Issue 1247 - The Courier

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2.StanCalvert2012 Tuesday 6 March 2012 Th eCourier Poly save face in Stan Calvert main Stan Calvert Cup 2012 MEN’S RUGBY UNION Newcastle 1sts Northumbria 1sts By Colin Henrys at GATESHEAD STADIUM 3 10 Safe in the knowledge that the Stan Calvert Cup would be staying at Newcastle for a fifth consecutive year, all that was left was for the Men’s Rugby Union Firsts to secure a win in the showpiece event at Gateshead Stadium. It was to prove to be an anti-climatic finish for the Uni however, as a second-half try from Scotland Sevens international Michael Fedo was enough to secure a Poly win and salvage a slither of pride for Team Northumbria on what was a bitterly disappointing day overall for them. After a couple of great encounters between the two sides on recent occasions, this was far from another classic. With the atmosphere muted due to the wet conditions and the segregating of the fans into separate stands, the match proved to be a scrappy affair with too many handling errors and infringements in the ruck by both teams creating a stop-start match that never really got going. After an early let-off for the Royals when captain Richard Walker-Taylor’s kick was charged down on the tryline but ran out of play, it was the Uni who created the early chances. The captain made a great line break himself, and soon put Newcastle 3-0 up with a long, straight penalty. Walker-Taylor was central to the next attack too as he ran on to his own huge up and under but, with the Poly fullback having horribly misjudged the kick, the Newcastle captain knocked on. From then on however, the Royals rarely threatened. After a couple of poor attempts at setting the scrum, Northumbria won a penalty and found a good touch. One play later and they had a kick at the posts, which left-footed Ross Burton converted to draw the scores level. With the game failing to inspire, the crowd took to alternative ways to entertain themselves, such as requesting that the TCTV camerawoman ‘get ‘em out’. Their attempts proved futile however, as did the Royals’ attempts to get out of their own half. Despite having all of the territory and possession however, Northumbria did not create anything of note either, and after Burton had missed a penalty from near the right touchline, half-time arrived at 3-3. After the Newcastle Angels had entertained the crowd at half-time and outnumbered and outperformed their Poly counterparts, there was hope that the second half would be an improvement. Walker-Taylor missed an early penalty, which was made harder by the fact that the PA man had still not turned the half-time music off, and a huge hit by Jo Beckett forced a good turnover, and when the Poly stand-off Brad Pears was sin binned for a high tackle things looked up for the Royals. The sense of optimism was not to last however, as despite their numerical disadvantage, Northumbria forced the territory and Fedo scored what proved to be the decisive try, which Burton converted. Newcastle nearly replied immediately but Johnny Neville knocked on just short of the tryline, but frequent infringements at the breakdown and far too many handling errors due to the wet conditions meant that Newcastle struggled to create a period of sustained pressure. It was to get worse for the Uni too when Walker-Taylor had to limp off after a nasty knock to his knee when he was tackled off the ball trying to run on to his own kick over the Northumbria back line. The match was epitomised shortly afterwards when a Poly fan braved the cold to produce a customary Stan Calvert streak. Newcastle mascot Rory Lion, despite his streakertackling history, chose to do nothing about it allowing the naked rogue to slip away into the night for a certain brush with hypothermia. Back to the action and Newcastle secured a couple of penalties in the Northumbria 22, but with time running out called for a scrum on both occasions to no avail, as the ball was eventually lost and the Poly were able to close out the match and kick to touch. Their muted celebrations reminded everyone that this was far from a good day for Team Northumbria as a whole, but in terms of the rugby their win puts them out of reach of the Total domination ‘Newcastle are the ones in the distance’: NUBC storming to victory on the Tyne Photography: Boat Club ROWING Stan Calvert Cup 2012 Newcastle Northumbria By Lizzie White at NEWBURN BOAT CLUB 8 0 On a surprisingly sunny day in the North East, crowds gathered to watch the annual Stan Calvert Boat race on the Tyne. Newcastle supporters casually sat back and basked in the sun on the steps of their boathouse - the finish line for the 1km race - while a significantly smaller bunch of Northumbria supporters clung to the sides of the Newburn bridge with a glimmer of hope that this year they may finish within a boat length of Newcastle. Alas this was not to be as despite their typical Poly tactics, such as delaying their arrival, swapping their crews over and doing their best to prevent laughter from the Boat Club steps at their “poor rowing tekkers”, their efforts were in vain against the strength and depth of Team Newcastle. The four races that followed were done in coxless quads- boats with four rowers who row with two oars (skulling). The Women’s Intermediate Quads paddled to the start line at the top of the Newburn straight, with Flic Warner, Georgia Parry, Charlotte Irving and Sally Hickney representing Newcastle. In the first 100m it seemed that Northumbria were actually holding their own (much to their handful of supporters’ amazement) however, this was not to last and their hopes of a shock win were quickly dashed. The NUBC girls put the power on and surged home to beat their rivals by a clear three boat lengths. The result was particularly disheartening for the Poly as they fielded their four strongest girls in their intermediate quad, clearly with the hope of snatching some cheeky points from the day. The girl’s win was followed by a similarly commanding performance
Th eCourier Tuesday 6 March 2012 StanCalvert2012.3 event No way through: the Royals succumbed to a defeat in the day’s showpiece event Photography: Moises Bedrossian Knights unable to overcome the odds Stan Calvert Cup 2012 MEN’S BASKETBALL Newcastle 1sts Northumbria 1sts 57 74 By Owen Evans at UNN SPORTS CENTRAL There was to be no shock result in the Men’s Basketball 1sts match as favourites Northumbria produced a fantastic display to record a victory over a valiant Knights side. It was widely believed before the match that Northumbria – who can boast of fantastic basketball facilities – would easily walkover the Knights, and although they finished with a 17 point lead, the match was mouth-wateringly close for the first three quarters, before Northumbria moved to put the game beyond doubt. Northumbria took an early lead in the game, but it was Newcastle who dominated the first quarter, as Giannis Giokaris put two points onto the board thanks to a long pass from Andrew Ply before Rafael Franca sunk a fantastic three pointer from range. Newcastle continued to have their share of the spoils in the first quarter, as the imposing Epameinondas Chalkidis moved the ball to Ply, who was just inside the three-point line. He moved into space before effortlessly sinking the ball to take the lead for the first time in the game. The Knights ended the first quarter with the scores at 14-15 and it looked at this point as if Northumbria were somewhat rattled. As the second quarter began, however, Northumbria began to reassert their dominance. Two pointers from Justin Hitchman and Toby Hutton, and a long three pointer from Jack Thompson, gave Northumbria a four point lead, and they began to look a lot more comfortable. At this point neither team were playing particularly well, with a number of easy chances squandered, although Northumbria continued to keep their lead, thanks to a long three pointer from Thompson and some great linkup play between Toby Hutton and Simon Stewart which led to two points. An easy two pointer from Franca and a nice shot from Giokaris just inside the key kept the Knights within touching distance of Northumbria, and Franca could have leveled the scoring on the buzzer as a long hurl up the court missed the basket by inches, but the Knights had to settle for a 30-27 deficit going in at halftime. The first few minutes of the second half saw a quick flurry of scoring, as both teams started moving away from defensive stances. Northumbria took more advantage from this with Toby Hutton adding four points to the board in quick succession. A fantastic run and finish from Nick Yii and a two pointer from Chaldikis who was left in space kept Newcastle close, but the gap was beginning to widen between the two teams. Northumbria stepped it up a gear with fantastic passing moves between Ian Berry and Justin Hitchman leading to a couple of two pointers, before Toby Hutton sat Franca onto the ground before passing wide to Berry who sank a three pointer to the delight of the Northumbria fans. An immediate three pointer from Franca allowed him to hide his blushes a little, but by the end of the third quarter, Northumbria were leading 52-45. The Knights still seemed confident that they could get something from the game, but they soon succumbed to a fourth quarter slaughter at the hands of Northumbria, who created a 15 point lead. As Northumbria defended sternly and seemingly benefited from a larger squad, Newcastle began to tire, unable to bridge the gap that had been formed. Northumbria continued to dominate and when Hitchman ran from the half court line to smash home a slam dunk, the writing was on the wall for Newcastle. It is fair to say that the 74-57 scoreline did reflect the class Northumbria brought to the court, but the Knights showed that they are no pushovers in this match, and it took a great deal of effort for Northumbria to eventually gain their widely anticipated win. Elsewhere in the Basketball, the Women’s Firsts were heavily beaten as expected, but managed to improve on last year before succumbing to a 110-44 loss at the University Sports Centre. Their seconds did fare better but lost 47-39. Six of one, half a dozen of the other: points split in track and field events Royals in the BUCS Northern Premier League and denied Newcastle a clean sweep of the Stan Calvert rugby points. The Royals have one match left this season and they will be looking to go out on a high with a win against bottom of the league Nottingham Trent. on Tyne by the Intermediate Men, comprising of Alex Leigh, Nicholas Buckle, Matt Smith and Sam Wilson. They won comfortably by five boat lengths over the tiring Northumbria crew, who appeared to just be “chopping around” in the water. The Senior Quads then took to the water fresh after winning silver in the Women’s Championship Quad at BUCS Head and dominating on their way to Gold in the Men’s Championship Quad. Both crews (Women Quad: Gemma Hall, Nicole Lamb, Franziska Christiane and Phillipa Neil; Mens Quad: Ed Ford, Tom Ford, Sam Arnot, James Reeder) began their races with full intent, drive and power but soon found themselves lowering their rates from a ‘racing 35 strokes per minute’ to a mere training paddle as they saw the Poly fall by the wayside once again. Both crews finished over 200m in front of their opponents, crossing the finishing line without a bead of sweat on any of their brows. Needless to say the race was unforgiving for Northumbria who crossed the line having once again been thrashed by NUBC at Stan Calvert. Stan Calvert Cup 2012 ATHLETICS Newcastle 1sts Northumbria 1sts By Andrew McClune at GATESHEAD STADIUM After seeing the Cross Country team draw 1-1 on Saturday morning, it was down to the athletics team to bring home some more points for Newcastle. Sunday was to be a day of two halves with Northumbria leading after the field events, although there were some The Men’s and Women’s 4x100m teams prepare for the start of the race, which was eventually won by the Poly Photography: Moises Bedrossian 6 6 very good displays from seasoned performers like Emma Pringle and new comers like Martha Achimugu. However it is fair to say Newcastle dominated in the track events. Amy Radcliffe ran an excellent 60m closely followed by Becky McAllister and Sabrine Razik to ensure victory in that event. Newcomer Keil Stephenson also ran a comfortable 60m, easily finishing first. Then onto the outdoor track and onto the business of the 1500m, which unfortunately the men lost, but an impressive last 100m from Joel English almost led him to gaining 1st spot. Again the girls dominated what was a comfortable 1500m with Amy Jesset coming in first and PB’s for Jo Armstead and Lauren Barr. In the 400m races Northumbria were shown how to run by Sam Colby and David Dempsey who both emerged victorious letting Newcastle Events took place both inside and outside Gateshead Stadium on Sunday. Photography: Sam Tyson gain the points from both races they were supported by the likes of Emma Williams, Mark ‘War Horse’ Collier and Martin ‘Hans/Arnie’ Ferguson. This left the small case of the 4x400m and the 4x100m relays. The 4x400m went the same way as the 400m with Newcastle easing to yet another track victory with El Presidente David Dempsey giving a President’s performance and leading the lads home. This left the score at 6-4 to Newcastle with 2 points to play for. So it came down to the 4x100m relays which unfortunately were both lost with the girls missing out by just 0.1seconds, even with a last minute replacement, therefore leaving the final result as 6-6. So, in what was expected to be a very tough affair for Newcastle, it’s right to say that Newcastle athletes can hold their heads high after many a spirited and determined performance supported by a large crowd from the athletics club and the rest of the fans in Gateshead Stadium.
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