The first event happened on 15 May 1965 after the Vice-Chancellor of York,
Lord James of Rusholme, suggested a
boat race between the two universities. The students amplified this idea and held a 5-day event with a variety of sports:
rowing, table tennis,
relay race, mixed
field hockey, and
tug of war. The winner of each of the sports received two points, and the losing vice-chancellor presented a trophy to the winning university. York won the inaugural tournament 13-5. The event has continued to increase in size since its founding, with new events added every year (2004 had 37 different sports). Live coverage of the event is broadcast every year by a collaboration between the two universities' student television stations
YSTV and
LA1:TV, and their two student radio stations,
Bailrigg FM and
University Radio York. The importance of non-sporting social activities at the event has also been increased, with organised events on the Friday and Saturday evenings. In the 2012 tournament a stadium was used for the first time. The Rugby 1sts XV battled it out at
Huntington Stadium, the home of the
York City Knights. During the 2013 tournament York opted to use the same venue again, for the second year running. The Lancaster University Men's Hockey Club 4th Team, Lancaster Bombers American Football team and the Lancaster Trampolining team were the only teams to remain unbeaten in the history of the tournament to date going into Roses 2012, however all three teams lost to their York counterparts in 2012. For the 50th battle of the Roses in 2014, the tournament was hosted at Lancaster. Lancaster created a purpose built stadium for first time which hosted the opening and closing ceremony, as well as fixtures including women's rugby, men's rugby and archery. The 2015 tournament was officially opened by England football team manager
Roy Hodgson and Football Association chairman
Greg Dyke. The opening ceremony, which featured a series of boxing matches dubbed 'Friday Night Fight Night', was watched by 1,000 people in the University of York's
Central Hall, with a further 5,000 people watching on large screens across campus. It was also the first year that one university had scored more than 200 points; however more point scoring activities are present now compared to 50 years ago.
Esports were introduced to the tournament for the first time in 2016 in the form of
League of Legends,
Dota 2 and
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The 2018 tournament saw the introduction of
dodgeball and
golf to the competition, as won by the Lancaster Royals. In March 2020 it was announced that the event would be cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. However, a competition was held with the Roses tournament being replaced by a Virtual Roses tournament which was won by York. Since the pandemic, Lancaster have dominated the competition, winning all five editions since 2022. This ongoing streak is also the first time that either university has won four or more consecutive tournaments. there had previously been five instances of three consecutive triumphs. ==Results==