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Varsity Athletics Match is an annual athletics (track and field) match between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge held annually since 1864.

Exeter College, Oxford, were the first to hold college sports, in 1850. Other colleges followed suit in quick succession and sometime in 1856 a committee was formed under Robert Barclay of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the first inter-college athletic sports were held at Fenner's, the Cambridge University cricket ground, from 16 to 18 March 1857. These would come to be known as the Cambridge University Sports. Oxford University emulated that in 1860 and the first athletics match between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge took place on the Christ Church College cricket ground in Oxford, on Saturday 5 March 1864. There were eight events on the programme and the match ended in a draw, with each team winning four events. There not being any women at either university at the time the meet was open to men only, and women did not participate until 1975.

Athletics was not the first sport to establish a match between Oxford and Cambridge. They had played cricket in 1827, rowing started in 1829, rackets in 1855, and tennis in 1860. That's real tennis, lawn tennis was not developed until the 1870s. They also played billiards in 1860, had their first rifle shooting match in 1862, and had a steeplechase match in 1863.

The only field events on the programme that first year were the long jump and high jump, both of which were won by Francis Gooch, Merton College, Oxford. Benjamin Darbyshire, Wadham College, Oxford, won both the 100 yards and 440 yards, while four different Cambridge athletes, all from Trinity College, won their four events. Charles Lawes won the 1 mile, Arthur Daniel the 120 yard hurdles, Edward Wynne-Finch won the 200 yard hurdles, the only time the event has ever been held in the match, and Richard Garnett won the steeplechase. Unlike a modern steeplechase held on the track, this was held over 2 miles of rough country, with the athletes twice negotiating a 12-foot brook and several hedges before returning to finish on the track.

In 1867 the authorities at Oxford University refused permission for the match to be held there and the venue switched to Beaufort House in West London. The Civil Service Sports had been held there since 1864, the Amateur Athletic Club Championship had been held there in 1866, it was the premier athletics venue in London and the change of venue established the varsity match as an important part of the social calendar of the day. By 1876 fifteen thousand spectators came annually to watch the match.

The 1868 edition saw five world best performances. John Tennent of Wadham College, Oxford, equalled the world best of 10 seconds for 100 yards; John Ridley of Jesus College, Cambridge set new figures of 51 seconds for 440 yards; William Gibbs, also of Jesus College, Cambridge, established new best figures of 4:28 4/5 for 1 mile; John Morgan of Trinity College, Oxford ran 15:20 1/5 for 3 miles, the first time the event had been held in the match, and Thomas Batson of Lincoln College, Oxford, threw the hammer 99ft 6in (30.34m).

In 1864 and 1865 Francis Gooch (Merton, Oxford) won both the high jump and long jump events, for a total of four event wins, a record that was not broken until 1913 when Henry Ashington (King's, Cambridge) won five events in two years and seven events in three years. After finishing last in 1 mile in 1911 he won the 120 yard hurdles and long jump in 1912, the same two events plus the 880 yards in 1913, the first to win three events in one year, and won the high jump and long jump in 1914. He died in action on 31 January 1917.

Sports
Originally, poles were made of ash and from hickory wood. Bamboo poles were introduced in 1904, and both aluminum and steel poles appeared after 1945. Glass fiber vaulting poles were invented in 1967 by James Monroe Lindler of the Columbia Products Company, Columbia, South Carolina. An application filed on 10 March 1967 was granted patent status on 27 January 1970 for the manufacture of, "a vaulting pole of hollow construction with an integral helical winding," and a method of manufacturing the same (see: US Patent US3491999A). The process starts with a metal tube, referred to in the industry as a mandrel, around which is wound a tape made of glass fibers impregnated with a resin. This is baked in an oven and after cooling the mandrel is removed to leave a hollow glass fiber tube. This process was based on a similar method used for manufacturing glass fiber golf clubs patented by the Woolley Manufacturing Company of Escondido, California in 1954 (see: US Patent US2822175A).

In September 2005, Jeffrey P. Watry, Ralph W. Paquin, and Kenneth A. Hursey of Gill Athletic, Champaign, Illinois, filed application to patent a new method of winding the glass fibers around the pole in layers, each wound in a different direction or orientation to provide specific properties to various parts of the pole. This was called Carbon Weave, and their patent was granted on 21 October 2008 (see: US Patent US3491999A). David J. Dodge and William C. Doble of the Alliance Design and Development Group of New York City, New York, were granted a patent in 2006 for the manufacture of, "sports equipment having a tubular structural member" which led to the introduction of carbon fiber vaulting poles in 2007 (see: US Patent US7140398B2).

The first world record to be set with a bamboo pole occurred at Berkeley, California, on 23 April 1904 when Norman Dole (Stanford) cleared at the third attempt. He had broken the record on 22 March at, but since this was not in a regular inter-collegiate meet it was not submitted for ratification.

The first world record to be set with an aluminium pole occurred at Stanford University on 27 April 1957 during a dual meet between Occidental College and Stanford University, when Bob Gutowski (Occidental) cleared at his first attempt and then had three failures at.

There was only ever one world record with a steel pole, when Don Bragg (Villanova) cleared to win the United States Olympic Trials at Stanford Stadium on 2 July 1960.

The first world record with a synthetic (fiber glass) pole occurred at the Big 8 Championship meet at Boulder, Colorado, on 20 May 1961 when George Davies (Oklahoma State) cleared at his third attempt.

Horsebread
The making and selling of horse bread was controlled by law. In 1389 an act of parliament, The Statute of Victuallers and Hostellers (13 Richard II c. 8.) specified that hostelers and inn keepers were not permitted to make horse bread for sale, but that it could only be made by certified bakers, and that the weight and price of loaves should be, "Reasonable after the price of Corn in the Market." No punishment was specified for offenders, but in 1402 under king Henry IV (4 Henry IV c. 25.) the fine was set at three times the value of the bread sold.

In 1540 under king Henry VIII (32 Henry VIII c. 41) these terms were amended so that any hosteller or inn keeper in a town where there had been no baker for seven years was permitted to make horse bread for sale as long as the price was reasonable, "according as the price of the graynes of corn that now is.'' And this was confirmed in 1623 by a further act under king James I, An Acte Concerning Hostlers or Inholders (21 James 1. c. 21) where justices of the peace were given authority to set the fine as they saw fit.