Unique in opportunities,
excellence in performance and
pride in spirit. This is
Birmingham.
When I first came here as a Fresher back in September 2010, I knew there was something special about this place. Making a choice to pursue my interest in sport over music, little did I know how significant that choice would come to be. Sports Fair on that very first Wednesday of Welcome Week marked the start of what would go on to be an incredible journey for me at Birmingham, and as my term in office as VP Sport comes to an end in July it makes me nostalgic to think back on all the incredible experiences I have had.
Good luck to everyone finishing off their dissertations and revising for exams, I hope you all have an enjoyable Easter and manage to get some good rest in with family and friends.
It has been an action-packed and exciting past few months, marking an unbelievable term for all of our teams and athletes with some of our best performances and achievements ever. For me, it has been a privilege and honour to share these remarkable successes and stories with you this year, and there have been moments which I hope will be cherished for long to come still. This second edition of the VPS Newsletter will take a look back at some of the highlights of the last term.
So, until next time, I wish you all the best of luck in upcoming exams. My door is always open if you want to come in for a chat, or have any questions about anything. Well done to everyone for an incredible term and year of sport, and I look forward to celebrating all your achievements at Sports Ball in June!
Best wishes, Vicki
BUCS Gatorade Nationals 2014
From the 21-23 February, the BUCS Gatorade National Championships 2014 saw some impressive results from our Birmingham teams.Judo celebrated an incredible medal haul, including Gold for the women’s team, three silvers and two bronze medals in total. A highlight from Swimming was Charlotte Reid winning Gold in the 50m Backstroke, making her club and teammates extremely proud. The Trampolining team were bouncing all weekend after winning 4th
place and securing their first ever BUCS points at the same time.
Athletics & Cross Country did not fail to impress with a huge medal total of two golds, one silver and four bronze individual medals, plus a team bronze to top it off. Bowling also saw a successful weekend with three of the four teams featuring in the top ten of their competition and winning 14 BUCS points in total.
The Badminton team celebrated bronze with Hannah Sharman and Doug Furze in the mixed competition, and Squash had an amazing weekend with sports scholar Chloe Mesic playing an outstanding competition to win BUCS Individual Women’s A-Grade Gold. Alex Peart, Trampolining Captain doing his stretches
Athletics & XC after finals
Georgie, Charlotte, Lizzy and Kristina finish 5th
Bowling team winding down
Korfball and Ultimate Frisbee crowned National Champions, Swimming win Bronze
In March, the results kept coming in fast and strong. The Swimming club’s first team won Bronze at the Team Swimming Finals in Sheffield, Korball took team Gold at the National Championships at the University of East Anglia Sportspark Arena, and Ultimate Frisbee were also crowned National Champions at the University Mixed Outdoor Nations in Sheffield, another title to be proud of after winning the Mixed Indoor Nationals in February.
Bronze medal for the Swimming Team
Gold for UoB Mixed Outdoor Ultimate Frisbee
BUCS Big Wednesday 2014
24-25 March
And then of course we had BUCS Big Wednesday. Oh my. There are few words to describe the outstanding results from the two days that made up BUCS Big Wednesday 2014, which took place on 24-25 March at Surrey Sports Park.
We had 8 teams qualify to the finals and when the results came in it was an absolute Gold Rush, with a Gold medal and the title of ‘BUCS National Champions’ for Basketball women, Volleyball women, Lacrosse women, and all of the Squash teams.
Badminton came away with an outstanding Silver as did the men’s Fencing team.
Well done to everyone, students, staff and supporters who were involved in helping achieve these results. Just
amazing. Fencing take Silver
Gold all-around for Squash
Badminton win Silver
Basketball women, BUCS Champions ‘14
American
Football
and
Cheerleading make a scene
at Nationals
Outside of these big BUCS events, our Birmingham Lions American Football team gave a performance to be proud of in the BUCS American Football National Championships Final, winning Silver after a tough defeat to the Stirling Clansmen 20-15 in what was an exciting and highly skilled game. Yet again our Birmingham Lions showing true class and sportsmanship.
Our Birmingham Pussycats Cheerleading team also had an incredible Nationals in Nottingham at the British Open & University Nationals Cheer & Dance Championships, with a 1st place for
team stunt in Level 6, and the hip-hop team coming 4th. The competition
squad gave one of their best performances to date and placed 4th
overall and 2nd out of the University
After all of this, and to finish off what has been a remarkable term, our Women’s Hockey team celebrated victory winning Gold over Loughborough 2-0 in the BUCS Women’s Hockey Championship Final on 2nd April at Beeston Hockey Club in
Nottingham.
An outstanding end to their season reaffirming their status as the best University hockey club in the UK, and it brought all the BUCS Wednesday afternoon fixtures to a close for this year in true style.
April,
no
fools
day
for
Birmingham
Over April, Brumski & Board Club and the Dodgeball Club equally saw some decent and impressive results. Our snowsports team absolutely smashed the BUSC Main Event Championship 2014 in Alpe D’Huez, the biggest event in the snowsports calendar, placing 3rd
overall and scooping up 12 BUCS points in the contributing events. They also dominated the last Red Bull 1976 games of the season at the Easter trip in Val Thorens with an all Birmingham final.
Meanwhile, the men’s Dodgeball team stormed through their league finishing in 2nd place in the play-offs against the
5 other top teams and securing a well-deserved promotion into Division 1 for next year.
Finally, one of my favourite moments of this month has to be Lottie Kennedy from the Equestrian Club qualifying through to Nationals after winning Regionals, merely a couple of weeks after coming off crutches from a broken leg. Unbelievable scenes.
Brumski in Val Thorens
Dodgeball Club 2013-2014 Lottie (far right) through to Nationals
Clubs raise money for charity
Off the playing fields, some clubs have used this term to raise money for good causes. Back at the beginning of March the Rowing Club held a Sponsored 24 Hour Ergathon at the Guild of Students, taking place from 4-5th March andrunning all the way through Sports Night. They raised well over £2000, half of which was fundraising for their Boat Club
and the other half all going to the charity Sport Relief. Absolutely outstanding.
Gymnastics & Trampolining also did some fundraising for charity this term by organising their first ever Charity Gym & Tramp Ball and raising an incredible £755 in total for Alzheimer’s Society.
Rowing club’s 24 Hour Ergathon
On Saturday 8th March the Officer
Elections 2014 officially came to a close with the announcement of the results taking place in the Deb Hall at the Guild. It was a tough week and a half of campaigning for all the candidates, involving multiple lecture shout-outs a day, door-knocking, leafleting, cardboard-painting, not to mention
Candidate Hustings. The term 2 Sports Forum with all the Club Captains and other club representatives played host to a first-time VP (Sport & Nutrition) and Presidential candidate hustings, where they all made one-minute speeches followed by questions from the floor afterwards. After all of this, I could not be happier or prouder for Molly Browne, current Captain of Athletics & Cross Country Club and third year Physiotherapy student, who was officially elected to be our next Vice-President (Sport & Nutrition) for 2014-2015. It takes some serious guts to run in these elections, and Molly worked so hard for it, leading a strong campaign and never once stopping. She thoroughly deserves it and has my full support for the following year, absolutely buzzing for her. Her term in office starts when mine ends in mid-July, and I look forward to working with her throughout handover, and giving her the best possible start to what will be an incredible year!
Vicki Harris, Vice-President (Sport)
vps@guild.bham.ac.uk | @Guild_VPS
Molly Browne (left) and me at Elections Results Night, 8 March
Officer Elections 2014
And now, with exams just around the corner, here at the Guild of Students and UBSport we know that life gets a bit more stressful for students. So, we have come up with a few opportunities for you to enjoy throughout term 3 so that together we can all make sure you are in the best mental and physical state to smash those exams. At the Munrow, be sure to make the most of the 20% discount on Active Lifestyle health and fitness classes. My personal favourites are Body Balance and Circuits, but if that’s not your style then why don’t you try out Spinning, Yoga, Body Attack or even Zumba. Doing 30 minutes exercise (or a couple of classes a week) will do wonders to relieve stress, boost your fitness and is a great way to take a break from all that hard work revising. Why not take a friend too?
At the Guild of Students, each Wednesday during the exam period we will have a Bouncy Castle on the back lawn outside by Joes where you can chill out on a deck chair and enjoy some street food from the new vendors, drink a smoothie, and have some rest and fun after a stressful day. The Student Mentors will be door-knocking accommodation throughout the term, giving out healthy snacks and being there for you if you need to talk to someone. There will also be a number of free exam-stress workshops for you, as well as Laughter Yoga and free massages.
Student Mentors, here to help
New Sports Centre
- April 2014 -
Work on the New Sports Centre commenced early April, with the contractors now fully settled and the digging up of the car park well underway. I am lucky in that the view from my office window at the Guild is ideal and I often enjoy looking out to the construction site to see the progress they are making. I have also started uploading weekly
snapshots of the site onto my VP Sport Facebook page, and hope this can be continued for the next few years as a way to keep students up to date with the progress. Looking forward to early 2016, the Guild and UBSport will become campus neighbours bringing with it a noticeable shift in student footfall on campus, and I am excited by the prospects this will have for the Guild and UBSport to bring their relationship even closer over many years to come.
View from the VPS Window, Monday 7
thApril 2014
Visual graphics of the New Sports Centre, University of
Birmingham, scheduled for completion by December 2015.
Tickets for the Guild of Students Sports Ball 2014 were made available to clubs earlier this term, and an overwhelming 856 tickets were requested in total, marking an increase in total number of tickets requested as well as the number of clubs requesting tickets. Thank you to everyone who requested tickets and I cannot wait for you to enjoy Sports Ball, this year taking place at the world-class Edgbaston Cricket Stadium on Sunday 8th June. Working on Sports Ball has
been one of my main projects this term and I am delighted that progress is going well.
The Awards season is our opportunity to recognise all the hard work that clubs and individuals put into sport at Birmingham throughout the year. Whether it was that big event that blew the roof off, that one performance that was a complete game changer, or that individual who has never missed a session, made an outstanding contribution and given their club everything, this is your chance to celebrate with your club your incredible achievements from this year. Nominations for the awards
are open until Monday 28th April
(first day of term), and if you have any questions about any of the award categories please feel free to drop me a message at vps@guild.bham.ac.uk or come visit me in my office.
