BUSA Annual Review 2005

ANNUAL REVIEW 2005-6
ANNUAL REVIEW 2005-6
Walsh, Kate Murphy, Gemma Wiseman,
Suzanne Gardner, Bekki Sweet, Rebecca
Hayward (England)
OTHER NEWS
For reports on the British University Games
Netball competition please see the British
Universities Games section.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
BUSA would like to thank England Netball
for their appointment of officials during
the season. BUSA would also like to thank
all representative team officials for their
commitment to the programme.
ORIENTEERING
INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIP
11 March 2006, Aberfeldy, Scotland
This year’s Championships were ably
organised by Edinburgh University with
generous help from the local orienteering
clubs. It was held in term time which
resulted in a slightly increased turn-out of
157 competitors from 22 Universities. The
Achray forest is a tough one with plenty
of climb and rough underfoot conditions.
The courses featured a spectator control
where the competitors started a tricky final
section on a 1:5000 scale map.
Sheffield’s Rachael Elder won the Women’s
race by over 5 minutes from Helen Palmer
of Paisley. The Men’s race was closer
with Edinburgh’s Murray Strain beating
Oli Johnson from Sheffield by only 40
seconds.
RELAY CHAMPIONSHIP
12 March 2006, Kinneil Wood, Scotland
Overnight snow failed to prevent the
staging of this event. As expected, the
Men’s race was a close-fought battle
between Edinburgh and Sheffield. Matt
Crane ran an excellent second leg to give
Sheffield a 2 minute lead when handing
over to Oli Johnson. Murray Strain chased
hard but by the end was still 90 seconds
behind.
Edinburgh got their revenge in the
Women’s race winning by 20 minutes
ahead of Durham. Sheffield were
unfortunately disqualified because their
second leg lost her electronic control card
in the snow when sliding down a slope and
was unable to find it again.
The Overall Team Trophy went to
Edinburgh.
REPRESENTATIVE MATCH: BUSA V
COMBINED SERVICES V BOF
11 March 2006, Aberfeldy, Scotland
This year the match was incorporated into
the BUSA Championships. Unfortunately,
Combined Services could only field a
Men’s team. Many of the British Squad are
currently students so it was no surprise
that BUSA were clear winners, retaining
the Antlers Trophy.
OTHER NEWS
The 2007 Championships have been
awarded to Durham.
For a report on the World University
Championships please see the International
section.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
BUSA is indebted to the British
Orienteering Federation for its support in
sending a team to the World University
Championships in Slovakia in August 2006.
POOL
UPC-BRITISH UNIVERSITIES EIGHT-
BALL POOL CHAMPIONSHIP
24-26 February, 2006, McClusky’s,
Spondon, Derbyshire
The first ever Universities Pool Council
Eight-ball Pool Championship recognised
by BUSA attracted 67 teams representing
36 Universities. Qualifying reduced the field
to 24 Championship teams and 16 Trophy
teams for the Finals. University of Essex,
skippered by Chris Moorman, beat Cardiff
6-3 to take the title. Essex were always
in control of the Final and built up a 3-0
lead early on. A determined Cardiff side
pulled back to within one frame at 4-3 but
Essex showed their class by closing the
match out 6-3. In the Semi-Finals Essex
came from 3-0 down to overhaul a strong
University of Ulster Coleraine side and win
6-4. Joint bronze Medallists were York
who were comprehensively beaten 6-0 in
the Semi-Finals by Cardiff despite having
played well in the tournament up to that
point. An honourable mention must go
to debutants Aberystwyth in making the
Quarter-Finals.
Strathclyde’s Mark McCulloch is the
Individual Championship. His opponent in
the Final was Aberystwyth’s David Binding
and the match was locked 2-2 early on.
McCulloch eventually showed his class
moving away and winning 5-2. McCulloch
moved through the draw with ease until
the Semi-Finals when he met Carl Caney.
In a great match McCulloch prevailed to
win 5-3. The other Semi-Final was an
altogether more one-sided affair with
Binding disposing of Wolverhampton’s
Joseph Tonkin 5-0. It was, however, a
great effort by both Tonkin and Caney in
taking bronze.
Queen’s University 2 nd team monopolised
the Trophy events. Their team was a class
apart beating surprise Finalists Warwick
3rds. And it was a Queen’s 2 nd s player
Martin Anderson who won the Individual
Trophy beating York’s Luke Fleet.
RIFLE SMALL BORE
UNIVERSITIES WINTER POSTAL
LEAGUE
In this season’s competition, 14
Universities were represented by 16
teams, shooting in 4 divisions over ten
rounds. This represented a 40% increase
of Universities on the 2004- 2005 entry.
The winner of Division 1 was Southampton
A followed by Durham A. Oxford won
Division 2 beating Durham B. Aberdeen
was successful in Division 3 beating
Southampton B and Division 4 was won by
Exeter who beat Southampton C.
UNIVERSITIES TEAM KNOCKOUT
COMPETITION.
This year’s competition showed an
increased team entry, up to 32, but
the number of Universities taking part
remained at 10. This year’s winner was
Newcastle A and the Final stage with
a score of 785, beating London A and
Aberdeen A with scores of 783 and 777
respectively.
UNIVERSITIES INDIVIDUAL ‘TOP XX’
COMPETITION.
The overall entry this year was up from
last year, being 181 against the previous
171, with 63 failing to return scores. Once
again, the scores were of a high standard
with Griff Morgan (Aston) winning with
an excellent score of 798. The Top XX for
2005/2006 was G Morgan (Aston) with a
score of 798, beating G Cox (Aberdeen)
and T Hunter (London) with scores of 793
and 790 respectively.
UNIVERSITY SMALL-BORE RIFLE
CHAMPIONSHIPS
6 May 2006, Appleton Rifle Club Ranges,
Warrington.
This year’s Championship Meeting had
a record of 122 entries received from 13
Universities. As usual the day went well
with some good shooting. Southampton
repeated their 2005 successes in the
Inter-University Team and Women’s Triad
Matches, and Edinburgh theirs in the Pairs
Match.
Emma Cole-Hamilton (Robert Gordon)
had a good day, taking both Individual
Championships. Special mention should
also be made of Matthew Thomson
of Edinburgh A, who in July this year,
became the Junior Men Prone Rifle World
Champion.
Thanks are again due to the members
of the Appleton Rifle Club, for their
hard work in ensuring the smooth and
efficient running of the meeting. Medals
and trophies were presented by Peter
Ainsworth, a member of the NSRA Pistol,
Airgun and Crossbow Committee.
THE UNIVERSITIES HOME COUNTRIES
INTERNATIONAL MATCH
The International Match was held for the
third year, with the contest once again
being between England and Scotland.
Unfortunately those taking part omitted to
put their names on their targets and we
can only therefore report the final total
scores which were England 1944 and
Scotland 1913, giving England their first
victory in this match.
ROWING
CONCEPT 2 BUR BUSA INDOOR
ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS
20 November 2005, National Indoor Arena,
Birmingham
The annual “meeting of mountains” took
place at the Birmingham NIA with some of
the fastest rego-pullers on the planet. With
World & Olympic Champions racing this is
certainly the highest standard entry of any
BUSA Championships, yet still encourages
mass participation by all university rowers,
even those in their first few weeks of
training who get to race against their
sporting idols.
Medals in the Women’s Lightweight event
(under 61.5Kg) were shared between
three Universities, Hannah Peel winning
for Cambridge (7m19.9), Lucy Aukett
(Southampton, 7m24.7), and Kaarin
Scanlan (Bristol 7m27.7) repeated her
2004 Medal success with a Bronze in a
promising field of 47 racers, the biggest
entry to date. The Lightweight Ladies
future hopes look safe in their hands.
The Ladies Open was a bit of an Oxford
Rowing Regatta, Holme Pierrepont
party, but as EUSA Women’s Eights
Champions we should perhaps expect a
good showing. FISU 2004 bronze Medallist
(W4-) Hilary Powell led the Oxford
celebration, breaking the major 7-minute
barrier with 6m57.3 with a start-to-finish
victory, chased home by team-mate Naomi
Pollock (7m02.6). Former top junior paddler
Tracey Matthews, now based with the GB
development squad at Thames Rowing
Club, turned out for Brunel to take Bronze
(7m06.) just ahead of Jackie Moore
(Salford 7m08.0). With 134 entries this
was the biggest to date.
Men’s Lightweights, the domain of the
Under 75kg “little big lads” was as close
as ever, with some massive late charges
shuffling people up and down the 96-
strong field… another record entry. With
three of the U23 World Medallist Quad
Scull head to head “interesting” was an
understatement; Doug Perrin (Cambridge,
6m20.5) roared through after 500m to
capture a dominant lead, chased hard by
Oliver Bottrell (UWE 6m25.3) and Richard
Chalmers (Oxford Brookes, 6m25.7).
Nearly 40 rowers beat the 6m45 marker,
a reflection of the high quality of the field
and of the likely standard of Lightweight
racing later in the season at the BUR BUSA
Regatta
A record entry, 236 BUR BUSA racers
being the largest of all the categories
offered by Concept2 at what is the biggest
indoor sports competition in Europe. It took
four heats on the computer-linked race
machines to sort the men from the boys,
with the last heat being the highlight of the
day. Three Olympic Champions and a host
of other Olympic and World Championship
Medallists lined up, largely in Oxbridge
colours and sparks flew from the start.
Jamie Schroeder, the American Olympian
and former Indoor World Champion now
based at Oxford, rowed the fastest time
of the day (5m44.3), but Cambridge took
the other Medals with Thomas Engelmann
(5m48.9) and the 2000 GB 8s Olympic
Champion Kieran West (5m49.0). All
three broke Dan Perkins’ (USA & Oxford)
long-standing BUR BUSA record, as did
forth placed Sebastian Shulte (Cambridge,
5m53.1), in what was the fastest 2005
race in the World, 10 men breaking 6
minutes (only 9 did so at the World
Championships).
Overall BUR BUSA Event Medals are
always hard to come by, as you require
an entry in each of the four indoor
disciplines. Overall BUR BUSA Indoor
Team Champions were Oxford, who also
took Ladies 8s, but Cambridge took Men’s
8s honours, making for a potentially
interesting Boat Race. Both Cambridge
and Oxford Brookes could only register
weak Women’s performances, leaving the
door open for others to capitalise on. The
huge BUR BUSA entry, nearly a quarter of
all participants, reflects well on both the
quality and quantity of British University
Rowing, and of our links with Concept2.
Former BUSA and FISU rowers also
dominated the “Open Club” categories,
winning 3 of the 4 titles on offer, only excricketer
Graham Benton preventing a BUR
BUSA clean-sweep in winning the Men’s
Open. As the new 2006 World Champion
the 6’6 Benton is clearly a bit special, and
is currently learning “wet rowing” with the
World Class Start Squad based at Reading
University.
BRITISH UNIVERSITY ROWING BUSA
CONCEPT2 HEAD OF THE RIVER
26 February 2006, River Trent, Nottingham
The 2006 BUR BUSA Head had a record
entry of 288 crews from 42 Universities,
meaning that next year’s Head will need to
be split to accommodate the numbers: A
Small Boats event will be held in Term One,
with the big-boats Head staying on the last
weekend in February.
Oxford Brookes dominated the Men’s
Eights with a line-up of Full & U23 GB
athlete, whilst Durham and Imperial
showed evidence of strong squads. Pelly
& Freeman-Pask were split by barely
a second in M1x but Mathilda Pauls
comfortably won the W1x The Head
hosted the second Round of the Concept2
FRESHERS CHALLENGE, which saw
Nottingham, Bath and Manchester tighten
their grip on the race for the eight.
BUR BUSA ANNUAL ROWING REGATTA
29 April – 1 May 2006, National Water
Sports Centre, Holme Pierrepont,
Nottingham
Quite simply, the biggest rowing event
in the UK. With 954 crews, nearly 4,200
26
27