BUSA Annual Review 2005

ANNUAL REVIEW 2005-6
ANNUAL REVIEW 2005-6
to the staff of AMF Nottingham bowl for
their continued support, and to all those
who helped make the event a brilliant
success: Kris and Emily Wright, James
“Thumper” Larkin, Dave “Shameful”
Livingston, Tom Slatter and James Parrot.
REPRESENTATIVE
The Representative squad were chosen
from the Individual performances in
the tournament plus any results from
previous Championships, previous
selection for BUSA, along with any
available information from the current
seasons UCTBA fixtures.
The Women’s squad was captained
by Karla Winch from East Anglia, with
Laura Marcham from Warwick as her
vice-captain. Anna Winch (Nottingham),
Anne-Marie Turner (Hull), Cath Todd
(Sheffield), Gemma Dick (Sheffield Hallam),
Heather Evans (Nottingham Trent), Louise
Parker (Sheffield Hallam), Nadine Keefe
(Nottingham) & Natasha Akers (Sheffield
Hallam) completing the 10 strong team.
This year in addition to the annual BUSA v
Team Wales Representative match, a team
was entered into the BTBA Nationals. The
Six-Men did well in Norwich, while the
Women won their Doubles Division.
The weekend of the 24/25 June saw the
annual trip to Cardiff to play Team Wales
in a combination event with bonus pinfall
for wins in a match. This year saw a close
event for both teams’ with the BUSA
Women in front from the start up to the
Final Fives event, then losing by 53 pins
overall. The Men trailed at the beginning
but by the Final event won by 318 pins.
TRAMPOLINING
REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
11 February 2006, York & 12 February
2006, Surrey
Over 600 competitors bounced at the
Regional Rounds split across two venues,
Northern at York and Southern at Surrey.
Almost 60 Universities were represented,
which reflects the ever growing popularity
of the sport at both University and National
level.
Unfortunately York had to allow all
Advanced Men to qualify for the Final
Championships as they run out of time
at their facilities due to the high volume
of competitors – but the organising team
must be congratulated in resolving the
practical issues at the end of a long day.
NATIONAL FINALS
12 March 2006, St Martin’s, Lancaster
The Finals at Lancaster were eagerly
awaited with a record number of
participants- 121 from the qualifying
rounds and a further 56 Elite performers
who jump at National Grade 1 and 2
–making for a fabulous competition – until
the snow started to fall! The organising
team –headed up by Alex Rowe received
weather and traffic reports throughout the
day advising of atrocious conditions. Their
decision to abort the Final jump offs and
to award the winners on the preliminary
rounds results was justifiable but hard for
both the competitors and organisers alike.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks must go to Emily Theobold
and her team at Surrey, Sam Nadim at
York and of course Alex Rowe and all the
Trampoline Club at St Martin’s Lancaster.
The Championships rely heavily on volunteer
judges supplied by most Universities but
special mention must be made of Alison
Cross who acted as Chair of Judges at
both Regional and Finals. Tim Smith raced
to both Regionals and was invaluable as
both a superior judge and co-ordinating the
technical issues of the Championships.
A special thanks always go to our
Management Group who represent
the support from the NGB Gymnastics
[Trampolining] – especially Sue Lawton
and Bert Scales, Tony Stone and Sally
Edie from universities, Tim Smith and of
course Marie Atkinson our BUSA Sports
Programme Manager.
TRIATHLON
CHAMPIONSHIPS
30 April 2006, Calne, Wiltshire
Will Clarke (Loughborough) successfully
defended his Individual title improving on his
previous time by nearly a minute. Despite
solid performances in all 3 disciplines, Fraser
Cartmell (Heriot Watt) had to settle for silver,
a mere 13 seconds behind Clarke. Bronze
was taken by Clarke’s team mate Dan Brook.
Loughborough took a clean sweep of
Medals in the Women’s competition with
Rosie Clarke taking the title nearly a minute
ahead of team mate Carol Ann Bridge who
was closely followed by Vicky Holland.
In the team event, the top 2 Men’s and
top 2 Women’s performances counted.
Loughborough were clear winners, ahead
of Bath and Birmingham.
OTHER NEWS
For a report on the World University
Championships please see the International
section.
VOLLEYBALL
FINAL 8’S
10-12 March 2006, Loughborough
University, Supported by Prosprt
International
174 teams started the journey in October
and, after 472 matches, the top eight
Men's and Women's Teams came through
to the Championship Finals, joined by
the four Semi-Finalists in the Men’s and
Women’s Trophy.
BUSA Finals weekend was augmented by
the hosting of the four English Volleyball
Association National Cup Semi-Finals,
and two EVA Shield Semi-Finals.
MEN’S
CHAMPIONSHIP
In the Men’s Championship Ulster rattled
Sheffield Hallam on the Friday, leading 24-
21 in the first set, but unable to close.
Loughborough, on home territory, were
hampered by the loss of James Cooper
to injury fought hard, but went down in
three sets to both Sheffield Hallam and
Cambridge, to miss out on the Semi-
Finals.
Oxford saw off a talented Heriot Watt side
in three sets to qualify alongside London.
The Sunday morning Semi-Finals were
highly competitive. Cambridge edged
London out by two points in the first set.
And also led 7-0 in the second. London
called on the experience of NVL 1 players
Albrecht Glitz and Nic Ruh from Docklands,
and Spyros Masouros of Polonia to steady
the ship and claw their way back to clinch
the third set.
Oxford beat Cambridge in the “Blues” 3 rd /
4 th place play off.
The final saw some high energy and
committed play from both sides, but the
dominance of Glitz and Masouros as outside
hitters saw London win their first BUSA
Men’s Championship and be the inaugural
recipients of the Aileen Barry Trophy.
TROPHY
In the Men’s Trophy, York beat a depleted
Glasgow Caledonian side in the Semi-Final.
Bournemouth saw off a talented Imperial
College to make the Final. York were twice
a set down to Bournemouth but refused to
say die and their team effort and spirit saw
them clinch the Trophy title.
SHIELD
Nottingham University
Durham beat Royal Holloway (London) to
win the BUSA Men’s Shield.
BUSA Finals is a very busy weekend of
Volleyball, augmented this year by the
hosting of the four EVA Cup Semi-Finals on
the Saturday evening, along with two EVA
Shield Semi-Finals.
We were also pleased to welcome Dr
Wolfgang Schmidt, a recently retired FIVB
International referee, who still officiates
in the Bundesliga, and who refereed the
Women’s Final at the World University
Games in Turkey last August. Wolfgang
had never been to Britain before and took
the opportunity to comment favourably
both on players, and the referees.
WOMEN’S
CHAMPIONSHIP
The Women’s Championship was very
open and competitive. Loughborough
beat London 11-1, after which both
teams defeated Sheffield to qualify for the
Semi-Finals. In their debut performance
Bath made it to the semis unbeaten, and
Manchester beat St Andrews and Oxford
to move forward.
Semi-Finals were again competitive and
contested to the limit. Loughborough just
took the first set from Manchester, but the
Tameside NVL 1 axis of Sally Higginson
and Lora Ioannou helped them to squeeze
through in the third.
London had a complete game plan and
effectively managed Bath to win in straight
sets. Bath came back strongly to beat
Loughborough for third place.
The Women’s final was fairly
straightforward for London. Manchester
seemed to have expended their emotional
reserves in the win against Loughborough
and failed to rise to their potential
standard, with London winning the
Adrienne McGraa Trophy in straight sets.
London were the first team since
Birmingham in 1978 to win both titles, and
they go forward to play in the European
Universities Championships in Eindhoven,
Netherlands in July.
TROPHY
In the Women’s Trophy, Exeter, buoyed
by the appearance of England star Lucy
Boulton proved able winners defeating Hull
in the Semi-Final and Leeds Metropolitan
in the Final.
Sussex beat Hull to take third place in a
very vigorous match.
WATER POLO
The continuation of the Championship and
Shield competitions has been a double
benefit to University Water Polo. The
Shield has continued to make it possible
for newly established teams to enter
Laura-Jayne Wardley
competitions for the first time without the
fear of having to play one of the leading
teams in their first match. This has helped
with the continuing expansion of both
Men’s and Women’s competitions. Equally
that each Championship involved just
the top sixteen teams has improved the
standard of play throughout Universities.
The now customary pilgrimage of
university Water Polo teams to Nottingham
University for the BUSA Finals took
place in mid-March. The matches are
usually close fought and this year was no
exception with both competitions being
decided on the final match.
The Finals this year were dominated by
three universities, Cardiff, London and
Manchester who each had teams playing
in both Men’s and Women’s events.
MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
The first match saw the continuation of
the contests between Bristol and Cardiff.
Again the two sides played a hard, fast
and entertaining match. Cardiff established
an early lead only to be pulled back by
Bristol who led 3-2 at then end of the first
period. Subsequent periods ended with
Bristol leading 5-4 and 7-5 and the usual
close result appeared likely. However, in
the Final period Bristol took control to run
out winners by 11-6.
Manchester lost close matches to London
11-7 and Bristol 9-8 while London defeated
Cardiff by a surprising 24-9. In the
penultimate match Manchester defeated
Cardiff 10-88, meaning a Final match
would decide the title.
We were not to be disappointed when
Bristol and London produced a grand finale
to the tournament. At the end of the first
period London led 2-1; at half-time Bristol
led 4-3; at the end of the third period
London led 8-6 and only when Bristol
tired were London able to dominate finally
winning 12-6.
Final Positions
1 London
2 Bristol
3 Manchester
4 Cardiff
Water Polo Championships, University of Nottingham
SHIELD
The Finals of the Shield competition were
also played at Nottingham and the result
was:
Men
Oxford defeated Durham 16-4
WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
In the first match Loughborough played
London and finally won by 5-4 goals. In the
second match there were 26 goals scored
and the lead changed hands several times
in the first three periods which ended at
4-4, 7-7 and with Cardiff leading by 11-9
respectively. Half way through the final
period the scores were again level at 11-11
before Manchester scored three times to
Cardiff’s single reply to ran put winners
14-12.
The next 2 matches between
Loughborough / Manchester and Cardiff
/ London followed the similar pattern
with the lead changing throughout both
matches. Both were decided by 2 goals.
When Manchester defeated London 9-4
in the penultimate match there was the
possibility of a three way tie when Cardiff
led Loughborough by 5-2 early in the
second period of the Final match. However
Cardiff were unable to score again and
Loughborough by scoring a single goal in
each of the last three periods came out
winners of the match 6-5 and also claimed
the Championship.
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