The University of Edinburgh’s Intramural (IM) All-Stars event is one of the highlights in the University of Edinburgh’s sporting calendar. Players are pulled from the plethora of IM teams from all corners of the university and get put up against the respective university sports club. Since its inception in 2018, the event has grown rapidly and is an excellent opportunity for players to represent IM and show the quality it possesses.
This year’s rendition of the series took place on Wednesday, March 19 and featured an array of different sports. Over 150 IM players took part with around 70 IM teams being represented, a great advert for the wide-ranging appeal that the All-Stars initiative has created. In addition, 150 club members participated throughout the day. This level of engagement has increased from previous years, and is a testament to the positive changes the Sport’s Union made to ensure that the day was a success.
The Student spoke to the Sport’s Union Vice President Intramural, Marcus Cunnington, who played an integral role in running the event, and in running the rest of the Intramural Sport at the university.
“In years past, All-Stars has struggled to get all of its fixtures played. The decision was made this year to move the event to March which allowed more opportunity for all of the fixtures to take place. This resulted in a really enjoyable day of sport, and a true showcase of what IM has to offer in the wider university sporting context.”
The All-Stars took precious victories in basketball, tennis and volleyball. The men’s rugby was the closest fixture, with the Rugby Club ultimately snatching the win by one point. All of the other results – namely netball, hockey, table tennis, and men’s and women’s football – went in the respective university clubs’ favour.
Despite this apparent dominance, Cunnington also stressed the importance of bringing people at the university together and how the day was taken in a competitive yet light-hearted spirit:
“All-Stars is a great way to show off what the IM programme is to the students at the University of Edinburgh.”
“From what I saw throughout the day, there was a great array of sporting ability and a real sense of community. The standouts were the IM Basketball Team who overturned a large deficit at half time to come away with the win, and the performative parts of the IM men’s football match with the players doing a Champions League-esque line-up before kick off.”
It’s fair to say that this year’s IM-All Stars was a brilliant success, showcasing the very best of what sport at the University of Edinburgh has to offer.
Photo Credits: Marcus Cunnington