The Courier Sport 2018

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2018 Edition

James Sproston Clara Pettitt

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NUSU, King’s Walk, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8QB. Tel: 0191 239 3940

Editor: James Sproston; Content Coordinator: Clara Pettitt.

All words, unless otherwise stated, written by James Sproston.

Established in 2018, The Courier Sport is an independent publication, founded by Clara Pettitt and James Sproston, and funded by Newcastle University Student’s Union.

The design, text, photographs and graphics are copyright of The Courier Sport and its individual contributors. No parts of this newspaper may be reproduced without the prior permission of the Editor. Any views expressed in this newspaper’s opinion pieces are those of the individual writing, and not of The Courier Sport, the Students’ Union or Newcastle University.

The Courier Sport is printed by: Trinity Mirror Printing, Barton Road, Riverside Park Industrial Estate, Middlesbrough, TS2 1UT

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CONTENTS INTERVIEWS

FEATURES

SEASON IN REVIEW

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14 My Dream Team: Water Polo Outgoing Water Polo President Megan Lord selects the best players that she’s competed with

during her four years in the club’s first team 16 Clara Pettitt on the right way to run

This year’s AU Officer has her two cents on the Great North Run, and how it compares to the various running opportunities such as parkrun 22 The best Stan Calvert of the decade We look through the archives to bring you a sixpage showdown of the last ten Stan Calvert Cups, and how they weigh up against each other 30 Powerlifting in Pilsen We spoke to Ella Morgan to dig deeper into the Weightlifting Club’s campaign to take on the world

10 Month by Month We take you through this season’s sporting action 12 My Team Analysis: Volleyball Ben Wooding picks the team that have secured North 1A status, having been promoted last year 17 Team Newcastle’s promoted teams Ten teams, ten promotions. We look at them all 28 Campus Sport selection

Dan Haygarth marks his final Hardly Athletic appearance with an unsurprising 9-1 loss 34 In pictures: the AU Ball Awards winners Each of the nine winners of the most prestigious sporting awards are captured in all their glory 40 Spotlight on the Boat Club The Club of the Year review their success in 2018

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Courtney Strait The basketball scholar’s time in Newcastle has come to an end, but what’s on the horizon?

Chris Baker Korfball is the newest sport on the Newcastle block, so we caught up to see how they’ve got on Izzy Reid The incoming Tennis Club president runs us through her journey from the beginning Archie Cobb From thirds to second team captain in a season, we talk to the Men’s Hockey Club sensation Maggie Elstob The 2018/19 AU Officer has lots of ideas, but NSR’s Harry Parsons scrutinises their viability

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big bucs wednesday image: james boswoth On 12th March, it was confirmed that Newcastle University would have a competitor at Big BUCS Wednesday. It followed a nail-biting 8-6 win for the Women’s Water Polo 1s against last year’s beaten finalists, Edinburgh, at Sport Central. After semi-final defeats in the basketball, rugby league, table tennis and volleyball, it left the Water Polo Club as the sole representative from Newcastle at the BUCS Championships finals, and the University’s first since 2001. Despite the fairytale journey, and a strong start in the match, underdogs Newcastle were overcome in a 16-3 loss to Durham 1s. It was a testament to the spirit of the team that they got as far as they did. No doubt Andy little’s side will continue to defy expectations next season.

OutgOing WOmen’s BasketBall 1s captain, cOurtney strait, talks thrOugh her jOurney tO captain, What she’s learned and Where she’ll end up next What’s your background in the game?

I was introduced to it in first grade, year 1, year 2 and from then on it started as just something I liked to something I was very passionate about, even though when I was younger I was told that I was better a different sports. I always found basketball as my true passion that I could go, and I would never think that it was a job, it was just fun.

When did you realise that it was something that you wanted to pursue further?

Once it got to deciding which sports I was going to keep playing. I stopped playing fall football/ soccer so that I could play basketball through the fall in preparation for the winter, which is the heart of the season. Then in high school I stopped playing softball, which in Iowa is a strictly summer sport, solely so I could go play tournaments and get looked at by college coaches. So I think once that decision was made that “yeah I’m not going to play all these sports for fun anymore”, that’s when it got serious.

Then you went to college and played basketball throughout? Was that good fun?

Yeah, I played for 4 years at Truman State University. Actually I liked it so much that I’m going back and I’m living there over the summer, and I’m going to be training with my old coaches.

Oh really that’s cool, so why did you decide to come to the UK from there then?

So originally when I finished at Truman, I was heartbroken and didn’t want to give up the game. I was going to sign with an agent and go and play professionally and go back once I had retired from Basketball to get my master’s, when I proposed that idea to my coaches. One of the men’s assistant coaches overhead the conversation and mentioned that it would probably be more efficient for me to go to Europe, get my degree, and still be able to play.

Once I got into looking at courses and looking at locations, I sent out my stats. I had a highlight film and a bio of myself, so I sent that out to a bunch of different coaches and Mark, the head coach here at Newcastle, responded to me with in a day. He started giving me information on the city, the team and it just so happened that Newcastle is one of the top in the UK for media and journalism, so once those coincided it was a really easy choice.

So when you came over the summer before your course started, what was the first culture shock?

Yeah, I moved in within the first 2 weeks of September 2016. I honestly don’t know about culture shock because I’ve travelled so much in life that I embrace being able to see new things and go to new places. So I think it wasn’t necessarily ‘culture shock’ but I think people were kind of taken a back at that I was like aghast at everything like “oh my god that church is amazing; this food is so good the people are…” there was nothing wrong with Newcastle the first few months I was there. I think that was my culture shock, being super over enthusiastic.

After you moved over you had one year as a player in the team; how was that and how did the game differ? I presume the quality was lower?

I would say overall the teams aren’t as good as what I would play against in my old Uni, but that being said I would say the individual talent comes from bigger schools. So in the grand scheme of things it boils down to the fact that you’re going to have players from division 1s that come in and players from div 2 teams that come in from America, and you’re not going to be able to tell the difference. That’s because they’ve worked on their game and their quality is that good. Individually I would say they’re better players than what came out of my league, but overall I think that even though the teams are very competitive here, the level of play isn’t as high.

Do you enjoy it as much?

I really enjoy the style of play we have here, it isn’t as stretched and we

get a little more freedom, which I suppose is very variable depending what coach have and the system you come from in America. For me I was under a very strict system, and I’m not saying it was a bad thing, but I’m saying the rules we were given off the court were very different to the ones we are given here. So just being able to relax and have more time to go explore the city, more time to travel, more time to do whatever you want. I have an internship here that I would never have done in America. So I think that freedom off the court, combined with still being able to be competitive and learning new things, is a really good combination.

And then end of your first year you decided to stay on for another year.

Yeah, I loved it too much I couldn’t keep away.

Top Strait was a captain at Truman State University in her junior and senior years Above Newcastle edged Durham in the league this year, doing the double over their northeast rivals in two tight encounters

So what was the process for becoming captain how did that work?

The process of becoming captain is solely based on the coach choosing the next person. I would say my most positive attributes as a basketball player are leading by example, just putting your head down and being humble and really putting in work to get results.

Also I think being able to juggle a lot of things. I could say that’s a basketball attribute, but that’s also just a personal attribute because I’m very organised, very on top of things, and I have a good head on my shoulders. I think all of those qualities just made it easy for me to be the next choice.

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Southbank, how was that?

Kings were the worst team in the other league so take it as you will, we just did it respectfully to get the win. As for Southbank, we played them last year and they are a completely different team, so having a short memory in that aspect was important. That game was crazy because they weren’t very together they complained to the referees a lot, they were very physical to the point of like being dirty at times. It was at their home court and they were still screaming at the referees, getting on them, yelling at the stop clock. In that moment there’s like so much chaos happening everyone’s like “oh right this all of this crap is happening around us, we need to just look at each other, just chill and know that we’re going to get the job done.”

We were down by 7 going into the 4th quarter, so we were either in the game going in the 4th quarter or we were losing by like 15 or so like at Edinburgh. It was reminiscent of the Loughborough game where it was a case of “alright we have way more than two minutes to get this 7 point lead back, we just need to be smart and do what we’ve been doing all season,” which was that we’re going to work together, we’re gonna move it off in the right way. That’s how we get what we need to have done, so we won by 2 points, and we’re going to take the win any way we can get it.

Above The Women’s Basketball 1s headlined the 2017 Stan Calvert Launch event Below right Strait has donned the number 5 jersey throughout her Newcastle career

Having been selected by the coach, did you have any aims early on that you set as captain?

Specifically, I wanted a better year. Last year we struggled, we were second to last in the league and that’s through nobody’s fault. Overall, basketball-wise just having a more cohesive on-court vibe and more chemistry. That’s not to say that we didn’t have chemistry last year because there was not one game where we didn’t say “let’s do this, let’s give it our all, we are not going to quit” and that was the Newcastle mantra the whole year. But this year we’ve had more talent so we have to show people that you must respect Newcastle University. That’s something that didn’t happen last year when people were looking over us. This year we made a statement and I think that’s overall all our biggest success over the year. We made that statement.

As captain, did you make any changes to the team?

From an organisational standpoint, we never forgot payments and we never forgot to submit forms to referees. We also had players and coaches that we played against, and referees at our games, saying how fun we were to watch and how well we worked together. I think that doesn’t all come from the captain, but having a good leader that sets an example is something that I take great pride in.

Looking at the season, you started the season with mixed success, but towards the end of the season you had some very impressive results; you had big wins against Durham and Loughborough, as well as the wins against Kings and then Southbank. How did that all come together?

Absolutely, the first couple of months were a little rocky. We had people still adjusting to the system, people still adjusting to the coaching style, people adjusting to school, so the first half of the season was a good learning curve for us.

Coming back after Christmas we had a month of training and nothing else until our first game the 31st of January against Loughborough, so we had a lot of time and preparation where we’re just with each other. Instead of going back to our old ways, the break was refreshing for everyone, and we put our differences aside and said “we have a lot left that we have to prove” and it’s continually shown that Newcastle is the most improved as a whole team in the league every year. I remember thinking that could easily be us and we could surpass what people think of us. By the end of that month, we were just so sick and tired of just training.

In that Loughborough game, we were down by about 7 with a minute and a half left. Cass got two steals and a three, Eleanor scored a basket, we got into overtime and we ended up getting into three overtimes that game until we won. I think that victory solidified the fact that no matter the odds, no matter what’s stacked up against us, or how crappy the first half of the season has been, this is a whole new ball game now.

Then you got into the playoffs, playing Kings and

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Following that match, you came up against the same stumbling block, Northumbria. You must be pretty sick of playing them by now?

Honestly, I’m not sick of playing them because I love the challenge.

Personally, after playing them for two years, I know their coach will tell them to be all over me whenever I step on the floor. I find that flattering, and I like being able to step up to the challenge. My last game against Northumbria was one of my best games in a Newcastle uniform, even though we lost. Everybody stepped on the court with pride, we fought, and we were within baskets the entire fourth quarter until the last couple of minutes. I would say the score wasn’t evident of what actually happened in the game because we were within a couple of points throughout.

It always seems to be the same way, just like in the Stan Calvert game.

Yeah we lost by 4 in Stan Calvert.

Exactly, it’s just so close every single time.

I think that’s a testament to Newcastle because, not to say anything bad about Northumbria, they have so many resources that Newcastle athletes don’t have access to. So the fact that we can put those differences aside and be proud of what we do, and we’re going to show you that you have to respect us. I think even though we lost, our track record against Northumbria has only become slimmer each time we’ve played them, so I think it’s a positive step in that aspect.

As captain you’ve overseen a lot of players; are there any that stand out for you throughout the season who have come along way in terms of performance?

There’s so many; everyone’s gotten better over the year.

You don’t have to pick one; you can pick more. Rattle them off if you want to.

I think Grace Elliott, who at the start of the year was adjusting new country new style of play and a new coach. Once we got into our system, she really understood the flow. We actually changed our system coming back from Christmas, and she’s is the best passing player I’ve ever played with in my life, and it just took us embracing that new offence to realise that.

Obviously she’s a solid player, she’s a scorer, she has a positive influence, and she plays good defence. More than anything, she by blew me away with how efficient her passes were, how well she sees the floor and moving her from the low block to the high block was unreal, it opened up so many options for us.

In addition, Eleanor Goodwin has got most improved player two years in a row. She’s one of those people that if you put her in any WBBL team, she’s not going out to be a huge scorer, but she’s going to set screens at the right time, she’s going to move when she needs to, and she’s going to cut to the right place. She’s one of those people that is intangible no matter what team you have around because she’s going to do the right thing no matter what the score or the outcome of the game.

At the start of the year I think Cassidy Sanders-Curry struggled the most embracing the new system because in America it’s very fundamental that you slow the

game down and take your time. Here it was more about reading the game and going with the flow, so just understanding that flow and understanding how everyone moved together was like a stepping stone for all of us. By the end of the year, no one embraced it better than Cassidy because in the Stan Calvert game and in the game against Southbank she shined. She found the open spots, she read everything easily, she noticed I was getting swarmed and she said: “alright if you guys are gonna take her out of the game then I’m gonna step up because that’s what I need to do for my team.” I think in that aspect she embraced her role more and more as the year went on, and she was a very overlooked threat in the league.

Now that you’re leaving, what does it look like for the team next year?

Is it positive that there are a lot of people leaving?

There are a lot of people leaving, which is unlucky as we’ve had our strongest finish in programme history, but I think that is a good selling point for Americans and younger girls to come in. I know one positive that we’ve looked forward to is a few young girls coming in from the Newcastle area that are solid athletes. They’re proper basketball players, so having that young talent and knowing how it’s going to grow throughout the year is promising. It’s nice to have a solid foundation of players that keep coming back, that know the system, that know the process, that know Mark as opposed to recycling new American players year-after-year who have to learn on the drop of a hat. So in that aspect having a few returning girls having a few young girls is going to be really good.

I think in terms of the Americans coming in, I’ve been helping with recruiting by just talking to some of the girls, trying to explain what the process is like and what it’s like here. Ideally we’re going to get four Americans in next year, but with the draw of Newcastle comes the draw of Northumbria, Edinburgh, Durham, so the competition is tough. Getting people who are willing to study really hard without the fancy sports centre is tough, but you do get the high quality education and you get the high quality coaching. Here we adapt to your playing style and make the offence right for you so that everything works.

Therefore, as long as we find the right people who have a good head on their shoulders, and realise how worthwhile this degree is whilst still being able to play, I think everything will be okay. Academia is really important, so it’s just a matter of finding the right people, but Mark always does that so not to worry.

What about you then? What have you taken away from the experience as a leader? I presume a lot of pride, but besides that what do you think you’ve got out of it?

I know for a fact like when I came from Truman to Newcastle I was a very different player. I was a guard, whereas here I’m a point guard.

I’d say court vision has gotten a lot better, and I would say body-wise I have become way more toned, so I’m quick and agile defensively.

I’m so much more confident as opposed to at Truman where we were bodybuilder-thick, so I think confidence in my ability with the ball and confidence in my ability to move have improved, and I think just my confidence in being able to just shoot. Now I have no hesitation, I’m not thinking like “what if I miss it?” I’m just like I’m going to put it up there because I need you to respect my shot. Just having that like swagger takes you a long way, and its not a bad thing knowing that you’re good and what you’re worth. Knowing that you’re capable in your strengths is something that goes a long way in basketball, because if you don’t respect yourself in what you can do, then no one else is going to.

Do you think being a leader on court has made you like feel like you’ve had to step up at times? Do you think you’ve had that pressure and you’ve embraced that pressure?

We had close games at Truman throughout the year, but even though I was captain in junior year, I wasn’t really the go-to player until my senior year, and even then there were three or four players who all averaged between 9 and 10 points a game. It was never “give me the ball I need to score,” whereas this year we’d have 7 players, we’d have foul trouble, we have people going long distances of the game who weren’t used to playing that much compared to in America. I had the experience of last year of being able to play the whole game, so in that regard knowing that I can push myself through all of those minutes and produce for my team, and do what they’re counting on me to do is something that I’ve really benefitted from in Newcastle. Playing 55 minutes straight in the Loughborough game was huge for me, where we had Grace on 4 fouls, Cass had fouled out, and we had a girl that was sick that day. We had so many issues so just being able to look back and see whatever you’re doing right now, when you’re game is not as bad as what you have done in the past, it’s definitely reassuring.

So final question, where for you next from here?

Actually I am signing today with an agent. I just got his email before while I was still busy writing, and I wanted to look at everything with a clear head. So I’m signing with Koyer Sport Management, and ideally he said I’ll end up in Germany, France or Sweden next year, but those are just proposed.

So it could be anywhere?

Yeah, but someone in Europe.

How’s your language?

Erm hablo un pocquito de Español So you’re going to Spain?

No, I think my smile will just have to go it alone.

That’s class.

TEAMS 2005-2012 Cedar Rapids-Kennedy High School 2012-2016 Truman State University 2016-2018 Newcastle University

MONTH BY MONTH

to the student community, winning the Contribution to Inclusivity at the Athletic Union Awards following a number of charity dodgeball tournaments.

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It was American football that kicked off the 2018 Stan Calvert Cup, as an early competition fixture was scheduled in for the end of January.

Having been defeated 52-0 last year, the Raiders had a shot at redemption against their cross-city rivals, which they firmly grasped with both hands. With the match finely poised with an 8-6 scoreline at half-time, the Mustangs were regularly pinned in their own half, defending assault after assault of Newcastle attack. A late Jono Coombes touchdown on the counter-attack killed the game off, with the Raiders completing a convincing and well-deserved 26-8 win, giving Team Newcastle a much needed morale boost going into the Stan Calvert February fixtures.

CLARA PETTITT ANALYSES FROM OCTOBER TO JUNE, 5 PICKING OUT THE KEY MOMENTS DURING TEAM NEWCASTLE’S SEASON

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OCTOBER: Badminton win on return to Prem Newcastle 6-2 Edinburgh

Having won Team of the Year at the 2017 Athletic Union Awards, Women’s Badminton 1s had a lot to live up to in order to secure their place in the Prem for another year. On Wednesday 18th October Newcastle got off the mark in their first season in the top division since 2010/11 with a convincing 6-2 win against Edinburgh. Their opponents would eventually be relegated, whilst Newcastle went on to clinch a 4th spot over Sheffield Hallam, seemingly on nothing more than alphabetical order.

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NOVEMBER: Canoe Club tame the Wild Water Champs Newcastle: 54 BUCS points, 3rd overall

FEBRUARY: Knights shock Northumbria in varsity upset Newcastle 76-72 Northumbria

Stan Calvert was not only underway, but a foregone conclusion by the time Newcastle’s Men’s Basketball 1s had their shot at beating the Northumbria boys for the first time in recent memory. Despite the high calibre of players that Newcastle are able to regularly recruit, the Knights often fall short by the tightest of margins against Northumbria’s equally top class players. A nail-biting encounter from start to finish, both teams battled for the lead as Newcastle Head Coach Ian Hewitt rotated his team with great effect throughout. Joey Bennett’s frequent three-pointers regularly disrupted Northumbria momentum, whilst “Big Pat” Wrencher and Alei Wol (below right) were integral to Newcastle’s defensive efforts. Man of the match Romonn Nelson produced potentially his best performance in a Newcastle kit, ghosting past defenders for countless layups throughout. Judging by the history of the fixture, and the underdog status of Newcastle, the Knights were well-worth their Stan Calvert win.

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MARCH: Blades claim derby day victory to earn promotion Newcastle 135-121 Northumbria

Newcastle’s Men’s Fencing 2s, made up of some long standing members, were having a first-rate season as they approached their last match of the year. However, being on equal points with Northumbria, it was essential that they won their last match to gain promotion.

Experience and resilience led Newcastle to a 135-121 victory at Sport Central, gaining them promotion from the Northern 2B league.

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APRIL: Final defeat for fearsome wildcats Newcastle 1-3 Manchester

Once again, Newcastle Wildcats put in a top-class performance at the National Ice Hockey Championships. Having topped their group in the first stage of the Tier 2 level of the competition, a win against Imperial Devils set up a final with favourites Manchester Metros. Newcastle ended up losing 3-1, but James Cassidy made the all-star team, with Vesa Jaakkola and Kirils Holstovs notching up a number of goals and assists each. Goalie Austin Gogola also put in some fine performances.

November saw the competition season starting to heat up with many clubs having some of their biggest events this month. The crowning jewel was the Canoe Club’s performance at the annual Wild Water Racing Championships. Taking place on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th November on the River Washbur in North Yorkshire, the club performed incredibly, with a stand out performance from Nick Bennett.

The Newcastle athlete smashed the 2.5km course in less than 8 minutes, beating 170 other competitors and earning himself a gold medal in the competitive men’s kayak (K1) category. Dan Leicester and Ben Smith achieved two bronze medals in the C2, whilst the mixed team also achieved bronze, and the men’s team earned silver. Overall Newcastle finished third notching up a nice sum of BUCS points for the University.

It was a torrid time in the league for Men’s Cricket 1s last year, finishing fifth with little to cheer about besides a very impressive victory over Durham 1s. This year brought more rounded success, with all fixtures being played in May, after the pre-season preparations were disrupted by snow. A crucial win against Lancaster was sandwiched between victories over Leeds Beckett and Durham 2s, sealing an unprecedented 2nd place in Northern 1A.

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DECEMBER: Newcastle Kings crowned North East Champions Newcastle: British Dodgeball North East Open Champions

December was a quieter month for BUCS sports, but saw the newly ratified Dodgeball Club shining across the North East. The Newcastle Kings made their way to Middlesbrough to take place in the British Dodgeball North East Open. With strong competition from Sunderland University, Hartlepool Mavericks and Borough Bombers, they didn’t expect to go far in the tournament. However their expected defeat never came and they finished the tournament unbeaten in first place, providing a springboard for the rest of the season. Away from competition, the Dodgeball Club were recognised for their contribution

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JANUARY: Raiders win gives Newcastle Stan Calvert lead Newcastle 26-8 Northumbria

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MAY: Impressive season for second-place cricketers Newcastle 118/4-117/AO Lancaster

JUNE: Blue Star secure belated Boat Race of the North crown Newcastle 2-0 Durham

Once again, it was the Boat Club that took the summer plaudits, this time with a sterling effort at the Durham regatta. Not only was it a successful weekend as a whole, with victories across the board, but it also played host to the Boat Race of the North. Having been called off after an unprecedented amount of springtime snow, the men’s race was the first on the River Wear, with Newcastle coming out on top in a close affair. Blue Star then romped to a comfortable win in the women’s, leading from the beginning right through to the end of the race.

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MY TEAM ANALYSIS: VO ben wooding presents the stregnths and weaknesses of the men’s volleyball team that finished third in northern 1a this year GUGHI CULTRERA The captain this year has been Gughi, he’s also our president and my housemate. He’s not very clean, so you try to avoid his room, but he’s a great cook. We all share meals in our house, so being from Italy, we were treated to some incredible dishes. As a player, he sets himself incredibly high personal standards, so even if we win a game he can be really frustrated if he doesn’t think he’s performed that day. He’s just a

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great player, and I’ve been very fortunate that I joined with Nathan and Gughi, who are both far better than me and as a result I’ve learned so much. As a captain, he knows how to separate his opinions of himself with how he should treat the team. Even if he’s being hard on himself for not playing as well as he’d like, he’s good at changing his approach to help others that aren’t having a good game. During teamtalks, he’s always good at pointing out positives, especially if our coach has told us something negative. It’s clear that he’s thought about the role, and has an understanding of what kind of captain that he wants to be.

NATHAN FULLERTON Nathan is just a monster; it’s the only way I can describe him, which is ironic because he’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. He’s 6ft7,

OLLEYBALL or something around that, and completely stacked. Though he’s got five inches on me, he can still jump two inches higher than I can. Every time we practice against each other, he always manages to hit over my head, so it’s terrifying how athletic he is. I think he played beach volleyball for England last summer, but he was injured for almost half of the season because he had recurring concussions, and we definitely felt the impact of that. He’s been our best player for the last three years and he’s graduating this summer. I’m not sure if he’s GB standard, but he’s been in the England set up for a while and I’m confident that won’t change.

NICK HONG Nick’s from Macao, which means that he’s got a Portuguese passport

but is one of our Chinese-speaking contingent in the team, along with Joe and Roy. Those guys hang out a lot, and turn up to training together; to the extent to which if one of tem didn’t turn up, it became common practice to ask one of the other two where they were rather than on our group chat. Nick’s a very good setter in that he’s very clean and reads the game very well. He is very quiet, but he knows what’s going on and distributes the ball well depending on who our players are matched up against. So if Nathan is up against a tiny guy on the other side of the net, then I’m never going to get the ball, but if it’s more of an even match then I might get 25% of them. That sounds bad, but he’s just so good at working out what needs to be done at that time, and distributes it well.

PEPE BEAN Our libero was Pepe this year, who I think was a fresher this year just gone. There were only two new additions to the team this year, one of whom was coming back from a placement, and Pepe was the other.

During the trials he was probably the smallest guy there, but being a libero you don’t need to be tall at all. As soon as he got into the squad, it was quite clear that he knew how to play. One of the issues we have is that there are loads of people at uni that want to take up volleyball, but we’ve only got one team, and you can’t throw someone who’s new to sport in with someone as good as Nathan, so it was great to get Pepe in. At the start he looked a bit nervous because there are a lot of big personalities who aren’t afraid to speak their mind, but as the season’s gone on, he’s really grown into where he is and has become more confident with who he is as a player. As a libero you’ve got to command the whole defence, so we’ll work with him to get him speaking more on the court, he’s got plenty of time yet.

STEPHEN GRAHAM Stephen’s a final year now that came from table tennis, but on his placement year he’d been playing volleyball, so when he came back he joined the team. At the time we were really looking for an experienced middle, because we lost Ryan Dearden with a nasty shoulder injury, so we needed someone to fill that gap. He’s a good all-round player, and came in looking to be a setter, but that wouldn’t have really worked with the setters that we already had. This season he’s turned out to be a great middle, which has really worked out well for us.

JOE CHIN Joe’s unlucky because he’s so good, but just not as good as Nathan or Gughi. He can play anywhere on the court, but him ending up playing middle for us this year is ironic because he’s one of the smallest on the team. The thing is that he’s so good at what he does, which means that we can use him as a middle, especially because his vertical jump is humongous; he’s tiny but jumps higher than I do. Most of this team started in the same year, so we’ve all been able to adjust to how each other play, and we understand each other a lot better on the court than when we started. He’s sticking around next year, which is very useful because Nathan and Gughi are leaving.

BEN WOODING This year I’ve been the secretary, and next year I’ll be president.

Generally, I’d say that I’m quite quiet, and that’s mainly because I don’t have the same experience as some of the other guys on the team.

I grew up in Uganda so I’m pretty much self-taught, whilst there are some players here that have had internationalstandard coaching. Due to that, I’d say I’m quite an unconventional volleyball player, and my technique is pretty all over the place. Having said that, I’m quite a consistent and reliable player in the sense that if the ball goes to me, it’ll definitely go in; it’s just a case of whether the opposition pick it up. I’m one of the scholars, but I’m no way near the standard of the other three. I’ve definitely improved since I’ve arrived, especially physically in terms of blocking. Last year, just after January, someone came up to me and said: “Ben, at first I was surprised to hear that you were a scholarship player, but now that I‘ve seen you play you definitely deserve it.” Yeah, that was a nice moment.

THE COACH

MICHAL FETERLICH In terms of coaching style, he’s unafraid to tell you when you’re doing something wrong. He’s got extremely high expectations everyone, which sets a good standard for the team, and pushes each player individually.

THE SUBS 01

PIOTR BANASZEK

02

SERGEY MILEYKO

03

MIGUEL FRANCISCO

13

water polo president, and current no.8, megan lord selects the best she’s played with during her four years in the team at university HOLLY JACKSON Holly joined NUWPC this year after starting her master’s course at Newcastle. Having played water polo at bath for 3 years, Holly had plenty of experience playing in goal, and was the saviour of the 2017/18 season after our goalkeeper Jess Newman completed her master’s and left in January.

Holly’s defining moment of the season was when she saved a penalty in our semi-final against Edinburgh, which was without a doubt the moment that made the team believe we could win, and we did by the a very narrow margin.

As well as being extremely quick with lightning-fast reflexes, she is also consistently calm and confident in every match we play. For that reason, she just pips Jess to my No.1 spot.

EMMA LITTLE For me, Emma is the face of NUWPC. When I joined back in 2014, Emma was captain of the first team, and in her third year of five at the club. She was a fantastic mentor, not only to me but also to everyone else on the team, both in and out of the pool. Emma’s breadth of experience, strength and skill in the pool made her a fantastic player, but nothing was ever beneath her; she was always willing to take time to teach anyone anything, no matter how basic. Emma’s stand-out moment for me is when she scored a goal in the 2017 semi-final against Bristol, which we won by one goal; she took a shot from halfway just as the buzzer to end the 3rd quarter went and it slotted above the keepers head. Being a leader in games, in training and even in life, she’s the first name on the teamsheet, and would undoubtedly be my captain.

"EVEN BEFORE SHE'S SET FOOT IN A POOL, SHE'S ALREADY ENAMOURED YOU WITH HER INFECTIOUSLY POSITIVE PERSONALITY, WHICH IS SO IMPORTANT IN ANY TEAM IN ANY SPORT"

GIORGIA BOSWORTH Giorgia joined the club at the start of the 2017/18 season, but she’s made a huge impression in that time. Even before she’s set foot in a pool, she’s already enamoured you with her infectiously positive personality, which is so important in any team in any sport. No matter the situation, be it on socials, in training or in matches, even after being sent out, she keeps team morale high. As well as being the top smiler, she has also been our top goal scorer this year, a crucial part of this season’s success. In our BUCS semi-final against Edinburgh, Giorgia stepped up when we needed her most, scoring 4 goals in the game.

At 6-6 Edinburgh were all over us, but Giorgia scored the decisive goal to make it 7-6, and then added another to wrap it up. Giorgia always works hard in the pool, playing the whole 4 quarters in most matches, so she’s been a lynchpin for the team to base itself around this year.

Giorgia will be a key member of the club for the next few years, and it’s so exciting to think how she’ll improve over that time.

THE SUBS 01

SARAH POYNTZ

02

ELLIE CHURCHILL

03

JESS NEWMAN

14

NIKKI POWLEY Like Emma, Nikki spent 5 years at the club, being a part of the medical student contingent in the NUWPC ranks. Having been captain and president in her time, Nikki gave more to the club than most, and was more than competent at both. She was a fierce competitor in the pool, with few teammates or opponents matching her passion for the team, and a very commanding player that often dragged the team out of difficult situations. Her wealth of experience was essential in many incredible wins, including a 9-8 triumph away from home over Edinburgh in Nikki’s final year. It was the first time in five years that the

MY DREA team had beaten them; Nikki had told us that she’d buy us all drinks if we win, though I might drop her from the team because I’m still waiting on mine.

SOPHIE SOWERBY Being the only left-hander on our team, Sophie is such an asset. It isn’t just her left-handedness that makes her a fantastic player; she is fast in the pool, and just as quick tactically. Sophie has incredible fitness, with few being able to match her enviable stamina, and she also has an eye for goal, which has come in useful so many times. Her famous move, the ‘Sowerby Roll’, has left many keepers still confused about which way she’s going to shoot, contributing to so many wins.

I’ll never be able to forget Sophie’s winning goal in the aforementioned Edinburgh game that ended our winless streak against them, when she took us 9-8 up with 10 seconds to go. Sophie is coming back off her placement year next season, and will become captain on her return, so the team is in very capable hands. She’s already working hard, planning a challenging pre-season and tough S&C sessions for the girls next year.

LUCY HOWARD Lucy was in her final year when I joined the club, but still made a lasting impact on me. As captain in my first year, she made us feel very welcome to the team, and was instrumental in my transformation from a swimmer into a competent water polo player. During that season, Lucy was the hardest worker in the team, swimming up and down the pool to contribute to both defence and attack, and scored several of our goals. At the end of 2014/15, she led the team to a well-deserved BUCS silver medal. The moment I remember her for most was a BUCS league game in Loughborough. Lucy was on the receiving end of a punch to the nose, and despite blood running down her face, she was still desperate to get back in the pool; sure enough, against the lifeguard’s advice, she was back in as soon as the bleeding stopped.

For me, nothing could have epitomised better what a fantastic captain and team player Lucy was.

LIZ KREEK Liz joined the team this year as an American sport scholar, so was bound to make an immediate impact. She is undoubtedly one of the greatest players the team has ever seen, with the level that she plays at demonstrating the experience gained at playing at such a high standard in America. Despite her far superior level of skill, Liz has always been willing to help me and many others develop our water polo skills, which has been hugely helpful to fill the gap left by Emma.

In the pool, she is skilful, fast, tactical and calm, which means she can play in any position. Though she doesn’t always like playing there, she battles fiercely in the pit, and can pick up a ball and shoot it, no matter how many of the opposition’s players have descended on her.

Perhaps the thing that I admire so much about Liz is that she’s still passionate about water polo. Nothing illustrates that better than when we were in a bit of a rut just before Christmas, having had several sad and unexpected losses. Though we pulled together as a team and evaluated what we were doing wrong, without Liz leading by example in the pool, I think we’d have struggled to recover to have as successful an end to the season as we had.

THE COACH ANDY LITTLE Andy little has been in charge our first team for 5 years now, and has a catalogue of other clubs that he’s coached earlier in his career. He initially joined in his daughter’s second year, but his commitment has extended beyond Emma’s graduation thanks to his love of the club and the players. Andy has been a father figure to players year-on-year, improving both their performance in the pool as well as offering advice for life off it too. He is exceptionally committed and passionate about the club, and was deservedly the recipient of the NUSU Athletic Union Coach of the Year at the AU Ball awards.

AM TEAM: WATER POLO

15

IN HER OWN WORDS au officer clara pettitt has her tuppence worth about running culture in the uk, as she thoroughly questions the great north run

We live in a world where we are bombarded with facts and figures on how sedentary the people of the 21st century are. I won’t try and deny that there’s a large amount of people that don’t exercise. It’s not ideal, and the need to advertise more social exercise is more imperative than ever; this is why we are seeing more and more people take part in events like the Great North Run throughout the year. Over 50,000 people take part in the Great North Run, and on the surface it’s an incredible thing to do because huge sums of money are raised for charity, donated by family and friends for the challenge of running 13.1 miles.

“THEY ALSO DO A GOOD JOB OF MAKING IT ONE OF THE MOST EXPENSIVE RACES IN THE COUNTRY”

But is it really that great? Is this the best way to raise money for charity and get people active? The Great Run team have done an incredible job of getting an increasing number of people involved and encouraging mass participation, but they also do a good job of making it one of the most expensive races in the country, and making a hefty profit in the process. The participants do a great job of finishing the race, often running their first half marathon, but with over half of them being amateur, unwittingly they also do a tidy job of damaging their bodies to the point that they won’t be able to complete one again.

I’m not by any means saying that people shouldn’t take part in the Great North Run if that’s really what they want to do, I’m highlighting the fact that the country clearly isn’t inactive and many people do want to take part in physical activity, but are often signposted into doing it in the wrong way. People should look around and stop following the crowd, as participating in a half marathon as your first proper running race isn’t

the healthiest thing to do, nor the most exciting.

Why is it that so many runners want to take part in the Great North Run but none of them want to do Parkrun at 9am on a Saturday morning, a FREE run that is only 5km long? Primarily, the reason is marketing; the Great North Run is marketed so well to make people think that they would love to do a half marathon. I’ve spent hours trying to encourage people to join me at parkrun, but they say it is not for them; yet last year, when crossing the finish line of the GNR, I saw multiple people I knew completing it that had previously refused to join me at parkrun.

I have completed the Great North Run myself, along with over 250 other races across the country, and I can honestly say that it was in the top 10 least enjoyable races that I’ve competed in. Due to the vast majority of individuals that take part, the run takes place along very dull A-roads, a long constant stretch for 13.1 miles. When I’ve asked why it’s enjoyable, I often get the answer: “it’s not the course it’s the people.” I’m struggling to recall any race that I have completed where there haven’t been people cheering me on. The atmosphere is just heightened at the Great North Run due to the incredible marketing campaign that encourages people to come along and support.

The Great North Run offers little difference to any other race that I have ran, other than the fact that it’s one of the most boring courses in the UK; the atmosphere wouldn’t matter if the course was nice anyway. For anyone wanting to hit PBs, you can’t even run a fast time because you get stuck behind people who think that it’s the Great North Walk. I recently completed the Town Moor Half Marathon, which most would imagine to be a boring course; I even got sent the wrong way and had to run an extra 800m but I will still state proudly that this was a much better event. The run flew by in no time, and I ran it 10 minutes faster that my GNR time.

By no means am I saying that people should not compete in the Great North Run, or challenge themselves to run 13.1 miles if that’s what they want to do. However, my advice is to look around, complete some shorter and lower-profile races. You’re far more likely to enjoy them, they’ll be half the price, and you can still raise money for charity! If we saw more people easing themselves into running without damaging their bodies, we’d be in a more active world, with the population looking a lot more healthy than it is now.

ON THE UP: PROMOTIONS 2A Borders Pld W

D

L

GD Pts

1 Newcastle 1s

7

7

0

0

180 14

2 Teesside 1s

7

6

0

1

75

3 Edinburgh 1s

7

5

0

2

156 10

4 York 1s

7

3

0

4

-29

6

5 Lancaster 1s

7

3

0

4

-71

4

6 Heriot-Watt 1s

7

2

0

5

-36

2

7 West of Scotland 1s

6

1

0

5

-172 -2

8 York St John 1s

6

0

0

6

-103 -8

12

Northern 4B 1 Newcastle 2s

Pld W

D

L

GD Pts

10 10

0

0

368 30

2 Leeds Beckett 3s

10

6

0

4

26

18

3 Sheffield 2s

10

5

0

5

189 15

4 Durham 3s

9

6

0

3

158 15

5 York 2s

9

2

0

7

-58

6

6 York St John 1s

10

0

0

10 -683

0

Northern 5B 1 Newcastle 3s

Pld W

D

L

GD Pts

10

0

1

230 27

9

2 Leeds Trinity 1s

10

7

0

3

49

21

3 Bradford 2s

10

4

0

6

-61

12

4 Leeds 3s

10

4

0

6

-36

12

5 Huddersfield 2s

10

5

0

5

-35

12

6 Sunderland 2s

10

1

0

9

-147 -6

Northern 2B Pld W

D

L

GD Pts

1 Newcastle 2s

8

5

1

2

38

11

2 York 1s

8

5

1

2

30

11

3 Leeds Beckett 1s

8

5

0

3

32

10

4 Durham 2s

8

3

2

3

6

8

5 Durham 3s

8

0

0

8

-106

0

MEN’S AMERICAN FOOTBALL 1s A tight fought 8-2 victory against Edinburgh on the opening day for the American Football 1s was followed by tough yet convincing wins against York, Lancaster and YSJ. A cup final and league title, coupled with a Stan Calvert victory proved their mettle.

MEN’S BASKETBALL 2s A surprise relegation from Northern 3B in 2016/17 gave the Men’s Basketball 2s hunger to win all ten of their games, with two tight wins against Sheffield being the highlights of a comfortable season.

MEN’S BASKETBALL 3s Having lost to Trinity on the first day of the season, Newcastle went from strength to strength to build on their third place finish last year, including a particularly tight victory against 2016/17’s runners up, Bradford.

MEN’S WATER POLO 2s Despite a rocky start to the season, the team put in some impressive performances to win the title on goal difference, including 23-8 and 17-5 wins over Beckett and York.

Northern 2B Pld W

D

L

GD Pts

1 Newcastle 1s

10

7

2

1

105 23

2 Sheffield Hallam 1s

10

7

1

2

42

22

3 York 1s

10

4

1

5

-70

13

4 Durham 2s

10

3

2

5

-6

11

5 Durham 3s

10

3

0

7

-52

9

6 Northumbria 3s

10

2

2

6

-19

8

Northern 2B Pld W

D

L

1 Newcastle 2s

10

9

-

1

GD Pts 29 178

2 Northumbria 1s

10

8

-

2

12 147

3 Sheffield 2s

10

5

-

5

8

129

4 Leeds 2s

10

4

-

6

-6

94

5 Durham 2s

10

3

-

7

-8

78

6 Leeds Beckett 1s

10

1

-

9

-35

10

Northern 1A Pld W

D

L

1 Newcastle 1s

10

9

1

0

GD Pts 48

28

2 Durham 3s

10

8

1

1

64

25

3 Manchester 1s

10

4

1

5

-8

13

4 Lancaster 1s

10

3

1

6

-32

10

5 Manchester Met 1s

10

2

0

8

-36

6

6 Sheffield Hallam 1s

10

1

2

7

-36

-1

Northern 2B 1 Newcastle 2s

Pld W

D

L

GD Pts

10

0

2

220 24

8

2 Northumbria 1s

10

7

0

3

130 21

3 Durham 3s

10

6

0

4

145 18

4 Hull 1s

10

6

0

4

193 18 -206

5 Newcastle 3s

10

3

0

7

6 Bradford 1s

10

0

0

10 -482 -6

9

Northern 3B Northern 2B Pld W

D

L

GD Pts

1 Newcastle 2s

8

4

3

1

27

11

2 Leeds Beckett 1s

8

6

1

1

48

11

3 Northumbria 2s

8

3

3

2

11

9

4 Durham 2s

8

2

3

3

8

7

5 Durham 3s

8

0

0

8

-94

0

WOMEN’S WATER POLO 2s A solid unit throughout, the team had three hard fought draws in November that meant that even a defeat to title rivals Beckett would not lose them the title.

Pld W

D

L

GD Pts

1 Newcastle 2s

10

7

2

1

18

23

2 York St John 1s

10

6

1

3

2

19

3 Teesside 1s

10

6

1

3

2

19

4 Leeds Beckett 2s

10

3

1

6

-4

10

5 Sheffield Hallam 2s

10

3

1

6

-5

7

6 Sheffield 2s

10

2

0

8

-13

6

MEN’S FUTSAL 1s Despite both winning and losing to Hallam, the team’s consistency and composure was demonstrated by a clinical 14-2 win against Durham 2s, followed by a 6-3 win against Durham 3s in the final match of the season.

MEN’S SQUASH 2s The Men’s Squash 2s opened their account for the season with a 3-2 loss to Northumbria, but recovered momentum to seal both the league title and the Northern Conference Cup in a hugely successful year.

Below left Newcastle Blades clinically defeated Northumbria having narrowly lost earlier in the season Bottom left The Men’s Football Club’s success on the pitch has been widespread this season, with the 2s’ BUCS promotion epitomising that form

WOMEN’S TENNIS 1s A very successful 2017, only dropping points in a 6-6 draw with Durham, was enough to see the Women’s Tennis 2s secure promotion back to the Prem at the first time of asking, with Manchester halting their cup run.

MEN’S FENCING 2s Newcastle’s Men’s Fencing 2s went one better than they did the year before by turning a second place to a league win, making up a dramatic loss to Hull with even better wins against Durham and Northumbria.

MEN’S FOOTBALL 2s A thrilling 4-3 win opened the 2s’ campaign, followed by a tight 3-2 victory against Teesside and a 6-0 thumping of YSJ, the two closest challengers, asserting Newcastle’s dominance over a competitive league.

17

WHAT THE HELL IS KORFBALL? chris baker had never heard of korfball before university, now he’s challenging for national titles with newcastle. here’s his take on the best sport you’ve never heard of Most people will be desperate to know what Korfball is. Can you tell us a bit about it?

Korfball is a mixed gender sport, which is similar to basketball and netball. It’s probably got more similarities to netball, but it’s a lot more dynamic. The korf is in the middle of the half. Boys can only mark boys and girls can only mark girls. After that, it’s just who can outscore each other basically.

It’s such a bizarre sport, how did you get into it? Is it your first year of doing it?

Yeah! I’ve never heard of it before uni. I bumped into Kerry who set the club up at Freshers’ Fair and got into it from that.

Above right Newcastle battle with local teams on a regular basis, such as the Tyneside Titans Right Chris Baker has been a crucial component in establishing the club in the Athletic Union

What’s your role within the club now?

Since about Christmas time, I’ve set up the website, social media accounts, that sort of stuff. Next year I’m treasurer as well as continuing with publicity and then coaching coordinator, social sec and kit sec.

[Laughs] I’m doing quite a bit next year.

Essentially there’s 3 of us it between us.

What would you say your resultsbased aim is for next year?

Realistically, Northern

Storm will walk the league again because they’ve got ex-Scotland and ex-England players, but we’d still quite like to push on a bit in that, and in BUCS as well, we missed out this year on winning the plate on penalties and we were the only team unbeaten all weekend, which was really quite annoying because it was against Hallam of all people, Hallam in the korf-world are absolutely despised by everyone. Nobody particularly gets on with them. They are a bit of a park-the-bus team, they’re not particularly attacking, and they can be quite aggressive.

Wilburt Den Hoed basically got bumped on the floor at one point in one of the games he sort of like got wrapped round the post a bit.

Are you hopeful for recruitment? Is that an aim?

A second team would be nice because then I don’t have to keep playing every week; I’m getting a bit knackered. We’ve done a couple of doubleheaders, where it should have been second team playing afterwards.

Well I’d say Hyun Gyu Ku and me have played both games back to back for a four-hour slot, and after two hours you’re knackered. I have good fitness but still it would be nice to have a proper second team because the league next year is affiliated with the EKA, the governing body for korfball. So next year there’s a promotion-relegation aspect to the league, whereas this year it was development league. It’s only been in the north east for about 5 years, so whilst its been set up it hasn’t been part of the rest of league system. That means that we have to have two teams because we can’t keep playing down like we have this year. So that’s our main aim, to get a second team next year.

Looking at you and your involvement with korfball, do you remember your first impressions of the sport at your first training session? What that was like?

It was just a bit weird, it is one of those sports unless you actually go and see it or watch it, and it’s quite difficult to understand the concept of it. What I like about it is that it’s really social; no one really takes it that seriously. For instance, the EIKT up in Edinburgh is a big European Tournament, and the attitude for that was “well we’ll see how the first day goes” because normally there are serious teams that turn up. The idea was that if that goes to pot then there’s a big social that night, enjoy the social and then the next day come whatever. That’s pretty much our attitude to everything, just go and enjoy it and then whatever happens, happens really.

Do you remember your first game?

About 5 weeks after Freshers, we went to a competition down in Sheffield for a beginner’s tournament. We didn’t have enough car space, so we only had enough space for the 8 or 9 of us that were playing. We kind of winged it a bit, but we didn’t do too bad to be fair. We came 9th or 10th out of about 16, which we’ll take considering we’d only been playing for 5 weeks. We got a bit of help from Northern Storm, who are the big local club, and a few of us train over there now as well.

Stan Calvert was a massive match; how did that go?

How did that come about? Do you remember the process in getting it organised?

Yep, Stan Calvert was good. I wasn’t actually involved in setting it up, I only got involved when it came to getting

you guys to come down and do the coverage. That was sort of the point where I took over publicity and set up the website and the rest of it. It was really good, I don’t know what the viewing figures were like, but the BUCS article and got 8-900 so I was quite happy about that.

So Stan Calvert; Northumbria have been playing however long, and you beat them on their turf.

I think there team has been there 3 or 4 years now. Yeah, it was good.

We’ve not beaten them in the league the rest of the year, so it was quite nice to win at least one. The problem for us in the league is that we’ve got quite a few people at uni that also helped set up Tyneside Titans, so in the league they’re registered to play for Titans and not for us.

That’s why we do really well at BUCS, which is a small sport problem really. But [Stan Calvert] was really good, and it was nice that we could have some people down to watch and get some people to understand a bit about what it is. That was actually the first real moment where you walk around campus and people are like “oh I’ve heard of that,” rather than people being like “what the hell is that,” which was nice.

Other than Stan Calvert and BUCS, are there any other main bits that you could pick out as highlights?

[Pauses in thought] Probably not. We were part of the Scottish Cup this year, which we didn’t do well in at all. The problem was the group we were in, since Edinburgh has quite a few well-established teams, both adult and uni. So we really didn’t stand much of a chance at the start, but afterwards we went off into Edinburgh itself, and the Christmas market was set up so aside from just like the sport aspect of it, we do get up to other stuff that isn’t just drinking. It is quite nice.

So the social side is really important to you?

It’s very different to your normal club, and there are a lot of people that I’ve met this year through Korfball that I will be friends with for a very, very long time. It’s a shame that there’s a couple that are leaving this year. Wilbert’s back off home to Holland because he just finished his PhD, he will be a big loss, but I’m sure he’ll be back at some point.

Morgan has just finished, so has Jess but Jess is very local so we will still see her. But it’s pretty much a case where any alumni are always going to be welcome back to socials; it’s one big family.

Speaking about those people leaving, what does it really look like for the club next year? Is it still in good position going forward?

Yeah, I mean myself and Hyun Gyu will still be around, as will Lottie.

Lottie is currently captain anyway, so she will retain that, as she is really quite good. Kerry and Blythe, who are the two people who originally set the club up, they will still be around. Myself and Hyun Gyu had a training week with an ex-England coach which was really good to go to, so that was enjoyable and I did get told I would have made the squad had it not being for exams, which was a shame having only picked it up 7 or 8 months ago.

In terms of recruitment, I don’t think getting people involved is necessarily the problem, everyone that we’ve persuaded to get down there, has stuck with it. I only know of one group who are all from chemical engineering who sort of dropped off a bit of Christmas. Even after Christmas we still get new people, we’ve had new people till about a month ago joining all the way through the year. I think with the two taster sessions at the start of the year where there were probably 70 or 80

people in total who came down to the two sessions. I’m hoping to do it again next year; we’ve already booked in a Give It A Go slot for the 21st of October.

For next year, we need to find a match venue, but we will be training in the sports centre. We currently don’t own any equipment because Korfball kit is quite expensive. The problem is that it’s so niche, so only one company that makes korfball equipment in the UK. As you say, korfball is a very niche sport; do you think it will catch on to the extent that it’ll become mainstream?

I think it will. This year the league finals were actually at the Copper Box Arena, and that was pretty well watched. Hopefully we want to start live streaming next year because once people actually see the sport being played, they do tend to get a bit more interested because it is a whole concept to explain I have repeated “it’s a mixed gender and its like netball and basketball” about a million times over and over again. Even at a Freshers’ Fair you can spend 5 minutes talking to someone and it’s difficult to sell the sport; you kind of have to get them to come along and then they’ll actually start enjoying the sport.

“IT’S VERY DIFFERENT TO YOUR NORMAL CLUB. THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT I’VE MET THIS YEAR THAT I WILL BE FRIENDS WITH FOR A VERY, VERY LONG TIME”

What are your personal long-term aims for the club?

I’m on a four-year course, so my aim is by the time I leave is for us to be able to host a tournament.

That would need more equipment; two completely separate Newcastle teams and a lot more interest in it up here. Northumbria would obviously want to get involved with that, but they are struggling for next year actually, about 6 or 7 of their main 15 are leaving, which is quite a hit for them, so we need to be able to get people up here, which would maybe be from Leeds, Sheffield and possibly Oaktom, Wards, Lancaster and Manchester. By the time I leave I would also quite like to be pushing for a national trophy instead of a national plate. We qualified and we came fourth which means we’re guaranteed a place in a national final. We got to regionals and I think we should have gone the night before. Instead we left here at about four to get to Lancaster and we started alright, but it went downhill quite quickly once sleep started catching up on everyone. We didn’t really pick up again till the afternoon; otherwise I think probably we should have had decent go at that one. Strathclyde, who we beat, were top 5 or 6 at national plate I think. We definitely had the fitness to do it, but obviously it ended up alright because we went to the plate and did alright at that. That was a good weekend actually because Northumbria ended up playing in the plate as well.

Can you see yourself playing beyond university?

It depends where I end up, but I’m doing marine engineering so I could potentially end up all over the place. If I end up back home then absolutely, there’s quite a few clubs near me. There’s quite a few clubs in Kent and the national champions are about half an hour away. So for me there’s a load of options, and even If I end up sort of Southamptonway, there quite a few around there. It’s sort of in clusters rather than concentrated in one area, but after Leeds and Sheffield, there’s nothing for miles until you get to Newcastle.

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The big one Image: chris lishman After Clash of the Titans failed to materialise in 2017, there was widespread disappointment that the students of Newcastle would not be able to watch the city’s two universities face off against each other this season. However, in November it was announced that they would have the chance to go head-to-head on the biggest stage, when it was announced that the two teams would clash at St James’ Park in March. As a warm-up to a Newcastle Falcons match, the teams kicked off in front of a sparse crowd. Newcastle initially struggled against a disciplined Northumbria defence, being punished with quick counter attacks. With the score at 21-9 and less than 20 minutes to go, Newcastle looked dead and buried, however as the crowd grew, so did the team’s confidence. A Matthew Ilube-inspired resurgence led to an unlikely comeback, with the match ending 28-21 to the unfavoured Newcastle.

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The Stan Calvert Showdown

Stan Calvert, there’s nothing quite like it. So often full to the brim with controversy and sporting prowess in equal measure, we taken it upon ourselves to judge which competition has been the best of the decade.

2009 Winner Newcastle Score 61-51 AU Officer Jimmy Greene Fixtures 59 Finale Sport Rugby Union Newcastle made history by being the first of the two universities to claim the coveted Stan Calvert Cup two years on the bounce since 2002. At the time, the punters didn’t see it coming. Though both AU Officer Jimmy Greene and Director of Sport Colin Blackburn predicted a Newcastle win, both seemed reliant on shock wins for their side to get the job done. In contrast, Hannah Sherlock, Team Northumbria’s Student President at the time, claimed she was confident of the win, a sentiment matched by pessimistic Courier Sport editor, David Coverdale, who believed that it would be too much to ask for Newcastle to overcome Northumbria’s superior resources and Stan Calvert hoodoo.

However, these feelings were all misplaced, as Newcastle had both hands on the Cup by the time the finale kicked off at Gateshead Stadium.

"THE gAmE Of STAN CALvERT SUNDAy HAS TO gO TO THE mEN’S HOCKEy CLUb, WITH NEWCASTLE 1S OvERTURNINg A 3-0 DEfICIT INTO A 4-3 WIN"

Competition aaaaaaaAAA In the scheme of things, this was a closer Stan Calvert than most in recent years. Though there were upsets on either side, for the most part it went to script, and convincingly so in many cases. There were huge wins for Newcastle in the women’s lacrosse and American football, winning 32-0 and 48-0 respectively.

THRILLERS aaaaaaaAAA In true Stan Calvert fashion, netball was well contested across the four fixtures. Northumbria took three, being ran close in a very narrow

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33-32 win in the 2s, and were just pipped 40-39 in the 4s. Then game of Stan Calvert Wednesday has to go to the Men’s Hockey Club, with Newcastle’s 1s overturning a 3-0 half-time deficit to win 4-3 thanks to an inspired performance by Stephen Hill.

PARTICIPATION aaaaaAAAAA With 59 fixtures being played, almost all on Stan Calvert Wednesday, most would imagine that it was a carnival atmosphere on campus.

There were more hockey, rowing and football fixtures then than there are these days, though we’ve now got more basketball games.

TRASHTALK aaAAAAAAAA All we have to go on is the Stan Calvert preview in The Courier, which for the most part looked pretty civil. Both student sport representatives backed their own horses, but were respectful enough in doing so, and as always Fraser Kennedy diplomatically predicted a draw. Though it wasn’t all niceties, as you might expect there were a few mentions of the funds that Team Northumbria have at their disposal.

SHOWPIECE aaaaaAAAAA The 2009 finale was somewhat overshadowed by the fact that Newcastle had already secured the overall victory, and you’d be excused for thinking that would have relieved the pressure on the teams. Instead, Newcastle appeared complacent, and Northumbria out for revenge, both for the overall defeat and for their loss to their crosscity rivals earlier in the year. A dominant display from Northumbria at Gateshead International Stadium ended in a well-deserved 36-8 win.

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For the time, this was a run-of-the-mill Stan Calvert in most aspects; with the obvious exception being that it was the first time a University had retained the trophy for seven years. Most games were on Stan Calvert Wednesday, and there were a fair few of people involved, so it was quite the event.

2010 Winner Newcastle Score 83.75-32-35 AU Officer Vicky Tyas Fixtures 62 Finale Sport Rugby Union Then Editor of the Courier, David Coverdale, wrote: “In a historic day for the University, Team Newcastle humiliated Northumbria by a record score of 83.75 points to 32.25 in the Stan Calvert Cup.” At the time it was the most comprehensive margin of victory in the competition’s history, and it would last in the memories of those on the receiving end. The weather played a huge part in shaping the legacy of 2010’s Stan Calvert instalment, ironically so considering that it was moved initially from December to avoid the cold and wet conditions. Yet on the horizon, there was still a degree of apprehension among the Newcastle punters, with The Courier Sport’s Jamie Gavin stating: “As Northumbria’s investment continues, Newcastle’s organisation and drive will become ever more important in the coming years. Future staff and students will have a tough task to live up to the challenge set by the sporting stars of 2010.”

Competition aaaAAAAAAA By nature of being the most one-sided instalment in Stan Calvert history at the time, it certainly wasn’t the most competitive Stan Calvert in the decade. Newcastle were dominant in most sports, though as usual Northumbria dominant in football.

THRILLERS aaaaaaAAAA Again, the netball excited, with the de facto finale seeing the Newcastle 2s beat Northumbria 33-31, and the 4s draw 38-38. Men’s cricket was also a highlight in 2010, with Newcastle’s 1s losing out by one run, and their 2s holding on to secure an enthralling 80-78 victory.

PARTICIPATION aaaaaaAAAA Even though 10 fixtures were declared void because of adverse weather, there were still a record 62 fixtures up for grabs, though two of those were walkovers for Newcastle. Mountain biking also continued to feature as a more rogue addition to the schedule.

TRASHTALK aaaaaAAAAA Across the board there was a lot more confidence in the Newcastle camp going into this one, aside from Fraser Kennedy who again predicted a draw. Though the Sport Officer on the other side of the city backed his team, it seemed to be superficial hopes rather than anything concrete. Even the ever pessimistic David Coverdale couldn’t see anything other than a Newcastle victory.

SHOWPIECE aaaAAAAAAA The finale was washed out, along with the rest of the men’s rugby matches, which left the netballers to officially seal the win for Newcastle. They had four wins and one draw in a few tight contests, which was a fitting end for the spectators in the de facto finale.

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This was one for the Newcastle faithful to savour, rather than one for the neutral, not that there are many.

Another Newcastle win, especially in such an emphatic manner, mirrors much of what we’re seeing now, although there was a feeling of change in the next year as Sport Central was soon to open.

2011 Winner Newcastle Score 93.5-61.5 AU Officer Charley Wright Fixtures 69 Finale Sport Rugby Union Following the disastrous conditions in the previous year, the Stan Calvert organisers opted to move the competition back to December, as it used to be. Unsurprisingly, however, the weather in December was even worse than the previous spring, so it was moved to March.

In what was believed to be the largest edition of the event to date, Newcastle stormed to yet another victory, and managed to do what most Newcastle sides weren’t able to do by capping this one off with a finale win.

Competition aaaaaAAAAA Newcastle seemed to have the ascendency from the outset in this one, going into the Wednesday with a 22-6 lead. Even though Northumbria were able to bit away at it early in the day with a cricket victory, decisive wins in hockey, lacrosse and rugby put Newcastle in very good stead going into the finale. By the time kick off had come around, Newcastle were confirmed winners, though it didn’t stop it being a great occasion and a great match.

THRILLERS aaaaaaAAAA Interestingly, gymnastics seemed to capture the imagination of the student body, and Northumbria’s rugby league win was an upset, though the best of the action was saved for the finale.

PARTICIPATION aaaaaaaaAA Clay pigeon shooting, Gaelic football and gymnastics made their debut in the competition, and it was believed that almost 3000 people were present at the finale. The people’s cup.

TRASHTALK aaaaaaAAAA More so than in previous years, the focus in the Newcastle camp was on Northumbria’s financial resources. Though they claimed it would be close, AU Officer Charley Wright dealt a backhanded compliment to Newcastle’s opponents, saying: “Underestimate the Poly at your peril,” before listing their investments. Equally after the finale win, Fraser Kennedy stated that the win was all the sweeter for being a financial underdog.

SHOWPIECE aaaaaaaAAA Newcastle managed to buck their finale hoodoo by beating Northumbria 24-13 in an entertaining if sloppy rugby union match at Gateshead International Stadium. The crowd was far larger than what you’d expect at any Gateshead FC game, even though it was confirmed that the trophy would be staying in Newcastle. The finale was competitive, with the match being finely poised at 15-13 to Newcastle at half-time. Newcastle took advantage of some pedestrian defending, with Northumbria being potentially distracted by the annual streaker.

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In the 2011 Graduation Edition, The Courier Sport highlighted: “The vast majority of students at Newcastle have never experienced defeat on Stan Calvert day.” Winning a record fourth Stan Calvert Cup in a row indeed meant that a culture of winning had been established at Newcastle, which is likely why they continued to defy the odds for the next couple of years.

Above Newcastle celebrate a rare finale win in the 2011 rugby union showpiece Left Northumbria sealed a slender win in the swimming after hours of competition in the pool

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2012 Winner Newcastle Score 100.5-52.5 AU Officer Alice Holloway Fixtures 71 Finale Sport Rugby Union 2012 was the first year when it was widely accepted that Newcastle had upset the odds to deliver a victory, and a convincing one at that. With a record number of events came a record points haul for Newcastle, tallying up an unprecedented number of points on the way to victory. A collection of upsets, starting with the women’s cricket team prior to Stan Calvert Sunday, and continuing in the football, netball and badminton, helped Newcastle to stretch ahead into an unassailable lead. As was the case in 2009, a loss in the finale damaged nothing but Newcastle pride, with the trophy all but safe in the cabinet.

Competition aaaaaaaAAA Though the result was emphatic, right up until it was mathematically secured every match was fought between the two universities like it would be the decisive result. Newcastle upsets across the board will have entertained anyone keeping a close eye on the competition, though it’s shame that the result was decided before the finale.

THRILLERS aaaaaaaAAA Newcastle’s valiant performances in both women’s and men’s badminton were crucial, but the result of the tournament was the unprecedented 4-3 victory for Newcastle’s female football side.

Equally, a 4-3 win for the Northumbria men’s team reinforced their dominance in the men’s game.

PARTICIPATION aaaaaaaaaA A much improved catalogue of fixtures, most of which were on Stan

Calvert Sunday, would have had hundreds, if not thousands, of people participating. The outreach through housemates and coursemates that would have been invested through those participating is something that was lacking in later years. Participation did not need to be on the agenda when there were this many people involved.

TRASHTALK aaaaaAAAAA Both Newcastle and Northumbria men’s rugby union captains seemed very keen to mention how keen they were to beat the opposition, which was translated into a very physical finale. Alice Holloway was quick to mention Northumbria’s investment and their upcoming ‘Stan Calvert review’, whilst Fraser Kennedy was not given the option to predict the outcome, so no talk of a draw this year.

SHOWPIECE aaaAAAAAAA Again, it was a huge shame that there was nothing more than bragging rights on the line during the finale, as Northumbria sealed the win. It was a physical and uninspiring game, with the 10-3 scoreline depicting a dull affair.

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Though on the surface it may look like ‘yet another win for Newcastle’, this Stan Calvert was one of the most unpredictable yet. There was a sense of mystery going into the biggest competition in its history, and a sense of bewildered jubilation as Newcastle won in seemingly convincing fashion.

2013 Winner Newcastle Score 78.75-64.25 AU Officer Laura Mason Fixtures 66 Finale Sport Rugby Union “Newcastle hit Poly for six” read The Courier’s back page headline, as Newcastle secured their sixth Stan Calvert victory in a row. In contrast to previous years, the tale was one of a tight contest throughout, and that was reflected in the finale scoreline. At around 5pm in the afternoon, the result was sealed with Newcastle’s squash victory, two and a half hours before the finale took place at Kingston Park.

A sense of a changing tide was picked up upon throughout some of The Courier’s reports, with the first bricks of unhappy Stan Calvert negotiations being cemented in place as the now all too familiar dispute over locations and timings played out. More fixtures were moved away from Gateshead, with talk of a boycott from women’s basketball and badminton ending when most outdoor sports were moved all over Newcastle. The sharpness in those negotiations would be one feature that would continue for years to come.

DID YOU KNOW? The name of Newcastle’s mascot has been a confused matter over the years, with ‘Rory’ or ‘Roary’ being the most common, with ‘Wilfred’ and ‘Percy’ also cropping up. The name of Northumbria’s mascot has flitted between ‘Polly’ and ‘Poly’, but we have a sneaking suspicion that the latter is a Courier joke

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Competition aaaaaaaaAA As margins of victory go, a 14.5-point difference was quite good going for Stan Calvert standards. For those keeping an eye on this one, it was quite exciting to follow. As we’ve learnt throughout this process, netball keeps producing Stan Calvert highlights, which The Courier pointed out as one of its ‘five things we learned from Stan Calvert 2013’ feature.

It read: “Netball games are ludicrously close. Every netball game was won within a points total of 49, and two of the games were only won by one goal, there can be little doubt which sport induced the most nail-biting results of the competitions. A true rollercoaster ride at the Sports Centre.”

THRILLERS aaaaaaaAAA Needless to say, netball again produced some thrillers, with the Northumbria 1s clinching a 49-48 victory. Football again will have entertained the neutrals, as Newcastle snatched a surprising result in the men’s 1s, with Adam Bell turning in the decisive goal in a 2-1 win. A monumental effort to upset the odds was not to be for Newcastle’s 2s, who fell to a 5-4 defeat to their local rivals.

PARTICIPATION aaaaaaaAAA 2013 saw a few events being lost from the Stan Calvert calendar, with mountain biking being dropped after a good run in the schedule.

Fewer skiing and tennis fixtures typified a process of culling lower level sports from the competition, though futsal did make its debut, with the women’s sides playing out a draw.

TRASHTALK aaaaaaaaAA 2013 saw the return of the age-old Kennedy prediction, an overall draw, but it got a bit tastier in other areas. A few verbal unpleasantries on the touchline led to a few physical altercations, with two red cards in the men’s football 2s game and two sin-binnings in the rugby union, as well as a 26-man brawl in the rugby league 1s. However, the highlight has to ‘Roary’ the Lion rugby-tackling Poly the Parrot in front of thousands at Kingston Park; the cheers from the crowd quickly became muted when it transpired that Poly was not an actual bird, but a real human in disguise.

SHOWPIECE aaaaaaAAAA In such a huge event, it’s always going to be unlikely that anything will be at stake come the showpiece at the end, and the fact that the winner was only worked out a couple of hours beforehand is as close as you can expect it to be. In Baltic conditions, Northumbria’s early lead proved too much to overcome, with a late rally from Newcastle was not enough to change the 20-14 scoreline.

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As a whole, 2013’s Stan Calvert Cup was a far more competitive affair across the board, with some cracking fixtures playing in Newcastle’s favour.

However, certain features that would go on to plague Stan Calvert started to appear, with the fixture negotiations becoming more and more of a chore.

2015 Winner Northumbria Score 77.5-48.5 AU Officer Caleb Jones Fixtures 59 Finale Sport Netball

2014 Winner Newcastle Score 80.25-60.75 AU Officer Katie Rimmer Fixtures 65 Finale Sport Rugby Union ‘Squeal of fortune’ was a feature ran by The Courier Sport in the run up to the 2014 Stan Calvert competition. In the vein of Paul the Octopus, Sam Summers and Tom Nicholson visited Bubushka and Fizziwig, the psychic pigs of Ouseburn Farm. In the end their hit rate was 2/5, and they got the big one wrong, as they predicted a Newcastle victory overall, an unpopular view as six places separated 13thplaced Newcastle and 8th-placed Newcastle in the BUCS rankings.

Northumbria’s dominance in football is often assured, but further clean sweeps in volleyball, basketball, water polo, rugby league and tennis asserted a clear Northumbrian advantage. The feeling from within the Newcastle camp was that this moment was a long time coming, and to keep defying the odds year-after-year was too big a task to continue.

With an ever-improving performance sport programme, Northumbria’s investment finally paid dividends in the annual clash, and with a relatively modest 20-point margin.

Competition aaaaaaAAAA With fears amassing that Newcastle would have a longer run in Stan Calvert than The Undertaker did in Wrestlemania, it was good for the competition as a whole for Northumbria to end their drought. However, the resounding nature of so many of the victories was a worry for Newcastle, with Northumbria getting even stronger in a lot of the sports that they already excelled at.

THRILLERS aaaaaAAAAA Aside from the finale, the highlight of the tourney was probably the men’s basketball 1s clash at Newcastle Sports Centre. Having created a ten-point advantage early on, Newcastle stayed in touch for the entire match, often threatening to cut down that Northumbria. In the end, the heavily scholar-based Northumbria side were able to execute enough discipline to see out the win.

PARTICIPATION aaaaaaAAAA Though fewer fixtures were on the Sunday itself, there was still a respectable number of competitors, and even a handful of animals involved. With it not all being on one day, there seemed to be less hype on the day, although the finale managed to get bums on seats.

TRASHTALK aaAAAAAAAA As far as Stan Calverts go, there was a relatively subdued lead in to this one, as very few punches were thrown on either side. The biggest amount of shade thrown was by a handful of animals down at Ouseburn Farm. Most of the reaction was inwardly directed, with Fraser Kennedy being understandably disappointed, and his Northumbrian counterpart Col Stromsoy taking the praise for the change of strategy.

In a new-look, ill-tempered Stan Calvert, Newcastle were humbled in what was their worst defeat in recent memory. After removing some of the fixtures of the sports that had been the basis of a lot of Newcastle’s points, such as rowing, cycling, gymnastics and snowboarding, Northumbria were accused of changing their sport structure just to look better on paper. Those points were raised in a pre-tournament press conference, where AU Officer Caleb Jones locked horns with his counterpart, Adam Barr. It was the first time in the decade that the finale had deviated from rugby, with netball taking centre stage, which most would agree was the right decision having been so tight in years gone by. With a greater student media presence than ever before, the stage was set for a glittering finale at Sport Central, but the result was wrapped up long before then, announced on air by NSR’s Chris Young.

Following the breaking of their Stan Calvert hoodoo last year, this was a statement from Northumbria as to how they prioritise their sporting prowess, with any of Newcastle’s highs being drowned out by the lows; as Editor of the Courier Tom Nicholson wrote: “In spite of various high points throughout the competition, the fact remains that Newcastle sports teams’ collective ego will take some time to recover from this shellacking.” A shellacking indeed.

Competition aaaaAAAAAA Overall, the standard of sporting performance was high from both sides, but it was obvious that one side had the advantage. Removing some of Newcastle’s strongest fixtures added insult to injury, but it would have most likely been a Northumbria win anyway.

THRILLERS aaAAAAAAAA Few and far between in this one besides the finale. Again, the football was an entertaining watch, with the men’s 1s drawing 2-2, but other than that it was a bit of a drab affair.

PARTICIPATION aaAAAAAAAA With sports being cut, and Northumbria pulling out more 3s and 4s, participation in the event reached a new low. This was the first year that Stan Calvert truly felt the effects of Northumbria’s performance sport strategy.

TRASHTALK aaaaaaaaaa Where to start with this one. Having a press conference was simultaneously the best and worst possible idea. AU Officer Caleb Jones took the opportunity to release all of his built up anger, with repeated digs at Northumbria only interrupted by routinely stating ‘pride in the lion’ in his raspy South Manchester tones. He picked up on Northumbria pulling sports, as well as their investment strategy into performance rather than participation. Northumbria’s Adam Barr often bit back, teasing Jones by repeating the fact that his side had won whilst all of those fixtures had still been included the year before.

The column ‘fighting talk’ in The Courier highlighted some of the best bits, with the rules and regulation of the competition, the spirit of sport, and Adam Barr’s teeth all in the firing line. The two of them then faced off again in the student media studio at Sport Central, with Jones not holding back once again. Having been deprived of success for so long, the Northumbrian fans made the most of their situation, making plenty of noise throughout the finale and cup ceremony. Full marks!

SHOWPIECE aaaaaaAAAA A game that started with great pace and intensity didn’t disappoint the fans on its return to Gateshead International Stadium. Despite it being a low-scoring game, spectators saw 60-minutes of fast, freeflowing rugby, until both defences dug deeper for the final stages. The 10-7 scoreline reflected the quality of the Northumbria team, who had enjoyed a great deal of success in Stan Calvert finales of recent past.

SHOWPIECE aaaaaaaaaA A rare positive in what was an otherwise messy and disappointing competition was the finale. It was a brave and inspired choice to switch from rugby out at Kingston Park or Gateshead Stadium to netball at Sport Central, but it paid off. Hundreds of fans packed into the arena, watching the 3s and 2s take to the court before the 1s went out. The theatrics were impressive, as was the media coverage, and the match didn’t disappoint either. Northumbria edged the match 33-32, but the plucky underdogs of Newcastle could leave with their heads held high having gone toe-to-toe with a Super League-standard side and almost coming out on top.

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A watershed moment in the history of Stan Calvert that would set the precedent for years to come. It was close(ish) on paper, but Newcastle took a lot of losses that they probably weren’t expecting, but would be forced to get used to as Northumbria tightened their grip on sporting supremacy. If only that damn cockerel’s prophecy had come true.

Left The 2015 Stan Calvert press conference made tense viewing as AU Officer Caleb Jones went on the attack Below left Mountain biking was an entertaining, if dangerous, inclusion in Stan Calvert for many years

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On balance, it was obvious to most in the build-up that Northumbria would run out comfortable winners, but the nature of the Newcastle’s humiliation was underwhelming. A fantastic finale couldn’t mask the cracks in what was a majorly flawed competition, that largely failed to capture the imagination of the student body.

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2016 Winner Northumbria Score 73.75-67.25 AU Officer Angus Taylor Fixtures 66 Finale Sport Football and Track Athletics DID YOU KNOW? The introduction of ultimate to the competition in 2016 makes it the newest sport contested in Stan Calvert besides korfball. Newcastle won two on the bounce, but were dealt a shock defeat in 2018

Northumbria completed a hat-trick of Stan Calvert wins in a much closer affair than the previous year. Though it reinforced the sporting dominance of Northumbria, Newcastle would take heart in what was a surprisingly impressive performance. For the first time it showed the spirit in the Newcastle team, despite going into the competition as underdogs. At the press conference, AU Officer Angus Taylor claimed that his side relished the challenge, but Northumbria took a commanding leading into the Sunday after victories in the basketball, football, volleyball and futsal. However, Newcastle hit back with surprising victories in cricket and water polo, as well as with their trusted boat and riding clubs. Throughout the Sunday, points were broadly shared, with either university having the opportunity to be crowned champions if they took a clean sweep in the football and athletics. An inspired performance in the football, as well as several good efforts on the track, were not enough to win the Cup, but gave plenty a good day out, with the finale back at Gateshead.

Competition aaaaaaaaAA Needless to say, a closer scoreline reflects a more competitive Stan Calvert Cup. The reintroduction of rowing, as well as a debut for ultimate, gave Newcastle a slight advance on the position they went into the competition last year, albeit still in a worse off position than they were two or three years before. For the first time in the decade, the competition has gone down to the finale, drawing in hundreds of supporters on that final day.

THRILLERS aaaaaaAAAA Without doubt, the highlight of the competition was in the men’s water polo, as Newcastle’s 1s caused a huge upset when they snatched a 10-9 win at Sport Central. Though the netball 1s fixture was a conclusive win for Team Northumbria, the 4s proved to be much better watching, with Newcastle winning 26-24.

PARTICIPATION aaaaaaAAAA The introduction of ultimate to the schedule illustrated a big step forward in the negotiations between the two universities, but the direction of Northumbria’s sport strategy still proved to be worrying.

Cuts were made to cross country, archery and women’s cricket, which have been staples of the competition for years.

TRASHTALK aaaaaaaaAA Though it didn’t compare to the year before, there were still a few highlights when it all got a bit spicy. The press conference offered a few nuggets; when Angus Taylor mentioned that more sports had been pulled out, his counterpart Brogan O’Connor was quick to retort saying that Newcastle were just as eager to pull sports out as well. Despite the entertainment provided by the press conference, nothing quite compared to The Courier Sport’s ‘Extreme fishing with Col Stromsoy’.

Mentioning job prospects, going over the top in celebration and suggesting that they bought the success were all bits of advice from the then editors, reeling in a personal message from Stromsoy himself, as well as a tweet from Mr Whitehead that stated: “The only thing that make this poor sportsmanship worse is the weirdos in your cover photo #virgin”.

SHOWPIECE aaaaaaaaAA For the second year in a row, it seemed that moving away from rugby was the right idea for the competitive nature of the finale, with the football proving a good event. Though it didn’t pull in as many spectators as it has in previous years and the match itself was devoid of attacking football, it provided entertainment nonetheless.

Northumbria’s posterboy for the competition, Jake Armitage, started on the bench and, soon after he made his appearance, was subsequently nutmegged. At half-time, there were several track events, with Northumbria coming out on top, but both sets of supporters getting well into it. The finale score was just 1-0 in favour of Newcastle, an upset on the evening.

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Few will argue that the 2016 Stan Calvert Cup had both a better atmosphere and more competitive matches than 2015, and it was better off for it.

Likewise, the football finale was well-received, and gave Newcastle a platform to upset their semiprofessional opponents in front of the biggest crowd that most of the players will entertain. Despite the positives, including some more events being added, greater cuts to the schedule should ultimately be seen as detrimental to the future of Stan Calvert.

2017 Winner Northumbria Score 79-42 AU Officer Sophie Matthews Fixtures 57 Finale Sport Futsal Another shake-up to the format of Stan Calvert saw the famous finale replaced by a launch event, featuring both basketball first teams. Two wins for Northumbria were followed by several further unsuccessful days leading to the Sunday, besides ‘Winning Wednesday’, when impressive results in the equestrian and hockey gave Newcastle hope.

However, the 16-point deficit going into Stan Calvert Sunday was always going to be too big a mountain to climb, and proved to be so as Newcastle fell further behind, losing by 37 points. The finale was subdued, though the Northumbria celebrations were not at the cup ceremony. With no repeat of the miracle of 2016, The Courier Sport’s James Sproston questioned: ‘Should Newcastle still humour the competition?’ That query still stands today, but calls for a change in structure or for more sports to be involved have been left unanswered.

Competition aaaAAAAAAA For the most part, Northumbria demonstrated their prowess in the majority of sports. Both men’s futsal fixtures were close, with the Newcastle 2s being mostly made up of NUAFC players, and valiantly securing a 4-4 draw. All of the badminton fixtures were also competitive throughout, though for the scoreline tells the story in most other sports.

THRILLERS aaaaAAAAAA Clash of the Titans, the second official fixture of Stan Calvert, took place back in October 2016. It saw the Men’s Rugby Union 1s face each other in the epitome of a thriller, with Newcastle winning the match 19-18. Both matches in the launch were also enjoyable affairs.

PARTICIPATION aaAAAAAAAA Compared to 2016, there were no strides forward in terms of participation, just a slow chipping away of the fixture calendar that had typified the scheduling process of the last few years. Not only was

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there little hype on campus, but the vast majority of people probably weren’t aware that the event was taking place at all.

TRASHTALK aaaAAAAAAA Though Col Stromsoy and Sport President Emily Watkinson claimed that the competition would be close, their Newcastle counterparts, Fraser Kennedy and Sophie Matthews, were less optimistic; they hoped for an upset, but were well aware of the task ahead of Team Newcastle.

During the Cup, Stromsoy-watch and sock-watch were well picked-up on, and a questionable report from a Northumbria golfer made its way into The Courier, within which he lavished praise on himself and his own performance.

SHOWPIECE aaaaaAAAAA Though Clash of the Titans was a huge event, and the futsal closed the show, the Stan Calvert Launch was the showpiece event. It showcased the basketball first teams, with the women up first, followed by the men. Again, Newcastle would be going into both as underdogs, but played with presence and composure on the court. In both cases, Newcastle were in touch the whole match until the end of the final quarter, losing 63-87 and 62-88 in the women’s and men’s respectively. However, the spectator turnout was disappointing.

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Unable to follow the impressive 2016 result, Newcastle fell to a fourth successive defeat at the hands of their ever-improving cross-city rivals.

With questions remaining about what Stan Calvert offers Newcastle, and little momentum behind the competition, more clubs started to prioritise other fixtures over the formerly paramount varsity matches.

This Stan Calvert was deserving of the low score.

2018 Winner Northumbria Score 80-22 AU Officer Clara Pettitt Fixtures 46 Finale Sports Futsal and Netball Northumbria moved within one Stan Calvert victory of Newcastle’s record six wins in a row with proportionally the biggest margin of victory ever seen in the competition. Though it didn’t work last time, The Courier again attempted to stir the psychic pot in Ouseburn Farm, with a baby lamb being miraculously born in May. With no Fraser Kennedy special in the offering, the animal was given the choice between Newcastle and Northumbria, and made a ‘decisive lunge’ towards Northumbria. Unfortunately for Newcastle fans, this prediction became true, and we believe ‘Geoff the potentially psychic lamb’ has been a key punter during the World Cup. As a whole, the event felt more subdued than ever, with 2018 offering the fewest fixtures in a Stan Calvert calendar in the decade. One silver lining was the Stan Calvert Fun Run, which played host to hundreds of runners not competing for points; the first Northumbria runner to finish was none other than Col Stromsoy. It may not have affected the score, but it shows that Stan Calvert’s legacy of participation has survived in some form.

Competition aaAAAAAAAA With a more sparse and sporadic schedule, Newcastle went into the final day of Stan Calvert with little hope of victory, with the win being announced on The Courier and NSR’s live stream around lunchtime.

The manner of victory was comprehensive, which as ever calls into question the competition’s relevance, especially when the two universities sit just one place apart in the BUCS Points table.

THRILLERS aaaaaaAAAA Though there weren’t too many fixtures to get excited about this year, it was the basketballers that put on a show for those that turned up. The women’s 1s was unbelievably close, finishing 56=52 to Northumbria, whilst the Newcastle’s men’s first team defied all expectations to beat their counterparts 76-72. One Northumbria upset that not many saw coming was their 15-14 win in the men’s rugby 2s, a result that levelled the overall score after Newcastle had unexpectedly won the American football fixture. It would also be wrong of me not to mention Korfball, with Newcastle winning 8-7 on its debut in the competition.

PARTICIPATION aaaaaaaAAA Whilst the 2018 Stan Calvert Cup could be slammed for it’s lack of competitive fixtures, the Stan Calvert Fun Run proved that there is not only a great amount of interest in the competition, but a desire to be actively involved. It specifically highlights the issue with Northumbria’s decision to pull their cross country runners out of BUCS, and consequently out of Stan Calvert, when there’s a big desire in both student bodies for another event like this to go ahead.

TRASHTALK aaAAAAAAAA The biggest clash between the two sides was over the sport that would close this year’s event, with no solution being offered. Outside of the negotiating room, the only case of trashtalk was throughout the netball, embodied by the Newcastle team’s slanderous signs and banners.

SHOWPIECE aAAAAAAAAA What showpiece? With no finale being agreed on, both the Netball 2s and Men’s Futsal 1s started at 5pm on the Sunday. Since the result was announced so early on, it had little affect on proceedings, but would have been madness had it gone down to the wire. In actual fact, delays meant that the final sport played was in the tennis women’s 1s, as Northumbria secured an 8-4 win at 9.30pm. Special mention to the American football, which felt like the biggest event, and The Big One, the separate varsity rugby match that followed a few months later.

ROUNDUP

18/50

Another culling of fixtures, with not one party to blame, meant that absentees included men’s and women’s hockey, rowing, athletics and men’s football.

Most of these were due to scheduling clashes, with Stan Calvert being bottom of the pile of priorities for most clubs. That lack of enthusiasm was evident across campus on Stan Calvert Sunday, when you would have been excused for walking into the either sports centre and not knowing it was on. It’s a shame that a competition that so many people have put so much love into has petered out in this way. On behalf of Newcastle, huge thanks go specifically to Fraser Kennedy, without whom the last decade of Stan Calvert would not have been possible.

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CAMPUS SPORT HARDLY ATHLETIC’S GAFFER, DAN HAYGARTH, REPORTS ON HIS TEAM’S FORTUNES AGAINST FELLOW CAMPUS SPORT TEAM, BEROCCA JUNIORS

H

ardly Athletic finished our bruising debut season of eleven-a-side football at the bottom of the bottom division of Newcastle University’s Intra Mural Football League. After this embarrassment, we turned our attention to the shorter form of the game. Hoping to apply our brand of consistent failure to the seven-aside game in a friendly against Sandyford outfit Berocca Juniors.

The game took place at the height of the exam period, which resulted in several absentees for Athletic.

Ever-unreliable goalkeeper Danny Aspinall was unavailable once again. Yorkshire’s answer to Manuel Almunia was hungover and didn’t really fancy the twenty-minute journey to Longbenton Sports Ground. This sentiment was echoed by much of the team, which left the club with a makeshift travelling squad of eight.

“ATHLETIC’S EMBARRASSMENT WAS INCREASED AFTER GOALKEEPER JAKE HAWKYARD SCORED TO MAKE IT 5-1”

Raff Marioni performed valiantly, former captain Dylan Farrugia refused to dive during his spell between the posts – illustrating the exact attitude which led to him being deposed earlier in the season.

After an extended spell of pressure, Van Der Hoek scored a second to put the Juniors ahead just before half time. This was the beginning of the end for Athletic. The floodgates opened after an apathetic team talk. Harri Saunders made it 3-1 early in the second half before Van Der Hoek scored his third and fourth of the afternoon. The capitulation should not have come as a surprise when the line-up was considered.

When not in goal, regular striker Raff Marioni attempted to play as a creative midfielder while centre-back Callum Jackson found himself as a right winger. Most ridiculously, having played seven minutes of football this season, yours truly had to lead the line. Struggling with a lack of ability, fitness and service, I was kept quiet by the Juniors’ strong defence, which was marshalled by James Sproston in his 99th appearance for the side.

Athletic’s embarrassment was increased after goalkeeper Jake Hawkyard scored to make it 5-1 before Tom Coulthard and Jack Edwards got in on the act. With the score line at 8-1, Athletic were in familiar territory. However, things only got worse. With the last kick of the game, The Wirral’s own Jack Cryer took advantage of some shambolic defending to score the 500th goal in Berocca Juniors’ history. The game ended 9-1. A farcical performance and result concluded Athletic’s maiden season in typically miserable fashion. At least the weather was nice.

Refereed by the laissez-faire Harry Parsons, the game started evenly before Harry Van Der Hoek gave the Juniors the lead with a fine strike.

Soon after, Athletic defender Adam Robertson levelled the tie. Redolent of Michael Owen’s goal against Argentina at France ’98, Robertson’s superb solo effort stunned the crowd of two and gave Athletic hope. This sevens lark seemed straightforward.

However, this confidence was misplaced. The North East sunshine and Berocca Juniors’ disciplined approach caused many problems for Athletic, who struggled with the extra running required for seven-a-side. This was accentuated by the lack of a specialist goalkeeper. In Aspinall’s absence, the side had to take turns in net. While Callum Jackson and

Winter Campus Sports Tournament

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THE CAMPUS SPORT TOURNAMENTS Pts

Summer Campus Sports Tournament

1 Chem Eng

300

2 Medics

275

1 Basketball

250

3 Law

275

2 Tennis

215

4 Tennis

180

3 Mech Eng

195

5 Netball

140

4 Chem Eng

135

6 MLS

135

5 Badminton

120

7 BioSci

80

6 Sepak Takraw

80

Pts

The Campus Sport tournaments are now into their third year, and they continue to be very popular. This year it was particularly great to see some new clubs engaging with the tournament, including Basketball, Netball and Badminton, but it was also fantastic to welcome back tournament regulars in Chem Eng, Mech Eng, Law and Tennis, all of whom always perform well.

The winter tournament was really closely contested between three teams and went down to the final match, with Chem Eng just edging it to claim their second CST crown.

The summer competition also came down to the final match in the netball tournament with 1st and 2nd in the eague table going head-tohead in a winner-takes-all match. Basketball proved to be successful, and won their first Campus Sport Tournament on their debut.

AFTER BEING SOCIAL SECRETARY FOR THE YEAR, IZZY REID WILL BECOME THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE TENNIS CLUB. SHE LETS US KNOW WHERE SHE’S COME FROM, AND WHAT SHE’S GOT IN STORE

Did you make any promises or outline any plans for this year?

No, it was pretty off the cuff to be honest. I wasn’t really expecting to have to give a formal speech, but compared to our AGM the year before it was a lot more formal. That’s probably more standard as far as AGMs go, so it was just a case of presenting myself, and how I think I’ll be good at it.

We’ll start with your story with tennis, where did it start for you?

It’s kind of a family sport for me, so I’ve just played ever since I was about four. I wasn’t very competitive compared to a lot of other people on the tennis team here, I just did the local tournaments and that’s it really.

Do you have any major plans now you’ve been elected or are you just looking forward to taking on the responsibility?

I’m definitely looking forward to it. Obviously, I’m more involved with the girls side, so I want to make the girls training a little bit better. I think that’s a general aim for everyone with people like [Performance Sport Manager] Fraser [Kennedy] and [Head of Racquet Sport] Liam [Gutcher] so I think just more about consistent training and sorting out a mixed session more often. Now the girls are in the Prem, the standard is a lot higher, so hitting with the boys would really help us.

So you joined the team here at uni, I presume you played for a club before?

I played for a club up until the age of about 13, but then went to boarding school, which forced tennis more to the side. I still kept playing, but not as many matches; coming back to uni has actually made me play more matches.

Was being on the tennis team one of the things you came to uni wanting to do?

Yeah that’s one thing that I missed at school because school tennis generally isn’t great, and then when I’m living there it’s quite difficult to keep up with it. It’s quite tiring so I like that I can make it more important up here.

Is it the competition that you missed?

Oh yeah definitely, I liked the competitive side; I’m quite competitive.

So you’re going to be president next year; what’s your role been in the club so far? Have you had any other committee positions?

Yeah I’ve been social sec this year, so I’ve got feel for how the committee is run from a relaxed side of it.

What made you consider going for President?

I’ve had other leadership roles that are quite organisational, and I just thought it was something that I’d be good at.

What was the process? Was it an election through an AGM? Yeah I was up against a guy who was on a year abroad. I did my speech and they got him up on Facetime to give his speech, but I think I had the advantage of knowing the freshers this year.

LEAGUE HISTORY, TENNIS CLUB WOMEN’S 1s 2017/18 1st Place, Northern 1A 2016/17 6th Place, Premier B North 2015/16 1st Place, Northern 1A

Now that you’ve been elected, have you noticed any changes in the dynamic with the other members? Do people approach you differently?

I don’t think so. We haven’t really been in season, so I don’t think I’ll find out if that’s the case until next September.

When you were a fresher and you met the president, did you think it was intimidating or did you think it was just like meeting anyone else?

I was slightly intimidated but at the same time I didn’t feel that she was unapproachable, hopefully I will be something like that.

Do you have any ideas about how you’re going to go about that? What do you want the dynamic to be like?

I think a friendly dynamic but with that little bit of respect, but I’m not like some royalty. I’m still just part of the team, so hopefully the captain and I will be able to set that tone at trials and make everyone feel welcome.

Is there anything specific you want to get out of it, or are you just doing it for the love of the club?

I just like being involved in this kind of stuff. I like running something that is a big factor in my life; I play it a lot and then we have other parts like S&C and socials. It is a big part of my uni life, and I like having involvement in that.

Do you have any big plans for tennis beyond uni?

Hopefully just to keep playing, I mean it’s one of those sports you can play into like your 80s, so that’s the plan.

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POWERLIFTING From 8th-14th July, Four oF Newcastle’s Female powerliFters will be iN pilseN For the ipF world uNiversity powerliFtiNg cup. it’s a momeNtous momeNt For Not Just the club, but the uNiversity as a whole, so ella morgaN has come to talk to us about how they got there, how they traiN aNd prepare, aNd how she got iNvolved iN the sport.

T

he simplest place to start is to find out what powerlifting is, and crucially how it differs to weightlifting. “It’s quite simple really” I’m reassured, “powerlifting is the squat, bench, deadlift, whereas weightlifting is the snatch and clean & jerk. Both are Olympic sports, though they’re grouped together as ‘Olympic Weightlifting’.”

It’s a crucial distinction, though both weightlifting and powerlifting are included under the remit of the Students’ Union’s Weightlifting Club. They may be different sports in the same club, but that doesn’t mean that they’re rivals like swimming and water polo used to be. “The weightlifters in the club are a huge help, and that sums up the club quite well, because both the powerlifting and weightlifting sides of the club support each other really well,” says Morgan, “overall it’s such an equal club, whilst in so many other sports, the men and women’s game is not treated the same. I found that with cricket when I played it, but it’s just not the case with our team.”

The team spirit and club atmosphere is a reason why Morgan has always been involved with sport, but she never expected to become a powerlifter. She remembers: “I’ve always been into gym and fitness,

but when I came to uni I couldn’t play hockey so I went to the gym a bit more. When I was in the gym once, the Weightlifting Club Social Sec came up to me and said ‘you look like you’d be a good powerlifter.’ At first I think I was insulted, but that was just a stereotype in my head that so many other people have.” It’s an issue that Morgan recognises and wants to change, but it took her some time to get her own head around it. “There are so many that think of female weightlifters and powerlifters as really butch and manly. Now I’ve started not only participating but competing in the sport, I’m so much happier mentally and have a far better outlook on every other aspect of my life. The sport’s helped me develop a positive mental attitude because every day at training I have to think ‘yeah, I can lift that’.”

That positive mental attitude is not something that comes as a virtue of picking up the sport, but as a part of a well-structured training regime, which Morgan attributes to the coaching: “Laksh Bhatia, who did his undergrad and master’s here, is working in Newcastle now, but still gives up his time to be our coach. We love him because he’s really calm and knows his stuff.” The role of the coach doesn’t stop at knowing the sport inside out, it’s a lot more personal than that. “He’s so supportive, I can’t begin to describe how good he’s been; I never thought I could achieve what I have done, and every bit of that is down to him.” Morgan explains that having a coach that knows what they’re talking about is invaluable in competitions: “You get three goes at each lift, and your coach tells the loaders what weight that you’re going for, which Laksh always gets right. If you’re looking stronger or weaker than normal, then he’ll adjust those numbers for you so you don’t have to think about it.”

At the British Championships this year, having Bhatia there meant that the women’s team maximised their chances, as none of them dropped a lift. As a result, Newcastle finished second out of a host of universities, qualifying for the World University Championships for the second time in a row. Though they hit several personal bests across the board, the men weren’t able to qualify after a sixth place finish, but the women have made it to Pilsen after finishing second

overall. Having been given some extra funding by the Athletic Union, they’ll join British Champs winners Glasgow, as well as Aberdeen, Loughborough and Cambridge, the respective third, fourth and fifth-placed sides.

Morgan’s wary of the quality of opposition, but believes that Newcastle have something that sets them apart: “They are good; I can’t take that away from them at all. What I did see at British Champs was that a lot of them were in it for themselves, I suppose because it is an individual sport and they want to hit PBs.” However, Morgan doesn’t think it’s as simple as people having big egos: “A lot of the smaller universities just brought one or two good lifters, so that’s either a case of the university turning round to them and saying that only a small number are good enough to go, or that not enough people know about the sport yet.” But again, it seems to boil down to the perception of the sport. “Another issue could be the stereotype around weightlifting and powerlifting, which is that people should only do it to get hench. More information and education is needed about the sport in that respect.”

Last year the World Championships were held in South Africa, but neither the men’s nor the women’s teams went despite qualifying due to the cost of getting there. In the competition, the British universities performed well, as UCL and Aberdeen came second and fourth. “Seeing our rival universities do well does give us a lot of hope, but I’ve seen some of the girls that have been nominated and they are very, very strong” says Morgan, “we do have a shout because we’re so strong as a team, and even now a lot of us are still hitting PBs. We’ve just started our peak training and everyone’s looking really strong, so that bodes well.” Getting in shape has obvious importance, but doing it right isn’t as easy as most might think. Having competed in April, Morgan outlined the process from then until the Championships: “Coming out of competition we had a deload week, which was chilled because it focuses on recovery.

Then we went into volume phase, so a lot of hypertrophy training, which is a load of reps and light weights to build the muscle back up so our bodies are able to take the extra weight when we go into peak training. My training is just changing into peak training now, so it’s going to get heavy over these next couple of weeks.”

All four of the athletes travelling to Worlds that have been going through training, with Ella-Louise Handley, Joely Hawke and Justine Lee joining Ella Morgan on the plane to Pilsen. Both Morgana and Handley are in the 63kg weight class, with Hawke and Lee competing in the 57kg and 52kg classes respectively. Morgan is quick to praise her teammates: “Justine is absolutely incredible, she was awarded best lifter at our AGM, which was so credible and so deserved. She got a PB in deadlift in April of 140.5kg, which was almost triple her body weight, and her Wilks [total weight compared to body weight] are really high. Though she’s always been into fitness, a proper little muscle machine, she’s only been lifting a year.”

According to Morgan, the

team has a variety of experience: “Joely has always been in the gym, but again only took it up this year. Everyone gets on with her and she’s come on leaps and bounds so she’s great to have in the team.” Equally, Handley’s experience has been a real asset to the club on competition days: “Ella has been at uni for three years, and has been lifting for at least that long. She’s the one with the experience and has really carried us at times. I competed on a different day to her at British Champs and she was just incredible, helping me through when I was crying after my last deadlift.”

Having teammates and coaches there at the competition can be so important, with the smallest margins making a huge difference.

Morgan agrees: “You can do all the training in the world, and if you’re not with it on the day then none of that matters. I saw one girl who was meant to lift a huge amount, but didn’t hit anywhere near it.” That’s not to undermine the value of training and preparation, as Morgan is quick to highlight: “It comes down to mentally preparing that week before, including eating right, and avoiding water cuts to make the weight.” That latter point is so important, with water cutting becoming more common practice in university sport, despite both coaches and professional athletes advising against it. Morgan added: “It can be really damaging to your stomach, and often physically and mentally put you in bad stead for a competition, so you have to make sure you’re around the right weight beforehand.”

As preparation continues for the international competition, Morgan raises questions over the status of powerlifting in university sport: “I don’t know why powerlfiitng isn’t in BUCS, but I’d absolutely love it to be.” It’s not just an issue on a national scale though, with it being a campus-based question as well. “What also annoys me is that powerlifting isn’t classed as a performance sport, and when I asked the sport centre what actually makes a performance sport, none of them seem to know. I’m on the club’s committee next year, and I’m so keen to get the sport out there and up there, without forcing it down people’s throats.” For now, Morgan wants to focus on the upcoming challenge in Pilsen: “We’re just so happy that we get to perform on a world stage and represent Newcastle because not many teams get this opportunity. It feels like it really reflects our achievements and the hard work that we’ve put in this season and over the last few years as well.”

Above Ella-Louise Handley was a part of the team that qualified for the Worlds in 2017 Near and far left Ella Morgan was in action at the 2018 National Championships, successfully lifting all of her weights

THIS GIRL CAN images: NUSU AU ClUbS Back in November, NUSU’s sport clubs embraced the national This Girl Can campaign to show off the best of the female teams that Newcastle has to offer. Across the week there were taster sessions, a fun run, exercise classes, an all-female panel discussion, and even a craft session. On 22nd November, Newcastle’s female teams showed off This Girl Can banners and placards at their BUCS Wednesday fixtures, rallying behind the campaign to encourage more women to get into university sport.

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CLUB OF THE YEAR BOAT

COACH OF THE YEAR ANDY LITTLE, WATER POLO

AU CLUB MEMBER OF THE YEAR MEGAN LORD, WATER POLO 34

CONTRIBUTION TO INCLUSIVITY DODGEBALL

SPORTS WRITER O TOBY BRYANT

OF THE YEAR

TEAM OF THE YEAR 1ST COXED 4S, BOAT

INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTION TO NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY SPORT XAVI RODRIgUEz CORRAL

ADMIN OF THE YEAR MOLLIE ROBERTS

MOST IMPROVED CLUB TRAMPOLINE 35

having started out at the bottom of the ladder, archie cobb is now the incoming second team captain for the men’s hockey club, but he doesn’t want to stop there.

As you may or may not know, the last time I saw you, was when you made your debut for the Men’s Hockey 3s.

Oh yeah you gave me a cracking review, thank you very much.

I did indeed; it was a class performance. I want to know from your perspective, what your journey was like from that match to where you are now?

I didn’t make it to pre-season hockey, so during Freshers week you’ve got all the trials going on and its quite hard because there are 100-150 people there. They try and split you up into different groups and pick out who will be selected for what team. So originally weirdly I got put into the first team selection, which is a bit rogue having not been up for preseason and being subsequently dropped to the 3s. I didn’t actually play a game for the first team because they didn’t have a game until the end of the week, but I was just training with them and then the captain decided that it was full for that week, so I got moved to the seconds for the next game. There was a bit of miscommunication, so I think the match that you watched was where I got dropped to the 3s, and got man of the match, which was awesome, and an awesome review as well, and then I basically got chucked back into the 2s the next week. I was training with the 2s anyway, but they just dropped me to the 3s for a game, and then played with the 2s for most of the season. Towards the end of the season, I started getting my first team call up for some away games and some home games as well; it was good to get some experience at the top level. Then at the end of the season, the current captain came up to me and said: “have you thought about going for captain next year because we’d like you to.” I’d thought of going for it anyway, so I thought: “yeah I’ll go for that.”

So what was the process like? Was it an AGM? Yeah, he contacted me about a month before the AGM after Easter, so before the holidays he came up to me and another fresher, the goalkeeper, and he said something along the lines of: “I want one of you two to be captain,” and inferred that we could decide between ourselves who wants to go for it, or both go for it and see who gets the club vote, and then the other person becomes the vice, so he’s going to become my vice next year. There were 4 contenders, and all of us had to speak in front of the whole club, and the team votes on it. It’s quite a good experience because you all leave the room and then you’ve got the whole hockey club there voting for you or otherwise. I know most of them, but then there are some players that you don’t really know too well, so you’re sort of selling why you should be captain. Then you walk back in and it’s announced who’s going to be captain, which was awesome when they said my name.

So you said you’d got first team call-ups this year, as captain is that still possible? Can you still get a call up into the firsts?

There’s a 66% rule that is in place so I can actually get called up to the ones, but only when we’re not playing. I spoke to them about it because it’s always been my dream to play hockey as high as I can at university, that’s why I was excited for my call up.

But on reflection, I actually would rather get the experience of having my own team.

Looking back, when did you start playing hockey?

Has it always been your number one sport?

I was a lucky child actually; so up to the age of five I was in Gloucestershire and then 5-10 my dad’s business took us to Barbados, which you can’t complain too much, but it meant that I didn’t actually start playing hockey until I was about ten years old. I remember my first ever time I picked up a hockey stick, it was at my school for pre-season, and I went with my mum so you know what it’s like, you get chucked into it and told to go play this sport.

It was a 10 hour day of just hockey and I was just really dead afterwards. I loved it but I remember, what was his name, like Mr Cole the PE Teacher just like tortured us for a whole day repeatedly. I moved to Somerset and then at school I started playing again. We started to get a feel of national level, I tried all the really complicated systems to get into England for hockey but got shot down, so I decided to play club as high I can. Our school team was really good; we went to nationals three times so to answer your question, it’s always been like my best sport.

Coming to university, you said you didn’t do preseason hockey, what’s behind that this year?

Pre-season is actually a long one, so this year we’re coming up first week of September with the first and second team. This year hopefully we’re going to try and incorporate the teams a bit more because that was one of the problems last year, there wasn’t really enough people changing in between teams. So we’ll come up on the first of September, fitness training basically for four weeks before University starts, which will be a bit of fun. You all go to the same destination, so we’ll be with the 1s and 2s hockey girls as well, so that will be good fun just to get to know that side of the hockey club too, and then the 3s and 4s come up around two weeks before uni starts.

As captain how much of a role do you have in that, do you lead a lot of it?

Yeah, quite a bit of a role; the first team captain who is the same guy as it was this year: [Will Dodd-Moore], so he’s going to be leading the forefront type thing of 1’s and 2’s. Obviously, there’s a lot of organisation behind it, which comes from different parts of committee too. I’ll be deciding my team, and trying to get to know and improve different aspects of their games, as well as bringing different players in so that they can play how I want to play our team to play next year.

So do you have a good idea of you want the team to play?

I have quite a good idea; my coach back at school was this Swedish international player, and I’ve done like lots of coaching courses and things like that, so I’ve got a really good feel of what I want to try.

Swedish-style hockey?

Swedish-style hockey is exactly what I want. He just drilled it into us for about 6 months and we got the results; he was a good coach that was also good fun.

Is he your number one role model in terms of being a coach/captain?

Yeah I’d say he probably is; role model-wise for coaching it’s probably him. Him and another coach, Ben Dudley, worked really close with us. They took us to all our matches and we were with them all the way through. My captain at school, Mike, was an awesome captain so he’s going to give us a bit of help next year as well, he has given me some advice already so that’s good.

Do you have anything specifically that you want to achieve?

I said at the AGM that we’re going to have a successful season, which I hope I deliver. We’ve got good hopes of double promotion next year so I’m probably going to push for that, and I’ve got to know all the boys in the team this year so that’s quite a big factor. We were really close this year, we missed out by one point in BUCS, and then in the Saturday league we sort of just started slacking towards the end.

So it’s achievable?

Very achievable.

Do you need a good crop of freshers, or have you got a good enough team?

We’ve got some. This year in our 2s there were 11 Freshers in the team out of 16, so hopefully that will carry on until next year, so that should be quite good. But a few Freshers could help the mix.

Over the course of this year, have you got any specific personal highlights that you’re proud of?

We had one game when the whole hockey club came and watched, which was a must-win game against Leeds Beckett. We went away and lost to them earlier in the season, and I got sent off in that game, so we needed redemption. That was a good one because we won 3-0, and that was great with everyone supporting you. Also, against Durham we were 2-0 down with

5 minutes to go, but won 3-2; that’s probably like the biggest highlight, I loved that.

Looking for some of those this year then?

Yeah, we started the season and we were on a 16-win streak or something ridiculous, so we always start really strong, it’s just case of not tailing off this time.

A bit of discipline needed then?

Yeah exactly, a bit of discipline needed because everyone gets too comfortable when they’re playing. It’s that complacency that we’ve got to change a bit.

Above Archie made his Newcastle debut against Durham for Necastle 3s Left After glowing reviews, he was promoted to the 2s, and elected captain at the end of the year

Will integrating the teams will help with that?

Yeah definitely, so that’s what I’ve spoken closely with the 1s captain about, and also the incoming President.

So going into your second year, do you have anything else at university that you have to achieve by the end of your 3rd year?

Hockey takes up a lot of time, but I do want to start doing some other things. I came to university and as you do in Freshers’ Week, you sign up to so many things. Then I realised hockey is 5 times a week, so I started not being able to go to things like Management Society. But I think that’s probably my next one, I definitely want to get a bit more of a role in that. One of my friends is the treasurer so she says she’s going to make sure we all come to the events, so I’ll be doing a bit of that. In terms of other sports, tennis is what I loved at school, but there’s just so much going on, it’s just trying to balance it all out.

"SWEDISH-STYLE HOCKEY IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANT. HE JUST DRILLED IT INTO US FOR ABOUT 6 MONTHS AND WE GOT THE RESULTS; HE WAS A GOOD COACH THAT WAS ALSO GOOD FUN"

Do you think, come third year, you’ll go for like a big role in the hockey club?

So my problem there is that I’m doing a year in industry, so I’ll probably come back fourth year and I’ll take a bit more of a back seat. I’ll see what the situation is, and see if they require someone, but the aim is to be playing a bit more 1s hockey.

Do you have a long-term hockey goal after you leave uni?

Just to keep playing as much as possible. It’s getting a lot more competitive nowadays; so national level is off the cards, but I think club level back home is the aim. My local club is Bath, so hopefully I’ll start playing with them again, but I think the aim is just try and keep fitness going while I’m away. That’s I think that’s when I’ll turn to tennis and other sports that when I’m old and can’t bend over, I’ll just start hitting the ball back and forth; that’s the dream.

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The spiriT circle

Image: james sproston There are few sports around these days where the spirit of the game is not in question. So often there are reports of ‘gamesmanship’ in all mainstream sports, so to think of a sport that is so reliant on sporting behaviour that there are no officials seems very out of place. Ultimate, commonly known as Ultimate Frisbee, is exactly that sport; so much so that it would not exist if the game was not played with honesty. At the end of every game, the two teams form a ring known as a ‘Spirit Circle’, where each player links with an opponent. Here the two captains will exchange positive feedback on the game, and discuss any contentious moments of the match. If the spirit of the game is ever in question, it is also the right of a team captain to call a ‘Spirit of the Game Time-out’, though this is a very rare occurrence. At tournaments it is common practice for a ‘Spirit award’ to be given to the team that holds the spirit of the game in highest regard, and is just as coveted as the prize for winning the tournament. As a sport, ultimate does not shy away from progressive attitudes. There are three team categories: women’s (all-female), mixed (minimum two women), and open (anyone). This is something that not even BUCS hadn’t cottoned onto, as the formation of an ultimate BUCS league was met with outrage when it was announced that it was to be male-only, and it still remains that way.

ALEX TURNER REFLECTS ON ANOTHER SUCCESSFILLED YEAR FOR THE BOAT CLUB, HIGHLIGHTING NUMEROUS TRIUMpHS ON AND OFF THE wATER

T

DID YOU KNOW? The Boat Club won the Boat Race of North in Durham this June. Read about it on Pages 10-11

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he Boat Club raced their first event of the year in November, the GB rowing first trials, which doubled up as BUCS small boats. The 2km ergo test saw some great scores and many personal bests, with the stand-out performance coming from James Robson, who came second in the Open Men’s category.

He beat the Newcastle 2km record with a PB of 5:49.6. The 5km time trial in singles or pairs again saw some great performances. In the Lightweight Men’s singles, Dom Jackson performed terrifically, placing 2nd overall; Rob Fuller and James Stevenson also finished very well, with both making the top 10. In the Men’s Openweight pair, James Robson put in a strong performance finishing 10th. In the Openweight Men’s singles, Oliver Costley put in

a great performance to claim 10th. In the Women’s Openweight pair, Kathryn Eccles and Amy Bowman ranked 16th overall, while in the very tough field of the Women’s Openweight single, Lola Anderson came 20th.

The next event in the calendar was BUCS Head, hosted by NUBC for the third year in succession, with the weekend being kicked off

by Newcastle’s Beginners winning a silver medal in the Beginner Women’s quad. On the Sunday, the Women’s squad gained impressive haul of medals: bronze in the Women’s Championship VIII, silver in Intermediate VIII, gold in Lightweight 4-, silver in Intermediate 4x and gold in Intermediate 4+. The Men’s squad followed suit with gold and bronze in the Intermediate VIII and gold in the Lightweight 4-, silver in Championship 4x, bronze in Championship 4-, silver in both Championship and Intermediate 4+ and silver in the Intermediate 4x.

This large haul of medals placed Newcastle second and first in the Women’s and Men’s VL respectively.

Our final BUCS event of the year was BUCS Regatta, providing three days of side-by-side racing. The Saturday saw the Men’s Heavyweight VIIIs, Lightweight 4-, Lightweight 1x and Heavyweight 1x all in action.

The first success of the day came in the Lightweight singles, where Matt Day and Jack Smith won silver and bronze medals. Next up, in a very tough field, Oliver Costley raced well to make the A final of Championship single. The Lightweight 4- were next down the track, looking to retain the title for the third year running. In a very close race they edged out a fast Nottingham 4- to take the win. The Men’s

Intermediate VIII, having won both the time trial and semi-final, were looking good for the final, however in a very tight final were just squeezed out of the medals. The Men’s Championship VIII was the final race of the day. The VIII raced well throughout the day and, in one of the closet finals for several years, missed out on the medals by 1 second.

Saturday also saw the Women’s pairs and quads in action. Whilst the Championship Women’s quad took a fantastic gold medal, the Lightweight 2x claimed a bronze medal, which was the first of several medals for the Women’s Lightweight squad. The Women’s Intermediate 4x raced very well to a silver medal to round off a very successful first day. Also racing were the Beginner Women’s Quad, having claimed silver at BUCS Head they stepped up to take gold, showing some promise for the future.

On Sunday it was the turn of the Women’s VIIIs. Having had strong results all season the crews were hopeful of some good performances and the results didn’t disappoint. The Intermediate VIII raced fantastically well to claim an incredible gold medal for the third year in a row. Whilst they were collecting their medals the Women’s Championship VIII came past in a thrilling final to take a well-deserved bronze medal. The Sunday was also the turn of Jennifer Peacock in the Beginner Women’s single who put in a very impressive race to claim a silver medal.

The women’s Lightweights rounded off the weekend with yet more medals: a bronze in the 4x and silver in 2-.

The Sunday for the men was the turn of the fours and Lightweight VIII. The lightweights, with two VIIIs entered, set out to assert themselves as the most dominate lightweight programme in the country. The racing certainly demonstrated that with the 1st VIII winning by several lengths to claim the title for the 3rd year running, and the 2nd VIII coming fourth. The Men’s fours had some tough racing in very competitive fields, the highlight being the Men’s Intermediate 4+ claiming a silver medal.

To top off the weekends results it was announced the club had won the Women’s Victor Ludorum, the Men’s Victor Ludorum and the overall Victor Ludorum. A fantastic achievement and only the second time ever in the clubs history claiming the overall VL. Winning the Victor Ludorum demonstrates the importance of the performance of every single athlete in the club, regardless of ability, whether it be a Championship gold medal, or a 4th place finish in an E-final. Every athlete felt they were an integral part of the Boat Club, contributing with their own performance to the overall victory.

The Monday was the turn of the Men’s quads and pairs. The Men’s quads all raced well, with the Lightweight quad taking gold and the Intermediate quad claiming silver. Monday also saw the successful Women’s VIIIs split up to race in their fours. More great results followed with a silver in Championship 4- and a silver in the Intermediate 4+.

The results at these three events has helped the Boat Club become the highest scoring BUCS points scoring club for the university in the 2017/18 season. The club now turns their focus to the summer regattas with a view to building on the results of BUCS Regatta to perform at Henley Women’s and Henley Royal Regatta.

Above left The Women’s VIIIs put in sterling performances at BUCS Head and the Sunday of BUCS Regatta Above The Men’s VIIIs enjoyed equal success after months of training Below left The Climbing Club took three female competitors to BUCS Nationals

BUCS Nationals: Team Reports CLIMBING Nine climbers from Newcastle University made the journey down to Sheffield to compete in the BUCS Nationals climbing competition.

The competition comprised 30 climbs, or ‘boulder problems’, to be completed by the climbers, ranging from a fairly easy level, manageable by most climbers, to an incredibly difficult standard only climbable by the very best.

Team Captain Jake Oughton managed a very respectable score of 215 out of a maximum 250, earning himself joint 8th place out of 260 competitors. Ollie Knowles and Cameron Smith made up the remainder of the men’s first team, and the three of them earned Newcastle University 8th place in the Men’s Team ranking. Jim Pope from Sheffield University managed a perfect score of 250 by climbing every problem on his first try, ensuring he qualified in first place for the final.

Our best performer in the women’s competition was Catherine Bonnet, who placed in 37th with a score of 104.

Elle Partington and Eloise Bull made up the rest of the women’s first team. Ajda Remajkar of Edinburgh won the girls competition with a score of 208.

The top 4 men and women qualified for the finalists put on a great show, and Jim Pope Remajkar continued their excellent form by taking first place in the final, championship.

final. The and Ajda in qualifying and the BUCS

SWIMMING The year for Newcastle Swimming Team looked promising after the acquisition of some fine home grown and international talent to our roster. The first chance to prove ourselves was the BUCS short course (25m) championships back in November, taking 24 members of squad down to Sheffield for a weekend of hard racing. Notable performers were two newcomers to the team, Siobhan Durcan and Sean Glasgow, with the former impressing by ducking under the minute mark in her 100m freestyle. Glasgow, our latest import from Switzerland, smashed the club record for 100m freestyle clocking 52.84, a fantastic achievement.

Our next competition was in February, for the prestigious Long Course (50m) national championships. Another one of our club records fell in the men’s 4x100m Freestyle relay, in a time of 3.39.34, finishing a respectable 4th in the B final. The team was made up of freshers Max Tidmarsh (55.78), George Cooper (54.92), Sean Glasgow (53.87) and president-elect Jordan Macdonald (54.77). Macdonald, showing his prowess in the sprint events, finished 14thin the 50m backstroke in a time of 28.25 against a class field.

Our final BUCS competition was the Team Championships in May. After a disappointing relegation to the ‘Shield’ in 2016/17, we went into the competition with high hopes.

Madeleine Fale was the star performer breaking the 100m-medley club record in a time of 1.08.15. NUSWIM secured a fine end to the season by securing promotion to the championship for the upcoming season 2018/19.

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THE NEW FACE OF THE AU maggie elstob came out on top in the nusu elections to become the students’ union’s next au officer. she sat down with nsr station manager harry parsons to discuss how she’s going to fulfil her manifesto Firstly, congratulations on winning your election back in March.

Thank you!

So let’s begin. What do you view the role of AU Officer to be?

When somebody says to me: “What is your job? What is your job going to be?” I describe it as the middleman between the university and the sports clubs; representing the University to the sports clubs and the sports clubs to the University. It is pretty much my dream job right now.

You play netball; you’ve been a Freshers’ Crew member and a RAG crew member. What would you say to those who didn’t vote for you, or to the many who didn’t vote at all, to make them feel at ease that you’re qualified for to be the head of the AU this year?

I think I represent a wide range of students, so, as you’ve mentioned I’ve played in the netball club for three years, I’ve been on netball committee for two years, taken pretty active role in the club, also got involved in things outside of the sports club with Freshers’ Crew, RAG crew, it also means I represent those who aren’t in a sports team. I also worked this past year as a sport assistant with the Inclusive Sports Coordinator, and our role was to deliver the participation side of the sports programme, which includes those who just want to ‘kick about’ on a Saturday afternoon, and learnt about their needs as well.

Your manifesto is divided into four parts: health & nutrition, participation, uniting Team Newcastle and facilities.

We will start on ‘health & nutrition’. You talk about improving the availability of breakfast food in the sports centre. Watching your campaign video, and reading your manifesto, is the intention for this to be free?

I’m not sure how that would work, I kind of can’t be sure. We all said we found it quite difficult writing manifestos when you don’t know when you don’t know what you’re going to be able to do. I know Clara did a nutrition week where that food was free; I think it is probably not sustainable but I would like to make it affordable, moving forward with Ronnie’s work this year about making food on campus cheaper.

Also just having that accessibility because, having done training from 7-8 on a morning and had to get to a lecture for 9, the amount of times I’ve sat in a lecture or a seminar with a rumbling stomach is not okay. If we want our sports teams performing at a high level then we have got to make sure we are providing some sort of way of doing that.

“Providing a hot drinks machine and microwave in the sports centre,” you were one of the only candidates to fall into the trap of promising a microwave. If

you remember Jack Taylor [NUSU president 2016-17], he promised microwaves in the Robinson library and never delivered them. It seems like a small thing but that is a promise that may have won you lots of votes. Are you able to deliver that?

I wouldn’t call it falling into a trap to be honest; I think it is an idea that I think is important. So you could be in the sports hall for 5 or 6 hours and there is nowhere near where you can get hot food or where you warm your pasta up, or keep food in your body which is really important. I think everyone does talk about “Oh yeah you know let’s try and get a microwave here there and everywhere’,” but I think the point of a manifesto is here is what I am going to try to do, I can’t say that this is something that is absolutely this is what is going to happen. But I will do my best to do it.

Do you have a tactic that Jack didn’t use that you would be able to use?

He never tried to get them in the sports centre, so that is probably a new route. I don’t know if is going to be possible but it is something I will try to do because I think it is an important thing.

On ‘health & nutrition’, the section that says: “Make welfare officers compulsory for all clubs and provide appropriate and concise training sessions”. Do you think that students have the know-how to make sure that they can deal with some really complex issues in those times?

Especially when they are not being paid to do that?

I think having it as a compulsory role is not that much of an extra step from every club, which in order to be ratified, has to have a president, a secretary and a treasurer, so I don’t think it is that difficult to add that role on. I think what you do is provide the student with the adequate training to do their role. So you’re not expected to be a councillor, they’re not expected to take on everybody’s problems all the time, but it is just a point of contact. So if you do have something going on, you can say come to this person who can signpost you to the right services and make sure that each individual gets that care if they need it. It is not going to be necessary for everyone to use a welfare officer all the time, but I just think it is really important to have that role there.

University is not

an easy place to be, and being in a sports club sometimes is not an easy place to be, so having that role there is sometimes really important. But I don’t think that they would take on everybody’s problems all the time, be expected to council them or deal with them.

We will move onto ‘participation’, you say you want to “assist in expanding the Campus Leagues programme to cater for the interest for a wider group of students”. How are you going about this? How do you engage student in this programme?

Isn’t that the Students’ Union’s biggest problem, trying to engage students? Having worked on the participation in sport programme, I know that there isn’t always the space to get people in. People, who come into university, tend to want to try something new. You’ve got a captive audience anyway, so you’ve got them at Freshers’ Fair, it’s sending out emails, just trying to kind of get people involved, word of mouth maybe going into halls, just so that people are aware that the programme exists. It’s about letting people know that it is there really.

Stan Calvert. Team Northumbria has such great branding, and almost euphoria around it from the University. Do we need to improve our branding when it comes to Stan Calvert?

I think Stan Calvert is such a bone of contention anyway, I think it is...

Right. Should we get rid of it?

I would say that needs to be… Needs to have a refreshing... Something new... I don’t know how you do that? And I know that Clara has worked really hard this year. I love Stan Calvert, I love the week, and I love the day I play on. I really enjoy it. I think is great to have a varsity, and for some reason this idea of a varsity between us and Northumbria has become a real issue and when I talk to friends at other universities their varsity is just on one day and they play and everybody loves it.

There are no issues with organising it, getting people involved. I think sometimes it might be quite difficult to reach an agreement between us and Northumbria. So I wouldn’t get rid of it, I think it needs shaking up somehow.

So at the minute lots of people would argue that Northumbria don’t field teams in certain games where they think that they might lose, which is inherently un-sportsmanlike. Do you think that actually if they go to the same extent they went to this year to avoid those games, that actually we should actually put our hands up and say “no.” Do we need to have an ultimatum?

I think I can’t speak yet for my own personal relationship with the people at Northumbria. I haven’t’ had any conversations with them.

I’m sure those conversations will definitely happen. I think it probably gets to a point where you have to step back and say they are just not working with us here. I don’t know how much they want a varsity, that’s another thing that maybe needs to be looked at. But at other universities I know that they just have one game. So across all the sports they have they have one game on one day, and everybody goes to watch it and everyone gets involved. That then removes the aspect of participation of everybody getting to play, which is what is supposed to be the point of Stan Calvert. So I think that it’s a real tough one, Stan Calvert. I have had some great memories there but I don’t know, whether maybe, if you get to the time where you say: “Enough’s enough, we’re not getting any fixtures here, this is ridiculous.”

‘Facilities’. This is the one that probably is the toughest for anybody to make an impact over because it’s physical infrastructure. You want to facilitate a shuttle bus for players for off site fixtures. These are the various venues that many student won’t even know exist that are in the middle of goodness knows where. This year Ronnie Reid [2017/18 President] has facilitated a bus pass for students at St Mary’s student accommodation. Is that what you’re looking at or are you looking at hiring an individual coach of some description to shuttle people over?

I think it would be more of a minibus type thing. This was an idea that I spoke to a couple of people about that I know for one that, we [netball] are very lucky that we play in the sports centre. But we have great football teams, great rugby teams, great tennis teams and great badminton teams that all play at venues that nobody knows about, and if I want to work on this uniting Team Newcastle and getting people down to watch fixtures, the getting people on that bus. So it would be running the idea, I hope, would be that it would be running for teams and spectators and then you would just hop on and hop off between here and either Cochrane Park or out at Longbenton or wherever. But again it’s just something that I think would be good to have.

Your manifesto says you want to source alternative venues for clubs during the redevelopment of the University Sports Centre. You’ll be the first AU officer to face this problem in what will be a three-year long process. Where are these alternative venues going to be?

The North East is very good for sport, so the venues do already exist.

I just think it’s, for me, making sure that... It is going to be quite a difficult time in order to have these amazing new developments that are happening.

It will be some peoples entire university experience; not having completed sports centre.

And again, that’s unfortunate. But if we want those amazing facilities at the end of it there has to be a period of transition. And in my opinion the sports centre does need that transition. But I think it is about sports clubs knowing that if they are struggling, it is going to bring about a lot of frustration if we’re not going to get facilities. So it’s about trying to find those facilities around Newcastle and I know that there are. For instance, there are about three netball courts within a mile radius of here.

“I LOVE STAN CALVERT, I LOVE THE WEEK, AND I LOVE THE DAY I PLAY ON. I REALLY ENJOY IT. FOR SOME REASON THIS IDEA OF A VARSITY BETWEEN US AND NORTHUMBRIA HAS BECOME A REAL ISSUE”

Are you aware of any money that is available in order for that to happen?

Will that be made available to you?

I’m not aware of that at the minute, I haven’t started the job yet, so I can’t speak for knowing cost-wise about how that would work. But I know for my club we didn’t get provided with the facilities that we needed this year so we outsourced our facilities to Jesmond, and our club fund that and the training coach too.

It is about looking at which clubs are going to be affected and maybe working out how I can help and just be a point of contact. I think that’s what this job is all about and it’s about clubs knowing that they can just say: “Look we’re really struggling; this is not going to work for us.

We are not going to perform at our highest level if this is where we’re training,” and then seeing what we can do.

Finally, you say you want to work with the sports centre to try and reduce prices…

This is everyone favourite question isn’t it.

It happens to be the final point on your manifesto. But you want to work with them to reduce membership prices for performance club athletes and provide a monthly option for payment. At the moment you buy it in one lump sum at the end of the year. You want to go about reducing the membership prices. How? I think that is every AU officer that comes in, wants to try and do that. I don’t know how possible it is but…

It wasn’t on everyone’s manifesto. It is on yours.

Well I would say that it is something that clubs want to hear that you’re trying to do. And it is something that I will…

So you said it because people wanted to hear it, not because it’s possible?

No. I think that it is something that I want to try and do and it will be something that everybody builds on year-on-year, and everybody tries to go in and have that conversation, and I will step into that role and do my best to have that conversation. I think that the idea of a monthly membership just makes sense. Every gym you will ever join has that option, and I don’t see why that would be an issue. In terms of reducing membership price, it is something that I’m going to go in to bat with. It is something that every year somebody has gone in to bat with it and I will give it a go and that’s all that I can try and do really.

Okay. Just to push you on that. What have other reps done differently to what you will do? Evidently that they have tried to do hasn’t worked.

I think I can go in with a lot of knowledge. I’m not saying that previous AU officers haven’t, but I’ve paid for a gym membership and have got my worth out of it and can use that as an argument. I think that all of these facilities are changing over and it is going to be at least a year maybe a couple of years of, not turmoil, but kind of unrest in terms of facilities and memberships. So I think that maybe going in with that argument and actually looking at the figures and looking at silver and gold membership but maybe having a bronze membership if you just want to do classes and just making it so that people can get their money worth for what they want to do.

Maggie, thank you very much for your time.

You’re welcome.

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