SPORTS AND SOCIETIES

IT WAS A BITTERSWEET YEAR FOR SPORT AT FITZ WITH STRONG TEAMS ACROSS MULTIPLE SPORTS MANOEUVRING THEMSELVES INTO STRONG POSITIONS BEFORE THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC BROUGHT THE SPORTING SEASON TO AN EARLY CONCLUSION.

The standout teams this year were undoubtedly the Ladies’ Netball Club and the Men’s Rugby Club, who were jointly awarded the prize of Fitz Team of the Year. Both teams had progressed as far as it was possible for them to do so in their Cup competitions before the suspension of the season, alongside also securing their respective Division One titles, in the case of the Rugby club this was for the first time since the 1980s.

Fitz Athletics Club were also standout performers of 2020, securing the Athletics Cuppers title for the first time ever, the club captain puts this down to having the highest turnout of any college with a multitude of students competing in any and all events to accumulate points for Fitz. The Football Club experienced mixed success this year, the Men’s 1st XI continued their unbeaten run in the league, now stretching over two seasons, positioning themselves effectively joint top with Churchill in the Premier League and ready to defend their Cuppers trophy in the final against Queen’s before the suspension of the season. The Ladies Football Club, despite a quarter final Cuppers exit inflicted by the same Pembroke side that ended their run a year earlier, secured promotion to Division One for next season. Both the Men’s 2nd and 3rd XI suffered relatively early Cup exits with the 2nd team agreeing to relegation from Division Two with one game left to play in the season and the 3rds retaining their place in Division Five.

It was a positive year for the Titz (Trinity-Fitz) Hockey Club, winning the College hockey league in Michaelmas 2019, before going on to win ‘Supercuppers’- a oneoff match between the winners of the Oxford and Cambridge College leagues - in emphatic style, triumphing 9-1 over their Oxford counterparts. Other Cup competitions were sadly cancelled due to the pandemic, including Titz’s Cuppers final against Jesus College.

The nascent Fitz Basketball team met up an hour a week to train together and often played games in the College basketball league on the weekends. Their Cup run in Lent Term 2020, however, was abruptly interrupted. The story was the same for Fitz’s Lacrosse team whose Cup competition was postponed once for weather and then again for the pandemic after they had secured their promotion into the Second Division.

Fitz Boat Club only had the chance to compete in one Bumps event last year but recorded an amazing week which saw the club field four boats and rise six places overall in the Lent Bumps Campaign coming 4th in the Marconi cup. W1 bumped three times to move to the highest position (12th) that W1 has been 61

Ladies Football Team. Photo: Priya Kaler

62

in Lent Bumps since racing in 8s began. M1 and M2 both ended +1 overall while W2 rowed in Lent Bumps for the first time since 2011 and bumped twice without reply.

Fitz’s Ultimate Frisbee team competed in College Leagues in both Lent and Michaelmas and put in a good performance in the indoor Cuppers in Lent. The Mixed Netball team retained its position in the Second Division but missed out on the chance to compete in the Cuppers tournament that was scheduled for Easter Term. And tragically, the Fitz Cricket team were robbed of their chance to extend their four-year run of Cuppers titles that was also scheduled for the Easter Term.

FITZ’S VIBRANT SOCIETIES SCENE ALSO FACED DISRUPTION THIS LAST YEAR, THOUGH IN MANY CASES WERE ABLE TO MOVE THEIR EVENTS ONLINE IN WAYS THAT THE SPORTS CLUBS COULD NOT.

Once again, the Fitzwilliam College Music Society has enjoyed an active and memorable year of music-making. The informal student recitals each Monday evening showcased an eclectic mix of student-led performances in a welcoming and relaxed setting; these recitals brought together students, Fellows and friends for musical pleasure and engaging conversation. This was alongside the perennially popular Graduate Salons, and Gin & Jazz evenings featuring music from Fitz Swing. Throughout the year, various students performed in a more traditional concert format. Theo Williamson, Pierre Riley, and Rebecca Severy, along with Director of Music Catherine Groom all presented entertaining evenings.

During Michaelmas 2019, Fitzwilliam College hosted some exceptional soloists. Percussionist Rosie Bergonzi and saxophonist Joe Steele provided an evening of music devised through improvisation and collaborative composition, inspired by non-Western musical traditions, while pianist Steven Osborne gave an incredible performance of Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’enfant-Jésus. The COVID-19 pandemic prevented plans for the Easter Term from coming to fruition, most notably the cancellation of the annual FCMS Garden Party and unavoidable postponement of the Fitzwilliam Chamber Opera’s production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Activities from Michaelmas 2020 will be coverered in the next Journal, but a sneak preview can be seen on the Fitz Music YouTube channel, here: https://bit.ly/3azIWwf The Fitz Sirens began the 201920 academic year with recruiting an almost entirely new cohort of singers, meaning they quickly had to get to grips with singing together for May Ball Auditions – none of which took place! In Michaelmas Term they performed at the Fitz Winter Wonderland, as well as Selwyn Snow Ball, and then continued to work on new material as well as some classics for a concert with the Fitz Barbershop: Academic 3, which took place towards the end of Lent Term in the Fitz Auditorium with a lively audience. Although not able to perform the usual set of May Week Events, the Sirens have recruited more members and started rehearsing in Michaelmas 2020, and hope to bring the joys of acapella back to audiences whenever it is safe to do so.

The story for Fitz Barbershop is a similar one: five May Ball performances did not go ahead, however they joined the Fitz Sirens in the aforementioned Aca-demic 3, performing a set of ten Barbershop classics with three new additions to their repertoire. They also expertly dealt with the last-minute dropping out of their countertenor to put on a great performance at the JCR’s Fitz Winter Wonderland in Michaelmas.

Fitz Firsts Concert. Photo: Cat Groom

Physically-distant Chapel Choir. Photo: Cat Groom

Fitz Theatre hosted their Christmas sketch show ‘All the Jingle Ladies’ in Michaelmas and in Lent planned a Musical Theatre Gala Night that was later cancelled and a production of Medea that went ahead successfully. Plans for Easter included a “Fitz of Laughter” comedy evening and a May Week Shakespeare production though unfortunately both had to be shelved.

The Christian Union continued its weekly meetings last year, spending time studying, praying, eating and playing games together. These moved on to Zoom for Easter Term. They ran their usual text-atoastie events in the Michaelmas and Lent Terms but had to adapt this to a text-a-postie (postcard) in Easter Term. They also took part in the university-wide CICCU events week on the theme of ‘Life: Is there meaning in the mess?’ in February. The Easter Term hill college CU rounders events had to be cancelled, but hopefully Fitz can assert its rounders dominance once again this year.

The Debating Society continued its fortnightly debates covering a wide variety of topics such as the Abolition of the Monarchy and ‘Cancel Culture’ and welcoming guest speakers including Andrew Adonis and Tony Booth of Extinction Rebellion. These debates continued online in the face of the pandemic and interest has remained high.

Fitzwilliam College Medical and

Veterinary Society had a strong run of events this past academic year. In Michaelmas, they held 2 exciting talks discussing “The intersection between palliative care and general practice” and “The role of the East Anglian Air Ambulance and life as a HEMS doctor”. They also organised 3 mini-talks by Fitz postgraduates discussing their research, alongside the Natural Sciences Society. A pizza night was put on in the first week of Freshers, followed by the famous FCMVS curry, and then the Christmas party to cap off a tiring term. Two talks were held in Lent; one about “Outbreak surveillance and response systems” and one about “A life in veterinary oncology”. There was also a joint Medsoc’s social with other hill colleges, as well as another termly curry night. Near the end of term, the annual dinner was held, welcoming guest speaker Dr Richard Shephard, eminent forensic pathologist and best-selling author of “Unnatural Causes”. Unfortunately, Easter Term events had to be cancelled as term moved online. However, MedSoc hosted weekly online quizzes in the Lent holidays which then ran on until mid-August- an almost unbroken run of 17 quizzes! 2019-20 represented a bit of a rejuvenation for the Natural Sciences Society. They held pizza nights, multiple talks on subjects ranging from one on seals in the Antarctic (joint with MedSoc) to the creation of new types of OLED emitters. The first NatSci Society Dinner in several years was also held. Obviously more of the same had been hoped for in the end of Lent Term 2020 and into Easter, however these plans were rudely interrupted by the worldwide pandemic.

There are many other clubs and societies at Fitz and this report was only made thanks to the contributions of the captains and presidents of the groups above though they don’t represent the whole range of clubs at the College that make the community what it is such as the newly reconstituted ArtSoc and the college Badminton team. I’d like to thank all society presidents and team captains for their huge efforts to continue whatever activities we could throughout what has been an incredibly tough year and I hope that all the incoming society heads can continue their fantastic contributions.

Compiled by Ted While

63

64