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sports Report sPoRTs REPoRT

Beth Collett History & Politics, 2011

The year 2012-13 was tremendous for sports at Mansfield. Having produced an unprecedented number of University sports captains, in both Blues and 2nds teams, we fielded more College teams (and more successful teams!) than ever before.

BoAT cLuB

On the river, both M1 and W1 experienced a very successful year, despite hugely disruptive river conditions throughout. W1 bumped and rowed over in 2013’s Summer VIIIs, which was a vast improvement after receiving spoons in Torpids. M1, with former Blues rower Dan Harvey (Maths, 2005; now in his seventh year rowing for College!), and current member of the Isis crew, Iain Mandale, managed to bump three times, before narrowly missing out on blades with a row-over on the Saturday of Summer VIIIs. Both M1 and W1 go into the 2013-14 academic year in their highest league position in the College’s history. We were delighted to welcome the 2003 M1 crew (who were the last M1 to achieve blades in Summer VIIIs) to 2013’s Summer VIIIs dinner, where their support and commiserations were a welcome addition. This past year was also the first in a long time in which a Mansfield boat entered an external regatta, and, despite not passing the first round at Wallingford Regatta, M1 did a fantastic job on the Olympic course.

RugBY

Sadly the M&Ms rugby team were relegated from the top division during a transitional season, with a number of new faces in the team this year. Momentum is gathering, however. Combined training with Teddy Hall led to a strong improvement in the team’s training standards, and, with several Blues players attracted by the presence at Mansfield of the current rugby league Blues Captain, Hugo Fearon (History, 2010), we are hopeful of a return to the top flight in the coming year.

FooTBALL

In football, the combined men’s MMFC recovered from a poor start to the 2012-13 season to finish strongly, ending up fourth out of seven in the First Division (which is, naturally, the second highest league). The men’s XI is aiming to reclaim its place in the Premier League and will take inspiration from the promotion achieved this year by the women’s XI.

PooL

Our pool team performed well last season, and is proud to have fielded two players – Chris Speller (Geography, 2012), the new College Captain, and Ellie Saunders (History & English, 2010) – who have competed for the University in pool this year.

cRIckET

The last cricket season was a slight disappointment after the highs of two Division 1 titles in the past three years, as the men’s M&Ms finished ninth in Division 1. The women, meanwhile, have benefited from the arrival of fresher Priyanaz Chatterji (Human Sciences, 2011), a Scottish international cricketer and now Blues player. There is every hope that in 2014 promotion to Division 1 will be achieved, and all eyes are fixed on the prospect of repeating the 2011 team’s cup-winning heroics.

squAsH

We are delighted to have fielded three men’s squash teams and a women’s team, with players to spare, for the first time in MCSRC’s history, and I personally have been incredibly proud of the training and commitment of the squad this year. With only seven colleges able to muster a girls’ team, having seven women playing for our College team is a huge achievement, and one that we hope to build on greatly next year.

HockEY

Mansfield’s hockey team has had phenomenal success in 2012-13, going the entire season unbeaten in League 2. Despite losing some of its strongest players this year – such as Matt Dodd (Geography, 2010), a veritable hockey legend at Mansfield – the team remains confident of a second consecutive promotion in the coming season.

TENNIs

Tennis also goes from strength to strength, as both the men’s and women’s team, captained by Nick Hooton (Engineering, 2011) and Charlotte Eynon (Geography, 2011) respectively, stormed to promotion in their divisions last summer.

uLTIMATE FRIsBEE

A relatively new sport for Mansfield and for Oxford as a whole, has benefited from having the President of OUUF, Harry Mason (Engineering, 2011), coaching and encouraging members from across the College and the University. As with another newbie, the College Quidditch team, Mansfield players are making an impact on the college-wide and the University-wide circuit – something, as a relatively small college, we should be proud of.

NETBALL

Last year, the Mansfield netball squad scored a series of consecutive victories over both the Michaelmas and Hilary terms which culminated in our being promoted to Division 1. The team really benefited from good shooting by alumni and ex-captain Leah Grint and she was definitely missed when we also finally had a chance to experience the Cuppers tournament at the beginning of last Trinity.

BLuEs

Mansfield has achieved a disproportionate level of representation in sports at a University level. Hugo Fearon led the University rugby league Blues to a huge Varsity win, while Shaan Dalwadi (Maths, 2009) this year competed in his third consecutive Varsity match, as well as continuing to lead a highly successful University team in the regional league. Iain Mandale rowed in a victorious Isis (University 2nds) boat earlier this year, and we look forward to welcoming Chris Fairweather (Geography, 2009) back into the MCBC fold (despite his having decamped to Oriel to complete his masters, he remains a Mansfield man at heart). The men’s lightweight Blues also benefited from Mansfield’s input, as Christian Proctor (Engineering, 2009) coxed his crew to victory in their Varsity race. Charlotte Warne (PPE, 2011), Co-captain of MCBC’s W1 this year, has been rowing for OULWRC and, we hope, will be competing in 2014’s Varsity race after injury kept her out of the last contest. I have been lucky enough to captain the OUSRC (squash!) women’s 2nds, which, despite losing our Varsity match to a very strong Cambridge team, looks healthy moving into 2013-14. Alex Ford and Priyanaz Chatterji both represented the University at the highest level at ice hockey and cricket respectively.

Despite being one of the smallest colleges, Mansfield has been punching way above its weight with regards to both inter-college and University-level sport. In the next term of my tenure, I am hoping to secure better funding for Blues and College sports players and teams, in particular by hosting a sports dinner for Mansfield sports players past and present. So if any of you would like to become more closely involved with supporting sport at Mansfield, look out for information on this dinner in the near future, or please do contact me, or the captain of the relevant team. Mansfield has demonstrated an ability across all sports to out-perform colleges with more students and more funding, and our commitment to encouraging all players to reach the highest level possible, and to field as many women’s teams as possible, is something of which we are proud, particularly in this post-Olympic year. We are all looking forward to another year of building upon this success.