OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF CARDIFF UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC UNION
Undod Unity - Est. 2011
Issue 01 MARCH 2011
Contents // 02
WELCOME // JACK PERKINS at the University crest which we all know and love, you will see there are three words along the bottom. These read gwirionedd, undod, a chytgord. Welsh for truth, unity & harmony. Having thought about a name for the magazine it was decided that Undod would be a fitting name for a magazine that will showcase the great news, results, trips & events to all AU members and unite us as the team which we are. So now you know all about the name, let’s talk a little bit about what’s inside. We’ve got some great features including Snowsports and Ladies Rugby followed up with some fantastic news from Clay Pigeon Shooting, Trampolining, Athletics, Netball, Kayaking and many more…
Sportsmen & Women of Cardiff! It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you the first ever issue of Undod, the Official Magazine of Cardiff University Athletic Union. A Cardiff AU magazine was the brainchild of the previous AU President and our current SU president Olly Birrell. Though he never realised the dream and completed a first issue of the magazine I strongly believed that it was a great idea and way to shout out and tell everybody what we have all been up to.
If your Club is keen to get involved with the phenomenom that is Undod please make sure you send any news/results/stories including reasons why your Club should be dubbed Club of the Month and also please make sure you tell us who your Player of Month is. And lastly Hannah, Undod editor, is in the process of building up an Undod Team so if you are keen to get involved with the creation of Undod then please come up and see me in the AU or drop me or Hannah an email. Chur
Jack Perkins
So what’s with the name Undod? Well if you look
WHAT'S INSIDE
AU EXEC JACK PERKINS AU President aupresident@cardiff.ac.uk
LEAH PICKERING AU Vice
HANNAH MORRIS Undod Editor
CRAIGER SOLOMANS Secretary
PENNY CHALLANS Social Sec
TIM ELVIDGE Healthcare Extraordinaire
3 AWESOME FEATURE 4 BUCS ROUND-UP 6
ANDREW HOWELLS
7 8 SUCCESS STORIES
t: 02920 781438 e: AUPresident@cardiff.ac.uk www.issuu.com/undod
WHAT'S ON IN THE AU This section has loads of awesome information about what’s happening and some important dates for your diary.
Snowsports dominate.
Here you can find out what’s happening in the BUCS tables and see how your team is doing.
CLUB OF THE MONTH
Rubgy Ladies do Tough Guy...
AU RAG Officer
BEN LUDFORD AU Events Coordinator
UNDOD Magazine Designed by Sarah Powell
What's On in the AU // 03
What’s On In The AU Canoe Polo Roll into the New Season with Success Written by Helen Jarvis
Clay Shooting Bring Home Gold Written by Harriet Parfitt The clay shooting club are regulars when it comes to participating in BUCS competitions and regularly bring home medals and last weekend’s competition was no different. The start to the day was by no means perfect for the Cardiff team, with a 9am departure and cold and wet conditions further hampering their morning preparation. The arrivial to West Midlands Shooting Ground saw them split into squads before making their way to one of 14 stands to start the 100-clay shoot. The difficulty was instantly apparent, as the previous years’ targets had been replaced with more challenging and awkward ones. As the hours passed by, the rain poured and the number of clays left to shoot tumbled untill all that was left was to wait for the scores. The reputation within the club is to go and match and ideally improve on last years results. This year the aim was to stomp on last years results of Bronze for the mens and ladies teams and an individual Bronze for the ladies. The results eventually came in and were announced with the Cardiff team smashing their targets. David Kidner’s individual GOLD with a massive 92 was a stand-out result. With a total score of 325, the Men’s team achieved joint silver with the help of Kidner’s 92, Mark Hampton’s 81, Tasker Rufus Thomas’ 77 and Henry Bales’75. This score only missed the gold by 4 clays which went to Harper Adams. It was a similar story for the Ladies team again took Silver, losing out by 4 clays to Harper Adams. Yet the team must be happy with the massive score of 231 helped on by Nat Davies’ 74, Harriet Parfitt’s 59, Lissy Elis’ 49 and Georgie Handasyde-Dick’s 49.
Cardiff managed to dominate the score boards for the 5th year running and plan to continue The university canoe polo season is upon us once again and it is safe to say that Cardiff’s Canoe Polo squad have made an impressive start. The first in a line-up of competitive games came at Bristol Universities Canoe Polo competition, with a Men’s A team, B team and a Ladies team being entered into the tournament. The A and B teams played extremely well winning their groups, but failing to get to the final, coming third overall. ULU, the University of London Union, won the B league and Bristol won the A league. The Ladies team came fourth being beaten to 3rd place by a golden goal against Bath; Bristol Ladies won the women’s league overall. The contest following a week later at Newport’s International Swimming Pool was Welsh League, a regional event in which the both the Ladies and A team currently compete in division 2. The A team aspire to be promoted to division 1 this year. On the day in spite of tough competition the Ladies managed to hold their own, being only narrowly beaten in their game against Croesyceiliog with an end result of 2-3. Victoria Smith was a stand-out member of the Ladies team; playing with great determindation and despit challenging opponents she performed relentlessly, proving herself highly accomplished. The A team showed exceptional poise winning all of their games, including a 9-0 mauling of the Ladies team. The A team put in an fantastic collective performance, with Robert Haley achieving a fine scoring rate with hat-tricks on 2 our of 4 games. .
Next on the agenda is the club’s own tournament, the Cardiff University Canoe Polo Competition . CUCP, as it is better known, is an outdoor weekendlong event held locally at Taff Bargoed. The B and C teams will be competing alongside the Ladies and A teams in the team
Cardiff Tramps Bouncing Away Written by Craiger Solomans
This February, Cardiff Trampoline Club held the largest of the trampoline regional qualifiers, with over 200 people competing for 30 places in the BUCS finals in Sheffield. With the purchase of 2 new trampolines at the beginning of this year, the Trampoline club were able to apply for the opportunity and were successful in their bid over the summer. The event was held in the Cardiff University Sports Training Village (Talybont Sports hall), and was a major success. Great performances saw Laura Price, club president, Bethan Mercer and Emily Wood qualify to finals, coming 2nd, 4th and 12th respectively in the Ladies 4 Category and qualified to the finals. Also qualifying in the Men’s 4 Category was Finn McAlinden and Justin Underwood who achieved 3rd and 5th respectively. Sion Williams also secured a place in the finals coming 3rd place in the Mens 3 category, the highest competed at regional level. The Trampoline Club also used the event to raise £100 for ‘Right to Play’, this year’s BUCS charity. Craiger Solomons, AU Executive, also attended the event and commented: “The event was very well run, and was a great success. It was also great to see the hard work of the Trampoline Club pay off, with so many people qualifying for the Championship event.”
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY March 1st
March 2nd
Varsity ticket collection - SU
AU’s Got Talent - The Lash
March 17th Candidate Question Time - Great Hall
March 30th
April 18th
May 13th
VARSITY!! GO CARDIFF. Boo Swansea
Easter Holidays
AU Awards - Great Hall
feature// 04
. . . s t r o p s ! w t o Sn in wes t s Be chan
e McCut
rac words: G
feature // 05
“
“
Cardiff have dominated the regionals this year
S
o we all know that Snowsports are always partying, travelling and just generally having a good time, but what is it that they actually do? Here Grace explains all the competitions that they enter and just how well they are performing. KINGS…possibly the most important competition for racers in the UK. The competition that lets University’s know how good they are at ski and snowboard racing… Cardiff have dominated the regionals this year- 4 different race meets (western league) with our girls team gaining a maximum of 40 points, and winning the league. Our 2nd girls team also did really well, coming in 4th, beating 4 1st teams from other Universities. Both girls teams have qualified for finals in May. For the mixed teams, Cardiff put forward 3 teams this year, our first team were leading the league going into the 4th round, but were piped at the post by a lucky performance from Exeter, resulting in Cardiff being 2nd overall. The 2nd team
was the best in the league, coming in 8th place, and the 3rd team came 13th, beating 2 second teams and 1 first team. Not too shabby!! Our boarders have done exceptionally well, considering the year before last we didn’t have a board team, they have spent their year so far leading the kings results tables, and winning the western league. And every kings there is fancy dress... Cardiff have won the fancy dress 3/4 times. Finals for kings, where the best teams from the UK meet at Brentwood are in May, because of these results, we have our 1st and 2nd girls teams through, our 1st ski and 1st board team through. I hope we bring back results!! BUCS Competitions…First up was BUDS (British University dryslope championships) hosted up in Edinburgh in November with universities from all over the UK competing. This year the 1st ski team did really well and got through to quarter finals, after knocking out last years winners, but being beaten by a few inches by Leeds.
This was followed up by BUISC (the indoor slope version of BUDS). Regionals took place in Milton Keynes late February and Cardiff brought home some brilliant results. The ski team qualified for finals as did the board team. The board team then went on to win the finals. Great news! They’re now the best board team in the west and now also in the midlands. In the individual races, we had a 3rd, 12th and 14th place in the female skiiers, the top two pf these have now qualified for the finals. For the boarder’s individual, we had a 4th place, and a few top 20 positions, with the 4th place qualifing for finals. In the freestyle event, results came in the form of a 2nd place from the female boarders, who has qualified for finals. So all in all snowsports are taking a good bunch of racers through to finals! BIG SHOUT OUT.. Kirsty Hatcher. Kirsty is a member of Cardiff University’s high performance programme. She managed to bag herself 3rd place in the individual race. at the BUSIC competition.
bucs roundup// 06
Bucs Round-Up they will face Edinburgh, Leeds & Oxford.
Men’s Volleyball 1sts are having a fine season thus far. They are unbeaten so far and after a great 3-1 victory over Warwick are now through to the Championship Finals in Sheffield. Ladies Waterpolo have reched the semi-final of the BUCS Championships where
On the 9th March there will be a tasty encounter in the Conference Cup semi-final between Men’s Hockey 3rds & Medics Hockey 1sts after the 3rds defeated UWIC 2nds 4-3. Big shout out to Ladies Cricket who defeated Loughborough at the SWALEC stadium in the National indoor BUCS finals.
Spotlight On Emma Thomas 4 U17 caps, 4 U19 caps, 10 U21 caps and Undod: “Good job! So before we go, 6 Senior caps. I’ve played GS and GA in what school do you represent?” nearly every age group. Last season was my first season selected ET: “I am from the School of Pharmacy.” in the Celtic Dragons squad, which comUndod: “So Emma, tell us a little bit about petes in the UK Superleague. I ended the season with the highest shooting peryour career so far.” centage, but certainly not the highest ET: “I played for Wales U17 in 2007 in number of goals!!” Malta, Wales U19 in 2010 Wales U21 in 2008/2009 and Wales Seniors in 2010. Undod: “So you must train pretty hard I went to the 2009 U21 World Youth then... it can’t all be down to natural Championships in the Cook Islands where flair!?” Wales came 13th .This was definitely my ET: “I usually train 6 days a week, with 2 biggest highlight.” or 3 court based sessions with Dragons, and the others gym based with cardio Undod: “how did you get on?” and weights. I put up about 200 shots ET: “My overall tournament percentage a day.” was 93% ( the 2nd highest percentage Undod: “Any further ambitions?” shooter). In December last year I was part of the senior squad that went to the Nations ET: “My ambition is to represent Wales in Cup in Singapore, which we won. I have a Senior World Championships.” This month Un Dod sits down with Welsh Netball’s Gareth Bale equivalent, Emma Thomas to find out all about her international netball escapades...
CLUB Clubofofthe themonth month////07 07
Club Of The Month Ladies Rugby did a Tough Guy...
Words by Maz Poynter
two years. The development team has had some strong performances against local teams with stand out performances from Lucy Price and Laura Sharpe. Ladies Rugby have many successful players who compete outside of Uni as well as for the club. Flanker Claire Molloy (3rd year medic) plays International Rugby for Ireland, playing in the Women’s world cup, and currently playing for Ireland in the 6 Nations, scoring a try against Italy on the 6th Febuary in their 26-5 win over Italy. Hannah Browne (3rd year medic) plays for Cardiff Blues Ladies. Sally Tuson (3rd year) has recently been selected for the South-West England squad.
After promotion last season, Ladies rugby are competing in the BUCS premier South league. They are currently in 4th position with competitive matches against Universities including UWIC, Exeter and Oxford. Their aim for the end of the season is to finish in 3rd position overall. This would be an outstanding achievement considering this is the first time they have played premiership rugby in more than 5 years. In BUCS cup, the team managed to reach the quarter finals, and narrowly missed out on a semi final spot after losing to Loughborough 24-15. The Club are currently in the process of forming a development team alongside the first team who will hopefully get a place in the BUCS league within the next
TOUGH GUY PARTICIPANTS…
The tough guy competition was organised by Jen Blackburn, a former Club Captain. All girls managed to complete the gruelling course with the fastest performance coming from Hannah Browne who took only 2hours and 27 minutes. The girls managed to raise nearly £1200
for H.A.W.K (Help the heroes sanctuary, the Animal Sanctuary where Tough Guy is held, Wheelchair charities, and Kids off the street) and are hoping do double this amount thanks to some very generous members within the club.
Maz Poynter (Club Captain)- Journalism Meg Tudor (Vice Captain) – Archeology Tash Dickerson (Fixtures)- Psychology Emma Fox (Social Sec)- Psychology Sarah Kilby English Language Hannah Browne (Treasurer)- Medic Kate O’Connor Politics Laura Sharpe Tori Morgan Economics Kiri Shuttleworth Town Planning Holly Cook (Social Sec)- Nursing
Success stories// 08
Success Stories on & off the field Athletics Club continued to achieve Written by Rob Witham
T
he athletics club has been really busy since the start of term, with the cross country and indoor track and field season getting into full swing. As well as sending regular teams to the Gwent cross country league fixtures in Wales and the South West, we also took our biggest team for several years to the BUCS Cross Country Championships in Birmingham on the 5th February. Despite the windy conditions and undulating course, all of our athletes did themselves proud in the men’s A, men’s B, and women’s races. In the mens A race our first man home, Chris Discombe, came 29th out of the 257 strong field, an impressive feat considering the international athletes finishing around him. Becca Stearn was the first woman from Cardiff; she finished 146th out of the 317 who completed the course.
200m with a time of 22.01 seconds, just a hundredth of a second in front of fourth place! Chris Discombe also made it to the final of the 3000m, finishing 6th with a time of 8:33.22s. In the women’s competition Caryl Granville progressed to the finals of the 400m and 60m hurdles, achieving a commendable 5th and 7th respectively. Chrisy Parsons represented Cardiff in the high jump, coming 10th in the final. Team-wise, the men came 9th and the women 15th. Considering the best athletes in the UK come to the BUCS championships, everyone who competed for Cardiff did really well and enjoyed the weekend away as well. Hopefully we will have even more success at the outdoor event in Our latest, and most successful re- Bedfordshire at the end of April! Besults come in the form of the BUCS tween now and then we’ve got comIndoor Athletics Championships which petitions in London, Swansea, Brecon happened over the 19-20th February and Cardiff, so plenty to keep the legs in Sheffield. Whilst all of our athletes turning until the end of term! did well, a special mention must go to Gareth Price who came 3rd in the The men’s and women’s teams were both well ranked overall.
Raise & Give with Ladies Netball
C Photo: Jake Yorath
ardiff University Netball Club has had a successful year both on and off the court with our girls participating in social events and fundraisers as well as training and matchplay. We have a group of dedicated girls who are keen to support the club as much as they can. This year this support was stronger than ever with the girls featuring in our very first Naked calendar. the girls featured in twelve diffent themed months ranging from Valentines to haloween raising a
fantastic £720 for The Teenage Cancer Trust. Thanks msut go to Jake Yorath who shot and designed the whole thing, and also to The Vulcan Lounge who sponsored the whole project, allowing us to raise as much as we did. Finally,thanks must go to the girls of the club for their participation and enthusiasm is selling and promoting this project and who have ultimately made it a success. Well done girls, and thank you to everyone who bought one!
look out for the Next issue:
Varsity special Send your match reports to AUPresident@cf.ac.uk