Sport
Sports facilities at Queen’s, most of which have been updated and refurbished in the last three years, are second to no other Oxford college,
The College sports ground is beautifully located on the southern bank of the Isis, within easy walking distance of all the College’s buildings. It has well-tended football and hockey pitches, an excellent cricket square and nets, newly refurbished hard tennis courts, also used for netball, and a welcoming pavilion, used for serving teas in the summer and drinks throughout the year, and containing spacious changing and showering facilities. Queen’s rugby team plays its home games at nearby University College sports ground.
On the opposite bank of the Isis in Christ Church meadow sits the College boathouse which is shared with Oriel and Lincoln Colleges. In its own clubroom, Queen’s oarsmen and oarswomen are able to use the minigym as part of their training programme.
At the rear of the Queen’s Cardo Building in Iffley Road, that houses some eighty undergraduates, are the two College squash courts, generally regarded as the best in Oxford, refurbished in 2009 and heated throughout the year. The Cardo Building is opposite to the Oxford University rugby ground, swimming pool, gymnasium, and running track, famous for its being the venue for Roger Bannister’s first ever four-minute mile.
In the Back Quadrangle of the College there is a well-appointed table-tennis room, recently having received a new ‘sportsfloor’, making the facility the best of its kind in any Oxford college. The College table-tennis teams use the room for matches and practice, but it is also used by many other members of the College who find it a relaxing diversion when working in the adjacent Library.
As part of the recent refurbishment of the Queen’s Lane Building a completely new gymnasium was created. Open to all members of the College, it is widely regarded as the best college gymnasium in an Oxford college.
Queen’s has its own sports clubs in rugby, football, hockey, cricket, rowing, tennis, netball, squash, badminton, table-tennis, lacrosse, sailing, and croquet, many clubs having a men’s and a women’s section. Sport in Queen’s is run by the Amalgamated Clubs Committee which consists of an elected president and secretary, and captains of sports, along with a non-voting Senior Treasurer. The standard of college sport is not very high, but the level of participation and the enthusiasm and enjoyment of its participants in Queen’s is very high indeed, many undergraduates participating in several sports.
Facilities for those engaged in many other sports are provided by the University, which also caters for particularly talented sportsmen and sportswomen in sports pursued at college level.