Sports Review 2012

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SPORTS REVIEW 2012

ONE TRUE BLUE SUMMER CAMPS OUR CHAMPION COACHES

CLUB SEASON ROUND-UP BUCS SEASON REPORT CUPPERS RESULTS

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

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A huge thank you to all of the Annual Review contributors, and to Vincent’s Club and the Development Office for their continuous support!

The Cycling Criterium Varsity 2012, which took place on St Giles, Oxford Credit: Helen Hanstock

Matt Henderson

Following the truly memorable Olympic Year, I am extremely proud to present the Annual Review of Sport 2012.

Olympic fever hit Oxford with force this year – beginning with the Torch Relay around the Roger Bannister track at Iffley Road, with many of Oxford’s Olympic and Paralympic alumni in attendance. As well as our own Oxonian contenders, we also played host to the Chilean athletics squad and the New Zealand triathlon team for their pre-Games preparation training.

Once the Games began, along with Team GB’s successes, Oxford had plenty to be proud of – with incredible performances by both current students and alumni. Our medal haul put us third in Podium’s UK universities Olympic medal table! Turn to page 4 to find out more.

For the rest of us, whose pinnacle of the sporting season is the Varsity Match, there has also been plenty to celebrate. This year we won overall yet again, beating Cambridge 54–47. The full results are on page 16. Several teams won by record margins, showing that we are by no means dropping the pace! The 2012/13 Varsity Campaign has already begun, and on the back cover are some of the biggest upcoming fixtures for you to note.

Off the playing field, Oxford Sport is continuing to progress too.

This year saw the continuation of last year’s inaugural Vincent’s and Atalanta’s Summer Camps. Both societies sent members to a local primary school with the aim of encouraging them to become enthused about sport, and learn more about how to balance this with working hard academically. The camps were a great success, and you can find out more about them on page 12. This year we have also launched an exciting new partnership with our new Official Kit Sponsor, Nike. With them, we are working on encapsulating what it means to be Dark Blue and turning it into top-quality sportswear for all of our clubs, alumni and supporters! One of our Nike Ambassadors describes the developments on page 6.

I hope that you enjoy this Annual Review and are proud of all that Oxford has achieved this year. With over 450 BUCS matches and over 100 Varsity Competitions this season, I am confident that this year will be even better than the last!

Hannah McKay Sports Federation President 2012–13

CONTENTS 03 NEWS IN BRIEF 04 OLYMPIC NEWS IN BRIEF 06 ONE TRUE BLUE

Find out about Oxford Sport’s exciting new kit partnership with Nike

09 OUR CHAMPION COACHES

A celebration of the achievements of some of our greatest coaches

12 VINCENT’S AND ATALANTA’S SUMMER CAMPS

Looking back on the societies’ fantastic outreach work last summer

14 BUCS REPORT 16 VARSITY RESULTS 18 CUPPERS RESULTS 19 CLUB REPORTS 47 GIVE BACK TO OXFORD SPORT 50 IMPORTANT DATES 2012-13

Funded by: Oxford University Sports Federation Oxford Thinking Campaign Vincent’s Club Atalanta’s Society Cover photo: Caspar Eliot running in the 4x400 team at the BUCS Visa Outdoor Athletics Championships at the Olympic Stadium.

Credit: Gareth Jones Editor: Hannah McKay, Oxford University Sports Federation President 2012-13 Contributions: Kelly Weaver, Andy John, Simon Griffin, James Taylor, MarcusAlexander Neil, Tara Livesey, Linda Loder Design: Andrew Harvey www.harveygraphic.co.uk Printing: Lynx DPM Ltd www.lynxdpm.com

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NEWS IN BRIEF This year, the tenth Oxford University Annual Sports Awards were bigger and better than ever, with over 200 of our top sportspeople in attendance on Friday 9th November. The Awards were held in a marquee in the grounds of OURFC, and the presentation followed a champagne reception and three-course dinner.

The evening was kindly supported by Jaguar Land Rover, BP, Nike, Kitlocker, imotiva, Walter’s and Atalanta’s. Oxford University Sport had plenty of successes to celebrate this year and deciding on the winners was a difficult affair, with some very strong nominees in the mix.

Matt Henderson

Oxford University Annual Sports Awards

Sportswoman of the Year, Hellie Kellett-Clarke (Lacrosse)

The award winners were as follows: BP Sportswoman of the Year Helena Kellett-Clarke, Lacrosse Walter’s Sportsman of the Year Constantine Louloudis, Rowing

Sports Federation President 2011-12, Helen Hanstock, with Judo President Max Denning

The Cuppers Trophy St. Edmund Hall imotiva Coach of the Year Tomek Walicki, Fencing/Modern Pentathlon Atalanta’s Teammate of the Year Katherine Mackay, Hockey Jaguar Land Rover Team Performance of the Year – Swimming BP Club of the Year – Judo

Sport Scholars for 2012/13 Selected

Coach of the Year, Tomek Walicki and some of his fencers

This year we will again be supporting four of our top athletes in their sporting endeavours, providing financial assistance to help them further their improvement. Each Sport Scholar receives a £500 bursary to assist with training and competition expenses, in addition to complimentary membership to the PULSE gym, Powerlifting gym and Rosenblatt Pool at Iffley Road.

Eliza Blackwell Scholar – Peter Hodkinson, Orienteering Peter has won numerous domestic U20 titles and is a two-time Varsity Match winner, representing GB at several World and European Junior Championships. He is currently seventh in the UK Senior rankings and competed at the World University Championships over the summer.

Vincent’s Scholar – Tom Frith, Cross Country Tom is a Cross Country Blue and came sixth at the UK National Cross Country U20 Championships.

He was also selected to represent England at the Home Countries International, winning bronze.

BP Scholar: Max Denning, Judo/Ski and Snowboard Max has a Full Blue in Judo and a Half Blue in Skiing. He is a Third Dan Black Belt and is currently ranked just outside the top eight Judo competitors in the UK –his aim is to break through in the coming year. He won bronze at BUCS 2012.

BP Scholar: Matt Henderson, Fencing Matt is a Full Blue and is in the Men’s GB Senior Squad for the épée event. He won a bronze medal at the UK championships and is heading to the World Cup in 2013.

Oxford University Sport Launches a New Website Our old website (http://www.sport.ox.ac.uk) was long overdue an overhaul! Simon Griffin, Sports Federation administrator, outlines the project.

Recently you may have seen the new branding for the sports centre to the public. We have also been working in conjunction with a developer to build a brand new website worthy of the sporting offering at the University.

The old web site was around ten years old, in which time it had grown visually outdated and bloated with information. We seeked to modernise our image to the world, but also showcase our rich history through a new site.

In recent years social media has really taken off and we have kept up, but unfortunately our website doesn’t do this justice. Now our Facebook (http:// www.facebook.com/oxfordunisport), Twitter (http:// www.twitter.com/oxfordunisport) and YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/oxfordunisport) are all integrated into our new website. www.sport.ox.ac.uk

Our new clubs and colleges listings display much more information about all our sport clubs and what sports are on offer at colleges. We think this will be useful for prospective students in particular.

Over the past year the Campaign for Sport has really started to move. The sports centre redevelopment plans have been approved and fundraising for clubs and the centre itself has gathered pace, so we really need to showcase the plans which we have aimed to achieve.

The website should be a hub for sport here at the university signposting users to any sporting information effectively. Oxford is a complicated place and to make the sport offering as simple as possible to digest is important! We have achieved a simple, clean design and navigation which is visually appealing and will ultimately aid the admissions process by making sure prospective

students can find answers to any questions they may have.

We hope that you like the new site and if you have any feedback or content to submit do not hesitate to contact us. We are pleased to work with Cheltenham Creative (http://www. creativenetwork. co.uk) in our redesign.

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The Boat Race

OLMPIC NEWS IN BRIEF Oxford University Sport was privileged to be chosen as the preGames training base for two groups of Olympic athletes. Several members of the Chilean athletics team, including veteran marathon runner Erika Olivera, used the track and surrounding area to prepare for competition, and were looked after by physiotherapist Jon  The NZ triathletes, L-R: Kate McIlroy, Nicky Pringle from Peak Sporting Fitness.

Samuels, Andrea Hewitt, Ryan Sissans, Kris Gemmell The New Zealand triathlon team also opted to make use of our LOCOG- (absent: Bevan Docherty) approved track, pool and nearby cycling routes in their preparation for London 2012.

 Members of the Chilean athletics team with the Olympic Torch

Simon Griffin

Olympians Prepare for the Games at Iffley Road

Constantine Louloudis, Olympic Bronze Medallist Current student and OUBC member Constantine Louloudis won a bronze medal at his first Olympics aged just 20. Constantine rowed for OUBC in the 2011 Boat Race, and then took a year out of his studies at Trinity College to focus on his campaign to make the Team GB men’s eight.

Constantine won gold in the men’s pair at the World Rowing Under-23 Championships in 2011, following which he was invited to make the step up to the senior squad. Having struggled with a back injury in the lead-up to selection, Constantine was able to prove his fitness and was selected to stroke the Team GB crew at London 2012. In a nail-biting final the boat took the bronze medal. Constantine has now returned to Oxford and is hoping to row with OUBC in the 2013 Boat Race.

Jon Roycroft, Director of Sport at Oxford University, said: ‘We are proud to cater for student athletes, staff and Oxford residents and hope that the interest surrounding the Olympics will help our fundraising efforts as we seek to expand our provision of space for indoor sports and improve the grandstand at Iffley Road.’

Olympic Torch Visits Oxford

John Cairns/University of Oxford images

The Olympic Torch came to Oxford on its journey around the country and arrived at Iffley Road early in the morning of July 10th. Hundreds of general public ballot winners and several Oxonian athletes past and present were in attendance, including 2004 Modern Pentathlon champion Steph Cook and aspiring Paralympian Nikki Emerson. The torch was lit by Sir Roger Bannister, after whom the University running track is named following his record-breaking four minute mile, which took place there in 1954. Sir Roger carried the torch to the finish line where he passed it on to current student Nicola Byrom. Nicola was nominated as a torch bearer in recognition of her volunteering and fundraising for a number of projects supporting young people who suffer from eating disorders.

Roger Bannister and Nicola Byrom exchange the Olympic Torch

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Davis Tarwater brings his gold medal to the Rosenblatt Pool

Numerous Oxonians qualified and were selected for London 2012. We are incredibly proud of their achievements!

Davis Tarwater, Olympic Gold Medallist Davis Tarwater, a member of the USA’s gold medal-winning 4x200m swim relay team, came to Oxford after the Olympics to revisit the Rosenblatt Pool, St. Antony’s College, and meet with old teammates.

He spoke graciously of his time at Oxford [video: http://bit.ly/tarwater], his time with the Oxford University Swimming Club and how his experiences have since shaped his swimming career.

Charlie Cole (Kellogg College, 2007) was in the Team USA men’s rowing four crew Dan Fox (St Edmund Hall, 2001) was in the Team GB men’s hockey side Scott Fransden (St Edmund Hall, 2003) was part of Canada rowing men’s coxless pair

‘I’ve been a better student when I’ve been an athlete, and I’ve been a better athlete when I was a student. I think that Oxford did more to open up a side of my personhood than anything else in my life. To see people focussing on being the best that they could be, in whatever field they were gifted in, gave me such confidence that I could return to the sport in 2010 and make a run at an Olympic team.’

Sjoerd Hamburger (Oriel College, 2010) who was OUBC President in 2010 rowed in the Netherlands men’s eight crew Constantine Louloudis (Trinity College, 2010) was the stroke for Team GB men’s eight, where he won bronze Pete Reed (Oriel College, 2004) and Andy Triggs-Hodge (St. Catherine’s College, 2004), who first rowed together in Oxford’s victorious Blue Boat in the 2005 Boat Race, won gold with Team GB rowing men’s four

Andy Triggs-Hodge, Olympic Gold Medallist OUBC alumnus and 2005 Boat Race winner Andy Triggs-Hodge won his second Olympic gold medal at the London Games, rowing in the men’s four alongside fellow Blue Pete Reed. He spoke to the University [video: http://bit.ly/triggs-hodge.html] about his experiences at the Games and at Oxford.

‘My time at Oxford showed me what could be achieved in life if you have the right support and the right attitude. The message was exactly the same between my course here, and the rowing team. While I was a rower previously, the sport had never really captured my imagination.

It was my year at Oxford that opened up a whole new appreciation for life and living it.’

Tom Solesbury (University College, 2008) was selected for Team GB rowing men’s quadruple scull, having rowed to Boat Race victory in 2009

Victoria Dare

Davis Tarwater (St. Antony’s College, 2009) swam in the heats for the US 4x200m relay team who went on to win gold Sophie Troiano (Christ Church, 2005), former Captain and President of Oxford University Fencing Club, fenced for Team GB Mara Yamauchi (St. Anne’s, 1992) competed in the marathon for Team GB

Visit http://www.ox.ac.uk/subsite/ olympics/olympics/index.html or http:// www.youtube.com/oxfordunisport to access all of our Olympic news and coverage!

Andy Triggs-Hodge stroking the OUBC Blue Boat at Eights Week 2005 www.sport.ox.ac.uk

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ONE TRUE BLUE Oxford Sport has just launched its new kit partnership with Nike, supplying Oxford and beyond with brand new sportswear. Nike Brand Ambassador, James Taylor, explains the development of the deal and looks forward to the rebirth of Dark Blue.

John Cairns

In 1902, when Cecil Rhodes founded possibly the world’s most prestigious scholarship, for international students applying to Oxford University, one criterion was that all applicants would have the ‘energy to use [their] talents to the full, as exemplified by fondness for and success in sports’. His philosophy, that sporting commitment epitomises the qualities required to succeed both in academia and life in general, has driven Dark Blue sport for centuries and continues to do so today. Indeed, Oxford University plays more sports than any other university in the world, and, with around 75% of the student body playing sport at some level, from college reserves to international representation, could there be any better combination of quality and quantity?

Olympic Gold Medallist Greg Rutherford meets our Nike Student Ambassadors

John Cairns

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Trying on the new kit at the launch event ‘Success’ has had to be redefined due to the evolution of university sport in the 21st century, but the fact that Oxford has been ranked outside the top ten universities in the country only once in the past ten years is testament not only to the brilliance of individuals, but also to the strength of Blues teams. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, we have been ranked ahead of Cambridge for the last seven consecutive years, and are again this season. This year in particular several Varsity-winning margins were extended, proving that today’s Dark Blues can still challenge not only the best in the country, but also the best of years gone by. With sport at other universities now dominated by scholarships, lottery funding and part-time degrees, the fact that Dark Blues are still so competitive is immeasurably impressive.

It was this heritage, success and vision for the future which caught the attention of Directors of Sport from a number of American schools from the NCAA’s top division on their tour of the UK last year. Despite the obvious differences in funding and coverage of university sport, they came to the conclusion that the pride in being a Dark Blue, and the self-discipline and dedication required to perform so highly amid such intense academic pressure, was not too dissimilar from the spirit of college athletics in the USA. This notion was shared by Nike who, interested in expanding into the UK university market, saw incredible potential in Oxford Sport.

After initial meetings with Nike and Kitlocker, chosen as the Official Kit Sponsor and Supplier respectively, it was obvious that they shared the vision of the Sports Federation to redefine

Oxford University Sport as not only a brand, but a community of like-minded athletes all striving towards the same goal: beating Cambridge. Hopefully the backing of such successful partners will dissolve any possible feelings of fragmentation within Oxford University Sport, caused by the autonomy of individually sponsored, student-run clubs, and create a greater sense of unity and drive through a shared pride of wearing Dark Blue.

In our meetings with Nike during their visit to Oxford before the start of Michaelmas, it was quickly apparent that this shared pride and identity was an incredibly strong and unifying feeling. Indeed, many athletes spoke of their respective sports clubs being the primary institution with which they associated their time at Oxford. The brand ambassadors, athletes chosen from different clubs and colleges to help represent the partnership and provide a personal link between sports clubs and Nike, all told of the wonderful, lasting memories they had from Blues sport, with Varsity Matches being the unanimous highlight of their Oxford careers. Also apparent was the unspoken respect for fellow Blues players, regardless of background, college, or sport, and the status of the Blues blazer as an unmistakeable symbol of hard work, dedication and achievement. It was this passion and commitment driving sport at Oxford which so excited Nike and Kitlocker; by providing bespoke match kit and teamwear for all Oxford sports clubs they hope to spread the pride that so clearly comes from lining up in Dark Blue, whether it be on the pitch at Iffley or at the bar in Vincent’s Club.

We hope that, in much the same way as thousands turn out every year to support

OURFC at Twickenham, or line the Thames to watch the Boat Race, the new kit deal can engender increased unity and cohesion within Oxford University Sport. As Chris Donachie, the Team Sales Manager for Nike, put it, ‘We’re trying to bring everyone together as one, to make that one a stronger and more successful unit’. With such high-quality kit in which to perform, athletes can feel good, secure in the knowledge that they look great, and hopefully go on to replicate the style and class of their stash on the pitch. Moreover, the introduction of supporters’ and alumni kit, should compound this success and sense of a real Dark Blue community, by giving clubs a way of encouraging even more people to watch them play and provide that ‘extra man’.

Every sale of alumni kit will financially benefit our sports clubs, allowing old members, friends and family to give back to Oxford Sport and support our student athletes.

This exciting new partnership with Nike and Kitlocker is the beginning of a long-standing relationship which has the potential to raise the profile of Oxford University Sport to a whole new level, ensuring that we not only continue to be known around the world as one of the world’s leading academic institutions, but also recapture the prestige that Cecil Rhodes found so evident over a hundred years ago, in becoming known as a university of sporting excellence Proposed Grandstand too.

Complex www.sport.ox.ac.uk

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Introducing Nike's Oxford University Alumni Range

ousportshop.com #givingback* *alumni sales on ousportshop.com contribute to the provision of sports kit for today's Oxford Athletes

worldwide shipping

www.ousportshop.com

Tomek looks on at the 2011 Varsity Match I 9

Tomek Walicki Fencing Tomek Walicki came to the UK from Poland in August 1984. Following stints at Salle Paul Fencing Club, Brentwood School and Wellington School, he came to the Oxford University Fencing Club in 1988.

He has come up to Oxford three days a week to provide high-quality individual lessons and group sessions. All fencers have gained a huge amount from his expert technical and tactical advice. In addition to his Oxford work, he became a national and Olympic coach for British Fencing which included trips to the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, the Barcelona Games four years later and several World Championships. In 2012, the tradition continued as Sophie Troiano, Oxford alumna and a pupil of Tomek’s, represented Great Britain at the London Games.

Everyone benefits from his experience, his support for individuals, both in their fencing and in their wider lives, and, above all, his friendship, both on and off the piste. Members were delighted that Tomek’s support for the Club was recognised when he won Coach of the Year 2012 at the Oxford University Annual Sports Awards. At the dinner, Tomek worked out that he had spent almost two whole years of the past twenty-five in the Cricket Schools. It would undeniably be a poorer place without him.

Behind every great team is a great coach. Following numerous impressive nominations for the 2011/12 Coach of the Year, we decided to recognise some of our greatest unsung heroes’ commitment and achievements in Oxford sport.

OUR CHAMPION COACHES www.sport.ox.ac.uk

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OUR CHAMPION COACHES Dave Mace and Des Brackett Boxing Dave and Des have been coaching together at OUABC for nine years.

When they first started at the Club there were 10–15 boxers and the success they have had has seen that number grow to 80. They take responsibility for coaching boxers at all levels, from complete novices to experienced boxers who have competed in multiple bouts.

They introduced women’s boxing to the Club and since then have taken it from strength to strength. Last year women’s boxing was awarded Full Blue status, bringing it to the same level as men’s.

During their time here, Dave and Des have won five out of nine Varsity Matches including the last two, and have closed the overall score to 50–51 in favour of the light blues going into the 115th Varsity Match this year.

During their tenure, boxers of both sexes from OUABC have won numerous BUCS titles and several women have gone on to win national titles.

Raj and Ros Rout Lacrosse

Raj and Ros in action

Raj played lacrosse at Cambridge for five years, winning a Half Blue. He then moved over to Oxford, earning another Half Blue as well as the BUCS title.

He also represented Ireland from 2011–12 and played for Reading Wildcats and the South of England Team.

He has coached at an equally high level, working with Oxford University women’s teams since 2005, nurturing some incredible players during his time including three England Lacrosse players, one Welsh and one Scottish representative. He is also heavily involved in the Wales Lacrosse set-up. In the past he has coached the Wales B Team and in 2011 the Wales U19 Women’s World Championship Team. He currently coaches the Wales Senior Women’s team. Raj was awarded the Oxford University Coach of the Year Award in 2011 for his long-standing commitment and outstanding achievements with the Lacrosse Club, who have reached the BUCS semi-finals consistently over the past few years.

Raj has been coaching alongside his partner Ros for many years, having met her at Cambridge University where she also earned a Full Blue in lacrosse. Ros played for Wales Junior Squads and has been part of the Senior Women’s team since 1999; she is the current captain and was also selected for the All-Europe team in 2011. Ros has been coaching at Oxford since 2009 where she provides unwavering support to Raj and to the many women who pass through the Club.

Aside from his technical coaching proficiency, Raj's dedication to the team is inspiring. A few years ago he assistant-coached the team, unpaid, just for the love of the game, and now accepts the most nominal of wages in return for giving up so much of the precious free time he has away from his commitments as a full-time orthopaedic surgeon at the JR and academic clinical fellow. Raj and Ros often show up after night shifts, exhausted, but still happy to give up their remaining energy to us – they go above and beyond to arrange their schedules around our practices, matches and pre-season and have never once been known to cancel or be on less than great form. As a couple they could not be more selfless with their time.

Des and Dave celebrate after victory at the 2011 Varsity Match

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Dan Garbutt Rugby League Dan has now coached at the Club for ten years, and over that period he has made an immense contribution. Much of OURLFC’s success on the pitch in recent years can be attributed to the top-class coaching that Dan provides, especially considering how few members have played Rugby League prior to coming to Oxford. Dan’s positive attitude when coaching, and the rapport he has with players, were key this year in creating an incredibly tight-knit squad. A number of players have commented on how Dan was a key factor in persuading them to join the Club, both due to the high level of coaching they would receive, and his good-humoured personality.

In 2012 Dan coached the Blues side whom in the Varsity Match kept Cambridge off the score sheet for the first time ever, set the new highest winning margin in the match’s history, and for the first time won Oxford’s third Varsity Match in a row.

Justine Schluntz Swimming Justine trained at the University of Arizona under Frank Busch, current head of the US Olympic squad. She is a 16-time All-American and multiple NCAA champion, and 2-time American record holder, earning her the prestigious NCAA Sportswoman of the Year title in 2010.

Following coaching difficulties at the Club last summer, Justine stepped in at short notice, bringing a wealth of knowledge and energy to the Swimming Club. She is studying for a DPhil in Engineering, so this commitment was no easy decision.

Under Justine’s stewardship over this last year, OUSC has reached new heights, winning the women’s Varsity Match for the first time this millennium, and in addition to the victory in the men’s match Justine led OUSC to their greatest overall margin of victory in history. Furthermore, despite competing against all four universities linked with the British Olympic Intensive Training Centres, packed with Olympians leading up to London, they achieved their secondhighest finish ever, sixth place in the BUCS Team Division 1 final. To reach all of these achievements, 18 new Club records were set in the last season alone, showing that a higher level of swimming was achieved across all disciplines.

Justine has found the perfect balance of professionalism and camaraderie within the team, where she can be as much a friend as a coach, an important combination that few coaches ever truly achieve.

Justine after being named as 2010 NCAA Sportswoman of the Year 

Eric Brees Athletics Eric was a very good sprinter in his day, capable of 10.2 seconds for the 100 yards at his best.

He has been sprint coaching at Oxford since 1989 and has been a valued coach at Enfield and Haringey, a club renowned for its sprinters and hurdlers, for many more years.

In 2011–12 his sprinters swept away everything in sight when it came to Varsity, winning all three sprint matches at FEAR for the men and all the individual events (100m , 200m, 400m) for both men and women at Varsity (with no Oxford athlete finishing last, either) as well as three of the four relays.

Eric also regularly provided coaching for Daniel Hooker in London during the Vacation, helping Daniel’s bid for the Paralympics, and continues to coach a London-based Oxford graduate to Women's National Premier League standard in the hurdles events.

What OUAC think makes Eric special as a coach is his attention to technique. In a sport which emphasises the physical, he reminds everyone that sprinting is a skill as much as a display of raw power.

John Shaw Hockey John played hockey for England and Great Britain between 1984 and 1996; his natural ability and skill have made him an internationally renowned player, and the pinnacle of his hockey career was representing GB at the Olympic Games in Barcelona and Atlanta. Since retiring from competition, John has coached England U16 and U21 sides and runs several hockey camps in school holidays as well as coaching at Bradfield College, Southgate Hockey Club and Slough Ladies.

He has coached the women’s Blues to six Varsity wins and has been instrumental in their retention of the trophy for the last eight years. He has also led the men’s Blues to four convincing Varsity victories.

Both Blues teams play at the highest possible University level of hockey and reaching the semi-finals of the BUCS Championships has not been unheard of during John’s time here. The teams also play in the regional South leagues, and under his tutelage they may even be promoted to the National Leagues.

John is incredibly understanding about how busy Oxford life can be and this makes it so much easier to balance work and high-level hockey. He is very committed to every player in his squads and ensures that they will develop as a player during their time at Oxford. Playing hockey at Oxford is one of the highlights of any OUHC member’s University life and this must be credited to John. www.sport.ox.ac.uk

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Vincent’s Club and Atalanta’s Society share a common vision: one of the student-athlete. This vision has now been extended beyond the University and into the community, thanks to the Vincent’s and Atalanta’s Summer Camp. Vincent’s Outreach Officer Marcus-Alexander Neil, and Atalanta’s Outreach Officer Tara Livesey, told us how the Camp worked and their visions for its future.

VINCENT’S AND ATALANTA’S SUMMER CAMPS In traditional fashion, it all began with a conversation over a drink at Vincent’s; within a year the ‘pipe dream’ had become a three-day summer camp at Iffley Road with SS Mary and John Primary School (SSMJ), in a scheme backed by the Thame and Oxford School Sports Partnership.

It is hoped that in time the Vincent’s Outreach programme will include these children’s camps for 10–11 year old pupils, as well as mentoring for teenagers from resident members, with access to elite coaches and academic advice. Vincent’s is also engaged in a campaign to raise funds for financial awards to Oxford University students completing in high-level sport. Together the work of the camps, mentoring and awards make up the ‘Vincent’s Community’.

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The outreach goals of both Vincent’s and Atalanta’s marry well with the outreach goals of the University – to engage with schools, ultimately encouraging high-quality candidates of all backgrounds to apply. ‘The aim is to be at the heart of Oxfordshire sport, to champion and promote the spirit of Vincent’s and Atalanta’s, which is embodied by the Oxford student-athlete,’ explained Vincent’s Outreach Officer Marcus-Alexander Neil.

‘We want to raise the aspirations of all of the children with whom we make contact and to attract high-calibre student-athletes to Oxford University. We’re keen to fulfil our civic duty and occupy a role in the wider community, aiming to expand the programme each year,’ added Atalanta’s Outreach Officer Tara Livesey.

The Vincent’s and Atalanta’s Summer Camps at Iffley Road have been a huge success over each of the last two years, with Oxford University Sports Federation contributing the use of the facilities and members of both clubs taking on the lead roles in coaching the children.

This year’s camp had three core themes chosen by SSMJ for their students: respect and teamwork; personal challenges; and self-belief.

The first day focused on the first of these and consisted of exercising to improve hand–eye coordination as well as emphasising the importance of communication and listening. It took less than ten minutes for the children to warm to their student coaches and only five for the coaches to see the scope of what could be achieved in the next three days.

Maria Gindler

The second day championed the brave: the children were encouraged to confront their reservations and tackle them honestly. This was perhaps the most subtle message conveyed over the three days but the response was remarkably honest from children so young. The staff at SSMJ were amazed to hear the children identify their individual shortcomings, both inside and outside the classroom, in an open forum.

The third and final day had an Olympic theme; the children were split into four teams and asked to compete against each other as confident young student athletes, mindful of the lessons learned throughout the week. It was a very fitting end to a thoroughly enjoyable week.

The whole year group performed extremely well during the physical exercises but the lunch time lectures were where they excelled. The children learned a lot during these sessions which involved watching videos of sporting greats such as Matthew Pinsent, hearing from current Oxford Blues and taking part in discussions within small focus groups. The interaction between the Oxford students and the children from SSMJ was what made the camp unique and special. After day one friendships were formed, by day two, role models made, and by the end of day three outlooks were reset.

‘The Summer Camp is without a doubt one of the highlights of my experience at Oxford, and I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve accomplished this year,’ added Hannah McKay, Atalanta’s member and coach at the camp.

Vincent’s and Atalanta’s are proud to reward the pursuit of excellence with support and guidance, and aspire to enable driven young people to pursue academic and sporting dreams here in Oxford. ‘The Vincent’s and Atalanta’s Summer Camp this year was formative and magical for the children who took part,’ said Mrs Niyar Rauf, SSMJ Year 6 Head (pictured above).

‘I believe the power of sport coupled with the ethos of Vincent’s Club has tremendous social potential,’ said Dan Guinness, pictured above.

In the coming year the clubs intend to build on their relationships with local schools and widen their contribution to the community by running two summer camps and a number of day camps. They also hope to identify worthwhile external projects to support.

You can watch a short video recounting this summer’s camps at http://bit.ly/vacamp2012

Maria Gindler

Atalanta’s Society, also keen to encourage participation in sport within the local community, were the perfect partners as the camp entered its second year. The camps became a shared scheme, with members of both clubs involved in organisation and coaching.

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

14 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2011

BUCS REPORT 2012 will be remembered as the year of sport and rightly so; it’s been an exhilarating journey with abundant success for Great Britain. But what of Oxford University’s sporting accomplishments?

Our students continue to compete against those of other Universities in BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport), and through their efforts we remain ranked amongst the best Sporting Universities in Britain. At its highest level, competition remains fierce but irrespective of which league our teams compete in they all perform admirably and represent Oxford with pride.

There were literally too many successes to mention: they happen on a weekly basis, both home and away. Here, I will try to highlight a few of the most pertinent results from 2011-12. Our highest scoring sport was Tennis with its 6 teams all doing extremely well in their respective leagues and the addition of the Women’s 3rd team into BUCS helped the club score an astonishing total of 183 Points. Fencing and Hockey were joint second in total points scored both earning 151 points; and coming in third is Lacrosse with 139 points, a particularly impressive total as they achieved this with only three teams. We had four teams win their leagues last year, namely: the Men’s Football Seconds, Men’s Tennis Seconds, Men’s Volleyball, and Men’s Water polo.

We also had several teams make it through to the finals of their knockoutsWomen’s Cricket, Netball, Lacrosse and Men’s and Women’s Basketball.

We have seen great results from the BUCS individual championships with Alexandra Littaye scoring our first points in Boxing for several years by winning Gold in her weight category at the BUCS Boxing champs in what turned out to be a rather one-sided match.

The Triathlon Club has enjoyed great success in recent years earning points in the Women’s team category of the Duathlon, Sophia Saller finishing third and Lee Harper coming in 11th. Sophia

also put in an impressive performance in the Sprint Triathlon with a fifth place finish and the men’s team added to the club’s points tally. OU Cycling Club have continued to achieve with a team of male riders finishing third overall in the 50km 3-up Team Time Trial as well as the Women’s team taking bronze in the 10 mile Time Trial. Sebastian Pancratz is certainly worth a mention for his superb victory in the track 4km individual pursuit setting a new BUCS record which should stand for some years to come! We know this because the new record is 3 seconds faster than that of the team pursuit for the same distance; a truly remarkable statistic!

Our water-based clubs are continuing to do well, the Sailing Club have built on their success of 2010-11 with crews finishing second and seventh in the BUCS team racing championships. Our Men’s Canoe team performed well at the Wild Water Racing Championships finishing fourth. In Rowing Ellie Piggot won Gold in the Women’s Lightweight single sculls and Karl Hudspith won Silver in the Men’s Single sculls at the Small Boats Head competition.

We can hardly talk about 2012 without mentioning the showpiece of student sport, the Athletics Outdoor Championships which acted as the test event for the Olympic Stadium. Record numbers entered and 60,000 watched

on as records were broken and personal bests were achieved. Jessica Chen put in an exceptional performance which was rewarded with fifth place in the Women’s 5000m, with a time that took her to the top of the UK under 20 rankings in 2012, and places her 24th on the UK U20 all-time list. Another fifth place was earned by the men’s 4x100m Relay team and their time 42.63 from the heat is second fastest on the club all-time rankings. Clara Blatter won bronze in the Women’s Pole Vault final, another BUCS medal to add to her collection.

The 2011-12 season was a great year for Oxford Sport and with this season already well underway it seems that we will be enjoying more success on the national stage in a multitude of sports.

Can we make our way back to the top 10 Universities in Britain? Time will tell…

You can keep up to date with our progress by going to the OUSport website and Facebook page. ■ Andy John BUCS Administrator

Matt Henderson

I 15

CHANGE FROM 2010-11

RANKING INSTITUTION LEAGUE

POINTS

LEAGUE KNOCKOUT POINTS

INDIVIDUAL CHAMP. POINTS

TOTAL

↔ 

1

Loughborough University

1699.4

995

2659

5353.4

↑ 2

2

Durham University

1617

818

1068.5

3503.5

↓ 1

3

University of Birmingham

1424.4

502

985.5

2911.9

↑ 1

4

University of Bath

1392.6

626

795

2813.6

↓ 2

5

Leeds Met. University (Carnegie)

1395.3

755

608.3

2758.6

↔ 

6

University of Edinburgh

1144.5

404

1042

2590.5

↑ 1

7

University of Exeter

1416.6

457

564.5

2438.1

↑ 1

8

University of Manchester

1253.8

426

542

2221.8

↓ 2

9

University of Nottingham

1234.4

399

498.5

2131.9

↑ 5

10

Newcastle University

899.3

296

757.5

1952.8

↔ 

11

University of Bristol

1071.1

296

441.5

1808.6

↓ 2

12

Oxford University

1080.6

282

403.5

1766.1

↔ 

13

Cardiff Metropolitan University

841.1

354

421.7

1616.8

↔ 

14

University of Cambridge

750

256

597

1603

↑ 1

15

University of Leeds

1018

171

387.8

1576.8

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

16 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2012

VARSITY RESULTS 2011/12

CLUB

DATE

VeNUE

RESULT SCORE

Archery 12/05/2012 St John’s College, Cambridge WIN 3244-3234 Athletics (M) 19/05/2012 Iffley Road LOST 105-99

Athletics (W) 19/05/2012 Iffley Road WIN 102-97 Aussie Rules 10/03/2012 Exeter College Sports Ground, Oxford WIN 65-36 Badminton (M) 24-25/02/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford WIN 14-1 “Overall score 47-28” Badminton (W) 24-25/02/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford WIN 9-6 Basketball (M) 04/03/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford WIN 91-66 Basketball (W) 04/03/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford WIN 72 - 48 Boat (M) 07/04/2012 River Thames LOSS by 4 1/4 lengths Boat (W) 25/03/2012 Henley LOSS 1/4 length Boxing 06/03/2012 The Town Hall, Oxford WIN 6-3 Canoe and Kayak (M) LOSS 1-2 Canoe and Kayak (W) WIN 2-1 Caving WIN Clay Pigeon 03/03/2012 Ian Coley Shooting Ground, Cheltenham WIN 186/300 - 156/300 Cricket (M) 4 Day 24-27/06/2012 The Park’s, Oxford DRAW Ox 280 & 215/5d; Cam 267 Cricket (M) 1 Day 16/06/2012 Lord’s Cricket Ground, London LOSS Cam 269/9 Ox 252 ao Cricket (M) Twenty20 25/05/2012 University Parks, Oxford WIN Cam 151/5 Ox 155/4 Cricket (W) 1 Day 16/06/2012 Lord’s Cricket Ground, London LOSS Croquet 14/06/2012 Hurlingham Club, London WIN 7-2 Cross Country (M) 03/12/2011 Wimbledon Common LOSS 43-35 5-2 WIN OVERALL (Lowest Score Wins) Cross Country (W) 03/12/2011 Wimbledon Common WIN 14-25 Cycling (M) 28/04/2012 Cumnor, Oxfordshire LOSS Cycling (W) 28/04/2012 Cumnor, Oxfordshire LOSS Dancesport 12/05/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford LOSS 1884-1896 Eton Fives (M) 03/03/2012 Eton College WIN 3-0 Eton Fives (W) 03/03/2012 Eton College WIN 3-0 Fencing (M) 25/02/2012 Exam Schools, High St, Oxford LOSS 99-135 Fencing (W) 25/02/2012 Exam Schools, High St, Oxford LOSS 99-106 Football (M) 14/03/2012 Abbey Stadium, Cambridge LOSS 2-2 (Cambs pen) Football (W) 03/03/2012 Marston Sports Ground, Oxford WIN 2-1 Gaelic Football (M) WIN 5-04 to 1-05 Gaelic Games - Hurling (M) LOSS 6-7 to 1-7 Gliding LOSS 38-22 Golf (M) 23-24/03/12 Hunstanton Golf Club, Norfolk WIN 8-7 Golf (W) Hunstanton Golf Club, Norfolk WIN 7-2 Gymnastics (M) 26/02/2012 Berinsfield Gym LOSS 243.35 - 308.6 Gymnastics (W) 26/02/2012 Berinsfield Gym LOSS 155.475 - 156.75 Hockey (M) 11/03/2012 Southgate Hockey Club LOSS 3-5 Hockey (W) 11/03/2012 Southgate Hockey Club DRAW 0-0 Ice Hockey (M) 03/03/2012 Oxford Ice Rink WIN 17-1 Ice Hockey (W) 04/03/2012 Oxford Ice Rink LOSS 2-9 Jitsu LOSS Judo (M) 11/03/2012 Oxford Town Hall WIN Judo (W) 11/03/2012 Oxford Town Hall WIN Karate (M) 26/02/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford LOSS Karate (W) 26/02/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford LOSS Kendo 03/03/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford WIN Kickboxing (M) LOSS 4-5 Korfball 03/03/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford DRAW 9-9 Lacrosse (M) 25/02/2011 University Parks, Oxford WIN 12-0 Lacrosse (W) 25/02/2011 University Parks, Oxford LOSS 6-12 Lacrosse (MIXED) 25/02/2011 University Parks, Oxford WIN 9-8 Lawn Tennis (M) 2-4/07/2012 Roehampton LOSS 9-12

I 17

CLUB

DATE

VeNUE

Lawn Tennis (W) 2-4/07/2012 Roehampton Lifesaving 03/03/2012 Rosenblatt Pool & Tanner Room Lightweight (M) 25/03/2012 Henley Lightweight (W) 25/03/2012 Henley Modern Pentathlon (M) 30-31/03/12 Tonbridge School, Kent Modern Pentathlon (W) 30-31/03/12 Tonbridge School, Kent Motor Drivers 15/05/2012 Bayford Meadow Netball 25/02/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford Orienteering (M) 10/03/2012 Burnham Beeches, Slough Orienteering (W) 10/03/2012 Burnham Beeches, Slough Pistol Small Bore (M) 12/02/2012 Wantage Target Shooting Club, Oxon Pistol Small Bore (W) 12/02/2012 Wantage Target Shooting Club, Oxon Pistol Full Bore 15/07/2012 Melville Range, Nat. Shooting Centre, Bisley Polo 09/06/2012 Guards Polo Club Pool (M) Oxford Pool (W) Oxford Powerlifting 26/02/2012 Iffley Road Sports Complex Rackets 07/03/2012 The Queen’s Club Real Tennis (M) 24-25/02/12 MCC Court, Lord’s Cricket Ground Real Tennis (W) 24-25/02/12 MCC Court, Lord’s Cricket Ground Riding 08/03/2012 Rycroft Equestrian Centre, Hampshire Rifle Small Bore (M) 12-20/07/12 Rifle Small Bore (W) 12-20/07/12 Rugby Fives 18/02/2012 St Paul's Rugby League 08/03/2011 Richmond Rugby Club Rugby Union (M) 08/12/2011 Twickenham Rugby Union (W) 03/03/2012 OURFC, Iffley Road, Oxford Ski and Snowboard (M) Varsity Trip Val Thorens Ski and Snowboard (W) Varsity Trip Val Thorens Squash Racquets (M) 18/02/2012 The RAC Club, London Squash Racquets (W) 18/02/2012 The RAC Club, London Swimming (M) 18/02/2012 Rosenblatt Pool, Iffley, Oxford Swimming (W) 18/02/2012 Rosenblatt Pool, Iffley, Oxford Table Tennis (M) 11/03/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford Table Tennis (W) 11/03/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford TaeKwon-Do (M) 26/02/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford TaeKwon-Do (W) 26/02/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford Trampolining 03/03/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford Triathlon (M) 13/05/2012 Grendon Triathlon (W) 13/05/2012 Grendon Ultimate Frisbee (M) 25/02/2012 Brookes Indoor, Astro Outdoor Ultimate Frisbee (W) 25/02/2012 Brookes Indoor, Astro Outdoor Volleyball (M) 26/02/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford Volleyball (W) 26/02/2012 Iffley Road Sports Hall, Oxford Waterpolo (M) 18/02/2012 Rosenblatt Pool, Iffley, Oxford Waterpolo (W) 18/02/2012 Rosenblatt Pool, Iffley, Oxford Windsurfing 27/03/2012 Dahab Bay, Egypt Yacht (M) early July Yacht (W) early July Yacht (Fleet Racing) 31/03-01/04/12

OVERALL STANDINGS

OXFORD 54

RESULT SCORE

LOSS LOSS LOSS WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN LOSS WIN LOSS LOSS LOSS WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN LOSS LOSS LOSS LOSS WIN WIN WIN LOSS LOSS WIN WIN WIN WIN LOSS WIN WIN WIN LOSS LOSS WIN WIN LOSS LOSS LOSS LOSS LOSS LOSS WIN WIN WIN

5-16 1 1/3 lengths 3/4 length 30008-27748 22116-21736 71-69 48-32

2155-2114 1961-1976 701.5-742.14 3-13 47-43 1071.04 - 1027.04 5-1 4-2 5-1

290-158 48 - 0 28 - 10 28 - 8

4-1 3-2 50-40 58-32 10-0 6-4 2-0 2-0

12-9 0-13 3-2 CAM (16-25,25-20,20-25,25-22,15-9) 3-0 CAM (25-20,25-15,25-20) 8-9 5 -11 0-3 4-1 4-1 5-9

Congratulations!

CAMBRIDGE DRAW 47 3

www.sport.ox.ac.uk

18 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2012

Winner (5 points)

Runner-up (2 points)

Overall College Scores

Archery Lincoln St Stephen’s St Edmund Hall 30 Athletics New University Worcester 27 Badminton (M) St Edmund Hall St John’s Lady Margaret Hall 24.5 Badminton (W) St Peter’s Jesus Balliol 24 Basketball (M) Christ Church/LMH St Catherine’s New 22 Canoe & Kayak New St Edmund Hall Oriel 21 Cricket (M) New/St Hilda’s Balliol St Catherine’s 19 Cricket (W) Balliol University Keble 17 Croquet Keble Mansfield St John’s 17 Cross Country St Catherine’s Worcester St Hilda’s 16.5 Cycling University Pembroke 15.5 Dancesport Keble Queen’s Wadham 13.5 Fencing Hertford Merton Jesus 13 Football (M) Worcester St Anne’s Lincoln 12 Football (W) Worcester St Catherine’s Hertford 12 Golf Queen’s Wadham University 11 Hockey (M) St Catherine’s Jesus Somerville 10 Hockey (Mixed) St Catherine’s St Edmund Hall/Pembroke Exeter 9.5 Hockey (W) New/Pembroke Queen’s Queen’s 9 Ice Hockey as ALTS St Anne’s 9 Judo (M) Balliol Jesus Magdalen 7 Judo (W) Balliol Oriel Christ Church 7 Karate Hertford St Anne’s St Peter’s 5 Karting Worcester St John’s St Antony’s 5 Kendo Jesus Lincoln Wolfson 5 Kickboxing Worcester Hertford Materials Dept.

5 Korfball St Hilda’s St John’s Merton 4 Lacrosse St Hilda’s Oriel Brasenose 2.5 Lightweight Rowing St Antony’s Linacre St Hugh’s 2.5 Modern Pentathlon St Edmund Hall Exeter St Stephen’s 2 Netball Worcester New Mansfield 2 Orienteering Wadham Exeter Linacre 2 Pistol Lincoln Corpus Christi Corpus Christi 2 Pool & Snooker Balliol Merton Trinity 2 Powerlifting Lady Margaret Hall St Hilda’s Rackets Somerville Lady Margaret Hall Riding Lady Margaret Hall University Rugby St Edmund Hall Oriel Rugby (Mixed Touch) New Rugby Fives Lady Margaret Hall Rugby League Exeter Balliol Ski & Snowboard Keble St John’s Squash St John’s Christ Church Swimming St Edmund Hall Magdalen Table Tennis St Anne’s St Hilda’s Tennis Lady Margaret Hall St Edmund Hall Trampolining St Edmund Hall Exeter/Wadham/Christ Church Triathlon Oriel St John’s Utimate Frisbee Brasenose/St Hugh’s St John’s Volleyball Wolfson Wadham Water Polo Materials Dept.

Trinity Yachting Somerville Jesus Torpids (M) Pembroke Christ Church Torpids (W) Magdalen Wadham Summer Eights (M) Oriel Pembroke Summer Eights (W) Pembroke Wadham

Cuppers ResulTs 2011-12

Rory McCoole

I 19

CLUB REPORTS AIKIDO The Oxford University Aikido Club had a very successful 2011–12. Freshers’ Fair was once again a great opportunity to recruit new members, with over 200 people signing up to the mailing list. Many new sign-ups to the Club continued throughout the year, with record numbers of graduate students signing up to take advantage of practice sessions that continue through the vacations.

We continued to offer quality instruction during five sessions a week. We are proud that Peter Megann – one of the highest-ranking instructors in the UK – has continued as our senior local instructor. As always, we thank all our instructors for donating their time, energy and enthusiasm.

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 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.

Social events such as pub visits and trips to G&D’s were popular opportunities to get to know one another off the mat.

ALTERNATIVE ICE HOCKEY This year there was a huge increase in the popularity of ALTS, with one night seeing a record number of 150 attendees at one session.

We had decided at the previous AGM to start playing three games on the ice instead of two, which greatly helped the accommodation of large numbers. The increase in numbers led to the largest Cuppers ever, with 28 teams competing; 8 more than the previous year.

Congratulations go to reigning champions Oriel Lions, and runners up Keble Komets and Bladerunners (Corpus Christi).

This year, we held our very first ALTS match against the University of East Anglia, who also have a society which plays non-contact ice hockey. The match consisted of lots of small, 3-minute games, and unfortunately we were beaten 9–5. The fixture overall was a success, however, and we hope that this might become an annual event, or that we might find other societies similar to ALTS and start some kind of amateur league.

As always we have been volunteering at the termly KEEN ice-skating sessions, a highly worthwhile cause that aims to get kids with special needs active.

AMERICAN FOOTBALL The Lancers are behind the proud rebirth of American Football at the UK’s oldest university, and bear the hallmarks of disciplined intelligence and competitive aggression common in the previous teams from Oxford.

Our two-year hiatus from regular competitive play has only sharpened the team’s desire to

rejoin the ranks of UK University American Football, renewing past rivalries with Cambridge, and starting new ones as an independent team.

Coach Marshall, a true veteran with over 13 years of experience in student American Football, has been pleased with the dedication and hard work shown by the small but determined squad of players attracted to play the ultimate team sport, and takes pride in helping to bring out the best from the student athletes in his care. He is first to point out that this team game is also very much a team effort, and that Oxford’s growth and rebirth owes a lot to its team president over the last two years (Guy Edwards, Lincoln College) and his executive team.

Over the course of the past year the Club has grown from a single coach and only eight players to a fully kitted squad of 17 players, thanks to the support of the Sports Federation and the hard work of the players themselves.

Despite being a relatively understaffed small group of individuals, the majority of whom had to play both Offense and Defence, the team outperformed all expectations, winning a training scrimmage against Kingston University before narrowly losing 14–6 to the disciplined Staffordshire Stallions in Hilary.

The season was capped by a closely fought Varsity Match, which saw Oxford leading 14–8 at half-time thanks to two strong touchdown runs by Princeton alumnus Chase Campbell, and on the back of strong defence and a wellorchestrated passing attack led by quarterback Ben Baker and receiver Joel Charley. In the second half Cambridge drew level as the smaller, Dark Blue side began to fatigue, and www.sport.ox.ac.uk

20 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2012

ARCHERY 2011–12 was one of the best seasons in years for OU Company of Archers. We further confirmed our position as one of the best university archery teams in the country, with excellent results at BUCS, Varsity, and at league level. The team displayed a high level of commitment and increased their efforts in training this year, which paid off with a win at the Varsity Match in May. Strong performances were given by both sides, with some of the highest scores in recent memory being shot individually to give a final result of Oxford 3,244, Cambridge 3,234.

The previous two terms also saw records broken and many excellent performances: the team reached fourth place at BUCS, broke the Club team record, won the county indoor championships, came third in BUTTS (our regional league), fourth at the British Universities Target Championships and fourth in the British Universities Archery E-League.

We continue to be coached by Nat Merry (ex-Merton); without her huge dedication and

generosity with her time, this year’s excellent results would not have been possible.

Individual results have been exceptional too this year – Matthew Langton broke a number of recurve Club records, won the British Universities Archery E-League and placed tenth individually at BUCS. Ben Glover took a new compound Portsmouth record, and placed ninth at BUCS. It was another excellent year for beginners too: we ran a very successful novice coaching programme, led by Lauren Hicks. The novice team reached sixth in BUTTS, our regional league, and sixth place at the BUCS Indoor Championships. Sadly, whilst shooting an impressively high score, they lost to Cambridge in the Novice Varsity Competition in May. The Club again enjoyed an Easter trip to the Student Festival of Sport on the Isle of Man, where sightseeing, drinking and socialising with other universities were mixed with a high level of competition. We returned to the mainland laden with silverware.

We have continued to hold outreach havea-gos at the Said Business School, as well as holding events for local schools. We have also continued to invest in the Club’s future with new, higher-quality novice bows and arrows,

and by replacing some of the older equipment.

We have a large number of alumni who return each year to our annual dinner and to help run the competitions we host – we are very grateful to them.

ATHLETICS After the disappointment of suffering heavy defeats in the men’s and women’s Varsity Matches in 2011 the team knew significant change was needed to challenge Cambridge this year. Things did not go exactly as planned at the Freshers’ Varsity Match in November, with both teams again suffering losses.

However, the men lost by the closest margin, 2 points, and the women took more individual wins – clear indications that the team was showing improvements.

The team has continued to develop in strength and depth throughout the year and this was surely helped by the fantastic atmosphere that has emerged amongst the athletes (helped by consistently high turnouts at all sessions and socials!). February saw the return of the indoor Varsity Match and the hard pre-season work finally showed, with the women taking home the field trophy and the men winning the trophy for the track. The women’s track competition was tied.

Matt Henderson

despite touchdowns for both teams being ruled out in the fourth quarter by the referees, the first Varsity American Football Match since 1995 ended in a 14–14 draw.

I 21

A particular highlight this year was BUCS outdoor athletics being held at the Olympic Stadium as part of the London Prepares series.

The whole team performed exceptionally, with a number of athletes reaching the final of their event. Particular highlights of the weekend were Clara Blatter winning a bronze medal in the pole vault, Tom Frith finishing ninth in the 1500m final and Jess Chen finishing fifth in the 5000m final – not bad for a fresher!

The annual highlight, the Varsity Match, occurred at Iffley Road this year. The men put in exceptional performances, but on the day Cambridge were the team that managed to hold off and take the victory. The women’s Seconds match was the only result never in doubt, with Oxford taking an easy win. The women’s Blues match came down to the wire, with both teams knowing that a win in the final event of the day, the 4x400m, would seal victory. Cambridge held a 10m lead with just one leg remaining, and it was Nadine Prill who ran an unbelievable leg to bring a thoroughly deserved victory to the team. The turnaround from last year is outstanding and the team should be proud of what they have achieved this year. Aside from the victories, the hard work of the team has been rewarded by a vast increase in the number of Blue and Half Blue standards being achieved.

AUSSIE RULES In the 2011/12 season, the OUARFC both consolidated its past success and also broke important new ground.

The Club retained the Varsity Cup for the seventh consecutive year with another convincing win over Cambridge. Man of the Match was Hugh Wolgamot (Somerville College). This seventh victory was a testament not only to the hard work and tenacity of new players, but also reflects the important continuities running through the Club. Old players continue to return not only for Varsity but also for trainings, practice matches and social events. The Club continues to attract and retain a variety of people of different nationalities and skill levels, all of whom feel welcome within what one would naturally think of as a purely Australian sport.

Varsity Day, however, did also demonstrate the importance of the Club amongst the very large Australian community in Oxford. Staged in conjunction with the Oxford University Australia and New Zealand Society, the event was attended by around 300 people, included two games of OUANZ vs CUANZ netball, and culminated in a post-match function catering for 150 people.

During the year we also played three practice matches. Two matches were against Birmingham (one win, one loss) and the third was against the Reading Roos (a win).

Finally, following the success of our first-ever tour to Ireland last year, the Club made its first tour to the Continent, playing in Sweden and Denmark. In Malmo we met local club the Malmo Maulers, whom we defeated. We lost to the Danish national team in a tough game in Copenhagen. Unfortunately our game cancelled due to ice in Gothenburg was cancelled due to ice.

BADMINTON The men’s first team had a successful league season, finishing third in BUCS Premier South Division. Unfortunately they were knocked out of the cup early, but this was made up for with a convincing win over Cambridge. The Seconds were narrowly relegated from Midlands Division 2 in BUCS, but confidence is high that they have the quality to bounce straight back up again next year. The same is true for the men’s third team for the local league.

The women’s first team lacked depth in the first half of the season with many members of the team being unavailable for selection, and so the results of the BUCS matches poorly reflected the current standard of the team.

This has, however, meant that many of the second-team players have been able to gain valuable competitive experience through the BUCS matches and the second team is currently looking particularly strong.

The mixed doubles team have had a wonderful season, winning all their matches and so progressing to the second division in the local league.

BASEBALL The Baseball Club enjoyed a strong season with much success. A large proportion of our team is usually made up of North American visiting students and so the team changes greatly from year to year. This year, however, we retained a good number of members from the year before.

The advantage this gave us was clear in our performances. We fared well in the league, finishing with a record of seven wins to just one loss. We put in exceptional performances against UEA and Nottingham University, winning these games by more than 10 runs.

We have no access to specialist baseball facilities in Oxford, but did have use of a baseball diamond in High Wycombe for our home games, and we are very grateful to those involved for allowing us to use this field free of charge.

We now recruit a larger number of undergraduates, who are able to play for multiple years. This will ensure the Club can build on its recent success and continue to grow in the future. The British University Baseball Association (BUBA) League is in

its relative infancy but in the last few years has staged an increasing number of good, competitive fixtures. It is our hope that the league will continue to establish itself and that Oxford will remain one of its premier clubs.

BASKETBALL This year has been an incredibly successful year for Oxford University Basketball Club, seeing significant successes on the court, an increase in participation at college level, and new links being formed with basketball in the local area.

We are very proud to have again been represented in the BUCS Premier leagues by both the men’s and women’s Blues teams. This season saw them qualifying to the BUCS Final 8 from the Premier South divisions. It seems that both teams have benefitted from the experience of two qualified coaches and from the ongoing dedication of players to both training and fitness sessions. In the Final 8 tournament in Sheffield – the culmination of the BUCS championship – the men’s Blues ended up eighth, while the women’s Blues received the sixth spot.

This year’s Varsity games, hosted by Oxford, were yet again to prove victorious for Oxford’s Dark Blues, the men’s and women’s Blues teams breezing to significant victories with the men winning by 25 points and the women scoring 72 to Cambridge’s 48, as would appear to be becoming traditional!

This year has also seen the continual participation of both the men’s and women’s Second teams in the BUCS leagues. It is also the second year in which the women’s second teams have been included in the Varsity Day’s competitions and something which cements the place of this relatively new team within the structure of the Club. On the women’s side of the Club, the relationship between the Blues and Two’s teams has been augmented with the entry of a joint team into the Oxfordshire Local League.

This has provided increased game opportunities beneficial to both teams in providing players with additional experience, and has also strengthened the Club’s presence in the local area.

The Basketball Club is experiencing continued success at a range of levels, with a year’s worth of excellent results for the Blues teams, and high participation and increased opportunities for competitive basketball for people newer to the sport, making a well-rounded Club which is a great advertisement for sport at Oxford University.

BOAT CLUB – WOMEN Despite some setbacks throughout the winter, this year has been a successful one for OUWBC. We raced a number of events throughout the season, leading to wins at Wallingford Head, www.sport.ox.ac.uk

22 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2012

Thames Valley Head and Reading University Head, and we had some strong performances from crews at Fours Head of the River, and Women’s Eights Head of the River. We had an excellent training camp in Temple-sur-Lot in France in January where the squad enjoyed training in the warm weather, before returning to a very cold Oxford. The results throughout the season gave us confidence in our final preparations for the Newton Women’s Boat Races.

On 25th March, two boats raced Cambridge at Henley-on-Thames in perfect conditions. Both OUWBC boats won the toss, and the Women’s Reserves race went first. Blondie (Cambridge) took a narrow lead over Osiris (Oxford), and both crews were warned for their aggressive steering. By halfway, Osiris were 1/3 length ahead, but at 500m from the line, one of the Blondie athletes caught a crab, and Osiris flew ahead, beating Cambridge with a verdict of 3 ½ lengths.

The Blue Boat’s race was similarly dramatic, but with a different result. Cambridge took an early lead, and despite several pushes from Oxford, little ground was made. However, with 300m to go the Cambridge 2 seat caught a crab that stopped the Light Blues’ boat completely.

Oxford nearly pulled level, but Cambridge found their pace again and the two crews battled it to the line, with Cambridge beating Oxford by 1 second, with an official verdict of ¼ length.

In 2013 and 2014 Oxford will continue to race on the Henley reach, but thanks to sponsorship

from Newton Investment Management, OUWBC will join OUBC in 2015 to race on the Tideway.

BOXING Potentially the busiest year in OUABC’s recent history, 2011–12 saw OUABC host an Oxbridge charity match against Waseda University from Japan, Town vs Gown, and the Varsity Match, as well as taking part in a gruelling pre-season training camp in Tenerife, and several local amateur shows.

Michaelmas term saw the arrival of Waseda, one of the leading universities of Japan and known for both its sporting and academic reputation, in a match scheduled to raise funds for the Japanese tsunami victims. Taking on an Oxford–Cambridge selection as well as boxers from other clubs, Waseda were superb technical boxers, using elusive movement and phenomenal hand speed throughout the show. OUABC Captain Oliver Harriman successfully used his southpaw stance and neat combinations to defeat his opponent by unanimous vote, whilst Tom Eliasz narrowly missed out on the judges’ decision. Overall it was a fantastic evening and sowed the seeds for what will hopefully be a lasting relationship with Waseda, who hope to welcome us, for a second time, in the next couple of years.

The TKO Tenerife ritual followed, where our boxers trained three times daily, ran up Mount Teide, and really came together as a team.

Town vs Gown was in third week, and saw several stellar performances from the team, with treasurer James Watson voted boxer of the evening. The zenith of Varsity followed several weeks later; in a night of electric boxing, OUABC defended the Truelove bowl, matching the 6–3 record of the previous year.

Mikey Davis began and courageously defeated the Cambridge captain, whilst two stoppages

by Watson and Eliasz stretched the lead.

Harriman overcame his dogged opponent for a unanimous win, and Ben Bussman wrapped up the victory just before the break. Ben Morris took his Varsity winning streak to three consecutive wins, rubbing salt in the wounds of Cambridge, whilst Simon Lack, Tommy Williams and Andrei Akhvlediani lost out to very experienced opponents.

A special mention must go to Alexandra Littaye, the women’s captain, who galvanised the female element within the Club and resoundingly won gold at BUCS. And finally, the leading-from-the-front skills of captain Harriman, who has retired undefeated, meant that a solid spirit and work ethic was evident throughout the season.

CANOE AND KAYAK River leaders undertook pre-term training in the form of a BCU-approved white-water safety and rescue course, in order to be better able to look after our new members on white water. The ‘come and try it’ events which began Michaelmas term were extremely popular,

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using all suitable boats for both sessions after receiving lots of interest at Freshers’ Fair. Polo training went from strength to strength and we entered a team into the ULU tournament, achieving fourth place. Training for whitewater trips continued on the river and in the pool, ready for new members’ trips. The first of these took place in South Wales on a sunny weekend at the end of fourth week and had an extremely good turnout. Later in the term we ran a weekend trip to North Wales which was enjoyed by all despite lower than ideal water levels. The BUCS white-water race was particularly successful; the women’s team achieved our best time ever by over a minute and the men also beat their personal best.

In Hilary we ran a trip with both day and weekend options, allowing new faces to experience their first white water. The alumni dinner, commemorating the Club’s 50th birthday, allowed more recent members to get to know their predecessors. Polo remained strong, with the Club entering a team into the Cardiff tournament and coming first. The women did well in BUCS polo during the Easter vacation, raising their position to 15th in the league whilst the men faced tough opposition from Cambridge, placing 16th. A Scottish white-water trip also took place in

the vacation, allowing members to enjoy the quality white water found there.

CAVING OUCC started off highly enthusiastic and clad in both helmets and harnesses for the Freshers’ Fair this year, in the hopes of luring many freshers to the dark side.

Successful trips to South Wales and the Mendips were packed out by keen new faces and enthusiastic mud-lovers. Introducing the new members to beautiful caves such as OFD and Swildon’s Hole was exciting for all and the evenings were just as sociable, with traditional caving challenges and competitions being set.

The Varsity meet with Cambridge, trialling a new competition system, involved many new recruits and ended up being a crawl in which CUCC came to Oxford for Friday night and Saturday and then OUCC headed to Cambridge for the rest of the weekend. In between enjoying getting to know the enemy, we competed at obstacle courses, ropes races and various other activities. Although technically a friendly, so not properly scored, it has set the precedent for the competitions which will

constitute the official Varsity Match, since caving is now a Half Blue sport.

Competition at the Council of Higher Education Caving Clubs was high this year, with many freshers coming along and enjoying the event as well as getting some caving done. A surprise OUCC victory in the ‘balance and restriction’ match, by the ever determined Vicky Lim and Ben Hudson, raised spirits after freshers’ efforts in the novices’ SRT courses. Trips to Yorkshire caves were also well received although high water levels meant that several were out of use.

This summer, a highly successful OUCC expedition returned to the Picos d’Europa in Spain and completed rigging to the bottom of the 1,139m-deep Pozu del Xitu, first explored by the Club 30 years ago. Working in conjunction with another caving expedition, we facilitated the world’s deepest cave-diving through trip by allowing them to travel out of the cave on our ropes.

New leads have been found in the system and hopes are high for even greater discoveries next year when we will return with a larger team to explore Xitu further!

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CHEERLEADING The squad had both a competitive team and a small stunt group this year, with the most members we have ever had. The squad competed in two competitions in Hilary term, in Loughborough and at the University Nationals competition in Doncaster, with the competitive squad placing seventh and fifth respectively.

Last Trinity term the squad performed at Summer Eights to show other members of the University what cheerleading really is, and the Oxford Sirens were there again this year.

In Michaelmas a few members of the squad performed for the ‘New York, New York’ Oxford Union ball, which went down extremely well.

CLAY PIGEON OUCPSC has enjoyed further successes this year, winning the men’s Blues Varsity competition for the third year in a row.

Furthermore, individual scores in the BUCS competition placed our best shot within the top 25 shots in the country.

Training has continued to take place at E J Churchill shooting ground near High Wycombe, which provides excellent facilities for the novice shot. This year we received a high level of interest from new students and have introduced several people to the sport for the very first time under the guidance of qualified instructors. A promising cohort of shots will hopefully ensure the continuing success of the Club in future years.

CRICKET – WOMEN This season has been a mix of highs and lows.

After our first eight games of the season were rained off, we thought we were never going to get to play outside. Due to high run-rates in the games which we were able to play, we finished the group round of BUCS in second place. The weather improved during the knockout stages and we travelled to Brighton twice, to beat Sussex and then Brighton University, setting up a semi-final match against Bristol. The rain returned once again so a bowl-off took place, which Oxford won 2–1. This led to Oxford playing Birmingham in the BUCS Trophy Final.

Before the final of BUCS we had our one day Varsity at Lord’s; although we kept one eye on the weather, play was not affected. Oxford won the toss and decided to put Cambridge into bat first. However the lack of match practice clearly showed as Cambridge were able to settle into a rhythm which Oxford found hard to break, scoring 215 in their 50 overs. With the pressure on, Oxford were unable to challenge Cambridge’s score.

With exams looming, Birmingham came to Marston with a strong team for the BUCS final; as they had knocked us out the year before, many of the team were hoping to set the record straight. However, after losing several of our promising freshers to exams, Oxford batting first needed to set a formidable target to ward off the pressure of a strong Birmingham side. Oxford scored 116 in the 30 overs; with a long boundary and slow outfield, keeping Birmingham to within the target seemed possible. However, with pressure mounting on both sides, Birmingham were able to make the most of their wickets to reach 117 in 26 overs.

After two back-to-back defeats it was important for the team to have a good close to the season.

The final game was the T20 Varsity in Cambridge.

Batting first and scoring 142, with P Chatterji scoring 57, put them in a good position to win the game. With tight bowling by P Chatterji and A Quayle we were able to keep Cambridge to 138, beating them by 4 runs.

As we sat down for tea the rain started pouring, a fitting end to a season dominated by rain.

CRICKET – MEN In 2011, Ben Williams (Hertford) made a good impression on and off the field with a professional approach backed up by great batting and bowling figures, which led to him captaining both OUCC and the MCCU Academy into the 2011/12 season. After a great winter training programme lead by returning Head Coach Graham Charlesworth’s team, and a new sponsor to secure the clubs future, we were raring to go for the year ahead.

But summer 2012 was a bit of a washout with many games succumbing to the poor weather.

After the first four weeks of the season being lost to rain, fifth week turned out to be the hottest of the season! The Blues trained every day of the week in preparation for the Varsity Twenty20 on Friday afternoon, where we welcomed a large crowd to University Parks for a very close game. Oxford came out on top with Ben Jeffery (St.John’s) launching a six in the final over to win the match, after Sam Agarwal (Queen’s) had scored well with Freddie Fox (St Benet’s) and Owain Jones (SEH) picking up the wickets.

The Blues had good support at Lord’s for the one day Varsity match, but unfortunately couldn’t topple a strong Cambridge side, after launching a comeback in the final overs.

The Authentics’ Varsity series was drawn one all, a fair reflection of the evenly matched sides.

Oxford convincingly won the one day game at the Parks, before weather prevented a result in the 3 day game. The Crusaders, who had the better of the 3 day draw, beat Oxford in the Twenty20 soundly.

Both the Blues and Authentics made the semifinals of their respective BUCS competitions.

At the end of the season came the Blues four day Varsity, a slow-scoring match which ended in a draw, but at various stages the game could have gone either way with big innings from Captain Ben Williams and fresher Owain Jones.

Cambridge picked up some early wickets on day one before Oxford steadied the ship, then controlling the game in day two, restricting Cambridge to under three runs per over and picking up wickets regularly. On day three Oxford were 3 wickets down for not many setting up the fourth day with Williams and Sharma (Mansfield) batting out the first session to ensure Oxford would not lose the match.

There wasn’t enough of an opportunity to set the game up in the final sessions, and instead Oxford kept Cambridge in the field up until late afternoon when captains shook hands.

The game was drawn, but Oxford had control throughout the four-days, and 1-1 for the Blues in the Varsity matches this year was a big improvement after last year.

CROSS-COUNTRY OUCCC has had some great performances over the year, both as a team and as individuals, with the Club developing well over the last 12 months.

Success in Varsity continued from previous years, with the women’s Blues wiping the floor 14–26 at Wimbledon Common in December.

Fresher Jess Chen established herself as one of the Club’s hopes for the future, running strongly for second place. Packing amazingly well, she was then followed in by an unbroken chain of Oxford blue. The men’s Blues, struck with numerous injuries, just lost out on a closely-fought men’s match (35–43) There were some great individual performances, with Richard Franzese putting his injury problems behind him to repeat his 2008 performance, as well as newcomers to the Blues, Andrew Lanham and Jamie Shadbolt, taking third and fourth places. The men’s Seconds and Thirds repeated their dominance of previous years, both teams almost achieving maximum scores, demonstrating the strength in depth within the Club. On home soil, the men’s Fourths in the mob match managed to claim victory, turning around the Tabs’ recent dominance. The women’s Seconds also achieved a significant victory, to return a healthy 5–2 in the overall match.

After Christmas, the national-level competitions saw numerous individual athletes demonstrate their prowess. In the England National, both Tom Frith and Jess Chen finished in the top six of the Junior race, claiming England vests in the process. Club Captain Luke Caldwell, competing for the first time in the Senior race, finished a highly credible 19th. At BUCS www.sport.ox.ac.uk

26 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2012

in Cardiff, Jess once again demonstrated her ability, finishing 9th in a high-class field. The teams again performed well, finishing 9th in the men’s A race, and 12th in the women’s.

A successful cross country season translated for many athletes into great performances on the track in Trinity term. Tom Frith and Chris McGurk brought home a 1-2 in the 5km; Frith and Jake Shelley came second and third in a high-class men’s mile; and Jess Chen wiped the floor in the women’s 5km, running 16:56 in the process.

Key to the success of the Club has been the arrival of coach Jenny Harris, who has overseen the development of the Club’s athletes and some remarkable improvements through effective training. 2011–12 has been a fantastic year for the Club and provides a great base for this season.

CYCLING Oxford University Cycling Club has had a successful year, despite losses in all Varsity Matches as expected after a large number of the strongest cyclists left at the end of the 2010/11 season. The successes arise from the introduction of a large number of new cyclists to the sport and the dramatic increases we have observed in the number of riders attending our rides and taking part.

The depth of riders competing for OUCC in external events has been large, with in excess of 40 riders wearing OUCC jerseys in BUCS or Varsity races alone. It is in this that we demonstrate the success of the Club this year, and solid foundations have been laid for improved performances in the next season. In Cuppers a field of 39 riders were present of the 63 who signed up to compete. This is up from the 13 in the previous year and 18 in the year before that. The event was hampered by poor weather so no Club records were even approached.

The invitation to compete in a new Varsity event, in the form of a city-centre criterium race as part of a professional race series, was very well received, and allowed the Club to publicise its presence strongly, both on the day and through a short excerpt on the race highlights show on ITV4. This has strengthened the Club’s reputation and is set to become a permanent feature, with an invitation to next year’s race having already been offered.

DANCESPORT The Oxford University Dancesport Club (OUDC) has had a moderately successful year, both in terms of the achievements of our competitive team and the success of our Club classes. We continued the Zumba classes started last year

until Christmas, when the teacher was unable to continue due to injury. These were immensely popular, with the venue being filled every week, and we have found a replacement coach over the summer to continue them for the upcoming year. Our ballroom and latin medals classes continue to be as popular as ever.

In Michaelmas term we held the annual Club ball at Wolfson College, which was a great success. In Trinity we hosted the Varsity Match and held a second Club ball which was attended by our counterparts from Cambridge, with a demonstration by Mark and Olga Elsbury, the highest-ranked amateur couple in the country.

Our beginners’ team has also had a very successful year, winning Varsity and coming first in the nationals as well as winning various other competitions throughout the year. Our main team won a number of competitions at the start of the year, but were pipped at the post by Cambridge for both the nationals and Varsity. The Varsity Match was lost with a score of 1,895 to 1,885, the closest ever recorded, and the nationals went down to the marks of a single judge (out of five) which really shows how evenly matched the Oxford and Cambridge sides were this year.

ETON FIVES Oxford University Eton Fives Club is growing and expanding every year, in both size and success. The women’s team have now have a coach, and both teams regularly field multiple pairs in the national tournaments, as well matches with local clubs. The Varsity Match was one of the most successful Oxford has ever had. Both the men’s and women’s Blues squads won, and the women’s Seconds also secured a win. In fact, all six women’s pairs won their respective matches, dropping just one game between them all. We look forward to bringing the Club along further next year as the committee structure begins to develop.

FENCING It has been another successful, exciting and enjoyable season for OUFC over the past year. Trinity Term 2011 saw the annual Novice Varsity Match taking place in Cambridge. The Dark Blues were in fine form – the women’s team won 45–22 and the men’s team 45–33.

Over the summer, OUFC was involved in an alumni event connected with the Olympics, where Rosie Davies and Francine Robb fenced sabre in front of a large audience, including the University Chancellor and Sir Roger Bannister.

This was followed up by a strong OUFC presence at Europe’s largest sports science fair, held at the Excel in London, where OUFC shared a platform with Team GB’s Olympic foil team.

The Club had a number of impressive results over the course of the term, including winning the Wilkinson Sword team trophy, which highlighted just how strong an épée Club OUFC has become.

The men’s Firsts had a highly successful first quint, emerging undefeated. The team followed this with another strong performance at the second quint in London in January, to finish second in the league behind Imperial on ‘goal’ difference. This gives the team a strong seeding for next season’s knockout competition. The competition proved frustrating for the team this time, losing out to Bristol in the final sixteen.

The women’s Firsts also had an excellent start to the season, which included victory against Cambridge in their first quint. The team’s progress was marred by injury problems in their second quint in London but they still emerged to finish third in the league. They also put in a dominant performance against Sheffield to reach the last eight of the cup where they sadly lost out to Edinburgh.

The men’s Seconds finished mid-table in the Midlands 1A league and enjoyed some competitive matches against strong opposition.

The team also put in a strong run in the cup competition and lost out narrowly to Kent in the final eight. The women’s Seconds also finished mid-table in their league and put in some dominant performances in their final quint pre-Varsity.

The focus of Hilary was, of course, the Varsity Match, held in the Exam Schools. Both first teams sadly lost out against our arch-rivals but are already plotting their revenge for next year.

The second teams came out victorious, both putting in convincing performances.

Internationally, Satya Gunput and Matt Henderson have represented Mauritius and Great Britain respectively at Senior World Cups, and old Blue Sophie Troiano competed at the 2012 Olympics. This is testament to the strength of the Club.

FLOORBALL This year has continued much the same as last for the Floorball Club. We have had a lot of new players taking part this year, but have had difficulty in maintaining consistency due to changing training times, among other factors.

This resulted in us having to withdraw from a tournament in Solihull. However, the Floorball Club continues to maintain regular contact with the Great Britain Floorball and Unihoc Association (GBFUA).

In financial terms, the Floorball Club is in a sound position, and plans to use funds to purchase new goals next Michaelmas. The future looks pretty good generally speaking –

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this year, the committee was affected by the loss of two members, so stability should bring improvements next year.

FooTball - MEN The Blues’ season was best described as something of a roller-coaster ride. ’You make your own luck’, says coach Mickey Lewis, but this season it appeared to dry up, despite an exceptional team ethic fostered by skipper Julian Austin. After encouraging friendlies against Charterhouse and the AFA, positive starts in early league games were not converted into points and the team was facing an uphill battle.

As the focus turned towards Varsity, the Blues were not able to stave off relegation from BUCS Midlands 1A and will have to work hard next year to bounce back. The 128th Varsity Match was truly a tale of two halves at Cambridge City’s intimate ground. 2–0 down at half-time, the Blues bundled in a 60th-minute goal before Sam Donald levelled from a tight angle. With Oxford dominating, the officials inexplicably decided to omit extra time and Cambridge won the lottery of penalties.

successful seasons ever, under the stewardship of stalwart Dominic Affron. The season’s primary target (victory at the Other Place aside) was to regain BUCS Midlands 4A league status; a series of hard-fought away victories and crushing home wins sent the side to the top of the table, where they remained to seal promotion. The pinnacle of the season was a 3–1 Varsity win, courtesy of a Rishi Stocker thunderbolt and a brace from striker Matt Smith.

Under the guidance of Sabbatical Officer Elliot Thomas, friendlies for the Development Squad against Eton and Bradfield College provided stern tests for a rapidly improving group of players, many of whom made strong claims

for Centaurs berths next year. The season’s crowning moment came after a tight Varsity Match ended in a 2–2 draw against the Kestrels. Needing to convert the final penalty in the shootout to snatch victory, keeper Mauro ‘Ramos’ Pereira nonchalantly placed his effort into the top corner with the outside of his boot.

Unbelievable scenes!

FooTball - WOMEN OUWAFC has done exceptionally well this year in both the Blues and Furies league campaigns, and had a double win in Varsity. The Blues placed third in their league, comfortably staying

A few days later, the Blues headed to the USA for fixtures against Harvard (1–1), Yale (3–1), Columbia (1–0) and Princeton (0–3).

All involved were incredibly grateful to our Ivy League hosts for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The quality of football was high and the sports facilities were outstanding, which left many of the players contemplating Masters’ degrees in the States! After a few evenings of ‘cultural appreciation’ at some choice venues, some of the squad were relieved to hear that ‘what goes on tour, stays on tour’. Usually...

The Centaurs enjoyed one of their most www.sport.ox.ac.uk

28 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2012

in the middle of Midlands 1A, and they won Varsity with a very well-deserved 2–1. The Furies placed comfortably in the middle of their league as fourth in Midlands 2A, and they also very deservingly won 2–0 against the Cambridge Eagles. The 27th annual Women’s Football Varsity Matches were played on 3rd March 2012 at the Marston pitches in Oxford. The entire Club had a fantastic second consecutive Varsity double win, which we are especially proud of.

Furthermore, for the first time this year the Club has officially extended its development training in Trinity, through the successful application of a Sports Federation grant which has enabled us to train college teams and also to scout potential new players for next year’s trials.

Gaelic Games In August, we hosted a seven-a-side hurling blitz at our local Gaelic Games pitch at Horspath. Club teams from Birmingham, Cambridge and London took part, with Gráinuaile winning out in the end.

A men’s Gaelic football blitz was held at Horspath in November. Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London and St Mary’s University played each other, and St Mary’s won the tournament.

In the same month, the women’s football team hosted the South England University Gaelic football blitz at Horspath. They beat the University of Brighton and lost to Imperial College London.

Also in November, the women’s football team competed in the seven-a-side British Universities Gaelic Athletic Association League, hosted by St Mary’s University. In a challenging day featuring matches against St Mary’s, Brighton, Imperial and Cambridge Parnells GAA Club, they won only a single game.

our main training glider, ready for many more years of students learning to fly in it, and we have negotiated a more advantageous contract with our host club Windrushers.

This year, Gaelic football gained official recognition as a BUCS sport, and the men’s team competed in the BUCS Division 3 Championships in Birmingham. In their first game they lost to Newman University College, but they beat Buckinghamshire New University in their second game. The competition was won

by Teesside University.

OUGC has enjoyed another extremely successful year, winning 13 out of 29 matches during the season, concluding in a third straight Varsity Match win at Hunstanton Golf Club. The final outcome was an extremely tight 8–7 win, mirroring the feats of the previous year’s Blues. The Divots match at Royal West Norfolk, which went down to the last hole of the last match and finished in the pitch black, resulted in a well-earned draw.

Cambridge hosted the Varsity games this year.

Due to a shortage of players on the Cambridge side, the women’s Gaelic football and camogie games were not played. In the men’s Gaelic football contest, Oxford came out on top after a good battle between the two teams. The final score was 5–04 to 1–05. In the men’s hurling match, a strong Cambridge side dominated and won the game, with a final score of 6–7 to 1–7.

Social outings included seeing several bands at the O2 Academy.

Gliding The last year has seen a lot of activity for OUGC. We had a successful trip to the Scottish Gliding Centre at Portmoak where our members got a chance to try out some ridge soaring.This year has also seen the overhaul of

Golf – men

The fixture list for the first two terms was as strong as ever, with the likes of Royal St George’s, Royal Cinque Ports and The Wisley included in the prestigious list that OUGC members have the privilege to play.

Wherever we went it seemed that the clubs put out their strongest sides; playing against an ex-professional in the bottom match at Sunningdale was of particular note, and this is testament to the consistent and continually strong performances that Oxford has achieved over the past few years.

We are also delighted that we have on board a superb coach in John Cook, who has been with us now for 3 years. His invaluable advice and ability to seamlessly fix any problems that players may have makes him an extremely valuable member of our team.

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The improvement from the start of the year to the Varsity Match was enormous and this can largely be attributed to the tips and tricks that he passed on to us each Wednesday afternoon.

We have no doubt that John will continue to take the team from strength to strength.

This year was also our first full year as members of Huntercombe Golf Club, where OUGC is now based. The inaugural match there against the Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society was one of the highlights of the year. We already feel that we are developing a strong relationship with the club and we are extremely grateful to the members for letting us use the course and practice facilities for various Club games and trial matches.

We hope to continue OUGC’s great vein of form next year and look forward to another win at Royal St George’s on 22nd and 23rd March 2013.

Golf – women We are now at the end of what has been an absolutely fantastic year for Oxford women’s golf. With two new freshers joining in October we were able to put together a strong team, who proved themselves in the excellent golf they played at a variety of different clubs around South England. The team was privileged to be invited to some of the best golf clubs in the country, where we enjoyed fantastic golf and generous hospitality.

The highlight of the season was certainly the Varsity Match, both our last and our biggest fixture. This year it was held at Hunstanton Golf Club in Norfolk, a challenging and enjoyable course which tested the skill of all the players.

Oxford were a stronger team on paper, and this was reflected in the morning result, when Oxford beat Cambridge in two out of the three foursomes matches. There was everything to play for in the afternoon, and Cambridge were determined not to go down without a fight. Making up for their loss in the morning, both Gillian Kinnear and Lise Loerup won very convincingly. Sixtine d’Angelin finalised Oxford’s win in her match. Though Oxford now had the five points required for their win, Cambridge were not backing down. The final three matches went 2–1 to Oxford, with Melanie Walsh winning comfortably, and Nicole du Plessis fighting hard to finally win her match on the last hole. Min-Yee Tseu played extremely well despite being injured, but unfortunately lost to her opponent.

The Varsity Match was a demonstration of some excellent golf on both sides, and was very enjoyable for all the players. Everyone is enthusiastic about the year to come.

Special congratulations go to Gillian Kinnear for achieving her fourth Full Blue, a very special achievement, as well as to Lise Loerup and Sixtine d’Angelin for receiving Half Blues for their performance and dedication throughout the year. Lise Loerup succeeds Nicole du Plessis as OULGC Captain for 2012–13.

GymnasTics This year, the main change in the running of the Club has been hiring an outside coach, Chris Seelig. In previous years the coach has been one of our competitive members, which means they have had to divide their time between coaching and their own training. Having a separate coach has been extremely useful, both for the competitive teams in the lead-up to competitions and for the beginners to have a more structured introduction to the sport. We have incurred greater financial cost in hiring Chris, but it has definitely been worthwhile.

We also added an additional weekly training session this year, which has been extremely useful for gymnasts to develop and prepare for competitions.

We continued the success of last year in attracting new members, from all levels of experience. We entered our highest number of competitors into the BUCS competition this year, which being two weeks before Varsity gave us excellent practice.

We were able to hold the annual Varsity Match here in Oxford this year for the first time ever, as the club we train at is now fully equipped for competitions. In the men’s contest Cambridge were victorious, but we had success in the individual competition where Mathew Bullimore took first place. The women’s team also narrowly lost to Cambridge, but only by one point and after one competitor suffered an injury halfway through the competition which left our team depleted. Again, however, we were successful in the individual competition, with Clara Williams taking the gold. Overall, two Full Blues were awarded to the individual winners, and three Half Blues were awarded to the team members who fulfilled the necessary requirements.

Next term we are looking forward to the addition of a foam pit to our training gym.

This will be a huge asset for learning moves safely, and should enable our gymnasts to develop their skills base. Hopefully next year’s competitive squad will benefit from this.

Handball It has been an exciting year for the Oxford University Handball Club (OUHaC), starting off with a brand- new website (http://groupspaces. com/ouhandball) which significantly simplified

many aspects of Club management. The men’s team established themselves in Division 1 of the English National League, finishing in fourth place in the South England group with the same points as Cambridge. Unfortunately, goal difference meant that Cambridge (third place) made it to the play-offs. A record number of 32 men’s teams entered the UK University Championships this year. Our men’s team fought its way to the quarter-final but was beaten by the University of Essex.

After many women players left at the end of last season it was a challenge to start a new women’s team almost from scratch.

The women, therefore, entered the England Handball Development League as a joint team with the University of Southampton who had similar problems. They finished in fourth place.

As a result of increased recruitment efforts we now have a full women’s team again.

We are very grateful for a one-off grant from the Sports Federation which allowed us to replace some old and broken equipment and kit, including goal nets, balls and bibs. Also, our goals received a temporary cover that shelters them from rain. A more permanent solution is in the pipeline. OUHaC was also successful with an application for handball goals for the SOLL Leisure Centre in Faringdon (18 miles from Oxford), funded by the England Handball Association (EHA) , which allows us to provide a nearby venue for home matches and tournaments from next season onwards.

This will significantly reduce travel time and transport costs. We would also like to thank our sponsor Zoti for providing new kits for both teams.

The EHA plans significant changes to the way the league structure is organised in the UK. In addition, the Association of British University Handball Clubs (ABUHC) has applied for handball to be included in the BUCS program.

These are exciting times for the development of handball in the UK. Over the years, the OUHaC has become a well-established and thriving club in the UK. We are confident that we will be able to further strengthen and improve the Club in the years to come.

HOCKEY The Hockey Club has enjoyed another fantastic season, with overall victory in the Varsity tally and five out of six teams achieving record high Saturday league finishes. This year also saw the successful introduction of the OUHC training academy.

The men’s Blues had a rather mixed season overall, not quite achieving the highs of which the talent in the team was undoubtedly capable. In their Saturday league, they finished – as tradition has long dictated – solidly in www.sport.ox.ac.uk

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mid-table. Captain Adam Jordan deserves special mention for being league top scorer for the second season running, and scoring 45% of the team’s goals! On Wednesdays, the team reinforced their position as the next best team in BUCS South Premier behind national champions Exeter. The side were unfortunate to go down 5–3 in the Varsity Match, in a very even and end-to-end game of hockey.

The women’s Blues have been the best quality women’s team that Oxford has produced in recent years. The team narrowly missed out on promotion in their Saturday league, dropping only four points after Christmas. In BUCS, highlights included a 3–0 domination of Bath and finishing third in the league. Oxford retained the Varsity trophy for the eighth year running after drawing the Varsity Match – the longest streak that either side has had since the 1950s!

The Occasionals also achieved their highestever finish in their Saturday league, breaking into the top five; they also reached the final of the LHL Division 1 Cup. In BUCS they finished in a comfortable second place and will be hoping for promotion next year. Their Varsity was one of the best spectacles of the year, an epic fight back to level the match in a thrilling 3–3 draw.

The Monkeys’ Varsity dominance continued this year, and the cumulative goal tally of the last four years now stands at 14–4. The team finished seventh in their Saturday league,

beating or drawing with every team above them. In BUCS, they finished a very strong second, with the best goal difference in the league – they will definitely be looking to secure promotion next season.

The Infrequents achieved promotion in their Saturday league for the second year in a row.

They entered BUCS for the first time this year, but unfortunately so did the Cambridge Firsts.

Despite beating the Tabs on their own turf, in a result which sent raptures through the whole Club, they ultimately finished second on goal difference. Their Varsity draw rather flattered Cambridge, but all the same, Varsity honours were retained. And why beat Cambridge Thirds when you can beat their Firsts, after all?

Finally, the Hos also achieved back-to-back promotion in their Saturday league, and comfortably secured fifth place to stay up in a very competitive BUCS division. A dramatic last-minute goal in their Varsity Match saw them take the title 1–0, rounding up an impressive season.

Off the field, OUHC’s widely-renowned social scene has continued apace, and the unique Club spirit continues to get stronger and stronger.

Ice Hockey It has been a mixed season for OUIHC with each team receiving a high intake of new

players, meaning that Club membership as a whole rose to record levels. On the ice however things were a little less rosy.

The men’s Blues had the misfortune of having teams withdraw from their division immediately prior to the season start, leaving them with a truncated schedule of only six games.

Nevertheless the Blues ended with five wins and one loss in the six games they actually played, with a forfeit win and loss in the remaining two.

One of these matches was the Varsity Match and the Blues were able to rout an extremely poor Cambridge squad 17–1. Finishing top of their division, they went in to a play-off against the winner of the northern division, Manchester, but unfortunately fell to a 7–4 defeat.

The men’s Vikings, playing in the division below, were the beneficiaries of the withdrawal of the Division 1 teams. While this meant extra matches, these were against teams that were of Division 1 standard and so were by far the toughest opponents. This meant that a lot of games were heavy losses by five or more goals. Nevertheless a record of 2 wins, 2 ties and 10 defeats was a reasonable return from a rebuilding season. That progress had been made was clear to see in the Varsity challenge, where a strong Cambridge team, boasting several former light Blues, was held to a 4–2 scoreline.

The national championships, where a large squad allowed entry of a Vikings team into both Tier 2 and 3, further demonstrated this with the Tier 3 team, comprised of first-year rookies,

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drawing two matches and losing three. The Tier 2 team, made up of the most experienced players, did even better going 2, 2 and 2 and narrowly missing out on a semi-final spot by one point.

The women’s Blues, playing in Division 3, also had fewer matches than the preceding year due to a reorganisation of the divisional structure. It was tough year for the women, with the loss of last year’s top scorers, as well as their goaltender, resulting in seven losses in the seven games played as well as a heavy 9–2 loss in the Varsity Match. Nevertheless the women enjoyed themselves throughout the year and there was significant improvement to suggest that next season will be better – not least in the national championships performance. In a tough group in the Tier 3 tournament, the women achieved one tie (with Cambridge) and four losses.

JITSU With lots of bruises and plenty of mat burns but nothing broken, it has been another successful year for Oxford University Jitsu Club.

As a whole the year has seen three regional gradings, one instructor grading, two national competitions and recently our Varsity Match against Cambridge.

In terms of gradings, the Club has seen the advancement of four individuals to yellow

belts, three to orange belts and one to a green and subsequently purple belt. We are extremely proud of all of them. We have also seen Club members Ian Farr and James Burt pass their incredibly challenging six-hour brown belt gradings, giving them the potential to set up their own clubs across the country within our governing body.

In the national competitions, we have brought home two gold medals as well as a silver and a bronze, which against the enormous Londonbased clubs was no easy task. In addition to this, even those who did not win medals got the chance to put their skills to the test in a competitive environment, and fought good fights. As Club bonding goes, nothing is better than pitting ourselves as a team against people from around the country, as well as the occasional American and Australian club.

Our recent Varsity Match was one of the closest we have ever had, with Cambridge only just squeezing ahead in the last ground-based randori fight. That said, particular kudos goes to our treasurer Naomi, who despite weighing only 56kg bravely stepped in to compete against an 84kg male opponent when one of our competitors backed out due to minor injury.

As a Club we are now back in training for gradings at the end of term, as well as building both technique and fitness whilst looking forward to a rematch against our Cambridge rivals.

Judo 2011–12 saw Oxford University Judo Club excel on both the competitive circuit and as a recreational club.

Competitively the Club has two major events, the Varsity Match and BUCS weekend. Hosted

by Oxford at the inspiring venue of Oxford Town Hall the Varsity Match was, for the first time ever, streamed live across the internet to an audience of alumni and friends across the globe. Varsity 2012 saw some epic battles as the men’s Blues team fought to retain the coveted Matsudaira Cup for the third successive year as the Oxford men’s team shattered Cambridge’s dreams with a thrilling 6–2 victory. Our women’s Blues team also outclassed their rivals with a stunning 4–0 (and one draw) victory, to bring home the Sake Bowl.

Following our Varsity successes the Club also triumphed at BUCS, bringing home a number of individual medals as well as the silver and bronze for our men’s and women’s teams respectively.

In addition to our competitive elements our Club is a firm supporter of developing recreational players and newcomers. Oxford Judo has a team of exceptional coaches who work with all our members to develop technical and competitive skills. This year our head coach Chris Doherty was awarded the

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very prestigious achievement of sixth Dan. Further to our regular coaching, this year we held our largest ever beginners’ course and introduced 30 newcomers to the sport of Judo.

Over an eight-week course our class learnt a variety of judo techniques and graded to yellow belt at the end of the course. The course was so successful that a number of its participants have even gone on to compete in competitions; our beginners have gone on to win medals at the London Universities Championships, Warwick University and even BUCS, which is an exceptional achievement and testament to the quality of coaching and training at our Club.

KaraTe During the past year, OUKC members have profited from the strong technical focus of the training sessions and showed excellent performances during grading examinations, which in part were conducted by world-class instructors from the Honbu Dojo headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. While traditional karate as the foundation for good technique will remain the focus of most training sessions, the last year has seen the Club further incentivise members’ attendance at competitions and tournaments by providing subsidies in addition to equipment. The past Varsity Match against Cambridge has been the most closely contested clash of the clubs in the recent years, with excellent performances from the OUKC squad.

While Cambridge was victorious that day, OUKC looks set to right this result in the year ahead. Especially, with the possibility of more training sessions at Oxford lead by Sensei Ohta (seventh Dan, JKA England national team coach, head instructor of JKA England, and world renowned karateka), the Club is looking forward to a year of world-class training and successful competition.

KENDO The Club has had a successful year. In addition to the Summer and Winter Cups we host each year, it was also the turn of Oxford to host the Varsity Match – we won the team competition unanimously, and also took first, second and one of the joint third places in the individuals.

Unfortunately we were not able to attend this year’s National Universities Tournament, because at the last minute it was rescheduled to the same weekend as our Varsity Match; however, we have had success at a number of other competitions.

The Club continues to benefit from training with visiting Japanese and Korean students. We have also had the privilege of being visited by a number of British national squad members, as well as a former Oxford student who is now in the Mexican national squad.

KICKBOXING This year was one of transition and growth for the Club. Our membership grew to over 80, a substantial portion of whom are women, setting a new Club record. Our founding member and coach left Oxford last summer and we have been enjoying working with our new head coach Jan Treska. We have been more active in local tournaments and shows than in past years and fought a hard Varsity Match which sadly we lost 5–4.We look forward to University Championships in the spring.

Thanks to the efforts of our senior member Kat Young and our IT officer Kirstie Moore, we successfully bid for women’s Half Blue status and intend on pursuing the same for the men in Trinity.

Our weekly training attendance has been very high, consistently over 40 people on Mondays when we have space in the hall. Our other sessions have all been split into two in order to accommodate our numbers in the Dojo and rugby fives courts.

Our webpage received a makeover in Michaelmas term 2011 and has never looked better, as we continue to add more photos and information for members and prospective members.

We held our first Cuppers event, with over 12 colleges represented. We have also had many successful Club socials.

Korfball This year has been a very good one for Oxford University Korfball Club, both developmentally and socially. Previously a smaller Club, we started strongly with a good recruitment drive from the Fresher’s Fair, a large intake of new players and the reintroduction of some more experienced players. In addition we successfully appointed a new coach who has taken the team to the next level in terms of tactics and success. We successfully integrated these into the first and second teams, who both played weekly matches in the local league; the first team are now performing consistently week in week out, and beating teams that on paper are much stronger. The second team have competed enthusiastically and with increasing skill as they have learnt the beautiful game of Korfball. Bear in mind that these players had about 3 weeks’ experience when playing their first match against players who have been playing for years.

In addition to league matches, the Korfball team has attended many tournaments to develop their skills further against the best university opposition in the country. The list includes the Nottingham Beginners’ Tournament, the Keele Tournament, the

Edinburgh International Tournament, Leeds, and the University of East Anglia, and culminated in the Southerns Tournament, in which the team successfully qualified for Nationals. In the Nationals Tournament, in a very difficult group (including last year’s Champions and last year’s Runners Up), we performed very well with a relatively inexperienced squad and registered tenth in the country. This result is testament to the dedication of the players, and to the experience and commitment of the coach this season. We ended the season on a high, having won the Oxfordshire League competition after beating Reading University 4–3 on penalties after an 8–8 draw.

Looking forward we have a young squad that is developing quickly and we hope to complement this with more players this year.

This will allow us to expand to a third team in the local league and an even better attendance at tournaments and even higher placement in Nationals. A special thank you to the coach, who has never faltered in his desire to improve the Club, and the committee, who have made this achievement possible.

Kung Fu 2011–12 continued to be a successful year for Oxford University Kung Fu Club (OUKFC), which sees a steady influx of students interested in practising Chinese martial arts.

In particular, OUKFC continued to enjoy great success in its ‘Kung Fu Drama’ performances across Oxford and Cambridge, as we were once again invited to Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam College to perform at its Chinese New Year Gala. The Club also participated in the RBS Enterprising Student Society Accreditation (ESSA), using all the video clips from its performances in the past three years to produce its first promotional video [video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUYwq2t3llI] Some of our prominent performances and displays include: • ‘ The Green Hornet‘ at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, 2012 • Oxford Town Hall (filmed by BBC Oxford during one of our rehearsals) • Said Business School, Oxford • ’The Story of Ip Man, Wing Chun‘ at Cambridge’s Corn Exchange Theatre • Kung Fu Drama Comedy, Oxford Union • ’The Legend of Bruce Lee’ at the Sheldonian Theatre, and the Examination Schools (Oxford International Festival) • The Oriental Ball, held at Oxford’s Freud’ Restaurant

Lacrosse OULC have had another fantastic year, despite www.sport.ox.ac.uk

34 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2012 Helen Hanstock

some challenging weather after Christmas that restricted travel and playing time. The women’s Blues team finished strongly in third place of the top southern league; it was the women’s Swifts team who really excelled, however, winning an intense Varsity Match and making it to the BUCS final, where they put up a strong fight against Nottingham. The mixed team had an incredibly strong group of players that they had to narrow down for Varsity, coming out with a tight win against a strong Cambridge side.

The Men’s teams have had a particularly exciting year, entering a development squad into SEMLA for the first time. More players with more pitch time means they end this year with strong momentum to expand further next season. Ending third in their league, the men’s Blues team dominated Cambridge at the Varsity Match, winning 12–0, with the men’s Iroquois also finishing with a win of 4–2.

The success of the men’s teams this season is also reflected in national representation, with members playing for South and Wales for the first time. There are many plans afoot for further expansion and recruitment this year, which will no doubt further strengthen the sport and the Club as a whole. Women’s Team members also represented Wales and England this year, reflecting the high calibre of players attracted to Oxford Lacrosse.

For the first time in three years the sun shone at Varsity and over 400 supporters came down to watch some of the six matches that took place.

With the help of our sponsors, Credit Suisse, the new OULC Varsity app and the presence of a hog roast, the day was a resounding success. Fingers crossed for next year, and we hope to see similar support for the teams over in Cambridge!

Lawn Tennis Another year and another solid performance from OULTC in BUCS. Oxford fields a higher than average number of teams to this competition, with the men and women each having three teams in the BUCS leagues. The men’s Blues had a strong year in the Southern Premier league, finishing fourth in a tough division. The women’s Blues came third in Division 1A, finishing just short of promotion once again. They also did exceptionally well to reach the final of the knockouts. Among the other notable achievements was the performance of the men’s second team, who won promotion to Division 1.

Apart from BUCS the Club’s weekly coaching for non-team playing members continued.

Various annual friendly fixtures were also played. OULTC is lucky enough to play teams such as the All England Club, Camden Hill, Winchester, The Queen’s Club and The Hurlingham to name a few. The men’s and women’s Blues went on a combined tour to the

Kiwi Tennis Club in Florida. The team was able to play several American university sides whilst there, with the men’s team going unbeaten on tour.

OULTC suffered mixed results at the Varsity Matches this year. Both the women’s and men’s Thirds won theirs well but unfortunately all the other teams went down in hotly contested matches. The women’s Blues lost 16-5 while the men lost tightly, 12–9.

Overall it has been a good year for OULTC, with some good tennis played and some great friends made.

LIFESAVING At the end of last year we achieved second place out of 25 teams in the RNLI incident at nationals. However, this has been an unfortunate year for membership, with the loss of several members and a gain of only one at Freshers’ Fair. We narrowly lost Varsity, due to fitness rather than technical ability. We have organized an instructor’s course for the coaches (and president) which will hopefully allow us to expand our appeal. We are also hoping to enter an Oxbridge team to BULSCA (inter-university) competitions next year, to allow us to compete with fewer numbers.

LIGHTWEIGHT ROWING - WOMEN The 2011/12 season has seen OUWLRC build on the past years of success. We have had the biggest squad for many years, enabling us to have a strong competition for the seats in the Blue Boat, which won the Boat Race on 25 March by 11/3 lengths in a time of 6:48 minutes. The winning time was fast enough to award the nine women in the boat discretionary Full Blues. For the first time in the history of OUWLRC we were able to race our reserve boat, Tethys, against a reserve boat from Cambridge. Apart from the success at our Varsity Match, we have had a very strong season with wins in smaller boats at Winter Head races. OUWLRC have participated in many events outside Oxford to gain the necessary experience in racing. In addition, for the first time we were able to go to training camp in Portugal which was one of the highlights of our season.

MODERN PENTATHLON This has been one of the most successful years in OUMPA history. Not only did all of our teams beat Cambridge in the Varsity Match, but the men’s Blues team extended their winning streak over the Light Blues to

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16 victories on the run, equalling the record for most consecutive Varsity Match wins by any sports team in Oxford University’s history.

The Club’s success began even before the start of Michaelmas Term when the men’s team defeated the Army and Cambridge in a triangular Modern Pentathlon competition at Sandhurst in September. The women’s team also defeated the Army’s best modern pentathletes but narrowly lost out to Cambridge – a result that was to be reversed at the all-important Varsity Match. Men’s captain Harry Tabor was also busy over the summer vacation winning the National Pony Club Tetrathlon Competition, whilst Alex Fraser, new to the team this year, spent the summer representing Great Britain in the Age-Group Modern Pentathlon World Championships.

The first event of the year was the novice Varsity Match, when Oxford and Cambridge get to showcase their new talent. Oxford fresher Dan Fox won the men’s individual competition and, together with the rest of the Oxford team, defeated Cambridge in the men’s team competition. The Oxford women’s team showed a lot of potential but unfortunately were narrowly defeated by Cambridge. BUCS was also a tremendously successful competition for the Club. Our First Team (men and women combined) finished a very impressive third but was very unlucky not to secure top honours after suffering some bad luck in the showjumping phase. Alex Fraser won individual gold and Harry Tabor came in third.

The culmination of the year’s hard work was the Varsity Match. Every single team member stepped up and delivered phenomenal performances. The women’s team rose to the occasion spectacularly and overturned a recent series of unfortunate performances against Cambridge to win the Varsity Match in a real nail-biter! Women’s captain Lucy Crane led by example and secured second place in the individual competition. The women’s Reserves were also victorious. The men’s team, despite the huge weight of expectation that comes with 15 consecutive Varsity wins, handled the pressure like true professionals and dominated Cambridge for the entire competition. The Oxford men also secured a one-two in the individual competition with men’s captain, Harry Tabor leading the way for his team, closely followed by Alex Fraser. The men’s Reserves team were similarly dominant, defeating Cambridge in every single event.

OUMPA President Mark Inkester was honoured to have led the Club in this record-breaking year which saw all teams triumph over Cambridge.

MOTOR DRIVERS The 2011/12 season was truly a bumper year for OUMDC. We improved on previous years’ successes in almost every way: we finished

higher in the British Universities Karting Championship (18th out of 64); we qualified more teams into the championship; we enrolled more Club members; we signed up more new members at Freshers’ Fair; and we had more on- and off-track events than ever before!

Our first event was our annual freshers’ karting race, where we introduced new people to the motorsport scene here at Oxford. Interest in the event has been growing year on year, and this year was no different. We were very oversubscribed and many were immediately signed up as members and onto further novice karting events. Our second event was the University team trials where we invited the best new drivers to trial for a place on one of the Oxford BUKC teams. Interest and talent were so good that this year we managed to qualify three teams into the championship – a number of teams normally only seen by the absolute top universities of the BUKC. The BUKC itself took us from Teesside to Kent and everywhere in between, and was a fantastic season, with certainly the best weather of any that can be remembered! Our B and C teams had a difficult start but drivers quickly learned the setup and talents required to succeed at a race day and brought home some very strong results in the latter part of the season. The Varsity Race took place in May and, despite everything conspiring to give Cambridge a fighting chance, Oxford still emerged victorious. There was a large accident on the first lap, wiping out most of Oxford’s top drivers, and the good weather of the BUKC ended up increasing the difficulty for our drivers as they raced with little-to-no wetweather experience on a completely drenched track. In the end the result was very close, with the Oxford team’s much greater racing practice proving there is no substitute for experience.

MounTaineering It has been another good year for OUMC. Lots of freshers were recruited at the start of Michaelmas term and we had three popular beginners’ meets for them. All were quite successful, the weather was mostly good and people seemed to enjoy themselves.

Throughout the year the Club has had about six meets a term, alternating between weekend and one-day meets. The Michaelmas ones were incredibly popular, helped by fantastic weather every weekend and keen new members. The Club socials have also been well-attended; the Christmas dinner was one of the most popular ever, with 62 attending. In the last year the Club has been to Pembroke, Cornwall, the Peak District, Dartmoor, North Wales and many other UK destinations.

Over the year there has been a lot of

improvement in the members’ abilities. Most of the beginners have now become responsible climbers and many of the experienced members are now climbing even harder!

NETBALL As ever, the 2011/12 season has been a fun but steep learning curve for OUNC. Following our season of unfortunate events last year, when we lost our coach and sponsors and our captain became injured, the squad returned with all three restored and ready for a great fortnight of pre-season.

We were particularly happy to welcome back Frances Granger, who coached the Blues to Varsity victory in 2010. We managed to persuade Fran, who coaches Lincoln University in New Zealand and played for the Silver Ferns herself, to return to Oxford to complete what in her words is ‘unfinished business’.

Despite all our hard work over the summer, the first half of our season did not go quite to plan.

By mid-term, three of our Blues players needed knee surgery, requiring a reshuffle of the squad, which we had strengthened through trials in noughth week – and this disruption was reflected in our league results.

After Christmas the squad returned refreshed and ready to fight for their places in the league.

The Blues squad came into their own, winning six out of nine matches, ending the season in fourth place. The Roos played and won some hard-fought games to end the season in fifth place. As such, both teams will remain in their BUCS leagues, the Blues in Midlands 1A, the Roos in Midlands 2A. The season reached its finale in the annual Varsity Match, hosted this year by Oxford. The Roos had a tough match. Despite a strong performance, the Cambridge team just had the edge, winning the game 33–25. The Blues then came to the court and gave a fantastic performance, dominating Cambridge in both circles. The scoreline reflected all the hard work and dedication of the team, with the Blues winning 48–32, one of the largest margins in history!

The Blues’ strong form took them (somewhat unexpectedly) to the final of the BUCS Trophy.

The Blues gave a gritty performance but could not keep the strong opposition at bay, losing to Liverpool John Moores 34–68.

OcTopush Intense physical exertion while being denied access to oxygen is perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea and so getting a strong member base is one of our biggest challenges in Octopush.

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36 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2012

how much fun it is and then they are hooked.

The committee has done an excellent job this year in attracting new members and generating enthusiasm for Octopush. This was shown predominantly by our participation in the Student Nationals held in Warwick in February.

We put in two teams for the first time ever and achieved a position that we could all be proud of, especially since many of our players had only played underwater hockey for the first time in Michaelmas term.

As the current committee will be carrying on for another year, we hope to build on our good work from this year and continue to increase the popularity of Octopush. We hope to increase our member base further and potentially look into getting more training time so we can work on being the best breathholding, fast-swimming, snorkelled up, puck flingers around!

OrienTeering OUOC have once again had a busy and successful year. The Club has attended local orienteering competitions almost every weekend, as well as holding various training sessions during the week. We also travelled to Cumbria for BUCS. With fewer women than in the past few years and one vital team member lost due to illness, we were not able to field a full women’s team for BUCS, but nevertheless managed to beat Imperial, along with many other top universities overall. The men more than made up for it, though, pulling us up to second place overall in the country after the individual.

The Varsity Match this year was held in Southern England. The men’s team beat Cambridge overall by 78 minutes, the scorers being Peter Hodkinson, Alan Cherry and Ben Stevens, as well as securing first and second position (Peter Hodkinson and Alan Cherry).

Peter Hodkinson (St Anne’s) was also selected to represent Great Britain at the World University Orienteering Championships in Spain in July 2011, following his performance in several high-profile national competitions.

At the end of June we travelled to Finland to compete in the Jukola relay. This is a sevenperson overnight orienteering relay, the biggest relay of any sport in the world, with more than 20,000 competitors.

PisTol This year has been a busy one for OUPC, with extensive work competitively and otherwise.

In our spring small-bore Varsity we had a decisive victory over Cambridge in both the mixed A (Oxford 2,155–2,114 Cambridge) and

mixed B team matches (Oxford 2,075–1,959 Cambridge). In a closely fought women’s match, a strong women’s team led by Paula Heister lost by a narrow margin (Oxford 1,961–1,976 Cambridge). Congratulations also go to Paula Heister and Ben Hoskin for earning their first Half Blues at this event.

We have also had a successful year with our other competitions, with OUPC shooters taking first and second place in the 2011 Oxfordshire Men’s Pistol Championships and first place in the women’s competition, and OUPC itself taking the club trophy. We entered a large team into the Oxfordshire Gallery Rifle Championships and hope to keep up the same high levels of entry and achievement in the coming term. We have also entered both the summer and winter rounds of the Oxfordshire postal leagues and have had excellent results in both, with a number of divisional wins from all levels of experience.

At last summer’s Imperial meeting OUPC had a busy weekend, with Varsity and a number of University competitions. Varsity was a narrow loss for Oxford, the final results coming in at Oxford 701–739 Cambridge, but this was a strong improvement on previous years and excellent considering the gap in university facilities, and therefore in prior rifle experience, between the two teams. An OUPC team also won the McGivern cup over the weekend.

Over the coming months we will be focusing on this year’s Oxfordshire Championships, and on gallery rifle and black powder pistol training for the Imperial meeting this summer. After a successful Freshers’ Fair we also have a number of talented new members from whom we will be expecting some good competitive results over the next term.

POLO The extremely poor summer has meant that the quality of polo this year has left much to be desired. Uptake during Michaelmas 2011 was rather reserved, and only a small number of students played with the Club this year. The weather has been extremely detrimental, and due to safety concerns almost all matches and tournaments have been cancelled. It should be noted that this is a national problem; many prestigious events have been cancelled this year due to poor weather. The lack of practice is certainly the main reason why OUPC lost its winning streak against the Tabs.

OUPC had a lot of work to do over the summer in preparation for the new term, but the Club is still standing on strong foundations with some very good players and committee members.

Changes have been implemented by the committee to prevent a repeat of this year’s failings, although less can be done about the pouring rain.

Pool and Snooker OUPSC had a tumultuous start to the year, with the previous year’s losses crippling the successful team of the past few years. In order to remedy this dire situation we introduced weekly open practices, which threw up several new talents, such as Dale Rout and seasoned college league player Lee Collins. The ever popular college league flew into action in Michaelmas term, and with the previous powerhouse of St John ’s College falling from grace, there was everything to play for. Four colleges fought it out for the title: Merton, Queen’s, Brasenose and Balliol, with Collins’ Merton eventually breaking free of the competition to top the league for the first time in 15 years. These teams met again in Hilary, and despite a valiant attempt at a clean sweep, Merton were toppled by the Balliol team captained by Matt Kennedy.

Hilary also saw the preparation for the highlights of the pool calendar: the BUCS pool and snooker competitions. These both saw significant improvements upon previous years, the extra practice clearly paying dividends for the inexperienced teams. The Firsts attained a bronze medal in the Trophy competition; sadly not even a surprising run of form from OUPSC veteran Richard Walters could keep Leeds from snatching victory in the semis. The Seconds also did well in their group, with newcomer Dale Rout winning all but one of his frames. The Thirds were a women’s team, due to the cancellation of the women’s tournament (which Oxford traditionally dominated). They competed for the shield, and despite an excellent first outing at the mostly male tournament, sadly they were eliminated in the group stages. At the snooker, we improved upon our previous record by reaching the quarter finals of the Championship, with Ben Charlston taking the highest break with a phenomenal half century.

Trinity saw the Varsity Match, which we entered with much confidence due to the powerful showing at BUCS. Despite a few tense moments, the Oxford team did not disappoint, with a 47–43 victory over our Cambridge counterparts. The women’s team took home the title far more confidently, with a 38–16 win.

Next year we look to build on these successes, and believe the youthful energy of Dale Rout tempered by seasoned cue-ist Ben Charlston will propel us to further heights.

PowerlifTing OUPLC started the year with a dominating performance at the University and College Championships producing both the senior and junior winners. The squad moved from strength to strength with many of the new members hitting their stride and several old members returning to regain the Varsity Match victory after our unfortunate defeat last year.

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www.sport.ox.ac.uk

Nasir Hamid

38 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2012

RIDING The Club has had some fantastic achievements this year and has established the structure for these to be repeated in future years. These achievements include: upgrading the Club to Discretionary Full Blue status, setting up a showjumping Cuppers competition which can be run in future years, and sending a team to showjump in France at the EDHEC International Student competition. This year two riders also attended GB student riders’ training and were invited to a selection day for the World University Championship squad. Lauren Innes was chosen for a second selection day for the Championship squad and Emma Pepperell was selected for the International B squad.

We have also used the OURC Facebook page successfully and attracted a year’s sponsorship from a local rider.

Particular congratulations must go to Geoffrey Lynn as the third member to earn the Full Blue since 2001.

Aside from the Varsity Squad, five members of the Club qualified for nationals during competitions in January and June, with one going on to place second in at the nationals held in September. Finally, OUPLC has continued its push to be one of the main centres for powerlifting in the community and has seen some remarkable lifters train with us. One especially outstanding lifter was Matt Pearce, who recently represented Great Britain in the International Powerlifting Federation Classic World Cup in June.

RackeTs The Rackets Club has had a good year, full of improvement. The Club has been struggling for a number of years for various reasons but we are happy to say that things are on the up. Practice and general play have been regular over the year despite the refurbishment of the court at Radley.

Members of the Club have also taken part in almost all of the national tournaments over the course of the year; most notably, Alex Portz successfully defended his U21s doubles title and Arthur Wakeley won the Sandhurst Cup. This year also saw the return of the Inter University Rackets Tournament held at Manchester, and we are happy to say that Oxford won. The Varsity Match at The Queen’s Club, very kindly sponsored by Pol Roger, was another great success. Oxford has now maintained the title for more years than we can find in the records.

That being said, next year will be a much harder contest, with some formidable players heading to Cambridge in September. As a Club we hope to grow and attract new players to the game in the coming year.

Real Tennis The highlights of our season are always the Varsity Matches, although we play many other fixtures against other Real Tennis clubs and our members participate in club and national tournaments. Cambridge and Middlesex are the only other universities with their own Real Tennis courts, which limits the opportunities for inter-university events. There is an ambitious plan to build up to four courts at Surrey University at Guildford, and with this and the fact that there are courts in other university cities such as Bristol, London, Manchester and Newcastle, we hope a BUCS competition might develop.

This year’s Varsity campaign was exceptionally successful, making history for OUTC. For the first time in the history of the respective fixtures, Oxford won all four matches: the men’s and women’s Blues and Second Team events, held at the MCC court at Lord’s and at our Merton Street court, respectively. The men’s Blues Varsity was first played in 1859, the women’s Blues Varsity started in 1992 and the Second Team Varsity has been running since 2005.

We have currently more active student players than at any time in the Club’s history, we believe, and numbers are pretty evenly split between men and women. Real Tennis at Oxford is going from strength to strength but we desperately need a second court; courts built in the UK in the past 15 years have ranged from £450,000–£1.4million in cost, so they do not come cheap, sadly. We are lucky to have another court within reasonably close distance (the world’s newest court is at Radley College, about 7 miles outside Oxford), but this still does not match the two courts that Cambridge have on the same site on Grange Road!

This year the first team qualified for BUCS Regionals by winning three out of four qualifying competitions. At Regionals they narrowly missed qualifying for Nationals as a team, although two individual riders qualified.

Despite having a very strong First Team, Oxford unfortunately conceded Varsity victory to Cambridge by a narrow margin. Oxford were leading by a fair distance after the dressage; however, Oxford were trying a new scoring system in order to weight the dressage and showjumping equally, to avoid problems which have arisen in past competitions. Unfortunately a costly mistake, where the jumping scores were not converted to percentages (as the dressage scores were), heavily favoured the jumping component of the competition, where Cambridge were stronger. Importantly, the Captain has now put in place a set of Varsity rules to avoid any discrepancies arising at future competitions.

The Club’s aims for next year are to maintain a strong membership pool and recruit new members via Freshers’ Fair, to maintain weekly lessons, to attend the EDHEC competition in France, and to maximise the number of BUCS squad members attending GB squad training.

The GB squad training is open to BUCS Championship league riders and provides good value for money if the Club is subsidising these sessions, affording high-quality training on unknown horses, and raises the national and international profile of Oxford riders.

Rifle After the decline of the Club in recent years, and the tireless work of James Jalili in rescuing it, this year has laid a solid foundation for a competitive future. In particular, the final event of the year, the Universities Long Range match at Bisley, saw us pick up second place in the country, and our aggregate score with the short range of the day before was enough for

Matt Henderson

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us to take silver medals in BUCS. This saw us defeated by an unusually strong Durham team, but, most pleasingly, beating Cambridge to second place.

Unfortunately, Varsity victory eluded OURC this year, but the contests against Cambridge were the closest they have been for many years.

The Club is extremely strong going forward, and we have every confidence that the level of organisation, training and commitment in evidence from the first weeks of Michaelmas term 2012 will manifest itself in some very impressive competitive results later in the year.

Rugby Fives After suffering a close loss in the previous season’s Varsity Match, Oxford University Rugby Fives Club were determined from the off to do all they could to regain their rightful place as winners. With several players having left, however, this was never going to be an easy task, even though the Club was able to attract some new players who had extensive experience of the sport at school.

Michaelmas was a quiet term for the Club, with only a few competitive matches to challenge the skills and fitness of the squad.

Unfortunately this was reflected in the BUCS tournament, where all the Club’s players suffered an early exit in the second round, the most surprising result being captain Mark Hine losing to a technically inferior school friend, his Cambridge affiliation rubbing salt in the wound.

With Hilary term fast approaching, it was clear that training had to step up in volume and intensity, as the Varsity Match was fast approaching. With more frequent training and focus in the squad, the progress being made was clearly visible. This was reflected in many of the warm-up games played early in the term, with Oxford Past vs Present also being an opportune moment to get used to the St Paul’s courts – the location for Varsity. The Club would again like to express its thanks to Dick Warner for organising such an enjoyable day for all those involved.

When Varsity came however, luck did not go our way. Cambridge fielded an extremely strong team and Oxford could not quite manage to edge out a win, even though Mark Hine produced a sterling performance as captain to help inspire his fellow team members. Although the singles games were close, it was doubles that let the side down, the total score being 290–119 in favour of Cambridge. Although this was rather a sour note to end the season on, Oxford were able to take many positives from the day.

Rugby League Following an immensely productive pre-season

camp at Cheltenham at the end of September, OURLFC began the 2011/12 season with high hopes of building on two successive Varsity victories and continuing the Club’s recent successes, which had included seeing 2009/10 Captain Paddy Boyle achieve selection at an international level for the senior Ireland squad.

The Club’s traditional tendency to get off to a slow start to the year, with term starting several weeks behind the majority of other universities, proved a familiar obstacle as freshfaced Blues and Maroons sides went down to very strong Exeter teams, away from home. A lot of hard work on technical skills and fitness, combined with the team’s growing match experience, saw the Blues string together a three-game unbeaten run in the remaining games before the Christmas break, including big wins over Northampton and Nottingham, winning 70–10 and 48–0 respectively.

With results showing significant signs of improvement going into Christmas, the Club travelled to Portugal for a mid-season training camp in January, ready to step up the intensity going into Varsity term.

The Blues went on to win five games in the run-up to Varsity, claiming wins along the way over the RAF and a fiercely contested

encounter with local rivals Oxford in front of a 700-strong Iffley Road crowd. By this stage, the Blues had progressed to the semi-finals of the BUCS Trophy but a scheduling clash with Varsity meant that an intransigent Glamorgan team progressed on a bye to the final, depriving the Blues of a chance to compete for silverware.

Nevertheless, the team could not dwell on their disappointment with Varsity looming large.

The showpiece, season-defining spectacle took place at Richmond Athletic Ground on 8th March in front of a vociferous and partisan crowd, with the Blues keen to match the achievements of the Maroons, who had recorded an emphatic 42–4 win over Oxford Brookes seconds earlier that day. An efficient, professional performance saw the Blues run out 48–0 winners, becoming the first team to win the K J Lee trophy three times in a row, recording the first ever shut-out of Cambridge, as well as the biggest winning margin in Varsity history.

Rugby Union - MEN The Club enjoyed an incredibly successful season overall, winning all four OURFC Varsity Matches, the only blip being the loss of the www.sport.ox.ac.uk

Matt Henderson

40 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2012

OURFU Colleges XV. The showpiece game at Twickenham for the Blues once again saw a very exciting Varsity Match; despite having inspirational captain John Carter in the blood bin for 12 minutes, the Blues produced their best rugby of the term and won 28–10, the biggest winning margin since 1988 and the first time Oxford have won twice in a row since 2001. Superbly led by Captain John Carter, every player played his part in what was ultimately a very dominant performance – particularly the second half, when Cambridge did not cross the Oxford line! Sky Sports Man of the Match was second-row forward Karl Outen, who earned his third Blue, as did wing Sean Morris.

The Greyhounds, having withdrawn from BUCS the previous year, enjoyed a mixed season results-wise, but come Varsity they once again produced the goods to secure their ninth consecutive victory, 24–17. The Under 21s enjoyed a strong season and, under the guidance of former Blues Head Coach Lynn Evans, started to play the expansive style of rugby he had introduced the previous season. Taking this positive attitude into their Varsity Match at Twickenham, they won more comfortably than the scoreline of 19–11 suggests. The Whippets’ Varsity Match as always was a close affair, but the youngest OURFC team showed great spirit and skill to secure a 21–15 win at Cambridge. The Colleges XV came up against a strong Cambridge outfit at Grange Road and went down 18–3. In January 2012 John Carter (Kellogg) was re-elected Captain, the first time since 1966–7 that an OURFC captain had stood for a second term of office.

Full back Jonathan Hudson (Lincoln) was elected as Team Secretary.

Rugby Union - WOMEN This season has been very successful for OUWRFC. Following a lot of changes to the structure and ethos of the Club over the summer, a Team Manager and Head Coach were appointed, whilst Paul O’Connor continued as a coach from the previous year.

After freshers’ week, the squad looked even more fruitful with lots of new recruits and training sessions being attended by 30 – 40 women. The first term of BUCS went very well with wins against Bath (home and away) and Cardiff. This left the Blues feeling confident that they could retain their position in the South premiership. The Panthers, who continued to play at the weekend, had a few friendly fixtures where the new members had a chance to showcase their enthusiasm for their new sport.

In January a group of 20 women went to Portugal for a mid-season training camp. The weather was glorious and everyone there enjoyed the chance to be able to train hard, use the great facilities and relax in the sun. This week allowed all of the players to really bond with the new coaches and work on some key skills.

Once back in Oxford everyone knuckled down and started to prepare for the Varsity Match in March, whilst maintaining their great performance in the BUCS league. With the return of a few injured players the squad was strengthened once more. The Blues won a few more games this term and finished the season third in the South Premiership, their best finish in five years. The Panthers were able to play a

few more friendly fixtures, including local and university sides, in preparation for their Varsity Match.

This year OUWRFC decided to expand their work into the community and were involved with helping to coach girls’ rugby in local secondary schools. A tournament held at Iffley Road, won

by Cherwell School, was thoroughly enjoyed by all those who took part.

Varsity was a very successful day and the support was extremely impressive. Although the Panthers lost, it was a very brave performance by all. The Blues won back the Varsity trophy after five years, with a 28–8 scoreline. The Dark Blues beat Cambridge through their fitness, determination and depth of squad.

Shorinji Kempo 2011–12 was a continuing year of success for the Kempo Club. Although intake from the Freshers’ Fair was moderately low, we continued to pick up new members throughout the year, supplementing the already strong core of Kenshi. Despite ongoing organisational turmoil affecting Shorinji Kempo in the UK, several Club members passed gradings in both Durham and Slough.

February saw four Club members attend an official WSKO seminar in Durham, which featured several high-level instructors from WSKO headquarters in Japan and was a great opportunity for Club members to improve and refine their techniques.

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As always, the Club thanks Sensei Chris and our team of black belts, Howard, Seb, Steve and Lucy, for their teaching and dedication to Shorinji Kempo in Oxford.

Ski and Snowboard This year has been eventful for OUSSC, to say the least! It started off well, with a week of intense training on the glaciers in Tignes. The racers spent the mornings with the GB race team coach, whilst the freestyle team were in the snow park. We then held weekly training sessions throughout Michaelmas term at the Welwyn Garden City dry ski slope, in preparation for the Varsity Race against Cambridge. They were very well attended and it was great to see so many new members getting involved; fortunately the Club has managed to attract some very talented individuals.

The Varsity Trip 2011 was arguably the most successful trip yet, with 3,300 tickets selling out in a matter of hours. The destination was Val Thorens, which is renowned to be the most snow-secure resort in Europe. However, on the day we departed from Oxford there was less than 10cm of snow, making the prospect of a GS race rather bleak! Fortunately, there was a drastic turn of events and we actually got over 1 metre of snow in a few days. The clouds cleared up on the last day and we had great conditions for a race (see below). The races were very well attended, with hundreds of people coming to support their friends. Even though we put forward a very strong team, Cambridge were faster than us and we lost both the Varsity races. Fortunately, the Second Teams were more successful and took home victory.

Even though we have rather unfortunate snow conditions in Oxford, we have hosted a number of large events throughout the year, including slalom cuppers in Milton Keynes, where ten colleges put forward teams. Also, three of our most prominent racers entered the national BUSC competitions in Saalbach, earning a fourth place in Slalom and sixth and ninth place in GS. This shows that, even though we lost the Varsity races this year, the level of skiing in Oxford continues to be high.

take their winning run of Varsity victories to six, the men’s match promised to be a close affair and so it turned out, with the women winning 4–1 and the men 3–2; the final match on court went to a closely fought five games to give the men their first victory in five years. The second team’s Varsity Matches were held in Oxford this year; the home support worked wonders as the men’s team turned last year’s 5–0 loss into a 3–2 win over Cambridge. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the women’s Seconds who, although showing technical skill and determination, lost 2–3.

Both the men’s and women’s teams experienced further success in their BUCS matches. The women’s Blues maintained their strong fourth position in the BUCS Premier Division South, beating Kings College London in a superb victory. The men’s first team are in the Midlands 1A division with a good chance of promotion to the Premier division.

The women’s Blues and second teams play in the Oxfordshire league every week, against strong opposition in the first division. There are annual fixtures against many prestigious clubs in the Oxfordshire and London areas, including the Roehampton and Hurlingham clubs. The men’s Blues and second teams also hold annual fixtures against the Jesters and Escorts squash clubs, both of which were won

by Oxford this year.

In part, this success was brought about by new access to coaching for our Blues teams with Jonah Barrington (six times British Open champion between 1967 and 1973, and former Director of the national governing body, the Squash Rackets Association) and use of the facilities at Millfield School where Jonah is based. The Blues teams make weekend trips to Millfield school twice a term, where they receive intensive, gruelling fitness and racquet

skill training from the best in the world. We hope to continue this relationship, along with the success, next year.

Sulkido Training has continued to be diverse, challenging and fun under the expert guidance of James Courakis. We do not participate in competitions but we do have regular national gradings. This year has seen the achievement of the grade of First Dan Black Belt by two members of the Club. This is a great achievement and has taken years of hard training on the parts of the two members, Elizabeth Hunt and Amy Bilderbeck. There has also been the achievement of a Deputy Black Belt grade by Martin Crow.

Surf The Club has had a successful but quiet year.

We entered BUCS in October 2011 with seven surfers and achieved a respectable position in the final league table, with one Oxford entrant going on to the quarter-finals. We have also had several interesting socials, and sponsorship deals (in kind) from surfing institutions and shops in Newquay. An inter-university competition was organised to be held in February, but was cancelled at the last minute by the other organisers, despite Oxford having a large team ready to go.

Swimming OUSC competed in a large number of competitions last year, beginning with the BUCS short course championships in November.

We qualified for five individual finals and posted top-ten times in three of the four relays.

Squash OUSRC has had an extremely successful year, increasing its membership to almost double and witnessing some well-fought victories over Cambridge, not to mention the success both Blues and second teams have had in their BUCS matches. The Oxford men’s and women’s squash teams achieved stunning victories in the 2012 annual Varsity Match against Cambridge at the RAC in London on 18th February, sponsored by the law firm Stone King.

Although the women’s team were favourites to www.sport.ox.ac.uk

ULTIMATEDESTINATION 42 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2012

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I 43

Training camp was held in January in Torremelinos, Spain. A record 21 people attended, each completing 13 training sessions and additional land work in the sunny weather.

In January the Club attended the Maxwell open meet, which is used as a good indicator of performances and so has a strong influence on selection for the Varsity team. Good swims were had by all, and the team brought home 40 medals. BUCS long course was held the week prior to Varsity, so only two squad members attended. However, they both put in strong performances to come fourth, with Kouji Urata’s time of 2:04:80 qualifying him for the Olympic Trials in the 200m butterfly.

February brought the 120th anniversary Varsity Match, which saw Oxford thrash Cambridge, winning by the largest margin in recorded history (108–72). The end of Hilary term saw the Olympic trials, held in the Olympic pool and doubling as a test event for the Olympics. Kouji Urata put in a strong performance in the 200m butterfly at the start of the week.

The final meet of the year was the BUCS team national final. A small Oxford team posted some fast times and secured sixth position, the second-best finish ever for Oxford in this competition. Throughout the year, a total of 11 Club records were improved, 10 of these by women, showing that this year’s team was one of the strongest in history.

Another OUSC swimmer, Jack Marriott, was also competing for the Loughborough ITC, having taken a year out of his studies to train with the GB squad. He competed in the 100m butterfly, posting the fastest time in the heats by a British swimmer, and then narrowly qualifying for the final in eighth.

A huge personal best in the final earned him second place, but as he was outside the British swimming qualifying time, he was unfortunately not selected for the Olympics. His return to the University this year will further strengthen the Club in preparation for another great season.

a series of runs around Christ Church and the icy University Parks and held extra training sessions in various colleges.

Nine members of the Club competed in the Warwick Inter-University ITF Competition on 18th February and we brought back an impressive array of medals as well as managing an impromptu trip to Stratfordupon-Avon. We also trained on average five times a week throughout Hilary in preparation for Varsity, which was held in Oxford on 26th February at the Iffley Road Sports Centre.

The Men’s B team won their round 3–1; the Women’s A won 5–0 and the Men’s A won their round 3–2. As one point is awarded for a B team win and 2 points for an A team win, the overall score was 5–0 to Oxford for the fifth year running. Blues were awarded to: Nathan Ewin, Rachel James, Posey Pugh, Eva Lam and Rhianna Dowdeswell. Half Blues were awarded to: Shinn Tan and Kate Ivanova; colours were awarded to Leo Dang. During the Easter break five Club members attended the English Open Championships, and we hope to be sending members to the London Open Championships in the summer. A final notable achievement for the year is that the Club has invested in our own set of sparring mats, which we hope to use for practice prior to national competitions, and of course for hosting our own!

Trampoline The Trampoline Club had a great year, with every candidate entered into BUCS getting through to the final in their category. Jack Coward came 3rd and Laura Robinson 13th in BUCS 2 Advanced, while Alistair Rice came 3rd and Maciej Pietrzak came 10th in BUCS 3 Intermediate.

We had a strong team for our Varsity Match but due to strong competition and our team being one competitor short at the last minute, we narrowly missed out on victory. There is always next year!

TriaThlon This has been a mixed year for the OUTriC Blues teams, with outstanding success in our women’s team, winning both duathlon and triathlon Varsity Matches by large margins and finishing fifth in both BUCS events, but somewhat less success in our men’s team, which had unfortunate losses in all of our Varsity Matches.

But when Cambridge can field a team of three semi-professional athletes, what can you do?!

Special mentions must go to our new Full Blue Sophia Saller (St Catherine’s), and Half Blues Hannah Johnston (Pembroke), Iona Richards (St Catherine’s) and James Felce (St Cross).

What has been particularly apparent is the sheer depth of new talent and commitment in our Club, with massive race attendances (near 40 in our Varsity Matches) and good training turnouts. The fact that both of our second teams demolished their opposite numbers in the Varsity triathlon is testimony to the developing talent within the Club, which no doubt will lead to Blues success in the years to come.

The Club has continued to be sponsored by Tri Training Harder, and through them, for the first time, we organised a very successful warmweather training camp in Portugal. As a result, many Club members have started to train for half and full ironman distances, preparing to challenge themselves and raise lots of money for charity over the summer in these most gruelling of events. The Club has also been exploring further partnerships through affiliate marketing with several large triathlon retailers.

Coaching provision has also been expanded to include professional cycling coaching as well as swimming coaching.

ULTIMATE FRISBEE After winning the Regional Championship at both the Indoor and Outdoor levels we went into Division 1 Nationals expecting to finish Nancy Rawlings

The BUCS south regional qualifiers were held two weeks later, and following last year’s performances, we were again competing in Division One. A third-place finish, behind Bath and London but ahead of Cambridge, qualified the team for the national final.

Taekwon-do This has been a very successful year for the Taekwon-Do Club. In Michaelmas term we tried something new by putting on a demonstration performance at the Oxford Union for the Korean Society’s ‘Soul of Seoul’, which included an impressive board-breaking display. We held our annual New Year training camp in noughth week of Hilary term in Oxford, to get everyone back into shape after Christmas: we completed www.sport.ox.ac.uk

44 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2012

better than we ever had before. However, although losses were close, our hopes to finish in the top four spots were dashed.

Overall, we felt that we could have finished higher given the outstanding talent that we had on the team. When we finally got things going we capped off a great season with two convincing wins on the final day at Division 1 Nationals. Though we did not perform as well as we had hoped, we played as if we were the best by sticking together and finishing each tournament with lots of intensity combined with good spirit.

This year we hosted our rivals Cambridge for the annual Varsity Match. In the main outdoor match our Open team won convincingly. This is the third year in a row that Oxford has been victorious.

We also started to expand our Club, with our first ever entrance into an Alumni Cup, finishing 12th in the country. The year ahead looks set for more events too, with links between past and present players growing stronger. Our women’s team and our mixed team also qualified for Indoor Nationals in their respective divisions, with the mixed team coming ninth nationally (with a close loss preventing us from finishing higher).

Various accolades belong to Sam Vile (Indoor Regional team Most Valuable Player), Harry Mason (Division 1 Indoor Nationals team MVP), Dan Wainwright (Outdoor Regional team MVP) and Sam Poulson (Division 1 Outdoor Nationals team MVP), and Nathan Harper was chosen by Cambridge to be Oxford’s MVP at the Varsity Match.

Very notable for the team was our dedication to the ‘Spirit of the Game’, while coming first or joint first in four out of seven tournaments, and never out of the top three. This is a huge measure of the team, that even while winning tournaments, playing to the best of our ability and being competitive throughout, spirit was never sacrificed.

Ultimately, it was a special year for our team; one that will hopefully contribute to the success of the programme in years to come. There is a solid base of players returning who now have the experience needed to take the next step and hopefully become national champions.

UnderwaTer ExploraTion The Club has had an exciting year, with a huge variety of successful trips. Highlights included the week-long trip to Norway to explore some of the world’s top wrecks, driving over and taking our camping gear, kit and boat with us to be as self-sufficient as possible.

A great deal of training has taken place, with around 23 novice training courses being held

thanks to a huge recruitment effort over Freshers’ Fair. This year, introductory meetings specifically for already-qualified divers were held for the first time. This helped enormously with the influx of keen divers into the Club, and has helped provide us with extra assistant instructors who have been a great help throughout the training year. Try dives were held for £5 for an hour of diving, and a lot of people took the opportunity to experience being underwater for the first time.

Training of the new recruits ran throughout Michaelmas and Hilary Terms on Thursday evenings with pool sessions and theory lectures.

For more advanced members we have provided training in dive leading and boat handling.

Open water training continued during the successful Easter Training (ET) trip to Cornwall, attended by 22 divers and a group of friendly seals. After ET, we now have a group of newly qualified and keen divers, who made our weekend trips to Plymouth, St Abbs / Farne Islands and Weymouth a great success!

Promare continue to support the Club boat, which is working well at the moment, and this is enabling us to gradually put aside more money for the boat’s eventual replacement.

In addition, the Club is getting back to its Underwater Exploration roots, and a number of members have taken advantage of subsidised Nautical Archaeology Survey courses.

The Club maintains a good supply of its own equipment for hire to members for trips and for training. This year, we have replaced several sets of BCDs for brand new ones.

With a very enthusiastic group of trainee divers in the first or second years of their courses, we are hoping to provide a solid base for the Club in the coming years.

Volleyball The 2011/12 season was another transition year for OUVC. For the fourth consecutive season the Club comprised six teams (both men’s and women’s first and second teams as well as National League teams). Both the men’s and women’s first teams continued the process of building a core that will be ready to compete at the highest level next year.

The women’s first team finished fourth in Midlands conference 1A and did not qualify to play a BUCS finals crossover match. They also lost the Varsity Match quite decisively against a very strong Cambridge team which finished second in this year’s BUCS finals. The men’s first team finished first in Midlands conference 2B and after a strong season was promoted back to the first Midlands division. They narrowly lost their Varsity Match 2–3 after an epic battle against Cambridge. Both the women’s and

men’s first teams were successful in the EVA student cup finals, with the women finishing sixth and the men ninth in the country.

The men’s and women’s second teams have struggled for the whole season. After last year’s decision to enter them into the local Berkshire Volleyball League instead of BUCS matters have somehow improved. They have however succeeded in training new players and later supplying them to both first teams, which is the primary purpose of the second teams’ existence.

The National Volleyball League teams enjoyed a very successful season; the men finished sixth in Division 2 North and the women finished fourth in Division 2 South. This year we increased the integration between NVL and student teams. Intense student participation in NVL matches allowed them to benefit from NVL teams’ successes. This year students and NVL players trained together twice a week.

Although the indoor season has ended, OUVC players continue to play volleyball outdoors on the beach and on the grass. On May 5th, the Cuppers tournament was held at the University Parks , together with the 4Max tournament.

As many as 27 teams from all over England participated in the latter.

Walking The Walking Club has had another very active and successful year. Our weekend trips are as popular as ever and frequently oversubscribed.

The limiting factor in meeting the high demand has, as always, been the requirement for at least two mountain leader trained participants to go on every trip. In line with BMC recommendations we have finally changed our trip and safety regulations to allow for unled ‘Group of Equals’ trips. This should allow us to run a larger number of more varied trips in the future and also encourage more Club members to get involved in route planning and navigation.

The number of local walks and the participation in these has been very high this year. Two of our Club members completed the Varsity March, the annual 81-mile walk from Oxford to Cambridge put on by the Cambridge University ramblers.

Our Quartermaster has been amazingly successful in securing funds for additional equipment, which has allowed us to replace a lot of old and worn-out equipment. We hope that the new tents will allow us to run camping trips much more frequently than we used to.

On the training side we have run another very successful outdoor first-aid course and have secured a grant from the BMC to hire a professional mountain instructor on an upcoming navigation training trip.

Matt Henderson

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46 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2012

All in all we have seen a lot of progress over the last year and we hope that the changes we have made will have a lasting positive impact.

WaTer Polo This year has been a mixed bag for OUWPC, with the women’s team losing all but two of their starting seven. Michaelmas term saw a huge recruiting drive for the team, captained

by Karina Bennett, leading to a team boasting a number of experienced players from across the globe, with a number in the top ten goal scorers for BUCS – most notably Megan Braun, who joined as an experienced goal keeper.

The men’s season, lead by Jim Alderson Smith, was largely successful, with their position maintained in BUCS and the Varsity Match tied until the last 5 seconds, with Cambridge just snatching the last goal.

Both teams made it to the finals of UPolo, and the men’s second team, organised by Pierre Vila, have yet again had an exceptional season, beating a number of university first teams and fielding a team assembled predominantly from non-first team players.

Cuppers in Trinity 2011 involved more teams than ever, and resulted in a number of new members joining the Club – particularly in the women’s team. With 16 college teams participating over two weekends the event was very successful and culminated in a tight final between Materials and Trinity, with Trinity losing out in the final minutes. This year the Club trained five new referees, which bodes well for our ongoing development.

Windsurfing The 2011/12 academic year has been another great year for Oxford windsurfers. From regular action at the local Farmoor Reservoir to exotic trips abroad, our members have pushed themselves to reach new levels of windsurfing skill.

After a busy Freshers’ Fair, the year kicked off with a trip to the 11th annual Aussie Kiss windsurf festival in Bude, Cornwall. A mix of beginner and advanced Oxford windsurfers travelled south for a windy weekend at Roadford Reservoir. Beginners took their first steps on a windsurf board, whilst advanced windsurfers enjoyed insightful clinics held by professionals.

Perhaps the Club’s most successful feature this year was the holding of regular Open Days to

introduce students to the sport. Advertised to members and non-members alike from across the University, these very cheap days were run by the Club committee and volunteer RYA qualified instructors, and allowed novices to try windsurfing for the first time. As incoming committee in Trinity Term 2011, we held two open days, both of which drew a lot of publicity for the Club; they were extremely successful (up to 25 novices joined) and required a waiting list! We held another open day in Michaelmas term, again bringing in a lot of interest and encouraging new members to join.

Our annual Varsity Trip was another successful event in our calendar. Twenty-five eager students of all levels, from complete beginners to seasoned windsurfers, bridged the Oxford– Cambridge divide and travelled together to Dahab (Egypt), a small town on the Red Sea which is renowned for its incredible wind conditions. This intense training week was an excellent opportunity for Oxford windsurfers to drastically improve their skills. In fact, one of our members then passed her RYA Intermediate Instructor qualification! The week culminated with Varsity Racing. Although Cambridge had the winning team, Oxford windsurfers Samantha Rawlinson, Oliver Bartlett and Gaelle Coullon defended their University strongly.

YACHT CLUB The OUYC yachting section built on last year’s successes, winning yachting Varsity and a second Half Blue in succession for yacht fleet racing, with the series now standing at 6:3 to Oxford. In two Sunsail Series Regattas, Oxford finished first and third overall, winning an

entry into the Sunsail Finals for November 2012. OUYC entered the EDHEC Sailing Trophy in France (an eight-day sailing event with 170, mainly student, boats participating) for which we received full sponsorship. Races are organised for six days and yachts are provided by the organiser. OUYC has participated in one JOG offshore race in 2011 and is planning to participate in two more in 2012.

Cruising trips have been organized all year round, seeing high attendance. OUYC offered a summer trip to Sweden for one week; in October the Club saw 50 people participate in what has been the biggest yachting trip so far; a winter cruise was organised for December, exploring the British south coast; two cruising boats were out during the Varsity weekend. All cruising trips are captained by Club skippers, but greatly rely on OUYC life members (i.e. Oxford yachting alumni). OUYC has been trying to tackle a shortage of Club skippers by encouraging experienced sailors (mainly members of the Blues teams) to take the OUYC-organized RYA yachtmaster theory courses and giving them limited skippering experience during cruising and racing trips. The cost of these courses is carried by the potential skippers on top of the cost for training and racing. Only with their help can the Club be run to the current high standards of safety.

Several RYA shore-based training courses were run by professional RYA instructors, including the RYA Yachtmaster Shorebased Theory, a VHF Radio Course, and a First Aid at Sea course.

In 2012 OUYC has been facing the issue of colleges charging for room bookings – we aim to run these courses, which provide attendees with a certificate recognized by the sport’s governing body (RYA), at minimum cost.

Matt Henderson

We have also finally moved into the 21st century and abolished term cards in favour of our website. The new online trip sign-up system has proved hugely popular and has made trip organisers’ lives a whole lot easier as well.

I 47

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

48 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2012

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Photo: John Cairns

I 49

Sir Roger Bannister passes on the Olympic flame to Oxford student Nicola Byrom at the Iffley Road track

Oxford Sport: Passing on the torch The Iffley Road track in Oxford is home to one of the most outstanding human achievements of the last century – Roger 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.

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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. To find out more about how you can support our Campaign visit www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/sport.

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

50 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2012

IMPORTANT DATES 2012-13 Rugby Union Varsity Match

The Boat Race

Swimming & Water Polo Varsity Matches

Women’s and Lightweight Boat Races

Squash Varsity Match

Athletics Varsity Match

BUCS Gatorade Nationals (Individuals)

Cricket Varsity Match, Twenty20

Lacrosse Varsity Match

Cricket Varsity Match, 1st Class 4 Day

Football Varsity Match

Cricket Varsity Match, 1 Day

Women’s Rugby Union Varsity Match

College Rowing

Thursday 6th December 2012, Twickenham

Saturday 9th February 2013, Parkside Pool Cambridge

Saturday 16th February 2013, RAC Club London

Friday 22nd – Sunday 24th February 2013, Sheffield

Saturday 23rd February 2013, Cambridge

March 2013, London tbc

Saturday 2nd March 2013, Cambridge

Rugby League Varsity Match

Friday 8th March, Honourable Artillery Company London

Hockey Varsity Match

Sunday 10th March 2013, Southgate Hockey Club

BUCS Big Wednesday (Team Finals)

Wednesday 20th March 2013, Leeds Metropolitan University

Sunday 31st March 2013, River Thames London

Sunday 24th March 2013, Henley-Upon-Thames

Saturday 18th May 2013, Wilberforce Road Cambridge

Thursday 20th June 2013, Fenner’s Cambridge

Tuesday 2nd July 2013, Fenner’s Cambridge

Saturday 15th June 2013, Lord’s Cricket Grounds London

Torpids Regatta Wednesday 27th February – Saturday 2nd March 2013 Summer Eights Wednesday 22nd – Saturday 25th May 2013

rt o p p u s d n a e m er o h C t o n a o t s e u l B r ou ! y r o t c i v Varsity