The Bottle Match is a

varsity match A varsity match in Britain and Ireland is a fixture, especially of a sporting event or team, between university teams, usually the highest-level team, or varsity team, in that sport. The University Match in cricket between Oxford University an ...

played between the

Camborne School of Mines Camborne School of Mines (), commonly abbreviated to CSM, was founded in 1888. Its research and teaching is related to the understanding and management of the Earth's natural processes, resources and the environment. It has undergraduate, postg ...

(CSM) of

Exeter University The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School o ...

and the

Royal School of Mines The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bioe ...

(RSM) of

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

. The first recorded match between the two sides took place on 16 December 1902. The Bottle Match started as a

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

match, but as the schools sporting interests diversified, other sports began to be played as part of the match. Since 2006, the match has included six games played between the two institutions: men's

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, men's and women's

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

, squash and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

. As of 2010,

Netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

has been included as an event. In 2017, mixed-gender

Lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

was added to the list of sports. The Bottle Match is traditionally held in February, normally on the third weekend of the month. The match reflects a long-standing rivalry between the RSM and CSM.

Trophies

The winner of the Bottle trophy itself hinges entirely on the outcome of the rugby match. The winning team takes home the 'Bottle', a 3-ft tall tin beer bottle adorned with the two crests of the institution, which was acquired in 1926 by a number of RSM students from the top of a

Bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

lorry. Since the 1950s, players on the winning side were presented with personal tankards from the South African-based company Union Corporation/ Gencor. This tradition continues with the tankards provided by Michael West and the ''Mining Journal''. There is also a trophy awarded to the

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

. The Centenary Bottle Match was held in Cornwall in 2002, with RSM being victorious, and Anton Griffiths from CSM winning the man of the match trophy. The winners of the men's hockey take the Sharpley Cup, a silver cup presented by J.E. Sharpley, an RSM alumnus, in the 1950s. The winners of the women's hockey take the Golders Cup, a small silver cup presented by Golder Associates the 1990s.

Bottle Match results

Total wins

''Note that there are 28 missing years from the tally.''

Bottle Match weekend results

Where scores are available: ''Note that when matches are drawn, the trophy is retained by the previous winners. The "2021 Bottle Match" was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.''

References

External links