JCR Sports & Societies Officer Harry McLusky (MML) gives us a rundown of the College's successful day competing against the Other Place:

The Corpus Challenge is an annual event between Corpus Christi College Cambridge and Corpus Christi College Oxford, in which both colleges compete in an array of sporting and non-sporting activities, from arts and crafts to badminton and board games to football for the ultimate bragging rights and a slightly mediocre trophy that has gone missing in recent years (though not stolen, unlike Benet the Bear…).

In 2026, the Corpus Challenge finally returned to Cambridge after a three-year hiatus and was an overall success, with Corpus Cambridge prevailing in a resounding 19-6 victory over their Oxford counterparts. 

Over 120 bleary-eyed Corpus Oxford students made the early-morning journey, seeking to retain the trophy, having been ‘victorious’ on home turf in 2025 (according to their slightly dubious scoring system). 

Events were held across the College and the city, with badminton, volleyball and basketball kicking off at midday at the Leys Sports Complex. Meanwhile, chess and bar sports took place in the Pelican Bar and table tennis unfolded in the JCR. 

In the McCrum Lecture Theatre, Cambridge students were looking to come out on top once again in a University Challenge style quiz. Questions ranged from Nobel Prize winners featured in Oppenheimer to drinking and philosophy. The Cambridge team, led by Robert Dakers, navigated their way expertly through unnecessarily difficult topics and poor pronunciation from myself to prevail with a 200-140 scoreline. 

At Old House, victories were also secured in arts and crafts, darts, poker, pool, table football and table tennis. Meanwhile, on the river, in preparation for their upcoming Lent Bumps campaign, W2 were unfortunate to not come out on top against a fierce Oxford mixed 8 who had to hire a crew from Girton to impede W2’s otherwise speedy time trial to guarantee victory.

Over at Leckhampton, the sun decided to appear for the first time in 2026, offering the perfect stage for sport (presuming Oxford decided to show up). Cambridge came away narrow victors in netball, whilst also recording impressive wins in tennis and touch rugby. The sidelines were packed for both the men’s and women/NB football. In the latter, Cambridge proved their dominance, comfortably winning 9-2. This victory unfortunately could not be matched by the men, who threw away a 3-0 half-time lead (a Corpus Cambridge special!) to end up on the wrong side of a 5-3 scoreline. 

Jacob Sawyer’s tug of war tied off the day’s sporting events, with Cambridge rallying to claim one last victory of the day, a mere drop in the ocean in comparison with our mammoth 19-6 demolition job. 

A huge thank you must go to the groundstaff at Leckhampton, the Dean of College, the porters and all JCR committee members and group leaders who helped to bring this amazing day together. Bring on Oxford 2027…