The Cambridge University Swimming and Water Polo Club (CUSWPC) has been described by the men’s water polo captain as in a “precarious situation”. This is because the club has suffered increasing costs and less training time, only worsened by the University failing their development requirement to build a pool in the last seven years.

As part of the new Eddington development, the University was asked to contribute a new pool, as the new homes would put greater pressure on existing leisure facilities. However, the University failed to build a pool in the seven years allowed since the first house on the site was built, and consequently was fined £600,000 in June by the local authority.

The men’s water polo captain, Callum Malcolm, told Varsity that the larger area of Cambridge is “in need of a pool”. This is a particular issue for the water polo teams, who don’t have a regulation pool anywhere in Cambridge. The team have to do a 100-mile round-trip just to their home games, which are in Northampton. This incurs great transport costs for the club, with water polo responsible for around 90% of the club’s entire transport costs at over £9,000 a year.

“The water polo team have to do a 100-mile round-trip just to their home games”

The demand on pools in Cambridge has had an impact on the amount of pool time CUSWPC can access for their teams. In a five-year plan sent to alumni of the club, the club says pool time has halved from 2018-2023. Currently water polo train three hours per week and the swimmers around six. This is much lower in comparison to other universities, with Oxford offering 16 hours of pool time a week.

This is because pool time is so expensive to acquire in Cambridge. The treasurer of CUSWPC told Varsity that the club spend over £40,000 on pool time for the Blues and Seconds squads alone. This is excluding the cost of hosting Varsity, which is in the range of £8,000.

This huge cost limits the amount of pool time the club can afford, with them having to balance “affordable” membership fees with adequate training time. This is a particular issue for the Water Polo Society, whose huge transport fees limit the amount of money they can spend on training.

Training for water polo is also done in a standard swimming pool, instead of a regulation one which is deeper and doesn’t have a shallow end. Players have said this detriments their training and prompts mocking from Oxford when they use the pool for Varsity fixtures.

“You come here and get worse at your sport”

This lack of training time takes a toll on the quality of swimmers and water polo players at the University. Callum told Varsity that “you come here and get worse at your sport”. This is reflected in the Varsity results of recent years, with the club suffering an across-the-board loss last year, and the gap between Cambridge and Oxford only growing. It also limits the number of members who can receive a Blue, as it relies on swim time and few people achieve enough due to lack of training hours.

And all this ultimately comes at a huge cost to members. The average cost of membership across the entire club in 2023-24 came to £643.23 per person, with this having increased 154% in the last five years. These membership costs don’t even include the cost of individual equipment such as training wear which individuals will need, nor the cost to enter competitions. This is far more than other universities in the country, with water polo fees at Oxford – who train at their university-owned pool – being £90 and as low as £60 at Liverpool.

The club is aware of this financial burden on members and that it is leading to the sport becoming inaccessible to many. But the club does hope to be able to offer subsidisation of fees for those on lower incomes, but with its current financial situation this will take time.

However, the club does get a significant contribution from the University, like other sports societies. The University provides £14,000 in grant money to CUSWPC to help cover costs, this figure having increased by £3000 two years ago. This year they are also providing more support to the club, having pledged to match alumni donations, which will double the potential £3,500 they could get. There is also a new scheme in which the University is offering a 50% subsidy of all car hire costs for transport to games, however this doesn’t include fuel costs. But when the club spends over 40 grand on pool time alone, this contribution is a drop in the swimming pool.

“It’s hard to sell a sport that costs so much”

The high costs and shortage of training time has led to a dramatic decrease in new sign-ups. The president of CUSWPC, Menna Walmsley, told Varsity that it’s “hard to sell a sport that costs so much”. The club has many freshers walk away from their stand as soon as it’s revealed how much membership will cost them. The club’s five-year plan also states that there’s a threat of students choosing Oxford and other universities over Cambridge because of their superior swim teams. The treasurer, a water polo player himself, told Varsity that few want to commit that much money to a new sport: “Why would they pay this much to play water polo when they could pay nothing to play frisbee?”

The situation of the club has been described as “frustrating” by Callum, the men’s water polo captain. He criticised the University for their priorities, pointing out “we have an indoor rowing facility before we have a pool”.

The president said “the club are scraping by and have nothing to show for it”, which was echoed by Callum who expressed the society is just “trying the best we can”.

It’s hoped that the club will be able to recoup some money this year to build stability, with the five-year plan for the club aiming to improve their quality, especially in making the club competitive against Oxford. But with costs of transport and pool time only set to increase with time, and thus the cost of membership, this will be a struggle against the tide for CUSWPC.