Issue 106

VA R S I T Y 2 0 1 7

THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017

Issue 106

20 PAGE PULLOUT INSIDE

COVERAGE OF ALL EVENTS

Biggest Varsity win ever for Uni of Sheffield

Lisa Latham Head of News The University of Sheffield has won Varsity for the fifth consecutive year with the highest number of points ever. The victory was secured after the Men’s 1s Lacrosse team won with a score of 7-3 on Wednesday 29, pushing the University over the winning 40.5 mark.

Some of the University’s sporting teams won by significant margins.

The Men’s 1s table tennis team won every game against Hallam at the English Institute for Sport on Monday 27 and finished with a score of 17-0. Club Captain of University of Sheffield Table Tennis said: “this was an easy 3 points.

Thoroughly professional from the boys. Great send off for Elliot and James playing their final game for University, to whom we dedicate this Varsity triumph.”

The trampolining team also secured an impressive win, beating Hallam’s team 25-11 on Sunday 26 March. The University of Sheffield’s only entrant into the ‘Uber’ category for most experienced participants, Lucy Smith, beat her three opponents and came first in the category. Hallam player Freya Howie came in second with the only awarded 9 from one of the five judges.

Continued on page 5...

Journalism students trapped in Westminster terror attack A Forge Press member was one of the trapped READ MORE ON PAGE 3

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THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017

NEWS

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Editorial

Forge Press Editorial Team Editor

editor@forgetoday.com

Anna Gillies

Deputy Editors editor@forgetoday.com Dan West Hallam Roffey Head of Online

editor@forgetoday.com

Caro Kyllmann

Head of News Lisa Latham News

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Josh Peachey Hope Cunningham Rachael Bunyan Comment

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Will Morgan Michael Chilton Features

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Jess Davis Ellena Rowlin Laura Mullan

Coffee Break

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James Pendlington Lifestyle

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Joseph Mackay Florence Mooney Sport

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Sheena Sidhu Ed McCosh Hugh Dickinson

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his week has been one of mixed emotions. I am over the moon that we have won the Varsity title for the fifth consecutive year!

I’m really proud to be a student at the University of Sheffield and it’s great that events like Varsity allow us to get behind our University and inject some team spirit into what can be an intense final semester.

If we’re really honest though, it’s the face paint and the chanting that really add to the allure of the Varsity fortnight.

This issue we’ve compiled a 20 page - that’s right 20 - page pullout full of great pictures, tweets and match reports from all of the events. It’s slap bang in the middle of the paper and has all you need to know to be up to date on your Varsity facts and figures. The team have worked ridiculously hard on

it and I think it shows, it’s our best Varsity issue ever. Congratulations to all of the Forge Sports team for their coverage this week.

Now to the sadder part of my week, this is my last issue of Forge Press as Editor. I’m thrilled to be going out on a high and I am confident Luke will do a marvellous job as my successor. It’s great to leave the paper in such capable hands!

Forge has been such a huge part of my life at university that it’s strange to be saying goodbye. It’s been great to meet so many new people, be given so much responsibility and freedom, and really see the paper grow and develop. Forge Press has just been shortlisted for ‘Most Improved Society’ at the Activities Awards and I couldn’t be happier that all of our hard work has been recognised. The team have been a

pleasure to work with, and I really will miss it all very much. That said, I will enjoy getting my Thursdays back given this year every other one was dominated with making sure the paper went to print on time... it never did, not once (sorry Freyja).

I have consumed a lot of chocolate, become far too familiar with the New Leaf salad selection, and not done nearly enough uni work, but I can assure you it has all be worth it.

That just leaves me to thank everyone who’s helped in making Forge Press such a huge success this year. Thank you to my deputies for never refusing a task, no matter how trivial or dull. Thank you to Freyja for spending even more time in the Media Hub than I do, and thanks to the team for all of your hard work and energy - it’s been a blast. Shoutout also goes to Tom and Charlie (my fellow Forge

Hallam’s

Happenings What not to miss over the Easter period, curated by our very own Deputy Editor, Hallam Roffey

press.music@forgetoday.com

Sustainability Committee AGM Want to be like Leonardo DiCaprio but can’t act?

Come along to the Sustainability Committee AGM and maybe you can be the next great envrionmental activist. Just don’t take your private jet to the meeting.

30 March. 5-6pm. Su Gallery Room 3.

Sheff Uni Con Sheff Uni Con is an annual convention run by Societies Committee in partnership with a range of special interest societies. Expect performances, console tournaments and even a Union-wide nerf gun fight.

1 April. 11am-8pm. SU. Tickets £5.50.

Luke Baldwin Beth Andralojc

Dartsity This is the 3rd Dartsity competition against Hallam University. I accidentally walked in to the event last year. I did a 180 and left. (Admittedly this joke was far funnier in my head than it is reading it back now).

1 April. Octagon Centre.

Film Unit’s Fools Festival Film Unit are holding one-day event showcasing the past century of british comedy. Each film will be preceeded by an introduction and a showing of a short film by the Filmmaking Society.

1 April. Film Unit, SU.

Copy Editors Harriet Hales Harry Gold Kimberley John Shaun Thomas Katharine Swindells Tom West Holly Overton Molly Kerkham Jessica Green

World Food Festival Do you like food? Do you like festivals? Do you like the, uh, world? Well the World Food Festival will be right up your street. International Students’ Committee present a two day celebration of culture through food.

Over 12 participating national societies. Stalls serving food, drinks and deserts from around the world.

6 and 7 May. 1pm-5pm. Octagon. Tickets online.

40th Anniversary World Snooker Championship To mark the 40th anniversary of snooker’s world champinionship at the Crucible, a special celebration is being staged inside the famous arena on the eve of this year’s tournament, featuring live interviews with current and former champions.

14 April. 6pm. Crucible Theatre. Tickets £20.

Games

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Ashfaq Emritte Nick Burke Arts

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Matt Wickens Laura Mulvey Screen

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A message from the News team

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Music

Harry Chambers Emma Williams

Chairs), thanks for being so willing to collaborate, listening to my frustrations and letting me get over excited about the Forge Awards.

And so, dear reader, for the final time, enjoy our issue, celebrate the Varsity win, and get excited about what’s to come from Forge Press, I’m sure things will continue to go from strength to strength under the new team (And Nick - if you ruin my redesign, I’ll kill you).

Netflix Pick The Sunshine Makers. It’s about LSD.

e have loved covering all the top stories floating around campus over the last year.

Not only because Sheffield is a bustling community full of events, campaigns and controversy, but also because we believe we have been able to learn a lot more about the Steel City.

We have reported on campaigns ran by SU Officers that aim to improve tolerance and equal rights and the cultural diversity within the University bubble is something we are proud of.

Our message to all students is to be active, get involved and most of all enjoy your time at university. However much we would love it to, it doesn’t last forever.

Lots of love,

Give it a Go Pick Hadrian’s Wall trip. Because History. 2 April.

Lisa, Josh, Rachael and Hope

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THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017

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Journalism students trapped in Westminster during terror attack Ben Warner account, who later thanked police Incoming Head of News in London for ensuring the safety of people at the scene.

40 members of the University’s Dickinson explains that at the Journalism department were time of the attack he was returning held in lockdown at Westminster to Parliament after meeting his dad following a terrorist attack in the for lunch, “I was queuing at security streets outside. to get back into Portcullis House, a Hugh Dickinson, an MA guard was shouting ‘get inside, get Broadcast student and member inside’. It was all a bit of a blur.” of Forge Press, was present at Forge is happy to report that both the time and reported hearing Hugh and his father are okay. gunshots. Dickinson also saw the The attacks unfolded at around now heralded hero Foreign Office 2:40PM with the assailant, later Minister Tobias Elwood with blood identified as Khalid Masood, a on his face talking to others on the 52-year-old from Kent, driving scene after he had tried to save down Westminster Bridge in a the life of the fatally injured police 4x4 Hyundai Tucson, hitting the officer. pavement before leaving the vehicle Students and staff were on a trip and running onto the Parliamentary to Parliament on 22 March, but estate where he fatally stabbed ended up spending several hours in police officer Kevin Palmer several Portcullis House under lockdown times before being shot dead by during the aftermath of the most police. serious attack in Britain since It was later confirmed that 2005’s 7/7 bombings. three of those hit by Masood on All 40 were soon confirmed safe Westminster bridge had died, by the Sheffield Journalism Twitter with many more severely injured.

Despite attempts to revive him, the assailant also died at the scene.

The Journalism Studies department were on their annual post-graduate trip to London, with students from both Broadcast and Magazine courses enjoying visits to Parliament, ITV and the Press Association.

The attack was the first to

NEWS

take place at Westminster since 1979, when then Conservative Shadow Minister Airey Neave was assassinated by the Irish National Liberation Army.

It’s the second terror attack on British soil in less than a year, after MP Jo Cox was murdered by rightwing extremist Thomas Mair in her constituency last July.

In Brief...

Body found in Hallam Towers

University of Sheffield speeding up 3D printing

Josh Peachey

The body of a 19-year-old was found in the derelict hotel nearby Endcliffe Student Village in Broomhill.

South Yorkshire Police said that the death is being treated as “unexplained”.

A force spokeswoman told The Star: “Police were called at about 4.14pm Sunday afternoon following the discovery of the body of a man.

“The 19-year-old was found deceased in a building on Manchester Road... His family have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.”

Hallam Towers used to be a hotel with restaurants and bars but the doors were closed in 2004, it was put up for sale in 2013 and has been abandoned ever since.

Date confirmed for new city cinema Jessica Green

A new nine-screen cinema is set to open in Sheffield City Centre, as part of The Moor retail complex, next month.

The Light will open alongside the newly built Primark store and an array of restaurants on Friday 14 April.

The luxury cinema is part of a growing chain and is set to offer a mix of mainstream films, sport programmes and broadcasts of live art productions.

Zizzi, Pizza Express and GBK are due to open at the same time as The Light. All of them are part of phase two of the redevelopment of Sheffield’s Moor. The first phase was the new Moor Market and the third will be the renovation of the buildings opposite Debenhams.

Rachael Bunyan News Editor

The University of Sheffield Boob Team are inviting students to attend their annual benefit in aid of CoppaFeel! on Monday 24 April from 7-11pm at Vodka Revolution.

The benefit will be raising money for CoppaFeel! and offering support and advice about early detection of breast cancer in young people.

The event will spread awareness and establish Coppafeel!’s vital message about the importance of regular self-examination among young people in Sheffield.

The benefit will include a jam packed raffle, clothes swap and glitter, with a photo booth to capture all of the best moments of the night!

Tickets will be £3 on the door with all of the proceeds going to CoppaFeel! For full details of the event visit the ‘Sheffield Uni Boob Team’ Facebook page.

Bouncy Castle for adults coming to Sheffield Hallam Roffey Deputy Editor

Jessica Green

The University of Sheffield are aiding the development of 3D printing.

Researchers have developed a new manufacturing process that could lead to faster, smaller and cheaper 3D printing technologies.

Laser melting systems are being increasingly used by high value sectors, such as the aerospace and automotive industries.

Sheffield University’s Advanced Additive Manufacturing research unit believes its new Diode Area Melting (DAM) process, can better previous methods by melting larger areas when manufacturing metallic and plastic parts.

Don’t be noobs, feel your boobs

More arrested for protesting tree felling Lauren Davidson

14 campaigners were arrested over protesting tree-felling in Sheffield and will take legal action against South Yorkshire Police.

The protesters, arrested for preventing lawful work under section 241 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992, said they will take legal action against the police to “challenge the legality of their arrests, charges, and time spent in detention and on bail.”

South Yorkshire Police have been accused of stifling the right to peaceful protest.

Among those arrested were Green Party councillor Alison Teal, lecturer at Huddersfield University Dr Simon Crump, and other university academics.

A host of soft-play fun and games for over 18s will be coming to Sheffield later this year.

The organisers of Wacky World have already put on similar events, which include bungee runs, bouncy castles, giant slides and ‘Total Wipeout’ machines, across the North West.

The event will be held at Magna, the science and adventure centre, on 6 and 7 May. In the past the events have featured more than 20 interactive activities and have completely sold out.

Organisers came up with the idea after visiting Germany over the summer and seeing similar giant play events which are popular across Europe.

As well as putting on events for children which use inflatable games, Wacky World has seen huge demand for 18+ events. Entry costs £20 for adults. More details can be found at

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THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017

NEWS POLITICS COLUMN Hope Cunningham News Editor Who won Legs-it?

Ahead of preparations to trigger Article 50, Prime Minister Theresa May and Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon were pictured together only to become the poster girls of this Tuesday’s Daily Mail issue. With the caption “never mind Brexit, who’s won Legs-it!” the paper has come under fire and accused of sexism. They defended their actions by making it clear “[they] often comment on the appearance of male politicians”. May laughed off suggestions of sexism and decided to wear trousers the day after the ordeal. #BrexitDay Yesterday, Theresa May triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty starting a two-year countdown to the UK’s exit from the EU. In a statement in the Commons, the Prime Minister said: “Today the Government acts on the democratic will of the British people and it acts too on the clear and convincing position of this House.” May wants Britain to reach a new free trade agreement within the two-year timeframe and leave Europe’s single market.

MPs question security after Westminster attack A meeting of the House Lords and Commons has been convened to raise concerns about evacuation procedures at the main entrance of Parliament after last week’s attack. A detailed investigation of exactly how the attack unfolded are among concerns. Questions are also to be raised about the entrance to Carriage Gates in Parliament Square.

They remained open for about a minute after the attacker entered and footage has emerged showing the gate appearing to be unguarded while officers attended to their wounded colleague.

press.news@forgetoday.com

Sheffield SU voted No.1 New suicide prevention in the UK... Again! strategy in Sheffield Courtney Carr Incoming News Editor

Rachael Bunyan News Editor

•• SU voted No.1 in UK for ninth consecutive year

•• New council strategy to lower suicide rates in young people

•• UoS voted number one for library services and ranked third in UK for student experience The University of Sheffield Students’ Union has been voted as the best university union in the UK for the ninth consecutive year.

The University was also voted number one in the Russell Group and ranked third in the UK for ‘best student experience’.

The award-winning Students’ Union is top of the ‘Good Students’ Union’ category and has achieved an incredible 98 per cent overall student satisfaction rating in the 2017 Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey.

The Students’ Union also achieved the highest satisfaction rating among all institutions surveyed in both the International Student Barometer and Student Barometer with an overall student satisfaction rating of 98 per cent.

Sheffield scored 4.7 per cent higher than the participating Russell Group average in the Student Barometer and 3.6 per cent higher in the International Student Barometer.

The Student Barometer surveys compare the decision-making, expectations, perceptions and intentions of students from the time that they applied to when they

•• Latest in a number of strategies to improve the city’s mental health

graduate.

The 2017 Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey also placed the University’s library services as number one for student experience.

Commenting on the results, Students’ Union President Dom Trendall was overjoyed, “This is a testament to the brilliant services and facilities available to students and all the dedicated staff, students and volunteers who work incredibly hard to create a truly inclusive community that Sheffield students love to be a part of.

“I’m proud to think that we offer one of the best university experiences that students will cherish for the rest of their lives.

“This again shows that Sheffield Students’ Union is doing a good job in providing services to our members, and representing their interests.

“In the context of the Government’s assault on Higher Education and a cost of living crisis, having a strong Students’ Union to defend our members is more important than ever.”

Sheffield City Council has launched a new strategy to help prevent suicide amongst young people.

The Council’s ‘Every Child Matters’ survey in 2015 revealed that over a third of teenagers in Sheffield admitted that they cannot cope with the pressures of modern life.

One of the several young people involved is a 20-year old woman named ‘Becky’.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Post, Becky said: “I always had suicidal feelings as I grew up. I never got any support to help me cope with these and ended up attempting suicide twice. Suicide is a scary thing to talk about but this strategy will help to make sure that children’s

and young people’s needs are taken seriously.”

Becky is also a part of Support, Think, Act, Motivate, Participate (STAMP), a group of 14 to 25 year olds, funded to involve young people in the improvement of young people’s mental health across the city. It is also a part of Sheffield’s Local Area Transformation Plan.

Sheffield City Council is working with Sheffield Futures, NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group, Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board, Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and the charity Chilypep.

The suicide prevention pathway is part of a new local initiative which aims to: address mental health in children and young people; set up a counselling service for young people up to 25 years old and strengthen the link between child and adolescent mental health services and schools.

The strategy also includes extending the amount of support offered to friends and families of those affected by youth suicide, as well as the support given to practitioners working with victims of domestic abuse and young people.

Cllr Jackie Drayton, Cabinet Member for Children, Young people and Families at Sheffield City Council, said: “We want to create an emotionally healthy and wealthy city.”

Famous freestyle skier gives skis to Sheffski Josh Peachey News Editor The University Ski Club SheffSki received 11 pairs of skis from world famous freestyle skier James Woods over the weekend.

The Sheffield born and bred skier, who holds five FIS World Cup medals, uploaded a photo to Instagram hoping to give away some skis to a worthy home.

SheffSki commented on the photo and ended up bagging 11 of the 15 available pairs of skis by going to collect them from the pro skier’s house.

Ben Court, University Ski President, said: “When we do sessions at the indoor slope in Leeds, we’ll take the new skis there and any members can have a go on them and get into freestyle. They’re going to save us

money and really benefit the club massively. It’s an amazing gesture from him and it’s obviously something close to his heart because he’s from here and even learnt to ski in Sheffield.

“By the looks of it, the skis are the ones that James grew up using. You can tell that he’s used them for rails and has got good use out of them. I’ve had skis that have lasted four or five years and we now have 11 pairs of freestyle skis to add to the three race pairs and three freestyle pairs we already have. It’s massive.”

Ben also said that the University of Sheffield’s ski club is growing year on year. He was keen to express that if plans went ahead to bring a dry slope back to Sheffield as part of the Parkwood Springs development, the standard of

Sheffield skiing would continue to improve. The dry slope that James Woods learnt to ski on has been burned down numerous times.

Ben added: “If people knew they were using skis that belonged to a world class Skier who competes in all the big competitions, then

maybe we would get a lot more new members. Rental skis, in terms of freestyle, are no way near as good quality as you would want to freestyle on. The ones that James has given us range in size so we now have skis to pretty much suit everyone.”

FORGE PRESS 5

THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017

NEWS GOOD WEEK Biggest Varsity Win Ever for Uni of Sheffield (cont.)

Bob Dylan

Lisa Latham Head of News Alice Oldfield, Head Captain for the University of Sheffield’s Netball team, addressed the squad after their victory was announced and said: “Well done to everyone- you all contributed, not just those who got first, second and third.”

The Women’s 2s Netball team played an unbelievable game,

recovering from being 36-31 points down to win the match 40-37 with just minutes to spare. The team was trailing 36-35 in the final moments before their rapid and unexpected comeback.

The Men’s 2s Rugby Union Team thrashed their Hallam rivals with a 25-0 point victory. The team initially struggled to break through Hallam’s ranks, but scored their

first points in the 16th minute, following a defensive error from the opposition. The scorer of the try, Kaspar Strugar, missed the conversion but bought the initial scores to 5-0.

Tensions between both sides and fans built throughout the game, and a stoppage was necessary during the second half to diffuse an altercation between players from both sides.

This year’s Varsity also saw some close calls and draws. The Women’s 3s Netball team lost against Hallam by 42-44, following a closely-fought game and aggressive but effective gameplay by Hallam. This defeat followed another for the Netball 4’s, who finished the game with 36 points to Hallam’s 44.

The Women’s 1’s Rugby Union squad drew with Hallam’s team with an ultimate score of 12-12.

Both teams were short of players for large portions of the game and played in slippy conditions.

The Uni team’s lead of 12-7 in the first half was thwarted in the 79th

minute, when Hallam managed to score an equalising try.

There was controversy around the outcome of the Ski Racing competition after the University of Sheffield Ski Club (“SheffSki”) put forward a retrospective “playing under protest” (PUP). In light of an investigation into game regulations, the results of the competition were changed from 1 point being awarded to Sheffield Hallam to both teams being awarded 0.5 points. SheffSki released a statement detailing the grounds for the re-mark in a bid to ensure that in future years, “a more effective officiating system will be in operation”.

The University of Sheffield has been leading the competition for the majority of its run, and this is the first year that either team has received over 42 points. The Varsity events were covered by Forge TV and Sports. Full details of our victory can be found on our site: http://forgetoday.com/varsity

University Rowing Club win national Spotify Sound Clash Josh Peachey News Editor Sheffield University Rowing club have been named Spotify Sound clash champions and have won £10,000 in cash for the society.

The annual competition asks university societies from all over the country to curate a playlist and prizes are awarded for the playlists with the highest number of followers.

Hannah Jones, Sheffield University Rowing Club Alumni and Publicity Officer, said: “It’s absolutely amazing and the whole club is so excited. Rowing is obviously very expensive so the money will go a long way.

“Newcastle Rowing Club, our competitors, get a lot of funding through the lottery. Our club is more about the opportunity to get people involved and having the ability to buy three boats helps us to get people out rowing as well, and our overall standard will get better too. It’s going to make such a difference.”

The club’s winning playlist ended up with 8,493 followers and Newcastle Rowing club took second place with 7,510 followers.

Out of the top 10 playlists, seven were rowing clubs from different universities.

Hannah added that it was a sweet victory for the Sheffield underdogs against a highly successful Newcastle rowing club and the money will go towards buying three new boats, one eight-person boat, one double-oared ‘quad’ boat, and one single-oared four-person boat.

The secret to Sheffield’s success is down to a conscious group effort involving all of the club’s members.

Hannah said: “We all went crazy on social media by sending individual messages out begging for people to follow the playlist and we also went around the student villages.

“The main thing was to keep the momentum up because even if people say they’ll do it, they need reminding. It took my own mum a whole week to follow it after I told her to follow the playlist about five

Bob Dylan will finally accept his Nobel Prize for Literature in Stockholm this weekend, the Academy has announced. The singer was awarded the prize in October but failed to travel to pick up the award, or deliver the lecture that is required to receive the £727,000 prize.

Uni of Sheffield Varsity Champions For the fifth consecutive year The University of Sheffield have beaten Sheffield Hallam to become Varsity Champion with the biggest win in Varsity history!

Forge Follows the Fornight...

Your weekly shop The Guardian has reported that fruit, vegetables, flowers and olive oil will become more expensive once the UK leaves the EU no matter what trade deal is struck.

According to City analysts, food imported from the EU is likely to rise by up to 8%.

Girls of colour in the US

times. We won because literally every member of the club got active on social media.”

Sheffield University Rowing Club also won £5,000 two years ago in a different social media competition ran by law firm Linklaters and spent that money on a women’s boat.

The club believe that the prize money and the new boats will really help improve the standard

of rowing at the University of Sheffield and hopefully mean they can qualify for the prestigious Henley Regatta.

Hannah is keen to encourage other societies at the University of Sheffield to try and win money through these sorts of schemes.

It was the first time that Sheffield University Rowing Club entered the competition and they managed to take home the biggest cash prize.

This month, the Washington Metropolitan Police department has been posting profiles of missing Black and Latino girls on their Twitter feed almost daily. In the first three months of 2017, the District of Colombia logged 501 missing cases of young women and as of last week, 22 of these cases are still open. The hashtag #FindOurGirls has been created as a reaction to the lack of media coverage and the police are still looking for the missing girls.

BAD WEEK

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DAY XX MONTH 2016

NEWS

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The Forge Press SU Officer Mid Term Review 2017

by Lisa Latham

Name: Dom Trendall Role: President

Name: Emily Roche Role: Sports Officer

Name: Serena Cavasin Role: Women’s Officer

In line with his manifesto, Dom has successfully lobbied the University to promote the use of contextual data in admissions, giving more opportunity to disadvantage students.

He has worked to forward the Shef better than TEF campaign with fellow SU Officers and lobbied key decision makers regarding the Higher Education Bill.

He also successfully negotiated with First buses against increasing the student bus fare in keeping with his policy of affordable travel, and lobbied for a night bus which follows a route specifically designed for students.

However, we’re still waiting and praying for the 4PM deadlines Dom proposed during his campaign.

Em worked with the #WeAreInternational campaign to make university sports more accessible to international students and encourage engagement in societies.

In February 2017, she promoted the national This Girl Can campaign in Sheffield to celebrate and encourage female participation in sports, and helped Activities Officer Anna Berestova lobby the University to expand participation grants.

When running for election, she had four key policies: to improve access to fitness classes, to make it easier for new members to join all year round, to boost coach sharing for away games and to keep Wednesday afternoons free for sport.

Even though some of these haven’t been achieved, Em has made sports more accessible through campaigning and ensured the highest ever number of points for Varsity

Serena has worked to expand the information the university distributes surrounding sexual health and consent and introduced online consent workshops in keeping with a pledge in her manifesto.

She promoted the international campaign ‘Sixteen Days Without Gender Violence’ which culminated in a Reclaim the Night march, and ran the SHARE not Shame campaign in collaboration with International students’ officer Ana Popa.

She has succeeded in improving student safety on nights out by extending the Women’s Minibus route, and is currently working hard to promote and celebrate International Women’s History Month.

Her initial plan to ‘Make Periods Free’ and install ‘Tampon Tubs’ across campus and halls did not come to fruition, however, which is a bloody shame.

Name: Anna Mullaney Role: Welfare Officer

Name: Michael Kind Role: Development Officer

Name: Anna Berestova Role: Activities Officer

Name: Ali Day Role: Education Officer

Anna’s campaign ‘Prioritise Our Mental Health’ aims to promote student wellbeing and distribute self-help advice, a significant aspect of her manifesto. The campaign’s ongoing survey has received nearly 2000 responses regarding student experience in relation to their happiness.

She has also worked to improve safety on nights out by creating ‘Time Out Spaces’ during SU club nights, and collaborated with Development Officer Michael Kind to introduce the weekly Wellbeing Café.

Anna lobbied for increased mental health and staff support in the Counselling Service, which was implemented in early 2017.

Though housing and financial support featured within Anna’s manifesto, her focus has fallen primarily on matters of mental health and wellbeing.

Michael’s manifesto encompassed three key areas of sustainability, worker’s rights and amplifying student voices.

In line with this, Michael secured backing from the Chief Financial Officer Bob Rabone for the instatement of a £2m Sustainable Campus Development Fund, which is pending approval from the University.

Michael has also collaborated with Welfare Officer Anna Mullaney to introduce the weekly Wellbeing Café, which promotes togetherness, good health and sustainable food management.

Michael’s aim to amplify student voices has been reflected through his schemes “Ask Your University” and “Spotlight On”, with the latter offering them significant input into this summer’s redevelopment of Coffee Revolution.

Anna Berestova has used her time as Activities Officer to expand the annual Activities Fair and secure more rehearsal spaces around campus, offering students greater opportunity to engage in societies and events. This was one of her policies when she was elected.

Another area that Anna highlighted in her manifesto was special access and whilst acting as Activities Officer she has widened the scope of the Participation Grant, which enables students in difficult circumstances to apply for extra funding.

Despite pledging to create an activities app and a hire-a-student website, which would supposedly allow students to improve their skills by linking them with local businesses, neither of these have been achieved.

In her manifesto, Ali aimed to campaign against the Higher Education Green Paper, which would see students treated as consumers, and against raising the cap of tuition fees.

Ali has done just this by being instrumental in the SU’s ‘Sheff better than TEF’ campaign, which calls for the University of Sheffield to decline participation in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) which will result in the increase of tuition fees from £9000 to £9250.

Day has also convened an insofar successful boycott of the National Student Survey (NSS).

However, we are yet to see free black and white printing across campus or study spaces in university accommodation with printers, as was stated in her manifesto.

Name: Ana Popa Role: International Students’ Officer In October 2016, Popa worked with University of Sheffield Enterprise and conducted a five-week skills programme to help International Entrepreneurs apply for Tier 1 Entrepreneurship Visa.

In November 2016 she successfully launched an Accommodation Guarantor Scheme for International students as pledged in her campaign.

She has also collaborated with Women’s Officer Serena Cavasin on the SHARE Not Shame campaign, which promotes sexual health and healthy relationships to international students, and introduced a drop-in session with the Student Advice Centre to discuss EU national rights postBrexit and maintain her manifesto aim of preserving the benefits of being part of the EU.

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THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017

COMMENT

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We must seize the memes of production

Will champions memes as a form of political discourse, to the surprise of no one.

I

Will Morgan Comment Editor

n the past few years we have seen the meteoric rise of a new medium of expression that has moved from the realm of the mid 00’s basementdwelling troll, to something your gran might send you. Make no mistake, we are living in the age of the internet meme.

Internet memes can be defined, in their loosest terms, as images with a cultural relevance, whose meaning is dependent on, and constantly changed by certain groups of people. The meme has become the dominant way for people to express and interact with public opinion, overtaking the Facebook rant as the mainstream mode of social

discourse. We can see this in the role that these memes played in getting Donald Trump elected.

A user of the infamous rightwing image board 4Chan, edited an image of a bad drawing of a frog, known as Pepe, to resemble Donald Trump, who then went on to tweet out the image. If we consider what would make a man in his sixties retweet a picture of himself where he is depicted as a frog, whilst running for President, we might get some insight into Trump’s unpredictable rise to power.

Recognising Pepe’s importance to a subsection of right-wing voters and then engaging with it is a perfect example of Trump policy.

Whether it is possibly trying to give himself a tax break or proposing a ban Muslims, what Trump

is attempting to do is become a living meme of conservative thought. This is an attempt to remove our ability to criticise the “human being” Donald Trump for being a consistent sack of shit and normalise his message.

As real people who can experience empathy, it is our responsibility to the functioning of global democracy that we counter this dissimulation, through fact based, high quality memes. We must call out the Meninists and Islamophobes on Facebook and let them know that prejudice is still not ok, even in meme form.

If memes are going to be a valid form of social discourse, it should be the young who set the tone.

Down on his luck, former Comment comments on Comment Chancellor is forced to take up sixth job Let the circlejerk begin.

Josie casts a critical eye over the latest of Osborne’s second jobs.

Josie Le Vay Incoming Comment Editor

T

he appointment of George Osborne as the Editor of the London Evening Standard has undermined both politics and journalism in one big, idiotic move.

There are so many reasons to be angry at this appointment.

For starters, he’s an MP. He’s supposed to be representing his constituency of Tatton: attending debates, voting, and importantly - meeting his constituents in Cheshire. Instead, he’ll be spending much of his time 195 miles away in London, doing what is apparently the “part-time” job of a newspaper editor. Perhaps he will take a break from his night time activities of drinking blood and avoiding garlic to learn how to edit copy.

Secondly, it’s a big mistake for the Standard. The paper has a long history and has pretty much always been respected within and outside of London. Now, that’s

all gone down the drain and regardless of the content, with Osborne’s name, there’s no way it can be seen as anything more than a Tory mouthpiece.

What annoys me the most is as frustrated as I am about this appointment - I’m not surprised.

There’s a strong link between government, big business and the media in the UK, and Osborne’s appointment has done nothing more than reinforce this.

It’s not talent or qualifications that matter anymore, it’s going to the right school, having the right contacts and having access to your family’s offshore tax funds.

Be part of the elite minority in the UK, and you could win yourself the chance to edit the capital’s newspaper or run one of the world’s largest economies with nothing more than a history degree.

Michael Chilton common themes that highlight the Comment Editor over simplicity and inconstancies in certain viewpoints. t has been a year since I was Over the course of the year I have elected Comment Editor. become increasingly frustrated by I am technically trading the homogenous and simplistic up to a Deputy Editor narratives presented by both position, but I will always have sides of the political spectrum. an attachment to this section. Not Trump is not evil, Corbyn is not just because of my fellow editor/ the socialist messiah and Brexit is meme lord/lover Will Morgan but certainly not the end of the world. also because of how Comment is Escaping these colossal echo vital for well-adjusted people to chambers is hard and Comment consume and contribute towards tries its best to do just that. (there is the long overdue plug to With that in mind, let me be invite you guys to write for us). explicit in my final message.

Comment is the one place Don’t allow your subscribed where opinion can be expressed world view to dictate a narrative. unhindered by worries of Educate yourself, if you don’t impartiality and bias. It has know something about an issue offered me an opportunity to don’t rely on your political reflect and engage in a way I allies to inform you, because wouldn’t normally do. Often chances are they are wrong. Stop this has found me criticising indulging yourself in your own my own side of the spectrum petty political circles, thinking more than I had anticipated. that some kind of huge change Becoming increasingly skeptical is round the corner. Don’t define of my own political movements yourself by your politics, let has been disheartening but at yourself define your politics. the same time refreshing and this has been partly thanks to Stay woke. It’s been real.

Comment. Constantly editing a plethora of articles from different perspectives, with vastly different agendas, allows you to identify

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COMMENT

press.comment@forgetoday.com

SU Council ignores BME perspective Hatau castigates SU Council’s “misguided” liberation training Hatau Mozayen History and Politics student

T

he Students’ Union Council is a body that performs an important role in student society and the values it represents are broadly agreeable. No one should balk at the tolerance that they prominently espouse, for example. They also do a lot of good work, implementing policies that genuinely improve the lives of students. And yet, for all the positive work that they do, the SU Council is the epitome of much that is wrong with student politics.

“Race relations are a real problem in some places, university is not one of them”

really grated on me.

Race is a big issue in a lot of places across the world, a cursory glance at the news will confirm that. I have experienced firsthand some of the issues that race presents: I spent time growing up in South Africa where walking around in public with my white mother and black African father was greeted with reactions of curiosity at some times and outright hostility at others.

I would say that I am quite well placed to discuss race issues.

And while race relations are a real problem in some places, university is not one of them. As a BME student, I can honestly say that race has not been an issue at all for me. My skin colour has not in any way impacted my university experience, nor has it that of my BME friends and I believe there is little evidence of institutional racism as described in this motion. Yet

the people who claim to represent my interests portray me as some sort of victim that needs help, when the reality is the complete opposite. University is one of the most tolerant environments anyone is likely to be in and the role that people like the SU Council have played in fostering this environment should be commended. Yes, there might be isolated incidents of a racial nature, and support should be available to those who genuinely find themselves the victim of racism, yet the perpetrators of such incidents are not racist through ignorance, m o s t

likely intoxication.

This motion to

improve

“The council did not even know the procedure for following an opposing speech” ‘liberation training’ is misguided and not only patronising to people like me who are portrayed as victims of racism when they aren’t (most likely to further someone else’s political agenda), it is also patronising to the staff and students at this university who the Council believe need this training, despite being decent and tolerant people. Furthermore, the idea that racism is a “core issue” in universities such as Sheffield risks trivializing what is a very real and serious problem.

But far be it from me to

For starters, one of their advocated values (as mentioned earlier) is tolerance, yet their attitude to differing opinions is anything but. I found this out when I attended and spoke at one of their meetings. The motion up for discussion was to do with race issues and can be seen in greater detail on the SU website. In brief, however, the motion proposed ‘improving liberation training’ in order to combat racism and discrimination. A great deal was made out about the problems of racism in this university, which

convey these concerns to the SU Council. When I spoke up against this motion at the meeting, the reaction was almost laughable.

The first alarm bells were set off by the fact that Council did not even know the procedure for following an opposing speech, which says all you need to know about the level of opposition they routinely face. This total lack of competing viewpoints has created a culture of hostility to anyone who disagrees with them, something which is off-putting to anyone wishing to air a grievance; as well as disturbing to those who believe in democratic values of freedom of speech, openness and right to opposition.

But alas, the debate proceeded, the Council used my mere observer status to prevent me from speaking for the remainder of the session. The motion passed, although the details on what exactly ‘improving liberation training’ entailed were so hazy as to render it meaningless anyway.

This is a problem, not just in the SU Council, but in wider student politics as a whole, not just in Sheffield, but in universities across the UK and indeed the world. The immediate shutting down of anyone who presents an opinion even slightly disparate from the norm cultivates an atmosphere that one would hardly associate with the values of tolerance that the SU claims to endorse and this is something that is highly unhealthy and needs to change.

Comment’s guide to the events of Students’ Union Council (2/3/17) To provide some background to Hatau’s claims, we have sifted through the dry bones that are the SU Council minutes.

•

The kerfuffle began following the proposal of an amendment to include institutional racism and queerphobia in a motion to make liberation training mandatory for Inclusion officers.

•

Hatua (HM) decided to share his experience as a BME student, telling the Council how his “skin colour has not in any way impacted my university experience, nor has it that of my BME friends”.

Are you filled with anger and hatred? Love and kindness? Apathy and malaise?

Have you ever felt anything? We’d like to know. Pitch your thoughts, feelings or ideas to press.comment@forgetoday.com

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COMMENT DEBATES

Pulp-Pit “The soapbox of the common people” How much do you actually care about Varsity?

“I care zero” - Al Ingall, Psychology second year “I love how it brings people together” - Victoria Scheer, Journalism second year

Is Comment a load of bollocks?

As Michael and Will let go of the section, they finally confront the awful truth. What if it’s just a bunch of bollocks? Time to find out... through the same medium we are evaluating.

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ARGUING FOR Pat Flanders Third Year Environmental Sci.

think that Forge Press is, generally, a good newspaper. I enjoy how well-written and designed the majority of the newspaper is as it is clearly a labour of love for the students involved. However, I have to make an exception for the comMENt (sic) section.

Never have I come across a more cringey group of OwenJones-wannabee safe space fascists, whose clear and misleading ideology is that of a school shooter in the making.

“Every article in the section is written from a position of such cis white male privilege as to render the opinion irrelevant” The authoritarian boot stamp of closet Communists is all over the circlejerking echo chamber that is comMENt, from the constant priority given for leftist issues to the clear ridiculing of anyone who holds an opposing view.

As liberal arts students attempting to justify valueless degrees, I will admit that they do make attempts at being progressive, but every article in the section is written from a position of such cis white male privilege as to render the opinion irrelevant; no one wants to read a middle class white male’s poor rehashing of a higher quality Guardian article.

ComMENt is quite literally, a load of bollocks.

Maybe, if they actually wanted anyone to read what they write, they could make the section more accessible and discuss issues that affect a wider less-privileged community; rather than spending their time making those truly awful memes.

As a sidepoint, I can never decide if their meme-ing is the result of some kind of underlying developmental disorder, or just the intellectual narcissism of the section’s editors.

Despite their own clear delusions, comMENt is about as critical and well-researched as a Stacey Dooley documentary.

I

ARGUING AGAINST James Pendlington Incoming Comment Editor

would like to start this by first covering all the bases and clarifying that ‘Comment’ is not literally a load of bollocks; there is nothing testicular about pages in a newspaper often filled with spunky opinions and ballsy writing. Whether the content is a load of bollocks in terms of quality is perhaps more debatable but I would still ultimately say it isn’t. In my mind there’s nothing better than reading the views of outspoken amateur student journalists.

There’s a worrying trend in Student Unions around the country where, in a bid to appear more liberal, they adopt a policy of silencing views that contradict the loudly vocalised hegemony ‘progressive’ ones. This is why Comment is so important, it’s a platform for people brave enough to attach names to their thoughts and put them up for critique by a wide student readership.

If one lives in an echo chamber of the same things being repeated over and over the mind grows stale as it never challenges or questions why you think in a

certain way. When you read something of a conflicting view it makes you first try and understand the reasoning behind it and then ask yourself whether this strengthens your own original view or perhaps convert to the new alternative. Without seeing these opposing views we can often become thoughtless and prejudiced which is why it is so important that Comment exists as a platform for this.

“nothing can quite convey a fresh argument or opinion like a well written piece in Comment. ”

You will always see tweets trying to do the same in under 140 characters and Facebook posts in block capitals and no punctuation, but nothing can quite convey a fresh argument or opinion like a well written piece in Comment.

Hence, for giving students with a differing opinion a voice and causing us to question our own beliefs, Comment will never be a load of bollocks (as stated, neither literally or figuratively).

“I really enjoy it, I like the community feel of it. I just love that you can get involved even if you don’t take part in uni sport. You really feel part of Sheffield Uni” - Becca Stroud, Biomedical Science third year “I feel a bit left out of it but I don’t really care” - Maddie Bishop, Economics second year “Not at all. Honestly, it’s great for people involved in it, but I don’t really think I’d go to watch anything unless I knew someone playing. Realistically it’s just another reason to get drunk and have rivalry with Hallam” - Marianne Mooney, Journalism second year “Varsity seems a bit exclusive. I’m not into sport so I’m not really bothered about it” - Liam Gilliver, Journalism second year

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FEATURES

press.features@forgetoday.com

# FOMO

the social media anxiety sweeping campus

U

Lauren Davidson Features Contributor

niversity is fantastic. It’s a chance to meet new people from all walks of life, allows us to be independent, gives us top-quality education to prepare for our future careers and, of course, offers us an awesome nightlife, especially

in a thriving, multicultural city like Sheffield.

But for students suffering with anxiety and depression, university can often be a highly daunting experience. In this day and age mental health is taken very seriously, and every university in the

country has some form of mental health and/or counselling service for students struggling to cope. Mental health issues are an ever-growing problem, and universities are facing no choice but to offer some form of service for their students to turn to in a crisis.

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According to the Mental Health Foundation, 50 percent of mental health problems are established by the age of 14 and 75 percent by the age of 24. It’s also been found that anxiety and depression are the most common mental disorder in Britain, with 7.8 percent of people meeting the diagnosis criteria. What’s more, it was found in a YouGov student survey undertaken in 2016 that one in four students suffer from mental health problems.

Depression was the most prevalent mental health issue at 77 percent, and anxiety came a close second at 74 percent.

Why is anxiety and depression becoming so increasingly dominant in our daily lives? In this technological era, it’s difficult to walk the streets and not see passers-by engrossed in whatever’s on their iPhone screens, whether it’s some funny Facebook post, that annoying group chat, or a hottie on Tinder that they’re just praying to match with.

Technology and social media have become an essential part of our lives; so much so that it’s almost impossible to go 15 minutes without checking our phones. Sure, social media has its advantages. It keeps us connected to our friends and family 24/7, it keeps us updated on the lives of those distant acquaintances who we don’t see an awful lot, and it makes event planning an absolute breeze. It’s pretty difficult to imagine how hard life must have been decades ago when you made plans with someone on the house phone (or telephone box, even) and actually had to trust that they’d be at a certain place, at a certain time. So. Much. Anxiety.

But what if social media is causing an awful lot of anxiety, too? Facebook and Instagram, as useful and distracting as they are, have FOMO’ written all over their news feeds. Feelings of jealousy and a sense of missing out on life are becoming all too familiar when we’re absent-mindedly scrolling through our

"FOMO’ means the ‘fear of missing out’, and more and more young people, students included, are falling victim to it." newsfeeds, lounging around in our dressing gowns, with Netflix on pause. A 2012 study by Anxiety UK found that 51 percent of participants believed social media had changed their life for the worse, and 45 percent said being unable to access social media made them feel “uncomfortable or worried.”

In a 2016 Independent article by Janet StreetPorter, she wrote: “A recent survey found as many as one in five people say they feel depressed as a result of using social media. That might come as a surprise to the generation under 30; social media is part of their DNA and teenagers are rapidly losing the ability to

communicate if not through their smartphones.”

For many, social media serves as a poignant reminder that we’re not living life to our full potential and not ticking enough things off our bucket lists. It brings about a sense that we’re not good enough, and that we need to be the best possible version of ourselves. It’s often this sense of our ‘best selves’ that we show to the world via social media, making out as if our lives and relationships are great, and that we’re having an amazing time at every event we attend. The truth is, nothing or nobody in the world is perfect, even if social media says so.

Emily Michalik-Denny, 21, is a student at the University of Sheffield and suffers from Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD). For her social media, “creates a rule of thumb that says what you should be doing at your age because these are the things that “normal people” your age are doing. It does contribute to my anxiety because I feel like I should be doing all these things too but can’t, which affects my self-esteem. I always feel happy when I see my friends are doing well but I can’t help comparing it to my own situation.”

The anxiety of FOMO can also be reinforced by common, everyday distractions like Netflix and YouTube. As amazing as the Internet is, let’s be honest – it can often be difficult to get work done when Netflix is just a click away. But not only is Netflix highly distracting, it’s also often preferred by ,many students than nights out with friends.

Emily explains: “I do wish I went to more social events at Uni. Before I developed GAD I was really sociable and loved going out but that is completely different now. I am guilty of binge watching TV and

"Social media serves as a poignant reminder that we’re not living life to our full potential and not ticking enough things off our bucket lists." films on Netflix, which I do in my spare time and when I should be working.”

Tom Monk, 20, studies at the Royal Northern College of Music and also finds himself losing time to the internet,“The reason I can waste so much time on YouTube is that it is easy to justify watching “just one more video” as they all tend to be fairly short and it doesn’t feel like you’re using up too much of your work time. But the time I waste adds up and before I know it I’ve spent hours procrastinating.”

After spending hours flitting between watching that addictive Netflix series, finding the right angle for that ‘night in’ Instagram picture, and scrolling aimlessly down our Facebook and Twitter news feeds when we could have been out socialising or working, it’s easy to feel the ‘fear of missing out’.

Escaping technology and social media is, unfortunately for some, impossible in the 21st century but it’s important to remember that the internet and social media should be used in positive ways. They keep us updated about goingson in the world, keep us connected to our nearest and dearest, and expand our knowledge about practically everything. But when they’re doing more harm than good and making us miss out on actually living, it’s essential to find that balance between using social media responsibly and being in the here and now.

In an age where technology rules the world, what can we do to keep the anxiety that it induces, and the FOMO, at bay?

Cut down on social media use For starters, cut down on social media usage if it’s beginning to take over. Start saying ‘yes’ to doing things that don’t involve staying at home with only Netflix and your phone for company.

Take advantage of one of the many ‘Give It a Go’ sessions held throughout the week at the Union.

And if procrastination has become a huge issue, then write a compact to-do list every day with the most important tasks at the top. Tick them off as you go, starting from the top – but don’t feel bad if you leave the less important things unticked. You are only human, after all!

Keep technology out of the bedroom In Arianna Huffington’s book The Sleep Revolution, she swears by keeping all screens out of the bedroom in order to get enough sleep and keep a healthy mind. Perhaps this is a step too far for us screen-lovin’ students, but maybe it’d be wise to resort to reading a book before bed instead of checking social media, especially if it’s causing you a lot of anxiety.

Mindfulness Read up about a little technique called mindfulness.

It’s essentially a peaceful mental state that involves focusing our awareness onto the present moment, and is known to have helped thousands of people suffering from mental health problems.

Utilise mental health services Finally, make the most of the mental health services that the University of Sheffield offers. Alert your personal tutor if you feel you need to have a chat with someone from your department. Book a counselling session with the University Counselling Service (UCS), an invaluable service which also offers Mindfulness Stress Reduction sessions, group therapy sessions, and Thematic Workshop classes. The Nightline telephone listening service is also available from 8pm until 8am any night during term time, and is run by student volunteers who have been trained to be confidential and nonjudgmental.

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press.features@forgetoday.com

A farewell from Features Editors 2016-17

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FEATURES Ellena Rowlin

F

orge, Forge, Forge. Firstly, I never thought I would be writing a most likely extremely cringe-worthy paragraph about my time at Forge.

When I first arrived at Sheffield, the big F seemed like a distant dream, and when I think back to first year, sitting at that AGM dreading the task of having to sell myself to a (very large) room of people, it’s a wonder how I ended up becoming the position I had my eyes set on from day one of university Features Editor.

My first position here at Press was Copy Editor, the absolute classic way in. It really did teach me the invaluable skills of being able to spot one too many commas - a mistake I am consciously trying to avoid whilst writing this – and if nothing else it forced me to make the genuinely nervous journey into the Media Hub and over to the wall (it is nearly as monumental as the Game of Thrones one) and talk to the team.

I credit my Copy Editor position entirely with my ability to step in as a News Editor after someone dropped out.I was probably also being annoyingly pushy to the editor at the time, the lovely Polly.

When the next AGM rolled around last year, I finally felt completely confident to go for Features Editor, the position I’ve always wanted. Feature writing is what I want to go into, and by far what I most enjoy out of all forms of journalism.

I am so completely proud of the Features section in the paper, and really love that it is the one section where you can grab a cup of tea and a biscuit and immerse yourself in a good 15 minutes of reading and learning about a completely new angle of a relevant topic today.

One of the most common responses I get when I tell someone that I want to be a journalist is: “Dying industry that is.

Everyone can be a journalist.” Well, when it comes to features writing, I beg to differ.

In-depth, long-form investigative pieces will always have their place, whether it be in magazines, newspapers or online. And Forge has helped me realise my passion for them even further.

I’m sure you’re now waiting for the part where I convince you to join Forge.

No matter how small the role you play is, whether that is becoming the Editor next year (who we have just re-elected, sorry, but there are lots of other roles still vacant) or writing a 200-word review for the new Stormzy album, it really will give you a sense of achievement.

All I have left to say is thank you to Forge and good luck to the new Features Editors. I cannot wait to see what you do!

Taking part in the student media at University was always my ambition, regardless of which one I wound up at, but I can honestly say, from a completely biased position, that Forge is simply the best of them all.

Laura Mullan

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t’s election night. TV cameras are rolling, fingers are furiously clacking across keyboards, and the blue Forge hoodies are out in droves. I may be on a sugar high from a major snack haul, but the atmosphere feels electric.

Reporting on the Students’ Union Elections has been the definite highlight of my time as Features Editor at Forge Press and I feel that the coverage is a testament to the time and effort that’s invested in student media at the University of Sheffield.

Reporting on the elections may seem like an easy task but when you’re trying to be witty in 140 characters and are furiously writing to a looming deadline, it’s honestly a little difficult to channel your inner Sarah Jessica Parker.

People can be dismissive of things when they’re prefixed with the word “student”, especially “student journalism”, and I think it’s really a shame. Over the past year, the Features section has showcased some incredible pieces of student journalism from personal accounts of homophobia, tackled with wit and charm, to hard-hitting interviews, such as that with asylum seeker Pride.

Forge is a platform for students to share their views, regardless of whether their academic background is in journalism or mechanical engineering. In this way, it has connected me with a diverse range of people I may have never bumped into otherwise.

My beginnings at Forge are hazy and involve sporadically writing stories when procrastination took hold. But I eventually summoned the courage and ran for the position of Feature Editor last April.

As someone with an aversion to public speaking the prospect of running for a position was daunting, particularly when you’re afflicted with a broad Northern Irish accent as I am. However, I think I conveyed my passion for stories well, and lo and behold here I sit writing this story today.

Forge has pushed me outside of my comfort zone, provided lots of exciting opportunities both old and new, and in all honesty has been the best choice I have made at University.

My time at Forge has by all means been an odd one. I’ve written features exploring meaningful topics like autism, interviewed musical theatre stars and reviewed Interval’s infamous Pizza Week menu. In the Hub, I’ve seen memes created with expert finesse and heard defence cases for using Comic Sans (yes, seriously) so I am really looking forward to see what the future holds for our new Features team - Katharine, Elsa and Meghan.

Forge is, by all means, a unit - a sometimes dysfunctional, mismatch one - which is passionate about stories, encourages creativity, and is welcoming to newcomers.

So thank you Forge for an amazing year!

Here’s to many more.

Jessica Davis

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f someone were to say to me in high school that I would study journalism at univeristy and edit the university paper features section, I would have laughed hysterically in their face and told them to shut up and do one. Actually scrap that, I would have probably quietly muttered ‘ok’ under my breath and felt my face turn a lovely shade of red, in the hope that I wouldn’t have to carry on with the conversation. I was that shy.

This is the main thing I’ve taken from being a part of Forge Press. I now have so much confidence, not only in myself but in my writing too, which is an invaluable asset for any aspiring journalist.

I have now had my work published in two top fashion magazines and have had successful work placements with them.

Without having Forge on my CV I would have never had the confidence to put myself out there in the first place this .

Not only has Forge helped me personally by improved my writing and editing skills, it has also encouraged me to use the creative side of my brain far more when coming up with designs.

Forge teaches you so many transferable skills (as cringy as that sounds) like working with other people, designing, and becoming a member of the grammar police.

Admittedly, the only downside to being an editor on the paper for two years is I can never look at a magazine or newspaper layout in the same way again, my brain just switches to ‘InDesign’ mode.

Gone are the days where I can read a magazine just for the content and pretty pictures, instead I’m thinking: ‘What font type is that?’, ‘How do they get the picture box to do that?’, ‘Am I officially an InDesign weirdo?’

Of course, this is a skill (as annoying as it may be) that I can take to a future job that requires me to be just as creative with the page layouts as I am in my feature writing.

Although Forge can seem a bit much at times when it’s mixed with constant university deadlines and other general anxieties, it is worth all the stress and extra work because doing things like this is what makes you stand out to potential employers.

Sure, anyone can get a 2:1 in a degree if they try hard enough, but it’s the extra things you do off your own back that make the difference between employing you or someone else that has gone just that little bit further. Not being part of Forge anymore is a funny thought after being involved as either a contributor or an editor throughout the three years of my degree, but I have every faith that Features are in safe hands!

xoxo

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LIFESTYLE FEATURES

Florence Mooney explores the power and iconography of the greatest invention Bill Gates ever came up with

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ight, we’re making posters today. If there was one phrase spoken by a teacher that could bring joy to the heart of any 8-year-old child in the noughties, it was just that. Posters meant one thing – Word Art. Forget the technological genius of Steve Jobs, or the ground breaking beauty and design of Raf Simmons; armed with Microsoft Word any child could leave them broken. Word Art was the perfect marriage of beauty and practicality which has not been seen before or since. Ideal for every occasion, Word Art is the noughties icon that has been sidelined and ignored despite the way it shaped a generation and their design preferences.

Word Art’s worth came in the shape of its versatility. Worksheet heading : Word Art. Poster: Word Art. Birthday card: Word Art. Newspaper headline: Word Art. The huge variety presented oodles of opportunities to spice up any title. Whether you wanted the words vertically down the page, diagonally across, shadowed, expanding from the middle or wavy across the page – it was there, in amongst Word Art’s precious vaults.

But of all Word Art had to offer, the crème de la crème was the rainbow colour scheme. In one word you could have every single colour on the spectrum. In one word. ONE. Garish but truly wonderful, it worked in every

situation. Whatever the colour scheme of the rest of that poster in Year 3 Geography, the rainbow Word Art would include that colour somewhere, so obviously it would work. And when those posters finally got pinned up on the notice board, it would produce an exquisite sea of rainbow Word Art, as the other 26 kids in the class would have also used the same logic.

Sadly, Word Art’s reigning days are over. Microsoft Word has been updated by boring people with no taste. Gone are the rainbows and pre-set selections. Now you have to scroll through all the different options of fill colour, shadow, shape of the text and 3-D effect.

The colours are subtler, and fail to jump out of the page and wallop you in the face with quite the effect they did in 2006. And what’s worse – life got boring.

The opportunities to present such beauty in such a simple heading have vanished. Essays don’t invite the same excitement and ‘academic’ posters don’t seem to express the same aesthetic value.

But, we do not have to live this way. Minimalism has controlled design for too long; it is time to give design its shout back. Art should leave you breathless, and try walking into a room covered in Word Art with any of your breath left. It is time for a revolution, it is time to bring back the design that made our youth. 2016 was a rough year for all – and four months in 2017 is proving to be just as much of a shit-show. Imagine if road signs, menus, text books and pay slips were all written in Word Art – life would be so much better.

Word Art may not be the hero the world deserves, but it is the hero we need.

press.lifestyle@forgetoday.com

LIFESTYLE FEATURES

HARRISON MATTHEWS

Lifestyle’s regular section exploring the University of Sheffield’s Best Student Ink.

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got this small triangle tattooed on my left arm. I’ve always loved shapes, the way they piece together and the intricate mathematical formulas behind them. And of all the shapes I have studied, I just love isosceles triangles – they are the prettiest of them all. My favourite thing to do is to find out the length of the sides of isosceles triangles, which I do by finding the perpendicular bisector of the triangle and then using Pythagoras’ theorem. And, by gum, do I love Pythagoras’ theorem. I actually have a dog called Pythagoras. But anyway, my favourite pass time is to find isosceles triangles and to find the length of their sides. As a way to commemorate this love of mine, I decided to get an isosceles triangle tattooed on my arm, so I always have a triangle there to measure.

Do you want to be featured? Fire us an email @ press.lifestyle@ forgetoday.com

TATTOO CORNER

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THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017

Kraking Krakow TRAVEL

Lifestyle Editor Florence Mooney explores the Polish city of Krakow to see if it is really is Kraka-lacking

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hilst still holding an EU passport, it is worth seeing all that the beautiful continent has to offer. When you think of European getaways, you may initially imagine golden Spanish beaches, quaint cobbled Italian streets, or the breath taking French alps; and as incredible as all these destinations may be, Europe has so much more to offer. One such place a little less frequented by the tourist crowds is the Polish city of Krakow.

Krakow was the historical capital of Poland up until the 16th Century, and still has all the signs that it was and is the cultural and academic epicentre of Poland.

Krakow also boasts the rare privilege of avoiding bombing in the Second World War, meaning that much of the city’s historical prominence is still very much in tact. The Old Town Square, one of the largest medieval squares in the world, is quite a spectacle.

St Mary’s Basilica, the striking cathedral in the square is one of the first things you will notice walking into the square. Built out of red brick, it is especially interesting for the fact the two towers are of such different heights and design. The Cathedral is open to the public, including the opportunity to climb to the top of the tower, providing one of the best views in the city.

The second most prominent landmark in the Old Town Square is the Cloth Hall – a market hall standing in the centre of the square which is still in use today.

Don’t miss the chance to wander through the hall to get a feel of the thriving merchant town Krakow once was.

Of the traditional historical city, the other landmark worth checking out is the Castle. The royal seat of Krakow, the Castle has numerous exhibitions, such as the royal apartments, the armoury and the state rooms, but you do have to pay separately to take a trip around these. If you’d rather save your cash, the grounds are free to visit and still allow much to be explored.

It is impossible to mention Krakow without mentioning its significant more recent history. In the Second World

War, Krakow was home to the famous factory owner Oskar Schlindler, immortalised in the film Schindler’s List. His factory is on the outskirts of the city centre and provides a fascinating exploration of Schlinder’s work in saving Jews from the Nazis, as well as the wider story of Poland during the War. Special mention must go to Bal, a café just around the corner, serving the best breakfast in Krakow.

The final stop on the tour of Krakow’s historical significant is Auschwitz concentration camp.

Situated an hour’s bus ride from the city, it is a little more of a trek to reach than other destinations around Krakow, but cannot be missed. The Nazis largest extermination camp, it was the site of the death of over a million victims of the Nazi’s evil regime. A harrowing day out,

LIFESTYLE LIFESTYLE LOVES but an important visit due to the significance the site has had on human history.

Krakow has a diverse and intricate history, spanning centuries, but Krakow has much more to offer than just this. The city has a thriving nightlife, with numerous hidden bars down many of the narrow alleys, alongside the larger clubs to entertain the large student population. A trip to Krakow provides all the good – from culture to nightlife to history.

Maybe it is not mentioned as frequently as Berlin or Barcelona, but the city has much to offer and with only 2 years left of easy travel as an EU citizen, this is definitely one such destination to explore.

By Florence Mooney

FASHION

The clocks have changed so it is officially British Summer Time.

This means you have the excuse to go shopping for your summer wardrobe. However, realistically the weather will still be crap, so maybe just invest in another rain coat.

FOOD IT WAS SUNNY FOR TWO WHOLE DAYS LAST WEEK!!!!

This obviously is a perfectly good reason to pretend it’s summer and get those summer foods out. Ice cream - good. Barbacue - better.

Burgers, sausages, grilled halloumi, corn on the cob, skewers, bread.

The perfect meal.

LIFESTYLE REVIEWS

Epirus Mediterranean Cuisine FOOD & DRINK

Lifestyle contributor Penelope Baxter reviews the traditional taste of the Mediterranean in Crookesmoor.

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arber Road has gained a delicious addition to the street over recent weeks in the shape of Epirus Mediterranean Cuisine (EMC). The restaurant provides a mixture of Mediterranean styles, mostly focusing on Greek cuisine.

With a range of mezzes, salads, skewers, wraps and mains, there is a huge variety of choice.

As I am a vegetarian, I avoided the wide range of chicken, pork and lamb choices and instead went for the halloumi wrap (because anyone who does not think halloumi is the king of all cheeses is just wrong). The wrap consisted of grilled halloumi pieces, chips, tzatziki, tomatoes

and onions, all wrapped in a Greek flat bread. It was the perfect ratio of filling to bread, and a healthy portion of halloumi, meaning that I did not run out of halloumi pieces before the end. The tzatziki was fresh and creamy, but not over dolloped onto the wrap, so no soggy bread! The wrap was a perfect size for dinner and really filled me up. At only £4.40 when including the 10% student discount EMC offer, I thought this was an excellent price for a filling meal.

EMC boats a wide ranging menu, with plenty of options for both meat eaters and vegetarians at an easily affordable student price. Providing options to eat

in or take away, EMC provides for both the solo ‘I can’t be arsed to cook tonight’ diner, or the ‘maybe we should go out for that house meal we’re always talking about’ diner. They also offer free delivery, meaning if you live away from Crookesmoor and into Broomhill, there is no need to waste the energy on a trip over the Barber Road, but instead just get you’re delicious Mediterranean meal delivered for free! The student discount is deal-maker, saving you 10% to be spent at the bar in Pop Tarts.

EMC is a definite must-visit for all students in Crookesmoor or further afield.

TRAVEL Article 50 has been triggered so make the most of your beautiful maroon EU passport whilst you still have the chnace. Go to Europe. Go anywhere in Europe. Eat the food.

Take in the sun. Take in the culture.

Walk down the street. See the sites.

Meet the Europeans. Soon it will be far harder to do so.

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FRIDAY 10 MARCH 2017

LIFESTYLE

VEGAN FOR A MONTH: THE ROUND-UP

Lifestyle editor Joseph Mackay reflects upon his experiments with veganism over the month of March.

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ast Christmas, I think many of us will agree, was a heavy one. The postUni allure of significant amounts of free food combined with a very festive tradition of drinking until you pass out midafternoon is fun, granted. It’s fun when it goes on every day until the New Year. It’s even still fun when New Year’s Eve has come and gone and there’s somehow still turkey and stuffing left over mid-January. January became February however and, for me, the overeating/overdrinking marathon continued. A long string of birthdays throughout February (my own included) and weekend after weekend of binge drinking and chain smoking was beginning to take its toll upon me. The five minute walk from my house into Uni was making me out of breath. I’d sit down in seminars, get out my notebook and break out into a cold sweat.

I was waking up regularly at one or two in the afternoon after sleeping 12 hours and still find myself with little to no energy or enthusiasm.

I needed to make a drastic change in my life, and fast.

Sure I could have just joined the gym, started drinking less, cut out junk food - all that jazz.

I’m not that rational however, so I decided to literally go cold turkey and become a vegan for the month of March. No meat, no eggs, no dairy, no honey. Nada.

To fully push this drastic lifestyle change to its very limits, I also decided to take up jogging again, a hobby that I hadn’t pursued properly since running Sheffield Half Marathon in first year.

WEEK ONE Rather fittingly, the day before Vegan March 2k17 was Pancake Day, a day where people would traditionally clear out their store cupboards before Lent. This proved a very effective means of clearing out my reserves of milk and eggs, although the BBQ chicken pancake I made to rid

myself of my leftover chicken was pretty rank. I also went to Aldi which was really great for fruit, veg, tinned stuff, spices and cupboard staples (rice noodles, dry pasta, bread etc) but not so much for more ‘specialist’ stuff like tofu. A leisurely drive along to the big Tesco sorted me out for falafel, “cheese” and a few frozen odds and ends (props to Linda McCartney). This was also a good point to pick up a load of various sauces and seasonings, such as Sriracha and BBQ sauce, which proved very lifesaving on multiple occasions.

Finally, I ventured into town to Holland and Barrett to get vegan multivitamin tablets and some egg free mayo, since I have a tendency to drown food in mayonnaise. For the entirety of the month mayo was probably the thing I missed the most in all honesty, and I don’t even care how sad you think that is. Despite this, as far as vegan alternatives go, I think the mayo was probably amongst the most solid of the bunch, especially since the pretend cheese I bought wasn’t the greatest thing I’ve ever tasted.

With any drastic lifestyle change, one would expect the initial stage to be the hardest part; yet I encountered no such problem.

Day one consisted of a falafel and hummus wrap for my lunch, a somewhat pathetic jog (but a jog nonetheless), with the evening consisting of roughly 9 minutes running coupled with a lot of gasping for air and walking, a quick vegetable pitta that I had to cook in the midst of my housemate’s 21st birthday predrinks, and a jaunt to Corp in the evening. Maybe it was placebo, but I think I got drunk easier? I can’t be sure though.

Are blue pints even Vegan?

The rest of the week was similarly pleasant. Vegan cooking didn’t prove too much of a problem, and I quickly began to figure out what worked for me and what didn’t. Asian and Mexican cooking are both very

good for meat free dishes that are still flavourful, particularly a batch of Chilli I made by rehydrating soy mince instead of using meat. I scranned down on Interval’s vegan enchilada one lunchtime which was pretty solid (their Vegan cheese was a lot better than mine), and the SU, to the credit, do offer a vegan meal deal (although to their discredit, it costs more than the regular meal deal and arguably isn’t as good).

The real challenge came when I went home for the weekend for a friend’s birthday, as the small Lancashire village I am from is not so well equipped to deal with specialist diets. My mum did make a spicy chickpea stew for me though, so credit where credit’s due.

WEEK TWO Nicely settled in now, my second week of veganism flew by mostly without a hitch. I prepared such exciting meals as a Japanese spicy udon miso broth, sweet potato falafel burgers, and avocado sushi for a packed lunch to eat in the IC. I even found myself pickling my own red cabbage, which you would never have caught me doing pre-Vegan March. This week also saw my jogging improve, and a noticeable change in my energy levels. A few people noted that my skin was clearing up as well, but I still don’t know what to make of this as I thought it was just fine before? The main problem this week was my post-Tuesday Club beverage (normally a milky cup of Earl Grey) which had to be a particularly sad looking milk-less English Breakfast tea, which unfortunately did not set me straight. On this note, tea and coffee, previous staples of my diet which I believed would be a serious issue, mainly proved to be a non-issue. Earl Grey is supposedly meant to be drank without milk anyway, so I feel a bit more classy after weaning myself off it, and black coffee is actually pretty good as long as the

coffee’s decent in the first place.

My experiments with soy milk proved very good on my muesli in the mornings, but continually disastrous in hot beverages as it curdled all the time.

WEEK THREE This was the week in which I had the sudden revelation that I had stopped snacking in the day without really even realising. Whereas normally I’d go for a midday Mars Bar, simply realising that it wasn’t vegan was enough to put me off apparently.

Money previously spent on post-night out takeaways was remaining nicely in my pocket (especially after an incredibly upsetting veggie delight ‘salad only’ subway), and a bag of Chili Heatwave Doritos or a Beef Pot Noodle, which is somehow Vegan, was hitting the spot pretty nicely.

Green tea consumption was up (which is meant to be good for you, isn’t it?) and I had well and truly rediscovered my love for cooking and inventing recipes even if all of them involve chilli or garlic in vast quantities. I was initially expecting the novelty to have worn off at this point, but no such luck. Apart from the occasional two second moment of lust watching somebody eat some cheese, I was still living regret free.

WEEK FOUR There’s less to write on these final weeks, as I’ve just kind of assimilated into the vegan lifestyle. This week my jogging improved so much so that I managed to run 4k in 20 minutes without stopping, which is a colossal improvement upon my first week of half running/ walking/dying, and conclusively disproved my initial hypothesis that veganism would result in having less energy.

This concluded with the SU’s first ‘Vegan Festival’, which turned out to be pretty lit since the sun was out in full force, ie

everybody decided to abandon their responsibilities and spend an afternoon drinking outside.

An informative event that never became preachy, a fun frolic in the sunshine, and pretty solid food too (even though I had to wait over an hour for it). I also discovered that The Harley is pretty great for vegan food as well; a discovery I wish that I’d made a lot sooner.

CONCLUSION Despite myself, I’ve really enjoyed being vegan.

I’ve rediscovered cooking as something that is enjoyable, rather than a daily chore, I’ve rekindled a love/hate relationship with jogging and gotten fitter in the process, I’ve lost 12lbs, I feel a lot better in myself, and above all, I don’t really even miss eating meat. And all this is without even considering the ethical concerns (which, admittedly, I haven’t really looked into).

Based upon my conclusion above, it may appear that I’m advertising veganism as some kind of miracle cure. It isn’t.

A lot of people have literally seen the opposite of what I’ve experienced: feeling tired or faint all the time, getting bored of the food, digestive problems, weight gain from high carb intake… It’s not for everybody, and I don’t think everybody should do it. You do you, man.

What I AM saying is that I went into this month with very low expectations, seeing the whole thing as a kind of stupid fad, and now I’m a vegan. I think. Maybe committing to it for life is a bit much, but I do believe that it’s something people can definitely benefit from trying.

THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017

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LIFESTYLE World Pizza Week 2017 Roundup

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nother year passes us by, and we venture into a dark and uncertain future. Trump, Brexit, Scottish independence? These are all uncertainties.

They are also inedible.

What can be certain however, is that another year heralds another ‘Interval World Pizza Week’: a celebration of world culture via the easily digestible medium of pizza.

Interval were kind enough to provide us with six of their finest pizzas to sample, and so sample we did.

Scores were taken out of 10.

Scores were averaged. Averages were put into a table, and for your viewing pleasure, average scores have been presented in the easily digestible form of a bar chart.

For your reading pleasure you may also find some absolutely stellar journalistic comments from members of the team if graphs aren’t your thing.

Chicks dig graphs, dude.

Bon Appétit!

Graph analysis Topping level: Mexican was the

“Crust is tasty! Nice and crunchy” “Badly in need of sauce” “Tastes like socks” “Chicken was well seasoned and finger lickin’ good” “India has a rich history, much like this pizza’s base”

“Good amount of cheese” “Weirdly smelt of alcohol” “Tasted of freedom” “The salty meat pefectly cut through the richness of dat THICK cheese layer boii” “Build the wall”

“Me Gusta!”

“Fuckin’ minging. I don’t like spicy food” “I like jalepeños” “The tortilla chips gave this pizza a satisfyingly crunchy edge” “Traditional mexican cooking”

“Interesting onion-y appearance” “The crust on this pizza brought a tear to my eye, the crisp snap brought me back to a kinder time” “Omlette du fromage” “Somewhere in Paris, a classically trained French chef is crying”

“Generous with the chorizo” “No comment” “At least a whole pig’s worth of chorizo” “The delicate heat of the meat accentuated the pizza’s deep, bold flavour”

“Nice flag” “The capital of San Marino is San Marino” “Vegan cheese = dog shite” “I loveThe Smiths #meatismurder” “Vegan cheese is above passable, faux pepperoni is strange but ok”

winner in this category for the sheer variety and quantity.

Taste: Spanish wins with full marks, followed by French, Mexican and Spanish equally.

Smell: Once again Spanish leads on smell with a tich tomato and spicy chorizo combo. Indian follows closely through sheer pungency.

Mouth feel: Indian and Spanish equal but also what does mouth feel mean when it comes to pizza?

Crust: Indian and American the clear winners, although I feel that this is subjective and not down to individual flavours.

Cheese Level: American wins through being roughly 80% cheese, and the Vegan cheese surprisingly beats Indian and Mexican.

Veggie Level: San Marino wins for being exclusively vegetables.

Spicy Level: None particularly spicy, but Mexican wins on the strength of jalepeños.

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GAMES

THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017

press.games@forgetoday.com

Drawing by Chloe Dervey

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THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017

GAMES

George Hudson reviews the smash-hit PS4 exclusive.

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hough it may not be the game currently on everyone’s lips, Horizon Zero Dawn deserves its fair share of the limelight in a crowded first quarter release schedule.

The PS4 exclusive is already set to be one of the games of the year, boasting stunning visuals and a fascinating premise. Horizon’s post-apocalyptic future places humanity upon the brink of extinction, with society’s collective knowledge and history wiped out by a robot uprising. Civilization has since entered a second Stone Age populated by these prehistoric-looking machines, oblivious of the circumstances that lead to their predicament.

Our journey through this relentless world follows the outcast Aloy. As we uncover the story behind her unknown mother, the search for answers turns to the mysterious fall of mankind, and how humanity managed to narrowly escape extinction.

Visually, Horizon is phenomenal. The map features a vast array of biomes that show off one of the best-looking console games to date. From moonlit jungles to desert sunsets, the game never ceases to provide staggeringly beautiful landscapes.

Clearly the developers are very proud of their work too, as a ‘photo mode’ is included in the pause menu. It’s easy (and oddly addictive) to jump in and out of this mode repeatedly during gameplay, capturing the diverse vistas the game offers.

Unfortunately, there are too few opportunities to blindly wander and enjoy the view without attracting unwanted attention. The assortment of bloodthirsty robots that roam the landscape are incredibly unforgiving; get spotted by a ‘Watcher’ and it can quickly alert the rest of the pack, sending half a dozen mechanical beasts eager to tear you apart.

Your main weapon, a bow and arrow, ensures there are no easy fights, and the few melee attacks at your disposal are largely useless (which begs the question why there’s a hefty focus on melee in the skill trees). Because of this, running in with a view to mindlessly mash attack buttons grants almost-certain death. Though this seems frustrating at first, the extra planning involved in taking down or avoiding a herd of robots makes for a much more satisfying experience when you finally pull it off.

If the robots weren’t enough, there’s still plenty of human enemies that get in your way. This is where gameplay is less captivating and more repetitive. Encounters with rival tribes are commonplace throughout the story quests, with many involving you wiping out an enemy camp.

These moments bear striking similarity to the Far Cry games, from the scouting and marking of targets to disabling camp alarm

systems. It’s a needless distraction: human enemies go down in one or two shots, and no matter how many you kill it’s still no substitute for taking down a herd of giant robot dinosaurs.

Thanks to its magnificent visuals and intense robot encounters, Horizon is one of the few open world games that won’t have you fast travelling across the map every few minutes. Breathing in what the wild can offer is nearly always an enthralling and challenging experience. Although it isn’t perfect, Horizon is a must buy for any PS4 owner with even the slightest interest in the genre.

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THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017

GAMES

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«««« Brandon Mann Games Editor

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Richard Priday Contributor

n recent years, the Resident Evil franchise had become predictable in its themes and inconsistent in terms of critical success. Therefore, Resident Evil VII’s mission was to hit reset and let players rediscover what made the earlier games undebatable classics in video game horror.

Fortunately, this was a resounding success, and people are beginning to talk about Capcom’s celebrated series seriously once more.

Resident Evil VII is now in a brand new first person engine, and looks all the better for it. Swept away are all the zombies and cheesy plots in favour of the Bakers, a family who have a lot of “unusual obsessions”. As Ethan Winters, you travel to their estate to find your long-lost wife Mia but naturally end up the Bakers' captive, beginning a 10 hour tour of this

homestead of horrors to free yourself.

You explore the areas slowly, finding puzzle objects to progress, crafting items to keep yourself alive, and dealing with the enemies you encounter with a small, barely effective arsenal of weaponry. In abandoning the zombies of old Resident Evil, Resident Evil VII now wants to sample every other kind of horror. The slasher, torture and body horror genres all get explored by the Bakers, and these sequences with Jack, Marguerite and Lucas are the most enjoyable parts of the main game.

What causes it to drag at points is the Moulded. It seems that there had to still be something zombie-esque, so these lumbering oily monsters act as filler enemies, making sure you never feel safe in your horror game. They do take a lot of bullets to slay, so you never feel overpowered, but considering how

anderlust. That’s the defining characteristic of Mass Effect: Andromeda. 600 years and 2.537 million light years from the Milky Way, humanity (and company) arrives in our neighbouring galaxy to explore bold new horizons and find a home in a strange but beautiful heaven teeming with possibility and novel alien species to inevitably bang.

Or at least that was the idea. The Andromeda Initiative found seven “golden worlds” which were ideal for colonisation, though upon arrival in Andromeda we find that things haven’t gone to plan. The Scourge, a mysterious and unnatural celestial object, has materialised and seemingly terraformed these golden worlds into inhospitable wildlands. Things may look bleak, but at least there aren’t any Reapers.

As Ryder, a likeable protagonist with the ability to carry the plot, your task is to make these worlds viable once more. Each world is expansive and carries its own unique threats and mysteries for you to tackle. As you progress, the world becomes more viable and your progress more tangible - skies clear, outposts are constructed, and new

charismatic the main characters are, it is a shame that you don’t spend more time with them instead.

The atmosphere around the Baker Estate is never quite still. There are always bumps and creaks and the sound of the wind whispering in your ear, making you fear what lies ahead, even in areas which you have already cleared. The game shies away from jump scares on the whole, instead permitting you glimpses of the next piece of misery, building up to the moment that you must confront it. The surroundings of wooden buildings, overgrown vegetation and dark muddy water do get stale in the later stages.

Fortunately, the ending of the game takes you away from this, and thanks to a change of pace the final two hours really stand out.

On its own, Resident Evil VII is a great game, but it is the rejuvenation of the whole franchise that makes this worth celebrating. After losing out on Silent Hills a few years ago, this shows that major horror series can compete with the smaller scale efforts like Outlast and Five Nights at Freddie’s.

With a season of DLC still to come, and a sequel almost certainly in the works already, players looking to be

beginnings are founded - which gives a real sense of satisfaction and achievement.

However, once explored for a while the worlds become somewhat tired.

There’s an apparent lack of flora and fauna, and there are only so many times you can view a breathtaking vista before it loses its lustre. The same can be said of new species. Mass Effect excelled in its diversity: from monstrous krogans to the ethereal asari. Andromeda does precious little in expanding this collection of aliens; 25 hours in and I’ve only met two new species.

The plot and gameplay resembles the original Mass Effect greatly.

Players use a cornucopia of fun skills and weaponry to help unravel the ancient and advanced technology of an unknown race in a story peppered with twists and challenges. Yet, perhaps most saliently in a Bioware title, it forces you to make hard choices in moral grey areas which may come back to haunt you.

Now for the bugbear: faces. The internet reacted in apoplectic rage (as it so often does) to early footage of awkward and sometimes genuinely terrifying facial animations. This seems to have been an overreaction.

There are uncomfortable and immersion-breaking moments like Addison’s cement block of a face or Cora’s wild, unblinking eyes, but they aren’t frequent. The voice acting is acceptable in general but

petrified and perturbed in the future will not be lacking in options, and Resident Evil now stands proudly with the best.

«««««

some conversations can feel a tad unnatural, like two recordings slapped hastily together rather than two people actually conversing in a booth.

Characters, though, mostly come across as natural and well-developed - the same of which can be said for your crew. It’s an amicable and deep cast worth investing your time and emotion into.

On a technical note, Andromeda is far from perfect. The game is laden with bugs and glitches which can be detrimental, especially in the mostly encapsulating multiplayer, but Bioware have stated that they will be “aggressively patching” to resolve these issues. The savvy consumer might wait a few weeks before diving into the action.

Despite its drawbacks, shortcomings and beautiful emptiness, Andromeda is a pleasing but exacting RPG with a strong storyling and many avenues to explore. Perfect for anyone feeling a sense of wanderlust.

FORGE PRESS 23

THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017

ARTS

press.arts@forgetoday.com

As Varsity fever takes hold, Ingrid Johnson discusses the complex role of dance in joining sport with the arts.

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t’s that time of year again.

Hoodies with the Varsity slogan are popping up around campus and suddenly everyone seems interested in ice hockey.

A dancer myself, I’ve never been especially gifted at sports. For some, this is self-explanatory, for others, it raises an important question: is dance a sport or an art?

Personally, I experience sport in three stages. Firstly, there’s the lead up to a sporting event. This is the bit where you go to the gym, run around on the field and train as hard as you can in order to perform your best.

Next, you’re competing. It’s exciting, there’s adrenaline pumping through your veins, just trying its best to distract your legs from the fact that you could have trained that little bit harder. Thirdly, there’s that moment after coming home from a match (but before your shower) when you walk in your front door, flop onto the sofa and kick off your shoes.

It may be my inner couch potato talking, but I feel like people don’t give enough weight to this third stage. After all, shoes can tell you an incredible amount about an athlete. Or a dancer, for that matter.

Let’s look at a few examples. Running shoes have cushioned midsoles, so that they can absorb the impact of the runner’s repetitive contact with the earth. Pointe shoes have box support to help ballerinas balance on the tips of their toes for

long periods of time.

Tap shoes are fitted with metal towards the toes and heel, allowing the wearer to make music with their feet.

It seems to me that each type of shoe – much like each type of activity – is designed specially to support the wearer in their craft, whether it is chasing a ball up and down a field or performing in Swan Lake. As such, they are all well worthy of being kicked off at the end of the day.

So can we call dance a sport? Yes. Dancing at any level requires great skill, not to mention extensive physical training and ability. Dancers across all styles show their skills in competition and work hard to be the best at what they do. It requires motivation, persistence and dedication, much like any other sport.

If you are looking for more evidence, I’d recommend dancing a mile in their shoes.

Ever since 1997, the International Olympic Committee has recognised DanceSport, a competitive style of ballroom dancing, as an eligible sport to be included in the Olympic program. Yet there still seems to be a way to go before it is recognised fully in the eyes of the public. Nevertheless, things are definitely heading in that direction.

It’s important to note that although dance shares characteristics with other sports that fit snugly into the category, it is very broad as an art form.

To say that dance is always a sport would be wrong, because it’s not always competitive.

It is not always done in teams, or alone, in studios or on stages. It is incredibly diverse across cultures and even within styles.

Some of us dance barefooted on beaches or under the stars. Then there are those of us who swing by the occasional Lindy Hop class on a Tuesday, hoping we won’t be recognised, so the others assume it’s our first time and go easy on us. Some of us dance every chance we get simply because it makes our heart smile.

I feel that it’s important to note that every one of these dancers is valid, as are the twerkers, the ballerinas, the capoeiristas and the salsa dancers.

Dance is movement at its core, whether it’s done for sport, artistic expression or just plain fun.

Put on your dancing shoes

24 FORGE PRESS

THURSDAY 30th MARCH 2017

ARTS ALDWYCH THEATRE

Beautiful

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James Pendlington Coffee Break Editor

lthough you might assume that Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is simple nostalgic indulgence, you would be severely wrong. This very personal look at Carole King’s life delivers heartfelt acting as well as well performed musical numbers that King herself wrote. This is a must see show when it comes to the Sheffield on tour in February 2018.

I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself in for when I went down to London to see Beautiful at the Aldwych. It was a musical about a woman I’d never heard of before who is in fact the bestselling female songwriter of the 20th Century. I arrived in St Pancras from Sheffield

and then got the Tube to Holborn where I met my family, at which point I realised wearing my tatty student clothes and scuffed Doc Martens probably weren’t the best attire for a West End Theatre (several clucking middle aged women confirmed this fact for me). Having spent my entire bank account on buying a programme for the night I sat down with my family ready to enjoy my mum’s 50th birthday treat.

The show opens with Carole King (portrayed by Cassidy Janson) performing an energetic rendition of ‘So Far Away’ giving us, the audience, a delicious amusebouche to get us salivating for what was to come. We then flash back to 1958 where a 16 year old Carole goes into Brooklyn and sells the song ‘It Might As Well Rain Until September’ to record producer Don Kirshner (Joseph Prouse).

The scene was impressive not

only for Janson’s amazing singing voice but also the humour in the conversation between Kirshner and King. This scene again surprised me as I’d supposed this production would just a be a bland homage to Carole’s life.

“Incredibly, Carole King wrote every song in the musical that was performed.”

The show goes through Carole’s life from 1958 to 1971 where the musical climaxes with her at Carnegie Hall back at the beginning of the show. It goes through her tragic relationship with the man she thought was the love of her life, Gerry Goffin (Matthew Seadon-Young), and the songs she was writing for artists of the time. The show mirrored the ups and downs in King’s life, such as the drug addiction and affairs of

her husband, with the music she wrote with “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” making a particular impact. Incredibly, Carole King wrote every song in the musical that was performed in the style of the artists, with Cassidy

illustrate the internal stresses and strains facing Victoria and her relations as a female scientist in the Victorian period.

What impresses most though is how the atmosphere of the show brings about a much more psychedelically chilling version of the story. The lighting and set design does an excellent job of turning an otherwise blank stage into distinct and memorable settings, be it a dark lab or unnerving hospital.

The colour palette of fluorescent blues and clashing yellows work well to create a foreboding mood.

The dream sequences in particular were a sight to behold and truly the highlight of the show.

INTRODUCING: The EnableUS Project The University of Sheffield is launching a brand new theatre project this week, bringing innovative performing arts to the heart of campus.

EnableUS will provide a platform for cutting-edge companies to showcase their work at University venues. The drama on offer is diverse, discussing issues from the stigma of male depression to the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong.

Here are our picks for the:

LIFE AND SOUL

Friday 31 March, 8pm, University Drama Studio Chris O’Connor’s one-man play invites the audience into the life of Jim, a regular, beer-drinking bloke who can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong. This show explores the taboo surrounding male experiences of mental illness and the importance of speaking out.

GYPSY QUEEN

Thursday 13 April, 8pm, University Drama Studio Exploring the complexities of identity and sexuality, Gypsy Queen tells the unconventional love story of two professional boxers. ‘Gorgeous’ George O’Connell is a self-proclaimed Gypsy King, but meeting rival Dane ‘The Pain’ Samson turns his world upside-down.

VENTOUX

Wednesday 19 April, 8pm, University Drama Studio In the year 2000, the most treacherous mountian of the Tour de France played host to one of the most exciting races ever seen in cycling. This production from 2Magpies Theatre presents the intense rivalry between Lance Armstrong and Marco Pantani as it’s never been seen before.

Janson performing a few herself. I cannot recommend it higher.

Beautiful will be coming to Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre on next Feburary. It runs at the Aldwych Theatre, London until 4 November of this year.

skipped over all together. Instead, this is a more intimately characterdriven play that focusses on the stresses and relationships of our lead, Victoria Frankenstein (Polly Alex Pinfold Frame). The liberal use of time Forge Press Secretary within the play illustrates this quite well. Just as the audience is iven how many adaptations caught out when months and even there are of Mary Shelley’s years pass between scenes, Victoria Frankenstein, I was also struggles to notice how much somewhat sceptical entering the time has passed as she loses herself Crucible Theatre to see this version in her work and worries. co-produced by Northern Stage and Greyscale. After all, with its “This is certainly signature change to the classic tale one adaptation of being the portrayal of Frankenstein as a woman, it would be easy for Frankenstein that will the production to come across as stand out amongst gimmicky. Thankfully though, the crowd.”

Dr Frankenstein provides a refreshingly chilling performance.

A big part of the show’s appeal Credit must also be given to comes from the fact that it doesn’t how the show avoids forceful use follow the original too closely. Key its gender perspective to make moments in the story such as the cheap points. Rather, it works as famous creation of the creature are a constant undertone which helps

CRUCIBLE THEATRE

Dr. Frankenstein

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“Whether the Creature can be called a true monster is ambiguous.”

If there is one point of contention, it is with regards to the Creature (Ed Gaughan). I like how they went for a more humanised version of the monster. Such a direction works well with Victoria’s character development. Whether he can be called a true monster is ambiguous, and this is even reflected in his overall look and design. However, the use of the Creature for comedic relief at points, whilst enjoyable somewhat broke the tension and atmosphere of some scenes.

Overall, with strong performances, an imposing atmosphere and soundtrack, and refreshing changes, this is certainly one adaptation of Frankenstein that will stand out amongst the crowd.

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ARTS THEATRE DELICATESSEN

The Vagina Monologues

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DRAMA STUDIO

French Play 2017

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Thomas Maguire Contributor

rom 15-17 March 2017, the French Department hosted a double bill for their annual student play.

Georges Courteline’s 19th Century work Les Boulingrin was the first play to be re-enacted. Monsieur Desrillettes is a professional sponger who intends to enjoy the long-term benefits of Monsieur and Madame Boulingrin’s hospitality, only to find himself the victim of the couple’s tempestuous and explosive relationship. The second performance featured a rendition of the 20th Century play Scène à quatre by Eugène Ionesco, taking place in an office in 1990s France.

This play focuses on a dispute between co-workers Durand and Dupont which Martin and later their boss attempt to resolve, with disastrous consequences for the latter.

“The charismatic and high-spirited performances frequently had the audience in fits of laughter.”

Tom Stephenson’s stellar impersonation of Desrillettes in Les Boulingrin provided great comedic value.

His performance was excellently complemented by Rosie King’s character Félicie, who added great warmth to the production.

Moreover, the charismatic and high-spirited performances of the Boulingrin couple, Michael Scruton and Izzy HutchesonLovett, frequently had the audience in fits of laughter. The culmination of the play was suitably in keeping with the slapstick overtones of the production and made for thoroughly entertaining viewing.

Indeed, during the interval separating both sketches, it was questioned whether the second play could live up to the humour and prowess of the first. Thankfully it did. Rachel Dorning’s and Matilida Parslow’s characters, Durand and Dupont bounced off each other effortlessly, adding a light-hearted dimension to the scene by arguing over the position of the office flowers. This didn’t detract from the performances of Beth Crabtree and Jessica George playing Martin and the boss respectively, whose diplomatic dispositions were pivotal in successfully realizing the humorously embarrassing events of the closing scene.

“We questioned whether the second play could possibly live up to the humour and prowess of the first.”

A great deal of effort has gone into both plays and this is illustrated by each actor’s desire to enthuse and entertain the audience; which they all accomplished with aplomb. Perhaps uncommonly within student productions, there were no weak links in either play.

The timings were on point, scene transitions were slick and lines were not only well remembered but delivered with great ease – an important element to take into account given that both performances were acted in French.

Indeed, the French spoken was clear, succinct and easy to follow with some accents, notably those of Izzy and Matilda sounding authentically native. Both plays felt quite short. It would have been pleasent had they have continued for longer. Nevertheless, both plays provided exceptional escapism from the trials and tribulations of a university degree. Everyone involved should be incredibly proud.

Matt Wickens Arts Editor

va Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues was the crowning piece of the Let’s Talk about Sex Festival, put on by the Moor Delicatessen Theatre over the month of the March. Inspite of the 20 years that have passed between when the play was first performed and its current incarnation, The Vagina Monologues still has the ability to shock, depress and delight the modern audience.

The production at the Moor Deli provided a treatement of the original play that successfully contextualised the monologues in South Yorkshire with a sense of confidence and yet also sensitivity that most struggle to accomplish.

“the audience were propelled to ask themselves deep questions about their identities as people who engage in sexual, physical and commercial behaviour.”

The Vagina Monologues are a set of monologues that focus on love, rape, sex, orgasms, periods, birth, masturbation and more aspects

of the feminine experience. The performance given by the Moor Deli on International Women’s Day offered further monologues from women in contemporary Sheffield as to how Vagina had affected them. This combination drew the audience into the heart of the play by setting it in our landscape.

The performances were all of an exceptional quality. Monologues offer the actor a new set of opportunities and challenges as they negotiate the practicalities of solo performance without the support of a wider cast. However, the performers of Vagina had a true command of the stage and the audience. Inspite of performing a play which some might shy away from, the actors weren’t coy or anxious of the nature of taboo, which is to be applauded as it pushed the audience to question why these taboos exist around the vagina.

Without their confidence, the performance would have fallen apart, but with it, the performance was a triumph.

Inspite of that confidence, the monologues left space to be selfcritical about the nature of this inquiry. Through the vehicle of The Vagina Monologues, the audience were propelled to ask themselves deep questions about their identities as people who engage in sexual, physical and

commercial behaviour. As the show demonstrated the pervasive and totalitarian affects of the patriarchy, both on the female body but also on the human mind, the audience left with more questions than answers. Any art which achieves that deep sense of questioning has an enormous social and political value for us in modern society. The Theatre Delicatessen should be lauded for this production.

A Year in Review In honour of our last issue as a team, Arts Editors Laura Mulvey and Matt Wickens take a look at the highs and lows of Sheffield’s arts scene over the last year.

Laura’s Hit: The Northern Ballet’s 1984, Lyceum Theatre.

The bold decision to combine George Orwell’s dark dystopia with the classical ballet form paid off in this striking performance.

Physical musicality worked superbly to convey themes of broken communication, and it was refreshing to see a conventionally wholesome genre turned on its head.

Laura’s Miss: From the Mouths of the Gods, Theatre Delicatessen.

This show gave one audience member complete control over its outcome, which had the potential to be really interesting. Unfortunately, the eagerness of the chosen audience member proved disastrous: on being told that the at the end of the show he would be given a choice of whether or not to kiss the rehearsed actress, he misunderstood and seized her immediately, rendering the rest of the performance awkward for everyone involved.

Matt’s Hit: What Can Be Seen, Millenium Galleries.

This innovative exhibition placed together former exhibits from Sheffield Galleries. Through placing together exhibits that would not normally be contemplated with one another, the exhibition drew out new features of all these seperate exhibits that led the viewer to question the nature of artistic exploration itself.

Matt’s Miss: Boris the Musical, Drama Studio.

This musical had the promise to be a great piece of satire.

Sadly, it flopped just like the blonde mop that sits atop the Foreign Secretary’s head. It’s constant reference to his sex life and his bitchy fights with David Cameron were to start with funny but ended up tired and stretched.

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OUTLINES.

Forge Press paid a visit to Tramlines festival’s smaller, wintery cousin.

Photo by Tarquin Clark

Jagwar Ma @ Leadmill

Brenna Cooper Music Contributor

Photo by Ethan Weatherby

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fter the successful release of their second album Every Now & Then in October (a well-received follow up to their 2013 debut Howlin’), Australian psychedelic-dance band Jagwar Ma headline Outlines festival with an upbeat set at the Leadmill. Taking to the stage after Fear of Men and Shock Machine, the band enjoy a thunderous applause from fans

who are excited and ready to have fun.

The feeling of excitement lingered throughout the band’s hour long set of psychedelic dance driven through synth-driven melodies and poppy hooks. The songs, an experimental myriad of eclectic synth, house and dance beats, proved to be a hit with the crowd. Fans were dancing along to new singles ‘O B 1’ and ‘Give Me A

Reason’ and older tracks, like ‘The Throw’ under bright flashing lights and streams of smoke.

While the songs, with a warm almost sunny vibe, may seem more at home at a summer festival, those gathered around the Leadmill’s main stage didn’t seem to mind the rainy March weather, with several people even bringing sunglasses for the occasion. Although the synths and booming drums had a

tendency to drown out the vocals and guitar, the bands overall sound wasn’t compromised and the crowd’s lively response showed that they either didn’t notice or that it didn’t matter.

Overall it was a surprisingly strong and enjoyable set providing fans with a warm, experimental mix of dance-psychedelica and bringing an excellent warm up for this summer’s Tramlines festival.

Shame @ Leadmill

Lick - Gold Hole’ and their new song ‘Tasteless’, they are quickly becoming one of the UK’s most exciting live acts. Landing support slots for Slaves and Fat White Family as well as playing across the pond at SXSW, Shame have managed to generate a strong fan base and gain attention from various musical outlets.

Playing a raw and energetic half hour set on Leadmill’s main stage the band managed to put on an exciting and wild show, with explicit, politically charged songs

and grandiose showmanship.

From climbing into the crowd and dousing themselves in beer, it’s easy to see why Shame are becoming known for their live performances.

While these antics may seem over the top or unusual to the casual listeners, they proved popular with those standing close to the front and confirmed that the band are worthy of the growing hype around them.

Catch them on their upcoming UK tour this summer in April/May.

W

Brenna Cooper Music Contributor

hile the London based post-punk band have little material officially released, only debut singles ‘The

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Photo by Tarquin Clark

The Crookes @ Leadmill

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Aisling Power Music Contributor

n the first day of Outlines, Sheffield’s very own indie rock band The Crookes returned to their roots to perform at the Leadmill as part of Outlines Festival. Since forming in 2008 during their college years, they’ve gone on to release five albums and tour round the UK, Europe and the

US. Yet it still remains astounding to see the influence that their music has within Sheffield itself, with their set easily being a highlight for a lot of the Outline-goers.

Their hour set involved quite the variety of songs from all of their albums. Going right back to the oldies such as ‘Chorus of Fools’ and, of course, their first single ‘A Collier’s Wife’. These were received as well as ever with the crowd belting out the lyrics along with the quartet and dancing wildly along to the doomed romanticism in the modern pop songs.

From their newest album Lucky Ones they played the instant classics including ‘The World is Waiting’ and ‘Real Life’. These underrated songs are at least clearly appreciated by the hardcore Crookes fans within Sheffield, who attack the words with much enthusiasm. George Waite even paused between songs to express his amazement that the crowd managed to form moshpits to ‘Roman Candle’ which is possibly one of the least moshiest songs they play.

They have gathered quite the

Photo by Gary Wolstenholme

Alverez Kings @ Plug Rama Alsammouah Music Contributor

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he indie band Alvarez kings played at Plug’s main stage on the first day of the Outlines Festival and they sounded as incredible live as they did on their recorded tracks.

Their show began with some mediocre songs that blended right into each other. But when they

began to play ‘Sleepwalking’ their show suddenly shifted from being mediocre to amazing and it just kept on getting better as the show went on. The emotional song gives you chills at times and the singer Simon Thompson effortlessly hit every note while evoking indescribable emotions.

following within Sheffield clearly the Leadmill was packed out and the band members waved to familiar faces. This following creates an extremely unique atmosphere in comparison to most gigs, especially as the venue is more intimate than most. Throughout the gig the atmosphere remained electric and this energy fueled The Crookes to jump around the stage and to sing with such liveliness that it looked like singer George Waite was determined to motorboat his microphone out of the stand!

Their penultimate song was the

incredible ‘I Wanna Waste My Time on You’. Opening with an expansive blast of guitars followed by catchy lyrics, the audience could jus soak in the joy they radiated.

As usual, their last song was the unabashedly hooky single ‘Afterglow’. Greeted by the bellows of the crowd it is clear why this was their final song. It left the crowd and band alike on an absolute high after dancing their hearts out to the hauntingly addictive song.

Now, although there was nothing particularly special about their live presence, there didn’t need to be. They didn’t need to resort to cheap stunts or gimmicky moves to entertain you because when they played, you were instantly sold.

Any stunts would simply distract from the lead singer’s piercingly beautiful voice.

them perform this beautifully anathematic indie-pop song.

Although the crowd was quite mellow they certainly cheered after they heard this song being played.

Overall, they’re a band with a universal appeal, both sound and performance-wise. They have a sound that is meant for big mainstream audiences and arenas, with their easy listening indie-pop type tracks. Their gig is the kind of gig that you can go to with your parents or pretty much whoever and you’re all bound to have a splendid time.

“The highlight of their show was most certainly when thy began to play their latest and best single to date, ‘Cold Conscience’” The highlight of their show was most certainly when they began to play their latest and best single to date, ‘Cold Conscience’. It is worth buying a ticket just to see

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Harry Gold interviews britpoppers, Superfood

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MUSIC themselves have little to say about their hometown: “It was a fun time to be in Birmingham, drinking and going out every week, but that scene is very dead now.”

Many agree the scene is over, with the final nail in the coffin being the closure of the venue Oobleck as it shut its door for the final time last year. While for some this raises the question where new bands are going to get their big break, Superfood appear relatively unconcerned about the effect this will have on young bands starting out: “There will always be bars to get drunk in and meet people to play music so we’re safe there. I think maybe those small venues

were used as a way for people to discover new music and now the internet has taken over that role. Bands now develop online and then go into more established venues for their first shows. Things just change and you’ve got to go with it.”

Superfood, for one, are definitely going with it, with 2017 marking the group’s renaissance. They are clearly thriving, no longer bound to Birmingham and the other bands that they cut their teeth with.

Their new single ‘Double Dutch’ showcases a more electronic side of the band, albeit with the same recognizable Britpop grooves.

Describing the inspirations of the record, the band cites “stuff

like Stereolab and MNDSGN” as influences. Vocalist Dom Ganderton explains, “I mean, we were listening to stuff like it before but we just made sure we incorporated that feel into our sound this time”.

Providing their own take on playlist culture, the band describe it as “a shame” that albums are increasingly being consumed as a whole piece, with specific songs being removed from the context in which they were meant to be appreciated.

“Hopefully, people will stop using vinyl as collectors’ pieces and start using them as a way to enjoy a whole album without a mouse and a keyboard.”

Interview.

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Town’ was oh so nearly a thing. Emerging five or so years ago with the bright success of killer Birmingham bands (think Peace, Swim Deep, Jaws, and Superfood), it sadly faded away as quickly as it appeared.

Despite the commercial success of Peace, the scene’s standard-bearers, and to a lesser extent, Swim Deep, Superfood did not experience the same success and, after the release of their 2014 debut Don’t Say That, they promptly disappeared. The mainstream music press forgetting about them just as they forgot the town that birthed them.

Reflecting on this, Superfood

Superfood

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SCREEN F R A M I N G

Shooting a great film is all about being in the right place at the right time. Gethin Morgan discusses the effect of singular cinematic locations, and whether they help or hinder movies.

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LOCKE

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Surely I’m not this film illustrates so well the only one who urely I’m not the only one who dreams of dreams of spendspending 90 minutes in a car with Tom Hardy? ing 90 minutes in Well, in Locke those dreams a car with Tom come true. What sounds like Hardy? Well, a bore becomes brilliant in Locke those as Hardy’s character has dreams come his life twisted upside down on the biggest true.

What sounds night of his career.

Personal history like a bore be- and stressful comes brilliant as circumstances makes Hardy’s charac- the story of this ordinary man ter has his life twisted upside c o m p l e t e l y fascinating. down on the What this biggest night of film illustrates his career. so well is how life Personal histo- someone’s canchange so ry and stressful dramatically during circumstances a single hour and a makes the story half car journey. of this ordinary man completely fascinating. What

press.screen@forgetoday.com

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lfred Hitchcock’s thrilling masterpiece is set almost entirely from the viewpoint of a photographer home-bound after breaking his leg.

With time on his hands he begins spying on his neighbours through the window and soon begins to suspect that one of them has committed a murder.

Hitchcock shows that you don’t need dramatic locations and fast paced editing to create a thriller, with a film grounded in a chilling realism and the its single location allowing us to fully see the incident from the protagonist’s perspective.

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arantino’s first and arguably best work is n absolute masterpiece.

Set immediately after a gang of strangers have completed a heist, the group find themselves in a warehouse.

Another cult classic and another film whose singular setting allows dialogue to take over as the characters discover themselves. Five school kids, all from different cliques, find themselves sharing Saturday detention. What follows is a deep analysis of what

Casualties and injuries, rumours of a rat and the fear of getting caught give Reservoir Dogs an incredible tension which comes to a thrilling, and typically bloody climax when we finally find out the identity of the snitch.

A group of men armed with guns feels even more dangerous when they’re all stuck in one building, and the tension is constant as the audience wonders who to trust.

it means to be a young person growing up, regardless of what social circle you belong to. By taking away the distraction of changing locations, director John Hughes keeps the focus on character and dialogue, giving the film a profound philosophical feel.

12 Angry Men One of the all-time great films, 12 Angry Men is set almost entirely in a jury room where, you guessed it, 12 angry men discuss the fate of a young man on trial for murder.

R E V I E W

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istinguished British director Ben Wheatley returns to the screen loaded with a stellar cast and his uniquely insightful directorial vision.

From an editing perspective, Free Fire is a master class. The continuity, pacing, framing and use of sound are extraordinary.

From an editing perspective, Free Fire is a master class.

The continuity, pacing, framing and use of sound are extraordinary. There is an

Starring Henry Fonda, the film takes a deep look at prejudice and the judicial system in the US. This film is the perfect proof that action is not always necessary for an intense cinematic experience.

The sweltering hot room perfectly captures the stress and discomfort of the characters, pushing them all to emotional limits and exposing their true nature.

extremely fragile boundary when action and comedy are combined. So many times it has gone wrong and films quickly become an unbearable cheesy cringe-fest – just look at Kong Skull Island. According to the hysterical audience at the cinema, the movie nailed the combination.

Each character has their own unique sense of humour and the acting and timing of lines is phenomenal. The star of the show is genuinely hilarious.

Out in cinemas on 31 March, Ben Wheatley’s latest feature is a Reservoir Dogs like bundle of fun.

Set exclusively in an abandoned warehouse, a meeting between two gangs turns sour and bullets start firing in this exciting shootout film starring the likes of Cillian Murphy and Oscar winner Brie Larson.

This film portrays a

Even when the camera is not on him, you can hear him in the background ranting away.

The film is simple in structure and shallow in depth but it is a lot of fun. That is its most outstanding asset.

It is not up there with Wheatley’s best work and it does feel rather safe for such a leftfield director. It also unfortunately comes into immediate comparison with Tarantino’s greats Reservoir Dogs and The Hateful Eight

because of the nature of the film but Free Fire is definitive of short and sweet.

Ben Kempton

To read the full review, combined with a Q & A with Ben Wheatley himself, hop onto forgetoday.com.

shootout as a painfully slow nightmare that nobody can escape from, and its rundown location sets up some great set pieces, in what is a totally unique film.

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SCREEN Kong: Skull Island ««

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Gethin Morgan Screen Contributor

inema’s favourite ape returns to the big screen after a secretive organisation led

by Bill Randa (John Goodman) head to a mysterious island in search of mythical creatures following the end of the Vietnam War. With the aid of army lieutenant Preston Packard (Samuel L Jackson), former SAS soldier J a m e s Conrad ( T o m Hiddleston) and photographer Mason Weaver (Brie Larson), they soon find out this is more than just monkey business.

The stunning landscapes and vibrant colour palette gives Kong: Skull Island a promising exterior. Along with good costumes and a great soundtrack, it captures the essence of the Vietnam War and the era in which the film is set.

However, it doesn’t take long to realise the film is built on shaky foundations with a laughably poor script. Following the usual blockbuster formula – heavy CGI action intercut with moviestars being dramatic – it has zero originality.

The film finds itself chasing the perfect one liner throughout its two hour runtime. Unsurprisingly it never catches it.

The characters are also hopelessly underwritten. So much so that even a stellar cast can’t redeem it. Hiddleston is wooden, while

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Jackson and Goodman aren’t pushed remotely out of their comfort zones.

Then when it comes to the supporting roles, the film makes a pathetic attempt to diversify itself. There are three supporting characters of ethnic minorities, and they’re all completely irrelevant, but hey, at least the studio filled its diversity quota.

Its saving grace is its creatures, thanks to some stunning CGI. The terrifying ‘Skull Crushers’ are brilliant, and Kong in particular looks phenomenal. The ape doesn’t have the heart and soul of Andy Serkis’ take in 2005’s King Kong though. He’s good to look at, but that’s pretty much it.

Essentially, this is another trashy studio film, churned out to make millions of dollars so they can go onto their next money grabbing venture, with Kong v Godzilla in the pipeline. It’s watchable, and semi enjoyable, but it also encapsulates everything that’s wrong with heartless Hollywood.

Poorly written and poorly put together, Kong: Skull Island is all shine and no substance. This is one big old monkey you’ll want straight off your back.

Beauty and the Beast

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rom the moment the opening credits begin, showing the traditional princess castle that opens every Disney film, the viewer gets a sense of a serious attention to detail as the Disney magic unfolds.

The film is at its best when it sticks to the original story, although some additions to the plot line are useful in filling in gaps where the original left things unanswered. It really provokes a sense of nostalgia, something that is key to the success of this genre.

As soon as the opening sequence with the chilling musical score that opens the original film begins, the audience is taken back to being a small child watching

the 1991 classic on a VHS tape. There are some additional musical numbers which are arguably a flop. It wasn’t that viewers will be opposed to new music but the songs aren’t particularly great and feel like an unnecessary afterthought that are added to lengthen the running time.

The animation is impressive from a technical point of view and really demonstrate the capabilities of modern filmmaking. That said, there is a charm that is lost in trying to personify household objects yet still keep them looking realistic. The film loses an element of its appeal as its animators clearly do not have the same resources they would have when creating it in a traditional animation style. There is no blushing of the cheeks, and the eyes and faces are less expressive, which renders the characters a little less loveable.

“The audience is taken back to being a small child watching the 1991 classic on VHS” In terms of the acting, most of the cast were exceptional but some shine more than others. Luke Evans and Josh Gad (Gaston and his side kick LeFou respectively) are particularly good, especially in the musical numbers, and Dan Stevens succeeds in portraying a beast that evokes sympathy in an

audience.

Emma Watson’s Belle is true to the original.

However, although she is believable, clearly someone in the audio mixing room felt her vocals weren’t up to scratch as there is an overwhelming sound of autotuning accompanying her singing parts. As for the rest of the cast, Cogsworth, Lumiere and Mrs Potts (played by British film royalty Ian McKellan, Ewan McGregor and Emma Thompson) who are predictably outstanding in their respective roles.

Overall, Beauty and the Beast is successful in its aim, a new attempt for Disney to profit from an old favourite. It draws on a sense of nostalgia within its audience and a desire to revisit the traditional story in a new way. Definitely rewatchable, but not a patch on the original.

Anna Gillies Editor

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Samurai Gourmet

Clique

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ew to Netflix Samurai Gourmet is a gorgeously put together show that is undoubtedly destined to win the hearts of an international audience.

Kasumi Takeshi has recently retired from his corporate job and is pondering on what to do with the rest of his life when he stumbles into a restaurant for a meal. His journey of personal growth begins with his first mouthful.

The desires of the shy, unassertive 60 year old man show themselves in each episode through the guise of a rogue samurai as he makes all the decisions Kasumi can’t, from ordering a beer in the middle of the day to talking sense into rude movie stars.

This show is adorable. Watching Kasumi’s face (Takenaka Naoto) light up when he tastes something fantastic is unexpectedly satisfying. His facial expressions are fantastically honest throughout the whole season, and his character is so innocently loveable you can’t help but smile along with him. His adventures are simple, but touching. There is a refreshing wholesomeness to every story as he reflects on his childhood, family and interactions with people around him.

The spoken dialogue is in Japanese, but Netflix provides English subtitles, along with other language options, making it accessible to a wider audience. The aesthetics are simple, gentle and clean with a classical quality to the background music, which always seems to kick in just before he takes that next bite.

This reviewer would happily recommend Samurai Gourmet, especially if you are looking for something a little different and endearing to brighten up your day. For a little bit extra fun, try watching it while eating dinner... you know, so you don’t get too jealous.

Riverdale ««« Lauren Davidson Screen Contributor

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BC Three’s Clique is a new six-part drama full of sex, drugs and partying that can quite easily be compared to a modern-day, darker Skins. In fact, it’s not surprising that the shows share a writer, Jess Brittain. When childhood besties Holly and Georgia start their university course in Edinburgh, they live the typical wild fresher lifestyle that most new students are guilty of partaking in. Messy flat parties, drunken one-night stands, sneaking booze into gigs to avoid having to spend a couple of quid – the two girls are free for the first time in their lives, and they’re going to have as much fun as they possibly can. Or so they thought.

Clique is the perfect representation of the lives and careers we all dream of having, but also a powerful reminder that you can have everything, yet still be tragically unhappy and surrounded by bad people. With power comes responsibility, and at such a young age, that isn’t always a good thing. Starring Louise Brealey, also known as Sherlock’s Molly Hooper, Synnove Karlsen and Aisling Franciosi, this unique BBC production proves to be a great watch for thriller lovers.

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he new Netflix series Riverdale follows the lives and loves of American high schoolers, centred around the mysterious disappearance and death of Jason Blossom, one half of the school’s rich and popular twin duo.

His sister continues to manipulatively control the school, desperate to avenge her brother’s death. We’re caught up in a pupil-teacher summer romance, the confessions of the new girl from New York declaring her Gossip Girl days over, and, of course, the unrequited love of the perfect American blonde monitored rigorously by her controlling, borderline delirious mother.

But before you judge these seemingly stock characters used in just about every teen movie, take a moment to watch the characters unravel throughout the series, building themselves up again after every t wist and turn. There are some great cultural references, making the fact you’re watching a group of adults play 15-year-olds much more bearable. Suddenly you will find yourself wishing to be as sophisticated as Veronica proclaiming, “I’m Breakfast at Tiffany’s but this place is strictly In Cold Blood”. Think How to Get Away with Murder but high school instead of college, with less sex but almost just as much drama.

Although at moments Riverdale can seem over-dramatic and cringeworthy, it’s a great form of escapism: think beautiful settings, bright lights and hazy flashbacks.

It has a smart narrative backstory and singular character interaction with viewers – Cole Sprouse as Jughead Jones, aspiring journalist, writes down the story, picking up pieces of information from various friends and acquaintances.

His position is vulnerable, he has nothing to lose, giving the viewer someone to trust.

So, if you’re into the usual teenage drama, and can see past Archie Andrew’s (KJ Apa) poor red hair dye, get ready for the suspense to build in this new murder mystery you won’t be able to stop from watching.

«««

Ingrid Johnson Screen Contributor

Danielle Martin Screen Contributor

Get Out ««««

J

Ben Kempton Screen Contributor

ordan Peele’s directorial debut Get Out is a chilling racial horror that makes Gaylord Focker meeting Jack Byrnes seem like a walk in the park. When the interracial relationship between Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) reaches the dreaded ‘meet the family’ stage, Chris has no idea what he’s in for.

Get Out is shockingly welcome amidst a genre that is shrivelling into a cringe worthy, dry, baron pit. Horror appears to be exhausted by the same-old story lines (You would think by

now families wouldn’t move into a house where multiple murders have happened before). But Get Out is original and fresh. It is remarkable for a debut director to have such a firm grip on genre. Peele has created a genuine edge of seat, nail-biting experience. The opening kidnapping scene sets the horror tone straight away.

The film reaches further afar as Peele’s comedy aspect is also induced perfectly to create a horrorcomedy hybrid which works harmoniously. Peele had detached himself from his American comedy sketch show Key & Peele to direct Get Out and his comedy credentials shine through with a poignant satirical edge, subliminally touching on how white people can’t seem to talk to a black person without mentioning race. Comic relief also comes from the completely hilarious Rod (Lil Rey Howery) who masterfully steals every scene he is in.

As for the rest of the cast, Get Out sees a terrific display of acting talent. Kaluuya perfects

the American accent to the point you forget he’s British and his chilled character with deep emotional undertones progresses into insanity and realisation perfectly. The creepy psycho family played by Bradley Whitford (Dean Armitage, Dad), Catherine Keener (Missy Armitage, Mum) and Caleb Landry Jones (Jeremy Armitage, brother) are so well created,they appear friendly from their introduction, yet there is always something suspicious in their behaviour. Landry Jones was a particular stand-out. The family dinner scene - dare I say – resonated the crazy tones of Heath Ledger’s The Joker.

Peele addresses racial issues and by insightfully inserting horror to it, he powerfully highlights the issue whilst bringing cinematic scares. Realist racism is the horror of the film. Whilst the film is not faultless, it is a sharp, provoking piece from a director this reviewer looks forward to seeing more from.

36 FORGE PRESS

FRIDAY 31 MARCH 2017

COFFEE BREAK

press.coffeebreak@forgetoday.com

SPORTS QUIZ

In the spirit of it being Varsity (had you heard?) I’ve made a bloody big sports general knowledge quiz where each quesion links to a Varsity (had you heard?) sport. I’ll admit, some of these links are tenuous at best, but oh well.

1. Which country hosted and won the first Football World Cup in 1930?

2. Badminton has only been an Olympic sport since 1992, what was the host city of the 1992 Games?

3. Water Polo is a sport played on horseback in a swimming pool, how many players are there to each team?

4. Retired English Netball player Tracey Neville is the sister of former England defenders Phil and Gary Neville. What is the name of their father?

5. Volleyball first became an Olympic sport in 1964 where the women’s gold medal was won by the host country, who was the host?

6. Michael Jordan is widely considered the greatest Basketball player of all time, name either of the two teams that he played for in his career.

7. Carvings from over 4,000 years ago show a hockey like game played in which ancient country?

8. In 1983 Reuters famously reported this sport as the one most likely to cause a heart attack, what was it?

9. What is the length of an Olympic swimming pool?

10. What country does the game Korfball originate from?

11. Competitive Climbing will be introduced as a sport at the 2020 Olympics, what is the host city going to be for the 2020 Games?

12. What was the name of the famous 1974 boxing match between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali held in Zaire?

13. For what bodily feature is Sir Bradley Wiggins particularly known for?

14. There is evidence of skiing from 5,000 B.C., name either of the two countries where the cave drawings were found.

15. Nick Skelton became Team GB’s second oldest old medallist in Rio last year at the age of 58. What sport did he win gold in?

16. Sir Steve Redgrave won gold for Rowing at five consecutive Olympic Games, what were those years?

17. Golf was reintroduced as an Olympic sport at the 2016 Games after a 112 year break but several big Golf players chose not to come to Games. Why? 18. Can’t think of a proper question for this one but I’ve come up with this: what’s the most public school sport in Varsity?

19. “That’s just not ...........”

20. Which sport was reportedly invented when William Webb Ellis broke a rule of Football?

21. The Olympic sport that William Tell would have competed in. (I’ll admit, I’m getting progressively lazy with these questions) 22. Imagine hockey but colder.

23. You use boats.

24. People run around.

25. Americans call this Football.

26. Aim of the game is to dodge balls.

27. You jump up and down, maybe do a somersault.

28. Alright alright, I’ll put a bit more effort into this one. Andy Murray.

14. Norway/ Sweden

7. Egypt

13. Sideburns

6. Chicago Bulls/ Washington Wizards

12. The Rumble in the Jungle

5. Japan

11. Tokyo

4. Neville Neville

10. The Netherlands

3. Seven

9. 50 metres

2. Barcelona

8. Squash

1. Uruguay

21. Archery 20. Rugby 19. Cricket 18.

17. Zika Virus concerns 16. 1984-2000 15. Show jumping

28. Tennis 27. Trampolining 26. Dodgeball 25. American Football 24. Athletics 23. Sailing 22. Ice Hockey

‘Preceded by Great’, and ‘Followed by Bar’ In any order: ‘ends in -itude’, ‘Computer keyboard keys’, Connections

FORGE PRESS 37

TFRIDAY 31 MARCH 2017

COFFEE BREAK

SUDOKU

Easy

Medium

Hard

CONNECTION GRID ESCAPE

CROSS

DELETE

BRITAIN

Connection 1

SHIFT

LAT

INSERT

FORT

Connection 2

ALT

DANE

SPACE

CROW

Connection 3

COCKTAIL

LONG

SCOTT

Connection 4

1

ENTER

1

1

1

I've filled in one connection for you to explain how to play, best of luck!

CROSSWORD

Across

Down

1. Greasy (4)

1. Exceed in importance (8)

3. Upper arm joint (8)

2. Young sheep (5)

9. Glass with no handles (7)

4. Conker tree (5, 8)

10. Search for information (5)

5. Excessive (5)

11. Follow on (5)

6. Charm (7)

12. Vigour (6)

7. Fishing rod attachment (4)

14. Rodent kept as a pet (6, 7)

8. Sheep’s coat of wool (6)

17. Stockings (6)

13. Belgian capital (8)

19. Presents (5)

15. Baby’s complete outfit (7)

22. Nick, incision (5)

16. Powerful (6)

23. Eminent (7)

18. Pale brownish-yellow colour (5)

24. Egg dish (8)

20. Moral tale (5)

25. Minus (4)

21. Unfasten (4)

FORGE PRESS 59

THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017

press.sport@forgetoday.com

SportsThoughts.

SPORT

This week, Tim Adams takes a closer look at how football can be a beacon of hope for the many people who have suffered at the hands of Syria’s civil war. Meanwhile, Hugh Dickinson offers up his opinion on final rounds taking place at the same time.

Football team offers sanctuary from war-torn Syria

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Tim Adams Sport Editor

ention Syria and pictures of devastating death and destruction painfully creep into your heads.

The six-year civil war has brought this once prosperous nation to its knees.

Bullets and bombs rain down across the dark, dusty battlefield, gunfire in Aleppo louder than the screams of innocent people trying to save their loved ones.

Last week, 4,526 miles away, in the sanctuary of the Hang Jebat Stadium, Malaysia, a squad of 23 Syrian football players took to the field to a faint echo of support.

The demise of the country has turned their team into a flickering beacon of hope, lighting the way across the horizon in a quest to defy the odds.

Syria (who placed fourth in the Asian Qualifying Group A) have a realistic chance of reaching the Russian World Cup in 2018. The top two qualify automatically, with the third-place side advancing to a continental play-off.

In war-torn Syria, people have got so used to the noise of mortar

shells crackling through the air that they don’t even flinch and carry on with their daily lives.

So was it surprising that striker Omar Kharbin converted a 90thminute penalty against Uzbekistan last weekend with a panenka?

Probably not.

Ingrained into those players is a different kind of mental strength, one of an unbreakable bond.

Economic sanctions and security fears have forced the team abroad, yet still, around 100 Syrian supporters cheered their nation on from the stands.

After the match, Syria’s manager Ayman Hakeem wept as he told the story of how qualifying for the World Cup would be a victory for the Syrian people.

Assistant Manager Tarek Jabban earns just £80 a month. It is his love of the game, having captained Syria and played close for them 100 times, which no doubt drives him forward.

The Secretary General of the Syrian FA, Kouteibah Al Refai, has had to organise friendlies in a bomb-damaged office, part and parcel of the modern day challenges of working in the capital Damascus.

No money is provided to them directly from either the world governing body Fifa or from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

The AFC have agreed to subsidise the £1.6m costs that hover over the team on their travels, but since the start of the war, the country’s currency has devalued by more than 1000%.

With economic uncertainty rife each Syrian player must have felt like they had won the lottery when they received their winning bonus of £800 each in their win over Uzbekistan, a figure far greater than the average citizen back home could even contemplate.

The best players have left and that the clubs are unable to attract any overseas talent. Unsurprisingly there are no foreign players in the league.

Al-Karamah of Homs dominated the domestic league for over five years and even reached the final of the Asian Champions League in 2006, yet look at the city now, and it resonates with a past glimpse of Dresden, Nagasaki or Pompeii.

But the battle between so-called Islamic State, Kurdish forces, Bashar al-Assad rebels and

government troops has just slowed down the progression of the league, not stopped it. Games are still played but at a less frequent rate, while the national team marches towards their dream on foreign soil.

On their recent trip to Malaysia, the Syrian players chatted away about Zinedine Zidane, Cristiano

Ronaldo and Real Madrid.

Zidane once spoke of how he cried as a young footballer because he had no shoes to play a game, but then noticed a man who had no feet and realised how lucky he was.

The division lines in Syria lie on the battlefield. Not on the football field.

Heroic Hornets take part in NUBC Championships

T

Kyra Bradley Sport Contributor

he weekend of 18-19 March saw twelve of the Hornets baseball club’s best players travel to the country’s top baseball and softball venue, Farnham Park in Buckinghamshire, to take part in the National University Baseball Championships (NUBC).

Fifteen universities from across the UK took part, and Sheffield battled it out all weekend to finish in a respectable 8th place with two wins and two losses.

The Hornets’ first game Saturday was against Southampton, who had narrowly won their last game at the spring 2015 NUBC. A 1-ball, 1-strike starting count for every batter imposed by tournament officials ensured the team swung lots and got on base, with a shoutout to Rob Moran for hitting the 285 ft fence twice in center field on his birthday.

Thanks to talented pitching by new recruit Jorge Llamas the Hornets emerged victorious with 7 runs to Southampton’s 2.

Sheffield next faced the practically undefeated Loughborough 1st team. Although the Hornets made lots of contact with the ball, a strong Loughborough fielded most hits easily and prevented the team from scoring many runs, resulting in a loss.

Although the team was accumulating injuries by the third game of the day, the Hornets fought hard against Coventry, with veteran pitcher Janet Wang staying strong throughout. Coventry’s wavering pitching and fielding led to many Hornets getting on base and scoring, in part thanks to Spencer Lawn’s clever baserunning and steals home by forcing a pickoff at third base but peeling off towards home when the throw was made to third. Rookie Ryan White also did his part defending the infield

during his first time at third base, keeping most of Coventry’s squad from advancing past first base. By 5:45pm, when the game was ended due to dwindling light conditions at the park, the Hornets led the score 9-3.

The club didn’t know what to expect for their last NUBC game Sunday against Queen Mary, relative newcomers to the university baseball scene.

Although Janet Wang switched to catching and performed admirably alongside pitcher Jorge Llamas, the exhaustion and pulled muscles from Saturday meant the Hornets were not able to pull ahead against a competitive team. QML’s win resulted in the Hornets dropping from a potential 6th place to 8th.

Although the club’s NUBC games were done for the day, the committee decided to fit in another game while at Farnham Park. To save having to travel again after two rained-out attempts, the Hornets

won their last National University Baseball League fixture against Nottingham, with an upset of 7-5 stealing Nottingham’s chances of winning the Midlands title of the NUBL, which instead went to the Loughborough 1sts.

Overall, the weekend saw a solid performance by the Hornets, who have only been improving year by year in national competitions. All of this year’s Hornets did a fantastic job, and the valuable experience gained by new players at Nationals this year will help the club expand and dominate in league fixtures for 2017-18.

40 FORGE PRESS

SPORT

THURSDAY 30 MARCH 2017 DAY XX MONTH 2016

Graphic by Harry Fender Go to page 20 for our Varsity pull-out!

SPORT

2 0 1 7

2

Editorials

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Ed McCosh

his is my fourth and final year at the University of Sheffield. Tonight also marks the last day of three years in the Sports Editor role at Forge Press. It’s nice to sign off from both with a 100 per cent Varsity record.

When I came to this university, we had just one our first Varsity title in over a decade, and so the underdog mentality was still prevalent. Now we go into almost every event confident of victory. This year’s edition of Varsity has been so incredibly comfortable, we have gone from a fun but finite winning streak to the dawning of a sporting dynasty in this city.

A lot of credit should go to Sport Sheffield and the elite development team, who have helped athletes here make huge strides in the past few years. But what truly makes Varsity special is every individual competitor who contributes to making the event what it is, no matter if they win or lose. The fans, too, add the atmosphere that makes the spine tingle whether at EIS, the Octagon or Sheffield Arena.

This year’s Varsity has been another pleasure to watch - the Netball 2s’ remarkable fightback at EIS was a joy to behold, while Women’s Swimming taking a point and ending a long drought is cause for real celebration. I can’t wait to see from afar where Varsity goes next.

As for me, I’ll be competing in Dartsity this weekend at the Octagon - watch it live at forgetoday.com/varsity! For my final words as Sports Editor, I’d like to thank everyone who has made my three years here so enjoyable. The news elsewhere might be bleak, but in Sheffield the future is bright.

Sheena Sidhu

Hugh Dickinson

W

hen I started contributing to Forge, my end goal was always to work my way up to the Sports editorial team, so it’s with great pride that I am writing this as an outgoing editor for the best section of the paper.

The most amazing part of being in the Forge Press editorial team wasn’t the content we produced, but the effort and teamwork that went into producing each issue.

Behind the scenes, the amount of dedication that went into meeting deadlines and churning out a quality publication every fortnight cannot be understated, and I consider myself blessed to have been a part of such a hardworking team from whom I’ve learnt so much.

Throughout my three years at the University of Sheffield, I’ve been fortunate enough to witness three consecutive Varsity victories. And throughout all three, my personal favourite is always EIS day, where the atmosphere is just unreal. It’s something that really needs to be experienced because it can’t really be put into words.

I wasn’t quite lucky enough to ever watch us win Ice Hockey 1s though. Shock.

Contents

2-3

4-6

7-8

SnowSports, Boxing and more!

Hallam Sports Park

Events Elsewhere

10-11

14-15

16-19

Results Breakdown

Abbeydale

Finals

Rowing

U - Dan West

A

few weeks ago I wrote about how a win is only as good as the quality of the opposition it’s achieved against, and so this year’s Varsity win feels somehow slightly hollower than in previous years.

Perhaps this is just being me blasé about a fifth Varsity win in a row, but going into finals day knowing it was all pretty much sewn up made winning in mid-afternoon somewhat anticlimactic.

Still, there were some great battles, the two rugby union games were thrilling affairs, Uni’s comeback in the Netball 2s sensational, and in the Hockey Women’s 1s fantastic, and Hallam’s dangling of the carrot in both of the men’s basketball games only to whip it away at the last moment was electrifying.

A win too only holds value for being fairly earned, and so it is with great delight that I can say every single point was achieved in the spirit intended. That the only point reallocated this year was for administrative laziness rather than any sort of genuine misdemeanour tells you just what value each win holds.

Perhaps I’m getting dewey eyed at my fourth and final Varsity, but this city and both its Universities should be incredibly proud that it has one of the best and most exciting sporting events in the country, and gets to do it every year.

ni began the day as hot favourites, with 20 years of victories under their belt.

The Women started with the Novice Four. Uni were ahead early on, and held on to win, despite a comeback from Hallam.

Uni took the Senior Eight by three lengths, wrapping up the Varsity point with a narrower victory in the Quad Skulls.

They took the Novice Eight too, but Hallam had their consolation in the Senior Four to

9, 12-13 English Institute of Sport

20 Varsity in Numbers

make the final score 4-1.

In the Men’s, Hallam took the lead, winning the Novice Eight by two lengths.

Uni came back in the Senior Four, winning by half a length.

Then came drama. Uni were cruising the Novice Four, but as they rounded the corner an oar stuck in the water, causing the Uni boat to turn and Hallam to take the lead.

Normal service resumed when the Uni Double Sculls won the fourth race. The point hung in the balance, but Uni won the final race by a couple of lengths.

21 years and counting. HD

hsp

women’s football

men’s football

B

T

he University of Sheffield Men’s Football 1st Team managed to come back from behind to salvage a 1-1 draw late on against at Hallam Sports Park.

Hallam winger Connor Smythe caused Uni problems early on with his superb delivery from set pieces, but Uni managed to hold out till half-time with the match remaining goalless.

The referee awarded Hallam a penalty in the 47th minute but Matt Harris failed to convert it. However, he made up for this minutes later as he scrambled home the opener from a corner and made it 1-0 to Hallam. Will Saxon came on in the second half and managed to get the equaliser for his side as he volleyed the ball home to level the scores at 1-1.

UoS Women’s Cricket @SUWCC1

WE’VE JUST WON VARSITYYYYYYYYYYY

women’s rugby UNION

U

ni started brightly from the Hallam kick-off. The wet conditions did not help matters, with the ensuing fumbled catches and knock-ons resulting in a game punctuated by numerous scrums.

The second half saw Elli Cousins sent off in the 51st minute for a second dangerously high challenge.

However, staunch Hallam defending ensured that Uni couldn’t press the advantage, holding on in a scrappy game of rugby. Uni then came under some pressure themselves as the Hallam team of 14 desperately tried to remain in the match.

Hallam’s pressure paid off in the 79th minute, levelling the scores at 12-12. Despite the large amount of additional time for two lengthy injury delays, the game finished 12-12. NO

|

- Aimeé Cooper

It was all Uni in the final stages of the match and the last golden chance fell to Uni right-back Joe Hunt but he could only head over despite finding himself completely unmarked.

The University of Sheffield Men’s Football 4s ensured that the shivering fingers and wet hair were worth it in securing a 2-0 victory over their Hallam counterparts.

It took 17 minutes for Uni of to break the deadlock. Dan Johnson, a thorn in the side of Hallam’s defence in the first half, saw his shot deflected for a corner.

From the resultant swinging ball, Matthew Hutchinson struck sweetly into the bottom left hand corner.

The Uni lead was doubled on the stroke of half time. Another scramble in the box led to the ball bouncing along to goal, with Louis Butler getting the final

touch.

It was a relatively comfortable and deserved victory for the University of Sheffield Men’s 4s, who rounded off their title winning season with a Varsity victory.

Despite Uni taking the lead three minutes into the Men’s Football 3s fixture due to an error from the goalie, Hallam pulled level in the 11th minute and eventually stormed to a resounding 4-2 victory.

In the final football fixture of the day, Men’s 2s managed a 2-2 draw against Hallam. Goals from Anas Tajja and Joe Francis meant that the spoils were shared overall with each team coming away with two Varsity points each at the end of the four football fixtures.

SS, AL, JP, SS

oth the Sheffield Hallam W1s and 2s football teams produced dominant displays against the University of Sheffield to register two resounding victories.

In the 1s game, after a relatively even 30 minutes, Hallam broke the deadlock.

Izzy Howell in the Uni goal came out to claim a through ball but mistimed her approach as Danielle Biglin steered the ball around her to slot in at the far post.

Uni looked rattled and quickly conceded a second, before Hallam killed the game off by scoring a third on the stroke of half-time, subsequently adding a fourth and fifth.

The 2s game was far closer, but in the end a spirited comeback attempt saw Uni lose 3-2, with Hallam taking the Varsity point. DC

Jack Wallace @JackWallace19

Today is the best day of my life #SuVarsity #blackandgold #wortheverypenny

men’s cricket

women’s cricket

I

t was a rather subdued affair at the Women’s 1s Cricket Match on Wednesday - and I only say that as I went deaf after two minutes. Despite the rancour and noise on display the University of Sheffield Women’s team won a comprehensive and professional victory with 93 runs from 10 overs, beating Hallam’s 63 runs.

Uni opened batting and, although appearing shaky against some impressive Hallam bowling, the first pair settled into a groove of being ‘slow and steady’. Uni managed to keep a good rhythm

going until the tenth over when Sheffield Hallam took over the batting.

Hallam started their batting well, leading to several worried faces amongst Uni supporters.

In the end, their concern was unnecessary as Uni quickly began to outperform their opponent’s quality of bowling. As wicket after wicket fell, Hallam quickly started to cave. Despite some last minute efforts, Hallam simply couldn’t make up the deficit. Uni won 93 to 63 runs from 10 overs, claiming another point on the road to being Varsity 2017 champions. JP

B

atting first always puts the pressure on in indoor cricket but the Men’s 2s did well, getting 105 in their 10 overs with Adi Sreedharan as the main stand out performer.

This score was still an achievable target for Hallam, but a disappointing opening spell put them on the back foot from which they never recovered.

Chris Pepper and Suleman Saleem batted well under pressure with support from Joe Barnes and Alex Wheatley predominantly.

Their 10 overs could not have gone better reaching the incredible, and as it turns out match winning, score of 127 in 10 overs.

Suleman Saleem and Abhi Kulkarni’s combination of swinging pace and legspin proved the beating of Hallam with good support from Joe Barnes. ST

Continued at forgetoday.com/varsity - Tom Milton

5

rugby league

6 | hsp

40 - 20

- Harry Fender

T

he University of Sheffield Rugby League club made it three Varsity wins in a row with a 40-20 win against Sheffield Hallam University.

As BUCS Northern 1A champions, The University of Sheffield were going into the Varsity fixture as favourites but they did not let complacency cloud their stellar performance.

The scoring was opened by Uni standoff Alex Tavener who went over the try line under the posts after a well-timed step, which left the Hallam defence standing still.

1s

16 - 12

H

allam started well, forcing early pressure as they drove the ball towards the Uni line, with Lewis Bloor managing to score. Hallam’s Harry Pratt missed the conversion, keeping the score at 5-0. Handling errors cost Uni and they paid for their mistakes as Hallam scored another sevem points, following the successful conversion, it was 12-0 to Hallam. Uni created late pressure, and at half-time Sam Tipper managed to score. Andrew Hodgson converted to make it 12-7.

After halftime, Hodgson kicked, making it 12-10, and the momentum turned Uni’s way. Hallam began to make errors now and Hodgson kicked another penalty, putting Uni into the lead at 12-13. In the final seconds Hodgson successfully kicked, gifting his side an unassailable lead. Uni held on and made good their win, but the final score could easily have been different. JM

Another try for The University of Sheffield came after a blistering run from Marcus Stock, taking the University of Sheffield out of their half.

The quick hands of Jack Rowson saw Francis Kendall Parker go over in the corner taking the score to ten for Uni. Sheffield Hallam University then opened their scoring with two well worked team tries, the second of which came from a decision not to kick on the fifth tackle - levelling the score for the only time in the match.

Co-Captain Liam Grimmett scored in the 30th minute with a calm and

collected inside pass from the other Uni Co-Captain Danny Johnson, sending him over the Hallam try line.

Two more tries came in quick succession for The University of Sheffield’s Josh Allenby and Marcus Stock, making the half-time score 24– 10.

Strong words were given about discipline to both teams by the referee at half-time and a lack of discipline from Hallam led to 3 penalties in a row.

The University of Sheffield capitalised on these penalties, Jack Rowson went over for the first score of the second-

half.

A Uni knock-on ten metres from their own line then led to a try from Hallam centre Patrick Mulready.

Uni countered immediately, after Hallam try scorer Patrick Mulready stepped into touch straight after the kick off. This led to a second try from Alex Tavener underneath the uprights making the score Uni 34-14 Hallam.

More ill-discipline followed when Hallam loose forward Josh Finlinson was sin binned for dissent. However Hallam seemed to play better with just the 12 men and went over for another try.

It was too little too late though for Sheffield Hallam University and, to put the icing on the Varsity cake, Marcus Stock went over on the stroke of fulltime to make the score 40-20.

Co-Captain Danny Johnson said he was absolutely thrilled to win Varsity Rugby League for the third year in a row His coach, and father, Barry also gave him Man of the Match. JR

Continued at forgetoday.com/varsity

rugby union Mens 2s

25 - 0

T

he University of Sheffield’s Rugby Union Men’s 2s succeeded with a convincing 25-0 victory over Sheffield Hallam. Uni dominated the opening tense battles, though struggling to breakthrough Hallam’s defensive line.

The first points came in the 16th minute when a Hallam kick went awry, letting Kaspar Strugar cross the try line to give Uni a 5-0 lead. However, Strugar missed the conversion.

It was another 10 minutes until Uni extended their advantage further, with Sam Alderton powering his way to give Uni a 15-0 lead after 28 minutes. Adam Spinner had no joy with the conversion.

Uni extended their advantage to 20 on the stroke of half-time through Ollie Lazarevic. Similar to the first-half, Uni dominated with Hallam not able to get out of their own half.

But for all Uni’s dominance, they were unable to score until the 70th minute when Joe Sinclair brought home Uni’s fifth and final try. AB - Suzanne Cameron

3s

T

15 - 3

he University of Sheffield Men’s Rugby Union 3’s defeated Hallam 15-3 in a muddy encounter on Wednesday.

Pressure from Sheffield saw the opening play in Hallam’s half, leading to a try after 12 minutes from Dan McDonagh, making it 5-0, though Tom Grier’s conversion went wide.

In the second half Hallam started well and, after 48 minutes, Will Chan

converted a penalty making it 5-3. Uni managed a try in the 68th minute. Tom Simons succeeded to make the score 103.

Again, the conversion from Grier wasn’t realised, blocked by Hallam fullback Louis Taylor. Uni finished the game off as Ryan Dunn scored, making it 153. In spite of a late surge from Hallam, Sheffield held on and denied them a try.

JL

23 rd -26 th March

7

across the weekend athletics

T

he University of Sheffield Athletics team shared the two Varsity points on offer with Sheffield Hallam on the third day of Varsity.

With four points being awarded for a victory, three points for a second place, two for third and one for fourth, the Men’s team comfortably beat Hallam 65 points to 44 to secure the Varsity Point.

The Women’s point was more closely contested with Hallam securing the 75 point to 70 victory after the final race of the day, the Women’s 4x400m relay where they secured a first and second place finish.

In the first event of the day, the Men’s high jump, Uni athletes Curtis Mitchell and Theo-Walkley-Bartlett finished second and third after jumping 1.80 and 1.65 metres respectively but they were unable to beat Hallam athlete Seyn Okame who jumped 1.90.

The Uni Men’s first victory of the day came in the javelin where Robbie Morris threw 38.83 metres to win, with Tom Horton second after a 34.40 metre throw. Horton was at it again moments later, winning the 800m race comfortably in a time of 1:57 with Uni

cycling 15/3 - 22/3

golf 22/3

- Gunnar Mallon

athletes finishing second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth.

Liam McGivern won the Men’s long jump for Uni with Connor Lafferty third and Uni continued to have more success on the track when Joe Epps and Gareth Surman finishing first and second in the Men’s 400 metre hurdles. In the 110 metre hurdles, Epps came second became a very fast Mitchell to secure another Uni top two.

Uni athletes who competed in multiple events were doing extraordinary well with McGivern getting his second victory of the day in the 400 metres whilst Theo-Bartlett made up for his

ice hockey 2s 23/3

third place in the high jump with a first place in the Men’s 100 metres.

In the 5000 metres, Joe Wilkinson comfortably ran round the track to win, the victory that secured the Men’s Varsity point for Uni. More victories followed for the Uni men with Eima Meade winning the 200 metres and

athletics 25/3

sailing triathlon trampolining american football 26/3

no brake t0 uni win streak

T

he winner of the cross country cycling event was the University of Sheffield’s Cameron Taylor.

He praised the intense race and said: “It was pretty tough and a lot more technical than last year, especially the second climb.”

Stanley Nutter took second place for Sheffield Hallam.

The first event gave Uni 0.5 out of the full two points available for all the cycling events.

As for the Downhill event, it was Alistair Baron of the University of Sheffield who powered down the course fastest on the first run, with a time of 43.2 seconds, some 0.6 seconds quicker than the rest of the field.

Despite this performance of deft bike handling, quick pedalling and sheer bravery, his time alone would not be

enough, as the combined best five times from each side would decide who would be victorious.

After counting the fastest five times of both sides, there was a dead heat.

Adding a sixth rider did nothing to remove the tie.

It was decided that out of the fastest five times overall, the team with the most riders on the Top five podium would be victorious.

Despite the domination of Baron, he was only joined on this podium by a single teammate, giving Hallam victory in the second cycling event, and securing half a point on the Varsity scoreboard.

Uni took victory over Hallam in Wednesday’s time trials.

Uni’s combined time, made up of the four fastest men and fastest woman, was 164 minutes, 27 seconds,

with Hallam trailing with 193 minutes, 26 seconds.

The 20km route began close to Miller’s Dale at 2:45pm, with the athletes following a winding route to the finish line between Hassop and Calver.

The event was made all the more difficult by tough weather conditions, with heavy rain leaving the roads

and competitors soaked.

The Time Trials event was the third cycling event to be held thus far, following the Crosscountry, which went to Uni, and the Downhill, which went to Hallam.

KS, AL & JC

Continued at forgetoday.com/varsity

Tom Horton powering to victory in the 1500 metres ahead of Sheffield athletes Will Mycroft and Jon Collier whilst Connor Laferty won the shot put with a throw of 11:37. In the Women’s long jump, Rebecca Cope’s first round jump of 4.77 saw her finish second whilst her and Steph Pike ran in the 400m hurdles to secure the points for Uni after Hallam fielded no runners.

Despite having never participated in the high jump before, both Pike and Cope took part to make sure Uni secured at least one point in an event Hallam won.

Caroline Schaulfelberger stormed to victory in the 800 metres, winning by over 13 seconds from Uni athlete Rachel Lundgren. Lundgren would have her revenge in the 400 metres, winning with Schaulfelberger fourth before Lundgren also won the 1500 metres. Jacqueline Penn won the 5000 metres Women’s race before Hallam began a comeback.

Hallam secured a one-two-three in the 200 metres as well as the shot put and the Women’s javelin to take it to the final relay races.

In the 4x400m relay, Hallam finished first and the Women’s point was secured with a one-two in the 4x100m relay to make Varsity 13-13 after the third day. BW

at this point

21 - 9 15/3

cross country 19/3

downhill 22/3

time trial 27/3

bmx 29/3

hill climb

cycling total - Gunnar Mallon

1.5 - 0.5

8

TRAMPOLINING

T

he University of Sheffield’s Trampolining Team bounced, tucked, span and flipped their way further towards Varsity victory following an impressive 25-11 win against Hallam on Sunday. Alice Oldfield, Uni Captain, addressed the team after their victory, saying “Well done to everyone - you all contributed, not just those who got first, second and third.” There were plenty of first place spots for Uni, who dominated the leaderboard.

Lucy Smith, Uni’s only entrant for the most-experienced ‘Uber’ category, beat her three Hallam opponents and came first. Freya Howie came in second after her rotations awarded her the first - and

American FOOTBALL

I

n front of a two hundred strong crowd, the squads entered the field with a roar of emotion and ambition. Hallam won the toss and took the game to the Sabres early on, leading to a frantic first three minutes.

Hallam was confident but fell behind as the Sabres sought to

the only - score of nine from one of the five judges. Emma Allen, also of Hallam, came in third.

The event kicked off with the novice category with Katie Regent from Uni earning an average of 70. Tom Cookson from Hallam was their first best performer and Lucy Ashton of Uni was an early highlight, scoring in the sevens and earning third place in the novice category. Hallam’s Rebecca Lucy Baldwin came in second, just losing out to first place Raia Blackman from Uni. Intermediate jumpers came next as Uni dominated the board. Ronan Walshe came in first, Dina Simons came in second and Ruth Tough came in third.

catch the Warriors off guard with Mark Price scoring a touchdown within thirty seconds of play.

Hallam fought back as Ronel Thomas found space down the lefthand side to burst through to the end zone.

After Uni failed to gain extra points, Hallam used that momentum, allowing Reece McGuiness another touchdown.

The next twenty minutes was a battle of attrition, patience and

Uni’s Beth Taylor was rewarded with scores in the high 7’s. Eliza Anrews gave Hallam their only category win for the Inter Advanced, followed by Charlotte Sweet and Sara Howells of Uni. Meg Baker from Uni of was star of the show in the elite category, followed by Hallam candidates Coral Pillar and Georgia Wystawnoha. SB

he Ice Hockey mixed 2s was a heated affair with Hallam winning 8-0 at Ice Sheffield.

Hallam opened the scoring with a stunning strike after three minutes.

Hallam’s lead was doubled after another three minutes but Uni’s netminder James Zeller did enough to keep the score at 2-0 by the end of the first period.

Uni started well in the second period but Hallam scored to make it 3-0 in

experience. With just two minutes to go, Schatten looked to find the space out wide, but it was not to be.

A touchdown from Keith Kapish put Uni’s victory in any doubt. The match ended with Hallam beating Uni 27-14. TA

the 24th minute. At 35 minutes Max Wakelin had Uni’s best chance of the game but pushed the puck just wide after a fantastic assist. Hallam took a fourth goal at the 37th minute.

Hallam found the back of the net a further four times in the third period.

Zeller made some excellent saves for Uni but Hallam’s Adam Carratt managed to score in the 44th minute.

Youngman scored Hallam’s sixth goal not long after.

Hallam added a final two goals in two minutes through Wait and Renzi to make the final score 8-0. A much deserved win in a thoroughly entertaining game. MR

- Dan West

GOLF

H

allam, leading 3-1, went into the afternoon singles in positive spirits to maintain their lead.

The strong pairing of Alex Bacon and Joseph Bates from the University of Sheffield complimented each other perfectly while Graham Sutcliffe and Ben Jennings had the challenge of the final two singles matches.

Jennings, who found himself four down after seven holes, left the eleventh green only one down after an excellent run at the end of the first nine holes.

Captain Hannah Holden lead the way and earned the first point from the singles.

SAILING

I

t was a fine day at the Pennine Sailing Club on Friday and the winds were blowing away, as were Hallam’s chances of Varsity victory after the University of Sheffield Sailing Team took a dominant 5-2 victory.

The tone for the day was set even before the first race got underway as, on their way to the start line, the first Hallam pair of Ben Wardle - Joshua Roberts

CONGRATULATIONS TEAM #BLACKANDGOLD! They’ve done it!

Continued at forgetoday.com/varsity

ICE HOCKEY 2s

0-8 T

Sheffield University @sheffielduni

and Ryan Richards saw their boat capsize. They were unable to defeat the University pair of Anna Lucas-Clements and Millie Little, who dominated from start to finish to open the scoring.

The second of the three single boat match races was a much tighter affair, but the Black and Gold were once again successful.

Henry Mills and Kate Ledgard were able to turn their race around by overtaking the Hallam boat of Charlie Fitzgerald and

A dramatic comeback from the University of Sheffield occurred on the final hole, with the Uni team winning 6-5 and taking the Varsity point. JB

Continued at forgetoday.com/varsity

Holly Norman in the final stretch downwind.

Hallam finally got on the board in the final race after a controversial rerun.

With a 2-1 lead, the Sailing event moved into Team Racing where it is a race to five wins.

Uni took a 4-1 lead with back to back wins, both of which included 1, 2 finishes. Whilst Hallam responded by winning the third race, Uni took a dominant 1, 2, 3 in Race 4, thus securing their win. AL

monday 27th march

4

10

english institute of sport

Points

Points

women’s TABLE TENNIS 1s

women’s VOLLEYball 1 s, 2 s

men’s TABLE TENNIS 1 s, 2 s

men’s VOLLEYball

Sheffield Uni Lax @sheffunilax

What a day.

What a year.

Congratulations to everyone involved.

MEN’S BASKETBALL 1 s, 2 s

FUTSAL NETBALL 2 s

Sheff Uni Students @shefunistudents

WE DID IT! Victory for Team Black and Gold for the 5th year running!

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL NETBALL 1 s, 3 s, 4 s

VOLLEYBALL

BASKETBALL

U

ni’s Men’s Volleyball 1s lost 3-0 to Hallam on Monday.

Uni came out in front foot taking a 2-0 lead but Hallam pushed back, finding themselves 15-13 up. Hallam went on to win another four consecutive points and take the initiative in the set. The set ended 25-7 Hallam.

Hallam had momentum going into the second set allowing going 8-3 up. Hallam won another four points but Uni responded. Despite this, Hallam won the set 25-17.

The third set started competitively. The best rally of the match saw Uni go up 8-7.

Hallam regrouped and won four consecutive points, though Uni pulled it back to 17-15. Hallam then won five consecutive points going 24-16 up. Uni pulled it back to 2419 but Hallam won the final set 2519 to give them a 3-0 win.

Hallam’s clean sweep in the day’s volleyball was confirmed by the Women’s 1s team. Hallam dominated the opening set. Uni responded well and kept their own but Hallam didn’t look troubled and easily took the first set 25-7.

Uni took the opening point of the second set and looked to be improving, finding themselves in the lead. However they failed to deal with some relatively easy shots and Hallam cruised to a well-deserved second set 25-10 win.

The third set started similarly with Hallam scoring early on.

Uni played some good volleyball and won several points back after complacency errors from Hallam, though Hallam the set 25-12. DC

I

n the Womens’ Basketball, Hallam came away with a big win.

The last time the sides had squared off, Hallam dominated, with the game ending 111-35.

At Varsity 2017, Hallam came out on top once more and made an incredible replication of that scoreline as Hallam took home the Varsity point with the final score at 111-35.

In the Men’s, the 76-72 victory for Hallam late on Monday was an exhilarating battle between two closely matched sides.

Early on, it was evident neither side could get away from the other.

Back and forth, three-pointers rained down on both baskets, with Hallam just edging in front to take the win.

The Men’s Basketball 2s also saw a victory for Hallam, with a final score of 74-66. The game saw an even encounter between Uni and Hallam. Although both sides were well balanced throughout the game, Hallam managed to come out victorious in the tense final quarter.

NC

- Gunnar Mallon, Rama Alsammouah

10

drawn

Archery

Lacrosse W1

Athletics m, w

Netball W2

Badminton M1, m2

Rowing M1, w1

Canoe Polo M1, w1

Rugby League

Climbing

Rugby Union M1, m2, m3

Cricket M1, m2, w1

Sailing

Cross-Country

Snowboard free, race

Cycling BMX

Squash W1

Cycling Time Trial

Swimming W1

Equestrian

Table Tennis

Football m4

M1, m2, W1

Futsal M1

Tennis m2

Golf

Trampolining

cycling Hill climb

Triathlon W

Hockey W1, w2

Ultimate M1, W1

football m1, m2

hockey w3

ski race

Holly Flannery @hollyflannery

Varsity Snapbacks: officially the worst thing Sheffield uni has to offer

Lacrosse M1, m2

- Dan West

new

record

45

11

Nick Burke @nickmburke

A fire alarm at ROAR seems the perfect way to round off a stellar Varsity.

tennis m1

ski freestyle

- Dan West

rugby union w1

events

35

American Football

Korfball 1 s , 2 s , 3 s

Badminton W1

Netball W1, w3, w4

Basketball

Squash M1, m2

M1, m2, W1

Swimming M1

Boxing

tennis w1

Downhill Cycling

Triathlon M

Football m3, W1, w2

Volleyball M1, W1, w2

Hockey M1, m2, m3

Water Polo M1, w1

Ice Hockey 1 s , 2 s

12

|

eis

NETBALL 2 S

40 - 37

T

he University of Sheffield Netball 2s took a remarkable 40-37 victory over Sheffield Hallam at

EIS. Hallam came into the tie reeling from losing all ten of their games in BUCS Northern Division 2B, but this was never going to be a lowscoring game and after just a few minutes it was 3-3.

Soon Hallam took a lead they would maintain right until the back end of the fourth quarter. Goal Scorer Mae Hudson scored two in

Sheffield Uni Lacrosse @Sheffunilax

What a day. What a year. Congratulations to everyone involved

- Dan West

a minute amidst a flurry of Hallam goals to keep Uni in it, and when a Rebecca Nock effort swirled round the inside of the rim and into the net the score was 7-6 to the side bedecked in maroon.

A last-second goal gave Hallam a comfortable cushion going into the second. The next 15 minutes belonged to Hallam; replacement Goal Attack Lucy McDermott and Hudson dug deep to keep Uni in the game, but the Northern 3B side still trailed by three at the halfway stage.

A five-minute goalless drought proved costly for Uni as Hallam established an eight point lead.

The scoreboard died midway through the third quarter, to the Forge collective chagrin, and it seemed that Uni’s chances had perished along with it. Hallam continued to pick them apart as they cantered towards what seemed an inevitable victory. Uni refused to give up though. Hudson and Nock continued to shoot goals with some regularity, and a clever pass

by Helen Morris set the former up to make the score 35-31, only for Hallam to go straight down the other end and score.

Then, as if by magic, the tide turned. Uni suddenly could not miss: 36-32. 36-33. 36-34. 36-35.

The roar that greeted the equaliser was in its infancy when it was replaced by an even bigger one;.

Uni had taken the lead, which they didn’t let go. The crowd spent the final minutes on its feet. The tension was released in a euphoric roar when Nock added a goal right at the death. EM

FUTSAL

12 - 2

T

he Futsal match between University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University ended in an easy victory for Uni, who won 12-2 to secure another Varsity point.

Jordan Capel got the University of Sheffield off to a flyer after scoring within 40 seconds of kickoff. Once they got ahead, there was no looking back for Uni, as Capel scored yet again. Uni dominated whilst Hallam were limited to occasional shots from a distance.

After a quiet few moments, the match came back to life in the 10th minute as Horrocks stole the ball from a Hallam defender and fired it into the low right corner, extending his side’s lead to three goals. Soon, Uni turned it up a notch and scored another six goals within the next the 10 minutes. A deflected freekick effort allowed Hallam to get one back in the first half but it did not seem anything more than a consolation. At the end of the first half, the scoreline stood at 9-1 to the University of Sheffield.

The second half was not as eventful as the first, as fewer opportunities were created by both sides. After a

quiet opening period in the second half, Hallam scored their second goal of the match. However, any hopes of an extraordinary comeback were quickly quashed by University of Sheffield’s Mahmoud Bakr who scored within a minute of Hallam’s second. They then managed to put two more past Sheffield Hallam’s Sean Holmes making the score 12-2 at full time. SS

Continued at forgetoday.com/varsity

Dan Walker @mrdanwalker

5 in a row!!!!

- Gunnar Mallon

NETBALL 1 s, 3 s & 4 s

- Gunnar Mallon

T

he University of Sheffield Netball 1s were unable to build on the success of the 2s as they succumbed to a 55-47 defeat against Sheffield Hallam 1s.

It was no real surprise that Hallam, the runaway winners of BUCS Northern Division 2B, were able to take the Varsity point. Yet Uni, themselves Northern 3B winners, were often more than a match for their close rivals.

It was they who started the better, passing fluently and shooting with impressive accuracy, but a topsy-turvy opening quarter saw Hallam battle into a 17-14 lead by the first buzzer.

The second quarter was tighter still,

but a lack of discipline gave Hallam an opening and they took full advantage to pull clear.

Both side’s defensive players were called into action plenty of times in the third, with numerous penalties giving each team easy goals.

The match was evenly balanced at 3433 to Hallam in the middle of the third quarter, but from there the lead would only be extended. The eight-point gap between the sides at the end of the tie was perhaps harsh on Uni, but Hallam’s ruthless shooting sealed a deserved Varsity point.

The University of Sheffield Women’s Netball 3’s lost 44-42 to Hallam in a

game on Monday afternoon. In spite of Uni’s early 5-1 lead, Hallam managed to reclaim lost ground at 5-4. Quality shooting meant it remained a closely fought game. The second-quarter involved good spells for both teams and was far less end-to-end. After Uni scored four consecutive goals to put them 15-10 up, they seemed in the driving seat. Hallam, however, pulled it back to 17-15. It became apparent in the third-quarter that the result would remain unclear until the final whistle.

A quick start to the quarter allowed Hallam to get 25-24 in front.

Uni then missed two great chances to level in what was a pivotal period of

eis

the game. Despite mainly chasing the game throughout, it was Hallam who dominated the final minutes of the game. They ended the game comfortably on 44-42 in front.

The Sheffield Hallam Netball Women’s 4s overcame the University of Sheffield with relative ease. The game started at a frantic pace with Uni breaking the deadlock before Hallam came back to take a 2-1 lead within the first five minutes. Hallam started the second quarter well in a game that was heating up.

Susannah Payne took a trip down to the floor trying to intercept the ball for Uni and two players collided high into the Hallam half in their attempts to win the ball, clearly with no intent but demonstrating how desperate both teams were to win.

Hallam were quickly becoming the dominant team and the stats made difficult reading from a Uni perspective.

The half time score was Hallam 24-16 Uni. Hallam continued to move the ball well and were looking to finish Unif which they duly did to secure a vital point for their university. Final score: Hallam 44-36 Uni. EM, SS, DC

Continued at forgetoday.com/varsity

TABLE TENNIS

17 - 0

3-2

he University of Sheffield Table Tennis Men’s 1s won by a landslide 17-0 against Hallam, winning every game on Monday afternoon.

Hallam put the heat on in the early sets of their games but Uni’s confidence was restored when their professionalism kicked in during the second set.

Hallam supporters came out in full force to support the players but the class and winning experience of University of Sheffield shone through during the matches.

The atmosphere in the hall was tense with sudden outbursts of cheers sets.

Justin Tetlow, Club Captain of University of Sheffield Table Tennis said: “Easy 3 points. Thoroughly professional from the boys.”

Uni sealed the varsity point early in the afternoon by winning the first nine games. The rest was merely a formality.

University of Sheffield Table Tennis Women’s won 3-2 against Hallam on Monday afternoon. Amy Humphreys

and Mei Zhi Ting from Uni went against Isobel Ashley and Quynh Ly from Hallam.

The Hallam supporters boosted Isobel Ashley and Quynh Ly during the first matches, however the precision and focus of Amy Humphreys and Mei Zhi Ting allowed them to triumph during their earlier matches.

The matches were a lot closer than their Men’s 1’s counterparts. It was so close in fact that the final doubles match decided who would gain the crucial varsity point.

The room was tense during the final doubles match, full of impressive rallies. Elation rose from the Uni side as they beat Hallam to win the varsity point, making it a joyous occasion for University of Sheffield Table Tennis.

The Uni Men’s 2s continued this streak, wiping the floor with Sheffield Hallam University at the EIS day table tennis, winning 9 of their 17 matches consecutively to secure victory.

The strength of the Uni side, who

T

- Gunnar Mallon

were crowned national BUCS champions earlier this month, was immediately evident from the first two matches.

Both David Man Hin Ho and James Atkins won in the first three games against Fenton Varady and David Carr respectively.

The second round of matches saw a slightly stronger game from Hallam, with Abdulrahman Yousef proving hard for Elliot Hogg to beat. The atmosphere was tense in the 3rd game when Hogg competed to stay in, but he secured a close win against Yousef and went on a beat him comfortably in the last game.

AR, CS

|

Izzy @izzylilah

Nothing better than winning varsity to soften the brexit blow #sheffieldvarsity

13

14

TUESDAY 28TH march

WOMEN’s TENNIS

MEN’S SQUASH

WOMEN’S HOCKEY 1s, 2s

MEN’S TENNIS

WOMEN’S SQUASH

MEN’S HOCKEY 1s, 2s

O

Leah @leahmcgrath

varsity rugby today was easily one of the best experiences I’ve had at uni so far.

the shooting circle, McKeveny was able to spin and fire right into the top corner.

Whilst some teams would have crumbled at this point, Uni immediately got themselves back into the game. Less than 60 seconds after the hosts had doubled the lead, Penny Ellis was able to slot into the empty net after the ball was passed around Hallam keeper Emma Taylor. Taylor was beaten again seven minutes later, Lucy Ginn this time able to tap into the net after a neatly worked penalty corner routine.

The nine minute turnaround was completed when Rebekah Woods got her stick to the ball to once again finish off a neat move with a relatively simple finish. From then on, The University of Sheffield had all the momentum, and were able to control the game with ease, Hallam unable to rediscover the fluidity that had at one point given them a two goal lead.

It was a remarkable comeback from those in Black and Gold and, on reflection, a deserved victory for the best female hockey players in the University. AL

HOCKEY 3S

S

trength grows in the moments when you think you can’t go on but you keep going away. The Women’s Hockey 3s University of Sheffield side took that motto after they missed an abundance of chances in their 1-1 Varsity clash against Hallam University.

Uni went into the match as favourites having reached the quarter-finals of the BUCS

- Aimeé Cooper

34.5 - 25.5

MEN’S HOCKEY

WOMEN’S HOCKEY n an afternoon which had already seen the Women’s 2s stage a comeback of their own, the pressure was on the top team in Black and Gold to make it a superb double. However, hopes for a pair of victories were dashed late in the first half, after an opening 35 minutes which had produced little of note. Natasha Richardson was able to finish simply after her initial cross was blocked by a mass of bodies in front of the goal.

Hallam were able to double their lead 10 minutes into the second half. Melissa McKeveny scoring what was arguably the goal of the day at Abbeydale. Running away from goal, and towards the edge of

at this point

T

he Sheffield Hallam Hockey Men’s 1s put on a dominant display against the University of Sheffield to give their university the momentum heading into a crucial final day of Varsity.

It was their black and gold opponents who started the game on the front foot, with Joe Kopka running the show down the left wing on several occasions. Uni quickly took the lead through more excellent work from Kopka down the left, his cross found its way to Joel Gandhi who buried his shot past Kieran Bedford and into the Hallam goal.

Hallam’s equaliser was gifted to them by Uni, after Lewis Garland fouled a Hallam player in the ‘D’ and received a yellow card as Hallam were awarded a penalty flick. Sure enough, Adam Price converted and Hallam were right back in it. Uni should have been back in front after being awarded a penalty corner, Nick Hale’s effort was met by an excellent save from Bedford in the Hallam goal. Hallam then won a penalty corner of their own but they managed to convert theirs, with

captain Andrew Jackson putting his side 2-1 up.

Hallam started the second half much like they ended the first, largely dominating play and looking to kill off any chance of a Uni comeback. Their fourth goal came shortly after the restart via their excellent set-piece ability. Despite plenty of chances for Uni, it was all Hallam in the second half. The team in maroon eventually killed the game off after Grady Wing found space in the ‘D’ to score Hallam’s fifth. Captain Price made it six after slotting home a rebound off the post after being their main outlet all game. Uni did win a penalty corner on the stroke of full time but their inability to convert these chances represented where the game was won and lost.

In the Men’s 2s, Hallam’s defence held off a good effort from the Uni team to win 2-1 . DC

Northern Cup Conference Cup but came up against a stubborn Hallam defence.

The two maroon fullbackers and sweeper stood strong for large periods of the game on the lime green pitch, preventing Uni from scoring from five consecutive penalty corners.

All this after Hallam had taken the lead against the run of play, Emma Preston, the right midfielder, continually cutting in.

The resulting pressure created an error at the back, and Emily Bill

forced home the ball much to the delight of those Hallam fans on the sideline.

As the rain continued to pour down Uni launched waves of attack, still wary of an opposition counter attack but confident of keeping their heads calm.

A missed penalty stroke from Sophy Crane increased the pressure to equalise but with just two minutes to go Uni found the net from the right-hand side. They huffed and puffed and eventually blew the house down. TA, DC

Continued at forgetoday.com/varsity

TENNIS

15

F

orget Istanbul, Houston or Barcelona. In the past week, Sheffield has taken the mantle as the city for the comeback.

And tennis provided yet another chapter to the already long narrative.

Three points were available at Hallamshire, and after Hallam had taken the Women’s 1s, 10-2, and the University of Sheffield the Men’s 1s, 12-0, it came down to the crucial Men’s 1s.

Having lost to Leeds Beckett in the Northern Conference Cup final three weeks ago, the Uni quartet were, on paper, favourites going into the tie.

Hallam had recently added to their team, their number one and two seeds Simon Albrecht and Oliver Gilmore looking to gain an early initiative. They did just that.

On the hardcourt, Tom Dyakowski and Joe Tingey set about the task at hand, winning the first set, but Albrecht and Gilmore battled back to save match point and claim the second. Then, in an enthralling championship tie-break, the Hallam duo forced their way ahead with calm play at the net, eventually taking it to a 10-7 lead.

On Court 2 the black and gold pair, Alex Wood and Ben Stevenson battled against the elements and the opposition, Olly Jansen and Ben Jackson. The first

set was tight, but Hallam were better in the crucial moments and took it to 7-5, using that momentum to claim an early break in the second. They didn’t look back, and the fans in maroon were celebrating a 4-0 lead.

Dyakowski had just lost two BUCS singles matches all year and returned with a game face that showed the frustration of not being able to put the previous doubles to bed. His experience was clear in a 6-3 6-3 straight set win against Albrecht. Tingey’s battled hard, coming from 3-0 down in the second set to claim a 6-2 6-3 win and level up the score 4-0.

When Stevenson took to the court optimism within the Uni camp was high, and grew even further when he won the first set 6-0. Tennis is a funny old game, though, and when Jansen’s baseline hitting improved, the Uni player had no answer, losing the second set to a bagel as well. But Stevenson would not succumb to the pressure and rallied, literally and metaphorically, to take the third 6-1.

It looked like that Uni would complete the ultimate turnaround, much to the delight of the partisan black and gold crowd. But Jackson had other ideas, and after recovering from an ankle injury beat Wood 7-5 6-3 to claim the half a Varsity point for Hallam.

On the two indoor courts, it was far easier for Hallam in the Women’s 1s.

They took the two doubles matches, the first a simple straight set win by Luca Pump and Amelia Coleman, and the second a three-set triumph from Katy Hudson and Megan Grainger.

Uni then found themselves 6-0 down after Natalie Bacon lost 6-1 6-1, and even though Ashy Foster won her rubber 6-2 6-4, it ended up being a consolation, Hallam winning the varsity point after triumphing in the last two singles matches.

On the outdoor courts, Uni found it far easier in the men’s 2s. From the outset, the quartet of Vilis Vitolis, Dan Earp, Jack Hird and Sam Jankins looked a class above their opponents, winning both doubles matches and all four singles rubbers to ease to a 12-0 victory.

The headlines though will concentrate on a memorable Uni comeback.

TA, SS

Nigel Hems @nigel_hems

Watching some great #varsity tennis at Hallamshire today! #Sheffield

- Rachael Ren

Continued at forgetoday.com/

SQUASH Men 1s

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or a club that’s had a stellar season, winning promotion to the BUCS Premier League, Uni’s performance will have been a disappointment.

The event was over before it had even begun, with Hallam taking the first four matches in a best of seven tie.

Dylan Martens of Hallam beat Owen Bailey 11-8, 11-3, 11-5 to open proceedings and Harry Heathcock followed up with a 3-0 win over Sam Broughton.

Alex Fredericks made Paul Jegede Brimson work hard for a 3-2 win, and it looked like Hallam’s march to victory would be forestalled when Simon Graham took the first game against Hallam club captain Ed Walker. Walker came back, and unleashed a fist-pump and a yell of ‘come on’ when he secured the Varsity point for his club.

And whilst Farouk Forster was dispatched by Ed Stallworthy, the University of Sheffield restored some pride as Omar Badr and Rahul Bansal played some exceptionally tough squash to beat Jack Alcock and Ollie Turner respectively. HD

WoMen 1s

C

lean sweeps are a rare thing in Varsity, but that was what was achieved by Uni’s Women’s Squash 1s.

They had a head start as Hallam could only field three players giving Sarah Gill a default 11-0, 11-0, 11-0 win.

It was another 3-0 win for Matilda Parslow over Holly Moore meaning that Hallam would need to win both their remaining matches to love if they were going to claim the Varsity point.

But that never looked likely, and when Katie Mills beat Atiqah Shah 11-6 in the first game the Varsity point belonged to Uni. She went on to win the next two games giving Uni another 3-0

Men 2s

win, before Maria Bainbridge, like Matilda Parslow playing her final Varsity, dispatched Tamsin Clarke for one final 3-0 win.

Four matches, not a single game dropped, and a Varsity point secured.

Matilda Parslow told Forge Sport: “We always thought we were going to do pretty well, it’s just a shame that they couldn’t put out more girls.

“We’ve had a good season, we’ve had a good year, lots of training, and it’s definitely paid off as you can tell today!

“We won the league, we nearly got promoted and now we’ve won Varsity so it’s a really good year for me, Maria and Sarah to end on.” HD - Gunnar Mallon

U

ni began their dominance as Lewis Stanley swiftly beat Hallam’s Pete Liversage 3-0 bringing the total score at 1-0 to Sheffield. The early lead helped Rhys Prosser from Uni to also get a 3-0 win in his match against Ian Gough.

However, the 2-0 lead to Uni soon changed as Harry Wild for Hallam beat Sam Birch-Machin making the score 2-1.

Joash Nielson-Piercy helped Uni to gain a larger lead as he beat Chris Matwhiszyn 3-0.

Hallam’s momentum continued as Josh Askew beat Uni’s Michael Hobbs in 4 games to make the score equal at 3-3 with only 3 matches left to be played.

Uni got the lead as Ben Losel beat Josh Kinsey 3-0. However, this lead was short lived as the final two matches got underway.

Hallam’s Harry Youngson and Rob Garbutt won their matches against Gregory Dighton and Chris Yu, 3-0 and 3-1 respectively.

This made Hallam get the overall score of 5-4 and the Varsity point.

NC

Continued at forgetoday.com/varsity

wednesday 29th march

10.5

varsity finals day

Points

Points

Women’s SWIMMING 1s

SUKC @ShefUniKorf

women’s Hockey 3s

men’s Ultimate 1s

Some sexy Korf played by both sides. It’s always nice to see the humility and compassion of korf

men’s lacrosse 1s Climbing

Saskia @Saskia_Marriott

9.5

men’s Badminton 1 s, 2 s Women’s Lacrosse 1s

SHOCK WE WON VARSITY, AGAIN #suvarsity

KORFBALL 1 s, 2 s, 3 S

men’s WATER POLO 1s

WOMEN’S BADMINTON 1s

men’s HOCKEY 1 s, 3 S men’s SWIMMING 1s women’s Water Polo 1s

Women’s Ultimate 1s

- Dan West

Women’s Canoe POLO 1s Andrew Cox @AndrewCox39

Get the champagne on Ice #proud #blackandgold

MEN’S CANOE POLO 1s

Korfball

I

t was a clean sweep for Hallam in the Korfball.

In the 3s, both teams were disciplined in defence, marshalled well by Destiny Okongwu for Uni and Mitch Leggett for Hallam.

At half time the score was 4-4 and very little difference to be found between the two sides.

Five goals were scored within the first four minutes of the second half, Hallam taking the lead with the score line sitting at 7-6.

Hallam continued to find scoring opportunities, pushing the score to 11-7 with a just over five minutes to go.

Despite some resilient late shooting from Cerys Liddiard, Uni weren’t able to bring it back with Hallam coming out rightful winners at 11-9.

It was an exciting start to 2s with both teams scoring in the opening minutes.

Uni quickly extended their lead taking the score to 3-1.

Hallam came back and were well on top with neat teamwork and several near misses, but were repeatedly pegged back by Uni. Hallam pulled away in the latter stages to take the 2s 15-12.

In the 1s Hallam started strongly racing into a 3-0 lead.

It was not until 20 minutes had gone that Uni were able to find some fluidity and creativity in their attacking play,

helping to bring the score to 10-8 at half time.

After the break Hallam further extended their lead and the pressure was back on Uni with all of the momentum against them.

The Hallam offence was too good for Uni and by the time the final whistle went, Hallam had a deserved score line of 20-13 and all three Korfball points.

BC, KM.

lacrosse

lacrosse

women’s 1s

I

n Varsity, there is always a high level of excitement. But for one of the points, slightly more rides on it, and this year, the fixture in question was the Women’s Lacrosse 1s. Why, you may ask? Well, this was the game that current Sports Officer Emily Roche competed in and like each and every Sports Officer past, present and future, she had promised to win Varsity.

Just four minutes in, Roche got the ball rolling, slotting home to give Uni a 1-0 lead. Within 15 minutes, the lead had extended to 6-0, with Anne Marie du Preez scoring the pick of the goals, a mazy run from the left hand side which saw the Uni player cradle the ball expertly before cutting inside and firing past the Hallam keeper.

By half-time, the hosts at Goodwin had extended their lead to 9-2. The second half saw the Uni

men’s 1s

V

defence keep Hallam at bay, with a seven point lead being retained for most of the game, before a late flurry of goals saw them run away with the tie, eventually claiming the Varsity point with a comfortable 19-8 victory.

It was a superb team performance, and a deserved win which got the Varsity scoreboard ticking over on Finals Day. As for Em Roche, it was not only a sweet victory inching her closer to lifting the Varsity trophy, it was also a completed manifesto pledge. It’s true. Some politicians don’t lie. AL

arsity 2017 will live in the memories of the University of Sheffield Lacrosse Men’s 1s team forever. Not only did they win the Varsity point for the first time in 10 years, but they secured the winning point that saw Uni win their fifth successive Varsity title.

A close game was expected with both the league meetings between the pair this season ending in draws and the opening eight minutes indicated the Varsity fixture would be similar. Ben Page-Laycock cancelled out Hallam’s early opening goal, before Kei Ishizaka put Uni ahead less than a minute later.

Page-Laycock, who scored four goals in Uni’s BUCS Trophy triumph over Cambridge last week, scored his second goal of the game to give the University of Sheffield a 3-1 lead after 12 minutes.

It was 4-1 just before the end of the first quarter, with Cameron Parks finding the bottom left corner from distance to put the University of Sheffield into a commanding

position.

Hallam cut their deficit to two at the start of the second quarter. There were no more goals in the second quarter, before the University of Sheffield scored two unanswered goals in the third quarter.

News started to filter through Goodwin that the Lacrosse could give the point needed for Uni to clinch the Varsity title, but first Uni had to win the game. As if the game needed more pressure, their lead was cut to three goals with five minutes left of the fourth and final quarter. A seventh goal for the University of Sheffield in the closing minutes sealed the victory and in doing so secured a fifth successive Varsity title for Uni. AB

Continued at forgetoday.com/varsity

- Sam Kite

cycling

15/3 - 22/3

golf 22/3

ice hockey 2s 23/3

athletics 25/3

american football 26/3

climbing

A

fter four and a half hours of killer competition at the Climbing Works, the University of Sheffield came out victorious over Sheffield Hallam in both the Men’s and Women’s competitive climbing. The four highest scorers in the preliminary round made it through to the final.

The four highest scoring men were all from the University of Sheffield whereas with the women it was a 50-50 split.

There were four different competition

walls to face and each finalist would get four minutes to attempt each wall.

Due to the absence of male Hallam climbers in the final, half the points were secured already for Uni. The rampant performances from the Uni climbers ensured they took home the whole point. JP

Continued at forgetoday.com/varsity - Aloysia Fotidar

24 - 10

17

ice hockey 1 s

19

3-6

F

or the last few years it’s seemed that the Ice Hockey 1s follows a similar pattern: Hallam gain a comfortable lead, Uni pull one or two back, then Hallam steal it away again. This year’s game was no different.

Uni went behind just 65 seconds in.

The puck broke to Harry Bolton and he slotted past goalie Callum Steventon on the glove side.

The underdogs could have been level after six minutes. Jerry Tang broke away and with just Andy Bagshaw to beat, slapped the puck against the post.

Replays hinted at a slight touch from the glove of Bagshaw.

Hallam then struck again, it was presented to them by Uni in the offensive zone, Jordan Ho picked it up, played it to James Woodcock and then on to Matt

Jack Wallace @JackWallace19

Today is the best day of my life #suvarsity #blackandgold #wortheverypenny

ultimate men’s

T

he University of Sheffield Men defeated Hallam 12-7 with ease at Goodwin on Finals Day. Hallam made a bright start, holding their first offence of the game, however, Uni responded immediately, Ian Williams scoring to make it 1-1. Uni then went 2-1 in front courtesy of Dan Sumner.

Uni then took the initiative, taking a 3-1 lead through strong defensive pressure.

Tomas Benavicles-Clarks capitalised on a loose throw from Hallam’s Alex Morgan, allowing Uni to put themselves two points ahead.

Uni stormed ahead to a 5-2 lead, before Hallam brought a break back, leaving Uni to hold a two-point advantage at 6-4, as Benavicles-Clarks collected comfortably for

- Sam Kite

slotted it stick side for his second and Hallam’s fourth.

They effectively killed the game six minutes later. After having one disallowed when Steventon had just about frozen the puck, Jamie Scott passed it to Sam Krempasky in the slot, and the left-hander ripped it past the goalie.

Molnar was again straight out of the blocks in the third, firing a shot just wide of the upright. They had a goal ruled out for man in the crease with ten minutes to go, but they weren’t quite done.

As the pace of the game slowed mistakes and penalties came. Uni gave the crowd something to cheer when Molnar completed his hat-trick during a 5 on 3 power play.

Unwin who scored stick side.

Uni’s brightest spark Rudy Molnar forced a save from Bagshaw towards the end of the first, but Hallam made it three a minute before the buzzer. Hong Kong International Jordan Ho played it across the crease to Woodcock who finished with ease.

Uni came out firing in the second. Rudy Molnar scored after 47 seconds with Uni still on a lingering power play, and he scored again seven minutes later to put the cat amongst the pigeons. Michael Szollosy broke up play, Will Paine played in Molnar in neutral ice, and the sniper converted the 1 on 0 rush.

But Hallam regained control during a period of four on four hockey. Bradbury picked it up, deked past his marker and

the score. Hallam responded again, making it 6-5 as Liam Johnson brought down another huck.

Uni took the half-time lead as they got themselves 8-5 in front, thanks in no small part to Morgan dropping a straightforward chance in the end zone at 7-5.

Uni started quickly after the break, earning a fivepoint advantage, going 10-5 in front.

Hallam took their first point of the half, making it 10-6, but Uni quickly restored

their lead. Hallam then made it 11-7 courtesy of Connor Featherstone as their hopes of claiming the Varsity point faded fast.

With the time cap reached, Uni needed just one more point for the win. This came promptly, courtesy of Wallace who made it 12-7 and ensured that Uni claimed another Varsity point. SS

Continued at forgetoday.com/varsity - Sam Kite

I

And with another 5 on 3 straight afterwards Uni had a chance to get that one back in it. But they squandered that chance, and Hallam had the final say as James Woodcock added a sixth with five seconds left on the clock.

But the Uni fans didn’t care. Trophy lifted. Five in a row. See you next year Hallam. HD

Watch it back at forgetoday.com/varsity

ndoor Ultimate is always fast, hectic and exciting, and this year’s Women’s Varsity was no exception.

Both teams had a slightly nervy start with each team turning over frequently in the first 10 minutes of the game, Hallam’s zone frustrating the quick movement of Uni, and Uni’s tight person defence putting pressure on the Hallam throws.

It wasn’t until the fifth point that Uni managed a turnover-free point, but neither team could manage a break until the final point of the first half. Uni claimed it to take a 5-3 lead after 15 minutes.

Hallam held their offence at the start of the second half but Uni soon found their stride, slicing through the zone and ramping up the intensity on defence, causing turn after turn. Hallam could not manage another point

ultimate women’s

after bringing it close at 5-4.

Uni’s fast-moving offence, and the solidity of their receivers in the end zone rendered all hopes of a comeback from Hallam hopeless.

Anne-Ga Levillayer’s creativity with the disc, combined with the height and consistency of captain Zarah Dixon powered Uni through.

Ultimately, Hallam’s failure to retain possession cost them dearly, as Uni romped away with a convincing win of 10-4, allowing Uni to gain sweet revenge for their heavy defeat last year. MW

Listen again at forgetoday.com/varsity

PRODUCTION TEAM Anna Gillies

Sheena Sidhu

Hallam Roffey

Ed McCosh

Dan West

Hugh Dickinson

Josh Peachey

Tim Adams

Lisa Latham

Freyja Gillard

DESIGN Nick Burke

Rachael Bunyan Will Morgan Matt Wickens

CONTRIBUTORS

PHOTOGRAPHY

Adam Bailey

Louise Brown

Adam May

Maheen Shafeeq

Adam Richmond

Matt Reilly

Aidan Leape

Matthew Wright

Anthony Phillips

Nick Cassidy

Ben Cole

Nicole Oshinawo

Brandon Mann

Nikhil Vekaria

Caitlin Shentall

Rebecca Lally

Daniel Cross

Sam Birkitt

Ed McCosh

Sam Kite

Hugh Dickinson

Sam Straw

Jacob Broadbridge

Sian Bradley

James Pendlington

Siddharth Solanki

Joe Chivers

Sonia Twigg

Josh Minchin

Sophy Crane

Josh Roberts

Tim Adams

Josh Taylor

Tom Holden

Joshua Lindsay

Will Moran

Aidan Leape Aimee Cooper Aloysia Fotidar Dan West George Nightingale Gunnar Mallon Josh Roberts Lutong Li Maheen Shafeeq Miles Armstrong Nicole Oshinawo Oluwaseon Ifaturoti Rachael Ren Rama Sam Sam Birkitt Sam Kite Suzanne Cameron Swakshadip Sarkar

Katy Sandalls

Thomas Milton

Kerry Miller

additional thanks Adam Carter

Darren Vong

Josh Clements

Sam Constance

Alex Goldsmith

David Schofield

Josh Lindsay

Sam Matwiejew

Amy Penfold

Ed Hughes

Lewis Brand

Steph White

Bea Duncan

Ed Ireland-Jones

Matthew Blomefield

Teri Limongi

Benjy Taylor

Eddie Suikki

Matthew Hutchinson

Tiantian Wang

Callum Booth

Emily Aspinall

Max Finch

Tom Gidlow

Caroline Nhundu

Finlay Panting

Navya Hebbar

Tom Mason

Charlie Martin

Gabby Hansford

Nicole Norman

Wenxin Zhou

Chelsea Burrell

Harry Fender

Oli Baseley

William Pettit

Chloe Coleman

Isma Younis

Oli Newall

Yuet Kwan Carman Leung

Chloe Johnstone

Izzie Kai

Paige Collier

Zihan Meng

Conor Arnot

Jack Buller

Pete Hennessey

Dan Bridge

Jamie Blakeman

Priya Lata