from both institutions were warned that the excesses of alcohol-fuelled behavior that had marked previous Bottle Matches would not be tolerated, with Sammy the Bouncer in attendance to keep everyone in line, and dire threats of the cancellation of future matches if the College and Union were unhappy with students’ conduct throughout the day. Fortunately, these fears proved to be unfounded, as no serious incidents of antisocial behavior of injury occurred. One CSM student had what was thought to be an offensive weapon confiscated, but on closer inspection this proved to be a costume prop. Speaking to Felix about College pressure to police the behavior of supporters, who this year included staff and alumni as well as students, an anonymous source within the RSMU said, “hopefully next year they will get off our case”.