Kicking off the shortlists with a big one, the Team of the Year Award celebrates the most successful teams of the year gone by in terms of performance and achievement.
With so many team successes in the year just gone, including promotions in BUCS leagues and a glittering set of medals from BUCS events, this is an incredibly competitive category. The five shortlistees demonstrated clear objectives, which they not only met, but blew away completely.
Competitions Team, CU Mountaineering Club
Cambridge delivered an exceptional season across all major competitions. The club won the London University Bouldering League for the fourth consecutive year, taking victory in all four rounds against 24 universities and securing multiple individual finals. At BUCS Nationals, the Women’s team achieved a historic 2nd place—Cambridge’s first-ever BUCS podium—while the Men’s team placed 5th in a field of around 50 universities. Katy Wong earned an individual bronze after reaching finals.
Both the Women’s and Men’s teams also won Varsity in a closely fought match, with standout individual performances including Darren Xi’s men’s title. The season showcased depth, consistency and competitive excellence across all squads.
Men’s Blues, CU Association Football Club
The Men’s Blues had an outstanding season in 2025-26. During the summer, the Blues competed in a tournament in China, in which they defeated the eventual winners and came third only after losing the semi-final on penalties. Wins included a 6-0, 5-0 and 6-1. The Blues secured promotion back to Tier 1 at the first time of asking after a very strong league campaign which included a 7-0 thrashing of Nottingham.
The Blues were also victorious in Varsity, securing back-to-back Varsity wins for the first time since 2014, and ending a 12-year absence of Varsity clean sheets. Exceptional individuals included Aram Sarkissian, who simultaneously played semi-professionally every weekend, Deniz Ozer, who captained and topped the league stats for both goals and assists, and Jesse Tapnack, who was selected for the prestigious Maccabi GB team in Easter 2025. The league and Varsity double, alongside outstanding individual players makes them well deserving of the Team of the Year award.
Men’s Blues, CU Cricket Club
CUCC Men's Blues had a superb season, despite losing many of our key players from the year before. Varsity matches against Oxford were very successful, with Oxford bowled out for just 106 at Lord's, which wrapped up an eight-wicket win, before again winning comfortably by 6 wickets at Arundel in the 50 over varsity.
Strong BUCS performances in the top tier of university cricket delivered a top 6 finish nationally out of ~200 teams. Successes included a win against Oxford Brookes (national champions in 2024) in an incredible game that came down to the last over.
In April 2026, the team toured Mumbai, and were very competitive against some of the strongest teams in Mumbai, that were filled with professional cricketers. This was the first CUCC tour to India in over 15 years, and alongside matches we also met the deputy high commissioner for Western India.
Pythons, CU American Football Club
This year the Pythons have had our most successful season ever, winning the BUCS Division 2 Midlands, our first ever division win as a BUCS club, and having a successful playoff run that culminated in a BUCS Northern Conference Cup win, beating the Universities of Sunderland, Coventry and Lancaster on the way to the title. With Varsity upcoming on the 23rd of May at Grange Road, the Pythons have a chance to "do the triple", and take the Varsity Bowl for the first time in 4 years.
Offensively, the Pythons have been successful at a rate not seen in years. Including the Conference Cup, the offense averaged 21.8 points per game, a high on a season for more than 10 years.
Defensively, the Pythons allowed less than a touchdown per game during the regular season, and forced 3 or more turnovers in a majority of their games, including in the final against Lancaster.
The success of this team is down to the hard work of our roster of more than 30 players, and the great voluntary coaches.
Strange Blue Womxns, CU Ultimate Club
In a record-breaking year, SBWx achieved the best results in its history.
Indoor Regionals 1st
Indoor Nationals Division 1 3rd
Outdoor BUCS league champions
Outdoor Nationals Division 1 4th
18 bids for Half-Blue
The usual performance for the team- seldom manages to perform better than 10th place at national tournaments, never won regionals before. This year's performance is record-breaking, putting us above the likes of Nottingham or Loughborough.
Despite also striving for excellence, the team takes special pride in development. The team did not neglect beginners, increasing tournament exposure by sending a second team to women's indoor regionals for the first time in history, while also making trainings accessible to all. Almost all players in the first squad have training and development outside of the club as well, demonstrating strong club culture to develop individually. Outreach has been especially strong this year, increasing training numbers to 1.5x the average of usual years.
