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The independent student newspaper of the University of Sheffield. Est. 1946.
Issue 84 Friday 22 May 2015 @ForgePress /ForgePress
UNIVERSITY “PRIORITISES PROFIT” OVER STUDENT HOUSING
Polly Winn Proposals have been made by the University of Sheffield to turn Jonas Court into a budget hotel. The fate of Jonas Court, currently a catered student
accommodation building in Endcliffe village, is currently being decided by University bosses. A judgement was reached that the building needs to be refurbished. The University are considering
three options for Jonas Court. The first option is to revamp the building, keeping its facilities as catered accommodation. The second option is to turn it into self-catered accommodation. The third option would be to convert
the building into a hotel. The proposed cost of turning Jonas Court into a hotel would be £2.07 million, compared to £.1.3 million to keep it as catered accommodation, and £1.5 million to upgrade it to self-catered.
The proposed hotel would operate separately to the adjacent Halifax Hall hotel which was opened in 2009. Continues on page 5...
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EDITOR
polly.winn@forgetoday.com
Polly Winn
DEPUTY EDITOR
chloe.coleman@forgetoday.com
Chloe Coleman
MANAGING EDITOR
j.may@sheffield.ac.uk
Jon May
FUSE EDITORS fuse@forgetoday.com Phil Bayles Joss Woodend HEAD OF ONLINE ned.westwood@forgetoday.com Ned Westwood NEWS news@forgetoday.com Claire Fowler Will Morgan Keri Trigg DEPUTY NEWS Jessica Davis Lisa Latham Nathaniel Robinson COMMENT comment@forgetoday.com Chris Saltmarsh Robin Wilde COFFEE BREAK letters@forgetoday.com Adilah Hameed FEATURES features@forgetoday.com Declan Downey Anna Gillies Sheena Sidhu LIFESTYLE & TRAVEL lifestyle@forgetoday.com Mojo Abidi Mared Gruffydd SPORT sport@forgetoday.com Ed McCosh Rob Milne Anthony Phillips MUSIC music@forgetoday.com Tara Hodgson GAMES games@forgetoday.com Ash Emritte Moya O’Rourke SCREEN screen@forgetoday.com Rhys Handley Ashleigh Howard ARTS arts@forgetoday.com Jo Gallacher Joshua Hackett PICTURE EDITOR Dan West COPY EDITORS Sophie Cockett Adilah Hameed Bethan Littley Ellena Rowlin
Forge Press is printed on 100% recycled paper
Forge Press is published by Sheffield Students’ Union. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the the Union or the editorial team. Complaints should be addressed to the Managing Editor in the first instance, although a formal procedure exists.
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ELECTION
UNION
Nathaniel Robinson
Jessica Davis
A four year old boy has been reunited with a Star Wars Lego toy he accidentally dropped into a ballot box. He lost the figurine while helping his mother vote in Ed Miliband’s constituency of Doncaster North during the general election. The presiding officer said a note could be put in the box requesting the toy’s return, but wasn’t hopeful. Doncaster Council found the toy and returned it, along with a Lego Spiderman car for his patience.
A grand piano has been put in the Student Union in order to create a more vibrant atmosphere and encourage music throughout the university. Jack Wyse, SU Development Officer, said: “I wanted to jazz it up a bit because it tends to look a bit like an airport.” He plans to eventually wheel the piano out onto the concourse and create a vibe similar to St Pancras, London, although this is still yet to be confirmed.
CITY
EDUCATION
FOOD
Jessica Davis
Will Morgan
Lisa Latham
An independent study into the first 50 RISE graduate internships has found it is supporting business growth as well as graduate employment in Sheffield. This has generated economic growth of £1.34m for the city. This means every £1 investment has created £5.71 of growth in the local economy. The project has attracted national attention and other cities are now looking at similar schemes in order to retain their graduates.
There will be a free six-week online course to teach students the art of songwriting. The course aims to teach the “fundamental elements of melody, rhythm, harmony metre and key”. It will feature famous musicians including John McClure from Reverand and the Makers and singer Neil McSweeney. The course will take three hours per week and starts on June 8. Details can be found on the University website.
The Harley is seeking to relieve exam stress with the promise of discounted brain food. The bar aims to “ease the pain” of the exam period with a hearty Harley burger or free fries with group orders. Presenting a student card will merit a 25% discount, and bringing along your exam question paper halves the bill for your burger. The event is being held at The Harley and Riverside Live and is running from the May 18 to June 14.
CITY
SPORTS
Chloe Coleman
Jessica Davis
A water slide the size of three football pitches is coming to Sheffield this summer. The slide will span 1,000ft and according to organisers Slide in the City, will be in Graves park. They told the Star: “Don’t worry, we’ve got it padded. This slide’s got more cushion than your grandpa’s orthopedic shoes.” They are also encouraging slide-goers to bring along their inflatables, water buckets and water-guns in order to maximise the fun.
‘Sports Everywhere Boxes’ have been implemented throughout the university to inspire more students to get into sport. Sporting equipment, such as Frisbees, footballs and Nerf Throws will be available for use. The items must be exchanged for a student uCard which will act as a deposit. The equipment boxes are hoping to encourage university students to take part in sports and make the most of the green spaces throughout the city, such as Weston Park and Encliffe Park.
in brief...
Clumsy one, you are
News from the Steel City
The key to songwriting
RISE in the economy
Sheffield slip ‘n’ slide
Changing the tune
The Harley’s helping hand
Free sports equipment
Photo: Patrick O’Connell
inside this issue... News
Ticket resale clampdown, Achieve no more
Comment
Animals are a sacrifice we should be willing to make
Features
Formula One: a global sport
Lifestyle
Diverse dolls, Hong Kong and Bloo 88
Coffee Break
Suduko, summer reads and fortnightly crossword
Sport
United and Wednesday season reviews
FO R GE PRESS
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Fr i day 22 M ay 2015
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YOUR UNIVERSITY
Three students fall victim to Union phone thief Keri Trigg Students are being warned to keep an eye on their belongings following a spate of thefts in the Students’ Union. Police are investigating the thefts of two mobile phones and a tablet from inside the Union building, in separate incidents within eight days of each other. Gabby Alexander, a second year Geography student, was doing work with friends at 5pm on Friday, May 15, in Coffee Revolution when her phone was snatched. She said: “I was just about to finish an essay but my laptop was about to die, so I moved to the plugs near the windows, leaving my phone on the table with my boyfriend and friend. “Ten minutes later, my boyfriend came over to me and asked where my phone was because it wasn’t on the table I was sat at before.” After a frantic search, the group realised that a man who came to show them a flyer for paragliding may have slipped away with the phone under his leaflet. They described him as 5’11”,
slim, mixed race, with a strong accent and broken English. He was wearing a white top, maroon hooded jacket, navy tracksuit bottoms and turquoise trainers. Gabby said: “He had offered them the leaflet but my friend didn’t understand him and said to go to the Welcome Desk. “He put the leaflet down on the table behind my friend’s laptop and they thought nothing of it. “But then we realised there was no leaflet there and my phone was gone. “I felt so annoyed at myself because I am usually so careful with my belongings but let my guard down because I was stressed trying to finish my work.” Gabby, who also praised the SU security staff who dealt with her on the day, is now warning other students not to fall for the same trick. She said: “Be super cautious. Don’t leave your belongings unattended, even if it is just for a moment.” South Yorkshire Police are looking into the incidents, on May 8, 15 and 16, and whether they are connected. Inspector Neil Mutch said:
Students’ Union bosses are cracking down on the resale of event tickets at inflated prices, warning would-be sellers they will be barred from events. The move has been highlighted due to the Summer Social, due to take place on June 12. The 4,000 tickets for the event, priced at £10, sold out within hours of release on May 8. Last year’s Summer Social also sold out on the day of release and tickets quickly found their way
Re-creators of the lost ark Fighting in the MiddleEast has led to the loss of priceless artefacts, but “cyberarchaeologists” are working to restore them and revolutionise cultural heritage. The effort began after footage emerged of Islamic State militants smashing artworks in the Mosul Museum and sites like Nimrud in Iraq. The Initial Training Network for Digital Cultural Heritage is using Photogrammetry to turn 2D photographs of a single object into 3D images. Once a digital record is been created, it is possible to physically re-create items using 3D printing. This could prove useful in building replicas of lost artefacts and those that are too fragile for public display.
Home brewed heroin
“Having a mobile phone stolen is a distressing and upsetting experience and we are conducting a number of enquiries to try and identify the persons responsible. “I’d like to remind everyone to keep their personal valuables out of sight wherever possible,
Photo: Joshua Hackett in a bid to deter any would-be thieves. They are asking anyone with information on the the thefts, or anyone concerned about people behaving suspiciously around the Union, to contact them on 101.
Union clamps down on ticket touts onto the internet at bumped-up prices, with many sold at more than double the value paid for at the box office. This year’s theme is Wonderland, with the event lasting 12 hours and taking place throughout the Union’s venues, including Foundry, Fushion and the Octagon. Jack Wyse, SU Development Officer, said: “Summer Social, along with many other events we’ve ran this year have proven to be very popular and demand for tickets high. A handful of
TECHNOLOGY
Nathaniel Robinson
YOUR UNIVERISITY
Patrick O’Connell
SCIENCE &
students are using this demand to re-sell their tickets for profit which contravenes point three of our Terms and Conditions. “Tickets that are re-sold or transferred for profit or commercial gain by anyone other than the authorised agents, the ticket may be voided and the holder refused entry to or ejected from the venue. “Individual cases of breaching the Terms and Conditions have been investigated throughout this year and the offending people contacted.
“We would always recommend that students purchase tickets from our box office or website prior to an event, to guarantee they are getting a genuine ticket at the face value price.” The Alice in Wonderlandthemed event will include entertainment from a variety of Union club nights, including ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ from Ey Up, and The Tuesday Club, ‘Wonderland’ from Pop Tarts, and Climax and a silent disco on the concourse from Silent Social and Roar.
Scientists have discovered a strain of genetically modified yeast that can be used in the production of opiates. By borrowing DNA from plants, the yeast can be used as an agent to produce reticuline, an intermediate chemical that naturally occurs in poppies and is essential in the production of morphine. Public health professor at the University of Alberta, Tania Bubela, said: “In principle, anyone with access to the yeast strain and basic skills in fermentation could grow morphine-producing yeast using a home-brew kit for beer making.” This discovery could revolutionise the production of pain killers such as morphine, though it introduces the potential for an increase in illegal drug use.
Lisa Latham
Photo: Wikipedia
Darker side to light display
Photo: Dan West
A phosphorescent display washed into rivers in Tasmania this week, causing hundreds to flood to the area. The impromptu display is caused by a type of plankton, called Noctiluca scintillans, that lights up when disturbed. This natural phenomenon is made possible due to the effects of climate change, which increase sea temperatures and enable the plankton to survive in more southern waters. Gustaaf Hallegraeff from the University of Tasmania says: “Dense blooms like this can starve other organisms.” Though enjoyable in the short term, extended presence creates a potential threat for marine biodiversity. Joss Woodend
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NEWS UNINEWS
Interesting stories from other universities around the world
Sexual assault at former all-women college The Principle of Somerville College has condemned a “profoundly worrying” culture of sexual harassment and groping at the university. Somerville College admitted only women until 1994 and is known as one of Oxford’s more progressive colleges. Dr Alice Prochaska, the principal of the college, described a rise in “excessively harassing and intimidating behaviour” towards female students. She revealed that there had been numerous reports of rape jokes, groping and students coerced into sexual activity. This term the college has received six times more complaints than in the past six years combined. Nathaniel Robinson
#KillAllWhiteMen The diversity officer for Goldsmiths University in London may be removed from her position after publicly advocating racism and sexism against white people, and in particular white men. Bahar Mustafa requested on Facebook that men and white people did not attend her BME Women and non-binary event, which allegedly aimed to promote equality, sparking a student petition to have her removed. The welfare and diversity officer has also used hate speech on gender and race, including consistent use of the hashtags #KillAllWhiteMen and #misandry. The online petition at change.org already has 13,067 supporters.
Lisa Latham
Students hospitalised after taking legal high Five students have been hospitalised after taking a legal high. The Lancaster University students are alleged to have smoked a legal high known as Spice, and were hospitalised on Wednesday night. Two are in a critically ill at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. Speaking to the Guardian, Vicky Tyrrell, Head of Communications at Lancaster University, said: “We’ve got five students who have been taken to hospital with a suspicion that they had taken the drug. Of the five, we know that two of them are seriously ill”.
Joss Woodend
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YOUR CITY
Estimated 1,000 attend anti-austerity protest Will Morgan & Polly Winn Anti-Austerity campaigners gathered at Devonshire Green on May 16, led by Green party leader Natalie Bennett to protest Conservative cuts. Banners and placards filled the streets of Sheffield objecting to the new Conservative government’s planned saving of £30 billion through spending cuts, with an estimate of a thousand people turning up to support the cause. A large number of students were in attendance, including Sheffield Students’ Union President Yael Shafritz and groups like Socialist Students. The march began led by megaphone led chanting of “You say cutback we say fight back”, “TUC get off your knees and call a general strike” and “No ifs, no buts, no education cuts” before the protestors made their way down Division St. and eventually into Sheffield’s City centre. Green party leader Natalie Bennett stood at the front of the March, leading protestors. She said: “I think Sheffield’s one of the areas of real strength for the Green party” and commented that she will be attending antiausterity protests all over the country. Natalie Bennett said: “For the Green party, austerity is obviously a failed model, and it’s a model that’s meant making the poor, the disadvantaged and the young pay for the errors and fraud of the bankers. “What we need to do is say this model has failed, and if you look around the world, most of the rest of the world has stopped talking about austerity and realizes that they need to invest in the future. “They need to invest in the future, invest in the education of young people – and of course we believe in zero university tuition fees – invest in housing, invest in public services, invest in renewable energy, and that mean’s the government need to be spending money on essential public services, spending money on infrastructure, not heading in the other direction.” Police were present at the
Image: Jack Buller protest, but they were largely there to stop traffic as the march made its way peacefully through town. The protest came to a halt outside the town hall, where a string of speakers spoke in support of the march, where Natalie Bennett boldly claimed: “We’re angry and determined to fight” which roused a roar of agreement from the crowd. Bennett went on to give her support for many of the causes present at the march, including anti-privatisation of the NHS and those opposing Tory led changes to the education system. Other speakers included representatives of the: People’s Assembly, People’s NHS, Disabled People Against Cuts and the Labour party. Simon Murch, the divisional secretary for the National Union of Teachers (NUT) was
Rachel Claringbull Politics Student Secon dYear Chair of Women’s Committee “I’m here today because, in the last five years we’ve seen a huge increase in austerity and I think with the new government that’s going to increase. Not only is that important to so many different people but especially women. I think a lot of services to women’s issues are going to be cut so it’s really important that we come and support this.”
there opposing the proposal to introduce literacy and numeracy tests for four year olds. He said: “It’s what they’re going to do with those test results that we’re particularly upset about. They’re going to use those tests to track children all the way through school and then use that potentially with their tax codes as well to see what things children d at school impact their ability to earn money later on”. Natasha Sorrell, a student teacher at Sheffield Hallam University said: “A lot of people have claimed that this is sour milk, but we’ve never seen massive demonstrations like this straight after an election to this scale, so I think it’s really important that we’re engaging on what I think is a more democratic political way od talking to each other”.
A significant amount of people in attendance were concerned with how the new Conservative government are going to impact education. Mark Barton, a resources officer at Sheffield Hallam University said: “It’s actually the worst thing to do when there’s a recession is to instigate a regime of austerity, because that holds the economy back and it can actually make it worse”. He told us that his department was struggling due to the cuts: “we’re actually having to cut back and combine with another department. I know across the rest of the university they’re having trouble.” There is a national antiausterity protest taking place in London on June 20, where Natalie Bennett is again expected to be in attendance
Freya Gill-Stevens English Literature Student First Year “I think it’s just so important that they know people are not happy. Obviously they were democratically elected but I think it’s important they know that people don’t agree with the fox hunting ban repeal, they don’t agree with cuts to human rights, or to welfare benefits. I think it’s more like getting our voices heard because people don’t feel like they were heard in the election. So that’s why I’m here.”
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YOUR UNIVERSITY
Revealed: University to turn Jonas Court into budget hotel Polly Winn and Patrick O’Connell Continued from front page It would provide more affordable accommodation for academic conferences and parents of students’ living in Endcliffe and Ranmoor accommodation. Students that would have lived in Jonas Court in Endcliffe village would be moved into City Centre accommodation. The University does will not build any new city centre accommodation, but plans lease existing buildings, so that students would be able to find the accommodation through the University. Students’ Union Development Officer Jack Wyse said: “If they make Jonas court into a hotel it’s at the price of students being able to live in Endcliffe, and consistently surveys show that satisfaction of living in city is lower than living in Endcliffe and Ranmoor. “You get things like security, residence life, living with thousands of other students, having access to the edge and living in a safe environment.” He said: “The University are seeing it from a commercial point of view and actually they should be making this into accommodation that’s fit for the student demand, which is selfcatered. “It needs to be refurbished,
and they shouldn’t be prioritising paying customers over students in a student space.” The University will attempt to address this issue by giving City Centre accommodation more of a community feel. Jack Wyse raised concerns about this: “They are looking into making more of a community in city and having more students living in it. “I think that would be interesting in the long run, but they can’t use the argument that there’ll be a community there to move students into because a community takes a long time to develop”. The University claim that Halifax Hall is too expensive to host academic events, therefore the proposed hotel would be more of a Premier Inn style budget hotel. Jack Wyse expressed concerns at the trend that seems to be emerging of turning university accommodation into hotels. He said: “Where do they draw the line? Halifax Hall used to be student accommodation, and if they turn Jonas court into a hotel when are they going to stop converting student space into space for paying customers”. “I think if they were convert Jonas court into a hotel it would be prioritising profit and paying guests over students”. A spokesman for
Image: Dan West Accommodation and Commercial Services said: “As part of the project appraisal for the refurbishment a number of options were considered. “These included retaining the building as catered accommodation, converting it to self-catered, or converting
it to non-student only use to support the growing demand for short term accommodation for visiting academics and students, University guests, and departmental conferences and meetings. “The guest accommodation would be alongside, but separate to, Halifax Hall Hotel which
has been converted for hotel use and supports a wide range of University activities. “A conversion to guest, rather than student-only use has not been approved by Council and is being discussed with a range of stakeholders, including the Students’ Union.”
YOUR UNIVERSITY
The ‘lost songs’ of classic musical performed by University students for the first time
Claire Fowler Newly discovered songs written for musical My Fair Lady have been played at Firth Court. After re-discovering the ‘lost songs’ of My Fair Lady, Dr Dominic McHugh steeled himself for the big reveal of the much anticipated music to the public. While doing research for his book, Loverly: The Life and Times of My Fair Lady, Dr McHugh stumbled across several uncatalogued songs in the American Library of Congress. Surprised by his findings, he decided to write about them in his book and recently came up with the idea to have them performed at the University of Sheffield. My Fair Lady was created by Lerner and Loewe back in 1956 and since its first showing has remained popular among theatre-goers. Based on the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, it was adapted for the screen in 1964. Throughout the process of its adaptation, many of its original songs were cut and never made it onto the screen. Those songs were considered ‘lost’ and unmarked.
Now with the help of his exstudent Matthew Malone, Dr McHugh’s discoveries were finally unveiled to the public on May 19 in Firth Court. When asked how he felt about the concert he said: “It’s very exciting to think that my research is having an impact on the general public. “The best thing for me, though, is being able to share it with my students, rather than just writing articles and books on my own.” Miriam McCombe, who played the vocal role of Eliza Doolittle in the concert, said: “We’ve all worked so hard since January. I was so nervous, especially knowing that Lerner’s widow, a previous Eliza Doolittle, was sat in the audience. I think everyone just wanted to do the songs justice and get them right.” Dr McHugh guided the audience throughout, giving more detail about each song performed, unravelling more of the story behind the musical. The performers, singers and orchestra put in every effort to re-create this classic musical while simultaneously bringing something new.
The Concert
Photo: Claire Fowler
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YOUR CITY
Hallamshire Hospital NHS staff learn sign language
Will Morgan
Claire Fowler Staff at Sheffield’s health and social care centre are learning sign language in support of Deaf Awareness week. With the help of Sheffield Community Access and Interpreting Service (SCAIS) the staff have been learning to say ‘hello my name is’ and then fingerspell their own name. Julie Mather, Interpreting Services Manager (SCAIS), said: “We are delighted to be involved in helping colleagues to communicate with service users, carers and visitors who are deaf. “But it is also important that frontline staff are able to offer an appropriate welcome to all who come through our doors. Being able to introduce themselves in sign language is an additional skill which helps us at SHSC to provide compassionate and respectful care.” Sign language is not restricted to those who are hearing impaired. It can also be beneficial to those who’ve experienced strokes, have learning difficulties or speech impairments.
F O RG E P RESS
At the University of Sheffield it is not compulsory for students to learn sign language, however there is a Sign Language Society which meets weekly and has exam facilities. Jess Wates, a Speech Therapy student and BSL speaker commented: “As a Speech and Language Therapy student I wanted to broaden my experience with nonverbal forms of communication. Sign language has opened many
doors for me, it’s not only a skill I have developed but it has also given me an insight into what it might be like to have a hearing impairment.” SHSC have set a great example to those following career in health care. The campaign aims to encourage more NHS staff to take the time to learn some basic sign language so that everyone gets the care they need. Clive Clarke, Deputy Chief Executive at SHSC, said: “The
Photo: Colbalt123 via flickr service offered by SCAIS is essential to ensure that the needs of our diverse communities are being met. The deaf community is often marginalised in mainstream services and we are proud to be raising awareness and promoting social inclusion for deaf people among our staff.” Over 15 per cent of the population are deaf to some degree and out of those, 10 in every 10,000 will be extremely deaf.
Tramlines line up announced
Sheffield’s city festival Tramlines has announced its full line-up. The festival’s headliners WuTang Clan, Basement Jaxx and the Charlatans will be joined by a variety of smaller rock and electronica bands. This brings the full line-up to over 200 artists, including spoken word poet Kate Tempest, folk-activist Billy Bragg and late seventies pop punk band the Buzzcocks. Some of the newly announced rock acts include the progressive rock band Anathema. The group led by the three Cavanagh brothers will be performing at the City Hall and their rock brethren We Are The Ocean will be at Leadmill. Electronic DJ collective from London, Horse Meat Disco, will also be playing, along with Radio 1 regular DJ Monki and hip hop electronica act Lapalux. Tramlines started in 2009 and has exploded since, with last year’s line-up including Public Enemy and Katy B. The award-winning festival is going to run from July 24-26, advanced weekend tickets for Tramlines are still available for £30.
YOUR UNIVERSITY
Puppy play room is “dream come true”
Polly Winn
A room full of puppies occupied Foundry on May 20, hosted by the University of Sheffield Guide Dog society. The ‘Puppy Dog Playroom’ event was organised in collaboration with The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. Students had the opportunity to play with puppies and talk to the guide dog owners about their experience with the charity and how much help guide dogs can actually provide. On her way out of the event, second year Maths student Georgia Harrison commented: “It’s a dream come true” and she wasn’t the only student to appear completely elated at the experience. The dogs ranged from, black and golden Labradors and retrievers to Alsatians and occupied eight circles around the room along with their owners. The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association breed more than 1,300 dogs each year and are currently responsible for around 8,000 dogs according to their website. The average working life of a guide dog is five to six years, and with there currently being nearly 4,800 guide dog owners in the UK, there is a high demand. The event was placed during exam season in order to de-stress students as playing with dogs has been linked to improving mental health. The American Health Association has linked ownership of dogs to a reduced risk of heart disease. Nearly 3,200 students clicked
attending on the Facebook event and on the day the queue stretched from the Students’ Union east entrance, around the barrier to the concourse and towards the Hicks building. Several students were disappointed after being turned away from the event due
to overcapacity. Amy Peterson, the community fundraiser for The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, emphasised the importance of Fundraising events like these. She said: “It costs £50,000 for a Guide Dog from birth until
retirement, and we receive no Government funding, so fundraising events like this are fantastic to build awareness of what owners go through. “I want to say a massive than you to all the students. We hope they’re all calm now.”
Photo: Nick Stewart
YOUR UNIVERSITY
Students fear job competition Claire Fowler
Photo: Polly Winn
Students believe there is huge competition for graduate jobs, according to a new study. The Milkround Student and Graduate Career Confidence reported that two thirds of students fear too much competition for jobs. The survey incorporated views from inside and outside the University. Two thirds of the people who participated were current students and one third were graduates. Statistics show that 66 per cent said competition was their biggest concern in the job hunt. More than a quarter are pessimistic about getting a job after university. Milkround is an annual survey that assesses career confidence amongst students. It aims to highlight some of the key issues in the student job hunt.
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Counselling Service wait “impacted on mental health” Chloe Coleman and Jessica Davis Students have spoken out about waiting times for access to a counsellor. The University Counselling Service (UCS) have had to close their registration service yet again this year due to high demand of their counsellors. Although they are still offering group support such as meditation and stress relief classes, students’ individual needs are not being entirely catered to. They stated on their website that registration was closed until midday on the May 18, however this has been extended until the May 21 at the time of writing. Additional information on the site also explains that “peak demand is between February and May”, but sources at Forge Press can confirm that the registration service was also closed at the end of last semester. Joss Woodend, a 20 yearold History student expressed concern: “The UCS are fantastic in sense of treatment, however the waiting times have impacted on my mental health. I’ve tried to register a few times over the year, but faced closure of registration. The biggest problem was after triage as I was told I would have to wait 8-9 weeks for an appointment.” Sian Bradley, a 19 year-old
Paul Dennis, a candidate who stood for the Trade Union and Socialist coalition, demands recount after receiving no votes. Mr Dennis was left humiliated and embarrassed on May 7 as the crowds burst into laughter. He has since demanded a recount as he claims he had the full support of his wife and father. He also commented that the results were “obviously wrong” because he had definitely voted for himself in the election. Although a sad story of humiliation and public embarrassment, it does also raise questions about what happened to the lost vote of Mr Dennis and whether the council should be held responsible.
Homophobic Roads
MIND Journalism student reiterated Woodend’s thoughts: “The counselling process is really long. After the application the wait is long.” The UCS are still aiming to get back to students within 10 working days, but warn that the appointment may be outside of this timespan.
A spokesperson for UCS said: “The average wait time for triage is now 5.5 days, compared to 10 days in 2012, with student satisfaction of our service improving.” Another student, who did not want to be named, said: “[The process] put up unnecessary obstacles. I thought I would
just have to apply online, but the UCS told me that March and April were so busy, they wouldn’t be able to contact me for a while. I also had to call for an appointment, even after registering. When I finally got through, the opening times were awkward.”
YOUR CITY
Petition to join Jail reduction for armed robber who Scotland terrorised students An armed robber who broke into two Sheffield students’ houses and terrorised them has had his jail term cut by over a year. Lee Marvin Whomersley, 39, was jailed for nine years after the robbery in May 2013 at Sheffield Crown Court. He had pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery, false imprisonment, possession of a firearm with intent and having disgused a firearm. Whomersley’s sentence has now been cut, ibn line with the reduced sentence already secured by his accomplice. The sentence has been reduced to seven years and 10 months at London’s Criminal Court of Appeal. Whomersley and his partner, Martin Andrew Gaffoor, broke into the student house on South Road, Walkley, on 24 November 2012. Whomersley covered his face during the robbery, and carried a taser, while his partner was carrying a 9mm pistol gun, which he held to one of the students’ heads, during the raid. The pair had threatened the students, tied them up and then
Kent candidate demands recount
Claire Fowler
YOUR CITY
Jessica Davis
NATIONAL NEWS
pushed socks into their mouths whilst the criminals demanded their banking details and PIN numbers. The Star stated that the judge explained that Goffoor had ejected the gun cartridge to reveal the bullet and said: “you now know it’s real.” The pair then sent the bank details to a third party, who would go to a cashpoint and withdraw the money. More than £3,000 of items were stolen and the criminals used the debit cards to spend £430. Both the students were sprayed with fire extinguishers in order to remove forensic evidence. Gaffoor was sentenced to 11 years behind bars, however this was reduced to nine years on appeal in January 2014. Whomersley pleaded guilty but the Judge was more lenient on him due to the fact that he had been pressured into the robbery, after receiving violent threats from Gaffoor, who Womersley identified as the ‘leader’. Mr Justice Cooke said: “The starting point for Whomersley needs to be reduced in the same way as it was for Gaffoor, taking into account their different roles.”
A “horrified” gay couple have complained after a road in Kent was named Bangays Way which they claim is homophobic. It was in memory of local historian Frank Bangay, who died in 1999, but the tribute resulted in the couple writing to Borough Green Parish Council, who dismissed their claim. They told the Telegraph: “Having got over the initial humour, we reflected that this street name was actually pretty offensive.”
Jessica Davis
Photo: Darlo Reyes via flickr
Bad Mooove
Nathaniel Robinson A Sheffield student is believed to be behind a petition calling for the north of England to join Scotland and secede from the UK. The petition, on change.org website, was created by ‘Stu Dent’ from Sheffield and is calling for a new border to be drawn along a line that runs between the River Dee and the mouth of The Humber, creating ‘New Scotland’. The petition has been signed by more than 43,340 people and the nation of ‘New Scotland’ wants to see Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield governed from Edinburgh instead of Westminster. It states: “The deliberations in Westminster are becoming increasingly irrelevant to the north of England.”
Photo: XXXXXXXXXXX The feeling of disillusionment between the North and South is evident to see from many of the petition’s signers. Elizabeth Rogerson, Glasgow resident, said: “It would solve all of this country’s problems if we could dig a big trench around London and push it out to sea with a long stick.” Despite being created a year ago, the petition increasingly attracted signatures following the Conservative Party’s win in the general election, after Labour held many Northern cities. Northern politicians are unlikely to be on board with the demand - but are keen to keep the issue of devolution high on the agenda under the new government. The effects of devolution and the ‘success’ of the Northern Powerhouse project are yet to be seen.
Thousands have joined forces on Facebook in response to the shooting of a cow that escaped from near Rising Sun Country Park in Wallsend. The animal was “clearly in a distressed state” as it ran riot around the A1058 Coast Road on Sunday afternoon. Northumbrian police, deeming the creature to be of significant risk to members of the public and motorists shot and killed the animal, after deploying a police helicopter, up to 20 police cars and firearms officers. The decision to destroy the animal has been met with heated discussion on social media forums regarding the necessity of the cow’s death. Mr Aitchison, whose house was initially to be used as a point from which to shoot, said: “It was wrong for the police to kill a cow.” Others agree and believe tranquilization would have been as effective and less cruel.
Lisa Latham
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Fri day May 22 2015 F O RG E P RESS
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NEWS
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YOUR CITY
Shared bins would be “rubbish” for students Keri Trigg
Discussions over Sheffield bin collection changes, which will affect transient housing including student accommodation, are to be held in secret. The shake-up, part of a plan to save Sheffield City Council £3.4million a year, could include shared bins as well as extra charges for replacements. Rather than a public meeting, the relevant cabinet member is to make a decision on the changes under ‘delegated powers’. Students who spend Christmas in the city could also face additional charges for extra Christmas waste, which will no longer be taken for free from 2016. Lauren Archer, a third year Journalism student, said: “Shared bins between student houses would be awful as students already really struggle to manage their waste. “It would be rubbish.” The results of public consultations are expected to be published the end of this month.
Photo: XXXXXXXXX
YOUR CITY
New student review website
Claire Fowler Student View is a new website empowering students, providing valuable information on accommodation. The website asks that students leave anonymous reviews of their current accommodation. This way future students can go online to read and make more informed choices on where they live. The reviews allow you to rate the condition of living quarters, security of the building, local area and most importantly your landlord. The aim of the website is to give students the full picture and support them in making decisions. The website claims that “For too long landlords and property managers have held the power, regularly exploiting students due to their lack of experience in the rental market and offering overpriced and substandard accommodation whilst facing little or no accountability.” The Student View website will provide a useful service for all those who need it while simultaneously putting pressure on the irresponsible landlord.
YOUR UNIVERSITY
Condom dispenser Organ Donation Nathaniel Robinson The much awaited condom dispensers have now been installed in the toilets throughout the Students’ Union. The dispensers were pioneered by SU Welfare Officer Tom Harrison to ensure that safe intimacy will never be an issue of affordability. The dispensers aim to ensure that safe intimacy will never be an issue of affordability. The machines contain with free condoms, lubricant and STI testing kits. Six thousand condoms have currently been budgeted annually at a cost of £500 from the Student Advice Centre. Concern was expressed regarding the number of condoms, lubricant and STI testing kits the dispensers contain, with people questioning whether six thousand condoms can satisfy the carnal desires of 27,000 Sheffield students. Ironically, the dispensers that were only installed on Sunday have already been emptied by students and are in need of replenishment. Tom Harrison commented: “They were installed on Sunday (May 17) afternoon, by Thursday (May 21) almost five out of six are empty of their stock, so that’s 70 chlamydia tests and 750 condoms gone. Myself and Welfare Committee will be restocking next week.” “The Chlamydia testing kits come from Sexual Health Sheffield which comes out of the Hallamshire Hospital, so we don’t pay for them, they get
ordered to us.” The dispensers are located on levels two, three and four of the Students’ Union and will be available throughout the unions opening hours, providing safety around the clock to meet the urges of the student population. “The introduction of these dispensers underlines the Union’s commitment… ensur[ing] that students feel safe,” said Harrison. Pregnancy tests are also provided for free by the Student Advice Centre. Unfortunately, as of yet there are no dispensers to supply this demand.
Lisa Latham
The University of Sheffield’s Biomedical Department organised an event on May 13 to raise awareness of organ donation. Students collaborated with Diva Creative marketing agency, the Children’s Hospital Charity and the city’s NHS Blood and Transplant centre in a campaign targeted at young adults to promote the merits of organ donation. They did this through several pieces of work, including app storyboards, postcard scratch cards and collectible t-shirts. Three groups were then
chosen to pitch their campaign in a final lecture attended by representatives of Diva Creative and the NHS. Creator of the project, Dr Lauren Buck, from the University’s Department of Biomedical Science, said: “The amount of effort put in has been astounding and shown sensitivity and maturity. “We hope that by embedding enterprise education into the anatomy curriculum, students will gain new skills and an insight into how their subjectspecific knowledge can be used to communicate with the public on important issues.”
Photo: XXXXXXXXX
vieira_da_silva flickr
YOUR CITY
15,000 toast pensioner
Will Morgan
Pensioner Winnie Blagden has received 15,000 birthday cards for her 100th birthday on May 31. This is after a BBC Radio Sheffield appeal for people to help Winnie celebrate her centennial reached millions on Facebook. The Facebook post received a great deal of support from strangers on the internet, with Dorothy EdmondsonWroe saying “Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could all do this for more 100 year old’s - it’s a lovely caring thought for our older generation. A card and stamp is such an easy thing to do, that will brighten someone’s special day”. The appeal was started after one of the station’s reporters, Kat Harbourne, heard that Ms Blagden had no family to mark her birthday with. Kat, speaking to the Star, said that the response had been “incredible” and went on to say that “It has gone worldwide, it’s just incredible. I think it’s really highlighted the fact that as a community we can do more for our older people.” The cards will be presented to Winnie on May 28.
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FO R GE PRESS Fr i day May 22 2015
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NEWS
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YOUR UNIVERSITY
Achieve no more? Will Morgan The cross-discipline event that was forced on all freshers this year, Achieve More, is to become voluntary after widespread hostility, Forge Press learns. The week of team building activities was roundly abused by students on Twitter, with tweets like “this is what I imagine they use to torture inmates at Guantanamo with #StateofSheffield14” causing a church in South Carolina to give its support with “Solidarity with y’all suffering through #StateofSheffield14. Jesus loves you”. The group who won the State of Sheffield received a mug. The Faculty of Arts and Humanities’ ThinkCreate week had to be interrupted to tell students to stop tweeting mean and disparaging comments about the event and its organisers. It is due to this overwhelmingly negative feedback that the organisers of the event have decided to remove the compulsory part of the zero credit module. First year Geography student Steven Rowe said “it felt like we got nothing out of it, you could
just turn up, sign in and leave again. “If people didn’t put the effort in when it was compulsory, they definitely won’t if they make it voluntary.” A spokesperson from the University of Sheffield said: “Achieve More is a major enhancement to our curriculum here at Sheffield that will set us apart from our peers. “The initiative is designed to be a challenging, fulfilling and highly rewarding experience which enables our students to acquire new skills, encounter new ideas and ultimately showcase themselves to prospective employers. “After an evaluation of the progress so far, we have decided to delay the full scale implementation of the Level 2 elements of Achieve More until 2016/17, allowing us time to focus on embedding Achieve More Level 1 into the curriculum. “We will, however, be running an opt-in pilot of Level 2 in 2015/16 for 2nd year students as an engaging student experience that builds on Level 1.” The success of an opt-in system will remain to be seen.
City Hall, the site of State of Sheffield
Photo: Wikipedia
Forge Press: blast from the past
Darts in the sexist sixties
Will Morgan
While perusing issues of our old incarnation Darts, Forge Press stumbled upon a form of journalism that could only have existed in the sixties and seventies. A frequent feature of the newspaper’s pages was scantily clad women with what would today be seen as unacceptable captions. As can be seen in the pictures opposite, not only is their belief that semi-nude women are newsworthy offensive, their choice of language is also very problematic. Describing a postgraduate Anatomy student as a “pin-up” or an Architecture student as having “a definite liking for student male architecture” reduces these intelligent women to just the sum of their sex. During Forge Press’ trawl through the decades, many other similarly troubling pictures could be found. One particularly worrying one, that Forge Press was unwilling to print, showed a 17-year-old posing in a bikini on a construction site with the caption “We do not think the foreman even had the nerve to complain. In case you haven’t noticed she’s wearing a wig from Walsh’s”. Forge are glad to say that we are not planning on using any underage models to sell wigs any time in the future. Thankfully, Darts ceased its “pinup” pieces as it progressed into the seventies and it became socially unacceptable to objectify women. Our only in pin-up this issue, as apparent on page one and two, is SU Development Officer Jack Wyse.
Fri day 22 May 2015 F O RG E P RESS
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COMMENT
@forgecomment /forgecomment comment@forgetoday.com
Tories to scrap Human Rights Act Bronte Howard There have been tremendous reactions from both sides of the debate since Prime Minister David Cameron proposed to scrap the Human Rights Act last October, which is in aid of exempting the government from implementing unreceptive European Court of Human Rights rulings. Before winning the election, Cameron proposed to abolish the Human Rights Act, implemented by the Labour Party back in 1998. He claims that this is a key part of his 100 day policy which also includes measures to be taken in regards to employment, with the Employment Act aiming to create two million more jobs and three million more apprentice programmes. The plan to scrap the Human Rights Act is expected to be addressed when he appears in front of the Queen on May 28. However, the proposal has caused a divide in the backbench, with many being opposed to the plans.
“The Human Rights Act has led to ‘perverse’ judgements”
Justice Secretary Michael Gove has suggested that there is only a five per cent chance that the proposal to scrap the act will be put into place. The proposal to scrap the Human Rights Act resulted in backlash as, via the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the rights that are under threat include the right for life, a fair trial, the right not to be enslaved or tortured, respect for private life and freedom of expression. Critics argue that the Human Rights Act has led to ‘perverse’ judgements as the ruling to ban prisoners from voting was found to be in fact unlawful. Cameron has expressed his opinion on the matter, stating that “prisoners damn well shouldn’t vote”. However, supports of the act say that the UK is violating the right to privacy by holding DNA and fingerprints of individuals who had not been charged, or convicted of
Droning on and on Robin Wilde With the recent news that Amazon are pushing forward with their plans to start delivering parcels using remote-controlled drones, the odd robots have broken into the news again. While they might have hit the headlines for more pleasant reasons than their uses in warfare or spying, they do raise some rather troubling ethical questions. Consumer drones are more available and more varied than ever. Plenty contain HD cameras with recording capability, and can have a range of up to 2km for a cost of just a few hundred pounds.
“The capability for stalking, voyeurism or harassment is staggering” There are several layers of risk with this. The capability for stalking, voyeurism or harassment is staggering, when a drone can reach so far and record. They would be nearly impossible to stop without every house being fitting with anti-aircraft capability. One spotted, they would be almost impossible to identify - it could be some random kid, a jealous exlover or the military spying on you. Even when drones are caught in the act behaving badly, the police are hardly well-equipped to stop a
small airborne vehicle which can travel off-road at high speed. While there are regulations in place, without some kind of registration and tracking system in place they could be used for nefarious purposes almost without risk. Such a system would be so difficult and complex to implement that it may take years and cost hundreds of millions of pounds. Personal drones also feed into a broad societal trend which has been slowly taking hold since the encroachment of personal computers and mobile phones in the early 1990s. They enable exploration and engagement with the world without requiring any actual physical interaction. They fragment society even further than technology already has because they enable isolation even in the endless void of sky. The irony is that even as these machines enable us to isolate ourselves, their mass ownership would further erode our privacy. Two decades from now, when the skies are black with all seeing robots, with a combination of black-suited government agents and basement-dwelling nerds watching our every move, we may ask ourselves when we should have acted and what we should have done.
Editorial Puppies and Press
a crime. Cameron further plans to introduce the ‘British Bill of Rights’. However, it still remains unclear as to how the bill would operate. The first issue to arise is whether or not this would apply to Northern Ireland. Secondly, it is also unclear as to whether or not the bill would apply to Scotland, who strongly oppose the proposition. The Scottish First Minster said that she would oppose any attempt that the UK Government make regarding scrapping the Human Rights Act north of the border.
“The British Bill of Rights is designed to fit British needs and traditions” Cameron has stated that the British Bill of Rights is designed to fit the British needs and traditions, with the bill allowing a “margin of appreciation”, so that judges would be more likely into account British culture and history.
Welcome to the last issue of Forge Press! I know you’re all going to miss us dearly over the summer, but I’m sure our nagging social media presence will keep you company. I must apologise in advance, my least favourite thing about being Editor so far is having to do this bloody editorial and I fear it may just be a massive ramble. Firstly, I’d just like to say how immensely proud I am of the new editorial team. They’ve worked so hard over the past few weeks and they’ve put together a brilliant issue (I do admit I’m biased). I’m so pleased with the team and I can’t wait for the next year and all our beautiful layouts and inside scoops. We’re going to head off to West Street Live after we go to print to celebrate in a suitable fashion, carrying on the inevitable forge tradition of Bar One and then WSL to soothe the stress and the
heart palpitations that come as a result of print day. It’s been an amazing fortnight, but also a rather challenging one. There’ve been a lot of firsts; doing my first front page, writing my first editorial, having to be shouty and authoritative in meetings and in the hub when everyone’s getting distracted, and having to train myself in the glory that is news writing. With an English Lit teacher for a father, and having features writing entrenched in my very soul, learning that emotive adjectives don’t belong in the first line of a news story was a hard lesson indeed. I hope that you enjoy this last issue of Forge Press, we put blood sweat and tears into it. Here’s a picture of a happy doggy to brighten up your weekend. Polly xx
Polly Winn - Forge Press editor polly.winn@forgetoday.com
D.A.R.T.S.
Forge Press takes its satirical aim
Useless protest of the fortnight The pain of the Tories’ election night victory has translated into a couple of weeks of nation-wide protests which, to our surprise, haven’t led to full social revolution yet - we can but hope! That said, London made the most of a bad situation and had a good, old-fashioned riot. The most pointless of these protests, however, was Sheffield’s march on Saturday. It was packed out with literally dozens of Trots and SWP scumbags; ambling through the streets of Sheffield before listening to boring speakers galore ain’t gonna bring the government to its knees! At least they don’t think the answer is to join the Lib Dems.
Viral flute recital event of the fortnight Britain’s young social media users projected an American high-school senior to international stardom as 105,000 Facebook users ‘went’ to ‘Azeem’s Senior Flute Recital’. Whilst Azeem is revelling in his newfound glory, spare a thought for the event organisers who had to figure out fitting 105k British students into a 100 seater auditorium in California.
Quote of the fortnight “I was a furry at the age of five.”
Moya O’Rourke, Games Editor, in an unusual confession.
D.A.R.T.S. Awards of the Year (that’s right, year!) Activities Awards, Sports Awards, Volunteering Awards, Academic Awards...... Its that time of year again where we all get dressed up and sit through hours of random performances and other peoples’ award categories in the hope that you (or whoever dragged you there) don’t go home without glorious victory. So here are a couple of our awards for notable things from the last year in SU life... Least effective SU campaign... #SHEFFIELDSTUDENTVOTES!!!!
Apparently myriad members of the SU spending considerable amounts of time and money on harassing students into voting did an immense amount of good in piling on votes for Paul Blomfield in a seat he already held. And Nick Clegg held on despite a student turnout in Hallam of 75%. As you were. Most hilarious SU Officer Candidate ADAM FERRINGTON!!!! This troll ran a non-existent campaign for SU President, on the platform of ‘No to Socialism, No to Banning’. Nice try, but here at D.A.R.T.S. we’re all about full socialism. AND banning things. WE’RE COMING FOR YOU!
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FO R GE PRESS Fr i d ay 22 May 2015
COMMENT
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Lifelong learning under threat as Uni prioritises profit over social mobility David Drew Courses for part-time students at the University of Sheffield are under threat. A year ago the Institute of Lifelong Learning was closed, and replaced by a much smaller department, despite a vigorous campaign of opposition by students, staff and unions. The change affected over 100 students in the middle of courses. The Institute provides specialist courses for three groups of students: those who did not have the opportunity to go to university via the traditional route of A-levels, those in midcareer wishing to widen their job opportunities and those who just want to study (patronisingly called ‘leisure learners’ in a university report). These courses ranged from modern languages to archaeology. In order to cut costs, parttime students will now take a Foundation course and then join full-time students in other departments and attend lectures during the day. The new courses are for first time entrants (mainly) and ignore the others. Particularly upsetting was a market research report produced
for the university which was used to suggest that prospective students preferred daytime teaching. As it happens, no current or previous students had been questioned for the study. Enraged by this, a group of us campaigned against these changes. We spoke with our local MPs, Paul Blomfield and David Blunkett and even Nick Clegg. We received advice from the People’s Assembly. Jillian Creasy, the Green candidate for Sheffield Central, was particularly supportive and we persuaded the Times Higher Education (THE) to carry an article.
“Imagine a Director of Studies for French who could not speak French” We also wrote an open letter to the Vice Chancellor, Sir Keith Burnett. We met with his Deputy with a list of requests and a number of small concessions were made, for example that we should continue to have specialist Directors of Studies. (Imagine a Director of Studies for French who could not speak French. This is how ridiculous it got).
“Students in mid-career will find it almost impossible to attend lectures during the day time”
Things seem to be improving and we can take at least some of the credit for this. The two year Foundation courses can provide entry to degree courses and the two year Certificates Courses equate to year one of a degree. But much of this replaces existing provision which has been closed. Students in mid-career will find it almost impossible to attend lectures during the day time, as currently proposed, since they are usually working. For them evening and weekend teaching is the only option. As students we are additionally arguing for short, low cost courses for the people of Sheffield who helped set up the university with penny contributions in the first place. In the 1950s university professors would ride out to mining villages by motorbike to give lectures. Other universities, for example York and Leicester, have many such courses, whereas there are only a few in here.
At a national level the decline in part-time students has been dramatic. Numbers dropped by 55,000 last year and are 37 per cent lower than five years ago. A major factor has been the increase in tuition fees to £9,000 (or the equivalent pro rata in our case). Universities are not liberal establishments, they are run as a business and it’s all about the money.
“The University’s characteristics are a market orientation, high pay for executives and a diminishing interest in social mobility” The for-profit university is now the model. Its characteristics are market orientation, high pay for executives and diminishing interest in social mobility and educational inequality. We learned a lot and we believe that students, staff and unions have made a difference. But this only happened because we made a fuss. Long may this continue.
More migrants on more dangerous journeys Chiara Vignati The real question to answer when people talk about immigration is: What does the Mediterranean journey actually entail? On April 20 around 750-800 people died in the Mediterranean, during their journey from Libya to Italy. 1,600 people died from January to April 2015 and 3,500 in 2014. These women, men and children run from poverty, desperation and war, looking for hope, a job and a better life; but they often find only death. Migrants leaving Africa for Italy do so overwhelmingly from Libya, though there are also routes to Italy from Egypt and Morocco, and from Turkey and Greece. A report for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), by Altai consulting, estimates that the cost of getting to Libya varies from about $200 to $1,000 from West Africa, and from about $1,000 to $6,000 from the Horn of Africa. At the coast passengers are either loaded onto rigid rickety fishing boats with limited fuel and no captain or guide to help them, or are herded onto rickety fishing boats which do have a skipper and a crew. The journey from Libya to Italy
is a couple of hundred kilometres, but boats are not necessarily intended to get all the way. Indeed, the crew members hope that the migrants will be picked up either by a fishing boat or by the Italian or Maltese coast guards. People usually wonder why these women, men and children risk this awful journey, even though they know that it is extremely dangerous. The answer is simple: they are fleeing war, oppression, civil disorder and poverty.
“The journey is becoming more dangerous over time” Most of the migrants are young men. They make their journey in sections, stopping and working at various places along the route. Furthermore, there are about one million people in Libya awaiting passage and, even though the living conditions are usually bad they have no way back to where they are from. The journey is becoming more dangerous over time. The boats used are old, usually of dubious seaworthiness, and their crews often abandon them. Especially, when they are usually overcrowded. Not only is the journey more dangerous now, but also more
people do it. The UNHCR estimates that 26,165 migrants have reached the coasts of Italy this year, a similar number to the 26,644 who arrived in the first four months of 2014.
“The reality is that deaths have simply increased” The Italian navy used to operate through an ongoing interception operation called Mare Nostrum, which intercepted ships carrying migrants in international waters. October the last year, it was replaced by an operation named Triton, a cheaper option whose aim was to make the passage riskier and encourage fewer people to attempt it. This appears not to have been the case and the reality is that deaths have simply increased. Reinstating a programme along the lines of Mare Nostrum; distributing in a better way the refugees around Europe; and returning to peace and to effective government control along the Libyan coast would be possible solutions to reduce the number of deaths. But bringing peace to North Africa and the Middle East, and ending the instability and fear driving people across the sea, is the only permanent solution to this migration crisis.
Photo: Tal King Photography
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Fri day 22 May 2015
COMMENT
@forgecomment /forgecomment comment@forgetoday.com
Comment Debates: Animal Testing Chris Saltmarsh Despite the news that the University has decreased the total number of animals it tested on for research in 2014, compared to 2013 and previous years, we are reminded of the dark side of university research. This dark side occurs every day, but is rarely thought of as we go about our day. This is the dark side where non-human animals are routinely tortured and experimented on, as if inanimate, by research students and experienced scientists alike.
“These costs to sentient non-human animal lives are by no means outweighed by any collective benefit to human animals” One of the most common and compelling arguments made in favour of animal testing is the claim that any suffering experienced by non-human animals is worth it for human lives that its results have improved, saved or will save in the future. While much animal testing is actually of little contribution to medical research, that which is still comes at the huge cost of
Bronwen Crowther Do you own a cat? Domesticated cats are responsible for the deaths of an estimated 200 million mammals, 55 million birds and 10 million reptiles and amphibians every year. Compare that to the four million protected animals per year used in laboratories in the UK, and you’ll have some perspective on the relative scale of animal deaths in scientific research. Research carried out in Sheffield using organisms such as fruit flies, mice, and the small tropical Zebrafish is indispensable in terms of what it teaches us about disease and possible cures. Breakthroughs have been made here at the University using animal testing techniques in the study of epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, lung diseases, cancer treatment, and stem cell research. Animal experimentation is invaluable in the study of biomedical science – there quite simply is no better way to demonstrate the systemic effects of new drugs or genetic changes. Scientists will often use alternatives to animal models - cells in culture, or a tissue construct - as a basis for their experimental data, but a combination of this and experiments performed on whole systems in vivo is required
innocent animal lives which were miserable, painful and often ended prematurely. I will argue, contrary to most on this topic, that these costs to sentient non-human animal lives are by no means outweighed by any collective benefit to human animals. The defence of animal testing is often made that human animals have the right to experiment on non-human animals because of our cognitive superiority. In many ways human animals are indeed more cognitively advanced than most non-human animals, but I would challenge the supremely arrogant idea that this gives humans a right to exploit nonhuman animals in such an abusive and systematic way. Firstly, those in favour of animal testing agree that non-human animals are cognitively different enough from humans to test on them. Surely it follows that this very cognitive difference renders any data collected from animal testing far less valuable than if collected from someone with similar cognitive functioning to human animals. So even if you don’t find my moral arguments compelling, there is always the fact that experimentation using non-human animals is likely to be practically inadequate and only necessitated by law. Secondly, why should this argument, appealing to cognitive superiority, stop at exploitation for convincing and informative conclusions to be made. An organism is more complex than the sum of its parts, and animal models fill the gap in research between understanding what happens in individual cells, and the total effect on the human body. In many cases it is simply not possible (and extremely unethical) to guess what the effects of a drug will be on a whole living system before trialling it in humans.
“There quite simply is no better way to demonstrate the systemic effects of new drugs or genetic changes.” The animals used in research are protected from inhumane treatment by law – in fact, stressed animals do not produce viable results for the scientists using them. Fish and mice kept in research laboratories at the University are less crowded and in a better state of heath than most pets. Larger animals – chimpanzees, dogs and rabbits – are hardly used in scientific research these days, as they take many years to raise to adulthood, so are expensive to work with. Nearly every medical breakthrough in the last century
of one species by another? Why shouldn’t we extend it to cognitively inferior human animals? Besides, this would yield far more valuable data when testing medicines or products for humans. Of course, instances where a ruling elite systematically experimented on a supposedly inferior race within humanity have been well documented and widely condemned.
“Greater cognitive development gives humans no right at all to inflict such large-scale pain and suffering” How would you react if top scientists justifying the use of torturous experimentation on people in the bottom two per cent of IQ scores (reverse Mensa?), babies, or people with an intellectual disability because they as scientists are smarter than their victims. I don’t think it would go down very well. By extending this point to cognitive inequality within humanity, and not just the whole animal kingdom, the argument quickly starts to fall apart. Ultimately, this claim of cognitive superiority (and the special rights it apparently affords humans) has been a direct result of research using animal subjects. Over the last 40 years, every Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine bar one has been awarded for discoveries made using conclusions drawn from animal research. Research carried out on pigs over the past 60 years ensures the safety of millions of diabetics thanks to insulin treatment. Animal research also led to the eradication of Polio by enabling us to develop a safe and effective vaccine. We cannot justify the abandonment or compromise of scientific research based on arguments of animal welfare – not while 17 million people worldwide die of heart disease every year, 240 people become infected with HIV every day, and someone in the UK is diagnosed with cancer every two minutes. There are still so many conditions – think of A l z h e i m e r ’s Disease and Parkins on’s – that are incurable, and cause an incalculable amount of suffering. With the help of animal
is an attempt to use ‘science’ to masquerade an unfounded, anthropocentric desire to be of superior value to anything else in the universe. Greater cognitive development gives humans no right at all to inflict such largescale pain and suffering to other sentient beings, regardless of the utility it serves our own species. Human and non-human animals have all evolved from the same basic organism and are all able to feel pain in response to being sprayed in the eyes with chemicals and other such brutalities. The hierarchy between human and non-human animals is a oneway relationship of domination and exploitation. Far from being a natural phenomenon of ecological systems, this hierarchy is a construct which has been created and enforced exclusively by and for the benefit of the dominant species: humans.
“It is morally indefensible to violently exploit animals for the collective benefit of humans” If we agree that human lives have no more intrinsic value than animal lives, then it is morally indefensible to violently exploit animals for the collective benefit of humans, whether for medicine, research, Sheffield can be part of the effort to provide better treatments and more cures, reducing the number of preventable deaths in the world, and improving the quality of life of millions. For every cancer survivor, immunised child, and premature baby, animal research has made the difference between life and death. The animals are a sacrifice we should be willing to make.
cosmetics or raw knowledge, unless we would be willing to do the same to fellow humans. If there is something so important to research that we would be willing to use human animals in our research, then at least they would have the capacity to consent in a way that a non-human animal never could.
Forge Press Friday 22 May 2015
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Speakers From The Edge present:
Helping you through the exams period Dedicated Exam offers revision space, in SU outlets open until 11pm Support from REVISION & RELAXATION SESSIONS
Sir Ranulph Fiennes A Life at the Limits Tuesday 14th July 2015 7:30pm University of Sheffield, Octagon Centre Tickets: £21 / £18 students and concessions www.sheffieldsu.com/flash flash.sheffield ¬ @flashsheffield
More support and info at: www.sheffieldsu.com/exams #ShefExamPlan
WU TANG CLAN BASEMENT JAXX THE CHARLATANS
BILLY BRAGG • BUZZCOCKS MARTHA REEVES • SUGARHILL GANG A GUY CALLED GERALD • CRAIG CHARLES • DUTCH UNCLES EROL ALKAN • EVIAN CHRIST • ERRORS • GHOST CULTURE GHOSTPOET • GILLES PETERSON • GOGO PENGUIN • HONEYBLOOD JAMES HOLDEN • JIMMY EDGAR • KATE TEMPEST • LONELADY MARIKA HACKMAN • MELLE MEL & SCORPIO (FURIOUS FIVE) MIKE SKINNER • MUNGO’S HI FI • ROMAN FLUGEL • ROMARE SLAVES • SLOW CLUB • SUBMOTION ORCHESTRA • SURGEON ++ HUNDREDS MORE
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Sir Ranulph Fiennes in conversation with Anton Bowring. From light-hearted to strikingly poignant; this talk will cover a life of schoolboy misdemeanours and army life, to risking life and limb in some of the most ambitious private expeditions ever undertaken. Using proceeds from this event to make a better Students’ Union
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ADV WEE ANCE TICK KEND ETS
The World’s ‘Greatest Living Adventurer’
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Friday 22 May 2015 Forge Press
Jack of all trades Niki Kesharaju writes about extra curricular activities and how important they actually are in the grand scheme of things
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course mates just fancy a night in, struggling to find people to do things won’t ever really be an issue. You also tend to prioritise making time for friends that you don’t see everyday on your course or in your house. Our lives are governed by the relationships we build with people, so it really doesn’t come as a surprise when we put off starting that essay in favour of a night out with our friends. University is also the best time to try as many new things as possible. You will never have as much free time as you have during university. This time could be spent in bed watching endless TV series episodes on Netflix, or you could make the most of this free time and try out something totally new... like paint balling perhaps? Being involved in activities different to your course breaks the monotonous routine of waking up, going to lectures and going to bed. There’s usually no obligation to attend any meetups or socials at all, it’s all governed by your discretion, depending on how flexible your schedule is, and that’s the best thing about having extra curriculars. If the university workload is getting too much to handle, it’s a good time to do something completely different and just relax. It gives you something to look forward to in the week. University is that time of your life where you can tailor it to be the experience that you want. It is the only time in your life where you can try out wine tasting, play hockey and help out at a homeless shelter all in one week. Working a full time job shortens the amount of free time you have significantly and once you move away from the student bubble in
What you do outside of your academic life is basically CV gold dust
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You will never have as much free time as you do now
Sheffield, finding a club or team for an activity of your choice will be harder than you can imagine. While making friends is an obvious bonus of extracurricular activities, what you do outside of your academic life is basically CV gold dust as well. The age old paradox of “you can’t get a job without experience and you can’t get experience without a job” is made redundant by extra curriculars. Having something you are passionate about outside of your course adds something extra and helps pad the dusty old CV out. Whether you’re a committee member of the society, or just an active member of a sports team, it is all essentially about skills like teamwork and communication even if you don’t realise it. Of course, you can’t teach someone teamwork or people skills, but situations like helping out with organising a social or even learning to play a new sport like korfball, all engage those skills that are music to an employer’s ears. Teamwork in a course related project is completely different to teamwork, in say, a volunteering activity. You truly appreciate the impact effective teamwork can have when your grades don’t depend on it. When everyone works towards a common goal, it is a lot more satisfying than slaving over an essay. Doing a course is an investment into the future and you may not see the effects of it right away, but constantly achieving goals as a part of a society or team is a lot more fulfilling. The most important thing that having extra curriculars instils is balance, which is something employers truly value. Being able to juggle the pressures of academia, along with a social life and other interests is no mean feat. Now any
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When you’re paying £9000 a year, why wouldn’t you want to make use of the myriad of sports, societies, volunteering opportunities and activities our Students’ Union has to offer? Those who have taken part in such activities will admit that our courses often take a back seat because of being so heavily involved with other things. If our extra curriculars were a degree course, then we would all be getting firsts. Being part of a society or volunteering doesn’t mean that we’re only doing it for our CVs - it’s also about balancing your life and making friends who like the same weird and wonderful things that you do. It’s about trying new and exciting things during what is supposed to be the best time of your life. During the Activities Fair, you end up spending a significant proportion of your Freshers’ Week budget on joining all sorts of weird and wonderful societies. However, in first year you get so wrapped up with making friends and discovering Corp for the first time that you just never seem to go to any society meetings. In first year, making friends is a big deal; it’s you setting the foundations for long-lasting friendships. All the effort in the first term really does help. When you are still finding your feet in a brand new city, trying to make friends and balance doing a degree course with an active social life, you need as many friends as you can get. Extra curriculars are a great way to get to know as many people as possible. Essentially, they are a great portal to an active social life. Even if your flatmates are busy with deadlines, or your
student will vouch for me when I say, it’s close to impossible to lead a perfectly balanced life during university. But when you have extra curriculars to balance along with trying to keep up a 2:1, time management becomes incredibly important and sometimes you don’t even realise that you’re making an attempt at being organised. As students, there is almost always going to be one thing in our lives that will take a backseat. You can only choose two of the following to have full control of - being good at your course, having an active social life and getting enough sleep. Often, it’s the sleep that suffers because of the late nights you will have to pull to make up for that pub golf social you went on. You might be sleep deprived, but if you manage to pull off a semi-balanced work and social life during university, expect to be snapped up by the best employers out there. More companies now employ people that strive for success. They employ for the person, and not for the job. In the Students’ Union, a vast amount of activities can be accredited to your HEAR (Higher Education Achievement Report) or even the Sheffield Graduate Award, all of which enhance your job application to an employer. No matter how busy you think you are, you will never have as much free time as you do now, so get involved with a society and make the most of that £9000 you are paying. If you have another year at university, try something different. University is about making experiences and extra curriculars definitely form a chunk of these prized memories.
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Numbing
Friday 22 May 2015 Forge Press
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In the wake of the devastating earthquakes that hav examines why we have become so desensitised in the hit our headlines everyday and w
@forgefeatures /forgepress
@ features@forgetoday.com
The Blow Forge Press Friday 22 May 2015
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ve hit Nepal over the last few weeks, Adilah Hameed e current climate to the devastating news stories that whether the media is responsible
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t is no secret that we have become desensitised to the tragic events happening all over the globe. We live in a world where we are frequently being bombarded by shocking images and graphic details about explosions, brutal wars, and towns and villages torn apart by hurricanes and other natural disasters.
On top of this, the media’s style of reporting focuses mainly on the most shocking and sometimes trivial of details, which both raises our standard of what ‘disaster’ really is and we begin viewing issues as just “yet another tragedy” without properly thinking about the impacts that the disastrous events have had on the victims. We therefore don’t have the opportunity to get emotionally invested because we live in such a fast paced world. As a result, coverage of events is relatively short lived and is certainly not in line with the severity of the events they cover. It seems wrong that a car bomb in Syria killing hundreds of innocent civilians is given five minutes of attention by the media and then permanently vanishes from the public eye. This could be a fault with reporting, but with the volume of newsworthy stories that exist, it would be wrong to put the blame solely at the doors of the newspapers and newsrooms. The recent earthquakes that have devastated Nepal and killed thousands, illustrate the desensitisation that is present in our society. With headlines every day talking of killings, bombings, natural disasters and crime, it is easy to see why we cannot give every story our full attention. Graphic footage from war zones and photos showing the aftermath of earthquakes and tsunamis, begin to become everyday sights for us. It is no wonder that we have become acclimatised to them. Today’s headlines becomes tomorrow’s old news. However, the media has to take some responsibility. There was a Twitter campaign created to publicly shame the Indian news crew for the lack of coverage they gave to the recent Nepal earthquake. This resulted in the hashtag #GoHomeIndianMedia made to oppose the poor effort put into reporting the disaster, and this helped to publicise the lack of attention the natural disaster received, and condemned the Indian media for doing so. There have also been a number of cartoon images created that explain the insensitivity of the Indian media towards the Nepal disaster and the people affected. Yet, even over here in Britain, there has been little news coverage on this earthquake, although this may have something to do with the disaster coinciding with the General Election which obviously had to be well reported. We are so used to turning on the news and being faced with headline after headline of tragedy and disaster that we begin to be overwhelmed; something in us seems to have built an immunity to crisis and conflict. So many stories are not given sufficient coverage. Often the reports are short lived and the humanitarian affect is not given enough attention. Too much focus is placed on creating headlines and selling news by distracting from the impact on the victims and focusing on ‘shock factor’ stories. The Alps plane crash that took place March 24 of this year, dominated headlines in the few days afterwards. The devastating loss of life was acknowledged, but the focus was placed on the pilot and his mental health issues. The story quickly became very centred around one individual rather than drawing attention those that had been passengers on the plane at the time. There is no doubt that that print and televised media is highly selective when choosing what stories to broadcast. For example, on May 15 there was an
uprising in Iranian Kurdistan with thousands out in the streets protesting, buildings burning and hundreds arrested. However, this has not made any headlines and information on the internet is very scarce. It is hard to tell why this has happened, is this due to political bias within the media? Or have news sources just deemed it uninteresting for the rest of the world? It is all well and good blaming the media for their faults, but with the rise of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and the internet being at our fingertips, we have the ability to find as much information as we want on issues worldwide. However, we as a population can be guilty of using these technological developments to contribute to the trivialisation of disastrous events. Take the “I have survived the Nepal earthquake” feature available on Facebook which some people are taking advantage of this facility and using it as a joke to their own pleasure. This insensitivity is clearly not coming from the media. It is not acceptable to take advantage of a tool put in place to help bring a sense of ease to friends and family members of potential victims of the tragic earthquake. There have been a number of charities asking for money to help those most in need but do we find ourselves willing to put a few pound in that bucket? As students, would it be that damaging to give some change to someone whose home has been completely lost thanks to a natural disaster? There are thousands of reasons as to why we can sympathise with someone’s plight, but not enough to act on it. This could be a mixture of being too immune to seeing the events, and subsequently not being moved enough to take action. Think of a time when you have walked past a homeless person in the street. You have probably had a lot for sympathy for that person, but you still walked past. This is just one example of how human nature has the ability to be kind yet we often like to ignore a lot of the unpleasant issues facing our society. Obviously homelessness is an issue that as a society we have to address, and some of the stigma will have been generated by ourselves. However, these views have been moulded by the media. For example our exposure negative representations of homeless people as being alcoholics, violent or drug addicts can help steer our decision not to donate. In the same light, biased representations of protesters in the Middle East can make us less likely to get involved, despite feeling nothing but terror and shock when reading the stories of chaos. We do take some responsibility in order to go some way to addressing the devastating incidents we see everyday. The UK is the fifth most charitable country in the world and we already help those in need abroad through charities like Comic Relief and Children In Need, not to mention the 12 billion pounds in foreign aid the donated by the UK. There are definitely a lot of us who care, however, this could just be enhanced upon with better coverage shaping our attitudes. With the endless number of news stories we are subjected to each day, we cannot be expected to give every story the attention that it deserves. In a society where we are saturated by news stories thanks to the growth of social media and developments like 24 hour news channels, it is not surprising that we may become ‘numb to disaster’.
Friday 22 May 2015 Forge Press
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The rise and fall of F1 viewing figures revolve around the intensity and spectacle of the on track action
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ormula One prides itself on being the premier form of motor sport. But as audiences fall questions are being asked as to whether the sport can still rightfully be deemed ‘global’. There is a strong case to suggest that F1revolves too heavily around the gravitational pull of Europe. Some would say Formula One is too Eurocentric and does not make sufficient effort to branch out of the continent? Formula One may appear to a ‘non-fan’ to be running like clockwork and making the Sunday night news every couple of weeks, but in fact the sport is in dire need of restructuring in order to become sustainable in the long term. On the May 14, the Formula One Strategy Group met with the challenge of directing which path F1 will pursue in this crucial time in order to increase the global appeal of the sport to stem the flow of falling audiences. There are a plethora of examples to indicate that Formula One is Eurocentric. But in order to understand this, to those of you who are ambivalent to the world of racing, the sport is deep in a financial mire. You need
Formula One: A Global Review
to know that sponsorship has an immense influence in the sport. It can easily dictate which team is winning and which team is fighting off the administrators. For a driver looking to secure a seat in the highest echelon of racing, they seek large financial backing as the surest way to elbow their way to one of just 20, of the most sought after positions in sport. So how then does this relate to Eurocentrism? Well, out of the 20 drivers competing in this season’s battle, only six originate from nations outside of Europe. As for the non-European drivers, there are undeniably great talents, but would their race seat be quite so secure if they were not riding on a sea of bank notes from their respective countries? For example, the 2015 Lotus E23’s rear wing is clad in Venezuelan sponsoring as bought by Maldonado, the Sauber wears its striking Banco de Brasil livery thanks to the selection of Felipe Nasr; each bring in some 30 million each. So instead of commanding a salary as astronomical as Lewis Hamilton, as is well reported, they pay for their position. Just for a moment, imagine a dystopian society where the same rule was applied to a parliament, the uproar would be unimaginable if each member paid for their seat. Such is the case for Formula One. For some of the drivers who originate from outside of Europe, their chances of racing are improved by masses of home finance and without this, the six non-European drivers could dwindle even further. This is because the motor sport infrastructure outside of Europe is lacking at a grass roots level and so the few that break through from South America do not face the competition to grab the attention from potential sponsors. They have the money that any British F3 driver would consider the stuff of dreams. In short, as money commands so much in Formula One, the few drivers that represent nations outside of Europe are often questioned as to whether they are worthy by means of their talent, or purely accommodated for their wealth. For many purists, this appears to be the antithesis for how the sport should operate. The argument centres around whether or not the few non-European drivers would be there at all, thus leaving a hugely European driver line-up, should they not have the riches to race.
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has bec t r o p s om he t r e too Euroce he t e n h w es r o l p What’s more, for a team in deep monetary turmoil, the prospect of selling out to hire a somewhat talent free driver in order to secure their position on the grid for the following season, seems rather compelling. The proposition of wheeling out Yuji Ide, not a glittering F1 career to his name to say the least, in order to survive for another year suddenly becomes a lot less ridiculous. He can trundle at the back of the grid but provide the funds to race for another season by having his car decorated in Japanese based company sponsors. Without the monetary backing of a home nation, there could easily be fewer drivers racing from outside Europe and the Formula One driver line up would decreasingly represent a global demographic. There are also the constructors. Prior to the Caterham and Marussia teams entering administration at the end of 2014, there were 11 teams competing in last seasons’ championship - all of whom are situated in England, Italy or Switzerland; this was not an odd season. It is only next season when we can expect to see an American team on the grid in the form of Haas F1. If you look at the current situation, it is hard to see where more non-European teams will enter the sport. Haas is giving itself a huge uphill battle by manufacturing their car in a brand new facility in the US, rather than using the pre-existing infrastructure in the UK. This seems like a rare and bold move, something which is unlikely to be repeated due to the increased difficulty it places on a constructor. The most likely scenario are new teams adopting the former factory of their predecessors. Also, if you look at the sport’s current economics, consider the plight of Honda and the smaller teams, is there an incentive to enter the sport from outside Europe when the task becomes more unnecessarily difficult? On this front, it appears as though little will change in the near future and we are once again left with a distinctively European based sport. Even if the drivers and teams are largely
is sti ll
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originating from Europe, Formula One races on a global basis. Take the venues, out of the 19 races scheduled for this season, now the German GP is no more, 12 are taking place outside of Europe. It is branching out to South America with the return of the Mexican race. Rejoice! From this we can conclude that Formula One reaches worldwide with the majority of races outside of Europe, case closed… Sadly it’s not that straightforward. Of the 12 races outside of Europe, Bahrain, Singapore and Abu Dhabi are raced at night in flood light conditions. Yes, this does make for some added spectacle, but it also works to allow the races to be broadcast at a time that suits the European audience. So great is the European domination of Formula One that there is scope to argue that it contributed to Bianchi’s disastrous accident at Suzuka. He crashed in what were deemed poor lighting conditions. As a result, the calendar has now been scheduled for some races to commence an hour earlier than last season to prevent such crashes reoccurring. Why did the race start so late? You guessed it, for the European market. There is a wealth of evidence to label Formula One as a worldwide sport, but can the sport be blamed for appearing to be Europe centred? After all, the continent in question is a huge market for Formula One, and whilst returning to Austin, Texas is helping to tap into the lucrative American market where viewing figures are up 18 per cent, the sport’s heads must not alienate or worse, jeopardise their European following. Either way, it seems that F1 is heavily based around Europe. Nevertheless with over 125 million of the 450 million viewers of the sport stemming from non-European states, the US, China, Russia, Japan, Brazil being the main sources, it appears as though none of the above reasons is heavily detracting from the sport. Refreshingly enough, the rise and fall of F1 viewing figures revolve around the intensity and spectacle of the on track action and not on the location of the constructors, drivers or races. So behind the closed doors of the Formula One Strategy Group meeting the focus on increasing the worldwide appeal of the sport will ironically not have centred around the global nature of the sport, but rather the cars themselves and the fans’ experience when attending a race.
el of global motorspor t the lab arrant to w
Formula 1 blogger and enhusiast M
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Friday 22 May 2015 Forge Press
Forge Press Friday 22 May 2015
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HIRE US
Beginning this year, Forge TV is offering a range of filming packages for Union Societies and Working Committees as well as local businesses. If you don’t know us, we are the University of Sheffield’s own student-run television station. We began operating in 2010 have been growing ever since.
OVER 1300 FACEBOOK LIKES ACTIVE ON ALL MAJOR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS AVERAGE OF 790 VIEWS PER VIDEO We can offer a range of advertising and promotional packages for societies and businesses. Contact us at forgetv@forgetoday.com.
SOCIETIES, SPORTS CLUBS AND WORKING COMMITTEES
Trailer (£10 for 10 secs, £30 for 30 secs)
For a trailer we can film either a single or multiple events and edit them into a short video to help advertise your society and the events you run.
Highlight Reel (£50 for 2-3mins)
A highlight reel can be a fun and brief way to memorialise the activities your society or club has run, either a singe event or many across the course of a semester or academic year. We will attend and film highlights at any events you request and will edit the video into a concise package for you and your members to enjoy. The highlight reel can also serve as an extended trailer to use at Activities or Sports fairs.
Committee Video (£35)
A committee video can be a fun and useful way to let your members know who your committee are and what jobs they do. We can film you each individually or as a group and post it online and on YouTube to help you introduce yourselves to your members. For an example, see the 2013-14 Forge TV Committee Video on YouTube.
Film events (£30)
For a big event, perhaps a society ball, we will film and edit together a video which will ensure your members can relive the memories whenever they want. The footage can also be used at Activities/Sports Fairs to attract new members or show off the activities your society or club offers.
Live broadcast events (£50)
If you are running an event, perhaps an important sports match or awards ceremony, we can film and live stream the event to a venue of your choosing to allow people who were unable to attend a chance to be involved.
Fri day 22 May 2015
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LIFESTYLE&TRAVEL Lifestyle loves Blog
@forgelifestyle /forgelifestyle lifestyle@forgetoday.com
by Mared Gruffydd
Fondueinflat2.wordpress.com The most entertaining blog I have come across recently is a food blog created by no other than University of Sheffield first students. Image: Fondueinflat2 year However, being a food blog doesn’t necessarily mean any of you would like to try their recipes. Fondueinflat2 follows the daily meals of one of its flat members, Cheng, and shows us how his flatmates have to put up with oddly chosen food, pungent aromas, blocked up sinks and a lot of oats. Cheng apparently likes to eat oats regularly as they take less time to cook than pasta. The blog definitely has a comedic value and made me laugh out loud a lot of the time, especially a blog post named ‘Nigel Porradge’. Although this blog is a bit of a joke, it is certainly very well written.
Fashion
Yellow One of my favourite things about celebrity awards ceremonies is all the beautiful red carpet dresses, and the women of the Cannes Film Festival did not disappoint. My favourite dress was by Dior; a strapless, long, sunshine yellow one, worn by Charlize Theron who was attending the screening of her new Image: Vanityfair.com film Mad Max: Fury Road. I love yellow at the moment and think it is the perfect colour to wear this summer. Topshop always has so much to offer, and even though a bit pricy for £36, their little yellow sundress would be ideal for picnics, beach holidays, and festivals. I especially like the subtle flowers embroidery.
Music
European festivals I believe European festivals are a great opportunity to meet new people, not only from Britain, but from around the world, whilst learning about their culture, perhaps even their language, and listening to unique music. Some of my favourites are Flow, Meadows in the Mountains and Primavera Sound. Flow was established in Helsinki but this year is situated in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It is known as one of the best festivals in the world for contemporary music, and the lineup this year consists of the Pet Shop Boys and Metronomy, including Derrick May and Âme for techno music fans. Meadows in the Mountains is a chilled festival in Bulgaria, with bonfires and bunting in the trees giving you a magical experience. The headliners include Jane Fitz, Quantic and Mo Kolours. Lastly, Primavera Sound is Barcelona’s popular beach side festival, known for having a variety of rock, indie, metal, punk and RnB legends on its stages. The Black Keys, the Strokes, Jungle, Alt-J, Patti Smith and James Blake, are all headliner acts: this one is definitely not to be missed. Image: Libreshot.com
F O RG E P RESS
Volunteering in Sheffield
Lifestyle editor Mared Gruffydd explains why volunteering is the perfect way to fill your time if you’re spending the summer in Sheffield, or are looking for something to do when exams have finished. Saying that you have or are volunteering somewhere is a great asset to put on your CV; not only does it show that you have communication skills and that you are able to help people, but also that you are a hardworking person, as you are willing to work for free. It also gives you the opportunity to learn new skills and meet new people.
Image: Sheffield SU
The Sheffield Volunteer Centre, located just off Division Street on Rockingham Lane, has many volunteer opportunities to offer to young people over the age of 18. If you’re interested in teaching after graduating, volunteering with the centre as a after school support partner to year seven to year 11 pupils, helping them with English, Maths and Science, could be ideal for you. For something a bit more laid-back you can volunteer with the National Trust as an allotment gardener, a baking assistant, a tea
room assistant, or even a badger vaccinator. There are also opportunities to volunteer as a telephone assessor, a helper at a Sheffield youth club, a dog walker or sitter, and much more. To find out more head on to their website: Sheffieldvolunteercentre.org.uk and make sure you go to the Volunteer Recruitment Fair at the centre on June 4. There are also over 200 volunteering opportunities for students with the University’s Students’ Union. The volunteering office is situated in the Activities Zone and there is detailed information on the Union’s website also. To start looking for a volunteer opportunity to suit you all you need to do is sign up online to the SV Hub, find a project that interests you, and then contact the organisation to see when you can start. Many of the projects are hands-on and you can find one that goes with your degree, which will help you in the future when thinking about what kind of career you want to get into. Volunteering also counts towards your Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR), which suggests to employers that you are a well-rounded person and are interested in extra-curricular activities as well as your degree.
Lastly, volunteering is a great opportunity to nominate yourself or your friends who volunteer for the end of year Volunteering Awards, which, this year, took place on May 18.
Another form of volunteering is fund raising, and there are many opportunities to do this in Sheffield also, especially with Sheffield RAG. RAG is a student-led committee within the Students’ Union which raises money for local charities. The committee has raised £196, 678 already by doing a range of different activities, from the Colour Run and bungee jumps to bake sales and nocturnal ramblings in the Peak District.
Their next adventure, Treasure Hunt Europe, will be an inter-railing journey across Europe, which is an alternative to hitch-hiking with the Bummit Society which happened a few months ago. This once in a lifetime trip will take place on the June 15, and a group of students will travel from Brussels to Budapest. There is still time for you to get involved, so visit their website, Sheffieldrag.com, to find out more.
Image: Wikipedia
Lifestyle investigates... Are languages important?
English is ranked the second most spoken language in the world and has 508 million speakers, so why should any English native learn another language? Lifestyle editor Mared Gruffydd explains why she thinks this way of thinking is lazy and closed-minded. Unfortunately, many Britons believe that there is no need for them to learn another l a n g u a g e because, first of all, translating Image: Wikimedia technology is so accurate these days, and secondly, when they go on holiday everyone more or less understands English anyway. However, 375 million English speakers have learnt English as a second language, and as Nelson Mandela said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”. When you speak to a person in their mother tongue they automatically trust you and feel closer to you than they would towards a person speaking to them in their second or third language. In my opinion, language is the most important part of a person’s identity, therefore by learning a language you also learn about a nation’s culture and way of living, making you less ignorant of what is happening in the world around you. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why polyglots have been on the rise worldwide in the past few years; they want to learn more about other countries to be able to travel there, work there or just to be able to impress people with their fantastic ability of switching from one language to another fluently. A polyglot is a person who can speak six languages perfectly, but for some people, even six is not enough. In 2012, the publisher Harper Collins created a competition to try
and find Britain’s most multilingual student, and the winner was an Oxford University undergraduate who can speak 11 languages and is currently learning a twelfth - Yiddish. One of his reasons for learning languages was because he used to get frustrated when his family went on holiday and he couldn’t speak the language the other children were speaking. As everyone’s views on languages are different, I asked two first year University of Sheffield students - one studying languages and one not - what they thought about languages and if they are relevant to us today.
Beth Sreeves. Studying French, Spanish and German. Do you think it’s important to learn languages? I think it is important because not everyone speaks English, and even if they can it’s a bit lazy to assume they should, and it’s great fun! Languages will help me after I graduate because it opens up many job opportunities, in this country and abroad. And even if I don’t do a job directly related to languages, it is still a very useful skill to have as you never know when you might need it. What is your favourite language? It feels like I’m not being open minded enough if I say one of the languages I can speak is my favourite language, so I’ll say something else. Hungarian is pretty cool. Do you have a favourite phrase in another language? It’s hard to pick a favourite French phrase because there are a lot of cool ones, but I’ll
go with avant qu’il ne soit trop tard. It means ‘before it is too late’. I just like it because it sounds really melodramatic. I used it in basically every A Level essay I did when I had nothing better to say. But then again German has some great words. Like, ‘das Flugzeug’, German for ‘aeroplane’, but it pretty much literally means “flything”.
Bam Thomas. Studying Law. What is your opinion on languages? I think that languages are important because they often form an integral part of any country’s identity. I am currently taking a beginners course in French as part of the university’s ‘Languages for All’ scheme. I think that the ability to read and write in other languages is of increasing importance, with regards to employment. Nowadays many jobs have an international element, which makes employees with knowledge of foreign languages valuable assets. Would you rather if everyone spoke only one language or do you think having 7,000 languages in the world is a good thing? Though it would make international trade agreements between different states and travel easier, I don’t think that it would necessarily be a good thing because of the reduction in opportunity to learn and develop one’s own knowledge. Furthermore, travelling would be far less interesting without the opportunity to interact with other languages. Images: Mared Gruffydd
FO R GE PRESS Fr i d ay 22 May 2015
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@forgelifestyle /forgelifestyle lifestyle@forgetoday.com
LIFESTYLE&TRAVEL
Society Spotlight : DJ Society If you’re an aspiring DJ, a great lover of all genres of music, enjoy going clubbing, or want to have a go at making your own music, Lifestyle contributor, Bam Thomas reveals why joining the DJ society would be perfect for you. Perhaps unsurprisingly as far as societies go the DJSoc is rather small, this however creates an easy-going atmosphere at the society’s weekly meet-ups. The DJ society’s cohort of members represent a range of expertise and experience, from beginner members and others who have been DJing for years. The diversity in experience and interests in different genres is one of the society’s strengths. Typically the society meets on a Monday evening in the Raynor Lounge where members play on CDJs. The relatively relaxed atmosphere of these meet-ups gives members the opportunity to
learn a lot from one another.
One of the best things about the society is the opportunity to attend socials and events with others who have a passion for Electronic Dance Music (EDM). It is not unusual to see members of the society at SU nights such as The Tuesday Club (TTC). Members of the society frequently plays songs by well-known DJs and producers, such as Duke Dumont known for club anthems ‘I Got U’ and ‘Won’t Look Back’, who played at the O2 in Sheffield last semester and who the society were lucky enough to get to meet. Furthermore, they also got to meet Route 94 who are best known for ‘My Love (feat. Jess Glynne)’. In March of this year members of the DJ Society played in Bar One before Hannah Wants at TTC.
Fashion
Nathan Hehir Fourth year, Zoology Wearing: Coat and jeans from charity shops, shirt from Topman, shoes from Doc Martens.
Bam’s Playlist:
Additionally, the society represents an array of musical interests from Deep House to Drum & Base. Numerous members of the society not only play frequently at events and competitions but they also produce their own mixes that are often available on Soundcloud.
There is plenty of opportunities to get involved with the society - the DJ society offer Give It A Go sessions throughout the year with TTC resident DJ Andy H, providing plenty of opportunity for anyone interested in DJing to try their hand at it. Also you can hear members of the DJ Society preforming on Friday nights on Forge Radio, so if you are thinking about a career in DJing or broadcast journalism, the DJ Society is the ideal place for you to start. All images: DJ Soc Facebook page
~ ‘Champagne Kisses (Darius Remix)’, Jessie Ware ~ ‘Say My Name’, Cyril Hahn Remix ~ ‘I’ve Got Dreams to Remember’, Otis Reading ~ ‘Gold Skies’, Martin Garrix ~ ‘Thinking About It’, (Fabich & Ferdinand Weber Remix) ~ ‘Firestone’, Kygo ~ ‘Cool’, Alesso ft. Roy English ~ ‘Ingnition’, R.Kelly ~ ‘Harp & Flute Concerto’, Mozart
Image: Bam Thomas
Concourse couture
Mari Wanderi Second year, Business Management Wearing: Clothes from Topshop and Zara.
by Mared Gruffydd
Andy Yuduo Qin Third year, Accounting and Finance Wearing: Clothes from independent shops in China.
Aneysa Mahamood Second year, Geography Wearing: Coat, top and shoes from Topshop, bag from Warehouse, and jeans from Urban Outfitters.
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Fri day 22 May 2015 F O RG E P RESS
LIFESTYLE&TRAVEL
@forgelifestyle /forgelifestyle lifestyle@forgetoday.com
At last...
diverse dolls
Lifestyle editor Mojo Abidi looks at the recent emergence of dolls that cater for our diverse population; from disabilities to body size and race, more people are being represented in the toy industry. Children have played with dolls for hundreds of years, and we’ve come a long way since Cabbage Patch Kids and Raggedy Anns. Now these mini-humans are trademarked and often come with loads of accessories: clothing, cars, four pairs of shoes and even personalities. But not everyone is thrilled with these new toys. Many aren’t the role models kids should be looking up to, nor do they represent the diversity we see in ourselves and others. Luckily, lots of people out there have taken matters into their own hands and re-invented these toys to fit their own needs, petitioned doll makers like American Girl to make dolls more like them, or even started their own line of toys. #ToyLikeMe is a Facebook campaign started by the parents of disabled kids, calling for more representation and diversity in the toy industry. Their main goal is the production of toys for children with disabilities. The page features photos submitted by parents who have given makeovers to their kids’ toys to better represent them. One mother made a guide dog for her daughter’s LEGO toys. After the campaign went viral, a British toy Image by ToyLikeMe company took the idea a step further and started producing dolls with disabilities using 3D printing. As well as dolls with walking sticks and hearing impairments, toy manufacturer MakieLab has come up with toys bearing birthmarks and scars. The company has also confirmed that they are working on a wheelchair-bound character.
Image by MakieLab
While the dolls are priced at £69 at the moment, each one is custom-designed for
their owner, meaning each individual toy can reflect a child’s exact appearance and disability. The Chief Technology Officer of MakieLab, Matthew Wiggins said: “It’s fantastic that our supercharged design and manufacturing process means we can respond to a need that’s not met by traditional toy companies. We’re hoping to make some kids - and their parents - really happy with these inclusive accessories”. The new collection has left Toy Like Me activists pretty happy, but MakieLab are not done with campaigning for greater diversity when it comes to kids toys. Taking to Facebook this week, they wrote: “Come on LEGO, Playmobil, Mattell Barbie, 770,000 UK children with disabilities (and millions more beyond) need positive toy box representation now!”. Dolls with disabilities have come at the same time that designer Nickolay Lamm has produced Lammily, a ‘normal’ Barbie doll who has cellulite, stretch marks and realistic body proportions; very different to the Barbie we’ve grown accustomed to, with impossibly skinny waists, flawless skin and flowing blonde locks. Lamm has even produced an advert for the doll which shows Lammily worrying about her bikini body before Image by Obscura embarking on a girls holiday to Miami. We see Lammily being bombarded with negative body images from a variety of sources, including an American Apparel style magazine ad, a Victoria’s Secret style fashion show, and even a friend’s Facebook post. Thankfully the story has a happy ending, and when she hits the beach she notices her seemingly perfect friends have flaws just like her. Yet despite their cellulite, stretch marks and scars, Lammily’s blonde Barbie pals are parading their bodies in bikinis. Lammily soon gets into the spirit, ditching her clothes and showing off her ‘normal’ body too.
Image by Queen of Africa
As well as promoting healthier body images, and acceptance of disabilities, dolls these days are even more culturally diverse. The Queens Of Africa dolls have become so popular in Nigeria that they’re outselling Barbie there. The dolls are the brain child of a Nigerian businessman, who decided to create his own doll range when he couldn’t find a black doll for his niece. They are priced at £4.50 per doll and are selling up to 9,000 units a month – about 15 per cent of the entire country’s toy sales. Taofick Okoya, who came up with the idea for the dolls, says he wants them to be a positive example of African history, culture and fashion so that girls like his own daughter and niece can feel proud of their heritage. It is amazing to see people fighting back and producing more diverse toys for children; from disabilities to body size and race, we can only hope that eventually, everyone will be represented in the toy industry. If only toys like this existed whilst I still played with dolls.
Image by Mattell Barbie
FO R GE PRESS Fr i d ay 22 May 2015
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@forgelifestyle /forgelifestyle lifestyle@forgetoday.com
TRAVEL
On a shoestring : Hong Kong
Lifestyle editor Mojo Abidi was born and raised in Hong Kong, and just couldn’t resist writing a list of her top things to do there. Home of the world’s best skyline, pandas, pink dolphins and the best shopping scene in the world, Hong Kong should be at the top of anyone’s travel bucket list. The Peak As the highest point on Hong Kong Island, Victoria Peak offers the most amazing views over the city. It is especially beautiful at night, when all the sky scrapers light up.
Image by China Tour Ocean Park Ocean park is a marine-themed theme park featuring animal exhibitions, thrill rides and shows. It’s so big that there are trains and cable cars that you can take to get around.
There are tons of water-rides which are sure to cool you down on a hot day. Ocean Park is also home to two giant pandas and pink dolphins.
Image by Top Walls Happy Valley Racecourse A night at the races is a great night for everyone. Grab a drink, make a bet, and who knows, you might even win!
Ladies Market If you love shopping as much as I do, the Ladies Market is a must-go. With over 100 stalls of bargain clothing, accessories and souvenirs, you won’t be able to leave empty handed. Despite the name, it’s not only for the ladies, and sells everything from fake designer goods to electronic gadgets. Lan Kwai Fong Nights out in Hong Kong are unbeatable. Lan Kwai Fong is one of Hong Kong’s most popular
LIFESTYLE REVIEWS
LIFESTYLE&TRAVEL
nightlife hot spots and is home to over 90 clubs and bars spread along one big street for endless choice of where to go. Lan Kwai Fong’s jelly shots are a must-try as they come in a huge syringe! Cheung Chau Island To see a different side to Hong Kong, head to Cheung Chau Island. It is the perfect place to go to escape the hectic city. The Island may be small, but it has so much to offer, from the best seafood around, to hikes in the mountains, and the most gorgeous pristine beaches. The island is so small that you can hike from one side of the island to the other in just half an hour. The Big Buddha
Image from Top China Travel
Image from Pinterest Hong Kong’s Big Buddha is one of the largest Buddha statues in the world, but it is getting there that is the real adventure. The statue is located on Lan Tau island, and you have to
Bloo 88 made our pizza fresh in front of ours eyes (we were practically drooling at this point). Our food arrived promptly and we were not disappointed. Everything we had ordered that day from our drinks, and starter, to the pizza itself was absolutely delicious. We were a bit worried that after sharing a pizza we would still be hungry, but we were both stuffed - and that’s coming from two people with very large appetites.
Bloo 88’s interior has a rustic feel, with exposed brickwork and chunky wooden tables. The walls are decorated with vintage posters, antique clocks and radios. But it is the open kitchen and stone bake oven that provides the warm authentic atmosphere that gives Bloo 88 it’s charm.
After hearing tons of great reviews from friends, my boyfriend and I decided to go try it out for ourselves. We fell in love with the place, and have already made plans to go again. When we first arrived for dinner, the place was packed, and every table seemed to be taken, but a waiter pointed us towards the bar and suggested we grab a drink while we wait for seats to become available.
The bar seemed to be stocked with every spirit imaginable, and a trendy-looking barman can be found doing tricks with a cocktail shaker. Luckily for us, happy hour stretches generously from 5-9pm, and we got two cocktails for £9. The choice is endless, but we eventually settled on the Elderflower Collins, which was served in an adorable little jar.
We hadn’t even finished our drinks before a table had become free. If you’re a pizza person, this is the place for you. The menu had endless options of different pizza toppings, a range of crusts, and even a ‘create your own pizza section’. The starters section has you spoilt for choice too. It was a hard decision, but we eventually chose the stromboli morsels for our starter - dough balls stuffed with chorizo, prosciutto and salami - and the Sunny Goat pizza to share - topped with basil, sun dried tomatoes and goats cheese. We watched as the flour-covered chefs
It’s hard to believe you’re in Hong Kong at Tai Long Wan when you are surrounded by mountains, white sand, and an endless sea. It’s quite a long walk to the beach, but its a great escape from all the tourists, and means you might even have the place to yourself.
Image from Pinterest
Lifestyle’s Recipe Corner
Lifestyle editor Mojo Abidi reviews Bloo 88, a bar and restaurant in the heart of West Street. At the heart of West Street, lies Bloo 88, a bar and restaurant that is always buzzing, no matter what time of day it is.
take a 5.7km cable car journey, which offers the most spectacular views. After that, you have to climb 260 steps before you finally get to the Big Buddha, but I promise it is so worth it. Tai Long Wan
We were even more pleased when the bill arrived as it only came to only £17.90, making this a very affordable date night. Bloo 88 also do cocktail making classes, and have a private room you can hire for parties (I’m already thinking ahead to my birthday). If you haven’t been here yet, it’s definitely worth a visit for the drinks and friendly warm atmosphere alone.
Lentil Stew
By Abbie-Joelle Skliarsky
This hearty, healthy dish is the sort of thing you can whip up in 20 minutes using the left overs in your cupboard and fridge. This stew tastes great and is good for you. Even though summer is fast approaching, this is exactly the sort of dish you need when the weather is not so sunny. Ingredients: • 1 brown onion, diced • 2 carrots chopped into chunks • 3 medium sized potatoes chopped into chunks • Tin of tomatoes • 1 cup red lentils (rinse first) • 1 cup water • 1 tsp ground cumin • 1 ½ tsp diced garlic • 1 tsp turmeric • 1 tsp chili powder • ½ tsp ground ginger • Pepper + salt to season
1. Chop all of your ingredients; the brown onion, carrots, the potatoes, and tomatoes.
2. Put your saucepan on the hob on medium heat and add all the chopped ingredients (except the red lentils, save these for later).
3. Leave to boil for around 20 minutes.
4. Add the red lentils and leave for a further 5 minutes until the lentils have softened. 5. Voilà! This makes enough for 3 portions so store the other two in the freezer
All images: Mojo Abidi
All images: Abbie-Joelle Skliarsky
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Fri day 22 May 2015 F O RG E P RESS
COFFEE BREAK
@FPCoffeeBreak /forgepresscoffeebreak
Netflix
Did you know...
Species Moroccan flic-flac spider
This spider is found in the Moroccan desert Erg Chebbi and jumps off the ground, whilst making ‘flic-flac’ movement with its legs.
Pocket Shark
Scientists have recently found a Pocket Shark in the Gulf of Mexico. This is the second time in history that this pocket shark has been reported to have been seen.
Olinguito
This furry mammal is said to be the newest meat-eating creature to be discovered in the Western world. The last time one of these creatures was spotted was around 35 years ago!
Trimeresurus rubeus Yes, this snake’s name does sound like a spell from Harry Potter. It is said to have been discovered in Vietnam, in a forest near Ho Chi Minh City.
Photo of the Fortnight
Here are a few things you should watch over the summer, if you have Netflix. Fast and Furious 6 Part of one of the best franchises in Hollywood at the moment, join Dominic Torreto and his crew speeding through European Streets. The Lizzie McGuire movie We have all, at some point, heard or watched Lizzie McGuire. Go back into your childhood and re-watch this Disney movie which follows Lizzie and her friends’ journey in Rome.
Better Call Saul If you are a fan of Breaking Bad, and Saul Goodman then watch this series, which shows what the “criminal” lawyers life was like before he became Walter White’s attorney.
Riddles of the fortnight What kind of tree can you carry in your hand? What can you hear but not touch or see? What kind of room has no doors or windows? What occurs once in a minute, twice in a moment and never in one thousand years? What is so delicate that saying its name breaks it?
This is the ultra cute Olinguito just casually in a tree
Word
of the fortnight:
Dragoman This interesting word - which sounds like dragon and man merged together - actually means an interpreter/professional tourist guide. It is more widely used in Arabic/ Turkish speaking countries - so if you are heading over to Marmaris this summer, this word may come in handy!
Get in Trouble by Kelly Link This best seller consists of a numerous amount of short stories ranging from astronauts to slumber parties, with even some mentions of a Ouija board.
Summer reads...
God Help the Child by Toni Morrison If you loved The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison then this book is a must buy for your summer reading list! It is about a young girl who faces child abuse because of the colour of her skin. The Infernal by Mark Doten This epic book theme is on the ‘war on terror’ and is based during the early years of the Iraq War. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro The author of the famous novel, Never Let Me Go, the story follows a married couple who attempt to find their son who they haven’t seen for many years.
Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew This novel - as the title suggests - is about brave women who have been forgotten about in history.
The Dead Land by Benjamin Percy This novel is a postapocalyptic thriller, where there is a super flu and nuclear fallout making it hard for humanity to live.
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FO R GE PRESS F r i d a y 2 2 M a y 2 0 1 5
@FPCoffeeBreak
COFFEE BREAK
/forgepresscoffeebreak
Puzzle Page: sudoku Easy
Medium
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Hard
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Quotes of the fortnight
“
“We have gotten so used to humor being
something nasty and offensive that we started to believe that was the only way to get a laugh
”
John Patrick Hickey
“ A selfie is proof that either we are very lonely
or too self absorbed to ask others to take our picture
“
”
Saru Singhal
In this age, you must be relentlessly remarkable
”
to stay relevant, if not you will be relegated
Bernard Kelvin Clive
dingbats
Across:
Down:
6. (Out of the blue - a dean’s full do) (3,2,1,6) 8. Recognition (6) 9. Top (of a mountain) (6) 10. Represent (5,3) 13. Category (4) 14. Leave out (4) 16. Brightly spotted insect (8) 18. Hold - lever in car (6) 20. Demand (6) 22. (Paint the town red - hear of Tories) (5,3,4)
1. Smear - fuzz (4) 2. Bright - yellow (6) 3. Loyal (8) 4. Flow violently (4) 5. Out at sea (6) 7. Failure (2-5) 11. Cup - acrobat (7) 12. Signal for cars to stop (3,5) 15. Tasty piece of food (6) 17. Intimate cafe (6) 19. Lower part of the shoe (4) 21. Demonstrate (4)
Dingbats are visual word puzzles from which you must identify a well-known phrase or saying.
1.
2.
CYCLE CYCLE CYCLE ci
ii
Down: 1 Blur, 2 Golden, 3 Faithful, 4 Gush, 5 Adrift, 7 No-hoper, 11 Tumbler, 12 Red light, 15 Titbit, 17 Bistro, 19 Heel, 21 Show.
Across: 6 All of a sudden, 8 Credit, 9 Height, 10 Stand for, 13 Type, 14 Omit, 16 Ladybird, 18 Clutch, 20 Insist, 22 Raise the roof.
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A D V E RT I S E M E N T
Wednesday May 13 2015 F O RG E P RESS
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FO R GE PRESS Fr i d ay 22 May 2015
@ForgePressSport
SPORT
/ForgePressSport sport@forgetoday.com
SportsThoughts
Forge Press Sport editors Ed McCosh, Rob Milne and Anthony Phillips discuss their sporting thoughts of the week ANTHONY PHILLIPS Should Golf be in the Olympics?
t next years 2016 Summer A Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the game of golf will make its return to the Olympic calendar for the first time since 1904. The event will be a four day stroke play tournament that will feature the top 100 golfers of all nationalities in both the men’s and women’s game. Adam Scott, winner of the 2013 Masters and former World Number One came out with comments this past week that branded the return of golf to the Olympics as nothing more than an exhibition event and one that he would happily miss.
ROB MILNE Should England take their best possible squad to the Euro U21 Championship? ver-praising young O players is never a good idea, at least that is the stigma in the English game, but at a quick glance they could field a team made up of Jack Butland; Calum Chambers, John Stones, Eric Dier, Luke Shaw; Ross Barkley, James Ward-Prowse, Alex OxladeChamberlain; Raheem Sterling, Harry Kane and Saido Berahino. That is team that would be favourites to win the U21 European Championships this summer, based simply on talent alone. Right now the Premier League
ED MCCOSH Does sporting elitism mar the quest to identify the greatest sporting icons of our time? A couple of monumental incidences occurred in the world of sport last month. Firstly, Ethiopian athlete Haile Gebrselassie called time on his 25-year long career. Not
Source: Daily Telegraph
The comments produced shock within the golfing landscape due to the fact that Adam, ranked 11th in the world would be a surefire bet to be in the Australian team this time next year alongside compatriot Jason Day. The reason for Scott’s outburst is that he has never aspired to win an Olympic Gold Medal. For every professional golfer, the main tournaments that they strive to win year in year out are the four major titles, the Masters, the US Open, the Open and the US PGA. The addition of next year’s Olympics to the golfing calendar has meant that the PGA Championship has had to move from its traditional home at the start of August to the end of July and golfers besides Scott surely must be questioning whether golf in the Olympics is worth it. Therefore this raises the question, should golf be an Olympic Sport?
And if an Olympic medal is not the pinnacle of the sport, then should it be in the Olympics? Ronnie O’Sullivan the five time World Snooker Champion also came out with comments after rumours emerged that snooker could be granted a place at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Sullivan echoed many of the same points that Scott himself has argued saying “A World Championship, UK Championship or Masters title would always come before an Olympic Gold Medal” Both players therefore suggest that their sports do not warrant a place in the Olympic calendar but there are examples of sports in Olympics where the Olympic medal has resulted in the sport becoming an increased presence with the gold medal now becoming an integral part of the sporting landscape. If we look at other sports in the Olympics such as football however, the tournament is
merely played as an Under 23 tournament and most people forget that Lionel Messi is an Olympic Gold Medalist. If you were to therefore ask Messi or any other major footballer on the planet whether they would rather win an Olympic Gold Medal or the World Cup, the answer is simple; the World Cup would be their preferred choice. In contrast, the addition to the Olympic Games in 1988 after 64 years can be the model that golf may decide to go down. For the first five Olympics, the winners of tennis were not the most dominant players of their generation besides Andre Agassi. Since 2008 however, the significance of the gold medal in tennis has become important. Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray won the singles whilst Rodger Federer won the 2008 doubles. Murray in particular used his 2012 win to motivate himself onto a higher level that allows him to now win Grand Slams.
In tennis, the Olympics is now classed as the fifth major tournament and maybe one day, golf in the Olympics can become the fifth tournament in terms of importance. Thus there are some people who claim their sport shouldnt be in the Olympics as it isnt the pinnacle. On the other hand other sports have embraced the Olympics and thus I think golf should be in the Olympics.
is blessed with an unusual pool of young-talented English players with considerable first-team experience, an aspect that the young players of Spain, Italy and Germany do not have in abundance. But what do we do with this crop of young talent? There have been suggestions that we should aim not to over-exert the young players and protect them from the national pressure at a young age, despite having a genuine chance of winning the tournament. Let’s not forgot the classic British perception that these young players will cripple under the pressure of being involved in a European tournament of this size, the conditions and the ability of the players they will be facing. However, all the evidence goes against this. Unless one of this crop is injured, which wouldn’t be an issue with numerous highstandard replacements ready to
stop in, every single one of the players previously mentioned should travel.
The main obstacle will always be the major clubs, like Arsenal and Manchester United, releasing their players and risking injury and fitness. But Shaw, one of the top prospects in this group, has declared he wants to play in the summer tournament, this will surely be a huge incentive for other players to go against their clubs wishes and represent their countries this summer. If
these players want to play for their country, they should be able to. To it should be Gareth Southgate’s decision not that of premier league managers. The benefits of the young players playing are obvious, not only will it strengthen the young players mentally and prepare them for the pressure of a big senior tournament later in their careers, it will bring back some pride and prestige to the English league which has come under severe criticism on the continent over the past few years. The German and Spanish football associations have taken under 21 football seriously over the past ten years, and they have reaped the awards, dominating the sport on the world stage. The German team that won the 2014 World Cup all played with each other at younger ages, coming through the age brackets together and furthering their understanding of how they play
together. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and suggest England will win the world cup in 2018 or 2022 but it will can only increase the English chances in that tournament, building player personalities who are not fazed by big tournament pressure. These England U21s are without a doubt an exciting team, a team which can generate a public interest in the summer tournament. Raheem Sterling is one of the most exciting and an electric player in the Premier League and Harry Kane is one of the most prolific goal scorers in European football this season. Trust in the system, bring players through the ranks, let them learn to play together and England could see this young crop of English players shine on the senior stage in the future.
long after, Phil Taylor’s inability to qualify for the Premier League finals for the first time after defeat against world champion Gary Anderson caused tremors in the world of darts. Yet few media outlets presented these stories as groundbreaking moments. To most, they were merely news snippets, a subheading beneath the latest Premier League contract saga. That can only be seen as an affront on the pair. Gebrselassie, the archetypal ‘marathon man’, set 27 world records, won two Olympic medals and holds the record for the longest recorded distance run in an hour. Nobody can match his achievements. Meanwhile Taylor, the 16time champion of the world, has dominated a sport to a degree that nobody else has done or may ever do in the future. Neither are regularly namechecked in the discussion of history’s greatest sporting icons. Does elitism play a major role
in this? If so, what constitutes a true sporting great? There’s certainly a sporting hierarchy. No player has singlehandedly dominated the football scene, yet footballers are placed on a higher pedestal than those who have stood at the summit of ‘lesser sports’ for much longer. Even within athletics, Usain Bolt propels himself above the likes of Gebrselassie and David Rudisha in the debate merely for making his name in the more spectacular sprinting events. There does seem to be a sense of hypocrisy. Physicality is seen as the be-all-and-end-all. After all, that is why the specimen that was Muhammad Ali was named the Sportsman of the Century in 1999. Granted, Taylor is not a picture of fitness and is less likely to be seen as someone at the pinnacle of sport, but Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus did not have to be at peak fitness to rule the world of golf. In fact, Diego Maradona or even Ali dominated football
and boxing while far from peak fitness. Skill must surely be the main focus. Does this elitism extend further? Women are given short shrift when the question of sports’ greatest icons comes up. Pele and Brian Lara are distinctive figures amongst the sea of white faces that dominate the discussion It would be wrong to claim that people are actively racist or sexist when anointing members of the pantheon of sporting greats. But there does seem to be an implicit bias. Even the greatest sporting purists would struggle to recognise the name Martina Hellman. Yet the East German has held the Discus Olympic record for 27 years - not just the women’s, but the overall record. Jarmila Kratochvílová’s 800m record is the longest-standing world record in athletics, having stood for 32 years to date. Surely, as era-defining figures, both should be in the mix. It doesn’t quite work that
way. A major factor of the sporting great is the mystique that surrounds them. Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record is folklore, while each of Floyd Mayweather’s 48 wins (also without defeat) have been closely filmed and dissected. The fact that Marciano or contemporaries like Donald Bradman or Babe Ruth escaped such television scrutiny allows their legend to live on unfettered. It seems that the only way to create a list of the greatest figures in sporting history is through a huge algorithm, incorporating the impact they had on their sport, that sport’s place in the overall hierarchy and their impact on the region they came from. It all sounds rather exhausting, and not at all fun. The debate may never have a conclusion. Yet it is important not to let elitism ever mar what are still incredible sporting achievements, even if the man or women responsible for them doesn’t go down as an all-time great in the vast depths of the sporting universe.
“Trust in the system, bring players through the ranks, let them learn to play together”
Source: Wikipedia Commons
30
Fri day 22 May 2015 F O RG E P RESS
@ForgePressSport
SPORT
/ForgePressSport sport@forgetoday.com
Sports Personality of the week Forge Sport’s Ed McCosh spoke to Jacob Atkinson, the creator and leader of social Dodgeball
So explain to our readers who you are and what your role is. I’m a first year History student and I run Dodgeball sessions, as well as organising social media. At the start of the year, I started the social dodgeball programme. What was the situation like before you arrived at the university? I came to the university looking to play Dodgeball, but there was nothing, so I thought “Oh, maybe it’s worth setting it up”. I posted on the freshers’ Facebook page and everyone seemed to like it, so I went ahead. How many people have turned up to play Dodgeball this year? Over the course of this year we’ve had around 50-60 come along, but in terms of regulars it’s closer to 20. What has been the biggest challenge that you have faced this year? Definitely the timing. We have Saturday mornings as our current slot, and previously it was Wednesday mornings, so people are either hungover or have lectures. So it’s tricky getting people out of bed!
In future I would like to see Dodgeball in Varsity - Hallam have had a team for about three years now and they’re very strong. We played an Intra Mural Varsity match so it would be really good to see us go to the next level. I would like to see the club going into local and national tournaments. We didn’t get a team together in time for the 2014 University Championships but in the year ahead, with the Freshers team we’ll hopefully get...(laughs). Over 75 teams currently compete in the Championships held by the UK Dodgeball Association (UKDBA), so hopefully we can enter that.
There was recently a Dodgeball charity tournament at Goodwin how did it go? Was it as much of a success as you hoped? It was quite successful - we had four teams and we raised £161.65, so it was really good. Everyone had a lot of fun. At the end, we had a big ‘last man standing’ game with 20 on either side and that was really fun. We had space for a couple more teams so hopefully next year even more will turn up.
“In the future, I would like to see it at Varsity”
What future aspirations do you have for Dodgeball?
Closer to home, are you hopeful of a University of Sheffield Dodgeball league being set up in the near future? Funnily enough Greg Unwin, the Intra Mural co-ordinator, came up to me at the start of the year and said he’d like to see an Intra Mural Dodgeball league, with weekly games, and that’s something I think could happen and get a lot of people involved in the sport.
Photo: Ed McCosh
On a personal note, you’ve been nominated for the inaugural Social Sport Leader Award at this year’s Sports Awards. How does it feel to be recognised by your
peers? I was really flattered. I didn’t hear too much about it but saw the announcement on Facebook believe it or not - and said to my teammates “Oh look, I’ve been nominated”. It turns out that they had all banded together behind my back and nominated me. I had no idea! It was a really nice surprise. It was really good of them. (In winning the award) I could set a legacy not for myself, but for social sport. I really think the award’s a great idea. Here’s a chance to plug your club... We’ll be around next year as a club and we have a committee together, so keep an eye out. Look us up, see what we do and get involved! n.b. Jacob won the Social Sport Leader Award at the Sports Awards on Wednesday night. Congratulations Jacob!
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DOT COM
Sports Awards of the Year - 2014/15 The Forge Sport editors select their heroes and villains of the past sporting year Rob Milne
Heroes Stephen Curry It had been thought an impossible feat to dethrone NBA MVP Lebron James, until Stephen Curry had one of the greatest seasons in recent memory. He led his team to the best record in the league, broke his own three-point record and continues to shine in the play-offs. The sharpshooting floor general realised his potential, and took his game to new heights, leading the Golden State Warriors to their first conference finals since 1975. Alan Pardew Pardew was driven out of Newcastle United by supporters but found a spiritual home at Crystal Palace and transformed the fortunes of a club destined for relegation. He helped develop Yannick Bolasie, allowing him to fully express himself, and turned him into one of the most dangerous wingers in football. He should be revered as much for surviving at Newcastle as for thriving at Palace. Villains Sepp Blatter Year after year Blatter manages to exceed himself. This time round he has taken the highlight of the summer away, moving The World Cup to the winter. He’s been stubborn again and the Qatar
2022 World Cup will be moved. Working and housing conditions of the stadium builders have been heavily criticized and journalists have been arrested investigating it, the tensions surrounding the 2022 tournament continue to rise.
Manu Tualagi The biggest tournament of the year is coming up, so what do you do? That’s right, make sure you won’t get in the squad. The England rugby star kicked a taxi driver in the throat before assaulting two female police officers. Stuart Lancaster has refused to call up Tualagi, despite being one of England’s most potent attacking weapons. In doing so he has Damaged his career and his nation in the progress.
Anthony Phillips Heroes Rory McIlroy Since May of last year, McIlroy has gone on an insane run of form that many golf pundits claim is similar to the early days of Tiger Woods. Rory has won the Open Championship and the US PGA Championship to leave him with a total of four major titles and one Masters win from completing the Grand Slam at the age of 26. He has also won two more World Golf Championships as well as the Wells Fargo Championship this
past weekend by a new course record score, leaving him fully cemented as the most dominant player in golf today.
Novak Djokovic With Rodger Federer ageing and Rafael Nadal plagued by knee concerns, Novak Djokovic over the past year has been absolutely phenomenal. Since May of last year, Djokovic has won Wimbledon and the Australian Open, the ATP World Tour Finals and six Masters tournaments and started this season in dominant fashion, becoming the first player to win the first three masters tournaments in a row. Villains Oyston Family Five years ago, Blackpool were promoted into the Premier League but this season they were relegated into League One. A lack of investment by the
Photo: Getty Images
chairmen saw Blackpool start pre-season training with only eight players, leading to three different managers this season and relegation. It is painful to see such a proud club run into the ground by a chairman who refuses to co-operate with the fans and refuses to invest in the club.
The ECB The English Cricket Board (ECB) continue to make the national team look like a laughing stock. Kevin Pietersen saga aside, the appointment of Peter Moores for the second time raised eyebrows. England continued to perform poorly, losing a home series to Sri Lanka and failing to progress into the latter stages of the World Cup, possibly highlighting England are in worse shape now than during the Ashes whitewash 18 months ago.
Ed McCosh Heroes England Women’s Rugby Union team After three consecutive final defeats to New Zealand, the Women’s Rugby Union team finally filled the English World Cup quota by lifting the trophy for the first team. Led by tournament top scorer Emily Scarratt, England defeated Canada 21-9 in the final in Paris,
and the 15 minutes of fame following August’s triumph was less than they deserved. Blackpool FC players Perkins, Clarke, Lewis, McMahon, O’Hara, Orlandi, Delfouneso. Not exactly a regular band of heroes, as Blackpool finished the season at the foot of the Championship. But as they all played while the club burned due to Owen and Karl Oyston’s incompetence, are they not the real heroes? The answer...is no. But let’s cut them a break. Villains Cheats The Lance Armstrong revelations have precipitated a whole host of discoveries. From drug scandals involving the likes of Tyson Gay and Jake Livermore, to matchfixing in football and cricket, sport’s integrity is in serious jeopardy. Death The world of sport have lost too many idols this year. Rising stars like Senzo Meyiwa, beloved figures like Elena Baltacha and elder statesmen like Richie Benaud have been plucked from us by the cruel and indiscriminating hand of Death. Yet by remembering our sporting heroes, we thwart Death’s efforts. To all our lost sporting icons, rest in peace.
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FO R GE PRESS Fr i d ay 22 May 2015
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Forge Sport editor Anthony Phillips reviews the fortunes of Sheffield’s premier football clubs.
Sheffield United Season Review 2014/15
For the second consecutive season, Sheffield United produced a magical fairytale cup run to the semi-final of a cup competition but were unable to secure promotion to the Championship. The Blades began their fourth season in the third tier losing last year’s player of the season Harry Maguire to Hull. They added veteran winger Jamal Campbell-Ryce and defender Jay McEverley amongst others. United’s first game of the season resulted in a 2-1 defeat against league champions Bristol City. Their first win was a 2-1 victory over Peterborough and they rounded out August with a 1-1 draw at Preston. The most important early game of the season came at Upton Park where the Blades defeated West Ham on penalties in the second round of the League Cup. Following this, United went on a seven match unbeaten run, but a heavy 5-2 defeat to Swindon halted any promotion momentum. United’s most impressive month occurred in October. A 3-2 defeat to local rivals Chesterfield was followed by a three match winning streak in which United kept three clean sheets that left them 5th place in the league. November was a mixed bag for United, seeing a disappointing 1-0 loss to local rivals Barnsley at home was balanced out by a 1-0 win over Doncaster. Draws against Oldham and Notts County halted the momentum picked up in October.
December began with a 2-1 defeat to MK Dons before United beat Southampton 1-0 in the League Cup Quarter Finals thanks to a Marc McNulty goal at a packed Bramall Lane. In the league, indifferent form meant United were now 14 points behind second placed Swindon. In January, United signed John Brayford as well as Paul Coutts, Kieron Freedman, Jason Holt and striker Matt Done. January was a month dominated by cup results. In the FA Cup, United produced an excellent result to defeat Queens Park Rangers 3-0 before losing to Preston North End over two
“A magical cup run, but unable to secure promotion”
legs in the next round. In the League Cup semi-finals, United lost 3-2 to Tottenham Hotspur on aggregate after an exciting contest at Bramall Lane where Che Adams scored a brace within two minutes. With United now out of both cup competitions, many fans had hoped the Blades would begin to claw back the points difference between them an automatic promotion. A 2-0 victory over Swindon provided optimism but United were to find them cemented to the fifth position for the rest of the season. United produced their best home performance of the season with a 4-1 victory over Colchester
thanks to goals from Matt Done on his debut. A 3-1 victory over Bristol City was aided by further goals from Done and Done kept scoring as he added his fourth goal in three games as United beat Notts County 2-1. The problem of inconsistency remained as United drew against relegation candidates Coventry and Crawley followed by disappointing home defeats to Peterborough and Fleetwood that guaranteed United wouldn’t be gaining automatic promotion. United continued to be plagued by inconsistency, an excellent 4-0 win at home to Scunthorpe was followed by defeats to Crewe and Yeovil and the rest of the season petered out with United guaranteed of a playoff place. The Blades finished the season fifth place in League One with 71 points and a goal difference of 13. The playoff Semi-Final pitted them against Swindon Town, a team they had beaten and lost to already this season. The home leg at Bramall Lane resulted in a 2-1 loss for United that was stereotypical of their season. The Blades took the lead through Freeman but a late goal conceded in extra time highlighted the issues United had in being able to grind results out. The second leg produced an extraordinary 5-5 draw but United lost 7-6 on aggregate and thus were confined to another season in the third tier of English football. The fans misery was compounded when Jose Baxter was suspended after failing an out of competition drugs test.
Sheffield Wednesday Season Review 2014/15 Sheffield Wednesday secured their best league position since the 2008/09 season with a comfortable 13th place in the Championship in Stuart Gray’s first full season managing the club. The Owls finished on 60 points, avoiding any threat of being involved in a relegation battle. In the summer, the Owls signed their most important player of the season, goalkeeper Keiren Westwood. The signing proved to be fundamental in securing Wednesday’s mid table finish, as he produced a number of magical saves throughout the season, winning Wednesday’s player of the season and being placed in the PFA Championship Team of the Year. The Owls also bought Sam Hutchinson, Tom Lees and Stevie May, but lost Michail Antonio to Nottingham Forest. Last season, it took the Owls three months to win their first game of the season, but they started this season strongly, with wins over promotion candidates Brighton and Middlesbrough thanks to top goal scorer Atdhe Nuhiu. Victories over Notts County and Burnley sent them into the Third Round of the League Cup and their impressive early form gave fans hope of an unexpected playoff push. The Owls first defeat of the season came as Antonio returned to Hillsborough when Forest beat the Owls 1-0. Further wins and clean sheets against Birmingham and Reading highlighted the importantance of Westwood. In
the League Cup Third Round, the Owls were granted a dream tie against Premier League Champions Manchester City that turned into a nightmare after a 7-0 defeat. Following this defeat, Wednesday went 10 matches without a victory and this ended any hopes of an unexpected promotion push. Their 2-1 victory over Wigan in November ended a run of seven draws and three defeats that resulted in only four goals as Nuhiu and summer signing Stevie May began to dry up in front of goal. December was a mixed bag for the Owls who recorded
“Best league position since 08/09”
three victories over Blackburn, Blackpool and Wigan again. A heavy 4-0 loss away to Fulham and a 1-0 defeat to Wolves continued to highlight the Owls lack of firepower in front of goal. In January, Wednesday were bought out by Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri for £37.5 million. The new ownership supported Gray and gave him the funds to buy Sergiu Bus, Marnick Vermijl, and Felipe Melo on permanent deals while Will Keane and Lewis McGugan signed on loan deals till the end of the season. In January, Wednesday were once again drawn with
Manchester City in the FA Cup Third Round and produced a better display, this time losing 2-1. A 2-0 win over Forest once gave the fans revenge over Antonio but following this the Owls went on a seven match winless streak. The Owls lost four games to Derby, Reading, Ipswich and Bolton before a much needed 3-1 win over relegated threatened Millwall. The Owls completed the double over Middlesbrough with a 2-0 victory at home but defeats to Blackburn and Wolves lead into the most exciting clash of the season, a 3-2 victory over Rotherham following 93rd and 96th minute goals by Nuhiu and Lee in injury time. With safety guaranteed following the Rotherham result, Wednesday’s form continued to be a mixed bag. A 2-0 defeat away to Norwich was followed by draws to Huddersfield and Charlton before Wednesday produced outstanding performances with a win against Brentford at home and a 2-2 draw at Bournemouth. The Owls most important game of the season came against fierce rivals Leeds United that resulted in a disappointing 2-1 at home and they finished the season with a 1-1 draw to promoted Watford. The Owls season was therefore defined by strong defensive play from goalkeeper Westwood who produced outstanding saves that meant Wednesday conceded 49 goals in the league.
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Fri day 22 May 2015 F O RG E P RESS
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Easy as 1, 2, 3 for SUMS
saved by Pete Smith in the sums goal. Iain Ruddick attempted to force the ball home form a corner, but Hunt was on hand to clear it off the line. Sums striker Jordan Slater then attempted to double MatSoc 3 his side’s advantage after seeing Dhital off his line but his lofted James Neale FC 0 effort was well blocked. The two sides then exchanged chances, with Field’s curled effort from the left kept out by Ed McCosh Smith before Slater drilled a free kick past the post. Tottman then The University of Sheffield created Neale FC’s best chance Maths Society (Sums) claimed for himself, drilling a shot across the Intra Mural 11-a-side foot- the face of goal. ball crown, defeating holders Neither side was capable of James Neale FC 3-0 in a hotly- creating more than half chances contested final at Goodwin. but with minutes before half On a balmy Monday evening time, Slater took the game by that became Baltic as the wind the scruff of its neck. First, the swept through Goodwin, sums maths front man took in a Sam blew James Neale FC away with Watson pass on the left, pushing three first-half goals. The opener inside and rifling a powerful shot came after just six minutes, as into the corner. Just a minute Joe Hunt’s ball in from deep later, Slater’s strength and pace caused confusion in the Neale was way too much for the James penalty area and Jonny Collins Neale defence, and his cool slotted capitalised, deftly lifting the finish past Dhital was converted ball over goalkeeper Kai Dhital in the line by James Shield. and into the net. The goal came With two goals scored in two out of nowhere and rather than minutes, there was unlikely to be sparking the game into life, any hard feelings between Slater Collin’ss goal sucked the life out and the goal scorer Shield. of the contest. In the second half, Maths held James Neale, eponymous an insurmountable 3-0 lead and captain of the side named after defended well. The first chance him, led the line with a shot went to Maths with Dhital that flew well over the bar. Chris parrying Slater’s thunderbolt Field made space on the left, straight to Shudd, who somehow and his cross was met by Callum blazed wide with the goal at his Tottman, whose effort was well mercy.
Intra Mural 11-a-side Football
Tottman and John Freer all made chances for themselves but each time Maths put bodies on the line to thwart their efforts. The second half was a much scrappier affair, with as many booking as shots on target until Johnny Collins deflected free kick being tipped over the bar by Dhital. There was just enough time left for Studd to go round Dhital but miss an open goal before the full time whistle. Maths’ celebrations after becoming 11-a-side champions were doubled on Wednesday as they scooped the Intra Mural Team of the Year gong at the Sports Awards. The two accolades added up to
make a wholly successful year for Sums, who have established themselves as a major force in Intra Mural football. Goalscorer Jordan Slater told Forge Radio Sport: “We started slowly and had a solid game overall. “The two goals we scored before half-time were crucial” James Neale, captain of James Neale FC, said: “We had a good season to get to the final, and actually we beat a Maths team in the quarter final. “We’re a bit disappointed with the result” Tune in to the ROAR Show on Wednesday for all the Intra Mural reports on your student soundtrack.
Photo: Ryan Galloway
Hybrid secures IM glory
SUMS SUNK Intra Mural Netball SUNC 26 SUMS 22 Anthony Phillips In the women’s Intra-Mural Netball final, The University of Sheffield Netball Club (Sunc) defeated the University of Sheffield Maths Society (Sums) 26-22 in a nail-biting final. In the first quarter Sums took an early 7-4 league thanks to good shooting from Rebecca Mason and Danielle Nelson. Sunc began to fight back into the game with Penny Viddler and Claudia Dodson dragging the score back to 7-6 after the end of the first quarter. The second quarter remained a tight affair with the score tied 11-11 but the third quarter is where the game sprung into life. Sunc began to show their quality with goal shooter Dodson scoring six goals within the space of four furious minutes to give Sunc a 19-14 lead heading into the final quarter. Sums attempted a fight back in the fourth but eventually fell short, losing 26-22 after more goals from Louisa Smith and Dobson.
Intra Mural Six-a-side Football - Spoon
Intra Mural Six-a-side Football - Plate
Intra Mural Six-a-side Football - CL
USIS 1-1 Can’t Schloer (USIS win 4-3 on pens)
Medics Blue 5-0 JournoSoc
USIC/ACS 2-0 MechSoch A
Mill Tang Clan prevail
Anthony Phillips
Rob Milne
Anthony Phillips
Intra Mural Five-a-side Football - CL
The University of Sheffield Investment society claimed Intra Mural six-a-side Spoon victory with a 4-3 penalty shoot-out victory after their final with Can’t Schloer finished 1-1. Cant Schloer started brightly, forcing a good diving save from USIS goalkeeper Henry Hardy, but USIS soon began to exert their dominance. Their work was rewarded when star player Garaba sliced a shot across goal into the bottom left hand corner, giving USIS a 1-0 lead at halftime. The second half was a complete turnaround as Cant Schloer got into the contest. Multiple saves from Hardy kept the score 1-0 until a Matty Killeen piledriver crashed into the upper corner of the goal, leaving the score 1-1 with ten minutes left to play. Garaba had a chance for USIS in the dying minutes but goalkeeper Chaney Spinks scooped his tame shot up. The match went to penalties. In sudden death, Hardy, USIS goalkeeper, who saved his opposite numbers penalty before, stepped up, hammering a shot into the low left hand corner that cemented the spoon title for USIS.
A clinical Medics Blue team wrote off JournoSoc FC claiming a 5-0 victory in the Intra Mural six-a-side Plate final. JournoSoc started the clash the brighter. Medics Blue looked shaky in the opening minutes, sitting deep and absorbing the JournoSoc offensive onslaught. The Blues started to come back into the game,with their first real chance for James Neale. Their confident and composed possession football proved to be the difference. The Medics capitalised on their pressure, doubling their lead to 2-0 with a goal out of nothing. The Medics quickly made it 3-0, putting the game out of reach for JournoSoc. Over the next five minutes a JournoSoc collapse ensued, with another two goals within 30 seconds. JournoSoc captain Raif Howley praised his team’s season after the game: “We might not have played as we had liked to today but we’ve still had some good times this season” Medics captain Ahmed Daoub was elated after the game: “I’ve just finished six years of med school so to top it off with a win is really good, happy for the boys.”
The Champions League football final was contested between the University of Sheffield Mechanical Engineering Society (MechSoch) and a hybrid team of University of Sheffield Islamic Circle (USIC) and the Afro-Caribbean Society (ACS) that resulted in a 2-0 victory for the hybrid team. USIC started the game well by passing the ball round the MechSoch side with relative ease. MechSoch were unable to get a hand in the game and conceeded early when good passing play allowed USIC winger Josh Nwokobia to come down the right flank and unleash a low driving shot into the MechSoch goal. MechSoch attempted to get back into the game with chances of their own but were unable to capitalise after USIC star striker Zohaib Zaman came off the pitch with an injury sustained by a fowl. The injury didnt deter USIC who scored after poor MechSoch defending from a throw in allowed Yahaya Mohammed to play a neat 1-2 before stroking a powerful shot into the right hand corner of the net to seal a 2-0 victory for USIC.
Champion’s League Photo: Sport Sheffield
Plate Photo: Sport Sheffield
Spoon Photo: Sport Sheffield
Mill Tang Clan 3 - 0 Let’s Play Ballon Rob Milne A battling defensive performance from Mill Tang Clan saw them claim the title of best Intra Mural five-a-side team, beating Let’s Play Ballon 3-0. Each side brought high intensity in the opening stages with the first chance coming for Lets play Ballon, with Connor Jennett clawing the ball off the line. Will Thrussell opened the scoring, capitalizing on a loose headed pass picking up the ball and rifling past the keeper. Let’s Play Ballon’s frustrations grew and looked shaky defensively, Joseph Ojo thought he had levelled the score but the celebrations were premature when the ball nestled in the side-netting. Two quick-fire goals won it for the Mill Tang Clan. Ahmed Hraiz found Joseph Francis from the dead-ball, who confidently poked home. Alex Batten’s goal sealed the victory. He anticipated the bounce on a long throw before taking the shot on his left foot, leaving the goalkeeper with no chance.