Sports Review 2010

OXFORD I 1

SPORTS REVIEW 2010

 PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE - IFFLEY ROAD  10 YEARS OF THE SPORTS FEDERATION  SENATOR BILL BRADLEY

 THE RACE TO 2012  CLUB AND CUPPERS ROUND-UP  VARSITY RESULTS www.sport.ox.ac.uk

2 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

Oxford Sport: Setting the pace Work hard, play hard: at Oxford, it’s part of the reason why our sports clubs are vibrant communities, enriching lives and creating lifelong friendships. With your help we can provide the sporting environment to fulfil the dreams of thousands of men and women taking part in over 80 different sports, at every level of sporting prowess - from enthusiasts to College heroes and Olympians.

Iffley Road is home to one of the most outstanding human achievements of the last century - Bannister’s sub-four minute mile. However, the complex is now nearly as old as his record and we want our London 2012 legacy to include facilities that will enable a new era of Oxonians to break through barriers.

For information on how you can support our campaign visit:

www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/sport www.sport.ox.ac.uk

Laura Simmons

AS THE FIRST DECADE OF THE SPORTS FEDERATION DRAWS TO A CLOSE, I AM INCREDIBLY HAPPY AND PROUD TO GIVE TO YOU THE ANNUAL REVIEW 2010.

The world of Oxford sport is experiencing very exciting times leading up to 2012: at the end of October we were granted planning permission for the Iffley Road redevelopment plan, after years of hard work from the Sports Department. Read more about the plans for Iffley Road on page 4.

Last year witnessed a big revamp of the format of the Annual Review into an online magazine – this year we have taken the concept even further!

Turning over the pages of the Review, you will read some of the most interesting stories surrounding Oxford sport today in the Club and Cuppers Round-up section on page 13. Our sports clubs have had an exceptional season and I am happy to report that once again, after hosting Varsity games, Oxford has taken overall Varsity victory over our Light Blue rivals! (Varsity results can be found on page 38.)

This year we wanted to give you even more interesting articles to read, so in order to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Sports Federation I sat down with Jon Roycroft, our most respected Director of Sport, to recap the founding ideas and years of the Federation. To get you into the Oxford Olympic spirit, you can read about Nikki Emerson’s journey from Oxford to working for the London Organising Committee (LOCOG) for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and training for the Paralympics. I also received the incredible once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interview Oxford alumnus US Senator William Bradley – a basketball legend – to find out how his time at Oxford and playing sport has influenced his life and career!

Read Senator Bradley’s interview on page 8.

CONTENTS 03

News in Brief

04 PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

A New Chapter for Iffley Road

06 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THE SPORTS FEDERATION! Interview with the Director of Sport Jon Roycroft

08 THE VALUES OF AN ON-COURT EDUCATION

Senator Bill Bradley and the lessons learned as an Oxford Blue

10 THE RACE TO 2012

Catch-up with aspiring athlete Nikki Emerson

13 CLUB AND CUPPERS ROUND-UP

38 VARSITY RESULTS

40

UNIV SHATTER KEBLE’S DOUBLE BID!

College Rugby Final Report

Much has changed since the current sports hall was built in 1966, during Senator Bradley’s Oxford years. From 22 sports clubs in 1966, Oxford is today represented by 84, with three new clubs with pending status. Instead of six indoor sports clubs, 45 now compete for indoor hall time. On the brink of the redevelopment it is a very worthwhile time to venture back to Iffley Road to support our teams – we would love to see you!

Enni-Kukka Tuomala Sports Federation President 2010-11

A big thank you to all the contributors to the Review and to Vincent’s Club for their continuous support!

Follow Oxford Sport and life in the Sports Federation office through my President’s blog on the Oxford Today website: www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/Blogs/Enni-Kukka_Tuomala.html You can also join us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/oxfordunisport

Funded by: Oxford University Sports Federation Oxford Thinking Campaign Vincent’s Club Cover photo: OUABC Varsity Match at the Oxford Town Hall – John Cairns Photography www.johncairnsphotography.co.uk Editor: Enni-Kukka Tuomala, Oxford University Sports Federation President 2010-11 Contributions: Andrew Thomas, Tim Stevens and Amy Kay 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 2010

I 3

News in Brief Current student Izzy Westbury and former student and OUSF President Beth Wild have been selected for the England Women’s Academy cricket squad.

Blues Sean Morris and Alex Cheesman starred in Great Britain’s Student Sevens team, managed by OURFC’s General Manager Tim Stevens. The fourth World Universities’ Rugby Sevens Championships took place in Porto from 21st to 24th July and the Great Britain Men’s Team travelled with a strong squad, looking to improve on their fifth place in Cordoba in 2008. Although they missed out on the final, a 19-12 victory over Spain in their final game was enough to bring home an impressive bronze medal.

September saw OURFC have a very successful tour of Russia, spending ten days in Moscow and Kazan. Although they narrowly lost both games played, cultural learning opportunities were considerable, and the tour provided the perfect pre-season training environment. The players were welcomed by the local communities and ran three masterclass coaching sessions for young players, as well as several school visits.

The Team were also delighted to have a drinks reception with local alumni at the British Ambassador’s Residence in Moscow.

 Oxford University Lightweight Rowing Club was invited to Beijing in August to compete against Cambridge, Harvard and Yale.

Racing was held on both the Olympic course in Beijing, and in Xinjing city. The first race saw Oxford coming in third ahead of Cambridge, while the second race saw them placed fourth, suffering in the heat and humidity.

 Christ Church & Kellogg Men’s first boat continued to dominate College rowing this year, both retaining the headship at Torpids, and coming in as Head of the River at Summer Eights. Women’s College rowing was a little more open, with Magdalen taking the headship at Torpids, while Balliol came in as Head of the River at Summer Eights.

 The Rt Hon. Tessa Jowell MP, former Olympics Minister, paid a visit to Iffley Road last November as part of an official tour to establish how the region is preparing for London 2012. She was met by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Andy Hamilton, who was accompanied by Sir Roger Bannister and representatives of the Oxfordshire sporting community. As well as seeing Iffley Road’s 2012 training camp facilities, the Minister was also able to view Clement Atlee’s original speech notes from his opening address at the London 1948 Games, by kind permission of the Bodleian Library.



Oxford finished in an impressive eighth place out of 146 institutions in the British College and University Sports (BUCS) overall league table, coming in six places ahead of Cambridge.

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

4 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

POOL

GRANDSTAND

SPORTS CENTRE

TENNIS CENTRE

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE OXFORD SPORT NOW HAS A NEW REASON TO CELEBRATE. IN OCTOBER 2010 PLANNING PERMISSION WAS GRANTED FOR THE LONG-AWAITED AND MUCH NEEDED REDEVELOPMENT OF IFFLEY ROAD.

This marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter, giving the University the opportunity to cement sport at the heart of the rounded Oxford student experience. This ambitious ÂŁ39-million overhaul of sports facilities means that sport at Oxford can now finally look forward to having facilities befitting a world-leading University.

I 5

Jon Roycroft, Director of Sport, said: ‘We are delighted that after a lot of hard work by the University we have secured the planning permission we need to make the urgent updates needed to our facilities. There will be a lot of hard work involved in securing the funding for the project, requiring the generous support of our alumni, sports governing bodies and the commercial sector, but the results will completely transform the face of sport here, with the benefits being felt by students, staff and the local community.’

Perhaps the biggest impact of the redevelopment will be on our disabled students.

Currently, there is very limited disability access to the facilities at Iffley Road. We need to ensure that this is rectified as a matter of urgency, enabling our disabled students to participate in the same way as any other student at Oxford.

If you would like to find out more about the future of Iffley Road and how you can help us to achieve this, go to

www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/sport or contact Andrew Thomas, andrew.

In addition to a new indoor Tennis Centre, for thomas@devoff.ox.ac.uk, Head of which planning permission was granted last year, Development - Sport. the plans will involve a complete redevelopment of the cramped indoor cricket school and aged grandstand. Both of these structures will be demolished and combined into a new grandstand The facilities as they stand today complex. This will allow a full-length run-up for indoor cricket for the first time, along with a viewing platform looking out over the famous Bannister track, and space for many other sports.

The plans also feature a new sports hall, considerably increasing the indoor space available, including a much improved gym. The new complex will address the chronic lack of indoor space for playing sport- currently there is just one small indoor hall for over 20,000 students and 10,000 staff. There is simply not enough space for all of the clubs who need to use the Iffley Road facilities. Today Oxford boasts one of the most diverse ranges of sports offered by any university - 84 in total. Considered alongside the huge demands from College sport, the massive growth in women’s sport, and the general need to help our students and staff lead The current facilities at Iffley Road were mainly built in 1966, a historic year for British Sport. As we fast approach this healthy, active lifestyles, it is clear that a new, generation’s iconic sporting occasion, the London 2012 Olympics, Oxford Sport stands to make its mark once again. modern solution is desperately required.

Proposed Grandstand Complex www.sport.ox.ac.uk

6 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

2009-10 marks the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the Oxford University Sports Federation.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THE SPORTS INTERVIEW WITH FEDERATION! JON ROYCROFT Ten years on from the foundation of our Sports Federation, the current President discovers how it all began.

For ten years the Federation has provided central administration and student representation for all Oxford athletes, witnessing hundreds of Varsity victories, 12 sabbatical Presidents in office, the founding of numerous new highly motivated sports clubs, the building of a new pool at Iffley Road and, more recently, the planning approval for the new Iffley Road redevelopment plan.

To celebrate the past decade of the Sports Federation I sat down with the inspirational and busy Director of Sport, Jon Roycroft, to talk about the ideas behind the successful Oxford sport set-up and the first founding years of the Federation.

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

The original idea came to Jon in 1997, after his first year in Oxford, during his input to the University’s Review of Sport. Jon recognized the independent nature of the Oxford sports clubs, loosely based on the College set-up, and the challenges with that “leading to all sorts of issues with inefficient use of resources, no cost savings through bulk purchasing and importantly a non-professional outlook on how sport should be run.” For the clubs to be able to develop and grow there would have to be a central administrative support service – a system that our rivals at Cambridge still completely lack. Jon was also very determined to ease the administrative

“I REALLY QUESTION WHETHER SPORTS CLUBS COULD COPE WITH THE NUMBER OF COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS WITHOUT SPORTS FEDERATION HELP.”

I 7

pressure on student athletes. “Importantly I also saw that the stress and pressure on normal students trying to cope with both club administration and an Oxford degree was beginning to become untenable. The fear being that either a student’s academic work would become seriously affected or clubs would just deteriorate in terms of administration and performance, or perhaps both.”

Photo courtesy of The Oxford Mail

Compared with other UK Universities the Oxford set-up is very unique – the Sports Federation functions independently as a part of the University Sports Department, instead of being a part of the Student Union, which is the case at most other universities. “I came from a Student Union Sports set-up at Brighton and although I was very aware of the problems involved with sport being entwined in SU politics, I also knew that the inherent strength of a student-led organisation for sport was huge, as long as it was focused on sport and not easily sidetracked.” One of the advantages of having a sabbatical Sports Federation President outside the Student Union is the election process; “From a capability point of view I was always both suspicious and disappointed that a Sports sabbatical, and in fact any sabbatical, could be voted in on say 5% of the student numbers and then win on a popularity competition rather than through any real process of scrutiny or in fact ability.” Now the set-up ensures that the Sports Federation President is voted in by the Sports Federation Sports Council, consisting of the Sports Clubs and College sports representatives – the people who are actually involved in Oxford Sport.

As the current Sports Federation President I am keen to hear more about my predecessors and the important legacy of my position. The first sabbatical President, Jonathan Rose, was appointed rather than elected. Jon says, “We were well into the last term when approval and funding were granted, and given the fact that we didn’t actually have an approved method of elections, nor a constitution, we asked for final-year student applications.”

Jonathan’s first task, working closely with the new Sports Federation Administrator Piers Jones, was to start providing the central services identified as being needed in the Review. “Jonathan, who was Fencing President and a Blue, worked from September 1998 to June 1999 in the Sports Federation, and then for the Development Office for six months on fundraising. The first elected President was Serena Gosling who was elected in February 1999, but held office from October 1999 until June 2000, thereby making it ten years, but technically twelve Presidents, to date.” Many of the past Presidents have continued very successful careers in sport – the first elected President Serena Gosling works for the London Organising Committee (LOCOG) for 2012,

Kate Filochowski (President 2006-07) works for Podium, engaging UK higher education with the Olympics, and the most recent President from 2009-10, Ruth Holmes, is busy fundraising for the Great Britain 2012 Team.

Before the Sports Federation was founded the organisation of University Sport was left in the hands of each individual Club Committee and their Senior Member. “There was simply no health and safety or insurance overview and accounts were only occasionally scrutinised if there was a complaint, which was rare. Facility usage was dominated by male clubs and bookings were based on the historical block bookings.” Jon sees the role of the Sports Federation as being more important than ever: “I really question whether sports clubs could cope with the number of compliance requirements without Sports Federation help.”

Having acted as the Blues Captain of the Women’s Basketball Team for two years, I have to agree.

Encouragingly the last decade has seen Oxford steadily climb the national BUCS ranking.

In the past few years Oxford has finished in eighth place overall in BUCS, a fantastic achievement for a University that bases its admission purely on academic excellence! Jon thinks that in a very good year, with a large number of team entries, we might make it to sixth place, but continues to say that “as long as we consistently out-perform our lighter blue colleagues in both BUCS and Varsity, I will believe what we do is clearly successful.”

Turning to the long-term goals of the Sports Federation, Jon mentions the need to improve and centralise club coaches; something that will eventually boost the overall performance of our teams, as well as increase the Oxford recruitment profile in terms of targeting Oxbridge candidates to come to Oxford if they are sportingly inclined.

So has the purpose of the Sports Federation changed in the past ten years? Jon sees the

Jon Roycroft with Libby Payne, Sports Federation President 2003-4, at the 1st Annual Sports Federation Ball and Awards Ceremony

Federation as constantly developing to respond to the needs of the clubs and the development of sport. The initial aim and goal of the Federation was to provide a professional, centralised sports administration service to all registered sports clubs at Oxford, and an elected sports-club-mandated sabbatical to ensure that the clubs, and students’ interests, are represented at all times.

After ten years, and 84 sports clubs down the line, the goal of the Sports Federation remains stronger than ever – here’s to the next ten years! ■ Enni-Kukka Tuomala

Sports Federation Presidents 1998-2011 Jonathan Rose Serena Gosling Will Spencer Ruth Grigor Fiona Worrell Libby Payne Georgie Webb Susan Lowrey

Kate Filochowski Lisa Ravenscroft Beth Wild Ruth Holmes Enni-Kukka Tuomala

“MY FAVOURITE OXFORD MOMENTS IN TERMS OF PERFORMANCE INCLUDE THE 1999 BUSA (AS BUCS WAS THEN) BASKETBALL FINALS IN LOUGHBOROUGH WHERE BOTH OUR MEN’S AND WOMEN’S TEAMS WON, THE WOMEN BEATING LOUGHBOROUGH BY 50 POINTS IN THEIR OWN BACK YARD! IN TERMS OF EVENTS MY FAVOURITE MOMENT IS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST FOUR-MINUTE MILE, WHICH GOT INTERNATIONAL TV, RADIO AND PRESS COVERAGE.” www.sport.ox.ac.uk

Senator Bill Bradley and the lessons learned as an Oxford Blue

8 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

THE VALUES OF AN ON-COURT EDUCATION “ALL OF THE VALUES I HAVE CARRIED IN LIFE WERE LEARNED THROUGH BASKETBALL BY THE AGE OF 16. FOR EXAMPLE: DISCIPLINE, SELFLESSNESS, IMAGINATION, AND RESPECT. IF YOU GET A GROUP OF SELFLESS PEOPLE TOGETHER, GREAT THINGS CAN HAPPEN. IT TAKES COURAGE TO PUT YOURSELF ON THE LINE, SUBSUMING YOURSELF WITHIN THE TEAM.”

Getting the chance to speak on the phone to Senator Bill Bradley in New York was a once-in-a-lifetime honour for a basketball player like me. For weeks leading up to the scheduled interview I narrowed down my long list of questions, trying to decide what to ask him. The Senator has had such an amazing career both on and off the basketball court; to be able to learn from his way of successfully combining high-level sports with high-level academic achievement and a great career in politics would be inspiring to us all! Phoning the Senator I was excited and nervous – he is a basketball legend and an inspirational politician and author. On the other end of the phone I found him extremely friendly, pleasant and very keen to remember his days at Oxford fondly.

Senator William W. Bradley studied at Worcester College as a Rhodes Scholar in 1965-67, having completed his undergraduate degree in American history at Princeton University. Bradley is an Olympic gold medallist in basketball from 1964, winning the medal while he was still a student at Princeton. Bradley’s time in Oxford was followed by ten years of professional basketball playing for the New York Knicks, winning two National Basketball Association Championships and being honoured in the NBA Hall of Fame in 1982. After retiring from basketball in 1977 Bradley was elected to represent the state of New Jersey in the US Senate, serving for three full terms. In 2000 Senator Bradley ran for the Democratic Party presidential candidacy against Al Gore. Today Senator Bradley is the Managing Director of Allen & Company LLC, a celebrated author and a radio host.

With the redevelopment plans for the Iffley Road Sport Complex recently being granted planning permission, it is interesting to note that the current Iffley Road sports hall was built in 1966 during Senator Bradley’s time at Oxford. In his first year at Oxford, besides playing for the Oxford University Basketball Club, Bradley played professional basketball in Milan. “I commuted twice a month to Europe to play basketball and would stay in shape running around the grounds of Worcester.” That year, while the Sport Complex was being built, Bradley had to travel 15 miles to the US Air base in Upper Heyford to train.

“I used to travel up there three or four days a week to train in an old hangar that was converted into a gymnasium.”

It was in the newly built Iffley Road sports hall that Senator Bradley, in his second Oxford year, experienced one of his life-defining moments.

After finishing the season in the European League playing for Milan, Bradley took some time off from basketball, starting to think about his future after Oxford. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep playing basketball.” He decided to get back into shape, getting back into the individual training and drills he had done since his childhood days of playing basketball. “I remember doing my drills alone at Iffley Road with a running commentary in my head: “ten seconds left on the clock and Bradley has the ball…”. It was in that moment that I realised that I still loved the game and not playing basketball would be denying a part of myself more fundamental than any other.” Shortly after, he got in touch with the New York Knicks to accept their offer and arrange a contract.

www.sport.ox.ac.uk © George Kalinsky

I 9

Basketball has always been a huge part of Senator Bradley’s life. “All of the values I have carried in life were learned through basketball by the age of 16. For example, discipline, selflessness, imagination, and respect. If you get a group of selfless people together, great things can happen. It takes courage to put yourself on the line, subsuming yourself within the team.” Team work is something Senator Bradley regards very highly, something he learnt from basketball and has used all his life. Playing basketball myself I know what he is talking about. “Something happens on the court with the team where it is unlike anything else you experience anywhere else. You can see everything perfectly clearly and in slow motion and yet you know that when it succeeds you could not have done it alone.” Talking to Senator Bradley it becomes evident that it is not easy to categorise him simply as an athlete or a politician – all the different parts of his life have always supported each other. When asked if basketball has been at the centre of his life the Senator reflects on two of the greatest moments of his career. “People always ask me what was more important in your life, basketball or politics. My response is that really the biggest honour was being elected to the US Senate three times, but the biggest thrill was standing in centre court twice as the NBA World Champion, and knowing that you are the best in the world. Both of those were very meaningful parts of my life.”

“THE TEAM VOTED UNANIMOUSLY TO FORFEIT THE SEMI-FINAL ROUND SO THAT WE COULD HEAR ROBERT KENNEDY SPEAK AT THE OXFORD UNION, WHICH IS A GOOD INDICATION OF THE VALUES OF EDUCATION.” Senator Bradley believes in the value of a good academic education and that it is possible for Academic institutions such as Oxford, who only admit students on academic merit rather than sporting achievement, to still compete on a high level against others.

Oxford’s consistent eighth place overall finish in BUCS, only finishing after the biggest sporting Universities such as Loughborough and Bath, is excellent evidence for this. In 1966 the Oxford Men’s Basketball Team with Bradley entered the English National Championships and made it through to the semi-final round only to decide that in some cases the battle on the court is not everything.

Oxford University Men’s Blues in 1966 with Senator Bradley number 9 far right in the top row

“The team voted unanimously to forfeit the semi-final round so that we could hear Robert Kennedy speak at the Oxford Union, which is a good indication of the values of education.”

The American Rhodes scholars used to cross the Atlantic on the Queen Elizabeth; Senator Bradley remembers an amusing incident from the voyage to the UK with the other scholars.

“We were arriving in England and a British photographer wanted to take a photo of the great basketball player Bill Bradley. I got my tall friend from Wyoming, another Rhodie and lacrosse player, to wear his cowboy hat and get a picture taken holding his lacrosse stick, telling the photographer that he was Bill Bradley and this was his “basketball stick”. The photographer bought the whole story and the photo ran with the caption: “Great basketball player Bill Bradley with his basketball stick.” Basketball might not be a major sport in the UK, but needless to say there are no sticks involved!

“WE GOT TO OXFORD ON ONE OF THOSE INCREDIBLE JUNE MORNINGS WHEN THE SUN WAS SHINING, AND WALKED INTO CHRIST CHURCH AND WALKED AROUND TOWN AND I THOUGHT THAT I HAVE TO GET BACK HERE.” Studying at Oxford was a long-term dream and goal for Senator Bradley. “After my senior year of high school my father, out of the blue, encouraged me to go to Europe - I

had never been outside the US. I went on tour around Europe in a group consisting of thirteen women and me, and one of the places that we visited was Oxford. We got to Oxford on one of those incredible June mornings when the sun was shining, and walked into Christ Church and walked around town and I thought that I have to get back here.” Returning home from his tour Bradley broke his foot playing baseball – time off from basketball got him thinking about life outside the game. “I started reading books about Oxford and in one of the books I read about a scholarship called the Rhodes Scholarship.

And then I read that the college that had the most Rhodes Scholars was Princeton.” Four days before the new Duke freshman class was scheduled to convene Bradley changed his mind and went to Princeton. “It was because of that book and because of Oxford that I did that.” Senator Bradley feels grateful to Oxford for opening him up to a broader world. “I travelled extensively through Europe during the vacations, including Russia, and got to know the world more intimately. I still rely on and trade on the experiences and relationships I built up aged 23.”

With that my phone call with Senator Bradley came to an end; a very busy man, he could only spare a little time - time I am very thankful for.

A legend in his own right and a hero of my own, I know I share Senator Bradley’s feelings about Oxford. As I put the phone down it might not be one of those incredible June mornings Senator Bradley remembers, but even now I know I will always have to get back here. And I hope the Senator will return as well. Long after I leave Oxford, I know my experiences as a Blues basketball player will continue to affect and influence my life, and after talking to Senator Bradley, I know I am in the best company. ■ Enni-Kukka Tuomala www.sport.ox.ac.uk

THE RACE TO 2012 Nikki Emerson is a very important person to follow in the lead-up to the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics – both on and off the track. An Oxford graduate, she studied Psychology, Philosophy and Physiology at Magdalen College, matriculating in 2006. Nikki now works for LOCOG, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, a fantastic job she got through her involvement in the Atalanta’s Society. “I work for the Merchandising Department – at the moment I am negotiating design for the apparel and working on deals for cycling and equestrian.”

“I STILL WEAR MY OXFORD STASH LACROSSE HOODIE INSTEAD OF MY GB KIT ALL THE TIME.”

I 11

Nikki might be a powerful businesswoman in the office but Nikki feels most at home on the track - she is an inspiring athlete through and through. Before and after work she is training hard for the wheelchair races in 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m distances for the Paralympics in 2012. “On a typical day I will get up at 4.45am for training, to then catch the 6.45am tube to Canary Wharf to start work. I work 8am5pm followed by more training in the evening.”

During her season Nikki also competes in the marathon distance, having recently competed in the London Marathon, finishing in a fantastic fourth place, and the Berlin Marathon. “I train short distances for the Paralympics but prefer marathons.”

A lacrosse Blue and former modern pentathlete, Nikki started wheelchair racing after she broke her back in a car accident in 2008. “After my accident I first got into rowing for about six months before I was introduced to wheelchair racing; eventually wheelchair racing felt better and suited me more.” Nikki is coached

by Dr Ian Thompson and Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, an 11-time Paralympic gold medallist in wheelchair racing, who has been a big inspiration to her. During her final year at Oxford Nikki was training at Stoke Mandeville, occasionally going up to Loughborough, with sessions at Iffley Road. Disabled access is one of the main focuses in the new redevelopment plan for the Iffley Road Sport Complex, something Nikki strongly supports. “I mainly used the track and the pool at Iffley Road – the rest of the facilities were simply too difficult to access in a wheelchair. I do a lot of weights but had to go to LA Fitness to do my sessions there instead since there wasn’t enough space to move around in the Iffley gym and weights room. There are also no disabled changing rooms or toilets in the sports hall and gym area – I had to go to the pool to get changed.”

She is very excited about the new plans for the Sports Complex: “I think the redevelopment will put Oxford on the map for disabled student athletes and encourage them to apply.”

“I DO A LOT OF WEIGHTS BUT HAD TO GO TO LA FITNESS TO DO MY SESSIONS THERE INSTEAD SINCE THERE WASN’T ENOUGH SPACE TO MOVE AROUND IN THE IFFLEY GYM AND WEIGHTS ROOM. THERE ARE ALSO NO DISABLED CHANGING ROOMS OR TOILETS IN THE SPORTS HALL AND GYM AREA – I HAD TO GO TO THE POOL TO GET CHANGED.”

Nikki is still a true Oxford girl at heart. She follows the results of her old lacrosse team and recollects her first lacrosse Varsity as her favourite Oxford sport moment. “I still wear my Oxford stash lacrosse hoodie instead of my GB kit all the time – everyone asks me about it but I still love Oxford sport and find it exciting.” Nikki is now sponsored by British Airways for travel, and Continental for her tyres; Adidas has also given her racing kit.

After her post at LOCOG comes to an end when the Olympics are all wrapped up, Nikki

is keen to go back to University. “I am trying to decide between Oxford, Loughborough and Bath, but I will most likely end up going to Loughborough or Bath since the sporting facilities there are simply better and more accessible.” After the Paralympics Nikki has another dream she would like to fulfil: “I would really like to do an Ironman one day.”

Knowing Nikki and her determination and commitment, I have no doubt that she will. ■ Enni-Kukka Tuomala

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

The University of Oxford Shop www.oushop.com/sport OUBC Brolly

Celebrate Oxford’s rowing heritage...

Oxford Pennant

Short Sleeve Rugby Top

OUBC Cap

I 13

CLUB AND CUPPERS ROUND-UP AIKIDO The Oxford University Aikido Club had a very successful 2009/2010. We continued to offer quality instruction during five sessions a week, and we are proud to continue with Peter Megan, one of the highest-ranking instructors in the UK, as our senior local instructor. Interest in beginners’ sessions was high enough this year to extend our Monday beginners’ classes through vacations. Regular weekend courses were led by the UK’s most eminent Aikido teacher and Technical Director of the British Aikido Foundation (BAF), Minoru Kanetsuka Sensei, and offered Club members the opportunity to advance in gradings. The OU Aikido Club continues to train alongside the Oxford City Aikido Club. This opportunity to train with experienced Aikido practitioners is invaluable and provides a real incentive to new members, demonstrating mastery of this martial arts form. We look forward to an even more successful 2010-11!

ARCHERY On the whole it was another excellent year for OUC of A, particularly in terms of recruitment.

We approximately trebled our membership, through a very successful novice-coaching programme led by Dave Longworth. The Novice Team finished 4th in the BUCS Indoor Championships and in BUTTS, winning at Varsity and regaining the Silver Plate with a total score exceeding Cambridge’s by more than a thousand points. The experienced team

was less fortunate, and Cambridge retained the Rose Bowl for another year. We did, however, convincingly defeat them in all categories at the annual Grudge Match in Hilary term.

The Club enjoyed another Easter trip to the Student Festival of Sport on the Isle of Man. The Oxford leg of the BUTTS League was hosted successfully, as was our annual open indoor tournament during the Easter vacation, which was held over two days this year to cater for increased demand for spaces. We also hosted the Oxfordshire County Indoor Championships in Michaelmas.

ATHLETICS At the end of Trinity 2009 a large restructuring programme of the Club’s set-up was begun, and over the following summer a large number of new coaches and support team was hired. As Michaelmas approached, the Club received a fantastic crop of new athletes, including sprinter Isaiah Adekanmbi, New Zealand No.1 decathlete Pete Cox, sprinter Elle Gatehouse and throws all-rounder Susan Hedge, to name but a few. Unfortunately, a combination of illness and injury meant that it was an under-strength team that headed to Cambridge’s Wilberforce Road for the Freshers’ Match, leading to an unfortunate loss in both the Men’s and Women’s contests. The FEAR match featured Isaiah running a blistering 6.90 seconds to take not only the match record, but also the No.1 spot in the Club’s all-time ranking. Elsewhere, the Men’s field trophy ended as a draw, with wins in the high jump,

discus, shot, and javelin – in the latter of which nearly every Oxford athlete threw further than the best Cambridge athlete, showing the depth that was forming in the throws squad. The women unfortunately lost both the track and the field matches.

In the build-up to Varsity - first was the Kinnaird and Sward match, where Pete Cox and Andrew Bogrand dominated in the throws on the field, helping the Achilles team to reclaim the trophy for the first time in a number of years. Despite a number of remarkable performances on the day of Varsity, with Captains Alex and Clara winning their events in awesome fashion, the Tabs were ultimately victorious, albeit in controversial manner with a faulty changeover by their 4x100m squad being missed, while Oxford’s squad were mysteriously disqualified.

Altogether, the number of personal bests set throughout the season has been staggering, and testament to the hard work of not only the current OUAC athletes, but also the coaches and support team. Despite the defeats this year, I remain confident that the Club is on the road to a new era of dominance over Cambridge, with the development of athletes better than it has been for a number of years across all events. In order to maintain this standard of coaching various fund-raising activities have been started, including taking control of the custodian account, into which all alumni donations are paid, and most importantly, the Hall of Fame Dinner, which will take place on 18th December 2010, more information on which can be obtained by contacting daniel. johnson@new.ox.ac.uk www.sport.ox.ac.uk

14 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

AUSSIE RULES 2009-10 has been a very successful year for the Oxford University Australian Rules Football Club (OUARFC), both on and off the field. We made a significant step forward in the development of the Club by acquiring a permanent home ground in central Oxford.

We were also successful in receiving a special grant from the Oxford Sports Federation for the purchase of full-size goal posts, ensuring that we can now be competitive on a national level.

The Varsity Match was played on 13th November, 2009. While the conditions were horrendous, the game was of very high quality.

We had several hundred supporters braving the wind and rain to cheer us on to a huge victory; the Varsity cup remains in Oxford’s hands for another year!

In Hilary term, we had our annual International Rules match against the Irish Gaelic team.

This is a hybrid game between Aussie Rules and Gaelic football, and produces great rivalry between the two countries here in Oxford.

While the result did not fall our way, it was a fast-paced game and we were beaten by a more experienced and skilful opposition.

Remarkably, next year brings us the 90th anniversary of the first Aussie Rules Varsity Match, and it is the longest-running rivalry outside Australia.

BASEBALL A reasonably successful year for Oxford University Baseball saw the team record four wins and three losses in the games they played in the British University Baseball Association league, while the city-wide Oxford Kings organisation started the 2010 British Baseball Federation season with a nine-game winning streak in the BBF AAA South Division. The team continued its strong partnership with the Kings, a partnership that we hope will continue through the foreseeable future, even though the Club is going through a period of great change. Due to the large number of visiting students and the moving on of the current trio of officers, there is an entirely new executive and there will be a vastly changed playing staff for 2010.

BASKETBALL OUBbC had another very successful year, with both the Men’s and Women’s Team performing to a high standard in the Premier League of BUCS. The Men’s Blues finished second in the Premier South and the Women’s Blues finished third. Both teams went on to qualify for the play-offs. The Women suffered a heart-breaking loss against a very good South www.sport.ox.ac.uk

Bank team in the Final 16. The Men’s Team, rich with returning players and international experience, were considered challengers for the National Championship throughout the year.

They breezed through the play-offs to BUCS Final 8s but were stopped short in overtime of the semi-finals by the eventual champions Leeds Met. The team capped the season by winning the Bronze Medal game against a talented Wolverhampton team, who suited their professional EBL squad in futile attempt to tame the Oxford juggernaut.

Both the Men’s and Women’s Teams were lucky to have experienced coaching staff, whose dedication pushed the athletes to compete at their highest level. On the talent front, the Blues again fielded two players (Reed Doucette and Lindsay Whorton) who represented Oxford at the British University Games and both brought home gold for England. Good publicity was sure to follow. The Blues were featured in Cherwell write-ups, as well as the New York Times, during the 2009-10 season. Continuing their good fortune against Cambridge, the Dark Blues repeated the trifecta again this year with convincing victories by all three Light Blue teams (Men’s Blues: 117 – 64; Women’s Blues: 62 – 37; Men’s Twos: 61 – 50).

At the College level, more than 19 Colleges were represented in the Cuppers league by 14 teams. On the Men’s side Hertford drank from the sweet cup of victory, and the combined Pembroke/Queen’s team took the Women’s title.

Women’s Rowing Despite a number of weather-related setbacks early in the season, it has been a very successful year for OUWBC, culminating in both the Blue Boat and Osiris winning their Boat Races by significant margins. In October we won a gold in the lightweight 2x event at the BUCS Small Boats Head, and a

bronze in the lightweight 1x (Ellie Piggott), but unfortunately all other events we entered before Christmas were cancelled. Our January training camp, to be held in Gloucestershire, also fell victim to the weather, with our boats being snowed in for 3 weeks while we trained on the Isis. Therefore our first major event of the year was Eights Head, held only two weeks out from the Boat Race. The Blue Boat put in a strong performance despite illness to finish eighth overall, claiming the Senior Pennant and recording a time 20 seconds faster than that of the Cambridge Blue Boat. Osiris, although hampered by starting towards the back of the field, also rowed very well to finish 37th and 20 seconds ahead of Blondie. These results gave us confidence in our final preparations for the Henley Boat Races, despite both of our crews weighing in significantly lighter than our Cambridge counterparts: the Blue Boat, at an average of 65.1kg, was the lightest Blue Boat on record, and over 10kg lighter per rower than the Cambridge Blue Boat! Both OUWBC boats won the toss and chose the favoured Berkshire station, where Osiris quickly moved out in front of Blondie, never relinquishing its position to ultimately finish 3.5 lengths ahead. The Blue Boat was similarly dominant in its race against Cambridge, and was over a length up by 500m - this lead was extended to over four lengths by the finish.

BOXING OUABC had a very successful season, which was unfortunately marred by controversial judging at the 103rd Varsity Match.

Michaelmas term saw the building of a very committed squad of competitive boxers, some of whom had previous experience and some of whom had none.

In November, boxers from OUABC competed in local shows run by Berinsfield ABC and Oxford Boxing Academy. The term culminated in a historic match against the boxing team

I 15

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

16 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

with the cave continuing through a series of large vertical shafts and tighter horizontal sections. Though all appearances suggested that Chapa would continue to drop to at least 1km in depth, we were forced to abandon the exploration at around minus two hundred and fifty metres. Sadly, it transpired that a clerical error by the Spanish had prevented our application for permission to cave from reaching the National Park authorities, so we were forced to de-rig the cave and leave after just two weeks. Not to be daunted by our exile, most of the student component of the expedition travelled across Spain to join Matienzo, where Oxford team spent three weeks concentrating on two caves: Encaramada and Cumple de Anos and several kilometres of passageway were discovered and surveyed in Encaramada, whilst Cumple de Anos yielded two beautiful chambers filled with stalactites and calcite formations. of the 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment at Wellington Barracks in London on 3rd December 2009. The event saw OUABC lose out to the greater experience and impressive physical fitness of the boxers from 3 Para.

However, the Oxford men gained respect all round for the determination and courage they showed in battling against seasoned soldiers, and in excess of £15,000 was raised in support of British troops in Afghanistan.

The Town vs. Gown match at the Oxford Union was as successful as ever, with strong performances from all ten Oxford boxers competing. In the final build-up to Varsity, ties with 3 Para were strengthened as OUABC made several trips over to Merville Barracks in Colchester in order to spar and train with the Paratroopers. The 103rd Varsity Match saw an unfortunate ending - two controversial decisions saw both 75kg middleweight bouts go in Cambridge’s favour, causing outrage in the crowd and amongst all Oxford boxers and alumni. The final result was 5-4 to Cambridge, but a more accurate result would have been 6-3 to Oxford. On the bright side, it did little to take away the restored pride felt by OUABC men, given their remarkable resurgence following the 9-0 defeat to Cambridge in 2009.

CANOE AND KAYAK In Michaelmas, the beginners’ sessions were popular as always, and the freshers’ weekend trip was a success, despite unusually high water levels on the Sunday which made it more challenging than usual. The trip was followed by a weekend away in North Wales, where once again lots of rain pushed the rivers up, creating difficult rapids and challenging conditions.

Michaelmas was rounded off with the BUCS white-water race at the Washburn in Yorkshire.

The regional Canoe Polo league took place during Hilary, with three Saturday evening

competitions in Stratford-upon-Avon. This provided a good chance to practise in match conditions ready for the BUCS competition and Varsity, and a few good results kept us in the top tier. Easter saw a Club trip to Scotland, and a few Club members also enjoyed their own trip to Corsica to paddle a handful of fantastic rivers.

Trinity was a busy and successful term for the Club, seeing the Men’s Polo Team finishing fifth at BUCS (our best ever result), and victory in all the remaining Varsity Matches when the Club went to Cambridge for the Varsity Polo and marathon before travelling to Nottingham for the freestyle. The Come & Try It session was well attended despite the cold weather, and subsequent Sunday sessions have been popular, with a few weekend trips to North Wales.In the summer a number of paddlers headed to the French Alps to enjoy the warm weather and excellent white-water rivers.

CAVING It has been an eventful year for OUCC, leading trips down some of the country’s most famous potholes, the Marmite-esque nature of caving became clear: our fledgling members were split into those who loved the adventure and those less keen on the cold and the dark.

With the Club rejuvenated by newly-hooked young ‘uns, we launched into a busy year of caving trips throughout the UK, from South Wales to the Yorkshire Dales. Whilst the weekends away involve much sport caving, the focus throughout Hilary and Trinity was on training for the Club’s annual expedition to the Picos de Europa in Northern Spain. This year’s expedition aimed to further the exploration of a cave (Sima de la Chapa) discovered by a Catalan group. We successfully pushed past the limit of the Catalan cavers’ penetration,

CHEERLEADING This year has been one of changes and development for the Cheerleading Squad which has seen us grow in numbers and in achievement.

The recruitment in Michaelmas term was very successful, increasing our numbers up to 30 members and allowing us to hold trials for the upcoming competitions, in which everyone performed exceptionally. We trained hard throughout Michaelmas, including a seven-hour stunt camp with an experienced coach from Bristol. In Hilary we travelled to Loughborough to take part in our first competition of the year, Future Cheer. We performed a very difficult routine and finished in fourth place. Unfortunately we were unable to compete as usual in the ICC Nationals this year. In Hilary we sadly bid goodbye to Brid Cronin, our coach. She has been coaching the Club for many years and has given so much to make the squad as good as it is today.

In Trinity we enter a couple of competitions entering five-person stunt groups into the BCA University Competitions and the South West Spirit Showcase. Our Coed stunt groups placed first in both competitions being named Stunt Group Grand Champion, with our all-girl group placing second and fourth in the South West Spirit Showcase. During Summer VIII’s we undertook stunting between the boathouses, along with some fundraising, which was a fantastic day.

CRICKET WOMEN’S OUWCC has had another good year, with a welcome arrival of lots of new players at the start of the year. Our winter training program

I 17

in the nets went well, with our new coaches, Matthew Watson and David Smith. With the arrival of Trinity term, we moved outdoors into the Parks, where we could continue our training out in the middle, and start playing some games. We progressed through to the knockout stage of the BUCS competition, fielding strong sides and ensuring that everyone got a game.

Sadly, the perennial problem of the dreaded exams thwarted our progression through to the knockout stages of the BUCS competition, as we were unable to field sides for the away matches.

We have also played a selection of friendly matches throughout the season, against the Army, the Young Lord’s Taverners and the MCC. The latter fixture is one of the highlights of the season, with the match being played in the Parks, and us being treated to some excellent cricket from the likes of Charlotte Edwards, giving the girls an unrivalled opportunity to play cricket in such a setting. Our Varsity campaign this season held much more hope than the previous year, with our impressive bowling attack looking great. With the fixture being held at Lord’s on the Nursery ground, once again we are grateful for the opportunity to play at such a wonderful location. Putting Cambridge into bat first, we took all their wickets, with a total of 267 being set. However, despite an impressive batting display by the Captain Sophie Le Marchand, we were unable to make the runs. We also participated in two days of coaching for 70 French school children visiting Oxford through a language school.

We look forward to another successful and enjoyable season next year.

CRICKET MEN’S The OUCC Blues Team had a very successful 2010 campaign. Starting in late April, the season got off to a good start in the Annual Town vs. Gown Trophy match against Oxford Cricket Club. The Blues won a closely fought match for the first time in five years, to take out the trophy and make a winning start to the season Other highlights in the early part of the season included victories against the Duke of Norfolk’s XI and the RAF.

to the 2010 Charles Russell Varsity Twenty20 Match. Over 2000 spectators flooded the Parks under glorious sunshine to witness an excellent spectacle of music, pink balls and a lot of big hitting! Having posted an imposing target of 178-2, the Cambridge side were never able to keep up with the run rate and were eventually bowled out for 125, giving Oxford a 53-run victory. (Oxford 178-2 Agarwal 88, King 41, R Sharma 33* defeated Cambridge 125 Pascoe 3-7) The One-Day Varsity match at Lords ended in a close defeat for the Blues. Batting first, the Blues made 270, largely thanks to some explosive late hitting from Nick Meadows (St John’s) who top- scored with 66. In reply, a tight start from the Oxford bowlers kept Cambridge well below the required run rate, but a century partnership in the middle of the innings set Cambridge up, and a quick-fire unbeaten partnership of 68 for the sixth wicket saw Cambridge home by five wickets with two overs to spare. (Oxford 270 Meadows 66, A Sharma 51, Pascoe 42 lost to Cambridge 271-5).

The Blues completed their season in fine style with a record-breaking victory over Cambridge in the four-day Varsity Match played between 7th and 9th July. Batting first, Oxford amassed the highest total ever recorded in the 183year history of the match, scoring 611-5 decl. including reaching 475-2 after the first day’s play. Some fine batting performances included Sam Agarwal scoring 117, Dan King 189 and Avinash Sharma making the highest score on debut in the Varsity first class match of 185*.

Cambridge were bowled out in their first innings reply for 243, thanks mainly to some excellent spin bowling from Daniel Pascoe taking 5-38 and Alex Scott 4-52. Following on, Cambridge were then dismissed again for 343 with Sam Agarwal taking 5-78 and Alex Scott rounding off a fine debut performance with 4-95, to give the Blues a resounding innings and 28-run victory. (Oxford 611-5 decl King 189, A Sharma 185*, Agarwal 117 defeated Cambridge 243 Pascoe 5-38, Scott 4-52 following on 343 Agarwal 5-78, Scott 4-95 by an innings and 28 runs).

CROQUET

The Blues BUCS Team also enjoyed a very successful season, reaching the semi-finals of the Cup competition, and therefore placing equal third overall amongst British universities.

After being promoted to the Premier League (B) competition in 2009 (the highest university league, below the MCC Universities 1-day competition), Oxford anticipated some very competitive opposition. Unfortunately, Oxford fell at the penultimate hurdle, being defeated

by UWIC in Cardiff at the semi-final stage.

This year the Croquet Club returned to its former strength. We have about 40 members, half of whom fully engage in the Club’s activities.

We managed to interest a lot of freshers with our demonstration match and free beginners’ coaching sessions; those of them who joined the Club improved rapidly and participated in Varsity and Croquet Association tournaments. Most notably Alex Evans and Will Alderton won first and second place in the Northampton handicap weekend respectively.

One of the undoubted highlights of the season took place on 4th June as Oxford played host

This year we also arranged more formal coaching sessions for members of intermediate level.

These sessions were also a great opportunity to prod the less committed members to participate in the weekly matches of the Southern Croquet Federation league. As a result we won all but one match, which we drew.

The Varsity Match was held on 8th June at the Hurlingham Club in London, with Oxford successfully organising the match and Pol Roger providing the prizes. Oxford won 7-2 and I feel that the coaching sessions, and the effort the Committee took to improve the commitment levels among Club members, is what ultimately made the Oxford team superior to the Cambridge one.

After the end of term we hosted the National Student Championships. It had two subtournaments: singles and doubles; both were won by Oxford. In the summer we hosted Cuppers, the largest croquet tournament in the world. This was a great success, with about 230 teams of four entering, making it the largest Croquet tournament ever held. The trophy was claimed by St Edmund Hall’s team after a series of hard matches.

CROSS-COUNTRY OUCCC enjoyed a highly successful year in 2009-10. The season kicked off with the Manchester Relays in early October, in which the Men’s A Team finished fifth, the B Team thirteenth, out of 50 teams, and the Women’s Team eighth out of 43. Two weeks into Michaelmas we had our first main crosscountry meet in Birmingham.

The annual Cuppers fixture at Port Meadow was the second Varsity selection race. The Women’s race was won by Lincoln’s own international star Michelle Sikes. The Men’s race then saw a fantastic battle between fresher Jake Shelley of Somerville and Club Captain Chris McGurk of Wadham, which culminated in Jake spectacularly taking a wrong turn on the last lap of the nature reserve; he was duly notified of this by McGurk, who waited for him before resuming. Who says Oxford no longer produces gentlemen!

Jake would go on to pip McGurk to the post by just 10 seconds. The day itself was won by Wadham in both the Women’s and Men’s races.

A turnout of 30 in the Women’s race and 84 in the Men’s was an encouraging indicator of the sport’s popularity within the University.

II’s – IV’s Varsity in Shotover was a success for OUCCC. The Dark Blue Women’s II’s prevailed in a closely-fought encounter. The dominance of the Oxford team was in full view as seven of the eight crossed the line before any of the remaining six Cambridge runners, thus running out 31-54 winners overall. It was a similar story in the Men’s III’s: four of the first www.sport.ox.ac.uk

18 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

The 25m TT was held at the Oxford home course this year; with 106 registered riders, this event is gearing up to be one of the best road cycle events of the BUCS calendar. After losing the Team Shield to Cambridge for two years, Oxford were hungry for victory. With the women off first, Claire Galloway rode an incredible time to win the individual Women’s event outright, guiding Oxford to second place in the BUCS Women’s competition.

Though Oxford had BUCS victory, Cambridge’s top two riders took the Women’s Team Varsity.

The top three fastest times from Oxford and Cambridge counted towards the winning team, with the deciding result coming down to one second’s difference; the closest victory in many years. A late start by Sebastian Pancratz meant that he incurred a one-minute time penalty, still finishing in fourth place. Sebastian’s time minus the penalty set a new course record, and would have seen him to a BUCS individual medal by 22 seconds over the eventual winner. five home were Oxford, with freshers Will Mycroft and Alan Cherry running fantastic Varsity debuts to finish first and second respectively. Unfortunately Oxford lost both the Women’s III’s and Men’s IV’s mob matches, but nevertheless ran out 3-2 victors on the day with two races remaining.

The historic Blues match followed at Wimbledon Common. The Women’s match was up first and in one of the closest races for a long time it was the Dark Blues who ran out 17-21 victors, by the narrowest of margins.

Despite an unassailable 4-2 lead in the overall Varsity race series with just one race to go, the atmosphere at the start of the Men’s Blues was no less intense. In what followed the two teams displayed immense quality, from the start Franco and Bruce surged to the front with Cambridge veteran James Kelly, with Andy Heyes adopting the bold tactic of also keeping with their pace. Nearing the end of the race the Oxford front three broke from Kelly who, having done tremendously well to stick with them alone for so long, simply had no answer.

Franco and Bruce pulled further away with Bruce winning. Heyes finished in third, his gamble of keeping with the more experienced frontrunners paying off fantastically well, and after Kelly came Luke and Jake, separated only

by Cambridge’s second runner. Cambridge’s strength was indeed shown as it was their third and fourth finishers who occupied the next two positions, but with a solid run by Joe Mercer securing tenth place and being the sixth Oxford man home, the Dark Blue victory was assured.

Oxford ran out 28-52 victors, edging into the lead in the overall Blues race standings 60-59, and securing a fantastic 5-2 win in the Varsity race series for the season.

The prestigious BUCS Championships were held in February in Stirling. In the Women’s race

it was only an unfortunate mid-race injury to Michelle Sikes that prevented the team from scoring; the Men took a brilliant fourth place team finish out of 35.

The following weekend saw the Hyde Park Relays, an annual event held around the park in London. Our Women’s Team finished sixth out of 52 teams, our Men’s B Team fifth out of 167 teams, and our Men’s A team first - for the third consecutive year.

The season was rounded off by the Teddy Hall Relays in Eighth Week - over 150 teams entered. In the men’s race it was team OUCCC who finished first. OUCCC women battled hard in turn to secure a very commendable third place in their category.

CYCLING Oxford Cycling continues to support as many avenues of cycling as it can, but we mostly engage in road and mountain bike cycling.

MTB Varsity this year was held at Crowthorne Woods, Bracknell on 7th March. 18 men competed, with Oxford’s Alister Mathie finishing third. In the Women’s race Oxford won all three medals.

Cycling Cuppers took place at the end of February, with over thirty participants racing.

Jesse Elzinga won the race for the second year running, and the winning college was Balliol.

Simon Janes was the only participating rider from Oxford University at the BUCS hill climb; he rode well in a strong field in his first BUCS cycling event, coming in eighth. Claire Galloway managed a sterling performance, achieving second place in the BUCS 10m TT; she received her first BUCS individual medal.

The 2009-10 season was very successful, with OUCC claiming back many trophies that have not been home to Oxford for several years.

DANCE 2009-10 was a highly successful year for OUDC. The Club’s competitive team won the Varsity match, the Varsity Challenge Match (B Team) and the Varsity Beginners’ Team Match.

We also won the national student dancesport championships, the Inter Varsity Dance Competition, winning the A, B, C and D Team competitions as well as the overall title.

During the year we took part in five competitions against all the other universities with dance teams in the country; we won the overall title at all five of them, winning the A-Team title at four of the five.

Across the Club we continue to have around 800 members who take part in the wide variety of classes and practice halls that we offer during the week. For the first time this year the Club offered the opportunity for members to take two sets of IDTA medals examinations. The results of these were absolutely first class, with over 95% of people gaining one of the top two grades.

ETON FIVES The atmosphere in the dressing room of the Oxford University Eton Fives Club is like no other team I have been a part of. All members share an insatiable passion and enthusiasm for the game, and under the guidance of honorary Club Captain Majid “king of Fives” Mostafavi this past season was immensely enjoyable.

I 19

In terms of fixtures, the results have been a mixed bag. We got off to a flyer with wins against Harrow and Eton (it seems the former have undergone a revival since the departure of James Batting) but faltered a little against the older players, suffering heavy defeats at the hands of the North Oxford Fives Club. The University Championships is the most important tournament aside from the Varsity Match, and I am frustrated to report that for the second year running Oxford lost in the final to a talented, albeit fortuitous, Cambridge pair. Rex Worth and Balrik Kailey fought to the end but were eventually undone by the monotonous, error-free opposition. Despite this setback, hopes were high for the Varsity Match. With the morale issues of the previous season firmly behind us, we felt confident about our side with debutant Conrad Ryan bolstering the 1st VI. The match was one of the closest in years and Oxford went down 2-1 in both the 1st and 2nd VI. The post-match dinner was a lovely evening; Eton College’s hospitality was excellent and thanks must go to Mark Williams and Gareth Hoskins for helping organise the day.

All in all last season was great fun, and looking at the strength and depth of next year’s squad, I have high hopes for the Varsity Match 2011.

FENCING The Oxford fencing beginners went to Cambridge to compete in the second ever novice Varsity Match, but sadly lacked the same aggression as Cambridge and so did not bring home the trophy. This occasion also marked the graduation of our excellent beginners’ coach Chris Jones. Because of this, the Club ran a Level 1 coaching course for Club members and local fencers, with 12 people emerging as able beginners’ coaches. The new academic year started strongly, with large numbers of new members attending these sessions (a record 90

kick around the Cambridge wall and into the bottom left corner of the net. With the teams deadlocked at 1-1 throughout extra time, a clinically executed set of penalty kicks from Oxford clinched the C B Fry trophy for Captain Leon Farr’s team. Meanwhile, the Women’s Blues were unfortunate to lose their Varsity Match 1-0 against a strong Cambridge outfit, but the Furies were victorious in a thrilling 3-2 encounter against the Cambridge Falcons. turned up to the taster session!). This strength continues and we hope to win the novice Varsity Match for the first time in 2010-11.

The Squad has continued to be in the capable hands of our coach Tomek Walicki and has finished the year strongly, with both teams making it to the BUCS semi-finals. At the BUCS Individual Championships the Club has also been successful, with Mathew Shearman winning the Men’s Foil, Dominic Kerr coming second in the Men’s Sabre with Alex Crutchett sixth, Boris Davis finishing seventh in Men’s Epee, and Stephanie Pambakian coming seventh in Women’s Sabre. The Men’s seconds team is also going strong, and for the first time a Women’s seconds team has been fencing in the BUCS league and is currently ranked as the third second team in the country, which is a fantastic result for a new team and their Captain Rachel Gregory.

FOOTBALL The 2009-10 season was another successful one for OUAFC, with the Men’s Blues winning a dramatic 126th Varsity Match 5-3 on penalties against their Light Blue rivals. The Blues trailed for most of the match 1-0, after a penalty was awarded to Cambridge for a tug on Cambridge striker Matthew Stock. However, as the match drew to a close and entered its final minutes, up stepped mercurial Oxford midfielder James Kelly to curl a beautiful free

In BUCS the Women’s Blues were relegated to the Midlands 2B League after a disappointing campaign. The Blues were often unable to recreate the form which led them to victory in the BUCS Knockout Cup, in which they beat many of the sides who had earlier thwarted them in league fixtures. In the Men’s, the Blues were unlucky not to take the league title after drawing 0-0 in a final-day league-decider against Nottingham Trent, ensuring that the holy grail of BUCS Premier League action continues to remain out of reach.

In the fiercely contested JCR Premier League, Christ Church became champions with a fine total of 11 wins from only 16 games, with only one defeat all season. Missing out by a single point were St Catz, who remain a strong force in College football. In the First Division, Worcester ran away with the League Title after winning 16 of their 18 matches, without drawing a single game. With promotion to the top tier of a new, four-league college structure, Worcester will believe they are back where they belong. Meanwhile, Second Division Lincoln were the shock winners of Cuppers, thrashing Premier-League heavyweights St. Catz 4-0. Time will tell whether the loss of Blues players Alex Biggs and Matthew Flood will have an adverse effect on the side this year as they move into the newly formed First Division. Finally, Hertford Col­lege will aim to improve on their tally of zero points last season - a run of 14 consecutive losses which saw them concede 68 goals! It is an unfortunate record which left Hertford rooted to the foot of the JCR basement division, languish­ing on goal difference behind OXILP, who pulled out of the league without having played a single fixture.

GAELIC GAMES This year has proved very successful in recruiting new members to Gaelic games in Oxford, seeing a large increase in the popularity of hurling, camogie and football.

This has allowed the structuring of regular training sessions, resulting in much stronger performances by all teams in OUGAA. The Men’s Football Team continues to be strong, building on their Varsity victory last year. The Gaelic footballers reached the semifinal of the British University Championship, www.sport.ox.ac.uk

20 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

which is a great achievement for Gaelic games in Oxford. The Varsity Gaelic Football Match was won by Oxford and saw a great display of teamwork and skill, representative of the hard work the players have contributed this year.

The Women’s side continued to improve this year and has also had success in recruiting new members. A closely fought Varsity Match led to Oxford winning by a single point.

The camogie team were able to complete the Varsity double for the Women this year. The Women’s side competed in the Birmingham tournament held on 20th March and, boosted by committed new members, played in the John Mitchells tournament and got through to the final. For many this tournament was their first match and all played with skills and quality beyond their experience; a great achievement for beginners to the sport.

In the Men’s hurling side great dedication shown in training has enabled the team to enter tournaments, something that has not been possible in recent years. The hurlers took part in the seven-a-side Birmingham tournament on the 19th May, which allowed all players to gain more experience and match practice. This showed at the Varsity Match, where Cambridge was challenged significantly more than last year. Unfortunately the hurlers were not able to complete the grand slam, allowing Cambridge to take one of the four Gaelic Varsity Matches this year.

Despite the successes of the Club it continues to run with minimal resources, with the hurlers short of hurleys and helmets, and all teams short of kit. Sponsorship remains a major target for the Club; investments would allow purchase of new equipment for all divisions, further improving the quality of Gaelic sports in Oxford.

GLIDING The last year has been another successful one for the Gliding Club. Flying was mostly focused on the weekends, but there was also a lot of activity during midweek and additionally during expeditions (notably the expedition to Portmoak in Scotland in April 2009, when the Club gliders were airborne for almost 25 hours). Furthermore the Club members took part in the Bicester Regionals as well as in the Club and Junior Nationals. In those completions the Club pilots came repeatedly within the top ten of the daily scores.

As an overall mark for the performance of the Club it is noteworthy that in the previous year there were two pilots going solo for the first time, and one gained the silver badge, as well as a diamond. This year looks promising and the Gliding Club will push the mark even higher in the coming year.

GOLF WOMEN’S Another challenging year for Oxford Ladies’ golf! We started the season with only one new player, but have developed enthusiasm and momentum throughout the year, largely through changing the coaching structure for the Ladies.

This year we had lessons with a local pro at the floodlit driving range in Oxford, which allowed a more flexible schedule in the depth of winter.

Various new matches were set up this year, including fixtures at Royal Cinque Ports, Burnham and Berrow. The opportunity to play at more seaside-based clubs was a great bonus in our preparation for the Varsity Match, to be held at Royal Porthcawl at the end of Hilary term. As ever, we were well-matched against our hosting Ladies, and relished the regular battles on some of England’s finest courses.

At the Varsity Match, held at Royal Porthcawl in Wales on 16th March, Oxford fought hard against Cambridge, who were stronger on paper. The foursomes in the morning were won by Cambridge two points to one, with the Oxford point coming from the Captain and Secretary combination, Gillian Kinnear and Alex Walvis. The afternoon singles match play involved a great deal of tactics and determination from all the Oxford team.

Gillian Kinnear and Min-Yee Tseu won their matches very convincingly, which helped to build Oxford’s confidence. In the remaining four matches, only Alex Walvis managed to achieve a half point, with the other ladies losing in the final holes, making the overall score for the Ladies’ Varsity Match 5.5-3.5 to the Light Blues. The Varsity Match showed the team that Cambridge is indeed beatable and has given us even more enthusiasm for next year.

GOLF MEN’S Oxford University Golf Club has enjoyed a very successful year. Under the guidance of a new

coach the Blues side has gone from strength to strength, enjoying one of its most successful seasons in recent history. The Blues team does not compete in BUCS, as it receives invitations for matches from some of the top Golf Clubs around England and Wales. The Blues managed to record 17 wins, two halves, and six losses throughout the season. This is a fantastic record, mainly against experienced top amateurs around the country, and represents a massive improvement from the 30% win ratio the year before.

The match that matters far more than any other took place against Cambridge University at Royal Porthcawl in late March. The result was a strong 9-6 victory for Oxford, looking in command throughout the match and unlucky not to win by more. The second team, the Divots, enjoyed a good year, though they were unlucky to lose their match against a very strong Cambridge second team. The Ladies significantly improved this year, pushing Cambridge all the way having been heavily beaten the year before.

The Club has started a grass-roots initiative, which subsidizes and gets together those who wish to take up the game whilst at University.

We are looking to publicise and expand the Golf Club much more next year to get more people involved, and set up a social golf section for those wishing to play together but not compete in one of our teams. Last year we also renovated our website (www.ougc.com).

GYMNASTICS The academic year 2009-10 didn’t get off to the most auspicious of starts for the Gymnastics Club, as the decision of our newly instated President not to return to Oxford meant we had to quickly draft in a new committee member, and various financial complications caused setbacks. However, this was quickly turned around thanks to the hard work of an excellent committee and the aid of Old Members of the Club.

I 21

The Club maintained its popularity at the Oxford college balls, with several members of the Club performing a routine at Mansfield College’s ‘Circus of the Macabre’ ball in Michaelmas 2009. Hilary term, however, was dominated by preparation for our Varsity competition, held in February, which we had the task of organising this year. The extra training sessions paid off, particularly in the case of the Women’s A-team, who took the first five positions in their competition against Cambridge. In addition to this, we had several individual medallists.

Our gregarious nature was also evidenced in the Club’s crossover with several other sports: the Gymnastics Club’s President and Secretary both competed in the Trampoling Club’s Varsity, while many of the members also experimented with pole-vaulting in the hectic Trinity term, at the Athletics Club’s behest.

Overall, the Club’s year was a varied and exciting one, though not without its challenges.

Hopefully the coming year will prove just as interesting and positive!

HANDBALL This season has been one of the worst seasons for the Club since it was founded nine years ago. Unable to stay in the First Division due to the lack of committed players (and especially, the lack of a goalie in the first term for the Men’s Team) meant that both Club teams had to play in the development league, struggling many times to get enough players, and having to cancel several games. The Club did not qualify for the British Cup, nor has it qualified to go back up to the First Division next season.

At the University Championships, a tournament traditionally won by Oxford (three times in the past four years), neither team could pass the quarter-finals. We were lucky to have a professional coach this year, but his programme

could not do much to improve a team where many players hardly came to training sessions and many would not come to play games.

The team itself lacked cohesion, especially as many veteran players left last year, without the possibility of forming a new team during Michaelmas 2009.

There has been a good outreach programme, and several members of the Club are involved in the promotion of handball in Oxfordshire.

There is also an increased collaboration with other university teams in Southern England, such as Warwick and Southampton, which has resulted in several friendly games.

HOCKEY OUHC has always been a good club to be part of: six teams offer a range of standards for both men and women.

The Men’s Blues started their first season in the top flight of the BUCS leagues, after climbing their way up from the bottom league, which they entered five years ago. Whilst the standard was high, the Blues showed that they were very capable of competing at the top level, finishing third in the league behind the very strong Exeter and Bath teams. In the knockouts they impressively managed to overcome Birmingham 5-3 in the quarter-finals, before losing to the eventual winners Exeter in the semi-finals.

In South Premier their form was fairly mixed, however, showing much promise but often failing to put the goals away. With a strong finish to the season they ended in a respectable mid-table position.

Varsity was much more convincing, with a 3-1 win thanks to an Ed Perry hat-trick of dragflicks. With this result and an impressive BUCS campaign, it meant that overall it was an impressive season, ably captained by the wellorganised and inspirational Richard Bond.

The Women’s Blues consolidated their position in BUCS Premier, despite an umpiring fiasco where UWIC were awarded a crucial goal that was scored after the final whistle had gone.

However, this led to a tough first-round match against Bristol whom they were unable to overcome. With another safe mid-table finish in their Saturday league, Varsity was the big decider. Captain Iona Turnbull managed to rally her troops and lead the team to a nail-biting 3-2 win, capping off a successful Blues Varsity Day. The Men’s 2s (Occasionals) started their first ever season in the BUCS league. The team had to start at the bottom, easily winning their league and scoring an incredible 110 goals in just eight matches, winning a promotion to the league above for 2010-11. Their Cup run was also strong, disappointingly losing to Coventry 1st in the semi-finals. The Occasionals also played in the strong London Hockey League.

Varsity was once again a very competitive affair, culminating in a 1-1 draw thanks to an equaliser from old head and top scorer for the season Benji Portwin.

The Women’s 2s (Monkeys) were once again a strong outfit. Competing in tough leagues on both Saturdays and a Wednesday they acquitted themselves well, with a mid-table and third-place finish respectively. Varsity however was a very convincing 4-1 win, with the final goal being scored by Captain Suzie Chamberlain, who was probably the most excited girl in the world for the rest of the day.

The Men’s 3s (Infrequents) had a much improved season after several disappointing years, largely thanks to the strong captaincy of Ben White. In their Saturday league they finished third, despite amassing a points total that would have won the league in the previous year. The team managed to overcome a disappointing start, eventually amassing 43 points from their 20 games. In Varsity they unfortunately went down 3-1, despite a battling display from many.

The Women’s 3s (Hos), had the most successful season they have ever had. Emily Sayer ably led the girls to promotions in both Saturday and www.sport.ox.ac.uk

22 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

I 23

Wednesday leagues, reaching an impressive 148 goals scored in 26 games. Varsity had the Hos facing a tough task, with no one remembering a previous Hos Varsity victory.

Nevertheless, coach Portwin ensured that the team “ran the curve” enough times to make sure that they crushed the Cambridge opponents 4-0.

English Ice Hockey Association’s Women’s Division 1 Midlands. The Women’s Blues also played three matches as part of a European Tour to France, losing 14-3 to Grenoble, losing 13-4 to Meribel and losing 9-2 to Courchevel.

With four and a half Varsity wins out of six, three promotions, no relegations, the highest ever Men’s Blues BUCS finish, and the best social atmosphere in the University, it has been a fantastic year!

Over the year, Oxford University Jitsu Club has participated in several regional courses, two gradings and two national events. The most recent of these, the Randori Nationals held in Telford, saw close to 1000 competitors and was an outstanding success for our Club. This year we took away three gold, two silver and two bronze medals, with the finals of the green belt nage waza competition being a particular highlight. In first place came Oxford’s own Joe Dodds, and in second place Oxford’s Ian Farr.

Everyone who took part had an excellent time in what is always a tiring competition.

ICE HOCKEY Both Men’s teams had an extremely successful year playing as part of the British University Ice Hockey Association (BUIHA).

The Men’s Blues won all but two of their Division 1 South matches, losing away in London and drawing with Cambridge (Oxford won the Varsity Match in overtime, but the league only recognizes the score at the end of regulation), missing out on a division title by a solitary point to London. In the playoffs, however, the Men’s Blues won both the conference semi-final against Cambridge and the final against London, going on to beat Newcastle in the National final.

The Men’s Blues also played three matches on a tour of central Europe, losing heavily to strong teams from the University of Bratislava and Charles University of Prague before recording a victory in a shoot-out against H C Fass of Berlin.

The Varsity Match ended in a 7-6 overtime win for Oxford. The Men’s Vikings won six and lost two of their league matches (with both losses coming on the back end of a weekend double-header), finishing top of Division 2 South for the first time. They scored the most goals and conceded the fewest in their division but were unable to repeat that form in the play-offs, losing 3-1 to Nottingham B in an extremely tight match. The score remained 2-1 until the Vikings pulled the goalie with ninety seconds remaining for an extra forward, leading Nottingham to score into the empty net with 20 seconds left. Unfortunately the Varsity challenge against an extremely strong Cambridge Eskimo team resulted in a 6-1 defeat for Oxford.

The Women’s Blues had an improved season, resulting in a 5-4 Varsity Match victory over Cambridge. There was improvement in their league form as well, with the team managing to win one match and draw two, with eleven losses. Additionally the Oxford Women were only held goal-less in three matches and only conceded double figures in three matches, finishing bottom of six teams as part of the

JITSU

The Atemi nationals at the beginning of the year saw several Oxford competitors reach the finals.

Other highlights of the year include our very first Varsity Match, which promises to become a recurring feature. After several hours of battle, the newly purchased Varsity Shield went to Oxford, who won three events out of five.

In the Michaelmas term grading the Club gained four new yellow belts, and two greens, four oranges and a purple belt in the Hilary term grading.

2009-10 has been one of our most successful years yet; we are hoping to build on this to win even more medals at next year’s nationals, and to keep hold of the Varsity Shield!

JUDO 2010 marks the 80th anniversary of the first Oxford-Cambridge Varsity Judo Match, when the teams first fought for the coveted Matsudaira cup. It is therefore fitting that this academic year has been a truly exceptional one for the Oxford University Judo Club.

The Varsity Match typically serves as the focus of the competitive judo year, and the 80th anniversary made this year’s match particularly important. Accordingly, we celebrated the event by holding the match in the Town Hall for the first time in over 40 years, in front of an audience of hundreds of students and locals, and subsequently hosted a formal dinner at St Cross College. The event received coverage on local TV and radio stations, and the feedback suggested overwhelmingly that the match benefitted greatly from being held in such a prestigious venue. Most importantly, all three student trophies (Men’s Blues, Women’s Blues, and Men’s B Team) remained in Oxford

at the end of the contest. This marked the eighth consecutive year in which the Women’s Team have defeated Cambridge, reflecting the high standard of women’s judo in Oxford.

Meanwhile the Men’s Blues match came down to a 4–4 draw, so three matches had to be drawn for a nail-biting re-fight, in which Oxford triumphed 3–0.

Just two weeks after our success at Varsity, we had our most successful year in memory at the BUCS Judo Championships in Sheffield.

We took seven medals in the individual championships, including outstanding gold medals for Ifor Capel and Rebecca Bayliss, both former presidents of the Club. The following day, our somewhat battered teams maintained their strong performance to secure a Team Silver Medal for the Women and Team Bronze for the Men. In November a large contingent of Oxford judo players travelled to the London Inter-University Championships, a new national student judo competition. In addition to several individual medals, the Oxford team was awarded the trophy for best Dan grade team, and then for best team overall. Also notable was Oxford’s participation in an international student tournament in Paris, which saw four Oxford teams travelling to the Ecole Polytechnique in January. Despite extremely tough competition, our Women’s Team and Men’s Kyu-Grade Team both came back with medals from the event. www.sport.ox.ac.uk

Find out where we could take you Step into a world of exciting graduate and undergraduate opportunities in Audit, Tax, Consulting and Corporate Finance. If you’re interested in joining a world-leading professional services firm that will challenge, develop and reward you in equal measure, visit www.deloitte.co.uk/graduates to see where you could go. It’s your future. How far will you take it?

© 2010 Deloitte LLP. Deloitte LLP is an equal opportunities employer.

I 25

Aside from our team successes, there have been a number of individual achievements by club members. Rebecca Bayliss and Hugh Leonard were selected to represent England in the Commonwealth Championships, a part of the Commonwealth Games, in Singapore this January. Rebecca took a bronze medal in the event, and was subsequently named as OUJC Player of the Year. Several of our members have also completed the difficult task of attaining or advancing their black belts.

This year’s results speak volumes about the strength of OUJC in 2009-10, arguably our most successful year to date. The Club must now look to maintain these high standards of performance, and ensure a bright future for OUJC in years to come.

KARATE OUKC has had a successful and eventful year, culminating in several competitions with outstanding individual performances. There have also been many successes at our tri-annual kyu gradings and national shodan gradings.

Despite valiant efforts from both our Men’s and Women’s teams at the Varsity event, Cambridge managed to claim victory again this year. The eventual score, however, hides many distinguished performances from individual members, including victory by Christina Floe in the Women’s kata and very strong debut performances in both kumite and kata from Kathryn Vickers and Patrick Dunn-Walsh, our Captains for 2010-11. The Women’s Team kata also showed how members from three different styles of karate can successfully work together to put in an impressive performance.

Distinguished individual performances in the year include Christina Floe’s performance at the BUCS championships, earning her a bronze medal. The Club also sent four competitors to the Art of Movement competition for the first time this year, with a view to getting some competition practice and establishing better links with other clubs.

All in all, 2009-10 has been a highly successful year for the Club, and all that remains to be said is that hopefully we will do even better next year; and of course, bring the Varsity title back to its rightful home!

KENDO The Oxford University Kendo Club has had an active year, expanding both in terms of its members and its presence in the field of kendo in the UK. This year has seen good retention of beginners

and a much stronger competitive team. The increase to four kendo sessions a week, together with additional cross-training sessions, has also helped to strengthen the Club’s players. Consequently, a strong University Team led to victory in the Varsity Match, as well as gaining second place out of over 80 international teams in the Mumeishi 3’s competition, held in November.

The Club has been visited by a number of highranking senseis, including Ozawa Hiroshi-sensei 8th dan, from Tokyo, and Honda Sotaro-sensei 6th dan of Fukuoka University of Education. We have also been visited by Japanese research bodies such as the National Institute of Fitness and Sports, interested in the development and spread of budo in Western culture. Closer to home, we have been building ties with other clubs around the country, with members visiting clubs in Liverpool, Newcastle, Reading and London. These clubs will be sending delegates for the first Oxford Summer Cup, to be held here at Iffley on 21st June. We have also recently been visited by Geoff Salmonsensei 7th dan from London.

The club also organised a trip to Japan, to visit the senseis who came to us in the last year.

KICKBOXING This year, members of the OUKBC squad attended several kickboxing shows: the World Kickboxing Association British Open Championships in Birmingham, the Windrush Kickboxing Club Freestyle Open Competition, and the Chesham Kickboxing Academy Annual Semi Contact Kickboxing Competition, where OUKBC came away undefeated – a great achievement, particularly given that many of the fighters only began competing this year.

The annual Varsity event was less of a triumph, with OUKBC losing 1-4, the first Oxford loss since the Varsity matches began back in 2007 - a crying shame as many of the fights could have gone either way. OUKBC is keener than ever to reclaim its dominance in the ring in Varsity 2011.

The Club has made moves to encourage a larger, stronger squad by having sparring sessions twice every weekend and electing two squad Captains, one male and one female. A grading session in January saw many of the Club’s members gain recognition for the hard work that they have put into their training in the last year.

KORFBALL The Club started the 2009-10 season having lost a significant number of players, including that mainstay of University korfball, Martin Bell, and coach Rich Sederman. In a stroke

of good luck the Club managed to persuade Michiel Ten Hove, from Oxford City, to coach the Club for the season.

Recruitment was quite successful this year as we had a good influx of new blood; we were even able to enter a third team into the League for the first time in many years. We entered the Keele beginners’ tournament, and the BUCS Southern regional qualifier was hosted by Kent. The first team found the small hall less than optimal as a playing space and ended up placing seventh out of eight teams. January brought along the very enjoyable Edinburgh tournament; February saw the tournament at UEA where we played very well, only losing on penalty shoot-outs. Iffley Road Sports Hall hosted the annual Varsity Match where, unfortunately, we were unable to capitalize on our home advantage, with the Seconds drawing 6-6 and the Firsts losing 18-7. BUCS nationals took place at Graves Tennis Centre in Sheffield; in a repeat of last year we faced St Andrews in our opening game and lost.

Another loss to Bristol meant that we did not end up in the final eight for the second year in a row. We were also injury plagued, which did not help matters, and ended up finishing 12th.

With the departure of MK Bucks 1 from the OKL Division 1, the top spot was up for the taking, keeping the division very competitive for most of the season with no one team establishing early dominance. In the end honours went to Oxford City 1 with Uni 1 finishing third, having been beaten by one point by Isis 1. Uni 2 finished fourth in Division 2a and Uni 3, who appeared for the second half of the season, finished second in Division 2b. Both Oxford University teams also put in a good showing in the OKA Cup, which was played outside. Oxford Uni 1 won the Cup after putting in an impressive goal-scoring display against Abingdon, while Oxford Uni 2 got to the Plate final, though were unfortunately beaten by Reading.

KUNG FU The Oxford University Kung Fu Club became an official member of the Sports Federation this year. We experienced a dramatic success in our first term, struggling to fit all our new beginners on the court, nevertheless, some of the students managed successfully to learn both Hung Gar and Praying Mantis first sequence and basic principle.

The Club was invited to perform at various events this year: the Chinese New year gala at the Sheldonian theatre, the Oxford International festival at the Examination Schools and the Asian Pacific Society’s Oriental Ball at Freud’s. www.sport.ox.ac.uk

26 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

were slowly but surely making progress in the Midlands Tier 1 League, finishing fifth. Both teams made it through to their respective knockouts. The Blues were the first to be knocked out in the quarter-finals against a remarkably strong Durham side; the Swifts made it one step further to the semi-finals, but again Durham provided too strong. The Oxford Men began the season with a new influx of quality players from across the Atlantic, adding to the home-grown talent. It proved a magical mix: Oxford stormed through the BUCS league with a series of impressive performances, and by the end of the season were placed top of their division. Rapidly becoming Oxford’s archnemesis, Durham knocked out the disappointed Oxford side in the semi-finals. Despite initial discontent at this result, the overall season couldn’t have gone much better.

Next year’s challenges include improving our membership numbers and getting access to better facilities for our training. Contacts with other Kung Fu societies, in order to organize performances and special events, will also be taken into high consideration. The Club is also aiming to have the chance to bring Kung Fu into Oxford colleges, organizing seminars and performances, as the main target of an artist is to spread the art and make good use of it.

LACROSSE Oxford University Lacrosse Club has had an excellent season this year, combining growth and development off the pitch with continued success on.

2009-10 saw an important development: the acquisition of a new pitch for the Mixed Team at the Marston site. The new pitch has meant that the mixed side no longer has to use Brookes’ grounds for home matches and will serve as the centre of mixed lacrosse in Oxford University, giving the squad a real home ground.

OULC is also expanding on an international basis. We have had yet more Americans join

the Club from some of the premier US lacrosse sides, and the traffic is not just one-way: we continue to support Academy International, and our prospective Women’s Blues Captain is off to America to coach for the summer. Back on home turf we’ve also introduced this very English sport to French schoolchildren and hope to continue this sort of outreach next year.

The mixed lacrosse league and Cuppers competitions continue to be a great way to introduce lacrosse to the general University population, and it is great to see new colleges getting involved. LMH were eventual league winners, and St Catz were deserved Cuppers Champions.

At a university level we continue to foster an atmosphere of excellence, reflected in a number of individuals who have been selected for various regional and international representation: Abdul El Sayed for South Unis; Alice Leach for England U21s; Leah Templeman for Midlands and England; and Char Houston for England.

The Women’s Squad has continued to grow in size and strength this season, finishing second in the Premier League. The Swifts, meanwhile,

Meanwhile, 2009-10 was another successful year for the Oxford University Mixed Lacrosse team. Oxford won the East league with an excellent 13/14 wins and averaging a score of over 13 goals per game, having shrugged off an early defeat to old title rivals Brighton, and exacting suitable revenge in the return match.

Beating Cambridge twice also made for a very enjoyable season in the Mixed camp.

Varsity was held at home in Oxford this year and, despite atrocious weather and pitches that ended up more suited to mud-wrestling than lacrosse, a large crowd gathered at University Parks to watch a day of well-fought lacrosse. The addition of a third pitch meant that, for the first time, the Women’s Alumni match was incorporated into the day. Despite a well-fought battle and a few truly excellent individual performances, the Women’s side could not quite put a lid on the Cambridge goal-scorers and eventually lost 4-6. The Men’s seconds saw Raj Rout’s much-anticipated return from injury and the experienced team delivered what can only be described as a trouncing: 22-1 to the Dark Blues. Mixed were up next and, with the home side having beaten Cambridge twice in the league already, hopes were high. What resulted was another crushing

I 27

Oxford victory - an eight-goal half-time lead converted into a comfortable 14-5 victory. By now the rain was falling heavily, and despite earlier league victories the Men’s Blues suffered an unexpected 7-9 defeat to an improved Cambridge side. The Women’s Blues match then took centre stage. Despite the match being close the whole way through, Oxford could not quite stop Cambridge from getting what they had come for, and their MVP Georgie Hurt sealed a 5-2 victory with three impressive second-half goals. Although the resulting 3-2 overall win to Cambridge was not what Oxford had hoped for, it did not dampen spirits.

LAWN TENNIS 2009-10 proved to be another successful season for the Oxford University Lawn Tennis Club.

With five teams competing in BUCS there were plenty of matches to get through. The Men’s Blues managed their best league position in recent years, with a third-place finish in the Premiership, while the Women’s Blues came second in 1st Division, narrowly missing out on promotion. Men’s Penguins and Polar Bears performed well, securing first and fourth position respectively in Midlands Division 2A, and the Women’s Robins managed second place in their 2A Division. While the league wound down it was time for the knockout cups. All teams achieved good wins, typified by the Women’s Robins winning the Midlands Conference Cup. Beyond BUCS there was still much on all teams’ plates leading into Trinity, including social coaching for non team-playing Club members, which ran every Saturday of Michaelmas and Hilary. The Blues travel on an annual Easter Tour, this year to Cannes where a combination of training, matches against local teams, fitness in the form of a cycle ride to Nice and sun did both teams an enormous amount of good.

Early Trinity saw the Varsity Match for Men’s 2nds, 3rds and Women’s 2nds take place, with Oxford hosting. Unfortunately it was anything but Oxford’s year with all five teams going down in hotly contested matches, including the Men’s and Women’s Blues later in Trinity.

Usually Varsity signals the end of the season for Oxford tennis; however, as it does every two years, the Prentice Cup was also competed for this summer. A six-man and a four-woman team from Oxford and Cambridge took on their Harvard and Yale compatriots at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club at the oldest amateur tennis match. This year the Americans proved too strong, winning the Men’s 12-9 and the Women’s 9-3.

LIFESAVING OULSC started the year by entering two teams into the Warwick competition. As this was many people’s first competition the A team did well to come in 15th, with everyone gaining vital experience. Varsity was held in Oxford, with incidents ‘set’ at student halls of a campus university, and at the river after a night at a ball. Each of our three teams performed really well and although we eventually lost to Cambridge, it was one of the closest events in many years, with the result coming down to the touch in the last event.

LIGHTWEIGHT ROWING MEN The Oxford University Lightweight Rowing Club’s raison d’être is to beat Cambridge in the Lightweight Boat Race, held every March on the Henley Reach. A strong Cambridge crew crushed the 2009 crew after a seven-year run of victories for the Dark Blues. The mission this year was to rebuild the Club and avenge that defeat.

The 2009-10 Committee put in a vast amount of work to shore up the Club’s finances, infrastructure and recruitment plan. We did not expect to reap the rewards of this hard work immediately, and following such a crushing defeat the numbers of new triallists were significantly lower than those seen in previous years. However the weak squad that began trialling in September managed to forge themselves into two strong and gutsy units come the Boat Race in March. By February our ergo scores had improved by seconds, and on the water the Blue Boat was holding its own against top University crews at Quintin Head and BUCS Head. However in early March, as the crew was collecting scalps such as UL and LRC in our fixture races, injury struck. Our seventh man and returning Blue, Dan Harvey, had developed a stress fracture that would keep him out of the boat until days before the race. Boat Race week was a tense affair as always, however to make matters worse we realised we were up against a crew that was even stronger than the year before. After winning the toss we found ourselves on the Bucks station on the start line, the same as last year. Unlike the year before, however, we were up ¾ length by halfway; all we needed to do was hang on. Slowly Cambridge closed the gap and with 200m to go we were neck and neck; their lead yo-yoed as both crews matched each other stroke for stroke. On the line Cambridge were judged to have nicked it by two feet, the closest winning margin ever.

Though defeated, the 2010 Squad was proud of what it had achieved and how far each

man had come since the start of the year. The performance that we put in on 28th March did a huge amount for the morale of the Squad and alumni, no longer a Club in decline but a Club on the up and looking forward to coming back even more strongly in 2011.

After the Boat Race the Squad took a well earned break; coming back in April to prepare for the BUCS regatta at the start of May. Here we managed to surpass expectation on all fronts, reaching finals in almost all the events we entered and winning Bronze in the LM8+ with a scratch crew to earn a qualification spot for EUSA. In August 2010 an OULRC crew represented Oxford against other Universities such as Cambridge, Harvard and Yale at the International Universities Regatta in Beijing and Chengdu. We managed to chalk up one victory against Cambridge and were placed not far behind a very competitive Yale crew. We hope to use this regatta in the future to help shore up ties between the University and China on both a sporting, academic and economic level.

WOMEN OUWLRC has had a very successful year, welcoming our new coach Chris O’Hara.

Training from September to March went without a hitch, apart from the snow on both our training camps! We fielded a strong eight for the Henley Boat Races and beat Cambridge Women’s Lightweights by 2¾ lengths in a time of 6 min, 1 sec. This was one second outside the course record for lightweight women, in a year that was not necessarily record-breaking in conditions. Our time was faster than all the Cambridge Women’s boats, and came within a margin of the winning Oxford open weight Blue Boat to earn us Full Blues for the second year in a row.

Following the Boat Race, training continued in earnest and we took our eight to BUCS. Here we won three gold medals for the University; Lightweight Eights, Lightweight Quads and Lightweight Coxless Fours. This made Oxford the most successful women’s University team at the event. Because of our performance in the Eight and Quad, we were selected to represent Great Britain at the European University Championships in Amsterdam. Here we again won gold in the Lightweight Eight, came fifth www.sport.ox.ac.uk

28 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

was won by Hertford College, and it was excellent to see a number of competitors from outside the Club.

Returning to Oxford in Hilary feeling ready to focus on the Varsity Match, ten OUMPA members attended a training day at Sandhurst, which was held jointly with Cambridge Modern Pentathlon Club (CUMPC) and has paved the way for an exciting triangular match between Oxford, Cambridge and the Army, which took place in September 2010. In Hilary OUMPA held its Old Blues competition, and we were very pleased to welcome back a lot of Old Members for an excellent competition and also a fantastic Old Blues Dinner.

in Open Weight Eights and got a bronze medal in the Quad.

Over the summer we entered a senior coxed four, an elite lightweight double and an elite lightweight pair at Henley Women’s Regatta.

All boats raced well, with the lightweight pair making it through to the final and narrowly losing to an Irish pair. Following Henley Women’s Regatta, four of the girls from this year’s boat, and one Old Girl, teamed up with three girls from OUWBC to enter the Remenham Cup at Henley Royal Regatta. Against all odds we qualified for this elite competition and found ourselves up against the Dutch national team in our first round. We managed to creep ahead for the first five strokes and then their extra two stone per person kicked in and they beat us. It was however a great achievement to qualify for the competition.

Two weeks later a large OUMPA contingent competed in the BUCS Modern Pentathlon, where there were some exceptional performances, including third place individually for Mark Inkester and overall second Team for the OUMPA Men. This year has been one of the most successful for the Club, and I hope next year will be as fruitful.

MODERN PENTATHLON The new Club Committee began its term in Trinity 2009, and despite the ongoing exam pressures that term, we were able to host our annual informal ‘continuous tetrathlon’ competition, which was great fun. Many of the Club also attended the joint Oxford/Cambridge Old Blues dinner in September, where it was great to catch up with some ex-Oxbridge pentathletes.

The 2009-10 academic year began with our Novice Varsity competition in Cambridge. Later in Michaelmas term we held Cuppers, which

The Varsity Match took place on Friday 26th and Saturday 27th March at Tonbridge School.

OUMPA had a successful year, winning the Men’s Team competition (by over 6000 points!), the Men’s individual competition, and both Men’s and Women’s Reserve Team and Individual competitions. Unfortunately the Women’s Team suffered incredibly bad luck in the ride, resulting in a narrow defeat.

With many strong competitors remaining in Oxford next year we look forward to another great year ahead.

MOTOR DRIVERS It was a difficult year for OUMDC but the determination shown by Club members was beyond reproach. Our first event of the year was Freshers’ Karting in Aylesbury, where students showed off their skills behind the wheel.

We usually attend a British Universities Karting Championship test day every year; however, demand was so high this Michaelmas that we brought students to two different very successful test days. Attending a test day is compulsory for anyone who wishes to compete in the BUKC in 2011. In Hilary term, the BUKC championship began. It ended up being a difficult season for the Club, as many experienced drivers had left and inexperienced ones had to learn the routine. However some new drivers showed amazing commitment and determination, and in the coming years will turn out to be incredibly successful drivers for Oxford. Our drop from 17th to 34th place over the season in no way reflects the improvement made by many drivers.

I 29

Also in Hilary was our annual Varsity race against Cambridge, where scoring is based on the MotoGP system. Unfortunately, conditions did not favour us in 2010. Changing weather made things very difficult for our inexperienced drivers and a highly experienced driver on the Cambridge team made first place a very difficult goal. However, despite such adverse conditions Oxford secured a podium position and ensured that Cambridge couldn’t walk away smugly.

At the end of Hilary term we hosted our annual Cuppers competition. Instead of holding the competition in our usual location in Aylesbury, we held it at the national championship circuit at Whilton Mill. New College took first place, with Balliol and Magdalen arriving second and third respectively. It was our most successful event of the year; we received highly positive feedback and generated more interest in the Club. The Club continues to work and train hard to fuel the passion for motorsport.

MOUNTAINEERING A highlight of the past year has been the organisation of events to celebrate the Club’s centenary, from the cocktail party in Merton MCR to launch the occasion, and the two contrasting lectures given by Colin Mortlock and Stephen Venables, through to the Centenary Ball itself. A large number of people put a lot of effort into researching the history of the Club and contacting former members. All this hard work paid off in a highly successful ball in March at Wolfson College, accompanied by a gallery of photos and extracts, which was enjoyed by everyone who attended. This fantastic event was the product of a lot of hard work from a number of Club members and in particular the Centenary Committee.

We currently have approximately 160 members on our list. Over the past year 130 different people have come on a Club outdoor trip, with a total of 341 person-trips. We have organized trips to the Peak, Portland, Swanage, the Lakes, North Wales, Pembroke, Dartmoor, the Wye Valley, Malham, Cornwall and Southern Sandstone, with trips being held at least every other weekend during term time. We held our annual Varsity Match at Redpoint Centre in Birmingham for the sixth year. This was a successful event, with Thomas van Boeckel, Oxford, winning for the Men and Caroline Culwick coming second for the Ladies, although Cambridge won overall by a narrow margin in the team event.

NETBALL OUNC started the season with the selection of eleven enthusiastic new players to join

the remaining nine. The arrival of our new coach Frances Granger, former coach of Fiji, brought an increase in the intensity of training, involving a new warm-up routine and set plays.

The Blues have had a season of highs and lows.

With pre-season injuries the season kicked off slowly but soon built up momentum. The Roos have benefited greatly from having a very versatile squad this year and utilising their court time has enabled them to establish the best player combinations for specific match play.

Members of both teams have also been working hard off court, with involvement in coaching children from four local schools in the community, and fundraising. Our fundraising has included a quiz and a raffle for the Varsity Match, along with the annual mixed netball Cuppers tournament.

The season reached its finale in the annual Varsity Match, hosted this year by Oxford. The Roos had a close-fought and tough match, with the two teams neck and neck throughout the match. Despite a huge push from Oxford in the last quarter, which saw them take the lead, Cambridge were the eventual victors, winning 35-33. The Blues took an early lead, and by half-time were ahead by four goals. In the face of constant pressure from Cambridge, the Blues capitalised on every opportunity and were victorious, with a final score of 44-35: the largest margin in a Varsity Match for the last three years.

ORIENTEERING OUOC has enjoyed a highly successful year across the many aspects of the Club. The Varsity Match, organised by former Club member Scott Collier (OUOC Treasurer, Merton) at Penhale in Cornwall, was a technically difficult course, which made excellent use of the intricacies of the map. Oxford’s strength in depth in the Men’s competition saw us come out solid team winners, despite a Cambridge man taking top spot. In the Women’s competition Oxford was dominant, with Anne Edwards (OUOC Secretary, St Hilda’s) deserving special mention for her victory some 13 minutes clear.

At BUCS the Club hoped to emulate last year’s second place, but came up against rivals of renewed strength in Sheffield in the Men’s and could only manage third overall. The Women supplemented solid individual runs with a determined effort in the relay; they were justly rewarded with second position behind Edinburgh but ahead of Sheffield.

As well as competing at a high standard, the Club has been busy organising events and inspiring local school children through the Outreach programme. The Club pulled together to host an urban race around Oxford’s City centre, which attracted over 500 people including a delightfully amicable group from Istanbul’s Technical University. This year, in recognition of the growth of the Outreach work the Club was doing, we created an additional Committee position of Outreach Officer. James McMillan (Merton) has continued to do a superb job coordinating the Outreach effort, forging even stronger relationships with our existing schools as well as branching out to find new schools.

Our many and varied achievements as a club were recognised this year in our receipt of the British Orienteering ‘University Club of the Year’ and the OU Sports Federation ‘Club of the Year’ awards. We are grateful to the OU Sports Federation for their continued support and look forward to building on our successes to date.

PISTOL OCTOPUSH This has been a good year for the Octopush Club. Our membership has grown substantially; we’ve secured more pool time and enjoyed more socials. We hosted the annual University Nationals competition, which was a huge success. In addition, due to a more focused training routine, the Oxford team climbed the ranks from previous years and finished second in the 2nd Division.

2009-10 witnessed another successful year for OUPC, with victories at both the Varsity and county levels. In the Varsity gallery rifle competition at the National Shooting Centre at Bisley in the summer of 2009, a short-handed Oxford squad managed a narrow victory over Cambridge to win our first of two Varsity contests of the year.

The November Past v. Present competition, contested by a joint Oxford/Cambridge current team against a joint Oxford/Cambridge Old www.sport.ox.ac.uk

30 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

to the Varsity Match several friendlies were organised. Once more the talent of the Club, and the success of the year’s training, was demonstrated through the appearance of a strong Second Team which has not been achieved in previous years. Although the Second Team was stronger than in previous years the First Team, under Thomas Mayou, led by example, both at the high-profile Polo in the Park as well as the Varsity Match. The Varsity Match returned to the world-famous Smith’s Lawn at Guards Polo Club. The scale of such an event and the excitement for the players is unrivalled. The team seized victory in the final moments, the score ending as 5-4 with Oxford’s very own Thomas Meacher winning the coveted MVP award.

POOL AND SNOOKER

Boys and Girls team, saw the veterans use their years of experience to continue their dominance of this annual event. Nevertheless, the close ties maintained with our past members must rival those of any university sports club, truly one of the Club’s proudest attributes. In Hilary term we contested the Air Pistol Varsity match against Cambridge at our ‘home’ range in Wantage. Our respective A teams squared off and Oxford won a decisive victory, with OUPC’s Imogen Solly besting all competitors with a 539. The OUPC B team enjoyed a similarly successful meet, beating the Cambridge B’s (and posting a few scores that would have beaten most of their A team as well). Sadly the Ladies’ team, which included several new members with little experience but great natural talent, were not able to ride that talent all the way to a win. The overall win of the Varsity match by OUPC was a great compliment to the hard work put in by all our members and coaches this year and gives the team a strong platform on which to build for the future.

OUPC have been active competing in county matches, including the Small Bore Gallery Rifle Competition, and the County Air Pistol Championships, in which OUPC beat all the teams in the county to take home the Thamesian Trophy. Our own Lonnie Swift won the individual overall title (as well as many of the single event titles), followed closely

by OUPC’s Brian Tang in second place. A successful Cuppers competition held in Trinity term saw top honours go to a team from

Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, with second and third going to two teams from Merton. Our annual dinner at St Edmund Hall was a great opportunity for many past and present OUPC members to mix.

POLO The Club has enjoyed an active and successful year in 2009-10, achieving strong results and strengthening the profile of Oxford University Polo. Indicative of the Club’s success has been its activity in the usually quiet winter months. With a strong beginners’ programme, first-time polo players could attend weekly lessons. By February we had a strong enough base to provide three teams for the winter national tournament (SUPA) and for the first time in years enter a team into the beginners’ division of this exciting event. At the top end an open team was entered, narrowly losing out to a strong Edinburgh side. The highlight of the winter season was a team trip from three of the Club players to represent OUPC in a match against the Indian Army in Delhi.

Although faced by a strong side and immense heat the English visitors were able to put up a fight. Such a trip is a sign of the strong future which the Club is aspiring towards, enabling its members to have polo experiences which they would never have thought possible.

The summer season kicked off well, with regular lessons now based at our local Kirtlington Park Polo Club. In the build-up

This year has been one of transition for the Club. With OU’s first ever significant participation in competitive university snooker we have now rightly added the ‘S’ to our club name, thanks greatly to the determination of Snooker Captain Richard Walters. The heart and soul of the Club though is undoubtedly English-style 8-ball pool, supported by a thriving college scene of league and Cuppers, with hundreds of students participating.

At the University team level we have a strong reputation at BUCS, with Oxford 1 seeded sixth in the Team Championship this year.

As another first this year we took 3 teams to the tournament in Great Yarmouth, held in February. In the BUCS singles there were two shining stars for Oxford in fresher Ben Charlston and newbie James Cholerton. The Varsity Pool Match, contested over 2 days and 90 frames, was played in Oxford this year bringing the Varsity Champions title back to Oxford for the first time since 2005.

In the Varsity Singles tournament Lei Xiao of Oxford, after slipping to a 0-4 deficit, emerged victorious a 6-5 winner over Cambridge’s Luke Gleave, a fitting end to Lei’s seventh and last Varsity Match.

The Club also played Local League and was defeated 2 – 5 in the Annual Town vs. Gown match. With strong players having left before this year we have done well to build and strengthen the Club, and found many talented finalists to fill the Squad. Next year will perhaps be even more of a challenge, with more than half the regular players moving on; we will once again rely on finding the talent that exists in the college set-up, from freshers to finalists, and encouraging it at the University level. We hope to also build snooker even further by competing in the local Oxford snooker league for the first time, and hopefully establishing a regular Varsity Snooker Match.

I 31

POWERLIFTING It has been an excellent year for OUPLC, beginning with the selection of a nationalcalibre squad at the beginning of Michaelmas term and then, six weeks later, going on to win the British University Powerlifting Championships held in Bournemouth. This was our second consecutive year in first place, and the top three lifters this year were Karl Seddon, Scott Mclaughlan and Robert Pearce.

We had two members, Adam Sandel and Robin Mirshahi, place very highly at the WDFPF World Championships. In Hilary term we had several external competitions and the majority of our lifters qualified for Nationals. Towards the end of Hilary term we competed against Cambridge in the Varsity Match. We were victorious, with all our eight lifters in the top ten and our top three lifters being the top three overall.

Cambridge fielded eleven competitors.

Several Club records were broken this year, and the Club continues to set a high standard not only on a University level but also on a national one. Due to OUPLC’s organisation and professionalism, we have been asked to host the next British University Championships this upcoming Michaelmas 2010.

REAL TENNIS This year was a particularly successful one for OUTC; the Men’s First Team clinched a very exciting Varsity Match at Lord’s, for the first time in a number of years, against a very strong Cambridge Team. The seconds also triumphed on home turf at Oxford with a couple of strong players hoping to come through to the firsts next year, with the loss of three of our four players likely. A number of individual results

were also accomplished this year, with our Number One Will Fortune breaking in the world’s top 50 and our Number Two, Horatio Cary, winning Most Valuable Player in National League Division 4.

The Women’s Team faced another very strong side at Cambridge and sadly succumbed, but it was a worthy battle and with all the Women’s Team leaving this year we will be looking to fill our ranks with some new young stars next year. On a happier note the Women’s Seconds recorded a wonderful victory, to show our strength in depth which will hopefully come into play next year.

RIDING This year Oxford University Riding Club was pleased to welcome a large number of hopefuls to team trials at the Blewbury Centre at the start of the term. Twelve successful riders were selected and assigned to one of the three teams entered in the BUCS equestrian league. Each team participated in three or four league matches, comprising a dressage test and show-jumping round on unfamiliar horses, and there were some excellent individual performances. The First Team rode well against Oxford Brookes in a close contest but were unfortunately beaten by the Royal Agricultural College; the Second Team finished second in their league and the Third Team, despite some initial setbacks, put up a good performance against several second teams in their league.

The First Team also competed in the Varsity Match in May, at Moreton Morrell. We were very pleased to win the dressage phase of the competition, but despite jumping clear in the first show-jumping round, we narrowly lost out in the second round, resulting in a narrow defeat. However, this was much closer than

last year and with many of the team riders still around in 2011 we rate our chances for next year!

RIFLE This year has been a difficult year for the Rifle Club, which has seen itself haunted by range problems yet again. Nevertheless, once we were able to begin shooting at our new small-bore range, at the Rover Social Club, our activities were able to begin in earnest. It was good to recruit a number of new members, many of whom had never shot before.

Our first match of the year saw us hosting one leg of the English University’s league, with Oxford scoring 1090, Imperial scoring 1100 and Southampton scoring 1128. A few weeks later we hosted the Heslop (small-bore Varsity) and Bentata (Ladies only match), being beaten

by Cambridge in both despite a valiant effort.

Easter saw the traditional Easter Bisley training camp. There was the usual round of training on the full-bore ranges, with several members being introduced to full-bore shooting. There was also a full range of social activities, including dinner with the London University Rifle Club, and a well enjoyed afternoon at the go-kart track. Finally, the summer saw OURC, as ever, attending the Imperial meeting at Bisley. There were some strong performances, especially from those for whom this was their first Imperial. Unfortunately, Oxford were beaten by a strong Cambridge side in both Varsity Matches.

RUGBY FIVES 2009-10 has been a very successful year for the Oxford Rugby Fives Club, with a number

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

32 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

of commendable performances both at the BUCS Championships and at the Varsity Match.

At BUCS, Oxford Captain Dan Tristao won the singles competition for the third year in a row, beating Oxford’s Jez Fabes in the final.

In the doubles, Oxford 1st pair Jez Fabes and Ed Ronan were the runners-up, and two other Oxford pairs reached the semi-finals. As for the Varsity Match, this was the pinnacle of our season; with a winning margin of 300 – 38, this was a record victory in the Rugby Fives Varsity Match, and a margin which is unlikely to be repeated for a long time.

RUGBY LEAGUE With the Maroons entering their second year, and the Blues looking to push on in BUCS Premier South, the whole OURLFC squad kicked off the 2009-10 season with a pre-season camp that helped squad members, new and old, to bond as a unit. Despite a tough opening few weeks in the BUCS leagues, until Captain Paddy Boyle’s squad got into their stride, three consecutive league wins put the Blues fourth and qualified them for the BUCS Trophy.

In January, before the start of Hilary term, Oxford’s annual mid-season tour took them to a fantastic top-of-the-range training facility in Portugal; used by many Super League teams as well as international rugby and football squads.

The trip to Vilamoura appeared to work; as in Hilary Term, the Blues won their remaining two league fixtures and the Maroons finished second in BUCS South. The Blues extended their run to winning eight of their final nine games - including wins over Super 8 side St Mary’s in the cup, and the RAF U23s. The cup run was eventually halted by Leeds Met in the semi-finals, but the Blues went on to beat Brookes and then come from 16-0 behind to win the 30th Annual Varsity Match 32-22. The Maroons also came from 20 points down to win their Varsity Match once again; and the Old Boys made it an Oxford clean sweep for 2010.

With the first ever Women’s Varsity match scheduled for Trinity 2010, OURLFC looks set to keep growing and progressing.

OURFC The Club enjoyed a successful season overall, winning four out of the five Varsity Matches in November/December 2009. The showpiece game at Twickenham for the Blues once again saw a very exciting Varsity Match, following on from last year’s thrilling 33 – 29 victory; unfortunately this year we were on the wrong end of the score come the final whistle!

The Greyhounds had a torrid season in BUCS Premier South B, finishing just above the relegation zone, and as a result of the restructuring of the BUCS season, they have

I 33

reluctantly pulled out of the competition for this coming season. In January 2010 Nick Haydon (Univ) was elected Captain, with Karl Outen (SEH) as Team Secretary.

The Blues will undertake a pre-season tour to Moscow in September, at the invitation of the Rugby Union of Russia. They will play two matches, one in Moscow and the other in Kazan, as they use this trip as the first stage of their preparations for the 129th Nomura Varsity Match on Thursday 9th December at Twickenham, KO 2.00pm.

There have been many changes at OURFC since April. With Lord Butler standing down as President after 12 years in the position, Chairman Peter Bridges has now stepped up to be President with Ronnie Lamb, Blues Captain in 1964, being elected Chairman. After 14 years as the Club’s Director of Rugby, Steve Hill moved on to take up a similar role at Richmond RFC, where he is already enjoying success and recruiting hard from former Oxford players!

The Club has subsequently been restructured internally, with Tim Stevens becoming General Manager, former player Peter Wright coming in as Commercial Manager and Sally Wright continuing as Assistant Administrator.

WOMEN’S RUGBY We have enjoyed a successful season this year, with a top eight place finish in BUCS for the Blues, and a top four in the conference cup for the Panthers, our second team. Although both teams suffered losses in this year’s Varsity Matches, the games were hard-fought and the standard of rugby was high. We also secured Nomura sponsorship for the VM! Our mid-season tour in January, which kicked off the new year and the eight week build-up to Varsity, brought us to Browns Sports Complex in Portugal. Back from tour, the Blues put together a string of wins to finish third in the BUCS South Premier league, and in the quarter-finals of the BUCS cup. Coaches Hugo Phillips’ and Aled Lloyd Owen’s hard work saw the Panthers reach the semifinal of the BUCS Conference Cup, and maintain their position in the Midlands Conference, remaining one of the highest university 2nds teams in the country. The Panthers played a very closely fought Varsity game, not conceding a try and managing to breach the Cambridge tryline themselves, but eventually lost with a score of 9-7. The Blues displayed a strong effort on Varsity day, though unfortunately Cambridge dominated, winning 25-0. The many spectators at Iffley Road enjoyed a high level of rugby, and a closer competition than the scoreline implies.

Despite the great disappointment in losing Varsity, both teams played phenomenally well and grew as players as a result.

As well as our Blues and Panthers teams, OUWRFC is committed to working hard to keep the level of College rugby high, and recruit new players to the game both at College and University level.

Touch 7s in MT went very well as an introductory and recruitment session for the Club. Contact 7s was run as an introductory session in Hilary term, with much appreciated support of a number of OURFC players. The support of OURFC this season has been simply invaluable both on and off the pitch. We are very grateful for the continuing support of Tim Stevens, and we would also like to thank everyone involved in the arrangement of the Nomura sponsorship. Their sponsorship of the Varsity Match has really helped raise our Club profile both within and outside the University, as demonstrated by the number of people who came to watch the match. I am confident that this will lead to great benefits next year in recruiting new members.

SHORINJI KEMPO 2009-10 saw another good year for the Shorinji Kempo Club. Freshers’ Fair saw a good intake of new members and the Club continued to welcome new trainees throughout Hilary and Trinity terms, which offset the normal drop-off in attendance by Freshers’ recruits.

2009-10 saw 16 Club members take grading examinations, with all Club members passing.

Six students passed their 4th kyu (yellow belt) grading, seven students passed their 3rd kyu (green belt) grading, two students passed their 2nd kyu (blue belt) grading and one student passed their 1st kyu (brown belt) grading.

February saw nine Club members attend the annual University Training Seminar, which was held in Bristol this year. Sensei Chris was part of a team of senior instructors who taught sessions on topics including randori and practical self-defence. The kenshi who attended benefitted greatly from the experience and it was a great opportunity to maintain links with other university clubs. Training with kenshi and instructors from other clubs is important as it ensures that the Club is exposed to fresh ideas about training methods and techniques. The Club intends to maintain its presence at this type of event in the future.

SKI AND SNOWBOARD Throughout the year we have continued our effort to develop the Club and make skiing and snowboarding more accessible throughout the University. We have continued to see a strong increase in membership from freestylers, which is why we are offering weekly freestyle trips to the indoor Snow Dome in Milton Keynes, as well as the weekly race training sessions on the dry slope at Welwyn.

In May the dry slope racing team finished fifth nationally in the Kings finals, which is a very impressive feat. This year we are planning to recreate the success of last year’s joint racing and freestyle summer training in Les Deux Alpes. In December 2009 the Varsity Trip, jointly organised by the Oxford and Cambridge Ski and Snowboard Clubs, has seen yet another peak with over 2,500 students descending on Tignes. There was plenty of sunshine, snow and fresh powder on some days – making it perfect for the freestyle contingent. The racers made the most of the great conditions, with the Varsity Races taking place on Blues Tuesday.

Oxford Men’s Blues trailed after the Giant Slalom in the morning due to some unlucky falls, so despite very good performances in the following day’s Slalom, the Oxford men were unable to close the margin and Cambridge won. The Women’s Dark Blues, however, won by a larger margin than any other skiing Varsity win on record, to continue the series of victories they have had over the last few years.

This rounded up a great Varsity Trip 2009. We are already looking forward to the Varsity Trip 2010, which will be held in Val Thorens this December.

SQUASH 2009-10 once again proved to be a fruitful year for OUSRC, with all teams experiencing highly successful seasons. The Men’s Blues made the play-off finals of BUCS Division 1 Midlands Conference League after finishing second, but unfortunately lost to an exceptionally strong Loughborough team in play-offs. The Men’s Second Team endured arguably the toughest start to the season, with Captain Joe Bartlett-Marques restructuring the squad, introducing a new system based around an internal fortnightly box league. The Squirrels were committed and hard-working and attained such a standard that they could play alongside Blues players in BUCS Division 1. The Squirrels concurrently competed in Division 2, where they finished fourth despite losing some close games. The Women’s Blues Team won the National League, also competing in the Oxfordshire League, BUCS and Varsity.

Unfortunately the team was relegated from the Oxfordshire League, although they are optimistic about attaining promotion next year.

However, the team won the highly competitive South-East Regional Cup, hence qualifying for the National Finals. Disappointingly the Finals were scheduled on the same weekend as the BUCS tournament, forcing the team to withdraw. Thankfully, the team put this disappointment behind them to put in a strong showing at BUCS; coming second in their group and reaching the quarter-finals.

The Club Annual Dinner was held at Vincent’s Club and was held in honour of the Club’s www.sport.ox.ac.uk

34 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

long-time Senior Member and Treasurer, Mike Sauvage.

In the Varsity Match the women managed to extend their unbeaten run with an extremely close 3-2 victory. The men, however, were once again undone in a 4-1 loss to a typically strong Cambridge side. The Squirrels reaped the rewards of the new system with a close 3-2 victory against a Cambridge team featuring tremendous strength in depth, a feature which proved the undoing of the third team in a 4-1 defeat.

College squash was, as always, fiercely contested. Trinity claimed a convincing victory in the League with heavy wins over all other teams in the First Division. Cuppers was a tightly matched affair, in which Jesus College, boosted by several University Second Team players, won an extremely tight final against Balliol 3-2. The Club has continued to keep non-squad players across the University involved in the Box Leagues, where the standard has been impressively high. We also thank Mike Sauvage for his tremendous service to the Club. His successor, Nicholas King, is an experienced long-time member of the Club and will ensure that OUSRC continues to be run efficiently.

SULKIDO OU Sul Ki Do had another highly successful Freshers’ recruitment campaign in 2009 and this initial enthusiasm has translated into consistently high attendances throughout the year. With hard work on the part of both instructors and students, members at all levels have made rapid progress and the Club sent large groups to all three UK Sul Ki Do Federation gradings, with many positive responses from the examiners. OU Sul Ki Do also gained another black belt to add to our instructors’ ranks, which, in addition to the large number of higher belts continuing in the Club, means we are in a very strong position.

SURF 2009/2010 has been a very successful year for the Surf Club. Three trips have been run to Newquay in Cornwall, each time greeted with sun and good surf. The first trip left in October to the BUCS Surfing Championships.

Ten of us went down; four students entered the competition with, it is fair to say, varying degrees of success. Despite the time of year there was a sold 3ft swell and completely clear skies. Treasurer Olly Wright of Teddy Hall was the pick of the bunch, reaching the second round of the competition; the weekend was a resounding success! The next trip in early Hilary was for beginners only, and was also by www.sport.ox.ac.uk

all accounts a great trip, with several people getting up on a board for the first time. The final trip in Sixth Week of Hilary was very well attended, 16 of us booking out a lodge in Newquay for a weekend and tearing up some tidy 4ft surf.

Considering the Surf Club runs on a minimal balance, the fact that we got three trips in this year is a great achievement. After some fairly successful negotiations with the Cambridge Surf Club, there may well be a Varsity surf trip at some point in the near future!

SWIMMING 2009-10 was a highly successful season for OUSC. Varsity success, in the form of the Men’s and Overall trophies, was accompanied by our most successful BUCS campaign ever: winning the Southern Region qualifiers and finishing in an extraordinary place of fourth overall in the National Finals. The Men’s Team, led by Ian Osband, was bolstered with the addition of US World Championship gold medallist (4x200 FS relay) Davis Tarwater, who was an amazing benefit to the team, not only through his performances, but through the experience of training with a swimmer of true world class.

Even without Tarwater’s presence the Men’s Squad would have arguably been the strongest Varsity squad either Oxford or Cambridge have ever seen.

Over the course of the season, University records in an unprecedented 12 of the 17 individual events were broken, many multiple times, with Tom Booth, James Soane, Will Allen-Mersh, Kouji Urata, Tom Close and Ian Osband all joining Tarwater in taking records during the year. Special mention must go to Jack Mariott for his astounding 54.60 100m Fly in the Varsity Match – a swim that narrowly missed Tarwater’s record, and places him in the top ten British swimmers over the distance this year. The depth of the team was also apparent in the relay performances, where University and County records were broken in all four disciplines, with the 4x100 FS relay team of Joe Cruttwell, Close, Booth and Tarwater also picking up a gold at the County Championships.

Captained by Ann Hyams, the Women’s Team saw a good intake of talent. Fresher Katherine Rollins was quick to make her mark, taking the 200 Breaststroke record at the BUCS team event, following up with the 100 a few weeks later. German law student Nadja Danninger broke the 50 FS record early in the season, and her 100 in the Varsity Match saw her the first Oxford woman to swim under 59 seconds.

Team Hero award must go to Clare Kane, who swam with a broken hip to pick up valuable points in the 200Fs in the BUCS team final.

TABLE TENNIS The close of this sporting season marks another year of achievement for OUTTC. Over the past 24 months the results have been steadily improving, especially on the Womens’ side; they achieved a first Varsity win in 20 years this season. This was in addition to another impressive performance in BUCS, being knocked out in the national quarter-finals by the eventual winners, Sheffield.

Results have been slightly more disappointing on the Men’s side; they suffered heavy defeats in the Varsity and Town vs. Gown matches. They also narrowly missed out on qualification for the play-offs in BUCS, with a last-minute defeat in the final match of the season. As a whole, the Club has grown over the last year, with an increase in the number of members, many of whom play regularly in the open practice sessions held twice a week. The squads on both the Men’s and Women’s side were also boosted by an influx of freshers, although the loss of several key players on both sides meant that the beginning of the season posed some difficulties initially.

TAI CHI Classes were held on Monday evenings as in previous years, and were generally well attended. Beginners are always welcomed and catered for in the classes. Many of the exercises are carried out as a group, while for some the class is split into smaller groups according to experience.

Freshers’ Fair was our main source of recruitment, with some additional interest throughout the year coming via our website.

We hope to develop the social side of the Club, which has had a lull this past year, but are otherwise happy with the running and atmosphere of the classes.

TAEKWONDO OUTKD has had yet another successful year.

During Michaelmas we gained our first ever sponsorship deal, with Choi & Kim Korean Law firm, for new Club kit. Hilary was Varsity term, and training heated up to six sessions a week.

Varsity was held as part of the Varsity games weekend in Oxford and drew a substantial crowd. The matches were all well fought, and OUTKD won all shields (Men’s/Women’s/ Overall) for the fourth year running. At least two new members join every week, and class participation is on the up. Members are competing in national competitions and are consistently bringing home medals to add to the collection.

I 35

TRAMPOLINING It was a successful year for Oxford University Trampolining Club. Three long sessions a week, supervised by helpful and well-qualified coaches, resulted in remarkable development and improvement for many participants throughout the year. In February, a few members competed in the Midlands Regional round of BUCS. Their solid performances weren’t unfortunately enough to qualify for the national final. In both male and female elite categories the Club had one representative who qualified in the final, although unfortunately they were unable to attend in the end due to the end of term.

In March, the Club hosted the Varsity Match.

The three teams of four people performed very well, but the match was lost to an exceptionally strong Cambridge team.

In May the Club organized a Cuppers competition. The friendly atmosphere of the event and several impressive high-score performances encouraged some of the competitors to join the Club.

TRIATHLON 2010 has been an exciting year for OUTriC, marked by a number of key developments in the sport of Varsity Triathlon. The year was kicked off with the freshers’ aquathlon, increasing the size of the Club to 84 members, the largest it has been since its inception. As in previous years, athletes from OUTriC participated in a number of local and national events, posting good performances in the individual disciplines and in multisport competition. Of note, our Women’s Team of Josephine Anselin, Rachel Hall and Natasha Poole placed third at BUCS Sprint Triathlon, winning the Team Bronze Medal. Lee Harper achieved an individual top 20 place at this race, beating a number of British Age Group competitors; Lee also placed second overall in the Bath Olympic Triathlon.

This year the Committee has worked hard to develop the Club and the sport of Varsity triathlon. We began this process by building stronger links with British Triathlon, the governing body for the sport in the UK. As a result of this the Club was allocated a

number of free coaching sessions with Rob Robson, a British Triathlon level three coach.

A number of changes were made to the Varsity Match this year, on a trial basis, to encourage further participation from members of both Oxford and Cambridge University Triathlon Clubs. Sadly, in spite of the hard work and dedication of all our athletes, both the Men’s and Women’s Varsity Matches were won by a narrow margin by Cambridge this year. Nevertheless, there were strong and encouraging performances by a number of individuals from Oxford.

With the Club’s development programme now in place, we will return next year with greater breadth and depth of talent, and victory will be ours once again.

ULTIMATE FRISBEE Oxford University Ultimate Frisbee has continued to expand this year, with a fantastic intake of freshers.

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

36 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

UNDERWATER EXPLORATION The 2009 summer holidays involved several trips to Torquay, Swanage (wrecks of the Aeolian Sky and the Kyarra) and Weymouth, and culminated in a week-long expedition to see the seals in the Farne islands in Northumberland and the beautiful marine reserve in St Abbs just over the border.

After the try-dives at the beginning of the year we gained eight new novices and six already qualified members who wanted to do further training with us. The Club membership now stands at approximately 60 members. Sessions continued to run on Wednesday evenings at Radley pool, as well as a few weekends of lectures and theory training. Training also continued for the already-qualified trainees in open water in November when we took them to Stoney Cove, a quarry dive-site in Leicestershire. The Easter trip was a roaring success with 29 attendees this year; highlights included a giant octopus, swimming with the dolphins and a who-can-catch-the-biggestcrab competition. Everyone had a great time enjoying the beautiful scenery both above and below the surface, especially the stunning dives on the Manacles rocks.

We have continued to train our members in first aid, instructing, boat handling and dive leading. Trips for 2010 have already started, with a return visit to St Abbs, more trips to Torquay and a trip to Weymouth with several other Oxfordshire clubs. This summer’s highlight was a week-long expedition to the sound of Mull. In the future we also intend to run a trip abroad, as well as a two-week expedition to the west coast of Ireland in 2011. All in all it promises to be a busy year of diving.

VOLLEYBALL The Volleyball Club, now comprising six teams (both Men’s and Women’s First and Second teams as well as National League teams) enjoyed a rewarding season. Both the Men’s and Women’s First student teams finished top of the Midlands Conference 1A in the BUCS league, which saw both teams travel up to Sheffield to compete in the BUCS finals tournament. The Women finished in an impressive fifth place, and the Men came home after gaining seventh position. The Women’s First Team also qualified for the EVA Student Cup Finals in Norwich, where they battled their way to finish in fourth position.

The Men’s Second Team finished in third position of the Midlands Conference 2A, as did the Women.

On February 28th Oxford hosted the Varsity www.sport.ox.ac.uk

Match, where all four teams competed against the Cambridge sides in what would eventually turn out to be a draw, with Oxford being the victors of the Women’s First and Men’s Second team matches, and Cambridge winning the Women’s Second and Men’s First team matches. In May the Club alumni were invited back to Oxford to challenge the current student teams in the annual Alumni Match. With alumni coming from as far as the States, the matches were an entertaining display of competitive friendships! The Men’s Alumni team proved that ‘retired’ players can still have it, when they beat the current student team in what was a hard-fought and very high-level match. The National league teams also ended their seasons on a high note when both were promoted from Division 3 to Division 2, which will mean more challenging matches in the season ahead.

The Cuppers competition was held in Hinksey Park alongside a Town vs. Gownstyle tournament in which some teams came from Reading and London to compete. Not content with grass, 16 Club members made their way to Bournemouth to enter the EVA Beach Student Cup at the end of Trinity. OUVC is also continuing to participate in Outreach activities to teach volleyball in Oxford schools where otherwise it may not be part of the P.E. curriculum.

WALKING The academic year 2009-10 has been another busy and successful year for our Club. The OU Walking Club’s aims are the support, development, improvement and promotion of friendship between its members by means of organizing walks around Oxford and elsewhere, and social meetings. In total we had 14 weekend trips this year and four day trips. In Trinity term we organized two special trips: wild camping in the Lake District and navigation training in the Brecon Beacons.

WATER POLO This year has been one of the most exciting and successful years for OUWPC. At the start of the year we took on some fantastic Men’s players, all representing their respective countries at Junior International level: Byron de Preez from Zimbabwe, Andrei Seceusu from Romania and Sam George from New Zealand. The Women have also done fantastically this year, as they had to rebuild their team after losing some players.

The Men’s season, valiantly led by Fritz von Guionneau, was their most successful in the Club’s recent history. Michaelmas started strongly, and they competed in the U-Polo and BUCS leagues. In February the Varsity was toughly contended, but the Men

managed to gain a well-deserved 6-4 victory, especially after they won the previous week against Cambridge with a more convincing score line. After topping the BUCS league, they progressed through to the semi-finals.

Again they topped the qualifying group, beating last year’s finalists Manchester Met and securing their place in Sheffield for the finals as one of only six Oxford University teams to reach this level, with an unbeaten record against another university team in the season. Unfortunately they were out-muscled by some strong teams, two of them based in Manchester where the GB set-up is. They were placed fourth overall, and although disappointing not to have done better, it is important to remember that this year’s team is competing on a level with teams with current senior internationals.

The Women’s Team lost narrowly to Cambridge by one goal, with many chances arising in the last few minutes of the game when the result was tied, making it one of the best and most nail-biting events of the day. Although narrowly missing out on the BUCS semis, they did top the U-Polo Midland Women’s League, allowing them to progress for the first time to the finals in Cardiff.

This year was the first time a Men’s Second Team has been competitively entered. In their inaugural season, they were placed fourth in the U-Polo Midland Second Division. This team is expected to do even better next year.

Cuppers in Trinity Term 2009 was the largest event so far, with more Colleges and more people competing than ever before. It was a

I 37

very successful tournament, held over two weekends that culminated in a close final between Balliol and Wadham, with Balliol narrowly scraping victory.

WINDSURFING Oxford University Windsurf Club has been serving its members since 1983, accommodating beginners, intermediates, club racers, and national-level competitors.

Our activities in 2009-10 have included Student Windsurfing Association events.

This year, we went to three weekend events including the Student Windsurf Festival, consisting of racing, training and beginner lessons.

This year we successfully defended our Varsity Trophy. Our team won over the course of seven races, with individual positions of first, third and fourth. We made a trip to El Tur in Egypt, with over 20 students from Oxford and Cambridge travelling to enjoy the fantastic conditions. We also benefited from free sailing at Farmoor Reservoir on windy days, allowing us to practice manoeuvres and tricks.

YACHT The Club sent teams to a series of events including the London Universities’ Invitational (the Six Pack), The Bristol Invitational (the Brew) and the Reading Invitational. The Club, enabled by an additional flight of Fireflys kindly provided by the Old Members, also played host to the UK Youth and Junior RYA National Team Racing Championships. This was an enjoyable and successful event that provided a vital opportunity for the UK’s top young sailors to make the transition into Team Racing. OUYC once again ran the Oxford Magnum, which maintained its reputation as one of the top three annual national events, with GBR 1, from West Kirby Sailing Club, winning the event overall.

Hilary term began with 12 members of the Club making the cut for the UK RYA Team Racing Development Squad, and a win at the Oxford Invitational Trophy. OUYC continued to send teams to the Wessex Winter Warmer and the Cambridge Cup. The Mixed First and Second Teams also made it through regional qualifications to the BUCS Finals. Unfortunately luck was on neither team’s side and light winds, which halved the potential three days of

competition, deprived both of the opportunity to make amends for careless mistakes made in the first couple of races on the first day.

Through Trinity, the Club ran a popular social sailing program which gives the chance for University members who do not compete for a team on a regular basis to make use of the Club’s facilities. Cuppers held during Eighth Week saw an experienced combined team of Univ and Teddy Hall dominate the field. Somerville and Magdalen, which both included several nonsquad members, performed commendably and finished second and third respectively.

As with BUCS, OUYC travelled to the Royal Lymington Yacht Club for Varsity with high expectation. A closely contested first day finished with Mixed teams tied at two apiece, although a fantastic opportunity was missed in the final race of the day to take a 3–1 lead. The Women’s Team started in comprehensive fashion, finishing 3–0 up on the Friday evening. Whilst the Women continued their dominance to claim the seven race series 4–0 on the second day, the Mixed Team was unable to complete the double, and ended up losing two closely fought races first thing in the morning to what has to be said was an efficient team of Tabs.

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

38 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

VARSITY RESULTS 2009/10

CLUB

VENUE

Archery Oxford, Iffley Road Athletics (M) Oxford, Iffley Road Athletics (W) Oxford, Iffley Road Aussie Rules Badminton (M) Oxford, Iffley Road Badminton (W) Oxford, Iffley Road Basketball (M) Oxford, Iffley Road Basketball (W) Oxford, Iffley Road Boat (M) River Thames Boat (W) Henley Boxing Oxford Town Hall Canoe and Kayak (M) Canoe and Kayak (W) Cricket (M) 4 Day Oxford University Parks Cricket (M) 1 Day Lord’s Cricket (W) 1 Day Lord’s (Nursery Ground) Croquet Cross Country (M) Cross Country (W) Cycling (M) Cycling (W) Dancesport Eton Fives Fencing (M) Fencing (W) Football (M) Cambridge, Abbey Stadium Football (W) Oxford, Iffley Road Gaelic Football (M) Gaelic Football (W) Gliding Golf (M) Golf (W) Gymnastics (M) Gymnastics (W) Hockey (M) Southgate Hockey (W) Southgate Ice Hockey (M) Oxford Ice Hockey (W) Oxford Jitsu Oxford, Iffley Road Judo (M) Judo (W) Karate (M) Oxford, Iffley Road Karate (W) Oxford, Iffley Road Kendo Oxford, Iffley Road Kickboxing (M) Korfball Oxford, Iffley Road Lacrosse (M) Oxford Lacrosse (W) Oxford Lacrosse (MIXED) Oxford Lawn Tennis (M) Lawn Tennis (W) Lifesaving Oxford, Rosenblatt Pool Lightweight (M) Henley Lightweight (W) Henley

RESULT SCORE

Cambridge Cambridge 102.5 - 107.5 Cambridge 89 - 112 Oxford 51 - 7 Oxford 14 - 1 Cambridge 3 - 12 Oxford 117 - 64 Oxford 62 - 37 Cambridge 1 1/3 Lengths Oxford 4 Lengths Cambridge 4–5 Oxford 3 - 1 Oxford 3 - 1 Oxford An innings and 28 Runs Cambridge 5 Wickets Cambridge 108 Runs Oxford Oxford 28 - 52 (Lowest score wins) Oxford 17 - 21 (Lowest score wins) Oxford Cambridge Oxford Cambridge 2 - 1 Oxford Cambridge Oxford 5 - 3 (Won on penalties) Cambridge 0 - 1 Oxford Cambridge Oxford Oxford 9–6 Cambridge 3.5 - 5.5 Cambridge 321.200 - 339.000 Oxford 207.900 - 192.600 Oxford 3 - 1 Oxford 3 - 2 Oxford 7 - 6 (Overtime) Oxford 5 - 4 Oxford Oxford 3 - 0 (Re-fight after draw) Oxford 4–1 Cambridge 34 - 94 Cambridge 16 - 86 Oxford 2–1 Cambridge 1–4 Cambridge 7 – 18 Cambridge 6–8 Cambridge 2–5 Oxford 14 – 5 Cambridge 13 - 8 Cambridge 17 - 3 Cambridge Cambridge 2 Feet Oxford 2 3/4 Lenghts

I 39

VARSITY RESULTS 2009/10

CLUB

VENUE

Modern Pentathlon (M) Modern Pentathlon (W) Motor Drivers Mountaineering Netball Oxford, Iffley Road Orienteering (M) Orienteering (W) Pistol (M) Oxford, Iffley Road Pistol (W) Oxford, Iffley Road Polo Pool (M) Pool (W) Powerlifting Rackets Real Tennis (M) Lord’s Real Tennis (W) Lord’s Riding Rifle Small Bore (M) Rifle Small Bore (W) Rugby Fives Rugby League Twickenham (The Stoop) Rugby Union (M) Twickenham Rugby Union (W) Ski and Snowboard (M) Tignes (France) Ski and Snowboard (W) Tignes (France) Squash Racquets (M) Oxford, Iffley Road Squash Racquets (W) Oxford, Iffley Road Swimming (M) Oxford, Rosenblatt Pool Swimming (W) Oxford, Rosenblatt Pool Table Tennis (M) Oxford, Iffley Road Table Tennis (W) Oxford, Iffley Road TaeKwon-Do (M) Oxford, Iffley Road TaeKwon-Do (W) Oxford, Iffley Road Trampolining Triathlon (M) Triathlon (W) Ultimate Frisbee (M) Ultimate Frisbee (W) Volleyball (M) Oxford, Iffley Road Volleyball (W) Oxford, Iffley Road Waterpolo (M) Oxford, Rosenblatt Pool Waterpolo (W) Oxford, Rosenblatt Pool Windsurfing Yacht (M) Yacht (W)

RESULT SCORE

Oxford Cambridge Cambridge 50 - 94 Cambridge Oxford 44 - 35 Oxford 277:09 - 287:49 Oxford 195:49 - 228:49 Oxford 2139 - 2041 Cambridge 1852 - 1918 Oxford 5-4 Oxford 49 - 41 Oxford 32 - 22 Oxford 1203.1 - 995.5 Oxford Oxford 4–2 Cambridge 0–6 Cambridge Cambridge 1485 - 1511 Cambridge 716 - 729 Oxford 300 - 38 Oxford 32 - 22 Cambridge 27 - 31 Cambridge 0 - 25 Cambridge Oxford Cambridge 4 - 1 Oxford 3 - 2 Oxford 58 - 32 Cambridge 39 - 51 Cambridge Oxford Oxford Oxford Cambridge 143.5 - 159.5 Cambridge Cambridge Oxford 13 - 8 Cambridge Cambridge 1–3 Oxford 3-0 Oxford 6–4 Cambridge 5–6 Oxford Cambridge 2 - 4 Oxford 4 - 0

OVERALL STANDINGS

OXFORD 53

CONGRATULATIONS!

CAMBRIDGE 46

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

Photo by John Gaisford

40 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

UNIV SHATTER KEBLE’S DOUBLE BID!

NEW AND BALLIOL TRIUMPH IN THE BOWL AND PLATE FINALS

An inspired performance by the University College team saw them comfortably defeat league winners and reigning Cuppers champions Keble by 56 points to 15 at a sunny Iffley Road on Tuesday evening, in front of a vocal 500-strong crowd.

Univ opened the scoring after just six minutes, when left wing Luke Fenwick finished off a move following a fine midfield break from centre Peter Knipe. Second row Nick Green - enjoying a fine night with the boot, 16 points in total - added the conversion.

Keble reduced the deficit on 12 minutes with a penalty from fly half Charles King, but Univ hit back almost immediately with an unconverted try from full back Hugo Phillips. Fenwick added a second try on the half-hour mark, when he followed up a kick ahead to beat the defence to the bouncing ball; Green was unable to convert from wide out, but added two penalties before half-time to make the score at the break 20 points to 3 in favour of Univ.

Tries in the second half came at regular intervals for the determined Univ side, as Keble www.sport.ox.ac.uk

seemed unable to get any ‘go’ forward despite the efforts of back-row forward Dan Guinness, who worked tirelessly all game in the face of the onslaught! Prop Gov Oliver and scrum half Nick Haydon scored tries from close range, both of which Green converted, before replacement Sam George ran in from 25 metres after a mixup in the Keble midfield; again Green converted.

Phillips added his second to cap off a fine performance at full back, Green converting, and centre Tom Yusef completed the scoring for Univ with a popular score in the corner.

Keble, renowned for their spirit, never gave up and were rewarded with two late tries from replacement wing John Harkness, converted from the touchline by King. With the last play of the match in his final game for Keble, No 8 ‘Big’ Bob Pittam raced in from 30 metres to score in the corner and round off the evening.

In the Bowl final a Ross Swanson-inspired New College defeated CCC/Somerville 27 points to 7. Following his exploits in the Varsity Rugby League Match, fly half Swanson contributed 17 points to New’s total in the form of 2 tries, 2 conversions and 1 drop goal to round off

a successful week. Replacement Ian Osband also added a brace of tries to complete New College’s scoring, while centre Sean Morris scored CCC/Somerville’s try and conversion.

In an exciting Plate Final, Balliol overcame Exeter by 26 points to 11. Exeter started strongly but only managed to post 3 points, with a penalty from scrum half Tom Hatfield. In their first visit to the Exeter 22, Balliol scored a try from No 8 Ben Fleet, converted by fly half Chris Record. Exeter replied with a second Hatfield penalty before half-time, to make the score at the break 7 - 6 in favour of Balliol. With the Blues try-scoring machine Will Browne entering the fray at half-time for Balliol, the game swung their way with two tries from centre Larry Knight, both converted by Record within 15 minutes of the restart. With 10 minutes to go Exeter rallied and were rewarded with a try from their left wing ‘Smokin’ Joe Hayley; not to be outdone, Browne sealed Balliol’s victory with a signature solo effort from 50 metres, to notch his 18th try in 18 appearances this season! ■ Tim Stevens

rugby is UGLY

I 41

Over 100 years in the making with unrivalled innovation, durability and excellence make Canterbury’s Uglies collection a true vision of beauty Uglies Collection - Worn by Bryan Habana

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

www.canterbury.com

42 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010

IMPORTANT DATES 2010-11 Rugby Union Varsity Match

The Boat Race

Fencing Varsity Match

Women’s and Lightweights’ Boat Races

Squash Varsity Match

Athletics Varsity Match

Real Tennis Varsity

Cricket Varsity Match, Twenty20

Football Varsity Match

Cricket Varsity Match, 1st Class 4 Day

Rugby League Varsity Match

Cricket Varsity Match, 1 Day

Judo Varsity

College Rowing

Thursday 9th December 2010, Twickenham (KO 2pm)

Saturday 12th February 2011, Cambridge

Saturday 19th February 2011, RAC London (1.30pm start)

Friday 25th- Saturday 26th February 2011, Lord’s Cricket Ground, London

March 2011, London

Thursday 3rd March 2011, The Stoop, Twickenham

Saturday 5th March 2011

Women’s Rugby Union Varsity Match Saturday 5th March 2011, Cambridge

Saturday 26th March 2011, River Thames (5pm)

Sunday 27th March 2011, Henley (2pm start)

Saturday 21st May 2011, Cambridge

June 2011, Cambridge

July 2011, Cambridge

July 2011, Lord’s Cricket Ground, London

Torpids Regatta Wednesday 2nd – Saturday 5th March 2011 Summer Eights Wednesday 1st – Saturday 4th June 2011

Hockey Varsity Match

Tuesday 8th March 2011, Southgate

BUCS Championships

Wednesday 16th – Sunday 20th March 2011, Sheffield

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

COME AND SUPPORT OUR BLUES TO ANOTHER VARSITY VICTORY!