Glasgow Taxi Cup preview

With the Taxi Cup set to return this month, here’s all you need to know about the tournament. 

If you’re an avid follower of sporting events on campus, you may be hearing a fair bit about the Glasgow Taxi Cup this month. The tournament is one of the most prestigious and heavily contested sporting events between the city’s universities. Now, in its 15th year, the Cup is as competitive as ever, and this year’s event should prove to be an intriguing viewing.

For those unaware of the tournament, here’s how it all goes down. The Cup is contested between three Glaswegian universities: University of Glasgow, University of Strathclyde, and Glasgow Caledonian University. The universities fight it out across a selection of 21 sports (16 of which are classified as “core, scoring sports”) in order to take home the title of Champion University. 

The Cup covers a wide-spanning variety of sports, including Snow Sports, Cross Country, Equestrian, Hockey, Rugby, Football, Netball, Basketball, Trampoline, Tennis, Volleyball, Fencing, Athletics, Badminton, and Swimming, with a selection of mens’, womens’ and mixed events across the board. After each event, points are handed out to the individual or collective winners and added to a scoreboard that maps the successes of each university and its contestants, before crowning the Champion University at the end of play.

The majority of the events are set to take place on Wednesday 18th March, barring Snow Sports and Cross Country, which will take place on the 11th and 12th March retrospectively. As a (majorly) one-day event, most of the fixtures will take place at various venues, with selected venues being Garscube Sports Complex, Scotstoun Stadium, and Scotstoun Sports Complex, among others.  

In the last competition, University of Strathclyde ended University of Glasgow’s domination of the Taxi Cup by taking home the trophy. With the added spiciness of the two universities now fighting it out retain or regain their trophy (as well as Caledonian aiming to grab their share of the success), this year’s tournament could prove to be a greatly entertaining battle.