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BAMOS May 2026
Article
The Priestley Cup is back in play after a six-year break
Peter van Rensch, Monash University( Peter. vanRensch @ monash. edu)
The Priestley Cup was resurrected after a six-year wait on April 9 this year. The‘ Cup’ is a soccer tournament held between the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO, the University of Melbourne and Monash University. The massive gap between Cups, large enough to undertake a PhD and a postdoc in the meantime, could be blamed on COVID, but the weather has also provided its fair share of disruptions over the years.
The Cup was cancelled in 2018 and delayed early in 2019, both due to extreme heat, the chances of which were lower than being born with six fingers on one hand( see Kimberly Ried’ s BAMOS article from March 2019). The 2019 Cup was played in November of that year, with the Bureau taking the trophy home. Since then, there was an attempted resurrection in November 2023, but this time, forecasted showers and thunderstorms forced its cancellation.
This year’ s Priestley Cup could have easily gone the same way. A chance of thunderstorms was again forecasted, but we were hoping they wouldn’ t eventuate; a chance means there’ s also a chance of nothing. There was something. As I walked to the pitch from the new Parkville train station, getting saturated and hearing the thunder crack overhead, I was surprisingly not feeling deflated. The BOM app, with its nowcasting radar, showed the rain would clear by 4pm. It didn’ t disappoint. In the end, conditions were excellent for a very slightly delayed Priestley Cup: perfect temperature, perfect light, although maybe a slightly soggy pitch at kick-off.
There was some disappointment, though. With the horrible news about CSIRO cuts on people’ s minds, it was understandable that CSIRO couldn’ t put a team together. In contrast, the Bureau turned up in force. It was decided that with a reduction in field size to six people per team, some players from the Bureau formed the seed for a new team to grow. Members from both Melbourne and Monash universities joined to form the team dubbed‘ Bureau 2’, as nothing could replace CSIRO.
For this round-robin tournament, the first games were Bureau 1 versus Bureau 2 and the University of Melbourne versus Monash University. The Bureau teams were evenly matched with three goals apiece, while Monash just pipped Melbourne to win 4-3. Next, it was Monash versus Bureau 2, where Monash’ s dominance continued with a 4-1 win. Bureau 1 showed fine form over Melbourne with a 2-0 win. In the final games, Bureau 1 needed to defeat Monash to retain the Cup, a task that proved too difficult; Monash won 7-0. Bureau 2 also held their own against Melbourne with a 5-1 win. Monash took home the Cup this year, breaking a 15-year winning drought( including the missing years), but the achievement of the night goes beyond the winner.
Priestley Cup participants. Credit: Ruchit Kulkarni
Getting the Priestley Cup back up and running was one achievement, but I would say a bigger achievement belongs to the many people who came, supported, and played some fabulous games of soccer. The referees, Aditya Sengupta and Blair Trewin, remarked that the games were very clean and there was a strong sense of sportsmanship both on and off the pitch; it was clear everyone was just happy to be there.
The Priestley Cup is back, on to 2027! Let us know if you want extreme weather on a specific date next year; we have a foolproof method to make it happen! Before that, though, there are other upcoming events for the Victorian branch of AMOS. The Pearman Volleyball tournament is another sporting event that has traditionally been on the calendar, held at CSIRO Aspendale after the Pearman Lecture. Of course, the news out of CSIRO and the stronger-than-ever drive to close the Aspendale site will mean this event could be a challenge, and it is likely to see some changes. Feel free to get in touch with me or the other members of the AMOS Victoria committee if you have any thoughts about this or other events. We’ d like to get the usual events up and running again, but acknowledge, like all life on our planet, we will need to adapt to future changes.