Vet school sports

Vet students have their own little community, not only within their own university but also across the eight vet schools throughout the UK.

We’re all members of the Association of Veterinary Students (AVS) and through this, take part in an annual sports weekend, hosted by a different university each year.

In addition to this, Glasgow and Edinburgh (The Royal Dick School of Veterinary Studies) have their own inter-vet-school sports competition, “Dick Day”.

Both events take place in November.

Over the last few years, AVS Sports Weekend has strayed from actually involving much sport. So when the Glasgow students rocked up in Liverpool this year (dressed as the cast from Michael Jackson’s Thriller), we were all taken aback by the number of matches that had been organised and the variety of sport available… quite a contrast from the mere hint at some hungover rugby last year.

Nevertheless, we at least managed to scrape together a team for the mixed netball. Needless to say, we didn’t fare too well and finished seventh out of the eight vet schools overall.

Unsurprisingly, Liverpool won overall, putting the students from other vet schools to shame, most of whom were too busy ceilidh dancing or getting started on the pub crawl to concentrate on sport.

Dick Day, however, was another matter; the rivalry between Glasgow and Edinburgh was as fierce as ever and the sport was taken seriously.

We didn’t make a great start, losing the netball, mixed hockey, ladies football, ladies rugby and volleyball. However, it wasn’t all bad news – the equestrian team, men’s football and men’s rugby team pulled through to give us some victory.

Although we lost to Edinburgh overall, spirits were still high by the end of the day, since it was only the second time we’d beaten Edinburgh in the rugby on their home turf in 150 years.

There are few other courses that provide the opportunity to enjoy some competitive sport and social events with students from other universities in the way that we do. At AVS I saw several friends from other schools, and it was great to have a brief catch-up before resuming the inter-vet-school banter with the other Glasgow vets.

These events are just another reason to add to the list of why being a vet student in the UK is so incredible.