Home of the Imperial Scientist
We are delighted to declare that the Royal College of Science emerged as the winners of the Sparkes Cup 2025 (rugby) competition AND winners of the Semmence Cup 2025 (netball) competition.
It was the second year of the netball competition and the first unveiling of the new Semmence Cup trophy to the public.
Many congratulations go to to all the players, particularly to our victors.
Please look back here to read the complete match reports, which should be posted shortly.… Read more...
Imperial’s inter-college rugby competition continues. Once again the RCS, C&G and RSM rugby teams are preparing to go head-to-head in the Sparkes Cup’s 2025 match!
Interleaved between those matches, the RCS, C&G and RSM NETBALL teams will compete head-to-head (for only the second time) for the new Semmence Cup.
The location is once more our traditional sporting home of Harlington (Sipson Lane, Harlington, Hayes UB3 5EH).
As in previous years, the RCSA, the CGCA and the RSMA are sponsoring this events making barbeque food and drink available……..all free of charge.
The date of 15th June 2025 is now only a few days away. Kick-off at 15:00. Keep the afternoon free and we look forward to seeing you at Harlington to cheer on the RCS to retain the Sparkes Cup and, to win for the first time, the Semmence Cup.
(If you like the support we offer to our students why not help us do more?… Read more...
After a year’s hiatus, the Sparkes Cup returned to Fortress Harlington on the 23rd of June 2024, better than ever. For the first time, not only did the competition see the Constituent Colleges fight it out on rugby field, but also on the netball court!
The day saw round robin fixtures between the RCS, C&G & RSM, alternating between Rugby & Netball fixtures, with some of the rugby lads exchanging the egg-shaped ball for the round one and trying their hand at Netball to bolster the numbers. Ultimately the victories went to the Royal College of Science for the rugby, and to the City & Guilds for the netball. With the Sparkes Cup coming home to the RCS.
Another success in the day came from former City & Guilds player Elliot Quigley, who was performing the first trial of the ‘Impact Indicator’ developed by his start-up GumGauge (https://gumgauge.co.uk/… Read more...
We are delighted to declare that the Royal College of Science emerged as the winners of the Sparkes Cup 2024 competition.
In the inaugural contest of the newly added and interleaved netball competition, it was CGC who were victorious.
Many congratulations go to to all the players, particularly to the victors.
Please look back here to read the complete match reports, which should be posted shortly.… Read more...
The traditional Sparks Cup line-up of RCS Rugby, CGC Rugby and RSM Rugby will be enhanced this year by a parallel three-way netball competition. So the contest on Sunday 23rd June at 15:00 at Harlington Sports Ground (Sipson Lane, Harlington, Hayes UB3 5EH), will start with an RSM vs RCS Netball match, followed thirty minutes later by the corresponding RSM vs RCS Rugby-7s match.
Commencing at 16:00, will be the RCS vs CGC Netball match, followed thirty minutes later by the corresponding RCS vs CGC Rugby-7s match.
Then from 17:00, the CGC vs RSM Netball match, followed thirty minutes later by the corresponding CGC vs RSM Rugby-7s match.
That will conclude the group stages, whereupon the top two in the rankings will go on to contest the finals. If a final is drawn at full time, there will be five minutes each way of extra time with a golden point.… Read more...
Latest: Kick off time announced: 15:00
Imperial’s inter-college rugby competition continues. Once again the RCS, C&G and RSM teams are preparing to go head-to-head in the Sparkes Cup’s 2024 match! The location will please many of you: we are once more returning to our traditional home of Harlington (Sipson Lane, Harlington, Hayes UB3 5EH).
As in previous years, the RCSA, the CGCA and the RSMA are sponsoring this events making barbeque food, drink and even a certain number of coach spaces between the Union and Harlington available……..all free of charge.
Sprightly alumni members are, for the first time, encouraged to bring their boots and join in. The captains will be rapidly rotating through their squads, so fear not, we are talking of short stints. Just sufficient to really deserve that pint in the Harlington Bar afterwards.
The date of 23rd June 2024 is now only a few days away.… Read more...
After a 3-year pandemic-enforced absence, we were delighted to once again compete for the Sparkes Cup, and better still, it was possible to hold the competition at Harlington. It took until the last kick of the tournament to settle this year’s closely contested competition.
There was early disappointment as the RSM captain, out of action through injury, reluctantly conceded that our smallest constituent college would not be able to assemble a competitive team this year. But there were spectators to entertain and a very enthusiastic referee to keep busy, so the RCS and C&G captains agreed to retain the traditional three-match format. The competition would be based on the best of three matches and their two teams would face each other up to three times.
Here is a quick summary, the first game was won comfortably by C&G 33-12. The second game was much closer, won right at the end by RCS 24-19.… Read more...
Imperial’s inter-college rugby competition continues after a covid-induced hiatus. Once again the RCS, C&G and RSM teams are preparing to go head-to-head in the Sparkes Cup’s 2022 match! The location will please many of you: we are returning to our traditional home of Harlington. Once again the RCSA, the CGCA and the RSMA are sponsoring this events making barbeque food, drink and even a certain number of coach spaces between the Union and Harlington available……..all free of charge.
The date is now only a few days away. Keep it free and we look forward to seeing you at Harlington, and to cheering on an RCS victory.… Read more...
MATCH REPORT: On the 22nd of June 2019, a group of approximately seventy students and alumni of Imperial College London descended upon Grasshoppers RFC for the third annual Sparkes Cup since its revival in 2017. A competition steeped in history between the three constituent colleges of Imperial: the City & Guilds College, the Royal School of Mines and last but not least the Royal College of Science.
The day started in West Kensington, when a group of students, players and spectators boarded a bus towards our hosts for the day, Grasshoppers RFC. Arriving at the venue for 12.30pm, the players of the three colleges began to warm up for the round-robin seven-a-side tournament, whilst the spectators settled in for an exciting day of rugby.
The first match of the day saw the engineers take on the miners, who in previous years have struggled for numbers but were anything but intimidated and took the game to the engineers.… Read more...
The saga of Imperial’s inter-college social rugby competition continues, with the RCS, C&G and RSM once more preparing to go head to head for the Sparkes Cup’s 2019 match!
The proposed date and location is Saturday the 22nd June at Grasshoppers RFC in Osterley.
Further details are on Facebook. See here https://www.facebook.com/events/1286584928171302/
(You can read about last year’s Sparkes Cup here.)… Read more...