This is indisputable - just look at entry requirements, league tables or alumni. But to counter this, there is also a perception that despite academic inferiorities, sport is what Solent do, and for this reason they attract the better sports men and women, and have a better run and more successful equivalent to our Athletics Union. This, in my opinion, is a total fallacy.

This extends far beyond the rivalry and pride. The BUCS League Table at the end of last year has the University of Southampton placed a colossal 41 places above Southampton Solent, and this year the gap looks like it could grow even wider with continued success for Wessex sides. The University of Southampton also enjoy regular success over the Kaos rabble, most recently with the Rugby team administering a 46-8 thrashing just before Christmas.

BUCS is by no means the be all and end all of assessing a university’s sporting success. A huge reason why I think the University of Southampton is the perpetually superior sporting establishment is that the running of it is far more student orientated. Our Students’ Union, run by former students, funds an Athletic Union, run by a former student, which overseas over 50 clubs, all run by committees made up of...students. Many clubs even utilise the better sportspeople in their first or second squads to train the less able.

In contrast, ‘Sport Solent’ is overseen by a fulltime, real grown up Director of Sport. He is aided by a team of more fulltime employees. Furthermore, a few clicks on their website and ‘Sport Solent’ are boasting that whilst some of their clubs are run by student committees, they feel a better way forward is to employ managers to ‘take the pressure off students’. Firstly, 18 to 21 year olds should be more than capable of combining study with lending a hand running a club, gaining vital real world experience which will put them in great stead after graduation. Secondly, being on a club committee is really good fun, and isn’t that what sport is about? Having to employ a sports manager must also be hideously expensive, money that the Solent should surely be putting into improving their academic credentials - football studies anyone? Further to this, how can sporting clubs really provide what students want with the students being divorced from its day to day running?

There are a few other things that make a mockery of Solent’s sporting set up. In a message on their website, the Solent Director of Sport and general sporting big cheese Phil Green, signs off with ‘Yours in Sport’, far inferior to the much used Wessex signature ‘Wessex Love’. They have been known to put their best sportsmen though multiple degree courses to prolong their playing career. Wessex Scene writer Matthew Gill once asked one of these more senior students if it was him who he saw emptying his bins last Tuesday, mid-game.

Additionally, Solent have also fallen into this 21st century obsession with the word ‘Team’. ‘Team GB’ at the Olympics was one thing, because it consisted of a massive entourage of professional and elite athletes who, ultimately, were fantastic and beat the French, Germans and Australians. But ‘Team Solent’ has taken it too far. Having ‘Team Solent’ plastered on every piece of kit (and even some of their cars) smacks of The Institute trying too hard to project a professional appearance, and the result is they sound ridiculously amateur. It’s like a pub football team, full of old men who insist on tacking ‘Athletic’ on the end of their name.

Before Solent start calling themselves ‘Team Solent’, they should start having to compete as a team in any competition other than BUCS. The upcoming Varsity day between the Universities of Southampton and Portsmouth presents an excellent opportunity for this ‘Team GB’ mentality to be used. The fact Southampton used to compete against Solent in a very similar style tournament called the Walkabout Cup, before Solent realised they were never going to beat us, took their ball and went home, is also relevant to this article...

It is for this reason that I anticipate the upcoming Varsity day on the 22nd of February so much. The Varsity day sees the University of Southampton take on the University of Portsmouth at over 24 sports with more than 45 fixtures scheduled. The day will give the whole Athletics Union a chance to see how we match up with a local competitor deserving of our rivalry, one that shares a lot more with us in sporting ethos and achievement than Solent do, or are likely to in the near future. Most importantly, the day promises to be a fantastic event, with over 1000 students hitting Wide Lane, music, food and booze aplenty, and an after party with a venue to be announced. Even if you are not going to compete, or are not as yet involved in University sport, I urge you to come along, for booze, beats and banter if nothing else.

We will be providing as comprehensive a coverage of the event as possible, so if anyone fancies either writing a match report for a game that they are taking part in, or kicking off their media career by coming down to Wide Lane and helping us report on all the action, please get in touch. Additionally, if anyone has a different opinion on the raison d’être of ‘Team Solent’, please mould your opinion into the form of a publishable article, instead of just screaming at me in Jesters. All you need now is an email address:

sport@wessexscene.co.uk.