Sporting colours

christ's-hospital-cricket-colours
Pupils who are awarded Colours at Christ's Hospital school, receive a tie, and in the case of sporting colours awarded for cricket, they also receive a cricket cap with the school crest and cricket 'XI' embroidered at the front.

Sporting colours or just colours[1] (sometimes with a modifier, e.g. club colours or school colours) are awarded to members of a university or school who have excelled in a sport. Many schools do not limit their use to sport but may also give colours for academic excellence or non-sporting extra-curricular activities,[2][3][4] Colours are traditionally indicated by the wearing of a special tie or blazer.

Many university colours are known by the name of the colour used, which is usually the colour worn by the university's sports teams, e.g. Blue at Oxford and Cambridge, Palatinate at Durham, Pink at Trinity College Dublin or Red at Bristol. These are similar to the varsity letters awarded by American universities.

The level of representation required for the award of a colour varies between the different schemes. A full Palatinate at Durham, a Royal Blue at Liverpool or Full Colours at Cardiff require a student to have represented their country,[5][6][7] while at Oxford the requirement for a full Blue is to have represented the university in a varsity match against Cambridge in an eligible sport.[8] In many colour award schemes, it is possible to receive a half colour. These are normally given for lower levels of achievement than a full colour.

  1. ^ "colour Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary". dictionary.cambridge.org. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  2. ^ "School Colours". Woking High School. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  3. ^ "Colours Awards". Stirling High School. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  4. ^ "School Colours". Marr College. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  5. ^ Dominic Thurlow-Wood (23 June 2014). "Palatinate Ball signs off a record-breaking year for Team Durham". Palatinate.
  6. ^ "The University of Liverpool Athletic Union: Constitution & Guiding processes" (PDF). University of Liverpool. pp. 17–18. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  7. ^ "Athletic Union Awards Criteria" (PDF). Cardiff University Students' Union. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  8. ^ "Varsity and Blues Awards". University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 25 April 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2019.