| List of UH Cup Winners |
The club currently hosts a seven-a-side and XVs tournament between the constituent hospitals/colleges. It also runs a representative side drawing players from all the respective hospitals which play numerous times a year. Previous opponents have included Cardiff Medics, The RAF U21s (questionable!) and the Oxford Greyhounds.
Below is a history of the UH Cup (the oldest rugby cup in the world). For more information about the club check out the ever-faithful wikipedia page by clicking here.
Allow me to take you back in time to Wednesday 3rd March 1875.At that time Wimbledon was still a croquet club. No-one had ever swum the English Channel. The telephone had not been invented. George Armstrong Custer was still feeling pretty cocky - riding around the American Plains picking fights with Native American tribes. But best of all, Chelsea Football Club did not exist. Heady days indeed!
Three significant things happened on that particular day:
1. In Paris Bizet's 'Carmen' was performed for the very first time.
2. In Montreal, Canada, the first organised game of ice hockey was played indoors.
3. At The Oval (which at that time not just an international cricket venue) at 3.30pm Guy's Hospital and St George's Hospital took the field in front of 400 spectators.
Guy's, wearing orange and blue kit, kicked off into the wind and went on to become the first winners of the United Hospitals Cup. St George's (wearing equally fetching green jersey, green shorts with brown socks) were to be the first beaten finalists, but would be victorious the following season.
These were the days before point scoring. Matches were won by goals (a converted try) whilst tries themselves had no real value but were counted up in case of a draw. Guy's Hospital won the game by 1 Goal (a converted try) and 1 try to 2 tries. The three additional 'tries' were all actually defensive touch downs. So in modern scoring the result was a 7-0 victory.
The 1875 final was played with 15 players per side. All international matches, the Varsity Match, County matches and all other significant games were still being played with the traditional 20 players per side and would continue to do so for a couple more years. It was the Hospital sides, and other London clubs, who were pioneering the more open, 15-a-side, game that is still in vogue today over 130 years later.
It would have been a rough game on the pitch. Not as rough, perhaps as in the early 1860s when Blackheath were forced to remind members that "throttling and strangling were opposed to the principles of the game".
It was only four years since the very first international match - Scotland v England in Edinburgh. The Oval had served as the venue of the very first international match played in England (versus Scotland) three years earlier.
It was to be another four years until the Calcutta Cup was first awarded to the winners of an England v Scotland game - making the Hospitals Cup the oldest cup competition in the game.
Equally importantly, it was two weeks since the very first England v Ireland international - also played at the Oval. The significance of that particular game was that it was no longer only England & Scotland playing international rugby. The entry of Ireland into the fray marked the origins of what we now call the Six Nations Championship.
It was still to be another 34 years until the opening of Twickenham Stadium.
With thanks to Jed Smith (RFU Museum of Rugby)
Below is a history of the UH Cup (the oldest rugby cup in the world). For more information about the club check out the ever-faithful wikipedia page by clicking here.
Allow me to take you back in time to Wednesday 3rd March 1875.At that time Wimbledon was still a croquet club. No-one had ever swum the English Channel. The telephone had not been invented. George Armstrong Custer was still feeling pretty cocky - riding around the American Plains picking fights with Native American tribes. But best of all, Chelsea Football Club did not exist. Heady days indeed!
Three significant things happened on that particular day:
1. In Paris Bizet's 'Carmen' was performed for the very first time.
2. In Montreal, Canada, the first organised game of ice hockey was played indoors.
3. At The Oval (which at that time not just an international cricket venue) at 3.30pm Guy's Hospital and St George's Hospital took the field in front of 400 spectators.
Guy's, wearing orange and blue kit, kicked off into the wind and went on to become the first winners of the United Hospitals Cup. St George's (wearing equally fetching green jersey, green shorts with brown socks) were to be the first beaten finalists, but would be victorious the following season.
These were the days before point scoring. Matches were won by goals (a converted try) whilst tries themselves had no real value but were counted up in case of a draw. Guy's Hospital won the game by 1 Goal (a converted try) and 1 try to 2 tries. The three additional 'tries' were all actually defensive touch downs. So in modern scoring the result was a 7-0 victory.
The 1875 final was played with 15 players per side. All international matches, the Varsity Match, County matches and all other significant games were still being played with the traditional 20 players per side and would continue to do so for a couple more years. It was the Hospital sides, and other London clubs, who were pioneering the more open, 15-a-side, game that is still in vogue today over 130 years later.
It would have been a rough game on the pitch. Not as rough, perhaps as in the early 1860s when Blackheath were forced to remind members that "throttling and strangling were opposed to the principles of the game".
It was only four years since the very first international match - Scotland v England in Edinburgh. The Oval had served as the venue of the very first international match played in England (versus Scotland) three years earlier.
It was to be another four years until the Calcutta Cup was first awarded to the winners of an England v Scotland game - making the Hospitals Cup the oldest cup competition in the game.
Equally importantly, it was two weeks since the very first England v Ireland international - also played at the Oval. The significance of that particular game was that it was no longer only England & Scotland playing international rugby. The entry of Ireland into the fray marked the origins of what we now call the Six Nations Championship.
It was still to be another 34 years until the opening of Twickenham Stadium.
With thanks to Jed Smith (RFU Museum of Rugby)
