SOAS SPIRITPAGE 9

SOAS students don’t think outside the box, like they like to think they do. They actually just think in a different box, slight to the left of the first one

A: Would you save a train full of people or your own mother?

B: Obviously the train full of people.A: But what if it was a train full of paedos?B: Why would there be a train full of paedos?A: I don’t know... a convention?

I’d rather be from one of the most corrupt

countries in the world than be from Israel

Don’t believe this western propaganda man, everyone knows Shakespeare was an Arab

that’s why I don’t do relationships, I can’t be bothered to care about somebody that much

SOAS: the

only place where students discuss

the oppressed of the world while eating

free food from the Hare Krishnas which

could’ve been given to the

homeless…

I’ve never understood why Stalin was so unpopular

FACEBOOK © 2011

FRESHERS 2011 PAGE 10

a: wow, that girl’s got one hot body!

b: yeah, but look at her face...

a: her face...?

b: seriosly man, you gotta start

looking at the faces

A Love Music,

Hate Racism festival?

Well, I love Music

but Hate is a strong

word

I need to go getsome shut eye so I can read in the morning and beat my tutor round the head with knowledge

Thank Allah it’s end of term

next week!

Islamic Feminism? That’s about as logical as a vegetarian Egyptian

restaurant

how does a

deaf person know if

someone is yawning

or

screaming

Listen, If youwant to get anything

done around here, you just have to occupy a

classroom or something

Well

for a

star

t you

thou

ght t

he ca

pital

of Ir

an w

as Ir

aq

FACEBOOK © 2011

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PAGE 17 SOAS SPIRIT

CULTURECULTURE

At the beginning of the 09/10 Netball sea-son the netball side was without a captain, with the old one going AWOL, and with-out anywhere to play. Things did not look bright as the team were forced to forfeit the first two games of the season. However when Anna Wrigley took over as captain she transformed the sides fortunes leading them to a very impres-sive 3rd place league finish. SOAS missed out on promotion by 3 points and missed out on top spot by 6, as Anna herself said ‘if the old captain hadn’t forfeited the games... you never know perhaps we could have won the league.’ There is however no time to dwell on this and the SOAS netball side will look to crack on this season and hopefully gain promotion. New captain Kathryn Randall Curtis is positive that her side can push on this season both on and off the field com-menting ‘I’m hoping we can put together a group of committed girls and build on last year’s success.’ The Netball team are also to take SOAS’ Beyond Borders project to South Africa next summer to help empower women through playing netball as well as

coming to terms with some of the social and cultural problems that exist there. One thing Kathryn really wants to do through the tour and

on the court is get more attention for the women’s teams with men’s basketball and football in particu-lar often taking all the plaudits. Stating ‘Its about time Women’s

teams got a bit more active and involved.’ Contact Kathryn on 227649@soas.ac.uk for more information about the netball side.

- TEAM OF THE SEASON -

- BIGGEST WINNERS-

WOMENS TEAM OF THE SEASON

2010-11: NETBALL

- BIGGEST LOSERS -

LEFT: The Mens Basket-ball Team pose in their new jackets

Right: Some of the Mens Foot-ball team with Turkish Adnan Menderes Üniversitesi after Beyond Borders: London 2011

MENS BASKETBALL TEAMSummer 2011 was mean to be one where history would be made for mens Basketball team, their first ever Beyond Borders tour to East Africa, modelled upon the Mens Football team tour, however the summer has been mostly broken promises and shattered dreams. After countless fundraisers throughout 2010 and 2011, including some that became infamous for their

malpractise, you’d be forgiven for thinking that organising a trip to Ethio-pia with such financial clout would be relavity simple. However with only hazy prom-ises about a possible make-shift tour in December (if at all) Mens Basketball are truely this summers ‘Biggest Los-ers’ as their tour lies in ruins. In fact, one might wonder, where all that charity money went...

MENS FOOTBALL TEAM Unlike their basketball coun-terparts, SOAS football has focused on substance over style and as a result their hard work paid huge dividends this summer, with them currently being on their 3rd tour in 3 months. July saw the team go for a cultural exchange in Finland & a beach football tournament. Next came Beyond Borders: London 2011, play-ing host to teams from Turkey, Egypt,

Finland and Uruguay. The climax of the tournament was a great success with attendance in the hundreds. Finally, for their third project this summer sees them heading to the Middle East, including a daring at-tempt to access Gaza. Congratulations boys, you are truly setting the example for your fellow sports teams at SOAS and stay safe out there!

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SPORTS EDITOR SINGH’S ANNUAL SEASON REVIEW

FRESHERS 2011 PAGE 18

- TEAM OF THE SEASON -

There is also good news for hockey lovers as after many failed attempts SOAS should finally have a team up and running this team to play in the ULU mixed league. For more information about any sports teams see the union website and email the respec-tive captains, or alternatively just head down to Freshers Fayre on Saturday the 1st of October.

For students who came to university expecting beautiful playing surfaces, state of the art gyms or grand sports initiations you should have ap-plied to UCL (or worked harder to get in). In 2006 SOAS only had 4 sports teams and no pitches to play on. However over 5 years there has been a rapid expansion and SOAS now boasts 15 sports teams playing in both BUCS and ULU competitions. Organisation is still a prob-lem and despite receiving a bigger funding grant from the school this year SOAS sports team are still drastically underfunded. For exam-ple in 2010 SOAS Football 1st team finished above UCL in the top ULU league despite working on a budget of £750 in comparison to UCL’s £90,000 football budget. Despite meagre finances, our smaller size to most neighbouring universities and our obvious emphasis on politics rather than sports SOAS still manages to produce some very com-petitive teams especially within ULU. Last season was one of SOAS’ most successful yet with three teams winning silver-ware, Men’s Squash, Men’s Football 1sts and football 2nds. As well as this the basketball team broke league records, scoring over 100 points against Goldsmiths and finished second in the top ULU division and in their BUCS league, nar-rowly missing out on promotion. SOAS netball team also flourished with an impressive third place finish. The Men’s ten-

nis team managed to avoid relegation from the BUCS 2nd division, which is the highest division any SOAS team plays in. The Women’s team was in the hunt for the title until late on but unfortunately faded away towards the end of the season. The SOAS squash team as stated had an excellent season, just two seasons after their

birth winning every single game to be promoted to the 2nd ULU division. A women’s squash team under the guidance of Joanna Raymond has also been established after a solid maiden season. There were some lower points however, Rugby unfortunately after back to back promo-tions were relegated from their respective BUCS league. Cricket never really got going, hampered by the fact the season begins during exam time, but there are few excuses for being bowled out for 21 against Westminster. Women’s tennis also struggled losing the majority of their games but will be hoping to strengthen this year with the intake of some good fresher talent, as will women’s basketball, who not so long ago won the ULU top division league double.

“SOAS Football 1st team finished above UCL in the top ULU league despite work-ing on a budget of £750 in comparison to

UCL’s £90,000 football budget”

SOAS was ranked the worst uni-versity in the country for sporting facilities in a student satisfaction survey last year. With no home pitches in the 10/11 season and with many teams training at rival uni-versities training grounds. SOAS squash for example played ‘home’ games at UCL. After this dismal showing in the student survey the school and the union have been actively trying to improve the condi-

TOP: Men’s Squash team

ABOVE A sneak preview at the new Peel Centrre

A LOOK AHEAD TO THE 2011-2012 SEASON

tion of SOAS sports especially in the con-text of the imminent fee hike which will mean students will demand much more for their money. The SU presidents are reportedly quick to quote figures from the survey when trying to coerce money from the school and thus far it has worked to great success. The university have finally secured

a home ground for all indoor sports. Sports and Societies President Chuck Madekwe has kept to his manifesto pledges by ensuring that SOAS secured a deal for the Peel Centre, a sports club near Dinwiddy House and SOAS’ Vernon Square campus. The Peel Cetnre will host Basketball, Netball, Badminton and Volleyball. There is also talk that SOAS are close to secur-ing a home pitch for field sports such as Rugby and Football, which will save a great deal of money for the university as well as a great deal of hassle for cap-tains forced to struggle to find pitches often at last minute. As well as this the SU-Presidents have also done incredibly well in finally secur-ing a compromise regarding Wednesday afternoons which will please Rugby in particular, first year students and masters students will have no classes on Wednesdays from this year on. For the first time ever

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there are also more female sports teams than men’s, with the emergence of the afformen-tioned volleyball side as well as a new hockey team. All in all its been an incredibly productive summer for SOAS’ SU-Presidents, Ali Khan, Chuck Madekwe and Arianna Tassinari with regards to improving SOAS sports. The purchase of the Peel Centre has to be regarded as a landmark in SOAS sporting history.

FRESHERS 2011 PAGE 20

CULTURE

key contributing factor to their relega-tion was the fact that BUCS games fall on a Wednesday and SOAS, un-like almost every other university in the country do not give Wednesday afternoons off for students, yet. Masters students & the more studious undergrad students were at times unprepared to miss classes to travel hours on end to get to places such as Winchester or Reading. New captain Timothy Henderson said of last season ‘we are obviously disap-pointed with going down, but we are still proud of all the players, some-times we were 20 points down and had only 13 players but nobody ever

gave up. We have a similar squad to last year and with some new addi-tions from fresher’s we’ll be looking to bounce back with promotion.’ Games at Regents Park were also always well supported due to its locality to SOAS and represents a decent Wednesday afternoon or Sunday day out. There are talks that Wednes-day afternoons could be freed up for sports this year, at least partially which would no doubt benefit the Rugby side. In the mean time if anyone is interested in playing look out for information on trials or email Timothy at 212794@soas.ac.uk.

FOOTBALL TOUR DENIED ENTRY TO

GAZAAs SOAS Football attempt their ground-break-ing tour to the Middle East, including Pales-tine, unconfirmed reports suggest they will be barred from entry to war-torn Gaza. The concept of Beyond Borders was first concieved in 2009 as the team travelled to Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. (Pictured be-low). Now with a tour to Ghana in 2010 and hosting a tournament earlier this summer for teams from Egypt to Urguay, the team have decided this was not enough and have marched on to the Middle East, to add their already impressive record. Propsed by the ever ambitious captain Joseph Watfa, access to the ‘prision camp’ of Gaza was never going to be an easy feat. We can only wish the boys safe trip and if they don’t make it to all their destina-tions, the attempt alone is something to be admired.

- RELEGATED-

SOAS WARRIORS AIMING TO BOUNCE BACKLast season was undoubtedly a disappointing one for SOAS Rugby (pictured above) who were relegated from their BUCS division. Espe-cially in the context that the side had previously experienced back to back promotions. However, after losing almost every single one of the players who were part of the promotion team captain Bradley Hopkins and Presi-dent Lewis Elliot had a rebuilding job on their hands that was not ideal for a side competition in such a competi-tive league. SOAS Rugby experienced many difficulties last year and one

CONFUSION IN CRICKET RANKS Organising a tour can be dif-ficult a difficult task, especially when its your first time, unfortunately this year, for SOAS Cricket, their attempt failed. However in a bid to salvage something from this failure, last years captain Pravin Wadhwani, nobaly-proposed donating the funds raised to charity, in the area they had planned to visit. However at the charity’s insist-ence the team have retained the money and have been urged to carry on fund-raising this year and try visiting at a later date. This view is shared by the incoming skipper Mayank Verma, who wants to continue raising money till a set date. If

a tour is still unlikely by the cut-off date then Verma will concede to giving the cash to charity. When this deadline will be is still unknown. The move might upset some who feel they donated money to a cause that seems to have been squandered by incompetency. To add to the frustrations there seems to be confusion over what to do now. Whatever the captains decide is the best way to deal with the situation, the £3000 of charity money stored in Peter Baran’s treasure chest in G7, will be watched very closely to see it given to a worthy cause.

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