vp sport newsletter - april 2014

Unique in opportunities,

excellence in performance and

pride in spirit. This is

Birmingham.

When I first came here as a Fresher

back in September 2010, I knew there

was something special about this place.

Making a choice to pursue my interest in

sport over music, little did I know how

significant that choice would come to be.

Sports Fair on that very first Wednesday

of Welcome Week marked the start of

what would go on to be an incredible

journey for me at Birmingham, and as

my term in office as VP Sport comes to

an end in July it makes me nostalgic to

think back on all the incredible

experiences I have had.

Good luck to everyone finishing off their

dissertations and revising for exams, I

hope you all have an enjoyable Easter

and manage to get some good rest in

with family and friends.

It has been an action-packed and

exciting past few months, marking an

unbelievable term for all of our teams

and athletes with some of our best

performances and achievements ever.

For me, it has been a privilege and

honour to share these remarkable

successes and stories with you this

year, and there have been moments

which I hope will be cherished for long

to come still. This second edition of

the VPS Newsletter will take a look

back at some of the highlights of the

last term.

So, until next time, I wish you all the

best of luck in upcoming exams. My

door is always open if you want to

come in for a chat, or have any

questions about anything. Well done

to everyone for an incredible term and

year of sport, and I look forward to

celebrating all your achievements at

Sports Ball in June!

Best wishes,

Vicki

Vicki Harris, Vice-President (Sport) [email protected] | @Guild_VPS


BUCS Gatorade Nationals 2014

From the 21-23 February, the BUCS

Gatorade National Championships

2014 saw some impressive results from

our Birmingham teams.

Judo celebrated an incredible medal

haul, including Gold for the women’s

team, three silvers and two bronze

medals in total. A highlight from

Swimming was Charlotte Reid winning

Gold in the 50m Backstroke, making

her club and teammates extremely

proud. The Trampolining team were

bouncing all weekend after winning 4th

place and securing their first ever

BUCS points at the same time.

Athletics & Cross Country did not fail to

impress with a huge medal total of two

golds, one silver and four bronze

individual medals, plus a team bronze

to top it off. Bowling also saw a

successful weekend with three of the

four teams featuring in the top ten of

their competition and winning 14 BUCS

points in total.

The Badminton team celebrated bronze

with Hannah Sharman and Doug Furze

in the mixed competition, and Squash

had an amazing weekend with sports

scholar Chloe Mesic playing an

outstanding competition to win BUCS

Individual Women’s A-Grade Gold.

Alex Peart, Trampolining Captain doing his stretches

Athletics & XC after finals

Judo bring home the Gold


Georgie, Charlotte, Lizzy

and Kristina finish 5th Bowling team winding down

Trampolining women finish 4th, winning their first ever BUCS points.


Korfball and Ultimate

Frisbee crowned

National Champions,

Swimming win Bronze

In March, the results kept

coming in fast and strong.

The Swimming club’s first

team won Bronze at the

Team Swimming Finals in

Sheffield, Korball took

team Gold at the National

Championships at the

University of East Anglia

Sportspark Arena, and

Ultimate Frisbee were also

crowned National

Champions at the

University Mixed Outdoor

Nations in Sheffield,

another title to be proud of

after winning the Mixed

Indoor Nationals in

February.

Bronze medal for the Swimming Team

Gold for UoB Mixed Outdoor Ultimate Frisbee

Korfball are crowned National Champs 2014


BUCS Big Wednesday 2014

24-25 March

And then of course we had BUCS Big

Wednesday. Oh my. There are few

words to describe the outstanding

results from the two days that made

up BUCS Big Wednesday 2014, which

took place on 24-25 March at Surrey

Sports Park.

We had 8 teams qualify to the finals

and when the results came in it was

an absolute Gold Rush, with a Gold

medal and the title of ‘BUCS National

Champions’ for Basketball women,

Volleyball women, Lacrosse women,

and all of the Squash teams.

Badminton came away with an

outstanding Silver as did the men’s

Fencing team.

Well done to everyone, students, staff

and supporters who were involved in

helping achieve these results. Just

amazing. Fencing take Silver

Gold all-around for Squash

Lacrosse are BUCS Champions 2014


Badminton win Silver

Basketball women, BUCS Champions ‘14

Volleyball take Gold


American Football and

Cheerleading make a scene

at Nationals

Outside of these big BUCS events, our

Birmingham Lions American Football

team gave a performance to be proud

of in the BUCS American Football

National Championships Final,

winning Silver after a tough defeat to

the Stirling Clansmen 20-15 in what

was an exciting and highly skilled

game. Yet again our Birmingham Lions

showing true class and

sportsmanship.

Our Birmingham Pussycats

Cheerleading team also had an

incredible Nationals in Nottingham at

the British Open & University

Nationals Cheer & Dance

Championships, with a 1st place for

team stunt in Level 6, and the hip-hop

team coming 4th. The competition

squad gave one of their best

performances to date and placed 4th

overall and 2nd out of the University teams.


After all of this, and to finish off what

has been a remarkable term, our

Women’s Hockey team celebrated

victory winning Gold over

Loughborough 2-0 in the BUCS

Women’s Hockey Championship Final

on 2nd April at Beeston Hockey Club in

Nottingham.

An outstanding end to their season

reaffirming their status as the best

University hockey club in the UK, and

it brought all the BUCS Wednesday

afternoon fixtures to a close for this

year in true style.

UoB Women’s Hockey show they are the best in Britain

April, no fools day for

Birmingham

Over April, Brumski & Board Club and

the Dodgeball Club equally saw some

decent and impressive results. Our

snowsports team absolutely smashed

the BUSC Main Event Championship

2014 in Alpe D’Huez, the biggest event

in the snowsports calendar, placing 3rd

overall and scooping up 12 BUCS points

in the contributing events. They also

dominated the last Red Bull 1976 games

of the season at the Easter trip in Val

Thorens with an all Birmingham final.

Meanwhile, the men’s Dodgeball team

stormed through their league finishing

in 2nd place in the play-offs against the

5 other top teams and securing a well-

deserved promotion into Division 1 for

next year.

Finally, one of my favourite moments

of this month has to be Lottie Kennedy

from the Equestrian Club qualifying

through to Nationals after winning

Regionals, merely a couple of weeks

after coming off crutches from a

broken leg. Unbelievable scenes.


Brumski in Val Thorens

Dodgeball Club 2013-2014

Lottie (far right) through to Nationals


Clubs raise money for charity

Off the playing fields, some clubs have

used this term to raise money for good

causes. Back at the beginning of March

the Rowing Club held a Sponsored 24

Hour Ergathon at the Guild of Students,

taking place from 4-5th March and

running all the way through Sports Night.

They raised well over £2000, half of

which was fundraising for their Boat Club

and the other half all going to the

charity Sport Relief. Absolutely

outstanding.

Gymnastics & Trampolining also did

some fundraising for charity this term

by organising their first ever Charity

Gym & Tramp Ball and raising an

incredible £755 in total for Alzheimer’s

Society.

Rowing club’s 24 Hour Ergathon

Gym & Tramp raise £755 for Alzheimer’s Society

On Saturday 8th March the Officer

Elections 2014 officially came to a close

with the announcement of the results

taking place in the Deb Hall at the

Guild. It was a tough week and a half of

campaigning for all the candidates,

involving multiple lecture shout-outs a

day, door-knocking, leafleting,

cardboard-painting, not to mention

Candidate Hustings. The term 2 Sports

Forum with all the Club Captains and

other club representatives played host

to a first-time VP (Sport & Nutrition) and

Presidential candidate hustings, where

they all made one-minute speeches

followed by questions from the floor

afterwards. After all of this, I could not

be happier or prouder for Molly Browne,

current Captain of Athletics & Cross

Country Club and third year

Physiotherapy student, who was

officially elected to be our next Vice-

President (Sport & Nutrition) for 2014-

2015. It takes some serious guts to run

in these elections, and Molly worked so

hard for it, leading a strong campaign

and never once stopping. She

thoroughly deserves it and has my full

support for the following year,

absolutely buzzing for her. Her term in

office starts when mine ends in mid-

July, and I look forward to working with

her throughout handover, and giving her

the best possible start to what will be an

incredible year!


Molly Browne (left) and me at

Elections Results Night, 8 March

Molly Browne elected VP (Sport & Nutrition) 2014-15

Officer Elections 2014

Left to Right: James Hughes (VPS 2012-13), Molly Browne and me

New Officer Team-elect 2013-14

And now, with exams just around the

corner, here at the Guild of Students

and UBSport we know that life gets a bit

more stressful for students. So, we have

come up with a few opportunities for you

to enjoy throughout term 3 so that

together we can all make sure you are

in the best mental and physical state to

smash those exams. At the Munrow, be

sure to make the most of the 20%

discount on Active Lifestyle health and

fitness classes. My personal favourites

are Body Balance and Circuits, but if

that’s not your style then why don’t you

try out Spinning, Yoga, Body Attack or

even Zumba. Doing 30 minutes exercise

(or a couple of classes a week) will do

wonders to relieve stress, boost your

fitness and is a great way to take a

break from all that hard work revising.

Why not take a friend too?

At the Guild of Students, each

Wednesday during the exam period

we will have a Bouncy Castle on the

back lawn outside by Joes where you

can chill out on a deck chair and

enjoy some street food from the new

vendors, drink a smoothie, and have

some rest and fun after a stressful

day. The Student Mentors will be

door-knocking accommodation

throughout the term, giving out

healthy snacks and being there for

you if you need to talk to someone.

There will also be a number of free

exam-stress workshops for you, as

well as Laughter Yoga and free

massages.


Student Mentors, here to help

Remember to drink up!


New Sports Centre

- April 2014 -

Work on the New Sports Centre

commenced early April, with the

contractors now fully settled and the

digging up of the car park well underway.

I am lucky in that the view from my office

window at the Guild is ideal and I often

enjoy looking out to the construction site

to see the progress they are making. I

have also started uploading weekly

snapshots of the site onto my VP Sport

Facebook page, and hope this can be

continued for the next few years as a

way to keep students up to date with

the progress. Looking forward to early

2016, the Guild and UBSport will

become campus neighbours bringing

with it a noticeable shift in student

footfall on campus, and I am excited by

the prospects this will have for the Guild

and UBSport to bring their relationship

even closer over many years to come.

View from the VPS Window, Monday 7th April 2014

Visual graphics of the New Sports Centre, University of

Birmingham, scheduled for completion by December 2015.

Tickets for the Guild of Students Sports

Ball 2014 were made available to clubs

earlier this term, and an overwhelming

856 tickets were requested in total,

marking an increase in total number of

tickets requested as well as the number

of clubs requesting tickets. Thank you to

everyone who requested tickets and I

cannot wait for you to enjoy Sports Ball,

this year taking place at the world-class

Edgbaston Cricket Stadium on Sunday

8th June. Working on Sports Ball has

been one of my main projects this term

and I am delighted that progress is

going well.

The Awards season is our opportunity

to recognise all the hard work that

clubs and individuals put into sport at

Birmingham throughout the year.

Whether it was that big event that

blew the roof off, that one

performance that was a complete

game changer, or that individual who

has never missed a session, made an

outstanding contribution and given

their club everything, this is your

chance to celebrate with your club

your incredible achievements from

this year. Nominations for the awards

are open until Monday 28th April

(first day of term), and if you have any

questions about any of the award

categories please feel free to drop me

a message at [email protected]

or come visit me in my office.


mailto:[email protected]







vp sport newsletter - april 2014

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