This week's round-up on all things sport at the University of Gloucestershire
The triumphs and defeats our sporting teams experienced this week are brought to you by first-year sports journalists, Johnny, Holly and Ciara.
First up, three members of men’s tennis headed to the Western Qualifiers for the BUCS Individual Championship this past weekend: Tristan Scurr, Jacob Jones and Oli Lewis.
Their trip down to Bristol saw two players head into round two of the qualifying stage: Scurr achieved a strong 6-1, 6-0 win over Marc-Anthony Willett of the Winchester Jaguars, and Jones was granted a walkover as Cardiff’s Matthew Pickering pulled out. Unfortunately, Lewis fell to Cardiff Met’s Jacques Woodall.
In the afternoon session, Scurr faced the fourth seed Frank Johnston whilst Jones played Michael Smirnov, both opponents from the University of Bath. They were unable to bring home wins for Gloucestershire but will hopefully be able to take their experience into the upcoming Varsity matches.
Matt Jones qualified directly into the main draw in Loughborough, so look out for news on how he gets on soon!
Coverage by Ciara Hancox
The Netball 3s impressed in their last game, cruising to a 38-23 home win against Southampton 4s, with player Morgan earning herself Player of the Match after an impressive performance to help her team out.
This was a massive step up to their away game against Southampton, as last time out they lost 26-41, thus showing their clear determination to win and improve leading into the final stretch of their season.
It’s unfortunately been a rocky season for the 3s though, with only two wins all season, much below the standard of where they want to be. Ending the season on a high will be their clear goal.
Vanessa Garratt, captain of Gloucestershire’s 3s, shared her thoughts ahead of the game against Exeter.
“Exeter is a strong team, and University netball is difficult to navigate with people coming and going each year. We’ve worked hard as a team to bond and get that sense of team every year. Our bond has never been stronger which showed in our last game. So excited to see what we pull out of the bag this week and show everything we’ve worked hard towards. It’s my final university game so we hope to go out stronger than ever!”
Coverage by Johnny Davies
In badminton, the men’s first team competed in the BUCS cup final this week, their final game of the year. It was a huge achievement for them to get to this stage and a testament to all the hard work they put in this season!
They came away with a defeat at this cup stage, losing 5-3 to UWE but finished second place overall in the BUCS Men’s Western Conference Cup. Owen Waters was chosen as the man of the match for our Gloucestershire side. With many team players graduating at the end of this year, it was a great way to sign off their BUCS campaign.
The women’s and men’s first team players also played away games on Sunday. The men’s first team sadly came away with a loss to Southampton’s first team, 6-2. The women also lost 5-3 to Aberystwyth’s second team, doing well with half a team considering they only managed to send three girls to Aber. However, due to low numbers a new player made her debut in the game.
Izzy Bryant, UoG Badminton CC said, “Molly made all of us, and hopefully herself, so proud when she volunteered to play for us. Without her we wouldn’t have had a team so for her to go and win one game, made all of us so proud of her! Which obviously meant she got Player of the Match!”
We look forward to supporting the badminton teams in Varsity in a couple of weeks’ time! Their matches begin at 9am in Worcester on Wednesday 20th March and it would be great to see as much support as possible on the day!
Coverage by Ciara Hancox
It’s been an amazing season for the University Of Gloucestershire Equestrian girls, and on Wednesday the BUCS 2’s headed over to Wales for an away competition against Cardiff and University of the West of England.
The BUCS 2’s team that headed over to Cardiff included club captain Bethany Jenkin, Caitlyn Barrow, Megan Jones and Heather Lockyear. The girls were greeted with the bright sunshine and were immediately welcomed by the home competitors.
The team went out with a bang and took home an overall team second for their last competition of the year. Cardiff took home the win at their home competition whilst UWE came in third to round it all off!
Club Captain, Bethany Jenkin proudly brought home an individual sixth place after a superb performance in the competition, a result I’m sure she’ll be pleased with.
The Club has said that the overall experience was wonderful. The girls enjoyed very moment of riding the horses, and the day as a whole was really well organised!
Coverage by Holly Norman
The first team of women’s football hosted Swansea’s first team this week at Oxstalls Sports Park, in the BUCS Aldi Women’s Western Tier 2. Unfortunately, they came away with a 6-1 loss, with Charlie Donovan scoring the goal for our home side. The player of the match was Tash Lelliott.
With Varsity coming up, the women’s football team has turned their attention to their campaign. They’ve chosen to focus on Rainbow Laces, a campaign that supports LGBTQIA+ people in sports and beyond. They’ve produced some brilliant social media content surrounding this important issue that we highly recommend you check out, but here are some of their pledges for the aim of their campaign.
“We want to make members of the LGBTQIA+ community feel comfortable playing the sport they love, as we believe people perform at their best when they are able to just be themselves.
“We want to spread awareness of the Rainbow Laces campaign to encourage people from the LGBTQIA+ community to get involved and be assured that they are in a safe space within university sport at UoG and UoW.”
It will be great to see the girls playing in their Rainbow Laces during Varsity week! Make sure you head up to Worcester to support them in their match at 11:30 on Wednesday 20th March.
Coverage by Ciara Hancox
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