Following on from the huge interest in the Cycle of Songs, Helen Weinstein, the Creative Director and Producer, was invited to the Rugby Union Football Club at Cambridge University. The meeting was to share ideas about how we might share the learning from the Cycle of Songs, about how best to translate sources and original research into a product that could be used and appreciated by many in the community not only those interested in Rugby Union.

Ian Minto, Director of Operations at Cambridge University Rugby Union is a very keen historian and has ambitions to develop and share the history of the club. We talked initially about ways to commemorate the First World War and the many members of the club who had served in the conflict, which we could organize together with a local history group to select source materials for a screenshow to show at the Twickenham Varsity Game this December.

However, once the Cycle of Songs app maps were distributed, we had a wider brainstorm about how we might extend the history of cycling into a history tour that incorporated all sports across the city and university, whether they be more formal games like rugby and football, less well known traditions from croquet and fives, or more informal sports, just as important to Cambridge’s identity, like skipping games at Parker’s Piece or swimming traditions in outdoor spaces from the Jesus Green Lido to the River Cam.

If you would like to join a local history group to explore the history of sport and leisure in the city, do please contact Ian Minto at the University Rugby Club via email: ian.minto@curufc.com