Selwyn College Sports Newsletter 2012

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Thanks to the support of alumni, Selwyn students have had the opportunity to train, compete and excel in their chosen sports. Highlights from

the past year include a Selwyn victory in the Rugby Cuppers final – a fantastic achievement! We have also seen two of our women rowers compete at the Henley Boat Races this year, where Emma Copham was in the Cambridge Lightweights boat, and Eleanor Wigham rowed for Blondie, the women’s second boat.

Last month saw the inaugural Hermes-Sirens Old Boys & Girls Dinner, where the Hermes and Sirens Clubs welcomed many of you back to College, some after having competed in the Old Boys & Girls sports day earlier that day, to help celebrate sport at Selwyn. 2012 also marks 5 years since the Sirens Club was reformed. This special occasion will be marked by a Sirens Dinner which is being held on 9th November.

You can read about the Colleges’ sporting progress and successes in the following pages of this booklet. This year, over £4,800 has been given out in sports bursaries to Selwyn students from the Vickerstaff Sports Bursary Fund and the Hermes Fund, providing important funds for sports kit, equipment, training camps, coaching and competition fees. Thanks to these bursaries, Selwyn students are growing and developing as sportsmen and women; your generosity in supporting them is greatly appreciated.

Introduction

Over the past 12 months, Selwyn’s

sportsmen and women have once again done their College proud.

Sport at Selwyn 2012

Top left and above: Netball and Rugby at the Old Boys & Girls sports day this year


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After a strong season last year resulting in promotion to the first division, the team had the demanding task of competing against

the biggest and best College teams in the University. Fortunately, with the arrival of a capable group of first years and the loss of only a few players from last season, a large yet strong squad was formed.

The season started slowly, with an almost exact win-loss-win-loss pattern achieved in the Michaelmas term. A steady stream of goals from University second team player C. Hutton and strong performances against Trinity Hall and Gonville & Caius led us to a somewhat dangerous lower-mid-table position at the Christmas vacation.

The possibility of relegation looming over us sparked the team into some of the most remarkable form I have witnessed in a Selwyn shirt. Total domination was displayed over the next two matches, with a 3-0 victory over Trinity and a 4-1 victory over

a Christ’s side that eventually finished third with M. Baxter scoring five goals in the two games.

Having achieved our primary objective for the season of remaining in the top flight for next year, the performances began to drop off. From being in a position capable of reaching second place in the league, we slumped to a seventh place finish. Whilst an encouraging season, had we consistently played at the standard that we proved we could achieve, I see no reason why we could not have won the league.

In contrast, our Cuppers campaign was not so successful. Despite playing a fifth division Sidney-Sussex team, we made things difficult for ourselves, winning 5-2 after going 2-0 down within the first five minutes. The next round we came up against the eventual league winners Downing who proved too strong for us on the day, knocking us out with a 3-0 comprehensive victory.

Dave Hawes (SE 2008)

Association Football Club First XI

For Selwyn Women’s Hockey the 2011-12 season was unfortunately not one of the most successful being knocked out of both Cuppers and the Plate

early by strong Homerton and Jesus teams respectively. However, with a brand new matching kit there was a much stronger sense that we were a team, having a core squad of 13 girls who were faithful throughout the year.

The fresher intake was very strong this year with girls who had played hockey at school to quite a high level; it is hoped that these girls will contribute to Selwyn hockey for the next few years and that some may move towards hockey at University level. Particular mention goes to first years: Rebecca Spours, Lizzie Robinson and next season’s captain Emily Bedford for their solid performance in defence.

Joining with the boys for the annual John’s Summer Sixes Tournament was an enjoyable and relatively successful day, with both Selwyn teams reaching the semi-finals only to lose on penalty shots – from the half-way line to the goal. This, along with the well-supported free Deloitte raffle, offering an iPad, £20 shopping vouchers and other prizes, made up for the heavy showers.

All the best to next year’s captain Emily Bedford for what promises to be a more successful season for Selwyn Women’s Hockey.

Claire Hayes (SE 2010)

Women’s Hockey

Rugby at Selwyn has been given a new lease of life this season. Thanks to two years of strong Fresher intake, this year has seen widespread University representation by Selwyn players, league promotion as well as some silverware for the bar.

Rugby

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The season started slowly with a somewhat unconvincing win against a strong Old Boys side. Nevertheless, Selwyn bounced back with

a solid thrashing of league minnows Christs, followed by four consecutive and convincing wins against Caius and more importantly old rival Emma. Going into the Lent term in a strong position, Selwyn faced Girton, winning only narrowly 15-11. The weather however had other plans, with snow forcing the cancellation of the other scheduled fixtures in the ‘Promotion League’ against Fitz. By the end of the term the league unfortunately had to be decided by coin tosses; this however did not affect Selwyn having not lost a fixture yet. After three years in Division 3, Selwyn have now been promoted as Division champions.

The Cuppers campaign was also a major success story. After a disappointing defeat to an Emma side strengthened by a returning Blue, we found ourselves in the Shield competition.

After a convincing away win over Jesus II, we progressed to face a full strength Division 2 winning Homerton team. This was undoubtedly the game of the season; a nail-biting 15-14 victory, securing a second consecutive Shield final at Grange Road. In front of a large crowd of students, fellows, alumni and college staff the team pulled together for a resounding 24-5 victory against Churchill at the final.

Lastly it is important to mention by name those Selwyn players who have represented the University. Danny Morris, Louis Reynolds and Ben Quarry all played in the Colleges XV Varsity match victory, with the latter playing in the U20s later in the year. Captain Jeremy Cribb was on course for a place in the varsity U21 side until an unfortunate knee injury ruled him out with only two weeks to go. Finally, freshers Rupert Grace and Muhammad Jaffer played in the Rugby League varsity match, both receiving Half-Blues.

Clearly, rugby at Selwyn is on the up. Despite our technical shared club status with Peterhouse, it was rare that a Peterhouse player would appear, or was needed in the side. Not just because of the successes, it has been an absolute pleasure to captain the team this year, and I leave the boys in the more than capable hands of Ben Quarry, with every confidence in their future success.

Jeremy Cribb (SE 2010)

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We were delighted to receive this 1888 Selwyn Rugby Cap from alumnus Michael Folger (SE 1968) recently. Michael came

across the cap quite by chance in an antique shop in Tetbury and recognised the Selwyn crest. The cap is in remarkably good condition considering it is over 100 years old, and the College archivist is currently trying to find out where it might have come from. These caps were worn by the Selwyn Rugby team in the 1880s as you can see from the team photo below.

Rugby Cap


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With the addition of D. Kane, B. R. Jones, and A. Robertson to the team, Selwyn Squash Club has achieved its most

successful year to date. The team has been promoted to Division 6 of the College League, and beat teams from Divisions 3 and 4 to reach the last 16 of the Cuppers Tournament, before falling to eventual champions Fitzwilliam I. I extend my thanks to everyone who has been part of the Squash Club this year for giving up their time to help the club thrive.

Jonathan Than (SE 2009)

Squash

The Selwyn Men’s basketball team started this year’s inter-college basketball league in the third division, having stormed the league

tables the previous year from the lowly bottom position in which new teams are placed. However, this promising start to the new season was somewhat tainted by the loss of more than half of the team’s founding members.

We got off to a bad start in Michaelmas term largely due to a poor turn-out to many of our games due to ‘conflicting commitments’ – validating predictions that having boaties in the team was a bad idea! Lent term was more successful, partly due to the return of our point-guard York Zheng, and partly due to our new recruits gaining confidence on court. We finished the year in Division 4. With rumours that Selwyn will receive an exchange student from Brown University (Rhode Island) who happens to be a keen basketballer, we have aspirations to once again cause some damage in the college league in the following year.

Douglas Pyott (SE 2010)

Men’s Basketball

Join us to watch the Light Blues in action in the 131st Varsity match at Twickenham Stadium on Thursday 6th December. Meet at 12 noon for a three-course lunch with wine before the game kicks off at 2pm.

Click here to book your tickets

Book now for Varsity!


http://www.sel.cam.ac.uk/alumni/EventsCalendar/

The Selwyn Hockey team’s 2012 season has been a rollercoaster ride from start to finish. For the Men the season really was

a tale of two halves. Having struggled to find the team chemistry initially, we found ourselves with a mountain to climb as we entered the second half of the season. However taking a leaf out of Andrew Sawbridge’s managerial book we finally found ourselves singing off the same hymn sheet. The team finished the season a respectable mid-table.

The Ladies had a difficult season but with an injection of young players will be above the salt for next year. We hope to see a couple of the women proceed to University level next year as they showed their talent in both the male and female leagues.

Selwyn hockey’s real success came in the mixed hockey with the team getting to the semi-final of Cuppers, with key wins against Homerton, Robinson and Queens and narrowly missing out against a very talented Catz team. We look forward to next year with a team ever growing in confidence, bearing in mind Rome wasn’t built in a day.

With the year drawing to a close we entered two teams into the John’s summer sixes tournament, not wanting to put all our eggs in one basket. Both teams eased to the semi-finals but narrowly missed out on a final place, losing on penalty flicks. This was an encouraging result for next years up and coming team.

Finally I say good luck to next year’s captains Rupert Grace and Emily Bedford.

Fred Wilson-Haffenden (SE 2010)

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Hockey

Selwyn Robinson Women’s Football

A fter last year’s disappointment at not making it through the first round of Cuppers (having won the entire competition in 2010) we decided

to begin this year’s bid with as much enthusiasm as was possible to muster. An influx of suitably keen (and skilful) freshers has certainly aided our efforts at league success, if not Cuppers success, and we have even had training sessions (yes, you read that correctly).

Under this year’s captainship of Amo King we have not only become adept at jumping fences, but also at

climbing through hedges, and at the last league match no one committed a foul throw-in, progress indeed.

Our position in the league may not have improved much – Amy’s comment ‘Remember that match we won?’ just about sums it up – but we have become closer as a team, and grown in numbers, to such an extent that we can now operate a ‘rolling subs’ facility, to the relief of certain veteran members of the squad!

Louisa Denby (SE 2007)


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Women’s Boat ClubThe women’s side of the boat club began the year with a strong batch of returning rowers in Michaelmas. For the first time in a while we were able to put out a senior IV+ and a senior VIII to train and race together, under the guidance of coach and former Women’s Captain Laura Kaye.


The whole squad put in some solid work over the term both on the water and on land, with the introduction of regular weights training for the first time in several years thanks to the help of

Selwyn PhD student and power-lifter Matt Llewellyn-Jones. At Winter Head the VIII came a respectable 14th of 22 college crews, and the IV had a very successful racing season, coming 6th of 15 student crews in Winter Head, and going on to come 5th of 18 college crews in the Fairbairn Cup.

Outside of the senior rowing, we again had a large intake of novices, resulting in 3 novice women’s boats competing successfully in Clare Novice Regatta and the Fairbairn Cup. Some strong talent emerged from these crews, with promising novices challenging for seats in W1 in Lent and Easter. Thanks to some hard work by the LBCs, enthusiasm stayed high and we were once again able to field a W3 throughout the year.

Weather conditions throughout Lent Term scuppered much of the term’s on-water training and racing, with the river frozen solid for several weeks. In spite of many long hours spent on the ergs our Bumps results did suffer for it, with W1 sliding 2 places down the charts and W2 and W3 unsuccessful in the Getting-on Race. Straight after Bumps, W1 travelled to the Tideway to compete in Women’s Eights Head of the River. Fuelled perhaps by the disappointment of the previous week, the crew put in a very strong performance, finishing 139th of 287 crews and 4th of the Cambridge college crews racing. The result is up 25 places on the previous year and is a real testament to the hard work put in over the term.

Over the Easter Vacation, the whole club embarked on a training camp in Chester. Eight keen women (plus cox!) put in a week of very hard training, coached by former SCBC Overall Captain Chris Cottingham. The hard work certainly paid off, giving us a great head-start into a successful Mays campaign. We were also extremely grateful to receive the kind donation of a new VIII, John Farr. The boat’s bows were christened by W1 as we bumped Churchill and Magdalene, ending the week up 2 and cementing our place in the first division. W2 also had a successful week, bumping twice and ending up 1 overall. Finally, W3 were unfortunately surrounded by some rather quick boats and ended the week down 2.

Finally, for the first time in several years SCWBC was represented at the Henley Boat Races. Eleanor Wigham raced in the 2 seat in Blondie, and Emma Copham at 3 for the Lightweight Women. Their hard work and dedication to the sport has been an inspiration to the rest of the club.

While we have had some mixed fortunes this year, overall it has been a good year for the women’s side of the club. Looking ahead to next year, we can look forward to continuing the hard work, and aiming to build further success for the club in the Lent and May Bumps.

Lizzy Johnstone (SE 2007)

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Women’s Tennis had a strong season, and the team looks set for

promotion into the Championship League next year. After a shaky start losing to New Hall, we won our remaining League matches comfortably, and beat Newnham to make it into the Cuppers Quarter-Final, where we took on St Catherine’s. Given our opponents were comfortably in the top league, it is perhaps no surprise that we lost – but Selwyn put up a good fight beating the St Catherine’s first seeded pair 6-2 in doubles.

Leah Schabas (SE 2009)

Women’s Tennis


Launch of the John Farr

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The Hermes Club grows stronger with each year that passes, as Selwyn’s sportsmen (like the ladies) continue to excel in the sporting arena

for College and the University, as indicated by all the sports reports in this newsletter. Yet it is off the field that the Hermes and Sirens’ Clubs do their best work. We continue to ensure the College’s sporting teams and individuals get the money they need to perform, so that sport at Selwyn in 2012 is better funded than at any point in the College’s history. In particular, all our members now agree to donate to sport once they leave Cambridge – we’re literally putting our money where our mouth is! Together, we also organised the recent Old Boys & Girls Event on Saturday 6th October, turning it into a more appropriate celebration of Selwyn sport. This was epitomised by the inaugural Alumni Dinner in College Hall that evening, which

proved to be a rousing success and will certainly be a permanent fixture for future years. The Hermes Club is now making a more concerted effort to interact with alumni, with the recent Dinner being indicative of this. However, we want this to be a two-way process, so please feel free to get in touch at any time if you want to know more about Selwyn sport and the Hermes Club’s aims for this academic year.

Chris Hutton (SE 2010)

The Hermes Club


The Sirens’ Club has had an excellent year, from working with the Hermes Club to organise the annual Hermes-Sirens Dinner for all those

involved in College sport, to arranging Zumba classes in the Diamond. Following a revision to the Club Constitution, Sirens now pledge to contribute to the College sport after graduation. Members have also enjoyed various personal sporting triumphs, with many Sirens competing for the University: President-Elect Emma Copham rowed in the Cambridge Lightweights boat, whilst Eleanor Wigham managed to find time

to row for Blondie, the women’s second boat, as well as maintaining her status as a fencing Blue. Building on last year’s success, the Sirens’ Club once again hosted the final of the annual Hermes-Sirens Mixed Doubles Tournament, providing Pimms’ and a cream tea for spectators. The Sirens are looking forward to reconnecting with alumni in Michaelmas 2012, with a celebratory formal dinner in College planned to mark five years since the Club’s re-founding.

Leah Schabas (SE 2009)

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Sirens’ Club


The inaugural Hermes-Sirens Old Boys & Girls Dinner 2012

Development & Alumni Relations Office

Selwyn College Cambridge CB3 9DQ

Tel: 01223 767844E-mail: [email protected]

Selwyn College is a Registered Charity (Inland Revenue number 1137517)

Photos provided by:

Christian VaqueroDavid BartonSarah HarmerJonathan ThanBeccy LangFred Wilson-Haffenden

Documents

Selwyn College Sports Newsletter 2012