The Roses Tournament is an annual sports competition between Lancaster University and the University of York in England, and is the largest inter-university sports tournament in Europe. It is organised by their respective Students' Unions, YUSU and LUSU. It takes its name from the 15th Century civil war, The Wars of the Roses, between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. The competition is held every summer, alternating its venue between the two universities.
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History
The first event happened on 15 May 1965 after the Vice-Chancellor of York, Lord James of Rusholme, suggested a boat race between the two universities. The students amplified this idea and held a 3-day event with a variety of sports: rowing, table tennis, relay race, mixed field hockey, and tug of war. The winner of each of the sports received two points, and the losing vice-chancellor presented a trophy to the winning university. The event has continued to increase in size since its founding, with new events added every year (2004 had 37 different sports). Live coverage of the event is broadcast every year by a joint collaboration between the two university's student television stations YSTV and LA1:TV, and its two student radio stations, Bailrigg FM and University Radio York. The importance of non-sporting social activities at the event has also been increased, with organised events on the Friday and Saturday evenings.
Results
Campaigns
The LUSU Full Time Officers ran campaigns during Roses 2016 including the 'Respect the Rose' campaign to ensure the event would be a safe and accessible space for all students. Following numerous sexist and racist incidents that occurred during Roses 2015 the year before, the campaign aimed to tackle discrimination in sport. The national *This Girl Can campaign was also ran on a local level as 'This Roses Girl Can' as part of a year-long campaign championing women in sport, tackling sexism in sport, closing the gendered participation gap and to challenge the under-representation of women's sport in wider society.