Interview by Grace Gibson
For recent generations of Blues, there is an institution that seems to be as well-established as the Varsity Match itself. I am of course referring to Fez, Tim Stevens, the Drunken Ferret himself. Despite retiring from his role as General Manager last season, Fez can still often be found roaming the offices of Iffley Road, particularly before and after his regular ‘gym and swim’ at the Sports Centre. On one such occasion, I snared him to get some wisdom on Varsity in years gone by as the campaign for the 2025 Varsity Matches heats up.
When asked about his best moment on the pitch, he remembered the first Oxford win in his time working at the club, in December 2004. It was his third match from the Dark Blue camp, building on the loss and draw of ‘02 and ‘03. Fez remembers that this team had lost their Major Stanley’s match-up the month before 29-33, one of only 4 losses that season, but came storming back to a 18-11 victory at Varsity. Soaking in the victory at Twickenham, surrounded by and cheering on a seriously “high quality” team, it appears that the first high was the sweetest.
Even the six consecutive victories in the 2010s (the longest running winning streak in Varsity history) couldn’t quite come close to that first taste of the ultimate victory. This spell on top came up when discussing the highs and lows of university rugby: the turnover. Each year, key players move on, and new players join, creating an entirely new dynamic which will dictate the season. Fez reasons that the successive wins came largely from the maintenance of a central core group, creating a “firmer foundation” for the coaches. The players’ familiarity with each other and knowledge of strategy resulted in a "vibrant” environment where new players could fit into existing roles and rhythms.
Fez reiterates the importance of this club ethos when asked about his favourite moment off the pitch... though the Ferret manages to wrangle the question to speak about another Varsity Match. In 2014, during the Dark Blue victory streak, Oxford won by their largest margin to date and with their highest score: 43-6. Captain George Messum was named in January 2015 on the back of this game, yet it was in October that Fez and the club finally admitted defeat in conceding that his course made him technically ineligible to play in that year’s Varsity Match. The team went on to win in what Fez calls “a measure of a player’s captaincy, that your team can play for you when you’re on the touchline”. This recognition of dedication to the club is typical of Fez’s quietly relentless mission to create the best player experience possible from behind the scenes. 2015 was also the first year that the Women*s Varsity Match was moved to Twickenham and to the same date as the Men*s match, creating an equality that is prioritised at OURFC to this day, ten years later.
The Ferret’s wisdom was also on full display when discussing one of the worst moments he experienced at a Varsity Match the following year, when the string of wins ended in 2016. Fez found himself looking around the changing rooms and realising that he was the only person in the room to have experienced a Varsity loss. In the past six years, the team had regenerated completely, but the coaching and medical staff had also changed, meaning that no one else knew how to react to the defeat. With characteristic humility, surely misplaced, Fez assures me that captain, Fergus Taylor, won’t remember his advice: that this loss wouldn’t be what defined him or his captaincy. Fez had come from spending some time with the 2006 team celebrating their tenth anniversary of a match that was also a loss and shared with both me and Fergus the comfort he had found in seeing them enjoying the day completely independently of the score on either occasion.
These stories of individuals are what makes OURFC the “vibrant” place it is, coming through in every question as each prompts a different memory. Fez is explicit that the absolute best thing about all his years of service was meeting people, from players to presidents to parents. He is adamant that the club is “not bricks and mortar” but “all about the people”, remembering Rosie Lamb’s words at half time in 2012. Wife of the late Ronnie Lamb, ex-captain and chairman, Rosie leant forward and held his hands as the teams walked off with the Light Blues leading 18-3 as she told him: “keep the faith, the boys will be good”. Come full time, the Dark Blues won the day, embodying the excitement and unpredictability of Varsity Matches throughout the years.
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