Kian Gadsby and Ollie Stevenson
Winning a varsity title is a highlight of any student-athlete’s career in Nottingham.
The opportunity to play your sport and showcase your talent against your fierce rivals with a trophy on the line in front of a packed crowd is one to remember. Many great athletes have passed their university careers without winning or even participating in the event, so when you earn three victories and two man of the match titles across four matches, that becomes the stuff of legend.
“I can’t complain, can I?” grins Luke Thornton. The Ice Hockey goalie spent a decade playing for the Nottingham Mavericks, serving as the shot-stopper for the University of Nottingham in the 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023 renditions of the clash. After a decade of service, including taking on the role of president, he perhaps knows Varsity better than anyone.
Varsity is a big deal, as it’s the main opportunity for the sports teams to take the spotlight. Although everyone in the sporting world at either university knows how historic Varsity is, the event is even more special for Nottingham Mavericks. The student-run Ice Hockey club is formed of players from both UoN and Trent, meaning, for one night a year, friends and teammates become enemies on the rink.
The impact is clear to see throughout the club, especially in training. Even though they play together in their quest for trophies all year round, Thornton revealed that the weight of the Varsity match is prominent at the club during preparations, with players putting in extra effort a couple of months in advance to enhance their chances of selection.
“You see intensity levels of training go up, players want to start standing out. Even in the changing room players will start taking little jabs at each other and making jokes about, which is all good, but you know it’s getting serious because all that starts happening.”
“Every single person on that team, whether that’s players the coaching staff, everyone that helps out with equipment, they all take it incredibly seriously and they all have very important roles on that day.
“It’s the biggest day of our calendar. It’s sort of bigger than the Mavericks, there’s just something unique and different about the varsity game that it’s just honestly in a tier of its own.”
Although he played a critical role in multiple editions, Thornton’s shining moment in the series was in 2023. UoN came into the game as underdogs, but even after going 1-0 down early on, a string of saves from Thornton kept the Green and Gold in the game. That set the stage for a dramatic final period, where UoN scored twice to snatch a 2-1 victory and spark jubilant celebrations.
The night clearly carries fond memories, as just mentioning the game is enough to bring a smile to Luke’s face. He put the upset down to the team’s mentality and belief that they could defy the odds to snatch victory.
“At the start, a few of us were sort of a bit like, ‘oh, we’ll just go out and have fun because we’re not really expecting too much.’ But as soon as we realised we could actually get something out of this game, the intensity level in the changing room and on the bench with the coaches during that second period just went up a bit.”
“When we got to the third period, we were like, ‘this third period is ours, it’s our game to win here, we can do this.’ The game had been close for all three periods, and we scored twice close to the end and somehow, we managed to pull it off.”
This year, the players will be roared on by a sold-out crowd at Motorpoint Arena, with the attendance poised to eclipse the 5,585 who attended last year’s event. Having played in front of these crowds himself, Thornton confirmed that the fans do influence the match, saying that he believed they helped the Green and Gold to complete that 2023 turnaround.
“When you start to hear our fans, the players take note of that. That third period, I think the crowd definitely were a part of that and come back scoring those goals for sure.”
Since that glorious night, the University of Nottingham have not been able to replicate that joy on the rink. Trent got their revenge with a 17-4 demolition the following year, and although the 2025 scoreline was closer, the Green and Gold were still bested 7-5.
Despite those setbacks and coming into the game as underdogs yet again, Thornton feels like UoN have a chance to get the series off to a perfect start this time around.
There are some talented players on their roster, and they may be able to draw from the class of 2023 to return the trophy back into their hands. In particular, he elected to pick out Ben Marples to have an influence for UoN and be a player to watch because, “he’ll be a leader in the changing room, and he’ll be a leader on the ice for the game this year.”
With the game on 2nd February kicking off the series, the Green and Gold will be hoping to get their Varsity defence off to a perfect start. If they can recapture the spirit of that 2023 victory, then the class of 2026 will avenge the recent disappointment and join Thornton on the list of UoN sport legends.
Kian Gadsby and Ollie Stevenson
Featured image courtesy of Unsplash. Image use license found here (Unsplash). No changes were made to this image.
In article image 1 courtesy of Nottingham Mavericks via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 2 courtesy of UoN Sport via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.
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