Sports Review 2014

OXFORD I 1

SPORTS REVIEW

2014

 A BREAKTHROUGH YEAR  BOXING AT OXFORD  CLUB SEASON ROUND-UP CUPPERS & VARSITY RESULTS   BUCS SEASON REPORT www.sport.ox.ac.uk

2 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2014

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AFTER ANOTHER YEAR OF FANTASTIC PERFORMANCES AND SOME OUTSTANDING RESULTS, I AM PROUD TO PRESENT THE ANNUAL REVIEW OF SPORT 2014.

Even a quick glance at the results of this past year is enough to reveal that we continue to produce some of the highest levels of sporting success of any university, and this, coupled with the high academic standards that we continue to demand, is truly something that we can be proud of.

Despite last year’s narrow loss at Varsity in terms of total matches won and lost, there were some truly outstanding, significant, and memorable wins, which more than made up for the ‘official’ loss. On the Tideway the Boat Races were won by a record total number of lengths in front of an audience of millions; at Twickenham we saw victory over the light blues for the 4th year in a row; and finally, after years of work, the Truelove bowl was returned to Oxford with the dark blues in the overall lead, as the boxing club took an emphatic win over Cambridge. Elsewhere, men’s golf won for the fifth year in a row, the men’s athletics team celebrated their 150th Varsity match with a win, and the rifle club overcame a nine year losing streak to claim back the Chancellor’s Cup with a great team victory.

Of course, throughout the year we also competed in various BUCS fixtures. Last year Oxford once again staked its place as one of the elite sporting institutions in the country – placing 13th out of 152 competitors. We continue to field 18 teams in the top level ‘Premier’ leagues – notably men’s hockey, who this year not only won the Southern Premiership, but beat the GB Women’s team in a mid-season fixture. Tennis, basketball, lacrosse, fencing, hockey and squash all brought in over 100 points to the Oxford total, making significant contributions to our overall finishing place, and importantly keeping us ahead of the Tabs for another year.

THERE HAS ALREADY BEEN A STRONG START TO THE SEASON, AND ALTHOUGH IT’S EARLY DAYS I HAVE EVERY CONFIDENCE THAT THIS YEAR WILL ONCE AGAIN SEE GREAT SUCCESS. I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST OF LUCK FOR THE COMING YEAR! IMPORTANT DATES FOR THE COMING YEAR CAN BE FOUND ON THE BACK PAGE. Tom Carver Sports Federation President 2014-15 Cover photo: Matthew Beresford having scored his 9th goal in the Men’s Lacrosse Varsity 2014, which took place in the University Parks Credit: Matt Henderson

CONTENTS

02 News in Brief

04 A BREAKTHROUGH YEAR BP Sportswoman of the Year Sophia Saller

06 OUABC

Battling the paradox of boxing at Oxford

08 VARSITY RESULTS 09 BUCS REPORT 10

CUPPERS RESULTS

13

A–Z CLUB REPORTS

42 IMPORTANT DATES 2014–15

‘A huge thanks to all of the Annual Review contributors, and to Vincent’s Club and the Development office for their continuous support!’

Funded by: Oxford University Sports Federation Oxford University Development Office Vincent’s Club Atalanta’s Society Cover photo: Credit: Matt Henderson Editor: Tom Carver, Oxford University Sports Federation President 2014–15 Contributors: David de-Beger, Emily Moss, Summer Taylor Design: Andrew Harvey www.harveygraphic.co.uk Printing: Lynx DPM Ltd www.lynxdpm.com

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

2 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2013

NEWS IN BRIEF The Oxford University Annual Sports Federation Awards The Annual Sports Awards, held on 15 November, saw over 220 Oxford athletes come together to celebrate Dark Blue sporting achievements over the past year.

The night started with a very fitting champagne reception in a marquee in the grounds of OURFC; serenaded by a string quartet and surrounded by fairy lights and blue and silver balloons, members from over 20 clubs mingled and shared tales of Varsity triumph. A three-course dinner preceded the long awaited awards presentation. The evening was kindly supported by Jaguar Land Rover, BP, Nike, Kitlocker, Walter’s, Vincent’s and Atalanta’s. There was a lot of talent to choose from so deciding on the winners was a difficult affair this year.

The evening was hosted by current Sports Federation President Tom Carver, and the first award of the evening, the Cuppers Trophy, was presented by last year’s OUSF President Madeleine Sava.

Calculated by awarding 5 points for a win, and 3 points for a second place finish in a cuppers event, Worcester College were announced the winners of this year’s Cuppers Trophy, with wins in cross country, netball, and triathlon, to name just a few. Seven other awards were presented over the course of the evening, with each having several impressive nominees, any of whom could have won each award.

Coach of the Year, Dave Mace (Boxing)

Ross Haines (Sportsman of the Year), Alex Fraser (Norman Bryce Smiley Trophy Winner), Tom Carver (Sports Federation President) Sports Awards.

The Award Winners were as follows: Cuppers Trophy: Worcester College Atlanta’s Teammate of the Year: Marisa Schubert, Swimming Vincent’s Norman Bryce Smiley Trophy: Alex Fraser, Modern Pentathlon BP Coach of the Year: Dave Mace, Boxing Team Performance of the Year: Fencing Men’s 2nds OUsportshop Club of the Year: Women’s Rugby Walter’s Sportsman of the Year: Ross Haines, Cricket BP Sportswoman of the Year: Sophia Saller, Triathlon

@oxfordunisport

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Sports Scholars for 2014/15 selected I am delighted to announce that once again we are this year offering Sports Scholarships to assist some of our top athletes financially. Each Sport Scholar receives a £500 bursary to assist with training and competition expenses, in addition to complementary membership to the PULSE gym, Powerlifting gym and Rosenblatt Pool. Below are just three of the individuals that this year are receiving scholarships.

Eliza Blackwell Scholar – Aidan Reynolds, Javelin

Aidan Reynolds is one of the rising stars of Welsh javelin. He narrowly missed out on a place for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, but has his sights set on the next two Olympic games – Rio in 2016 but 2020 in particular.

BP Scholar – Tommy Lees, Modern Pentathlon

Last year’s Walter’s Sportsman of the Year, Tommy is one of the top GB senior level athletes, ranking as high as 4th in the country last year. He also claimed the BUCS title, winning with a massive score of 5,600 points – a contribution which helped Oxford secure the team title.

BP Scholar – William Johnson, Judo

William Johnson combines judo alongside his law studies at Oxford University. He and his twin brother both achieved bronze at the 2013 British Championships last January. He also gained gold in the Heart of England tournament in September 2012 and had similar success at D Band Nationals band. Last year he won gold at BUCS in the under 79kg category, and went on to win gold in the British Open.

Club of the Year Women’s Rugby www.sport.ox.ac.uk

A BREAKTHROUGH YEAR

4 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2014

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Despite an outstanding year which has seen her crowned world U23 triathlon champion, German champion, and European senior silver medallist, Sophia Saller’s attitude to life remains unchanged.

The fourth-year student at St Catherine’s has returned to Oxford with her mind set on continuing to master the work/ training balance that she has so successfully negotiated in the past few years.

Reflecting on her 2014 season, it is clear that the successes of the past year have not quite sunk in for the 20-year-old, although she is delighted all the same. ‘2014 has been such an incredible year for me,’ she reflects. ‘Not in a million years had I ever thought I could possibly win medals at international championships this year!

Achieving a silver medal in my first ever Olympic distance race (the European Elite Championships) just 16 seconds behind the reigning Olympic Champion, the day after my last finals exam, was just a bit of a shock to me. It’s been good to have some time off training now to try to get to grips with everything that I have achieved this season.’

With the academic year now in full swing, Sophia is back in training and keen to play a role in Oxford University sport when time permits. Having already gained two triathlon and two cross country Blues, together with a cycling Half-Blue and BUCS medals in duathlon and triathlon during her time at Oxford, it is clear that putting on her University kit is extremely important to Sophia. She will represent the University in cross country in December, and aims to compete in any university duathlons or triathlons that fit into her programme. ‘I love competing for the University – there’s nothing quite like the atmosphere and tradition that comes with a Varsity race! And to be honest, I’m now really looking forward to playing in the mud a little and enjoying the cross country season – hopefully we’ll shoe some tabs this year!’ she says.

Now a member of the German national U23 squad, Sophia is enjoying combining her academic studies with aspirations of becoming a regular face on the ITU racing circuit. Despite a demanding training schedule, which typically involves 20 hours of training split between her three disciplines, Sophia has never let her academic studies suffer. In fact, she feels

BP Sportswoman of the Year Sophia Saller

strongly that the two areas of her life complement each other. A typical training week will include five or six swimming sessions with four or five kilometres swum in each, six running sessions totalling 80km over the course of the week and 140km on the bike. Her training has increased this year to prepare her to tackle the step up to Olympic distance of 1500m swim, 40k bike and 10k run in her first year as an U23. What is perhaps most remarkable is how Sophia fits this amount of training around the 12 hours’ contact time she has in the maths department. However, it is a routine that Sophia has honed to perfection, perhaps aided by the self-discipline acquired through elite-level sport. ‘I like working in smaller blocks, so that works out perfectly between training sessions,’ she reveals.

Although studying at Oxford means that Sophia has to miss many of the German national squad’s training camps abroad, she remains well aware of the prestige of having an Oxford degree. ‘Some days when it’s raining and my teammates are at a training camp I miss the sun. But I can do all my training in Oxford and I like the mentality of the sportspeople at the University. Many of us train hard, but we realise the importance of getting a good degree,’ she explains. She is undecided about what she will do after finishing her degree next year, but is considering staying at Oxford to do a DPhil. Looking to the future, Sophia says: ‘In terms of sport, everything is being geared towards having a few years on the ITU circuit. I would want to have a part-time job on the side, as I need to engage my brain. Ultimately I would like to combine maths and sport in a career.’

Emily Moss, St Anne’s

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

6 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2014

OUABC

BATTLING THE PARADOX OF BOXING AT OXFORD Think ‘Oxford’, and the automatic associations are more likely to be of dreaming city spires and libraries than of a boxing ring. Yet boxing at Oxford is thriving, even inspiring a film about the Boxing Club, Blue Blood, in 2006. As the title suggests, it focused on the annual Varsity Match, but it was confused and sweeping in its contrasting of Oxford and boxing stereotypes. Over the years, the club has had to battle these stereotypes to survive. Has it succeeded in delivering a knockout blow?

What about early perceptions of boxing and their origins? From the days of the Roman Empire, Augustine of Hippo offers a good starting point in his Confessions. Whilst watching a gladiatorial fight, boxing’s ancient ancestor, Augustine describes the poisonous effect that viewing the spectacle had on his friend Alypius: ‘At the sight of blood he took a sip of animality. Not turning away, but fixing his eyes on it, he drank deeper of the frenzies without realising it…’ Alypius was consequently ‘wounded deeper in the soul than the gladiator in his body’. Since its emergence, boxing has evolved beyond recognition from the Mesopotamian stone reliefs of 4000 BC that provide the first evidence of the sport. Yet despite its evolution, the uneasiness surrounding the ethics of boxing remains; from its inception, the sport has been associated with degradation and barbarism.

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OUABC was born out of the ‘great pugilistic revival’ of the Victorian era and has been in existence since 1881, making it the oldest student-run boxing club in Britain. It was in this epoch that boxing became socially acceptable through its association with ‘Englishness’. The midnineteenth century saw the establishment of many new public schools whose duty was to promote ‘muscular Christianity’; Thomas Hughes, in Tom Brown’s School Days, wrote that ‘Fighting is the natural and English way for English boys to settle their quarrels.’ In the sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford, boxing is given clear religious and cultural endorsement. Hughes, himself

an alumnus of Oriel, described his college as ‘the accepted home of the noble science of self-defence’. A combination of social Darwinism and pride in physical prowess saw boxing, and OUABC, go from strength to strength, despite its context within a rigid arena of social stratification. After all, the ‘dirty work’ of fighting was the reserve of the working class; boxing matches – large, loud, unruly gatherings – were associated with working-class movements like Luddism. From its inception, OUABC has been confronted with the paradox of the elite’s education and the sport of the masses.

Boxing in America was illegal before 1920, but with the lifting of this constitutional taboo it became big business, and underwent a renaissance in the States long after the British revival had faded. The fate of OUABC ran parallel to the fortunes of the British strand, when in 1969 the committee

was forced to disband the club within a few weeks of Varsity due to a lack of student interest and their poor financial situation.

Perhaps, though, no-one is better equipped to fight and overcome challenges than a boxer – obstacles are merely a catalyst to the fighter’s cause, and so OUABC survived.

Robert Nairac, a particularly charismatic Oxford student, simply refused to let boxing at Oxford fade into the national statistics as a sport in decline. He resorted to rallying a miscellaneous team for Varsity by the starkest of campaigns: knocking on college doors and persuading those on the other side to compete. Whilst OUABC lost narrowly to Cambridge that year, a far greater victory was won in that the club survived.

Narrow losses to Cambridge are but a faint memory, as this year Oxford gave a marvellous performance. The 107th Varsity could not have been more exciting – on entering the ring, the overall score was a tie at 51 victories each. Oxford more than delivered by winning 7–2; they created a gulf between themselves and Cambridge, overcoming what had been a considerable deficit for the best part of the 20th century.

The club also won Town vs Gown by a considerable margin of 6–3 with some stellar, and even knockout, performances.

The trophies that go on display may be dedicated to just one event, but they showcase much more: the Truelove Bowl is awarded to the team which has trained the hardest. The boxers undergo an incredible amount of training, around eight times a week – this includes bag work, skipping and full contact sparring, but also hill sprints, weights sessions and circuits. If all this wasn’t enough, for years now the club has held pre-Varsity training in Tenerife, resisting the lure of the climate and beaches in favour of high-altitude runs and sandy sprints.

victories at Town vs Gown and Varsity and real progress in gender equality. Yet, due to deeply entrenched cultural attitudes, the club’s hard work does not seem to attract the support it undoubtedly deserves.

Augustine may not be around to pour vitriol on the spectacle of fighting, but Varsity this year was no sell-out. Moreover, compared to other Oxford sports clubs, OUABC finds it far harder to attract sponsorship, whether from large corporate businesses or local ones. The club takes all platforms it is given very seriously, and so we encourage all of you at Oxford to see past the shimmer of the Truelove Bowl and contemplate how far in the battle against prejudice boxing has really come. We are certainly putting up a strong fight, and, ultimately, this is the thread uniting boxing and Oxford: hard work. The final verdict is yours. Why not honour what boxing has always stood for, and what Oxford certainly stands for now, and make a unanimous decision in favour of hard work?

Summer Taylor, Lady Margaret Hall

As well as stellar results, this year has seen continued progression – women’s boxing at OUABC is booming. At Town vs Gown, there were 12 men representing the club and 5 women. On the world stage, women boxed in 3 of the 13 boxing events at London 2012; it is clear that in this area Oxford is a world leader, if perhaps an unexpected one. Three women from OUABC competed in the Varsity arena but sadly not against Cambridge, who had no female fighters to submit. In light of this, OUABC’s women’s captain was shortlisted for KPMG’s Women in Sport Teammate Award and the club went on to win the College and County’s Club Achievement Award. The future looks bright too, as a third of sign-ups at Freshers’ Fair were from women, by far the most in the club’s history. A 2014 version of Blue Blood would tell a very different story.

It is easy to read OUABC’s most recent year as the epitome of a success story: smashing

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

8 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2014

VARSITY RESULTS 2013/14

CLUB

DATE

VeNUE

RESULT & SCORE

American Football 17 May 2014 Whitehill Road, Cambridge  LOST 6-33 Archery 17 May 2014 St Johns College, Cambridge  WON Athletics (M) 17 May 2014 Iffley Road, 150th Anniversary  WON 108-104

Athletics (W) 17 May 2014 Iffley Road  LOST 89-110 Aussie Rules 8 March 2014 Horspath Playing Fields  WON 90-14 Badminton (M) 7-8 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games  WON 12-3 Badminton (W) 7-8 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games  WON 13-2 Basketball (M) 1 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games  WON Basketball (W) 1 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games  LOST Boat (M) 6 April 2014 The Tideway, River Thames  WON 11 lengths Boat (W) 30 March 2014 Henley-on-Thames  WON 4 lengths (12 seconds) Boxing 8 March 2014 Oxford Town Hall  WON 7-2 Canoe and Kayak (M) 10-11 May 2014 Holme Pierre Point White Water  LOST 4-2 Canoe and Kayak (W) 10-11 May 2014 Holme Pierre Point White Water  WON 8-0 Caving  WON 2-1 Cheerleading  LOST Clay Pigeon 17 May 2014 Ian Coley Shooting Ground  LOST 188-199 Clay Pigeon 17 May 2014 Ian Coley Shooting Ground  LOST 163-196 Cricket (M) 4 Day 30 June- 03 July 2014 The Parks, Oxford  DRAW Cricket (M) 1 Day 20 June 2014 Lord’s, London  WON Cricket (M) Twenty20 23 May 2014 The Parks, Oxford N/A Abandoned Cricket (W) 1 Day 20 June 2014 Lord’s, London  WON Croquet  WON 7-2 Cross Country (M) 7 December 2013 Wimbledon Common  LOST Cross Country (W) 7 December 2013 Wimbledon Common  LOST Cycling (M) 26 April 2014  LOST Cycling (W) 26 April 2014 N/A Dancesport 17 May 2014 Iffley Road  LOST Dodgeball 9 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games N/A Did not happen Eton Fives (M) 1 March 2014 Eton College  LOST 3-0 Eton Fives (W) 1 March 2014 Eton College  WON 6-0 Fencing (M) 8 March 2014 Exam Schools, Oxford  WON Fencing (W) 8 March 2014 Exam Schools, Oxford  WON Football (M) 6 April 2014 Fulham FC, London  LOST 0-0 (4-2 pens) Football (W) 22 February 2014 Iffley Road  LOST 2-0 Gaelic Football (M) 7 March 2014 Cambridge  DRAW Gliding 23-24 July 2014 Gransden Airfield, nr Cambridge  WON 527-478 Golf (M) 21-22 March 2014 Rye Golf Club  WON 8.5 - 6.5 Golf (W) 18-19 March 2014 Rye Golf Club  LOST 6.5 - 2.5 Gymnastics (M) 2 March 2014 Oxford  LOST 232.9-296.6 Gymnastics (W) 2 March 2014 Oxford  LOST 160.85-154.25.

Handball (M) 25 January 2014 SportHouse, Dagenham  WON 32-26 Handball (W) 25 January 2014 SportHouse, Dagenham  LOST 12-23 Hockey (M) 9 March 2014 Southgate Hockey Centre  LOST 2-1 Hockey (W) 9 March 2014 Southgate Hockey Centre  WON 3-2 Ice Hockey (W) 9 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games  WON 10-1 Jitsu 1-2 March 2014 Dojo, Iffley Road  WON Judo (M) 9 March 2014 Ferry Sports Centre, Summertown  WON Judo (W) 9 March 2014 Ferry Sports Centre, Summertown  LOST Karate (M) 9 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games  LOST 56-74 Karate (W) 9 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games  WON 82-20 Kendo 8 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games  WON Kickboxing (M) Cambridge  LOST 3-4 Korfball 8 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games  LOST 10-11 Lacrosse (M) 1 March 2014 The Parks, Oxford, Varsity Games  WON 15-11 Lacrosse (W) 1 March 2014 The Parks, Oxford, Varsity Games  WON 11-9 Lacrosse (MIXED) 1 March 2014 The Parks, Oxford, Varsity Games  LOST 9-6 Lawn Tennis (M) 30 June-2 July National Tennis, Roehampton  LOST 12-9 Lawn Tennis (W) 30 June-2 July National Tennis, Roehampton  LOST 14-7 @oxfordunisport

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CLUB

DATE

VeNUE

Lifesaving 15 February 2014 Oxford, Pool and Tanner room Lightweight (M) 30 March 2014 Henley-on-Thames Lightweight (W) 30 March 2014 Henley-on-Thames Modern Pentathlon (M) 4-5 April 2014 Tonbridge School, Kent Modern Pentathlon (W) 4-5 April 2014 Tonbridge School, Kent Motor Drivers 27 April 2014 Rye House Kart Raceway Mountaineering N/A Cambridge pulled out day before Netball 1 March 2014 Oxford University Sport Orienteering (M) 5 April 2014 Hellasgården, Sweden Orienteering (W) 5 April 2014 Hellasgården, Sweden Pistol Small Bore (M) 1 March 2014 Wantage Range Pistol Small Bore (W) 1 March 2014 Wantage Range Pistol Full Bore 13 July 2014 Melville Range, Bisley, Surrey Polo 7 June 2014 Guards Polo Club Pool (M) Oxford Pool (W) 26 April 2014 Cambridge Powerlifting 9 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games Rackets February 2014 Queens Club, London Real Tennis (M) 22-23 February 2014 Lords Cricket Ground, London Real Tennis (W) 22-23 February 2014 Lords Cricket Ground, London Riding 7 March 2014 Hall Place Equestrian Centre Rifle Indoor (M) 15 February 2014 National Shooting Centre, Bisley Rifle Indoor (W) 15 February 2014 National Shooting Centre, Bisley Rugby Fives 22 February 2014 St Pauls School, Barnes, London Rugby League 6 March 2014 Honourable Artillery Company Rugby Union (M) 12 December 2013 Twickenham Stadium, London Rugby Union (W) 8 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games Ski and Snowboard (M) 7 December 2013 Tignes, France Ski and Snowboard (W) 7 December 2013 Tignes, France Squash Racquets (M) 22 February 2014 RAC Club, London Squash Racquets (W) 22 February 2014 RAC Club, London Swimming (M) 1 March 2014 Rosenblatt Pool, Oxford Swimming (W) 1 March 2014 Rosenblatt Pool, Oxford Table Tennis (M) 2 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games Table Tennis (W) 2 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games TaeKwon-Do (M) 9 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games TaeKwon-Do (W) 9 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games Trampolining 9 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games Triathlon (M) 11 May 2014 Grendon Triathlon Triathlon (W) 11 May 2014 Grendon Triathlon Ultimate Frisbee (M) 9 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games Ultimate Frisbee (W) 9 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games Volleyball (M) 2 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games Volleyball (W) 2 March 2014 Oxford, Varsity Games Waterpolo (M) 1 March 2014 Rosenblatt Pool, Oxford Waterpolo (W) 1 March 2014 Rosenblatt Pool, Oxford Windsurfing 9 March 2014 Grafham Waters Yacht Dinghy (M) Early July 2014 Yacht Dinghy (W) Early July 2014 Yacht (Fleet Racing) 22-23 March 2014 Port Solent

OVERALL STANDINGS

OXFORD

46

CAMBRIDGE

56

RESULT & SCORE  WON  LOST  WON  LOST  LOST  WON

11-10

 WON  WON  LOST  WON  LOST  LOST  LOST  LOST  WON  LOST  LOST  LOST  WON  WON  LOST  LOST  LOST  WON  WON  WON  WON  LOST  LOST  WON  WON  WON  LOST  LOST  WON  LOST  LOST  LOST  LOST  DRAW  WON  LOST  LOST  LOST  LOST  LOST  LOST  LOST  LOST

42-31 04:21:24 - 4:31:33 3:59:13 - 2:41:47 2160-2144 2047-2064

by 3.5 lengths 22,584 - 24, 324 22,584 - 24, 324 72-58

6-3 40-50 2131.88-2268.72 0-6 6-0 5-1 1496-1505 714-753 269-153 40-0 33-15 17-12 By 1.10s By 25.73s 5-0 4-1 61-29 47-43 0-10 2-8 3-2 2-3 389.9-433.8 Indoor 9-8, Outdoor 10-12 Indoor 6-4, Outdoor 11-4 3-0 3-2 8-10 6-11 1-4 0-4

s n o i t a l u t a r cong s m a e t g n i n 3 to all win

DRAW

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

10 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2013

BUCS Roundup Oxford managed to increase their overall BUCS points slightly, but some other institutions managed to significantly increase their points total this year. With some strong performances, Cambridge closed the gap on the Dark Blues on the points table, pushing themselves up to 14th place. Throughout the 2013/14 season, Oxford continued to hold its ground in university sport competitions, although regretfully this is not reflected in the overall BUCS placing as Oxford sits in 13th place.

Looking to regional rankings, Oxford has continued to hold fourth place, which is outstanding given that there are three of the top five sporting universities within our region. While our weekly teams travelled across both the region and country in term time, our individual competitors were training hard to prove their ability in their shorter competition periods.

BUCS League

Our BUCS teams continued to perform exceptionally well – once again the most team points came from lawn tennis, with a strong 66 points coming from the men’s Blues alone. Oxford were also the proud winners of the South Premier men’s hockey, the team bringing 66 points to the Oxford total. Another top contributor were the women’s basketball Blues, who had a fantastic BUCS season and brought in a solid 64 points.

Special mentions must be made for basketball, fencing, hockey, lacrosse, squash and lawn tennis which each brought over 100 points to the overall table.

BUCS Individual

With the competitions being spread throughout the year, it was exciting to see archery and pentathlon help keep Oxford up in the BUCS overall table for those who regularly checked the rankings.

The year began with the Rifle Full-bore competition, a great way for Oxford to get on the table before the academic year began, and this was followed with orienteering and sailing final events all the way up in Scotland – both clubs made weekend trips to compete and represent Oxford University.

As the Boat Race was in full training, we also got to see some members of OUBC and OUWBC join OULRC and OUWLRC out at the BUCS regatta, which next year will be open to college crews

rowing ended up generating the most individual points of any Oxford sport, with a fantastic 58 points to add to the table.

Oxford continues to be a base for the BUCS pentathlon event; a large number of Oxford students were involved in the event this year, and they ended up winning a total of 56 points between them.

As the sports settle into some new BUCS individual competitions, it is great to see the points starting to join the table from different sources. Joining the BUCS ranks this year were sports such as mountaineering, and we are looking forward to the upcoming results from some of our non-team sports.

CHANGE RANKING UNIVERSITY FROM

2012/13

LEAGUE POINTS

LEAGUE INDIVIDUAL TOTAL KNOCKOUT CHAMP. POINTS POINTS

 - 1  - 2  - 3  - 4  1 5  1 6  - 7  7 8  1 9  1 10  2 11  - 12  2 13  2 14  1 15

1914 1957.5 1591 1555 1312.5 1645 1588.5 1187 1364 1266.5 1274.5 935.33 1139.5 866 978.67

1040 983 771 553 357 707 635.5 593 650 293 397 423 330 324 301

Loughborough Durham Birmingham Bath Edinburgh Exeter Nottingham Northumbria Leeds Metro Manchester Bristol Cardiff Metro Oxford Cambridge Leeds

2375 605 770.5 875 1223.5 466 428 659 380 352.5 199 503 386 653 495.67

5329 3545.5 3132.5 2983 2893 2818 2652 2439 2394 1912 1870.5 1861.33 1855.5 1843 1775.34

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Cuppers ResulTs 2013-14 Overall College Scores Worcester College St John’s College Keble College Brasenose College Balliol College St Edmund Hall Oriel College New College Magdalen College St Catherine’s College The Queen’s College University College Exeter College Merton College St Hugh’s College Wadham College Lady Margaret Hall Green Templeton Linacre College Mansfield College St Hilda’s College St Anne’s College Hertford College Lincoln College Pembroke College Kellogg College Christ Church Jesus College St Peter’s College Somerville College Trinity College

41 37 29 28 27 27 21 20 18 18 17 12 12 12 11 11 11 10 10 10 10 09 07 07 07 07 05 04 04 02 02

Runner-up (2 points)

Winner (5 points)

Alternative Ice Hockey American Football Archery (Mixed) Athletics Badminton (M) Badminton (W) Basketball Canoe & Kayak Cheerleading Cricket (M) Croquet Cross Country (M) Cross Country (W) Cross Country (Mixed) Cycling Dancesport Eton Fives Fencing Football (M) Football (W) Golf Gymnastics Hockey (M) Hockey (Mixed) Hockey (W) Karate Kickboxing (M) Kickboxing (W) Korfball Lacrosse Lightweight Rowing (M) Lightweight Rowing (W) Motor Drivers Modern Pentathlon Netball (W) Netball (Mixed) Orienteering Pistol Pool & Snooker Powerlifting Riding Rifle Rugby Rugby (Mixed Touch) Rugby Fives Rugby League Ski & Snowboard (Indoor) Ski & Snowboard (Outdoor) Squash (M) Squash (W) Summer Eights (M) Summer Eights (W) Swimming Table Tennis Tennis (M) Tennis (W) Triathlon (M) Triathlon (W) Utimate Frisbee Volleyball Water Polo Yachting

Balliol College Magdalen College Brasenose College St Hugh’s College Brasenose College Exeter College Oriel College University College Wadham College Linacre College Worcester College Merton / Mansfield College Worcester College Merton College St John’s College Mansfield College St Hugh’s College New / St Hila’s College Brasenose College Magdalen College Worcester College Worcester College St Edmund Hall St Catherine’s College Lady Margaret Hall Worcester College St Hugh’s College Balliol College University College Keble College Jesus / Trinity College Lady Margaret Hall Wadham College Brasenose College Hertford College Exeter College St Catherine’s College Keble College Somerville College Christ Church New College Queen’s College St Peter’s College St Catherine’s College Magdalen College Keble College St Catherine’s College Queen’s / St Hilda’s College St Edmund Hall/Keble College Linacre College Magdalen College Green Templeton College St Hugh’s College University College Wadham College Balliol College Magdalen College St Edmund Hall New College Balliol College Jesus College New College Lincoln College Balliol College St Edmund Hall St John’s College St Peter’s College St Edmund Hall Keble College Worcester College St Edmund Hall St John’s College St John’s College Kellogg / St Edmund Hall Exeter College Brasenose College St Catherine’s College Lincoln College St John’s College St John’s College New College St Catherine’s College St John’s College Keble College St Edmund Hall Hertford College Oriel College Brasenose College Brasenose College Lady Margaret Hall Keble College St Catherine’s College Oriel College St Edmund Hall St Anne’s Collete Oriel College Green Templeton College Balliol College Oriel College Pembroke College Wadham College St John’s College Magdalen College New College Worcester College Kellogg College Worcester College New College Worcester College Queen’s College Queen’s College Oriel College Worcester College St Anne’s College St John’s College Brasenose College St John’s College St John’s College Worcester College St Anne’s College Pembroke College Lady Margaret Hall / Merton www.sport.ox.ac.uk

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CLUB REPORTS AIKIDO The Oxford University Aikido Club had a very successful 2013/14. Freshers’ Fair was a great opportunity to recruit new members, with over 300 people signing up to the mailing list. New sign-ups to the club continued throughout the year, with graduate students taking advantage of the practice sessions that continued during the vacations. We continued to offer highquality instruction with five sessions a week, as well as a new weapons-only lunchtime session which we are hoping to continue next year.

We are proud to have Peter Megann – one of the highest-ranking instructors in the UK – as our senior local instructor. As always, we thank all our instructors for donating their time, energy and enthusiasm. Monday beginners’ classes, which attract the most student members, were taught by Nick Belshaw this year, and offered an opportunity for our new members to enjoy Nick’s detail-focused and technical approach to Aikido.

Regular weekend courses were directed by the UK’s most eminent Aikido teacher and Technical Director of the British Aikido Foundation (BAF), Minoru Kanetsuka Sensei, and offered club members an opportunity to advance in gradings. This year the club’s financial condition enabled us to subsidise our members’ fees for BUAF national courses and grading. Two members participated in the BUAF national course, and the three members who participated in the grading all passed successfully.

The OU Aikido Club continues to train alongside the Oxford City Aikido Club. This opportunity to train with experienced Aikido practitioners is priceless and provides a real incentive to new members by showing the high-level skills achieved by constant practice.

Social events such as pub visits were less frequent this year. This will be encouraged next year for the members to get to know one another outside the dojo.

ALTERNATIVE ICE HOCKEY ALTS has seen a decline in membership this year with a maximum attendance of around 70 people during Michaelmas, down from over 100 last year. Our Cuppers event was nevertheless as popular as ever with 25 teams attending. Balliol were the winners, with Magdalen coming second, and Trinity in third.

Due to continuing increases in rink hire prices this year, combined with low attendance, we were forced to raise the price per session by 10% once again.

AMERICAN FOOTBALL This year the Oxford University Lancers had a steady improvement, scoring more points and conceding fewer. The Lancers are well placed to continue this trend next year as they develop a relatively young and inexperienced squad of players into a solid core of returners. The growing experience levels of the squad, along with more time working and training as a team, should lead to steady improvements. This year in particular the Lancers have had a very tough schedule, playing several of the top teams in the country (including two former National Championship winners), and were often overmatched and outgunned.

The squad has also grown in other ways this year, with the addition of new coaches Andrew McKenzie and Adam Goldstein.

Adam McKenzie has taken over defensive play calling duties, and Adam Goldstein both

coached the kitted squad and helped to set up a local community flag team, which draws players from across the spectrum of Oxford American Football teams. They join Carl Marshall, the veteran coach with over 14 years of experience in student American football, in guiding the Lancers towards greater success.

This was the first year of the Cavaliers’ Cup, the game between the Oxford University Lancers and their cross-town rivals the Oxford Brookes University Panthers. These sides were previously one team, the Oxford Cavaliers, which split four years ago. The Panthers prevailed in a closely fought match – a strong Lancers’ defence held off the Panthers’ offense until the fourth quarter, but ultimately the game resulted in the Panthers taking home the Ben Callus Memorial Trophy.

Trinity Term saw the third matchup with Cambridge in the resumed Varsity series.

Although the last two meetings had been fairly positive – a draw, and a one-score loss – the playoff level squad of Cambridge was simply too well equipped offensively for the Lancers to handle, resulting in a 33–6 loss on the day.

ARCHERY Building onprevious successes, this year has seen some exceptional performances from Oxford University Company of Archers.

In the Varsity Match both the novice and experienced trophies were retained and many records smashed, including the overall experienced team record, the novice team record and individual records for novice women and experienced women and men.

This was followed the next day by more record breaking at BUTTs (university regional

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14 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2014

league) Outdoor Championships, both team and individual.

This has continued to be a year of outstanding performances at competitions up and down the country, as well as at a county level, including a second-place finish at BUCS indoor championships, and victory at BUTC delivered by Alex Smith, Matthew Langton and Ciprian Zahan, making OUCofA the first team since 2008 to successfully defend the title. The experienced team placed third in the BUTTs indoor league and the novices fifth.

Coaching continues to be received from Oxford alumna Nat Merry, and the time and effort that she puts in are very much appreciated by everyone at the club. This year saw the introduction of the novice squad, coached by Marc Tamyln, to whom we are also very grateful. This has proven

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to be a highly successful initiative, resulting in solid performances from squad members at numerous competitions, and we hope to continue with this next year.

2014 sadly marked OUCofA’s last weekend away to the Isle of Man Student Festival of Sport, which will no longer be running after 30 years. Much fun was had by all and we would like to thank the Isle of Man Archery Club for hosting the event. With the offer of keeping in touch, we may be back before too long!

We continue to run ‘have-a-go’s for the Said Business School as well as Christ Church Cathedral School, and remain in contact with many of our alumni, now a truly global network, with former members in America, Africa and Australia. Many of those slightly closer to home return to Oxford for our

termly black-tie socials and to assist with hosting the annual Oxford University Indoor Tournament. As always, it is a pleasure to see that their time at OUCofA has left its mark, and we look forward to welcoming them back again next year.

ATHLETICS 2014 was always set to be a bumper year in the history of OUAC. It marked not only the 60th anniversary of ex-OUAC President Roger Bannister’s famous sub-four-minute mile at Iffley Road but also the 150th anniversary of the first ever Varsity Match, held in Christ Church Sports Ground and resulting in a draw (four events each).

The year began with a bang: Freshers’ Varsity at the beginning of November. Taking

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place in Cambridge, this was a chance for both universities to show off their newest additions and there was plenty of talent on show. The men’s match was narrowly won

by Cambridge with Isaac Kitchen-Smith and Ian Shevlin dominating the short sprints, while Cambridge proved too powerful in the throws. Conversely, Oxford were runaway winners in the women’s match, with Emily Stone and Eniola Oyesanya both winning two events each.

Next came the Field Events and Relays match (better known as FEAR), where both Oxford and Cambridge full teams battled for indoor supremacy. Cambridge were the victors, winning the match 3–1. True to recent form, Oxford’s men were victorious on the track, following stellar performances

by Ismaila Ngum in the 60m hurdles and fresher Alex Howard, who kept hearts racing until the final lap of the 1500m relay.

Over the Easter vacation the men’s 4x400m team (off the back of a bronze medal at BUCS the previous year) were invited to the prestigious Penn Relays championship in Philadelphia. Also commemorating an OUAC team that won the 4x1mile in 1914, the team (consisting of President Ralph Eliot,

Men’s Captain Adam McBraida, Treasurer George Gundle and Secretary Craig Morten) ran slightly off their best, but finished midtable amongst some of the best university teams in the world.

This same team arrived at the BUCS championships with the aim of a gold medal but, after stiff competition from Cardiff Met, were pipped on the line after a stunning last leg by Adam. Other strong performances included Aidan Reynolds finishing fourth in the javelin, Sam Trigg placing sixth in the men’s triple jump, Christina Nick placing seventh in the discus, Emily Moss placing seventh in the steeplechase, and James Heywood who managed a solid eighth in the discus.

Finally, the Varsity Match. In splendid sunshine Oxford’s men won the day, with particular accolades going to Adam McBraida (who won an incredible five events) and Sam Trigg (whose long and triple jumps would have won BUCS just a couple of weeks before) although there were too many memorable performances from both men’s and women’s teams to name. Though Cambridge were victorious in the other three matches, the standard was so high that the results were an

afterthought and the quality of the individual performances from the Oxford teams bodes very well for the coming years.

AUSSIE RULES The Oxford University Australian Rules Football Club has had a very successful year, in which it lost only one match in its regular season and enjoyed a significant victory over Cambridge in the Varsity Match, winning by 76 points (14.6.90 to 2.2.14).

The club welcomed a large number of new members and completed two successful overseas tours. The first involved matches in Dublin as part of the inaugural European Universities Championships, in which Oxford was runner-up. The second involved a tour to Italy and matches in Padua against a northern Italian representative team and Rome.

The club has developed a strong relationship with Merton College, where regular season fixtures have been played, and has also established closer relationships with Australia-based past players, as well as a sponsor affiliation with the General Sir John Monash Foundation.

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16 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2014

BADMINTON 2013/14 has undoubtedly been one of the most successful seasons for OUBaC with the long awaited 5–0 win over Cambridge finally achieved at Varsity. This year has seen the teams really pull together on and off the court, as evidenced by the rather overwhelming levels of support witnessed at the Varsity Match.

As ever, Michaelmas term brought with it the highly enjoyable Alumni Match and highspirited annual dinner which, once again, confirmed the adage: once an OUBaC member, always an OUBaC member!

Meanwhile the men’s Blues team packed their bags and headed for sunnier climes with a winter tour to Cyprus. It is still unclear whether they spent more time on court or exploring the many kebab shops of Nicosia.

Hilary term was one punctuated with dedicated training and some of the best results ever achieved at the BUCS Individuals, mostly by the team’s new star, Claire Weaver. She secured a bronze medal after narrowly losing to No.1 seed and previous British National Champion Fontaine Chapman in the semifinals – an incredible achievement!

In Trinity term things slowed down slightly; the legs, weary from a tough season, took a wellearned rest. Highlights included the OUBaC squad members’ handicapped tournament and the first ever Oxford University badminton vs squash tournament!

Everyone, as ever, has been tremendous this year (especially Larry Ng, of course) and we are sure that the club will continue to thrive next year under the new committee, and for many more after.

BASEBALL OU Baseball Club had a successful year both on and off the field, finishing with an outstanding 5–1 record against strong competition, as well as attracting players in both higher quality and

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quantity than has been seen in previous years.

The teams also contained an impressive variety of players from North America, East Asia and the UK, as well as a wide range of skill levels.

Hopefully this is a trend that will continue in the following years.

bring together the talents. We finished third in BUCS Premier South, ensuring yet another season in the highest league possible. As always, Varsity was a particular focus of the year, and the win this year made up for last year’s defeat.

Highlights from this year included an outstanding no-hitter pitched by Taylor Jaszewski against Imperial College, London, who also completed the rare feat of striking out five batters in an inning against the University of Southampton. This year also saw the emergence of the first woman to play for the club in recent years, as Natalie Dixon became the team’s slick-fielding shortstop.

Several players who started the year as beginners have excelled in learning the game on the fly, including both baseball’s complex rules and its requirement for skills that can take years to develop. As such, we are confident that the club has succeeded in nurturing these beginners into adept ballplayers in a relatively short period of time.

After losing many of their strongest members over the summer there were worries about the season for the women’s Blues. However, a strong team performance, with all the women pulling together for victories, ensured they placed in the BUCS quarter-finals.

This demonstrated that previous individual basketball experiences are not accurate indicators of what can be achieved when players are willing to embrace new roles and grow as a cohesive unit. A loss at Varsity was unfortunate but just, given the extraordinary talent in Cambridge’s squad, the likes of which we have previously had over the last five years.

We did face some adversity this year. The club’s regular field was unavailable for the winter due to renovations, and so we had to make some long journeys as well as play in inclement weather. We are especially grateful that we were never struggling to find players, even under such circumstances.

Given this season’s success we hope that the club will continue to grow in the coming years, by continuing to attract talented undergraduates who will lead the club to future success.

BASKETBALL This has been an incredibly successful year for the Oxford University Basketball Club; we had strong performances on the court, overwhelming team commitment and great participation at the college and Seconds level. In addition, we extended work from last year by forging new and promising bonds with more of our alumni.

For the men’s Blues, this season was marked by talented individuals, but without a coach to

The men’s second squad was strong this year, with many members in their second, third, or fourth years, and that experience showed on the court. Many of our players made leaps and bounds this season. With a disproportionately large number of returning players, hopefully the second team will continue the streak and achieve the long-desired promotion next season.

Being on the women’s Seconds is about developing as a player. Everyone has trained hard to do just that this year, with great success in the league (our best in recent memory).

Another close Varsity game was extremely frustrating; there is a lot to build on next year, however, with a good number of returning players.

BOAT CLUB – MEN 2014 was a programme-defining year for OUBC, with both the Blue Boat and Isis beating their Cambridge counterparts by the largest combined margin ever (24 lengths total, 11 lengths and 13 lengths respectively).

The season started slowly, with the squad battling sickness and injury for most of the autumn and early winter. The team’s

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performance at the Fuller’s Head of the River was average with only one boat winning its division, beating its closest competitor by more than 30 seconds. Three weeks later, our most important intra-squad competition, Trial Eights, was postponed due to continued sickness and injury. The squad limped into the Davos cross-country ski camp, where fortunes finally began to change.

After a restful Christmas break, OUBC regrouped in France for an incredibly successful water camp before returning to the Tideway to make up Trial Eights. This time, Trial Eights went off without a hitch and the calibre of racing proved ultra-competitive. The squad only continued to improve throughout boat selection and match racing, as both crews went undefeated in their fixtures. As a result of a great coaching and support staff, both boats executed their race plans on Boat Race day and put in truly dominating performances.

BOAT CLUB – WOMEN The 2013/14 season has again been a very successful one for the Oxford University Women’s Boat Club. We have benefited from the continued support of our sponsors Newton Investment Management, enabling us to strengthen our coaching and support team and take our performance to another level.

The season got off to a strong start with a trip to Boston, USA to race at the Head of the Charles regatta, where we finished 21st of 40 with a development crew – a

promising result amongst the very strong American collegiate competition. This season also marked our first ever Trial Eights race on the Tideway course in London – where the 2015 Boat Race will be contested.

This proved to be a very exciting race between the matched eights ‘Boudicca’ and ‘Cleopatra’, which were exchanging leads for much of the course before Boudicca went on to win. Our training camp in Sabaudia, Italy followed, which was an excellent chance to fine-tune our technique and build up our fitness in preparation for the Boat Race.

Training throughout the winter was very difficult to manage, with flooding and severe weather conditions. The squad coped well with the increased load of travel to train at Dorney Lake, Eton, allowing us to make the most of the improved coaching and racing facilities there.

We were lucky enough to be approached by some strong competitors for our match racing this year, including Molesey Boat Club, a combination of veteran international oarswomen and women in the current GB team. Both Osiris and the Blue Boat performed very well in their match races, setting us up for a dominant result at the Henley Boat Races in March. Osiris won a tight and exciting race against Blondie, winning by half a length, and the Blue Boat took away the lead decisively, finally winning against Cambridge by four lengths.

two silver and one bronze medal at BUCs, as well as winning Elite and Senior women’s eights at the Metropolitan regatta against competition from GB women’s athletes. We are looking ahead to competing at Henley Women’s and Henley Royal Regatta.

BOXING 2014 has been a fantastic year for the club in the year of the 107th Varsity Match. This year OUABC sent Oxford boxers into a total of 30 bouts, compared to last year’s 23. Last year we lost Town vs Gown 5–3; this year we ran out 6–3 winners. Last year only one Oxford woman had a match; this year five OUABC women have competed in their first bouts. Finally, winning Varsity 7–2 (the largest winning margin for many years) meant we retook the lead in the overall Varsity Match tally; we have been behind Cambridge since the start of the 20th century, and now the total stands, finally, at 52–51 in Oxford’s favour.

This has been a better year than we dared to hope for. The club has continued to grow in strength inside and outside the ring, and stands in an even stronger position than it did at the end of last year. We have new match kit, new sparring gloves, a new weights gym and a new coach in Rob Southey (filling the big gap left by the retirement of the much-loved Des Brackett). Just as importantly, there has been a greater sense of community than we have known in the last four years with OUABC.

The squad has continued to train throughout the summer, collecting one gold,

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18 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2014

CHEERLEADING This year the squad had a large competitive team as well as two stunt groups. Both our stunting and tumbling skills have significantly improved over recent years, allowing us to enter an extra stunt group in a higher division than ever before.

We took part in three competitions this year, managing to place higher than last year in the university-wide competition in Bath. With a perfect routine we managed to score only 4.5 points behind second place, which was a major accomplishment. In the upcoming year we are aiming even higher and working towards the most difficult skills that are legal in our division.

CANOE AND KAYAK The year started well, with many new students attending ‘come and try it’ sessions in Michaelmas term. With their newly found skills, the new members were ready to tackle the Usk on the beginners’ trip to South Wales, which proved a success. Meanwhile, the canoe polo team got in plenty of match practice attending tournaments from London to Warwick and beyond.

The flooding at the start of Hilary meant that the club shed was inaccessible on foot for much of the term. This however did not stop the canoe polo team from continuing to attend tournaments whenever the river levels were low enough to allow safe access to the shed, nor did it stop a white-water trip to Dartmoor. An alumni weekend in North Wales was also organised and enjoyed by all who attended. The National Student Rodeo towards the end of term provided an opportunity for all to showcase their freestyle skills, and for the club to get to know other university canoe clubs a bit better. As the river levels receded, Sunday sessions came back in full swing and continued sporadically for those who were still around over the Easter vacation.

Trinity term began with the BUCS Canoe Polo event, and this year we had teams in three leagues: Open, Ladies, and Alumni.

The teams were placed 12th, 17th, and 15th respectively. This was followed by a successful Varsity weekend, with us smashing the Tabs in most events. Both the men’s and women’s teams won the marathon time-trial races.

Unfortunately, the men’s team narrowly lost the canoe polo match with the final score standing at 4–2. However, this was made up for by the smashing that our women’s team gave Cambridge, coming home with an 8–0

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victory under their belts. The next day, the teams headed to Lee Valley White Water Centre where the freestyle event was held.

Oxford came home with freestyle victories for both the men and women. Still reeling from our victories, it was then time for teammates to turn against each other and ignite their college loyalties in the ever popular Cuppers event which was eventually won by Merton.

CAVING OUCC started off the year with a big success at Freshers’ Fair, where over 150 signed up for the mailing list, many of them staying active throughout the year.

The club continued to organize caving trips to various areas within the UK, including two enjoyable freshers’ caving weekends to South Wales and the Mendips, as well as some challenging vertical caving at the Northern Dales and Derbyshire. The Varsity Meet was well-attended by OUCC members; OUCC and CUCC competed in several competitions, ultimately ending in a victory for OUCC. A joint weekend with OUMC was organized – more than 60 cavers and climbers went caving and climbing together in North Wales.

Several OUCC members joined the Ario Caves Project on a caving expedition this summer to the Picos d’Europa in Spain – an area which OUCC has been exploring over the past 30 years. After achieving the world’s deepest cave-diving in the summer 2012 trip, the group focused on finding new leads which could possibly bypass the terminal sump at Pozu del Xitu and connect with another cave higher up in the mountain. Some promising leads were found and will be pushed in the 2014 expedition.

The squad has also been working on becoming more recognised in the University. This year we competed in our second Varsity Match, at a higher level than Cambridge. Having introduced Varsity, we decided this Trinity to hold the first ever cheerleading Cuppers, which seems to be attracting lots of new members.

We also plan on continuing our tradition of performing at Summer Eights.

Partly due to the introduction of Cuppers, we have seen a great increase in interest this season. We had a huge turnout during the taster sessions in Michaelmas and the taster sessions this Trinity are also showing great promise. Due to the strength required in competitive cheerleading we have had a particularly large increase in men trying out – making up a third of our 2013/14 squad. Not only has this helped us increase the difficulty of our skills, but it has also improved our tumbling immensely – enabling us to choreograph much more gymnastics into this year’s routine. The popularity of this sport has exploded in the past few years and we are definitely noticing the benefits. Not only are we attracting more people than in previous years, but growing recognition of cheerleading throughout the UK is also contributing to a more realistic public image of what we do.

If we can keep the current trends going we are confident that we will be able to further build on our skills to achieve our best results yet in the upcoming year.

CLAY PIGEON SHOOTING OUCPSC has enjoyed another year of growth.

Our first few shoots of the year had upwards of 50 attendees, a club record. There has been significant retention of beginners who came to one of the preliminary sessions, with two competing in the Varsity Match. We have mainly been to the Oxfordshire Shooting School this year as they have provided us with a good deal and their tuition is fantastic. Our BUCS team shot solid 60s at a hard ground, all finishing in the top half of competitors. Two of the team

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had only started the year before, so it was an impressive achievement from the club.

We expect to see numbers rise again in the new academic year and to increase the frequency of shoots we organise to one per weekend. This would allow a much faster turnover of members and slow churn. Everyone who shoots with us leaves having had a nice day out, relieved some stress and maybe even had a bacon sandwich – the best reasons to get out of Oxford!

MEN’S CRICKET After victory in the Boat Race and at Twickenham, pressure was on the cricket Blues to deliver victory at Lord’s and complete a glorious treble for Oxford sport.

The side delivered: New Zealander Ross Haines conjured a famous one-wicket victory to send the Dark Blues into raptures and retain the C B Fry Trophy claimed in 2013.

The Blues’ early season was disjointed, with the combined Oxford Brookes and Oxford University side, Oxford MCCU, drawing the cream of Oxford’s cricketing talent away until mid-May. Abidine Sakande, Johny Marsden, Ben Jeffery, Matt Winter, Nick Ferraby, Gus Kennedy and Sam Cato all played in fixtures for the MCCU against county sides, gaining valuable experience at the top level.

Continually left bereft of players meanwhile for BUCS in South Premier, the Blues suffered losses to Bath and Bristol, but

thumping victories against Southampton and Surrey ensured that flirtation with relegation was brief. Ethan Fogarty was a revelation with the bat, whilst Richard O’Grady produced a fine hundred at Surrey.

Haines led the attack and bowled superbly – as he was to do all summer – and contributed useful lower-order runs.

The Varsity Match series against Cambridge was to begin with the Twenty20 at the Parks, but this was lost to rain. Instead the series began at Lord’s in the one-day Varsity, with skipper Gus Kennedy winning the toss and bowling first after being greeted by a green wicket. Johny Marsden bowled with superb discipline to take 2–24 at the top of the innings, but Cambridge’s Akbar Ansari meanwhile batted beautifully for fifty. As the Light Blues appeared to be taking control, Sam Cato initiated a stunning collapse, taking 4–31 as Cambridge fell to 177 all out.

Early wickets made the target seem much more imposing, but Matt Winter kept Oxford in the game with 52 as teammates tumbled around him. When he eventually fell at 6–81, the Dark Blues were gone for all money. Enter Haines. The Kiwi is a renowned hitter, having plundered thousands of runs at college level, and he played with real abandon, striking the ball all around Lord’s in a 40-ball 50. When Marsden fell with the score at 9–137, Haines’ success looked as though it might have gone in vain. Abidine Sakande, fresh from an England U19 debut in 2013, joined Haines and built slowly, eking out the required runs. Haines was left

on strike, needing 5 to win from the final over – a target he achieved by depositing the first ball of the 50th over into a window in the Mound Stand. This completed a dramatic victory, finishing on 61 from 44 balls. Given the difficulty of the pitch, the state of the Oxford innings and the drama of the game in the closing stages, Haines’ innings must go down as one of the most remarkable ever witnessed in a Varsity Match – some feat, given the fixture’s 180-year history.

The pitch at the Parks for the four-day Varsity fixture was the complete antithesis of the Lord’s wicket – flat and hard. After early difficulties, with Haines cruelly rolling his ankle in the warm-up to be denied his first Blue, and then the loss of three early wickets, it was left to Captain Kennedy and Ferraby to steady the Oxford innings with a 173-run partnership, Ferraby making a superlative 107, and Kennedy 67, before lower-order support from O’Grady pushed the side to 360. Marsden again led the charge with the ball, taking 4–65 in Cambridge’s first innings, as the Light Blues were dismissed for 275. In their second innings, Kennedy and Ferraby again scored the bulk of the runs, Kennedy leading the way with 91 not out, declaring just prior to the close of play on the third evening and setting a target of 370. Cambridge declined to pursue the total, and on a docile pitch they moved to 195 off 84.1 overs before hands were shaken at 5pm. Leg spinner Joe O’Gorman picked up his maiden first-class wicket, as did Cato, as Oxford bowled well but could not prise the required wickets to win.

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20 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2014

Matthew Winter was elected captain for 2015 and will skipper a squad with nine returning Blues as Oxford seek to retain all three Varsity trophies.

CRICKET – WOMEN

to a somewhat lopsided scoreline. However, the match led to Claire Taylor coming and running one of our training sessions, which was immensely beneficial and enjoyable. We played our regular friendly T20s against the army, where we came out victorious in the first and narrowly lost the second.

2013/14 has been a successful year for OUWCC. We won both Varsity Matches comprehensively. In the one-day match at Lord’s we batted first, scoring 204 off 50 overs (Tina Gough 71, Ellie Bath 41). We then proceeded to dismiss Cambridge for 64, winning by a ten runs. We were similarly dominant in the Twenty20 Varsity held at the Parks, holding Cambridge to 77 (Ridhi Kashyap 2–10) and then passing their score in the 13th over (Lucy Stuchfield 31, Ellie Bath 29).

The other major development was entering a team in the Oxfordshire Cricket Board’s Midweek League. This allowed the less experienced members of our squad a chance to play cricket against local club teams in a friendly and constructive environment. Overall, it has been a great year for OUWCC and we look forward to some fantastic cricket next year.

We came second in our BUCS league (Midlands 1A), defeating Cambridge (again), Nottingham and Nottingham Trent. Sadly the rain played havoc with our schedule, causing several matches to be cancelled, including the Town vs Gown game. After an exciting match against the MCC last year, the team from ‘the home of cricket’ put out a vastly over-powered side, including former England legends Claire Taylor and Charlotte Edwards.

While it was a pleasure to play against two of the world’s best female cricket players, it led

The 2013/14 season has been another very successful one for the Oxford University Croquet Club. Having won the Southern Federation Handicap League Northern Division last season, we were entered into a playoff against the Southern Division winners at Winchester. A 4–3 win in early October means that the team have qualified for the quarterfinals of the national handicap competition, the Secretary’s Shield. Other good team results included a win against Surbiton Croquet Club in April 2014, and most importantly a

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CROQUET

convincing 7–2 win at the Hurlingham Club against Cambridge in the Varsity Match.

Cuppers has again been a huge success with just short of 2,000 players competing in the 487 teams who entered. The club has maintained a healthy membership of new and old members, with both casual and competitive players represented well.

On an individual basis there has also been success. Martin Lester and Mark van Loon both entered their first Croquet Association tournaments, with Martin winning the Cheltenham Easter Open. The club was also represented at the World Championships in London last summer; Harry Fisher qualified for the event, which sees the best 80 players in the world battle it out for the title. Entries came from as far away as Japan and New Zealand but it was an Australian 21-year-old, Robert Fletcher, who won. Harry was also selected for his first international match in September, when he was part of the winning Great Britain team against Ireland.

CROSS COUNTRY From the point of view of strength, depth and commitment, it has been a brilliant year for OUCCC. At Varsity, we won the women’s Thirds

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match for the first time in six years, as well as the men’s Thirds and Fourths. Unfortunately, up against the strongest Cambridge team in recent memory, there was an overall loss in the Blues matches. The Dark Blues were valiant in defeat however, with Tom Frith and Sophia Saller putting in very strong runs to come second and third in the men’s and women’s Blues, respectively. The strong team element of the club was shown by victory for both men and women at the Hyde Park Relays, with the women’s B team also coming in second, and victory for the women and second for the men at Teddy Hall Relays.

The non-competitive side of the club has also strengthened enormously this year, with record turnouts to training and club runs, a growing social scene and an atmosphere of support and care for fellow athletes.

In addition to this, 2013/14 has been a fantastic year for Oxford alumni. Pete Hodkinson finished second in the Midlands Cross-Country and twentieth in the National, as well as qualifying to run in the European Orienteering Championships for Great Britain.

Luke Caldwell, having taken up a postgrad scholarship in New Mexico, finished tenth in the prestigious NCAA Cross-Country in addition to fifth in the European U23 Cross-Country, looking set to race in the Commonwealth Games this summer.

With a young team, the club has performed admirably, and with a conveyor belt of talent the forthcoming season promises to be a successful one.

CYCLING It was a promising year for Oxford University Cycling Club. Despite a shaky start to the year, in which we held an extra AGM to appoint the remainder of our committee, the club has gone from strength to strength! The committee this year has been fantastic in getting the club back onto its feet and has set us up well for further development in the following year.

Cuppers was held in March, as usual on the Stadhampton 10-mile TT course. This was made possible thanks to the combined efforts of several committee members and other members of the club, who are thanked for giving up their time. Balliol won Cuppers; their second team was, notably, fourth. Doug Bruce posted the fastest time of the day, Alasdair Morrison second, Alec Watson a close-placed third.

It was OUCC’s turn this year to organise the BUCS 25 and road Varsity Match. The event was a success, with the largest ever field of 162 riders across two races, although the turnout in the women’s event of only 42 riders from across Britain’s universities was slightly disappointing. The races were won by Hayley Simmonds of Cambridge and Harry Bulstrode of Edinburgh.

In the cycling Varsity Matches, OUCC had a very disappointing year. The mountain bike Varsity was lost (with a first, second and third for Cambridge), and Oxford failed to field a full women’s mountain bike team. On the road Cambridge were absolutely dominant, with their second team coming ahead of Oxford’s first team on aggregate time. OUCC did not have any female competitors in the Varsity Match. Serious work towards improvement will be necessary over the next few years.

Outside Varsity and BUCS, OUCC has become much more proactive. Entries into local and further afield criterium races and time trials have increased compared to previous years with the MTB attending all Gorrick autumn, winter and spring series. More of the above is planned for next year as we increase the competitive range of the club.

In the following year we aim to introduce more opportunities for members to compete between themselves through the introduction of designated racing squads and teams. Club coaches will be introduced in 2014/15 to spur on OUCC and close the widening gap between Oxford and Cambridge Varsity results.

DANCESPORT The club had 647 members for the year 2013/14. We continued to run classes in ballroom, latin, salsa, rueda, bachata, argentine tango and zumba, as well as the La Iglesia socials and the occasional ballroom and latin social. The La Iglesia social has been extremely popular this year and is currently running every week. The committee recommends that this continue next year.

The club’s competitive ballroom and latin team attended seven external university circuit competitions this year. This is an increase of one from previous years and is due to the addition of the Birmingham competition. With four competitions in Hilary Term, enthusiasm was felt to sag somewhat, and the committee recommends possibly reducing the number of competitions to six next year. The club fielded 30 couples at the IVDC and achieved a second-place ranking in the overall competition. The Varsity Match was closely fought but sadly Cambridge was victorious in both the A and B team events.

The beginners’ team had an excellent year, with some superb individual performances.

Cambridge declined to field a beginners’ team at the Varsity Match and so Oxford won by default. Nevertheless the committee and coaching staff are unanimous in their opinion that Oxford would have won in any eventuality! The rock’n’roll team had another very successful year. A narrow loss to Cambridge at the IVDC was followed by a victory in Varsity.

Cuppers was extremely successful, with 212 competitors taking part.

The committee wanted to place on record the phenomenal debt owed by the club to its coaching staff, and in particular to Head Coach Bruce Richardson.

ETON FIVES The men’s team has had a great season rebuilding after disappointment at the previous year’s Varsity. Although we were not able to win at the first-team level, the second team showcased the strength of the club with a dominant performance across the board. The highlight had to be the performance in the EFA Trophy tournament, where the team progressed to the final after some intense matches, and only narrowly lost to a much more experienced Old Salopian side. Participation is up, and the social side of the club is healthy, which bodes very well for next year.

This has been arguably the most successful year to date for the Eton Fives women’s squad!

We have sent pairs to every major tournament within term time, just missing the Under-25s before the start of Michaelmas. All players have progressed from the first rounds, with major achievements including winning the University National Championships, finishing Reserve Champion in the Mixed Universities’ on our debut, becoming national and Under-21 semi-finalists, and winning Varsity.

The 2013/14 season saw the club increase participation at the beginner level, partly promoted by the loss of several top players at the end of last year, but also a testament to the great coaching we now have on offer. This is the second season that we have had a coach once a week for two hours to improve set pieces, as well as court awareness and match play generally. Players train two or three times a week, with the North Oxford club (top pairs only) on a Monday evening, coaching on a Tuesday and match practice on a Wednesday.

The coach is subsidised via a bursary from the national governing body, the Eton Fives Association.

FENCING This season OUFC has been successful both in the competitive arena and in its wider fencing activities, notably the flourishing beginners’ programme and the rapidly expanding outreach programme.

Michaelmas term saw both men’s and women’s squads return a week early for preseason training and this effort quickly paid dividends when Trinity College Dublin visited in third week. The club contested four matches against TCD: the men’s and women’s Blues recorded dominant victories, the women’s novice team won after a close contest and the men’s novices lost by only a few hits after an exciting match. This was a new fixture, but one which it is hoped will continue. Indeed it was unique to have both Blues and novices

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fencing at the same time, in the same fixture and against the same opponent – a positive landmark for developing a high standard of fencing throughout the club.

Following this early success, the BUCS league fixtures brought more positive results. The men’s Blues won all bar one of their matches in the first quinte (a tight one-point defeat to Imperial, who eventually won the league) and despite missing some squad members for the second quinte, they finished fourth in Premier South – missing out on second place by points difference alone. The women’s Blues also finished fourth in Premier South, although their season took a different shape, with a relatively new team finding their feet over the first few fixtures before finishing with two excellent victories over Cardiff and Imperial.

Both Blues teams then lost in the quarterfinals of the Trophy in difficult and closely fought away matches – the men at Durham and the women at Edinburgh.

The best BUCS results were still to come from the men’s and women’s second teams, with the men being undefeated in their league (thus gaining automatic promotion) and the women losing only one match – an agonising two-hit defeat away at Cambridge. The women quickly avenged this defeat by beating Cambridge in the Cup before losing to a very strong UCL team, but it was the men who impressed most as they comfortably won their cup, beating Staffordshire away 120–101 in the final.

With the teams being in this good form and with a couple of victories over Cambridge already recorded in the season, the club entered the home Varsity Match in a confident mood. However after some close matches, it was only the men’s Blues who beat the Light Blues, recovering from an early 9-point deficit to win 124–118. This victory was particularly pleasing as Cambridge had won the previous two Varsity meetings.

The club’s fencers have also competed individually on the domestic circuit. Harriet Dixon’s gold medal in the BUCS individual women’s sabre is particularly noteworthy.

Similarly it is pleasing to have three club members ranked in the top ten of the British rankings for men’s Epée. Harriet Dixon and Matt Henderson have also represented Great Britain at junior and senior internationals respectively and the club had four fencers selected for the Five Nations Home International just before Christmas.

Aside from the results of the advanced fencers, the club claimed victory in the Novice Varsity Match in Trinity Term 2013. This success extends Oxford’s run of victories in this fixture and is a testament to the strength of the beginners’ programme which is consistently producing a high number of proficient new fencers. The success of our beginners’ coaches in this fixture also firmly complements the work of club coach Tomek Walicki, who returned for his 26th year with the club and who throughout the

year demonstrated his unwavering enthusiasm, deft skill and unstinting generosity to help all members improve.

Finally, it is important to recognise the great strides that the club has taken in its outreach work. Multiple taster sessions have been organised in all three terms for local school children and as a result over 200 children have been introduced to the sport of fencing. This is a significant rise on previous years and serves as an excellent indicator of the club’s all-round health and success in providing good-quality fencing opportunities for all levels, new and old alike.

FLOORBALL The year started on a positive note with the club managing to get a sponsorship deal with DMZ-CLUB. We also responded to the growth in membership during the previous year by introducing a second team. The club has strengthened considerably during this last year, with many new players joining us and playing for the first and second team. Our first team participated in the Senior National League, finishing in fourth place and thus qualifying for the national finals. Our second Team participated in the BUFL and had mixed results.

British University Floorball League 5 Nov 2013 – (second team) After a bit of a shocking start to the BUFL Unifest with 4–0 and 8–4 losses to a mixed

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team and Nottingham, our BUFL team got back to playing some proper floorball. A competitive 3–0 loss to Bath 1, who went unbeaten throughout the day, was followed by a 5–1 loss to Imperial that somehow felt more like a 3–3 draw. Subsequently, we did manage to pick up our first win thanks to 2 powerplay goals and a winner with 15 seconds remaining in a 3–2 game vs LSE. The day finished with a very close 3–1 loss to Warwick’s first team, where the goal just seemed to avoid us on multiple occasions, and a confident 3–0 win versus Warwick Seconds.

Special mention goes to our goalie Matt, who improved throughout the day in his first tournament as a floorball goalie, in only his third outing.

National Finals 10–11 May 2014 – (first team) We won both our group games, 5–4 against London Vikings and 6–3 against London Hammerheads. After winning our group we were matched in the quarter-final against Aberdeen Oilers, but after a tough game, the dream run came to an end with a close 4–3 loss. We were unlucky to lose a player on a technicality but it was always anybody’s game until the end.

Sunday games brought us a win against Kingdom Revolution (Scotland) and a loss in the fifth-place game against London Vikings.

FOOTBALL – MEN The Blues’ season was one of rebuilding for the future. With so many of the Blues’ squad from 2012/13 leaving, head coach Mickey

Lewis and Captain Jack Fletcher were left to rebuild with only three players who had Varsity Match experience (Centurion Ezra Rubenstein, Club President Peder Beck-Friis and the 130th Varsity Man of the Match, Mike Moneke). So when Cambridge stepped out onto Craven Cottage in front of more than 3,000 spectators with 9 of their starting XI with Blues experience, no-one expected the game we all witnessed. The Blues ended their season losing on penalties to Cambridge but with the pride of every person who attended the game, thanks to standout performances from Mike Moneke (Man of the Match), Jack Fletcher and Peder Beck-Friis, dominating the game in terms of possession and the creation of goal scoring opportunities. An injustice that topped the final tumultuous ten minutes of the 2014 Oxford Centaurs vs Cambridge Falcons match.

In the league, the Blues staved off relegation in the final hours of the BUCS Midlands 1A season with a fantastic performance against Coventry on a Friday night before the season ended. The Blues also enjoyed their winter tour to Ireland, beating Trinity College Dublin (3–1) and League of Ireland Premier Division club UCD (1–0).

Jon Collins, alongside Centaurs Captain Hayden Cooke, managed to install a philosophy of high-tempo pressing and possession football for the Centaurs. A season that consisted of video analysis and 90% passing accuracies ended in another unjust defeat for OUAFC as the Centaurs went from comfortably leading 2–0 in the 80th minute to losing 2–3 to Cambridge Falcons by the 90th minute.

The Centaurs ended their season by playing against a Real Madrid youth team at Ciudad Real Madrid (Valdebebas) with Fred Howell getting on a scoresheet against a group of players who will no doubt go on to be some of the world’s finest footballers. Dan Hirons (Player of the Season) and Hayden Cooke could not have hung up their final OUAFC shirts and worn-out boots in a finer dressing room.

The development squad, led by coach Jed Davies and captained by Nathan Riddell, also adopted a very brave playing style. The development squad lost their Varsity Match in extra time, from a long-range effort after an extremely confident second-half. The development squad managed to draw level against a Stoke trialists’ U18 team before their Varsity Match – competing against recently released Porto, Crystal Palace, Swansea and Manchester City youth players against many on watching scouts (a situation that left a number of players considering their academic futures).

FOOTBALL – WOMEN Coming back from a disappointing season last year, both the Blues and Furies had strong seasons, with the Blues being promoted to regain their place in Midlands 1A and the Furies retaining their place in Midlands 3A, placing fourth. Although we were unable to win back either of the Varsity trophies, both teams showed great fight against strong Cambridge sides, with the Furies losing 4–0 to the Cambridge Eagles and the Blues losing 2–0. The Blues then reached the final of the Midlands Conference Cup, in which they battled against the same Cambridge side

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once more, this time to come away with a devastating 1–0 loss in a very tight match.

With a half-new team and only a couple of unlucky defeats in the early days of Michaelmas term, the Blues have gone from strength to strength and are looking to be one of the strongest squads in OUWAFC history next year, with many returning players.

This year we have also introduced an annual Brookes Varsity Match – which we won 6–0 at the start of Hilary – and a Town vs Gown match against Women’s Super League team Oxford United, in which we suffered an expected heavy defeat of 7–1 at the end of Hilary.

Not only has our play on the pitch been outstanding; we have had massive improvements in training attendance, with over 40 ladies now playing consistently in our BUCS matches. This made choosing Varsity squads this year a great challenge but it has been excellent for raising the profile of the women’s game in Oxford.

GAELIC GAMES The year began for Oxford University Gaelic Athletic Association (OUGAA) with a good home victory over Birmingham University in the Midlands League, Oxford romping home 4–18 to 1–5 victors. The return leg in Birmingham was closer, but Oxford took the points with a 7–7 to 2–7 victory. We then had two games against Newman University; Oxford won the home game 9–7 to 3–7 and the away game 8–10 to 3–1. In between we had a trip to Aston University and won 7–8 to 1–3. As we had topped the table we had a home league final against Birmingham, which took place in Horspath. After a tough battle, Oxford were victors on a 5–10 to 3–9 scoreline and Captain Ronan Henry took the Midlands League Cup for a much deserved jaunt down the Cowley Road!

The 2013/14 season has been the most successful in years for OUGAA. We ended the year as Midlands League Champions and retain the Varsity hurling and football cups.

The 2014/15 season is shaping up to be our most successful ever.

GLIDING The new committee is comprised of eight students and two senior members from 2013 to 2014, which effectively organized the Freshers’ Fair, committee conferences and the introduction to our new members.

In the last week of August 2013 we flew our Varsity Match against Cambridge at Windrushers Gliding Club, Bicester. In the competitive two-day event, we finally won the Varsity Match by 371 scores versus 352 over CUGC. We had a successful Freshers’ Fair and attracted many new potential members. We followed with an introduction at Christ Church, to give those interested a general impression of gliding and the opportunity to ask specific questions.

At the end of 2013, we also organized a cocktail party to further introduce gliding to those who wanted to join the club. In total, we had 55 members enrolled in OUGC from 2013 to 2014. We have five solo pilots who can represent OUGC to compete with CUGC in the next Varsity Match, and we are looking forward to another victory.

GOLF – WOMEN 2013/14 was a great year for Oxford women’s golf. We started the season with several new players, and the aim of building on the previous year’s enthusiasm and momentum.

We continued our very successful collaboration with our coaches John and Matthew Cook, who together have provided high-quality training sessions.

During our weekend fixtures we always search for opportunities to play more links golf clubs, and we added a few new fixtures to our list, among them Royal Cinque Ports. The added links experience was a great bonus to our preparation for the Varsity Match. As ever, during our weekend fixtures we were wellmatched against our hosts, and relished the regular battles on some of England’s finest courses (and fantastic hospitality to follow).

New friendships were made as well as old friendships being renewed, on and off the golf course.

The Varsity Match was held at Rye Golf Club at the end of Hilary term. Whereas Oxford had lost many of the team’s low-handicap players over the past seasons, Cambridge had some strong new recruits. The foursomes in the morning were close fights, but in the end all were won by Cambridge. The afternoon singles match play involved a great deal of tactics and determination from all the Oxford team. Lise Loerup, playing number one, quickly secured a lead against Francesca Bastianello of Cambridge and managed to secure Oxford their first point of the day. Other highlights were Audrey Davies and Sabrina Sayeed, who also managed to secure points for Oxford in their

2014 started with a trip to Cardiff to play their university side and a home fixture against London side Éire Óg. These games should have left us in good nick for Varsity in March but inclement weather conditions led to the postponement of the game, intended to be played in Cambridge. As no date could be found later in the year, Oxford retain the football and hurling Varsity trophies for 2014.

On Easter Saturday OUGAA took part in the annual Éire Óg Oxford Sevens Hurling and Football competition. A Town vs Gown game in the football saw the Town emerge as narrow victors. After a victory over Fedamore of Limerick by a point, OUGAA played Luton side St. Dympna’s for a semi-final spot. A last minute St. Dympna’s goal denied us a final spot and St. Dympna’s won the football final.

We got to the hurling final after beating Hertfordshire side St. Declan’s but Fedamore had revenge for their football loss and beat us by a point.

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matches, and Tessa Sandberg who won the reserve match. Overall Cambridge secured a 6.5–2.5 points win in the match.

Sabrina Sayeed will take over as Women’s Captain for the 2014/15 academic year.

GOLF – MEN OUGC had a big task ahead of them in the 2013/14 season. Coming off the back of a fourth consecutive Varsity Match win the previous year, and with many of the star players moving on to pastures new, the emphasis of the year was always going to be rebuilding the squads and searching for a fifth straight win over Cambridge at the end of the year.

The Blues got off to a fast start in their regular season. With several new faces coming into the team, as well as several more making the step up from Divots to Blues golf, any gaps that were left from the previous year were well and truly filled. Michaelmas term saw the Blues play a strong and full set of fixtures, with wins coming against opposition such as Denham, Royal Ashdown Forest and, most notably, the Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society. After the Christmas break, Hilary term was somewhat truncated by the appalling weather that plagued the country during the first few months of the year. However, the Blues were still able to get in a multitude of fantastic fixtures at some of the country’s most prestigious courses, so as to sharpen their games for the 125th Varsity Match at Rye at the end of term. The match was a closely contested one, going all the way to the wire during the Saturday singles, but Oxford

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eventually prevailed by 8.5 matches to 6.5 to make it five consecutive Dark Blue wins.

The University second team, the Divots, also enjoyed a full and prosperous season. Many new names appeared in the squad this year, but all seemed to gel instantly, forming a level of team spirit that the Divots have become renowned for. After achieving mixed results in their regular season matches, the Divots turned up to Littlestone full of confidence before their match against the Cambridge Stymies.

The game was inevitably tight and indeed came down to the 17th hole of the last singles match. It did, however, go Cambridge’s way.

GYMNASTICS This year was an exciting one, with gymnasts Lucian Wong and Serena Chang gaining full blues, Serena being the first female gymnast in three years to achieve this. She faced strong competition at the BUCS championships, coming 11th overall. Unfortunately, both Oxford men and women lost the Varsity Match this year, but Oxford did take some individual medals. In the men’s match, Lucian came third in the all-around competition; in the women’s competition, Serena came first on three out of four pieces of apparatus and claimed the gold in the all-around competition. The Varsity Match was a very close competition this year for both the men and women, with the women losing by a narrow margin of six points! We have had a number of socials this year, all of which have had great attendance, and Cuppers (which took place in Trinity term) was a great success!.

HANDBALL Overall, the handball season 2013/14 was a great success. A number of new club members were recruited at Freshers’ Fair, and the line-up of both the men’s and women’s team changed considerably after various players left at the end of last season.

Both teams entered the Development League, which is part of the England Handball Association (EHA) National League structure.

The men’s team played in the South West group and missed the national qualifying round by a tiny margin, finishing second in the league table. The women’s team successfully defended their top position in the London group, winning all their matches.

A major highlight, as every year, was the National University Championships organised by the Association of British University Handball Clubs (ABUHC). A total of 36 men’s and 24 women’s teams entered the regional qualifying round, out of which 24 and 16 qualified for the final round. Both Oxford teams went through the qualifying stage without much difficulty. After a notso-great start in the final round, the men’s team found its strength in the play-off stage, beating Cambridge in the quarterfinal, Royal Holloway in the semi-final and Loughborough in the final. The team qualified for the European University Championships held in Braga, Portugal in 2016. This is the seventh National University Championship title for the men’s team, making them the most successful university team in the UK. Despite fielding a strong side the women’s

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team unfortunately lost against Nottingham (later runners-up) in the quarter-final.

It has taken 12 years since the club was founded, and many players were waiting for this moment, but for the first time ever an official handball Varsity Match took place in London. Both universities fielded full men’s and women’s teams. Whereas the men’s team was able to secure a comfortable victory (32:26), the women’s team struggled with a strong Cambridge side, losing (12:23).

Nevertheless both clubs agreed to continue the Varsity tradition next year, aiming to get Half-Blue status the following year.

HOCKEY The season of 2013/14 was a mixed one for the 120-member Hockey Club. The men’s Blues enjoyed a fantastic run from before Christmas up to Varsity, but unfortunately lost a close Varsity Match 2–1. The team were hugely disappointed as it was obvious to all who have followed OUHC this season that they had not performed to their full potential.

This was a stark contrast to the win over Bristol that sealed top spot in BUCS South Premier League, where the team held their nerve excellently to complete a comfortable victory. Winning the double over a team with the resources and talent of Exeter is a huge achievement and was certainly the highlight of the season, alongside hosting (and beating) the GB women’s team.

The women’s Blues enjoyed their best season in recent memory. With a strong win at Varsity they also secured their status in BUCS South Premier for another year, a huge achievement given the fact that they were also promoted in their women’s league to South Premier. This achievement should not be underestimated – the consistency, drive and determination that the Blues have shown over the past year have been admirable. It will be good to see both the men’s and women’s sides playing in comparable leagues on both a Wednesday and Saturday for another year. Sadly both Blues teams exited the BUCS cup at the first stage, and both teams will hope to improve on this in the coming season.

maintained its reputation as one of the most sociable clubs in the University. The unique spirit present in OUHC continues to grow and the future seems hugely bright for the club on and off the field.

JITSU The Oxford University Jitsu club has had a busy year with three regional gradings, two national competitions and the recent Varsity Match against Cambridge.

In terms of advancing through the belts, the club has had six members take the first step and grade to yellow belts, and four members to orange. We are extremely proud of all of them.

In the national competitions, we have brought home one gold medal, one silver, and a bronze.

It was a great experience for those who did not win medals as they got to test their mettle against some great fighters and put on a really good show. As club bonding goes, nothing is better than pitting ourselves against another club, university or town.

Our recent Varsity Match was a victory for Oxford, with Oxford winning the trophy after a very close and hard-fought competition.

That said, particular kudos goes to our new members who stepped in and fought opponents vastly more experienced than themselves. Considering the tough competition, Oxford did a brilliant job to keep the trophy.

JUDO Following a period of three years in which the club twice won the Sports Federation ‘Sports Club of the Year’ award, and with a great many of the club’s strongest members having left in 2012, we were left with the challenge of rebuilding for 2013/14. In addition, two of the 2013 men’s Blues team, both doing language degrees, spent the year abroad.

It was therefore a significant achievement for the men to retain the Matsudaira Cup in the Varsity Match, winning by four contests to three. There were some strong individual performances at BUCS, most notably by fresher Will Johnson who won the gold medal in the Under 79kg category and went on to win gold in the British Open. There were also some strong performances in the BJC National Open Championships and in other more local events.

Nevertheless, the Varsity Match revealed that we lack strength in depth, particularly amongst our women members. Despite the triumph of our men’s A Team, we were unable to field full men’s B or women’s teams, with the result that they were both well and truly beaten by Cambridge. However, the return of our two language ‘expatriates’, to be next year’s President and Men’s Captain respectively, bodes well for the future of our senior men. There are plans next year to reinstitute participation in more top-level championships, including the Paris Tournée in the Spring.

Also, we had a good entry of beginners and lower grades, and the challenge for next year will be to capitalise on this, to maintain our

The Occasionals (second XI) and Infrequents (third XI) will be playing in the same BUCS and men’s leagues next season, following a promotion in BUCS for the Infrequents and relegation for the Occasionals. Both teams also lost their Varsity Matches, something that they will look to recover from next season.

On the women’s side of the club the Monkeys (second XI) and Hos (third XI) enjoyed a mixed season. Both teams could have won promotion on a Wednesday, both finishing in second place when first was well within the capability of their very talented sides. The Hos however did win an exhilarating Varsity Match on a penalty shootout. Outside hockey, OUHC has

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28 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2014

culture of top-class coaching, enjoyable recreational judo and social events to complement the competitive element (all important for attracting new members of both sexes).

The club continues to share coaching and training facilities with the Oxford City Club at Iffley Road, and we have continued to invest in the development of new coaches by helping with the cost of attendance at CCA-level coaching courses.

Two other very positive features of the year were: 1) the introduction of our new Membership Attendance Records Database System, based on the use of barcoded membership cards which will be integrated with the Treasurer’s financial records to control subscriptions revenues; 2) an investment of £1,500 of our reserves (supplemented by equivalent contributions from the City Judo Club and Oxford Aikikai and £500 each from the Sports Federation and Shorinji Kempo) to replace the ageing mats in the dojo and to have the wood and metalwork repainted.

KARATE Over the course of the past year the Oxford University Karate Club has entered many competitions and enjoyed an incredibly successful year. We have sent students to the Japan Karate Association of England (JKAE) tenth anniversary competition and plan to also enter the JKAE nationals at the end of Trinity. We also organised a fantastic kumite tournament with Warwick University, which gave us very valuable experience before our major competitions.

OUKC’s performances at BUCS and Varsity this year were the best the club has seen for a long time. At BUCS we had three competitors reach the quarter finals in the kata competition, while in kumite Tegwen Ecclestone won an excellent bronze medal in the women’s lightweight category – OUKC’s first BUCS medal for a few years.

Until this year neither squad had been victorious in their Varsity Match since 2006, but the women ended this run in fine style with a dominant victory of 82 points to 20. The men’s team was unfortunately unsuccessful again, but this was probably the closest their Varsity Match had been since 2006, and a defeat by just 18 points represents a huge improvement on last year’s performance.

The club has also raised over £800 for charity this year, when six squad members ran six miles in their karate gis for sport relief through mud, rain and forests, all in the name of raising money for a good cause. Given the improvement that OUKC has seen over the

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course of the past year, we are confident that with more hard training, the assistance of Martyn King and Giuseppe D’Onofrio, new members of our coaching team, and the hope that Sensei Ohta (JKAE Chief Instructor, seventh dan) will soon be returning to Oxford, we will be able to bring the Enoeda Cup back to Oxford next year.

KARATE DO SHOTOKAI Over the past year OUKDS have run three training sessions a week throughout the year, and travelled regularly to weekend training courses with both UK and overseas clubs.

Two club gradings were held, with a further grading in August as part of the week-long residential summer school at the University of Kent.

Each year we host a KDS course in Oxford, which senior members from the UK, France, Belgium and Portugal also attend.

The Karate-do Shotokai believes that competition karate cannot be reconciled with karate as a martial art without distorting the essence and power of karate-do. This has the unfortunate side effect that we have no competition results to report.

OUKDS would like to thank the two club instructors for their commitment and expert guidance throughout the year.

KENDO This year has been a hugely successful one for Oxford University Kendo Club, developmentally and in competition.

In addition to several new members with previous kendo experience joining the club, we have had the highest retention from our Michaelmas term beginners’ course for the last four years. Consequently, our membership this year has been much larger than previously. We have also benefited greatly from the excellent instruction provided by Yasuyuki Hiyama sensei (sixth Dan), who as of July 2013 has been teaching kendo regularly in Oxford.

The combination of improved numbers and high-level training has allowed the club to have one of its most successful years in competition. Despite a tense finish we won our home Varsity Match, and claimed both the gold and silver medals in the individuals’ tournament. More impressively, the Oxford team was runner-up at the British Universities’ Kendo Tournament, losing a very close final to Edinburgh University. In addition to this team silver medal, our captain won a bronze medal in the men’s individuals’ competition, and another Oxford competitor was awarded a Fighting Spirit prize.

In March 2014, Oxford became the first British university, and only the second

from Europe, to enter the Shoryuhai intercollegiate kendo tournament hosted by Harvard University. This was an exceptional experience, and is hopefully one that can be repeated in future years.

The club also entered teams and individual competitors for several national tournaments, including the British Open, Mumeishi 3s and the London Cup, and strong performances were recorded in each case. In particular, one of our members was subsequently selected for Team GB and competed at the 26th European Kendo Championships, in France, in April 2014.

Rigorous training and competition success has been balanced by a sociable atmosphere, and with few members graduating this summer the club can look forward positively to next year. s

KICKBOXING

It was another successful year for OUKbC as we continued to develop and grow into the Oxford sports scene. We are pleased that we have continued to attract new members throughout the year, to add to our main intake at the beginning of Michaelmas; this shows a growing recognition that the sport brings benefits in fitness and discipline as well as being fun. We have now successfully campaigned for both our men and women to qualify for Half-Blue status for competition in Varsity.

OUKbC competed in a wide variety of events this year, including two local competitions and a spectacular Fight Night at Bath University, which gave some eye-opening experiences to the members involved in fighting on a floodlit stage surrounded by a crowd of hundreds. The committee will aim to emulate this scale in our future Varsity events.

The centrepiece of the year, Varsity 2013, was held in Cambridge. It was a nail-bitingly intense contest; the final deciding fight ended in a draw, leading to a single tiebreak round to decide the winner. Oxford lost by the slightest of margins – the second time in a row this has happened, so all eyes are looking ahead to Varsity 2014 where we aim to take back the trophy on home turf.

The club has held a number of successful socials over the course of the year, and we are looking to expand this aspect, as well as increasing the amount of inter-university competition and training. We would like to thank our coach Jan Treska for his extensive support in both training and other events.

KORFBALL The 2013/14 korfball season was always going to be one focused on rebuilding the

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first team, as only one of its players remained from the previous year. However, led by Captain Sam Sharp and Coach Martin Hurajt, the new first team improved incredibly over the season, culminating with victory over Southampton City in the final of the Oxfordshire Korfball Association Plate.

Local league games, the bread and butter of the korfball season, provided a steep learning curve for the first team as they faced teams packed with both former national league and current regional league players. A difficult Michaelmas was followed by a resounding Hilary, with both the first and second teams racking up points. Firstteam highlights included a 14–1 defeat of Oxford Isis and giving league champions Basingstoke a scare in a closely fought defeat, whereas the Seconds were the only team able to take points off runaway Second Division champions Abingdon 2.

Varsity saw the fresh-faced first team take on a very experienced Cambridge, who were bolstered by the arrival of England U19 captain Ollie Bell. Unfancied Oxford very nearly pulled off a shock, but eventually lost by a single goal. The second team’s emphatic 16–5 victory provided happier memories.

In the British Students’ competition, the first team narrowly qualified for nationals in the

most competitive qualification round ever. Once there, they exceeded their seeding to claim a noteworthy 13th place. The second team amazingly came 6th at Club Championships, despite being a player short for most of the competition through injuries; this great result bodes well for the coming season!

KRAV-TARDEMET The Oxford Krav-Tardemet Club has had a good year. We have become officially affiliated with the University and this has allowed us to make use of the Iffley Road facilities, where we train twice weekly.

This year we have concentrated on expanding our membership and increasing awareness of our society, beginning with our stall at Freshers’ Fair. We have been successful in this aim, which has also led to an increase in the number of members attending each of our training sessions. We have carried out several seminars in various colleges to spread the knowledge of selfdefence and raise awareness of our club.

These have been fairly successful, with a high turnout from each college. We hope to be able to continue providing these seminars over the coming years. During Trinity term we held a seminar run by the founder of our martial art, Serge Cazalet, who came to Oxford to teach..

LACROSSE 2013/14 has been OULC’s most successful Varsity year to date. Both men’s and women’s first and second teams were victorious at Varsity, and the mixed team showed vast improvement even though they did not win. It proved to be an excellent day here in Oxford, appropriately marking the end of a superb season.

The men’s squad feel that they slightly underperformed this season as, despite their double Varsity win, the Blues fell short of their goal to finish in the top half of the BUCS Southern Premiership League, ending the season in fourth place. Nonetheless, they are looking onwards and upwards to next season, hoping to make use of the breadth they have developed within the squad and encourage new talent to join.

The women’s Blues dominated once again at Varsity this year with their 11–9 win, highlighting how hard work and commitment throughout the season truly does pay off.

However, like the men they also had a rocky journey in the BUCS Southern Premiership League, finishing fourth, which definitely did not reflect how talented the team proved to be. The Swifts continued to excel throughout the season, beating Cambridge 10–7 at Varsity, and finishing in first place in the Midlands 1A league.

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The mixed team had a varied season but one which saw vast improvements. Their 3–18 loss to Cambridge early on in the season spurred them on to develop as individual players (some of whom had only started lacrosse at the beginning of the season) and as a team, and ultimately resulted in them performing at a much higher standard by the time of the Varsity Match. Despite their 6–9 loss, the team is looking strong for the next season with many players staying on.

After such an exciting year, the whole of OULC look forward to the 2014/15 season approaching and hope for similar successes and improvements!

LAWN TENNIS OULTC had a very successful year. The start of the academic year saw the introduction of men’s fourth and fifth teams and a women’s fourth team, with the aim of getting more people to play tennis. With five men’s teams and four women’s teams, plus many social members, the club has thrived and the Iffley road courts have been buzzing with activity throughout the year.

Three men’s and three women’s teams competed in the BUCS leagues and cup competitions. The men’s Blues achieved their highest finish in a number of years, finishing second in the Southern Premier League. They also got to the semi-finals of

the National Cup, a huge achievement for Oxford tennis. The women’s Blues retained their place in Midlands 1A. The two Blues teams went on tour during the Easter Vacation to Bangkok, hosted by Daniel Ahl and OULTC Alumnus Napat Thavisin. The tennis played was of a very high standard and was great preparation for the Oxford players ahead of the Varsity season.

With Varsity being at home in Oxford this year, the second and third teams used home advantage to great effect and Oxford were triumphant in all four of these Varsities.

The men’s Seconds came through a very tight match 12–9 and the women’s Seconds even closer, winning 11–10. The Blues once again played their Varsity Match at the NTC in Roehampton, however they were unable to capitalise on their winning momentum, and both men and women lost. The men lost a very tight match 12–9, with two points changing the entire Varsity. The Women lost 14–7.

OULTC said goodbye to a long-time servant of the club this year, Director of Tennis Jarlath Brine, and every member of OULTC for the past 15 years would like to thank him and wish him all the best for the future.

LIFESAVING This year has seen promising growth for the club. We have bolstered membership numbers, fielding strong teams at a number

of British Universities Lifesaving Club Association (BULSCA) competitions, with some good finishes on a few occasions.

The highlight of the year was the win in the annual Varsity Match, repeating last year’s success. It was an incredibly close competition, but Oxford came out on top in the end. We hope to build on this and repeat our success next year.

LIGHTWEIGHT ROWING – MEN Training got off to a good start in September and through Michaelmas, with a large contingent from our development squad joining a couple of returners from the 2013 Nephthys crew. The good weather enabled us to split our twice-daily training sessions between the Wallingford stretch and the Iffley road gym, meaning we were well prepared for our 12-day training camp in Nantes, France. Despite constant wind and rain the squad made significant improvements on the water, with the opportunity to do over 30k every day. We returned to the UK to find the Wallingford boathouse under water and Dorney lake as our new base, indefinitely. This was a frustrating blow, but the only thing to do was to continue to train as hard as we could, get as much water time as possible, and learn to love the gym.

At the end of Hilary both Nephthys and the Blue Boat travelled to Amsterdam to take place in the Heineken Roeivierkamp, competing in four races over two days against strong international competition.

This was a particular highlight for Nephthys as the flooding prevented their racing at the Head of the River Race the weekend after.

From here the Blue Boat and a Nephthys coxless four (4-) remained in the Netherlands for a gloriously sunny and productive training camp, heading back to the UK in time for a week in Henley pre-boat race. The Granta 4- who had agreed to race a Nephthys 4- unfortunately had to withdraw due to injury, but the crew rowed over the Henley reach anyway, in an impressive time.

We would like to thank Bodo Schulenburg, our coach, for all that he puts into OULRC, and Andy Saul, who will be taking the reins next year.

LIGHTWEIGHT ROWING – WOMEN OUWLRC have had a fantastic 2013/14 season. We got off to a very promising start: the large squad of 25 athletes raced regularly throughout Michaelmas at regional and national head-races, and training on the water in Wallingford was without a hitch – not least due to the fantastic weather. The squad had impressive wins at Bristol Small Boats Head and Scullers Head, a national single-sculls event where three athletes

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placed in the top 15 women’s entries. The squad really showed its true potential at Trial Eights held on the 15th of December.

Two matched eights named, fittingly for a lightweight club, ‘Have your cake’ and ‘Eat it too’ raced the full Henley course in front of gathered alumni and friends, with Eat it too just edging out to win by ¾s of a length.

Winter training camp took place in Coimbra, Portugal. The squads 3rd year at this venue, it once again proved to be a fantastic training facility. Using both the Mondego river and Montemor-o-Velho rowing lake the squad made great technical progress and completed the first rounds of seat racing for Blue Boat selection.

During Hilary term training on the water was somewhat restricted due to the flooding, with most water sessions taking place at Dorney lake or on the Tideway. This did not seem to mar the squads’ progress and commitment; in March both the Blue Boat and Reserve Boat had fantastic success at their significant races. Tethys placed 48th at Women’s Eights Head of the River, moving up 11 places from last year in a very competitive field, and the Blue Boat beat Cambridge by 3 ¾ lengths, making it a hat trick of victories in the last three years.

After the Varsity match, OUWLRC went on to have a very strong summer season. Success at BUCS regatta in Nottingham included silver in the lightweight 8+, silver in the senior lightweight 1x and silver in the elite lightweight 4x. The lightweight 4x was selected to represent Great Britain at the European University Games in Rotterdam in July.

Alongside the successes on the water this year, the club proudly celebrates its 30th anniversary. Prominent throughout the season has been the growing number of alumni at our events and races; it has been great to have so much alumni interest and involvement. We are in a very good position to start the Boat Race 2015 campaign.

MODERN PENTATHLON 2013/14 has seen many strong performances from OUMPA athletes. At the Sports Federation awards in Michaelmas, the OUMPA men won the Jaguar Landrover Sports Team Performance of the year, and Tommy Lees won Sportsman of the Year.

In BUCS we built on last year’s success, with Tommy and Alex Fraser taking first and second place in the men’s competition. In the BUCS team competition, Oxford men’s first team took gold again, Oxford women’s first team took fourth place and Oxford men’s second team took fifth place.

These performances were repeated in Varsity when OUMPA’s athletes won both the men’s and women’s individual competition: Tommy Lees for the men and Katie Hickson for the women. Within the individual disciplines, OUMPA’s athletes again dominated with Captain Drew Davy winning the men’s ride, Tommy Lees winning the men’s combined (run and shoot), Alex Fraser winning the men’s fence and Tommy Lees narrowly missing out on first place in the swim (the only discipline the men did not win) by .22 of a second. For the women, Katie Hickson not only won the combined event, but set a new Varsity record by a full minute, achieving a record-breaking score for a female pentathlete.

MOTOR DRIVERS The 2013/14 season has been a successful one for the club. Our main Michaelmas term event was our annual Freshers’ Karting, in which we introduce new people to the motorsport scene here in Oxford. Once again, the event was oversubscribed and extremely successful, with many people immediately signing up to become club members and take part in further novice karting events. For the first time ever we have also run our own OUMDC Drivers Championship. With three rounds throughout the year, and a variety of talent, it has been a great success.

Another popular Michaelmas event was our University team trials, where we invited the best new drivers to trial for a place on one of the Oxford BUKC teams. Interest and talent were exceptionally high this year, and we were able to convincingly qualify three teams into the championship. This is an exceptional effort from the team, and it has been really exciting to see new talent taking to the karting championship so quickly.

The BUKC took us all over the country, and it was a pleasure to be part of such a great team! In vast contrast to last year, we had a lot of dry racing; this made it a lot easier for the new drivers to progress quickly and begin to understand the techniques of how to be successful at a race day. The A team has had the best results in four years at the club, and the B team has also put in some outstanding performances.

Our annual Varsity race took place in April, on a surprisingly dry circuit. The Oxford team drove exceptionally in qualifying, locking out the front row of the grid. It was not a straightforward drive for our team, as two of our fastest drivers received penalties; but that was not enough to stop Oxford from taking victory this year, with such a strong driver line-up.

Overall we have had a very successful year, with strong results and lots of great racing.

MOUNTAINEERING It has been a successful and busy year for OUMC. A large crop of freshers joined us in Michaelmas term; plenty of them continued to be active within the club throughout the year and some even joined the committee for 2014.

Michaelmas term started with three very successful freshers’ trips, an average of 42 people attending each one. The weather gods were very kind to us, with the result that all trips were incredibly popular – 51 people went to North Wales! We arranged for a company called V12 to visit us in Oxford prior to this trip to help everyone stock up on that much-needed gear. Wilderness Medical Education yet again hosted an Advanced Mountaineering First Aid Course and 12 club members attended. The term rounded off nicely with a trip to Dartmoor which involved some blustery bouldering on the exposed tors.

Hilary term was just as popular and we organised six outdoor trips to places such as the Peak District, Lake District and (as termly tradition dictates) North Wales. In this term we also organised a Ropes Work Course (16 attendees) and Wilderness Navigation Course (15 attendees).

OUMC also held many socials throughout the year, including both Christmas and Annual dinners (both highly attended) and a ceilidh in Hilary term. We hold an annual bouldering competition at the Iffley climbing wall; this year approximately 30 people attended and all thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

For the first time in several years OUMC hosted a mountaineering talk given by Catherine Moorehead, the biographer of Godwin-Austen, discoverer of K2. This was a very successful evening and is something we are looking to do more of in the coming year.

In summer 2013 Jacob Cook, Thomas Codrington, Peter Hill and Ian Faulkner (all OUMC members) made a successful expedition to Greenland in order to climb some of its unclimbed peaks, and were nominated for a Piolet d’Or. OUMC is continuing to create and develop successful climbers and mountaineers.

NETBALL It is a pleasure to be able to reflect on a successful and pivotal year for OUNC. From selection, where the club took on enough new members to create a third team, to our triumphant Varsity campaign, every club member has embraced change, striven for personal and collective development, and encouraged team mates to do the same. As a result, OUNC is a tightly functioning, close-knit and rapidly evolving club, and its members have been unshakeably positive throughout the season.

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There have been, of course, many reasons to be so positive; our dominant presence in a new league (Oxfordshire NL) meant more court time for players, and a competitive setup in which the third team could develop. The Roos, under Laura Jenkins’ captaincy, battled to the upper echelons of their Midlands 3 league, beating Lincoln and Cambridge Seconds (hooray), and the Blues, having suffered a couple of injury crises placing them near the bottom of the Midlands 1 table, managed to demolish Birmingham, top of the league, by a tremendous 50–28 in the final game of the season. That and, of course, the double Varsity victory, with a record-breaking margin in the Roos game, and the third victory in a row for the Blues. Every part of the day went to plan, largely due to the efforts of Lourdes Webb and the Varsity Committee; the ensuing weeks of celebration were very much deserved.

OCTOPUSH Another year, another success story. The Oxford University Octopush Club has yet again succeeded in improving its rankings in the student nationals – up to fourth place this year! Although illness and injury led to a somewhat depleted team, meaning we had to play for over half of the day without subs, we still came home with the best result we have ever achieved at the student nationals.

We also achieved first and second place at the Plymouth Valentines and Imperial Mini tournaments respectively, and with the new committee we are in a very strong position to continue on that upward trend.

Despite these great results, the club is still battling to get time in the University pool, which we so very nearly managed this last term. With so many members leaving Oxford this year, it is going to be especially important for a good recruitment drive at Freshers’ Fair next year. However, we have faith that the new committee will prevail even in the face of a less-than-ideal training location, and take the club to new heights – the title of best student octopush team in the UK is not that far off!

ORIENTEERING This was a solid year for OUOC. Despite losing two top athletes we still managed to produce strong performances in BUCS and Varsity, and we were, on the whole, more consistent than last year. We have also had a larger than normal turnout of new members to regular events, and even had some beginners fly all the way to Sweden for our Varsity Match!

We have been lucky to welcome Aidan Smith to Oxford this year. Already an excellent orienteer, he has thrived within the club, and has been selected to run for Great Britain at the Junior World Championships later this year.

At BUCS we improved on last year’s fifth

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place, climbing to third overall thanks to fielding a full strength women’s squad. Our top performers were both freshers: Aidan Smith and Karin Sorlie, finishing in the top ten individually. Our men’s relay team also finished a close third in a nail-biting finish, all the top teams having led at different stages of the race.

The Varsity Match was held in Sweden, as it traditionally travels abroad every third year.

The men continued their impressive winning streak, extending it to seven years in a row with a comfortable victory. The women struggled to field a full squad, but acquitted themselves well all the same. The race was combined with a week-long training tour which was excellent for club spirit.

As well as the big races of the year, we attend local events on a weekly basis. These provide a great opportunity for beginners to get involved and for the more experienced members to improve their technique and fitness. Throughout the year we have seen a great deal of improvement from our members, but more importantly they all seem to be enjoying themselves out in the forest!

PISTOL Over the past year the club has continued to go from strength to strength, with the number of active shooters more than doubling, thanks mainly to the introduction of a proper training regime.

Our main aim for this year was to continue the successful regime of recent years, whereby new members agree to a relatively high level of commitment from the start of

their time in the club, giving them the best possible chance of reaching a good enough standard for the Varsity Match. This year, half the successful Small-bore Varsity A team was comprised of freshers, paying testament to the success of this regime. Indeed, over the course of the past year OUPC succeeded in winning every Air Pistol competition it entered. Our Full-bore shooting, though less successful, is continuing to improve, and at this summer’s Imperial meeting we stand a good chance of winning a number of the Inter-University competitions (including the Full-bore Varsity Match).

POLO The Oxford University Polo Club has enjoyed another successful year. We now boast 30 actively playing members, largely due to the efforts of my predecessor, Andreas Kranke.

Our beginner/novice team results improved this year, with strong showings at both the Winter and Summer Schools and Universities Polo Association (SUPA) National Tournaments, where our teams placed very well in their respective divisions.

At Blues level, we focused on our Summer/ Field Polo season, as is customary. We had a very strong squad this year, although player availability was an issue at times. Nonetheless, our Blues team brought home a solid victory against Bristol, and narrowly lost to Sandhurst and Skidmore College. Our unfortunate 6–3 loss at Varsity highlighted the need for more frequent full first-team squad practices. It is an issue that did not arise with such severity in 2012/13: a higher proportion of the squad were sitting exams throughout the exam period this year, and Trinity is the main part of

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our season. Still, we have every confidence of a solid result from the Blues squad we will be fielding in the Metropolitan Intervarsity Tournament in China in mid July 2014, and they are training hard.

With regard to club finances, payments from our merchandising contract, Varsity sponsorship contract and membership fees will place us considerably in the black versus previous years by the start of the 2014/15 academic year. These funds will allow us to contribute more to subsidising social events, transport and match fees. Sponsorship relationships with Jack Wills have run smoothly this year, and our relationship with the Old Blues, our Honorary Committee members and advisors have all strengthened, much to our mutual delight.

Our sponsorship sub-committee dedicated a great deal of time and effort to pursuing corporate sponsorship this year, but this initiative was hampered somewhat due to existing obligations and other complications. Nevertheless, strong headway has been made, and we are confident that OUPC will obtain such sponsorship soon.

We set out this year to establish a firm, efficient and adaptable leadership structure, with improved task delegation and division throughout the committee. The committee agrees that this has been a success, and is confident that we have provided a strong foundation for our successors to continue grow the club on and off the pitch.

POOL OUPSC has had a great season. Our men’s Blues team has done particularly well.

Having entered two extra tournaments this year, the Southern Universities Pool Championships and the South West Universities Pool Championships, we finished runners-up in the main competition in both tournaments, losing narrowly 7–6 to Exeter and Plymouth in the finals. Our local league team won promotion back to the championship after being relegated last year.

They also made it to the semi-final of the cup, only getting knocked out by the side which finished second in the Premiership.

In the BUCS Pool Championship we entered three men’s teams and two women’s teams.

Our first and second men’s teams both topped their groups with impressive performances but unfortunately could not carry this momentum forward into the knockout stages, both losing in the last 16 of their respective competitions.

The women’s first team reached the final of their competition but unfortunately could not repeat their achievement of last year, losing to Nottingham 4–3 in the final. In the singles Hannah Smith and Hazel Shepherd made the semi-finals.

We again took two teams to the BUCS Snooker Championship. The First team finished third in a very tough group to get through to the trophy competition; after a thrilling 6–5 win in the quarter-final they got knocked out in the semis by Leeds. The Seconds fared less well, but it will no doubt prove a valuable experience for them next year.

The Varsity Pool Match went well for the women and less well for the men. After an even first day, with Cambridge holding a small two-frame lead, their greater experience proved crucial in the final day, helping them to go on to win 50–40. The singles tournament was dominated by Oxford players, and an allOxford final was won by next year’s Captain Adam Smith. With the away match to be played by with many of our players’ preferred rules we should feel confident about recapturing the trophy next year. The women’s team continued their dominance in their Varsity Match, easily retaining the trophy in Cambridge.

College pool has been dominated this season

by Brasenose, who won the double of both first division and cup. Balliol and St Catz pushed them all the way in both competitions and it promises to be a very competitive season next year, with Christ Church also looking to be gaining a strong team.

POWERLIFTING OUPLC has had a strong year in terms of growth and development. This year we had the largest female participation ever, both in terms of club training session attendance and Varsity participation. Such a strong initial performance from the women, many of whom started powerlifting this year, is very promising and exciting for the future of the club.

Varsity this year was again held in Oxford and both teams competed to the highest standard seen in recent years. Eight lifters from Oxford surpassed the Half-Blue standard of 340 Wilks points, with special mention given to Jamie van Reijendam who surpassed the full Blue standard of 375 Wilks points.

This development is extremely promising, as in 2013 only three lifters passed 340 Wilks points, and in 2012 the number was only two.

However, despite the strong performance from OUPLC, Cambridge also showed up in full, and was ultimately too strong, with each of their top six passing 360 Wilks points and with the top four above 375 Wilks points. The massive increase in calibre from both sides is extremely exciting moving forward – 2014/15 promises to be an exciting season!

RACKETS This was a challenging season for the Oxford University Rackets Club. For the first time in years we were up against it heading into the Varsity Match, with Cambridge posting the

strongest team in decades. However, full of confidence after 15 years of Oxford dominance we were confident we could pull off a win.

Unfortunately they were too good and Oxford went down fighting hard. Although this was disappointing at the time, the club is full of determination to bounce back next year. And with the newly refurbished court at Radley and a few very handy players coming through, the future is looking bright.

REAL TENNIS Real Tennis has had a great season this year across the club, with many successes to report.

The women’s team played several fixtures in the lead-up to Varsity, of which only one was lost. We had a lot of strong beginners start, as well as an all-returning Blues squad, meaning we were confident going into Varsity.

Despite strong opposition, Oxford won 5–1 in the Firsts match at Lords, making it the fourth year in a row with this result. The Seconds did extremely well against a more experienced team and came through to a 4–2 win at our home court of Merton, again continuing a four-year winning streak. A few of the team are going out to the US in September to play some of the courts, something they are all looking forward to. The men’s team have also enjoyed a number of successes, pulling out wins in a variety of fixtures in the build-up to Varsity, including against the MCC and Queen’s.

With only one returning player from last year, Varsity was always set to be a tough ask, and eventually Cambridge’s strength showed through. However, three of the five in the Blues squad are continuing next year, which bodes very well. As for the Seconds, there was great competition for places, which made for a very good standard of play. In Varsity, Cambridge were strong again, winning 4–2, but the Seconds performed admirably, pulling out some outstanding and unexpected wins given the handicaps of the opposition.

We have been incredibly lucky to have the ongoing sponsorship of Neptune this year, which has made it possible to continue to access such a rare sport. We are all hugely grateful for their continued support.

RIDING The 2013/14 academic year has been a successful and progressive one for OURC in many ways. Undoubtedly our greatest achievement was our First Team Varsity victory over Cambridge after many years of coming runners-up. The team of Susie Wise (Wadham), Lizzy Hamilton (Christ Church), Anna CoenenStass (St John’s) and Charlie Baker (St Catz) secured a convincing win, particularly in the dressage phase of the competition, with Susie, Anna and Charlie all being placed individually as well. The Seconds were narrowly beaten but secured some good individual placings, notably for Lucy Rands (Trinity) and Alexa

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RUGBY FIVES The 2013/14 season saw ups and downs for the Rugby Fives Club. After having lost a number of our top players from last year, we were lucky to receive a number of talented new freshers. The first IV saw great success in nationwide tournaments with Jefferies/ Thomas reaching the semi-finals of BUCS and the U25s, beating strong competition from Durham and Cambridge. The second IV and the Beavers trained hard this year, challenging first IV players and making Varsity selection a difficult affair.

Bish-Jones (St Catz) – we are very glad that the Seconds Varsity has now become an established annual fixture.

Riding Cuppers this year was popular, with six college teams and eight individuals battling for the coveted trophy, won this year by the St John’s team of Anna Coenen-Stass and Rachel Kolb. We also sent a team (Susie Wise and Floriane Van der Brande) abroad to the Universities Showjumping International in Nancy, France, where they came an incredible fifth on some tricky borrowed horses. We had a mixed season in the BUCS leagues, with our best result coming at our Firsts home competition, where the hosts came second – Lizzy Hamilton narrowly missed out on an individual place at the Regional Championship, but was the official reserve.

Other developments in the club this year included extending our provision outside the competitive sphere; we carried on offering weekly OURC group lessons at Hall Place Equestrian Centre, as well as range of new initiatives. These included: a trip to visit the yard of international dressage rider, Samantha Thurman-Baker; pilates classes for members; a volunteering partnership with local Riding for the Disabled group in Abingdon, and an Annual Dinner, incorporating our AGM, hosted this year at St Catz and attended by 22 members. We hope that these are just the foundations of a lot more exciting things ahead for OURC!

RIFLE This year the club continued to build on recent successes. The Small-bore season started with OURC A winning the Oxfordshire Winter Postal League (division 3). The first VI placed fourth at the BUCS Short Range Rifle Championships, with Sam Jauncey winning the individual competition with a resounding 395/400, a feat that was a major contributing factor to his being awarded an Extraordinary Full Blue. The Small-bore Varsity was lost with the OURC VIII scoring 1496/1600 to Cambridge’s 1505/1600: a very small margin! The women’s IV scored

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714/800 to Cambridge’s 753/800 and the second VIII scored 1449/1600, losing to a strong Cambridge second VIII who scored 1480/1600. Henry Lee won the Rifle Cuppers for St Catherine’s College with a score of 191/200.

After the Small-bore season was over, a core of 12 members of the club continued onward to the Full-bore season, attending our annual Easter training camp at Bisley’s National Shooting Centre. It was a long, hard week in very hot conditions, without a drop of rain (or snow!), in stark contrast to the previous year.

Over Trinity Term we had Target Rifle and Match Rifle competitions against the London and Middlesex Rifle Association, the North London Rifle Club, the Oxford and Cambridge Rifle Association, and the Royal Air Force Target Rifle Club. These matches against county-level teams all resulted in losses for the OURC but proved excellent experience for the more junior shots.

After Trinity Term the OURC headed back to Bisley for the International Meeting. Michael Horrell won the Henry Mellish Challenge Cup during the Albert competition. The Match Rifle Varsity was lost to Cambridge by one of the smallest margins in recent history: 820.50/900 to 837.72/900. Next it was time for the Target Rifle Varsity which, for the first time in nine years, was won by the OURC! Our first VIII scored 1141.99 to Cambridge’s 1111.91. All three of the new shots in the club scored high enough to earn their Half-Blues; on top of this OURC won back the Rhodes Cup (black powder Varsity)!

Following on from these successes the OURC managed to come second in the Universities Long Range competition, losing out to a very impressive University of London team. This was echoed in the BUCS Aggregate where the OURC again came second. These results made for an excellent way to round off a successful year.

A strong Cambridge side unfortunately took the win at Varsity in London, but not without great resistance from Oxford. Jefferies/Thomas beat Cambridge’s first and second pairs with points to spare, but losses lower down the order resulted in a win for Cambridge. In the Beavers, Ed Birkett’s victory over Cambridge’s Wilson Lau was a highlight of the day. Overall, it has been a great season for OURFvC with good commitment and improvement all round.

RUGBY LEAGUE It has been very much a season of two halves for the Blues, who have competed at the highest level of the student game this year in the newly structured Premier South.

Despite defeats at the hands of Student Rugby League giants Loughborough and Gloucestershire All Golds, the Blues learnt a lot in a busy Michaelmas term under the watchful eye of Head Coach Dan Garbutt. A number of injuries to key personnel meant that we developed considerable strength in depth. The success that our second team, the Maroons, have enjoyed this year is testament to that.

A warm-weather training camp in Alicante over the Christmas break, hosted by Training Camp Spain, allowed the squad to hit the ground flying as they returned for Hilary term. The Blues defeated Northampton and Nottingham Trent, playing some good Rugby League in the process despite dreadful weather. The hard work that the lads have done with Strength and Conditioning Coach Matt Queralt was evident in these victories.

In the BUCS Championship cup, the Blues made the last eight, beating Nottingham Trent convincingly. A tough trip to Leeds ended the campaign. The Maroons made it to the semi-final of their cup competition, beating a strong Derby side away in the quarters. Unfortunately injuries took their toll during the Varsity Match between the quarters and the semis of the competition and the team had to concede. A Blues game against Hemel Stags also proved a stern test before Varsity.

The Maroons played Cambridge at Luton RFC in March and took a 48–16 victory in a very

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good-quality game. Considering the contest and the recent recommencement of the Reserve Grade Varsity competition in the last two years, things are looking good for the future of the fixture. The Blues played Varsity the following week at the prestigious HAC in London. With excellent weather and a strong crowd the Blues had a good chance of taking the series lead. A strong defence, despite some poor discipline, meant the team were able to hold Cambridge to nil, the second time in three years. A strong attack, good support and weather that suited their game meant the Blues were able to score 40 points, a fantastic achievement that is a testament to the work the lads put in.

Credit must also go to the stewardship of head coach Dan Garbutt, who has propelled Oxford to their first series lead since the early 80s. The great work of Tom James and John Hobart as assistant coaches was not unnoticed either. The assistance of Matt Queralt in the gym during the early morning sessions, and Gemma Queralt’s

physiotherapy, were crucial in contributing to the men’s double victory.

The women’s team, who play in Trinity each year, continued to grow in strength last season. Having the only regular women’s student team in the south of the country is something the club is immensely proud of.

This year Oxford hosted Cambridge at Iffley road, thanks to support from OURFC. It was a show of Oxford dominance in both attack and defence: a 72–4 victory. Head Coach John Hobart, who works with the group to bring them up to such a level and build the women’s side, must be thanked for his efforts. The club looks forward to another successful season as we approach our 40th anniversary in 2016.

RUGBY UNION – MEN OURFC enjoyed a mixed season results-wise, but it will still be considered a success due to the fact the Blues won their fourth consecutive

Varsity Match at Twickenham in December, with a resounding 33 points to 15. Unfortunately the match will be remembered by some for the first ever red card in a Varsity Match, shown to Sam Egerton (Keble) for making contact with the eye of an opposition player.

The victory meant that Captain John Carter (Kellogg) made history, not only as the only person to captain OURFC for three years, but the first to record three successive victories too.

Prop Lewis Anderson (Trinity) made his own piece of history, being only the second person after AGG Asher in 1881–4 to achieve four winning Blues! Lewis can smash that record as he has two more years of his DPhil to complete.

The Blues season began in France in September for the preseason tour, with two competitive fixtures against the Espoirs of Biarritz and Bayonne. This was followed by a full fixture list which included matches with Gwent Dragons, Worcester Warriors, Sydney University and the Russian National side at Iffley Road. Successful coaching team James Wade and James Gaunt

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were retained, and were instrumental in the squad’s success throughout the season and of course at Twickenham.

In January OURFC elected a new captain – Jacob Taylor (Keble), a Rhodes Scholar who had previously played for Sydney University and represented Australia at Sevens. His first term at the helm saw the Blues blood a number of younger players and secure three wins to two losses during a weather-disrupted second half of the season.

The senior Seconds team, the Greyhounds, enjoyed a good build-up to their Varsity Match with the Cambridge LX Club, but unfortunately on the day they came second-best to a strong opposition team by just two points, thus ending their ten-year winning streak. The U21s and their second XV, the Whippets, once again coming under the guidance of Head Coach Lynn Evans, enjoyed a good preparation for Varsity and when the Whippets won decisively at Grange Road by 32 points to 17, it appeared the U21s would start favourites at Twickenham.

However, on the day it was the Cambridge team who looked the better prepared and were deserved winners by 30 points to 19.

RUGBY UNION – WOMEN For the second year in a row OUWRFC has won both Varsity Matches. This is a particularly meaningful victory because it may very well mark the final Varsity Match played at Iffley Road; there are plans to move to Twickenham and play on the same day as the men in 2015/16. OUWRFC also had a successful

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BUCS season, coming fourth in the Southern Premiership. Together these results highlight the depth of our squad, with two full teams playing on Varsity day.

We worked hard to ensure the financial stability of our club as well as our involvement in the wider sporting community.

We created a very successful calendar, which sold 4,000 copies. A portion of the proceeds went to our partner charity, Mind Your Head (Oxford’s mental health campaign).

We also worked with the men’s club, Sports Federation, OUSU, Vincent’s and Atalanta’s to host a celebration of Oxford Women in Sport (OxWis) and the official Varsity after-party on International Women’s Day. Finally, we have been working to make women’s rugby more accessible. We ran a successful Cuppers tournament, have continued participating in mixed touch-rugby in the Parks, have continued with a successful Sevens squad, and have started connecting with other local clubs (eg with players joining weekend club games, and development players training weekly with Brooks).

SHORINJI KEMPO The year began well with a national Shorinji Kempo seminar being held in Oxford by the club. The day of training was led by the UK Chief Instructor of Shorinji Kempo and practitioners travelled from across the country to attend. Another key event at the beginning of the year was of course Freshers’ Fair, and

the introductory classes for new students. The club managed to attract a good number of freshers to these classes and encouraged many of them to join the club and attend classes regularly.

The Oxford club made a strong showing at the Southampton national seminar in November, with members attending a day of training and gradings. All Oxford club members put forward for grading at this seminar were successful thanks to solid training beforehand.

Things continued to run well as Hilary term began with good attendance at weekly training sessions, and March saw the national gathering of UK Shorinji Kempo university branches. Seven Oxford members made the trip to Edinburgh to attend a weekend-long training event; as well as being able to get in some great training, this was also an excellent opportunity to meet practitioners of Shorinji Kempo from other universities across the country.

As well as these great national events the club instructors have continued to provide great training sessions, giving great coaching to beginners and more experienced students alike. We look forward to another great year of training.

SKI AND SNOWBOARD We have had a fantastic year at OUSSC. From an enjoyable summer training trip to wins in the racing and freestyle Varsity Matches, there is a lot to report.

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In late September we started our season of training with our annual summer training trip, this year to Saas-Fee for the first time. JJC Training provided an intensive programme, with racers spending mornings alternating between GS and slalom and taking part in fitness sessions in the afternoon. The team were delighted to be training in race lanes adjacent to the Norwegian, Finnish and French national teams!

The end of term and Varsity trip came around as quickly as ever, with everyone very excited to beat the Tabs. This year over 2,500 students from the two universities headed out to Tignes, with standards varying from total beginners to experienced racers. We are delighted to report that we won the men’s Blues, men’s Second and Thirds and also the women’s Seconds, missing out only on the women’s Firsts event. We had the secondfastest girl, Helena Pickford (Exeter) and the fastest man and overall winner, Jamie Reid (Oriel). We also convincingly won the freestyle competition, with a great run from Heinrich Watson-Miller (St Hugh’s).

With sponsorship contracts expiring, it has been a difficult year for income. We reformed our sponsorship with the Big Bang restaurant and had many club dinners there, generating much team excitement and some funding for training sessions. The freestyle team also acquired sponsorship from D4SEVEN,

who provided some great prizes for a midterm jam. We have begun working with the Development Office on our Alumni Appeal and will be holding our second Alumni Dinner in May. We are looking forward to the donations making a real difference.

A second trip to France for BUSC provided another opportunity for the club to shine.

Individual results placed Jamie Reid third in both slalom and giant slalom and Helena Pickford fifth in the slalom and ninth in the giant slalom, with the race team coming in second place in the team dual slalom. Alex Hickey (Oriel) also excelled in the freestyle events, coming fifth in the slopestyle and fourth in the Big Air.

SQUASH 2014 was a successful year for OUSRC on many fronts, with some standout performances for both Blues and second teams in BUCS and Varsity, continued sponsorship agreements for the club, and once again the attainment of impressive membership numbers.

In the 83rd annual Varsity Match against Cambridge at the RAC in London, kindly sponsored by Aberdeen, the men’s and women’s Blues teams sought to overturn last year’s disappointment. Up against a very strong and heavily favoured Cambridge men’s side, our men got off to a good start

by winning the reserve match, but despite battling hard, eventually succumbed. Our women however put on a dominant display to claim their seventh title in the last eight years, winning 4–1.

The second team’s Varsity Matches were held in Oxford this year, and the Blues’ results were mirrored here. Although they fought valiantly, the men’s team were overcome by a strong Cambridge side, but the women’s Seconds showed great skill and determination to claim their first win in four years, with a 4–1 scoreline over their Cambridge counterparts.

Our women’s teams experienced further success in their BUCS matches. The women’s Blues finished a strong sixth overall in the BUCS Premier Division, which was one of their best finishes in recent years, whilst the women’s Seconds pushed hard for the Midlands 2A title before fading late in the season to finish fourth. The men’s teams’ seasons were characterised by shows of true grit, with both in real danger of relegation halfway through, before both dug deep to climb to fourth in their respective Midlands 1A and 2A divisions. Meanwhile, the glory was shared in annual fixtures for the men’s Blues and second teams against the Jesters and Escorts squash clubs, with the Jesters overpowering Oxford, but Oxford gaining revenge over many of the same players in a win over Escorts in the weekend before Varsity.

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The club was lucky to benefit from continued access to coaching for our Blues teams from Jonah Barrington (six times British Open champion between 1967 and 1973, and former director of the national governing body, the Squash Rackets Association) and Ian Thomas at Millfield School, where they made three weekend trips to receive gruelling fitness and racquet skill training.

Next year we hope to further this relationship, and continue the success of our women, along with bouncing back strongly in the men’s Varsity Matches!

SULKIDO Oxford University SulKiDo has had another successful year, recruiting 22 new members whilst retaining a solid core of existing members from previous years.

Five members of the class were successful in passing their grading examinations to achieve the rank of First Dan Black Belt, gaining their first instructor level qualification which enables them to be recognised as instructors within Oxford SulKiDo. Of these new instructors, three have gone on to set up new SulKiDo clubs in the UK over the past few months.

In addition three students achieved the rank of Deputy Black Belt (assistant instructor). It is hoped that these students will go on to achieve their instructor qualification during the course of the coming year.

SURF This year has been a relatively busy one for the Surf Club. We have had two main trips to the South West, along with a few smaller spontaneous trips elsewhere. On these trips we have taught around 20 people this year to surf from almost scratch, while some of the more experienced surfers scored some epic waves.

We are in talks with a few companies about sponsorship and have expanded our range of kit.

SWIMMING The club has continued to build on the achievements of previous years to have a very successful 2013/14 season. We have continued to benefit from excellent coaching from Justine Schluntz, and have had the pleasure of welcoming world-class breaststroke swimmer Rebecca Ajulu-Bushell to the coaching team.

Starting the year the long-held wish of establishing a second team was fulfilled through cooperation with the Modern Pentathlon Team. This recognises the large number of good swimmers that Oxford has, and offers an alternative opportunity for regular coached sessions to the intense training of being on the main team. The first

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year has been very successful, with good attendance and much progress being made by members.

Competition season for the main team commenced with our annual friendly gala in which the two Oxford teams came first and second against some strong teams from other universities. This was followed by a great time in Sheffield for the BUCS short course championships, where several Oxford swimmers and our relay teams qualified for finals.

2014 started with the team going on training camp in Torremolinos, Spain; the combination of intense pool and land training provided the team with an excellent start to the year. Back in Oxford, the local Maxwell Open Meet provided great opportunity for the hard work to pay off, with Oxford earning 42 medals, including 19 gold, in one weekend. In March the Varsity Match was held at the Rosenblatt pool in Oxford, helping celebrate ten years since the completion of this fantastic facility. An electric home atmosphere and great team spirit helped Oxford to continue its success and win by a spectacular margin. The pool season came to a close with Oxford coming in the top ten university swimming teams of the country with seventh place at BUCS team finals.

For some of the team attention is now changing to the open water swimming scene, with preparations ongoing for a race against

Cambridge as part of the Henley swim and the biannual Varsity relay race over a distance of 21miles/34km across the English Channel.

Throughout the season there have been a large number of individual successes, typified by several club members qualifying for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

TABLE TENNIS The season for Oxford University Table Tennis Club has been by and large a strong one. We were euphoric as our men’s first team raised the Town vs Gown trophy for the first time in six years, beating the Town’s first team in this year’s competition.

We had some success when our second team gained a long-awaited victory against Cambridge; not since 2006 had they defeated Cambridge’s second team at Varsity. Our women’s first team improved on last year’s Varsity scoreline and came fourth in their BUCS division. Both our men’s and women’s teams have improved since last year, and that has shown in the Varsity results – hopefully next year we will give Cambridge a run for their money. We will retain much of our strongest talent, and so are greatly looking forward to next season.

Financially, we are £460 up on last year’s figure, spending wisely on new nets, scorers and

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practice balls, as well as beginner-level bats so that we will be stocked up for next Michaelmas term. We introduced a ladder system this year, which was a success, and are hoping to create a full college league next year.

TAEKWON-DO This has been another extremely successful year for OUTKD. We kicked off the year with a strong and enthusiastic presence at Freshers’ Fair, a recruitment drive that has resulted in a doubling of active club membership despite a record number of leavers moving on last year. This was followed by another spectacular demonstration at OU Korea Society’s annual ‘Soul of Seoul’ event, our third and by all accounts best so far. Here we demonstrated all facets of the art including sparring, destruction and self-defence.

At the close of Michaelmas we took a sizeable group to Derby for a sparring seminar held by a visiting expert from Japan. To welcome everyone back and signal the commencement of the rigorous Varsity training regime, we opened Hilary with a three-day training camp in Worcester. The event entailed six hours of training per day and culminated in hosting the local club for a series of training sessions and fights. Thereafter, we increased our training hours with five sessions a week in the lead-up to Varsity, not including attendance at additional sparring seminars such as the Russian visiting experts in Didcot or training with the national team.

The extra work paid off. We faced a Cambridge team stronger than ever this year and the event was one of the closest and most dramatic in recent memory. The men’s B team match was a textbook decimation, a convincing 4–1 win that saw our novice yellow-belt fighter dismantling his black-belt opponent. Traditionally the women’s A team match has been an Oxford win. However, armed with a full team of black belts, Cambridge held us to a draw. Cambridge took the tie-break with the last kick in the last second of the fight. B teams are weighted at 1 point in the overall scoring, while A teams are 2, so we were now 2–1 down with the men’s A to decide the overall score. Two wins and two losses left us tied at 2–2, with everything now resting on the final fight: our president vs their captain. After a nail-biting slog, Oxford won the fight and the men’s A shield, securing an overall victory for the seventh year running.

Three full Blues and twelve Half-Blues were awarded, and we are looking forward to an even stronger year next year.

TAI CHI Freshers’ Fair saw our club expand considerably, and the newcomers are progressing very well. We have also welcomed back several alumni, which has added considerably to the

experience base of the club. With the help of the Sports Federation, we have purchased professional quality gloves and focus mitts, which have helped us improve our striking game immensely. Although plans for an interuniversity competition fell through, we are actively fostering relationships with clubs from other universities with the aim of organizing a tournament in the coming year.

TRAMPOLINE This year we have welcomed a wealth of new talent to the club, including a new coach and several experienced bouncers. In February, the club took six members to the British University Championships in Sheffield.

Everyone involved bounced incredibly. Special congratulations go to Nicholas Murphy who qualified for the finals, and placed eighth overall in BUCS 3. Congratulations also go to Richard Healicon who came 15th in the men’s BUCS 1, and Phoebe Barnett who came 13th in the women’s BUCS 1. Andrew Turner also took on the other men in BUCS 3 and came 29th. For the ladies, Rebecca Alexander and Mabel Wong represented us in BUCS 5 and, despite fierce competition from 173 other competitors, achieved 32nd and 126th place.

Shortly after, we took three teams to Cambridge to compete in the much-awaited Varsity. Despite sterling work from the team, Cambridge unfortunately outperformed us on the day. Nonetheless, two of our team members walked away with colours (full Blue for Phoebe Barnett, and Half-Blue for Richard Healicon) and a refined routine from Phoebe earned her top marks of the day. There’s always next year!

All in all, despite an initially rough ride, the club’s successes this year have been great and we as a committee are sure that the club will go from strength to strength.

TRIATHLON OUTriC’s year got off to a flying start, with record numbers joining in Michaelmas. The 100-member barrier (broken towards the end of the previous season) was smashed early on, leaving no doubt that this was going to be an exciting year for the club, which now has almost 140 members. The club’s achievements were recognised in November by the Sports Federation, who named us Sports Club of the Year for 2013/14.

The budding enthusiasm of our new athletes inspired the development of a brand new ‘Performance Squad’ initiative. The Squad aims to ensure that whilst OUTriC remains an open and inclusive club for all, athletes who want to take triathlon to a higher level can now obtain the support needed to fulfil their potential. In its trial season the Squad has already proved invaluable, greatly increasing

OUTriC’s competitiveness at the top end, resulting in a record number of athletes placing in the top 50 at BUCS. The third annual training camp in Portugal with club sponsors TriTraining Harder went down a treat, building mileage, enthusiasm and confidence for all involved. This ‘holiday’ (!) is now a regular feature of the OUTriC training calendar. The club has also greatly increased its coaching facilities back home, now boasting qualified coaches at every session.

The explosion in popularity of triathlon in Oxford and Cambridge resulted in another new development this year: the creation of a second-team match at Varsity to add to the existing Blues and Mob Match categories.

Oxford’s superior strength in depth showed with an emphatic win in the women’s Seconds match by over 16 minutes, whilst the men’s Seconds suffered a narrow defeat by 1 minute 49 seconds. Oxford took both of the Mob Match competitions thanks to its turnout of over 40 athletes (despite a very windy 8.30am start!). Cambridge brought two strong Blues teams who edged out Oxford by less than 5 minutes between them, resulting in a 3:3 draw in the match overall.

There were numerous impressive individual performances this year. At the top end, Sophia Saller finished tenth in the Junior Elite World Championships and continues to excel as part of the German U23 squad. At the Ironman World Championships, Gareth Shellard was tantalisingly close to breaking the 10-hour barrier despite Kona’s infamously humid and windy conditions. Following BUCS and Varsity, Andy Dyson was awarded his second Blue, with Alec Watson and Laura Fenwick both achieving Half-Blues. Congratulations!

ULTIMATE FRISBEE The new academic year started with two taster sessions, which were well attended, and trials. Trials set the tone for the year, testing fitness and athleticism. The first club fixture was taking a team to the BUCS Big Surf Weekend in Newquay to compete in Beach Ultimate friendlies. The team won both matches, putting the club on a solid footing going into the year.

Our first tournament as a club was the BUCS Men’s Indoor Regionals where we set an historic record for the club, entering three teams who all finished in the top half of the tournament. The first team finished 7th and qualified for division 2 BUCS Indoor Nationals.

The second team finished 12th and won the award for best spirit of the game; the third team finished 16th. It was then time for the women to make their stand at BUCS Indoor Regionals. After a tough fight, fraught with injury, the women’s team missed out on qualifying for Nationals but made progress in forming strong team bonds. The time came

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the sports diver qualification. This involved theoretical work as well as training in the pool throughout Michaelmas and Hilary terms, which culminated in a very successful Easter trip to Cornwall to finish off open water training.

We also gained access to the pool at Iffley Sports Centre for our training – a substantial achievement, which makes logistics much simpler. We also took a lot of effort this year to create a new website and members’ database, and have enforced a new common renewal date for all members.

In addition to this, we purchased a new engine for our club boat, Seahorse, which will ensure its reliability for hopefully the next seven or eight years. Promare continues to support the boat maintenance, an arrangement which is working out very well at the moment. around for the mixed team to shine at Mixed Indoor Regionals, where they finished in a strong 7th place, qualifying for Nationals where they came a strong 4th.

Away from all the hype of BUCS and other tournaments, a thrilling development was being made in the college league. Plans to include a weakened University of Oxford Brookes team were being implemented. This raised the competitiveness of the college league and helped strengthen relations between the Brookes team and our own.

Michaelmas term ended and after the Christmas vacation we welcomed in Hilary term and the outdoor season. Both the men’s and women’s teams kicked their training into the next gear, getting used to the windier conditions and new tactics at preseason training. The hard work of all of the teams clearly paid off, with the men’s first team finishing a strong sixth at BUCS Regionals and going on to finish third at division 2 BUCS nationals. The women’s team combined with the Brookes team and went on to win Division 2 Women’s nationals.

Varsity was a bittersweet story. There were strong wins from the men’s second team, retaining the trophy which has never been in Cambridge hands, as well as the women’s team, taking the trophy from Cambridge for the first time. After a close-fought match, the men’s Firsts narrowly lost.

UNDERWATER EXPLORATION The club has had a fantastic year, with the highlight of diving being the winter trip to Malta. There have also been numerous trips within the UK including St Abbs, The Farnes, Swanage, Pembrokeshire, Plymouth and our yearly training trip to Cornwall.

We took on the amazing number of 29 trainees this year, thanks to the recruitment efforts at Freshers’ Fair. In total we trained 15 members for the ocean diver qualification and 14 for

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With the end of the academic year, we have many keen, newly trained divers and some experienced members enthusiastic for some good diving. The coming season looks promising, with trips planned to the Sound of Mull, St. Abbs and Weymouth among many others. With more members, diving trips and trainees than over the last years the club is thriving, and we are having lots of fun exploring the excellent dive sites that the UK has to offer. We are very grateful to the Sports Federation for their support.

VOLLEYBALL The 2013/14 season was a very successful year of volleyball for the women and a year of building up for the men.

The men’s first team was promoted to the BUCS Midland conference 1A in last year. The goal of this season was to build up a core of strong players ready to compete at high-level next season. After a lot of hard training the team finished in sixth place.

The women’s first team had an extremely successful season. They finished first in the BUCS Midlands conference 1A, were promoted to BUCS Premier League and qualified for the BUCS finals 8 by comfortably winning their crossover match against Swansea 3:0. At the BUCS finals in Edinburgh the team was placed in a very strong group with Northumbria (who finished second) and Durham (who finished first). The team fought well – managing to take 14 and 17 points off Durham – and finished third in the group stage. This qualified the team to play for ranks 5–8. By winning the two remaining knockout matches the team finished fifth in the country. Both the men’s and the women’s first teams were successful in the EVA student cup finals, with the men finishing 13th and the women 5th.

Our second teams are competing in the local Berkshire Volleyball Association (BVA) league.

They have a good core of players that has

progressed immensely over the season, and both teams finished in the middle of the league.

This year’s Varsity was a highly contested fight (three of the four matches were played to five sets) which Oxford women’s Firsts and Seconds and Oxford men’s Firsts lost. The men’s Seconds, however, won their fourth consecutive Varsity Match against Cambridge – well done!

In addition to the student teams OUVC runs two National Volleyball League (NVL) teams.

The men’s team was newly formed this season and managed to finish fourth after a slow start into the season. The women’s NVL team had an incredibly successful season, winning 17 out of the 18 matches in division 2 and gaining promotion to division 1. This all would not have been possible without the student and NVL teams working closely together. The NVL teams provide a platform for student players to raise their level and for the NVL teams to incorporate talented players in their team.

WALKING The Walking Club had a very successful 2013/14 academic year. We significantly increased our membership numbers. Our weekend trips continue to be extremely popular and despite often being double-sized this year, they were almost all oversubscribed. We increased the number of minibus day trips, and these proved to be extremely popular too. Our trips were to such various destinations as Cornwall, the South Coast, Snowdonia, the Lake District and Pembrokeshire, and some of them included visiting castles and mansions or nature watching — catering to all tastes.

Our local walks have had unprecedented interest, with some of the Michaelmas term walks attracting up to 30 members! Three of our club members have completed the Varsity March, the annual 81-mile walk from Oxford to Cambridge put on by our Cambridge counterpart, and three more are preparing to complete it this year. In preparation, we are organising several

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long-distance walks and entering the Ridgeway 40, a competitive 40-mile walk in May. On the training side, we have run another very successful outdoor first-aid course, increasing our number of leaders and renewing the firstaid requirement for many of the older leaders.

We have also sent two members on Mountain Leader courses, increasing our leader base for next year.

WATER POLO OUWPC has had an important year, in which tangible progress has been made towards our long-term goals and strong foundations have been laid for the future. We have recruited three highly experienced, qualified and motivated coaches, and their enthusiasm and expertise have been a hugely valuable asset.

Recruitment is at an all-time high, resulting in an increased level of competitiveness across all three teams. For the first time in many years we have secured sponsorship for the club, which has helped pay for long overdue new equipment and helped, along with the muchneeded Sports Federation support, to continue to grow a club with huge potential.

The women’s club continues to grow and is the strongest it has been since its inception.

Whilst BUCS results were not what they should have been due to many strong players leaving last year, we were more successful in UPOLO, coming away with three out of six wins.

The men’s Blues had another strong season.

Six out of eight BUCS wins saw them into the semi-finals, where there were some extremely close matches despite being a few important men down. With the changed Blues criteria providing all the emphasis on getting into BUCS finals, the men’s team are even more determined to make that happen in the coming year, and should have the capability to do it.

This was the first season there has been formal recognition of, and selection for, a second team;

it has seen club membership increase and also provided a fantastic feeder into the men’s Blues for next year.

WINDSURFING 2013/14 was another calm but good year for the Windsurfing Club.

The year started with five members attending Aussie Kiss in Cornwall for an October weekend organised by the Student Windsurfing Association (SWA). The club then went to windsurf in Morocco for the first time. 12 members went to Essaouira for a week in April 2014 and learned to tackle waves and strong winds, with some practising their jumps and tricks. This trip was organised together with Cambridge University Windsurfing Club, and with two great instructors from Get Windsurfing whom we knew from previous years. Varsity took place at Grafham Water (Cambridge) and six members of OUWC competed.

Other than that, active members of the club have continued to use the club kit and facilities at Farmoor Reservoir in their own time.

2014/15 should see more events organised at Farmoor with the local windsurfing club, through the creation of a new committee position – a captain – to work on the sport aspect of the club. In particular the captain will be in charge of organising more beginners’ days, due to a high demand this past year.

YACHTING Oxford University Yacht Club has had a very successful year, from social trips such as the Extravaganza to racing wins at BUSA and Varsity, achieving our Half-Blue status for the fifth year running. We are also running an extensive and popular offshore season which includes races around the south coast, as well as to France and back in some high-profile and competitive events.

The club has been focusing on training its core members as much as possible, with more training this year than ever before; we are not only increasing training on the water but also running theory sessions and fitness sessions on land during term. Moreover, we have a Training Officer currently working on more courses for the whole club – from first aid and VHF to Yachtmaster theory courses under the RYA branch. We are also associating with the dinghy side of the yacht club to increase training as well as foster good connection between the two sides, which includes dinghy members joining us on offshore races whilst we receive both social and competitive training on dinghies.

Not only were we competing in England but we were also racing at EDHEC Course Croisière – the highest-level student yacht races in Europe – and are looking to expand our training on these types of boats, with another race against Cambridge jointly with the Dinghy Club.

Although we did not win against Cambridge in our Varsity Match, bringing the total score to 6:4 to Oxford, we have high hopes that the rigorous training this year will pay off next year. There is further potential for a weekend in France racing J80s in Hilary of next year.

We have more members than ever before and are looking to continue this strong sporting and social success.

COME AND SUPPORT OUR BLUES TO VARSITY VICTORY! 42 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2014

IMPORTANT DATES 2014-15

For the latest details please go to www.sport.ox.ac.uk to see an up-to-date list of fixtures and results!

DECEMBER 2014: 6/12/14 11/12/14

Cross Country, Wimbledon Common.

Rugby Union (OURFC), Twickenham

FEBRUARY 2015: 14/2/15 Squash Blues Varsity, RAC 20–22/2/15 BUCS Gatorade Nationals, Sheffield 28/2/15 Basketball Varsity, Cambridge Sports Hall MARCH 2015 1/3/2015 Boxing Varsity, Cambridge 1/3/2015 Netball Varsity 4–7/3/15 Torpids Regatta 6/3/15 Rugby League Varsity 7/3/15 Lacrosse Varsity, Cambridge 7/3/15 Men’s 2nds and 3rds Football Varsity, Iffley Road 7/3/15 Women’s 2nds Football Varsity, Christ Church 7/3/15 Gaelic Games Varsity Match, London 22–23/3/15 Yachting, Portsmouth.

24–25/3/15 BUCS Big Wednesday 28/3/15 Kickboxing, Oxford, The Union Debating Chamber APRIL 2015 3–4/4/2015 Modern Pentathlon Varsity, Bradfield College 11/4/15 The BNY Mellon Boat Race, River Thames London MAY 2015: 16/05/2015 Athletics Varsity Match, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

JUNE 2015: 27/6/15 Cricket Varsity Match, Lord’s Cricket Ground