Wertonfield reached the Women’s Football Final in Cuppers 2026

Following the Cupper’s final, which the team took to sudden-death penalties, second-year medic, centre back and team captain, Elsie Hunter Rawlings (Medicine, Preclinical, 2024), tells us about their Cuppers journey and the future for Wertonfield, the underdogs of women’s football.

Having always loved football and played a lot of it at school, Elsie was looking forward to continuing this at university. Elsie has been part of Wertonfield (the combined Wadham, Merton, and Mansfield team otherwise known as ‘The Bears’) since their first year at Wadham. Wadham joined Merton and Mansfield, formerly known as ‘The M’s’, three years ago. Wertonfield’s proudly pink kit, new last year thanks to a grant from Mansfield, now displays the three college crests across it.

In Wertonfield’s first season, they had few players and it was hard to get a team together. It was a challenge to promote women’s football and the team, and to encourage players to turn up consistently. Wertonfield is free to join and is accessible to everyone; you don’t need to have played football or any sport before. There is a wide range of abilities in this team where everyone is welcome, which, as Elsie says, ‘is kind of the point’.

The hard work by Elsie’s predecessor, the previous Wertonfield Captain who organised regular training sessions and socials within a very open environment, soon paid off. Women’s football became the first choice of sport for members of the three colleges who weren’t doing university sport. Elsie is one of this year’s Freshers’ Reps, so they encouraged new recruits to join Wertonfield. As a result, many freshers did, and it is now their main sport, as well as a great way for everyone to get outside and have fun. It provides consistency for the team too, to have regular players for the weekly matches.

So, now did such a new team reach the Cuppers finals twice in a row? As Elsie told us, ‘Not many people get to play in a Cuppers final. It’s an amazing thing to happen once, let alone twice. 100%, I think we can do it next year and as many years as possible. The final thing we need to do is win it! We’re getting closer every year…’

With a story rivalling that of the England team in major championships, the final was equally tense for Wertonfield in 2025 and 2026. Both years, the same teams met in the semi-finals, with Wertonfield taking on High Street (the combined forces of Teddy Hall, Univ, and Oriel). Last year, the score was 1-1 until the end of extra time when Wertonfield’s striker scored with the last kick of the game, taking them through to the final. This year, Wertonfield took the victory against High Street on penalties.

In 2025, Wertonfield lost 4-2 in the final against Hertble, Hertford and Keble’s joint team, after having had a goal controversially disallowed. This year, for the first 20 minutes, things weren’t looking good for Wertonfield, with their (ex-Blues) keeper needing to fend off a volley of shots. After that, things started to even out as the team locked in more. Again, the opposing team was Hertble, who took the first goal at about 30 minutes, with Wertonfield equalising just before half time. In the second half, everyone worked hard and they managed to rattle the opposition, including their Blues players. With 17 players, Elsie could bring on subs although it was a challenge to do this whilst playing in the match, particularly towards the end when they were thinking about who needed to be on the pitch to take penalties. Yet more drama occurred when the Wertonfield player who would have taken the first penalty got injured, and both teams missed a couple of penalties. Elsie scored Wertonfield’s fifth penalty, taking the match to sudden death. Unfortunately, the result did not go their way, and High Street took the victory, but Wertonfield and we are so proud of their achievement.

As Elsie says, people don’t expect Wertonfield to win. They don’t have many players who play football for the university; the reason they win is that they are a real ‘team’. Some colleges bring their Blues players on for occasional important games, as they don’t have time for consistent college football. Lots of teams struggle to get players. Wertonfield has the opposite problem. They have a lot of people who want to play because the club is so open, accessible and social that people want to make it part of their weekly routine.

Wertonfield teammates play football together a lot and they all like each other, which helps them to pull through, even against big teams. In the last three Cuppers matches, the quarter-final, semi-final, and final, Wertonfield took on teams with many Blues players. Elsie told us, ‘…we’re always the underdogs – I love being the underdogs because you’ve got nothing to lose and it’s always fun to come out and surprise people’.

The spirit of Wertonfield goes beyond the team players. At both Cuppers finals, they had huge numbers of supporters, including students and tutors, and sign-making sessions were organised before each match. ‘We had so many fans there. When we scored, it was crazy.’

Women’s football is now a big thing at Wadham and Elsie, who is now in the second year of their six-year course, is excited to be involved with Wertonfield for many seasons to come. Having been inspired by the team’s Captain when they first joined, Elsie runs it now with two of their friends. An enthusiastic group of this year’s freshers are very involved in the team and Elsie hopes to pass on the running of it to them next year.

‘The reason we were so keen was because of last year’s captain and those who started the team up. We wanted to continue their legacy and hopefully the freshers will continue our legacy.’

We look forward to cheering Wertonfield on next time!