Alex grant by University of Chester (Media Department)

University of Chester Sport

A Sporting Review

Welcome to the 2011 - 2012 Sporting Review Firstly, I’d like to mention how well the men’s football first team did to storm to a league and cup double in phenomenal form, and the Swim team holding its first ever dual-meet against Keele, and winning. The Equestrian team has shown great team spirit this year after winning BUCS (British Universities & College Sports) competitions and participating in a variety of charitable events, which led to their well-deserved award of Club of the Year at Sports Presentation in March. Many of the other teams posted some fantastic achievements throughout the season.

Following in this magazine you will read about some of the Sport’s at this University from the Captains’ perspective, for those of you that didn’t keep up throughout the year. Or for any future students that want to gain an understanding into Sport at Chester University, and lack an insight from open days, these mini- features will outline your responsibilities and roles within the sport scene as students of Chester University. Congratulations to a great year of Sport at Chester University and best of luck for the year to come.

Whether you have an interest in the Sport or even a complete understanding becomes erroneous. The only thing that is important is that your fellow students know you’re behind them.

My name is Alex Grant, I am

23 and I’m in my final year of Journalism. Uni was a 50/50 decision for me, and now looking back I’m positive I made the right choice in going to University and choosing Chester. I have always loved reading and writing about Sport so this magazine was the logical step when asked to create a publication. I have no idea what the future has in stall for me, just taking it day after day and having fun. Enjoy. Alex Grant Editor

A quick glance at BUCS overall standings:

Chester currently 52 places above Warrington...

A Sporting Review

Contents

NIB

A word from CSU President 3

Women’s Football

8-9

Sporting Season Review

Women’s Rugby

10-11

Swimming

Men’s Rugby Union

Men’s Football

6-7

Men’s Rugby League

Men’s Basketball

14-15 In a friendly, light-hearted game that

A word from Dechlan Jarrett: CSU President

Twenty-five years ago the University

excelled in teacher training and sport, now it excels in many other subjects but not sport. This statement was brought to the first General Purposes Committee of the 2010-2011 academic year. It was an instantaneously grabbing statement. No less because personally, representing the University for three years playing football, I had some of the best moments of my own career (So far). Further to my own, to be frank, favouritism for the subject, the statement reads to be of some concern for the University. With the 2012 Olympics around the corner, it is understandable that sport may well be near the top of some institution’s agendas, with government cuts and tuition fees pipping it to the post. In fulfilling the University and CSU’s mission to improve the student experience, we have set about trying to find an explanation for the opening statement. The most obvious point is that the cause is multi-faceted. Targets, money, demographics, trends, leadership, initiatives and priorities are just some of the factors, which may have gone against the reputation of sport at the University of Chester. By no means is the University at the lower end of HEI sporting reputation or performance. Many of our teams are regularly performing well and winning BUCS (British University & College

News in Brief Law College gets schooled took place on the University’s 3G pitch at the end of the season, the score did not matter. Which is just as well for the challengers- Chester’s Law College- who faced Chester University’s first team in football. The score ended 14-4, in a game where neither side fully exerted their ability, namely the Uni’s First team that found themselves bullying their opponents, racing to a 6-0 lead within 15minutes that sentenced the Law College to a colossal defeat.

Sports science at Chester gains some recognition

Sports) titles each year. However, these sporting issues may affect a broad range of students, staff and the public. The Warrington Campus in particular has seen a lot of investment by the University over the last five years, which has been seen by staff and students to be positive steps toward the improvement of Warrington campus. However, the University has recently invested a large amount into new oncampus facilities, which will hopefully go some way to returning the reputation that Chester once had as a great

Research conducted by the University of Chester is included in a new national report showing the impact of universities’ research and sport development on the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and UK sport generally. The campaign aims to increase public awareness of the wide and varied role of the UK’s universities.

sporting college (now University). In my role as President, I have pushed for such facilities, been on planning boards to implement, and since their unveiling, have strived to improve them for the good of the students. The most recent win is overturning the decision not to allow moulded blades to be worn. From September, this should be allowed.

A Sporting Review

The Sporting Review

A Sporting Review

Swimming Season Review

When you think of competitive

sport at University level, Swimming seldom receives the mention it perhaps deserves. The University of Chester it’s fair to say is not known for its sporting prowess. But one team in particular this year has been making waves within the sporting scene on campus. Club captain for the Swim team, Laura Wade, put the team’s achievements this year into context: “We do get a lot of interest at the sign ups with people wanting to get involved, however University ambassadors have told people that the University does not have a swim team, therefore discouraging

strong, competitive swimmers from joining us, so we lose them to other Uni’s in the North West.” “What I really enjoy about Swimming is that even though we compete individually, the team always looks out for each other and there is so much support.” When asked about the responsibilities of being Club Captain, Laura stated:

“The hardest part of being Club Captain is making people realise that we compete against the whole of the UK. We compete against the likes of Olympians and the British Swimming Team in BUCS competitions. It seems as though we always have to prove that we are as good as some of the other teams, but the team made it to the BUCS Team Finals for the first time in 13 years, so hopefully that has opened up some people’s eyes.” Laura went on to discuss the good and the bad of the past season: “Our first ever dual meet was this year against Keele, and we won! “We also made it to the Team Finals for the first time in 13 years and we placed 7th overall. We also do a lot of

charity work out of the pool, we raised over £1000 for the Helping Kenya campaign by bag packing and a 25 mile sponsor swim.” “As for the bad parts of the past season, I honestly can’t think of any, it has been an amazing year for us and we have all had so much fun together.” “Swimming at this University could be made so much better by having an

Club Captain - Laura Wade external coach, which could also attract more competitive swimmers, as apart from fayre’s around campus we need to raise awareness of the fact that a Swim team does exist at Chester Uni.” “We compete in the usual BUCS League in 3 competitions a year; the short course championships, long course championships and the team championships.” “We did not have a sponsor this year, which is something we are working on for next season. The level of support from the SU is okay, but again, sometimes we don’t feel they realise we don’t just race against a few teams in a Northern league, we race against Universities from all over the UK including London 2012 Olympians at Loughborough, so our competition is at an extremely high level, yet we feel as though we don’t get recognition for our efforts against obviously superior opponents.” Finally, we asked which of the sports teams or societies has the best team spirit or socials, to which Laura modestly replied; “I think cheerleading have a very strong bond between them all, and do make a real effort to fundraise and hold joint socials with other teams.” Proof that a swim team does exist at the University of Chester and is thriving with or without recognition.

A Sporting Review

Men’s Football Firsts Season Review

A quick glance at the North-

ern 2a football league tells half the story of the first team’s success this season, sitting top of the league 10 points clear of second place. In order to understand exactly how well the first team did this season requires background knowledge of the league. As first team Captain Lee Constantine justifiably points out: “We are the only team in the league without a coach.” Lee isn’t referring to a mode of transportation, that is provided by the SU along with superb support, but instead to a position of power within the team.

“We are now one league below the top league for University football in the country and we have achieved this without a coach to direct us. “Next year will be difficult for us, which is why we all feel a coach would benefit the team massively.” Participation for football at the University is not a problem, but quality is. Lee noted: “I think the University undersells the skill within the teams. We get 300-400 people trial out but it’s often during freshers week so people are hungover and some people don’t even own shin pads!” “The standard we play at is very high and I don’t think people expect it.” Football is the most participated sport in the world; so social players who enjoy a kick about but never compete should perhaps stick to that when

Team Captain - Lee Constantine coming to University. Lee insisted that the team spirit and the bond in the team is one of the reasons they were so successful this season: “We have great camaraderie within the team and around campus you always see people you know in the teams. You get the sense that people are supporting us uncon-

A Sporting Review

out to spoil us. They sat in behind the ball and made it hard for us to play. We had amazing support that day with around 70-80 people there which allowed us to push on. “Despite falling a goal behind twice we kept motivated and I managed to grab a winning goal in the dying minutes of the game, but as a team we were fantastic that day.”

sciously when they say ‘Well done on Wednesday’ but we really appreciate it. “You can’t beat someone coming up to you and saying ‘well played’, gives you more pride in your performance I think.” The season was not completely flawless; there is just one black mark against an otherwise perfect season for Lee and his team. He recalled: “We had an away game during personal development week against Liverpool John Moores, so a few players went home, and a few were carrying knocks, they beat us 3-2.” At the time the team did not know they would go on to remain unbeaten in the league and the cup, even though the cup could have been over before it began in the first round. “We played Keele’s third team, and I think we thought we were going to walk it. It was poor conditions on a poor pitch and they almost upset us. We went on to win 4-3 but it taught us not to underestimate anyone else on our way to victory over Leeds in the final.” A game Chester won 2-0. Despite the near cup shock, Lee believes the toughest game of the season came against Salford in the cup semi- final on campus. “They set

“The standard we play at is very high.”

“The hardest thing to do is coach your peers.”

Lee revisited a previous point he made when asked about any difficulties he experienced this season: “The hardest thing to do is coach your peers. I have to pick what is best for the team over any friendships and not only that but I have to try and pick up on other people’s mistakes on the pitch when I am out there, along side them, making

mistakes myself.” Lee finished by talking about possible ways for football to improve at the University: “Bringing in a coach would be a brilliant acquisition. Maybe if fees for coaches and players was subsidised we could attract a better calibre of players to the University. “But mainly, we just want a coach.”

A Sporting Review

Women’s Football Season Review

Being recognized by your own

peers as achieving outstanding success in some form is usually considered one of the greatest achievements. So when the Women’s Football Team was voted the Teams Team of the Year, the award resonated the notion that what the team has achieved in general goes far beyond what happens on the pitch. To top this accolade off, Club Captain Becky Lees was awarded Outstanding Contribution to Charity and Female Sports personality of the Year. Becky had this to say about the awards: “The awards we won as a team are fantastic to see how far we have come in terms of cohesion with other teams - for example we had a joint social with pole dancing this

“Being captain is an unbelievably rewarding opportunity”

year, so we are all immensely proud of ourselves, as this is partly the reason we achieved the votes.” “At the beginning of the year we held the taster session during freshers week, which went really well with more girls than last year attending. We welcomed Liam Bradford this year as our coach who has done a fantastic job of sharing his expertise and knowledge to develop the team further.” “Being captain is an unbelievably rewarding opportunity which allows you to learn more about your sport and to develop key leadership skills. In my role as captain I strived hard to develop the player’s abilities and professionalism. I have taken FA coaching courses and bought new kit and equipment in order to further the team.

Club Captain - Rebecca Lees “It can be tremendously hard coaching your peers which I found to be a challenging task to maintain professionalism whilst keeping team spirit and friendships. In addition, planning, preparing and coordinating training 2 or 3 times a week is very time consuming, which did have an impact on my University work.” As a team, Becky stated that she didn’t think they were good enough this year. Despite having a great bunch of players she said: “we lacked

A Sporting Review

commitment, team spirit and determination on the pitch.” It was a classic case of too little too late for the team, as in their final game they came from 0-2 down to secure a 2-2 draw, something Becky lamented by stating that if that kind of determination and grit was displayed all year, then they would have finished second, as they had for the two years previous. Although the team have been busy on the pitch they still found time for good causes: “We held an Ann Summer’s Party for Breast Cancer which raised £200 then a month later we held a bagpacking event to raise funds for the CSU Calendar, then one month after that we participated in the Hospice of the Good Shepherds Santa Dash”, a fun run dressed as santa. “We organised and coordinated Operation Christmas Child throughout the SU which got all the team involved

and sent off more shoe boxes than ever before, which made us feel proud of our efforts to help the less fortunate. The only bitter blow hit home in the form of relegation, on goal difference by only one goal. Something the entire squad was devastated about: “This year has been a rollercoaster one; winning so many awards at Sports Presentation, helping others through charity but then the relegation. “I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of being part of such a fantastic set of people for three years, which I have captained for and I am immensely proud that we won team’s team of the year this year, as it shows how much other clubs like and respect us.”

team have shown incredible character and team spirit this year after winning the league and the cup which is an outstanding achievement for the University of Chester. “In addition, Equestrian have shown great team spirit this year after winning BUCS competitions and participating in a variety of charitable events which led to their well-deserved award of Club of the Year at Sports Presentation in March.” Becky finished by saying: “Although the third years and I will be leaving on a sour note of relegation, we can take away irreplaceable friendships and memories which we have shared over the past three years and we are all thankful for everyone who has helped or have been part of the team.”

When asked who at the University had the best team spirit Becky replied: “In my opinion, the Men’s football First

A Sporting Review

Women’s Rugby Union Season Review

As a relatively new sport at

played or even seen a game of rugby, mainly due to rugby not being offered as an option at schools and colleges for women, as well as their being very little media coverage of professional women’s games.” Such facts do obviously hinder the sport progressing at a University, which does not offer an extensive Women’s Rugby history. “This year we recruited only 1 girl who had played before but saying that we had a huge turn out at our taster session, which resulted in approximately 20 new girls buying their duty of care

the university, it could be argued that Women’s Rugby Union is still establishing itself in “His excuse was a field of competithat he was tive sports at Chesunder the ter.

impression the men’s game was more important than ours.”

However, any such claims were quickly thwarted by Club Captain Heather Taylor, who insisted despite its apparent infancy in terms of heritage, is fast becoming a big area for participation at the University. Heather started by admitting; “It is often the case that the girls who sign up in fresher’s week have never

Club Captain - Heather Taylor

cards. “Rugby traditionally is quite an aggressive game with a high level of fitness required, which I believe was the reason we lost a few members a long the way, as well as this, training up to 3 times a week and playing every week was a too big of a commitment to some members. But the girls who

A Sporting Review

stuck with us have continued to be enthusiastic and have been eager to play every week.” “We are on a team and I put emphasis on this, although some girls may not get a game every week, I try to ensure that their efforts at training don’t go unrecognised. On and off the field we are very close. We are a very social team and enjoy drinking, and usually find ourselves out on a Wednesday night.” As with captaincy at any sport at every level there are obvious difficulties that present themselves week in and week out. When asked about these Heather professed; “The season starts quickly in tier 1, whereas in lower leagues we had longer to prepare, so not only did we play better teams at bigger Universities, we had a less amount of time to organize. We play Uni’s that can offer sports scholarships to girls and have a much larger pool of students to draw from.” “Without our coach Ian Pritchard, and the dedication of the squad we would have failed miserably.” As with every season, there are sour points, one particular moment that stuck with Heather and her team unfortunately depicted the obvious inequality within sport. “There was an issue regarding a referee at a Sheffield away match, just into our 2nd half the referee on the men’s match opposite our pitch injured himself and ordered our referee to go to that match to continue the men’s match. This left us without a referee for 40 minutes and we were told to wait till that match was over for our match to continue. “His excuse was that he was under the impression the mens game was more important than ours.” Despite Heather’s justifiable actions to leave the field and play under protest, it seems as though this event is a feature of something that is seriously wrong within British sport. “There are many good points to our season. The team progressed massively in terms of skills. The team

has come together to form a united, effective and successful team.” “Despite being relegated I have every faith that the team will storm the league next year.” As the team is relatively new, support is vital in order to help it grow. Heather admitted that; “The SU (Student Union) staff have been very supportive and have worked closely with us to ensure the best outcome for our team. We have had to purchase a new kit this year which set us back more than £800 which sponsorship money was used for, which meant we didn’t have much more for anything else. In order to play in a professional manner I think you need to feel like you’re part of a professional team, a uniformed kit to travel to and from matches is required, we took it upon ourselves to purchase and print polo shirts away from Uni simply because we had no money to do it properly.” Despite the team competing all year, the squad managed to qualify for EUSA (European University Sports Associaiton) 7’s which demanded some extreme fundraising just to compete. “I think 7’s should be included in our grant as it’s important to the development of our teams skills and fitness over summer which in turn helps our 15’s team when we return in September.” “As I said earlier, the team’s we play have many more students to recruit from. We were playing against players who had been selected for the England Women’s Rugby squad.” As asked to every team interviewed, we asked who had the best team spirit and socials: “Us of course. We’ve been present at many fundraising events organised by other teams as well as organising our own. We compete in 15’s as well as 7’s, so as other teams have finished their seasons we continue way into the summer with ours, and last year ended up finishing 6th in Europe at the EUSA 7’s tournament in Lille.”

“On and off the field we are very close.”

“In order to play in a professional manner I think you need to feel like you’re part of a professional team.”

A Sporting Review

Men’s Rugby Union Season Review

Typically the better known of

the two versions of Rugby, the Rugby Union teams do experience a higher level of participation than their Rugby League competitors meaning the sides look for promotion each year. Having caught up with first team captain Jack Stonebanks, we were able to compile a review of this season’s performance. When asked about trials at the beginning of the year Jack stated: “Sign up this year was fantastic, sports fayre went really well. We had over 75 members buy their Duty of Care cards for Rugby Union.” As with almost every position of power there are difficulties: “Selecting your

squad from a vast amount of people at your disposal as well as making sure people turn up to training whilst also juggling the work load that increases in third year.” A personal injury kept Jack out of action for the best part of half a season: “Although I was injured I made a real effort to be on the sidelines every week to support the lads. “We finished third in the league, which is an improvement on the last two years, so hopefully next year the team can progress further and push for promotion.” The team plays in Northern 3a, one above the Rugby Union second team in 4a. At a University such as Chester, funding is scarce and has to be spread equally to those who need it most,

Captain - Jack Stonebanks and not just to teams wanting new kits. Although Jack requests funding for the development of the team: “We could do with another coach. With 75 members it is difficult to get a high quality session going whilst keeping all standards happy. Finally, when asked who had the best team spirit including socials Jack replied: “I would say Hockey.”

A Sporting Review

Men’s Rugby League Season Review

The University of Chester is proud to be able to present the opportunity to play both Rugby League and Rugby Union. The former typically played in the Northern parts of Britain by 13 men rather than the traditional 15 and at a faster pace.

Playing in the third tier of University Rugby League is quite an accomplishment when considering the size of the Universities Chester compete against. Club Captain Terry Toland recognised the disparity in resources: “The standard we play at is decent. North West 1 has teams like Manchester Metropolitan, who stormed the league this year.” “Starting with trials we usually get around 15 lads wanting to join up with mixed levels of ability, but because the standard is so high only around half of that number stay on with us. “The best part of being in Rugby League is the bond we have. We all socialise together and pride ourselves on being like a family unit, I think that’s because of the nature of the sport, having to rely on each other on the pitch helps us off of it.” “I suppose the most difficult aspect for any Club Captain is getting funding

organised and making sure people’s commitment to the sport is really there. Helpfully though, Warrington Wolves were able to provide a kit at cost price meaning we had a professional kit for next to nothing. I find a particularly difficult process is choosing the team, as we are all mates it is difficult to tell our friends they haven’t made the starting thirteen.” “This year in the league we didn’t live up to our own standards, but our cup run was exceptional.” Having made it to the last 16, Chester narrowly lost out on progressing further by losing to Hull 24-22 in a tight game away from home in freezing foggy conditions. Terry added: “What would benefit us the most would be if the fixtures started later giving the team time to gel.” Team coach Dec Foy recently moved to Australia leaving the team without a coach for the coming season, a post they hope to fill soon. The Student’s Union received a mention from Terry, who insisted: “Overall they are very good to us. We have a history of being quite loud and rowdy yet they have still given us plenty of support.”

Club Captain - Terry Toland

ropolitan), they were too good for our league.” When asked who has the best team spirit out of all of the sports teams and societies Terry replied: “Us, by far. The commitment and chemistry between us lads makes socials so fun, often stupid but they’re always great nights out.”

“I think the best team we played this year was Man Met (Manchester Met-

A Sporting Review

Men’s Basketball Season Review

For a lot of people, Basketball is

one of those social sports you play when you find a basketball lying around in a gym somewhere, but for the Men’s basketball team at Chester University it is their passion, and quite rightly too, because they’re good! Many people only affiliate the sport to America and their educational establishments, but England has a network of Basketball players as dedicated as their colonial cousins across the Atlantic. Having caught up with captain Richard Sedgwick to discuss the seasons events, we bring you the Basketball low down. ‘Sedge’ as he is more commonly known, started by describing what its like to be part of a Basketball set up: “I think this year has been the best year for a real connection within the team. I’ve been here four years and played Basketball for all four, and although we were good in recent years, we never really connected as a team. “It was mainly down to a partnership we had with the Cheshire Jets, who sent players to University but to also play for our team to get match time, and if the Jets thought they could cut it, they went back to

Northgate Arena.” “There was an obvious disparity between the players essentially getting paid to play and us students who played at a good University level. “This year though, everybody are really good friends.” The Christmas period was not kind to Chester, picking up only one win in four matches, the season looked to be heading nowhere. However, once the festive pleasantries were over and Chester returned to action they meant business. Three new acquisitions gave the squad a new lease of life and they went on to record nine wins from eleven, a statistic to be proud of in any sport. One thing that Chester University does do well is participation, despite the size of the Uni, we regularly achieve good turn outs at taster sessions for every sport. Sedge highlighted a difficulty he experienced though: “The SU allow two taster sessions, and we find people drop out very fast, I think they don’t expect such a high standard when they first turn up. “I think we would get better players in general if we managed to have two teams, but for funding or whatever reason it hasn’t happened yet. “To be fair to the SU they do seem more eager to get a second team in Basketball up and running, which we would all encourage massively. We get the numbers at try-outs so why not?”

“I think we would get better players in general if we managed to have two teams”

Captain - Richard Sedgwick When asked on whether Basketball at Chester could be improved he repeated: “Having a second team would be a huge improvement and go some way into gaining recognition that Basketball here is getting bigger and better. We have also asked for newer facilities, for example new backboards and spring loaded rings, we have guys afraid to dunk in case they rip the ring off the board.” One of the main difficulties with being a captain presents itself in the form of unexpected coaching roles, a responsibility that naturally falls with the leader. Sedge recalled: “Our coach fell ill early in the season, around the same time I picked up an injury so I assumed his role as coach for 11 games. I get respect because I’ve been in the team for four years so I think the lads appreciate I’ve been here a while and therefore deserve the right to direct them at times. “I ended up just doing a lot of fitness training, as I’m not qualified to run proper plays I adopted the idea that if we were the fittest we would win more games than we lost.” Sedge couldn’t pin point any bad points of the season, an achievement in itself when you can look back and say nothing ‘bad’ happened but conceded that better coaching would have been beneficial. A particular highlight he recalls was the cup run: “Our cup run was

“We had 80 or more people cheering us on against an unbeaten team in both the league and the cup.”

A Sporting Review

fantastic, we were robbed really.” The game in question was a semi- final against title contenders Lancaster Firsts in which Chester led the entire game but lost in the final seconds 55-56, a result that did not do Chester justice. Sedge recalled the bitter disappointment: “We could have been in the final, we were so close, just to get to the semi’s was an achievement in itself but the final would have been special. “The support was incredible. We had 80 or more people cheering us on against an unbeaten team in both the league and the cup. “Their manager even approached me after the

game and said ‘fair play, that’s the least I’ve enjoyed a game all season’ which goes someway to showing how well we did in the toughest game of our season.” We asked the common question, whom he thought had the best team spirit/ socials to which he replied: “As a club, Basketball is incredibly close. Both the Men’s and Women’s team go out on socials together, we don’t do one without each other so we’re always a tight group, like one big happy family, which I think is half of the fun really. That’s probably helped us to one league, one cup and two semi- final appearances in the last four years.” Hopefully there is plenty more to come from the Basketball team that shows plenty of promise.

Contact Details For a full listing of individual teams and their fixtures or results along with finishing league positions visit

Alex Grant Third year Journalism student University of Chester

www.bucs.org.uk/

Tel: 07792058970 E-mail: 0716351@chester.ac.uk University of Chester ranked 77th in the BUCS overall points table 2011- 2012

We would like to thank Chester Captainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and Club Captainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s- For enabling this to happen Student Union staff- For their patience and cooperation Kingsway campus staff- For the release of necessary equipment

Every effort has been made to ensure the publication is as accurate as possible at time of publishing in May 2012.