Men's Lacrosse smashed in to the 21st century

Men's Lacrosse smashed in to the 21st century

There are many popular sports in this country, and it doesn’t take a genius to state that sports such as football and rugby are at the top of that popularity list. It also doesn’t take a genius to state that a sport like Lacrosse is not only at the bottom of said popularity list, but they are somewhat unheard of. However, one Lacrosse player at Christ Church has taken it upon himself to start spreading the word via a new website dedicated to the team.

Dennison Packer, is a student here at Christ Church currently studyin digital art and is goalie for the Men’s Lacrosse team, at the start of this academic year, Packer, took it upon himself to start raising the profile of the sport in order to gain a bigger fan base. Packer told us at C4 Sports Society the reasons why he set up the new website “That's the key reason really, identity. Having a website gives us a stronger identity among our competitors in other leagues” he continued to tell us about the extent of the promotion he has gone to “It also allows people who are merely browsing the web, to find us. Not only that but people searching Google for Canterbury Christ Church Uni will find us.”

It is clear that this newly formed website is not only a way to gain new, external interest but also, as Packer explains, a look to the future internally “I wanted to give something to the team not just to represent my own involvement but to benefit the team in a way that could see us improve over time, not just by performance but by status also.”

It is apparent that lacrosse is an unheard of sport, which has continued to be kept in the shadows of the more dominant sports, not only at Christ Church and other universities, but up and down the country. And it is this idea of promotion of the sport that seems to be another key contributor behind the new website; “we want to increase the awareness of not only the team but of the sport of lacrosse in Canterbury. Lacrosse is a very rare and practically unheard-of sport in this country. By having a website that increases the chance of people stumbling upon us and finding out about the team and the sport.” Packer also spoke about the lack of promotion the sport gets away from the website “The only promotion that we currently give out other than the website is at the Sports Faye at the start of the academic year, where all the teams set up stands in and around the SU to advertise the different teams to new students”.

Packer looks to the school’s to help raise the profile of the sport as he believes if kids have an understanding of the sport at a young age and participate in some hands on experience of the game that’ll help them to want to play more in the future “I found out about the sport through watching the film American Pie, then I saw the stand at Sports Faye and signed up there and then, but I’m sure others would have completed neglected the stand as they had no idea what it was”.

Hopefully, the website for the men’s Lacrosse team will continue to gather interest and popularity and that will see the sport grow in success, it is clear what the long term goal of Dennison Packer is, to raise the profile of his beloved sport, however, in the short term, his new web page is just the right thing to get Lacrosse moving in the right direction.

For more information and to visit the site itself go to www.canterburylax.co.uk

The site is currently under construction and will be fully developed within the next few weeks so please keep checking back.

By Samuel Francis

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New five-a-side league proves to be a success

New five-a-side league proves to be a success

There is a new way to play football at Christ Church

For many years Christ Church has always had numerous amounts of sports society and sport teams. And this year, there is a new sport society being started up, a society with no restrictions.

CCCU 5’s is a new five-a-side football league started up through the University by three-second year students. Its run as a mini-league, with 12 teams, playing against each other through out the academic year, winner takes all; with everything in-between such as a January transfer window, player of the year award and a top goal scorer award. So far hundreds of students, from all years, have signed up and all is in place for the start of the mini-league season.

In past years at Christ Church football has always been in plentiful supply with eight 11 a-side teams being formed last year. However due to financial difficulties this year the University were only able to allocate four teams in to the sufficient leagues leaving hundreds of hopefuls disappointed.

Ben Braou, President of CCCU 5’s, is confident of success as he is experience in the field “this isn’t actually my first time at running a five-a-side mini league, in college I set one up, I have learnt from my mistakes and put that in to practice this time round”.

However, question marks surround the league’s financial status, "with three students running the whole project, yes, financially we may struggle" continued Braou "we have got in contact with many companies, locally and regionally, for sponsorship but so far we haven’t had much luck". Secretary Stephen Staunton saw the lighter side on the matter "we’re all just hoping for a foreign oil investment company to come and invest in the league then we’ll be fine".

Speaking to the students who will be taking part in CCCU 5’s mini-league there seems to be a strong distinguished sense of excitement about the new football society. Joe Daly said that the diverse ability’s in the mini-league played a strong roll in him getting involved “it allows us to compete in sport in which levels of ability doesn’t matter compared to the 11-a-side football teams where ability is everything”.

By Samuel Francis

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Athletic Society up and running

Athletic Society up and running

The sport societies continue to grow in number at Christ Church as the new Athletics Society has been recently set up in time for the new season.

It may seem quite strange that Christ Church has failed to have an Athletics team as of now as it is seen as a very popular sport and is encouraged strongly throughout secondary school, however, due to the time of year in which athletics is participated it has always been a struggle in years gone by to create a successful society.

Last year, it was near on impossible to find out about the athletic society and who was in charge of it. A Canterbury athletic team was competing last year but at a small level, there was around 5 team members that competed once or twice a year but it did seem that it was slightly detached from the university.

This year, however, through a number of athlete’s a successful society has been established around the University and is currently training to be in good condition to compete come the start of the season.

Steps are already being taken in the right direction for the new athletics society; through the internet social networking site ‘facebook’ a group has been created to find out more about the society and who to get in contact with.

One of the bodies behind the creation of the athletics team, Glen Butler, told us about how the society came about and what are his immediate plans for the society "basically myself and a few others are looking to get it fully functioning by the time the next fresher's fayre comes around so we can get as many people interested as possible. We're also looking to try and get tracksuits for training just like the others unis and our football and rugby teams" Butler continued “but unfortunately lack of knowledge about the society and lack of facilities has made it really hard to get going this year."

It would seem all that is left for athletics to become a success at Christ Church is the performance of the athletes themselves this season and whether or not the society will continue to grow in popularity. If so then it is apparent that Christ Church could be on to another sporting success.

By Samuel Francis

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Steph White is re-elected as Sport Sabbatical for second year

Steph White is re-elected as Sport Sabbatical for second year

After a manic week for the potential sabbatical staff at Christ Church Union, Steph White has once again won the students vote to be the Sports and Societies Sabbatical officer.

Red banners covered the Student Union at Christ Church with the slogan 'Steph White is Sports at CCCU' which evidently, helped sway the students vote, as after 1 week, 1036 total votes and 5 hours of counting, evidently the students agreed.

White's first year in the Sports Sabbatical position was clearly a success as more students taking part in more sports than ever before. The introduction of a new Athletics society and the further development of the American football team were mere notches on the Steph White Sports sabbatical belt.

A common belief amongst the students as to why Steph retained the sports position at the union is down to the creation of the intramural football league. Cut backs in the university football society had to be made due to financial difficulties at the start of the year meaning less positions to be filled, creating more hopefuls leaving football trials disappointed. However, with the creation of the new intramural football league enables those disappointed potentials a chance to play football at a competitive level.

The success at Canterbury Christ Church this year at a sporting level will have also contributed greatly to Whites success as at the time of the election 14 of the 20 sports teams were top of their respective leagues.

Steph White is now preparing to enter her second and final spell in the position of Sports Sabbatical Officer at CCCU and has promised to find another addition space for sport to be played next year as the congestion at the home of Christ Church Sport (Stodmarsh) is becoming ridiculous.

Joining Steph in the Sabbatical positions next year will be Kal Sajaad, currently Media and Services officer, will be taking up the new role of Student Activities, current welfare officer, Steve Godwin, won the vote to become the next Union President and taking his place as welfare officer is Silvia Rasca.

By Samuel Francis

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A re-cap on the historic Varsity 2010

A re-cap on the historic Varsity 2010

Unless you have been hiding in your room with your head firmly buried under your duvet for the last two months, you will be aware that Christ Church has recently taken part in some form of sporting event.

With more games than ever before being played in this hotly contested competition, and the added pressure of playing up the hill at the dreaded UKC, one month on and Christ Church is still in reflection of what was one of the most dramatic Varsity’s of recent years.

With Christ Church taking an early lead after winning the swimming the attention of the University turned to the Rugby. On a bitterly cold March evening an impressive number of dedicated fans, both Christ Church and UKC, made the journey to Canterbury Rugby club to show their support for the men and the women who battled it out to get some more early points on the board. However, an impressive UKC women’s team brushed aside the Christ Church girls leaving the men to fight for some rugby pride. But yet again, in a closer contested match, another impressive UKC outfit gave the Christ Church men a firm seeing to eventually ending up with a 13-7 lead.

After the opening day of the competition over and done with, and the scores being seemingly level, everyone’s attention turned to the Wednesday two days later, where the majority of the fixtures will take place and will undoubtedly be a pivotal day of sport.

It was an assured fact that football was going to play a key role in the race for the Varsity Crown 2010 with a total of nine games being played across the day. For the first time in a Varsity competition, Christ Church was able to equal UKC in the number of football teams as the top four teams of the newly set up Intramural Football League at CCCU won their right to represent their University against the respective top four teams of the highly regarded college football at UKC. This meant that football in Varsity 2010 saw the highest number of games to be played under a single sport in the competitions history. And it got off to a perfect start for Christ Church with all four of the men’s BUCs teams wining their games and the women’s BUCs team also earning a point for CCCU after a thrilling penalty shoot out after 90 minutes which saw the scores tied at 4-4.

However, UKC began the much anticipated fight back, which saw three of the Intramural teams cleanly dispatched from the competition. As the day drew to a close, and the flood lights of the 3G pitched got called in to action, the last Intramural team to make their mark on the contest entered the pitch. A cold and windy evening saw both teams commit many mistakes and very little football played, and unsurprisingly after 90 minutes the game was level at 1-1. Due to a delayed start after a Christ Church player was rushed off to hospital with a torn Achilles in the game before, this final and pivotal football game was taken straight to penalties and it was the CCCU boy’s who’s nerve held strongest winning the game 4-3 on penalties.

As the main Varsity day of 2010 came to a close UKC found themselves guarding a narrow lead with the scores at 16-14 with two games still to play, meaning for the first time in Canterbury Varsity history the games could be a draw.

The attention was now full focused on the two remaining games of the competition; Women’s first team Hockey and American Football.

On the evening of Friday 12^th of March the Christ Church students showed how much this competition means to the University. Even though the rain was pouring down and the temperature was bitter, around 100 Christ Church students made the journey up the hill to cheer on the hockey girls in a pivotal match. As the rain got heavier the songs from the Christ Church faithful got louder as the spurred the girls on to take an emphatic 4-2 victory against a very strong and impressive UKC team.

With this well deserved win in the bag for Christ Church the results of the competition hinged on the American football game, the first American football game in Canterbury Varsity history. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite the fairytale ending every Christ Church student was hoping for as a strong UKC team beat an inexperienced Christ Church who had only played 3 games prior to this meet. So unfortunately UKC came out victorious in the final game of the competition and effectively were victorious in the final tournament standings winning 17-15, however, there is know doubting that Christ Church is getting closer to that first Varsity win and the importance of the competition grows with every year.

By Samuel Francis

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Intramural Football League

Intramural Football League

Christ Church has never been shy of sporting participation over the years and with the introduction to the new Intramural Football League it shows no sign of stopping.

Football is without doubt one of, if not the, biggest sports societies at Christ Church, with hundreds of hopefuls ever year attending trials with a keen eye of putting on that maroon shirt come the start of the season. In years gone by Christ Church has always been in plentiful supply of football teams with six Christ Church BUCs (official university league) teams up and running last year, with another team based in Broadstairs and two teams set up to give other Christ Church teams' friendly’s when possible. However, at the start of this year it was only possible for four h BUCs teams to be entered in to competitive leagues leaving even more hopefuls disappointed.

With still such a high interest in football at the university the union decided to set up a new league based entirely at the university, Christ Church students verses Christ Church students. And with the first term over and done with and the football well under way this league is shaping up to be as exciting as any.

The league’s top team at Christmas, the C4 Rejects, was set up by captain and centre midfielder, Paul Spinks, who had nothing but praise for the way the union had set up the league "considering the university cut down from six BUCs football teams to four, the league is a great idea. It allows a lot more students to play competitive football." Spinks went on to commend the social’s "In the SU on a Wednesday night provides a good start to the night with a lively atmosphere and plenty of banter". The league’s top goal scorer, Tom Curnick of the C4 Rejects, backed up what his captain had mentioned "the league’s great as it allows players to have competitive fun and be part of a good social."

The union have everything sorted for the eight teams that signed up for the league; fixtures, society nights, kits and a league table, and with more games than most of the University BUCs teams at a cut of the price, the Intramural league is proving to be fantastic value for money.

In many ways the league is so much more than just a group of boys running about, it’s a very healthy way of playing the game, Chris Flynn, left back for the C4 Rejects enjoys the environment more than anything "It’s great to be able to play in a successful team in a fun and friendly environment without anyone taking it too seriously" Flynn continued to say "the league has clearly been a success with the amount of people that come to watch all the teams every week'.

Even though the league is set up through the University that does not mean that there is a lack of competitiveness between the sides, all the games that have been played so far have been hard fought and tough fixtures leaving the league table tight and very entertaining. However, there are question marks rising over the scheduling of the fixtures as the heavy down pour of rain that Canterbury saw in the weeks leading up to Christmas left Stodmarsh, the home of Christ Church football, in an awful state meaning all games in the league for three weeks running were called off. And with the recent avalanche of snowing hitting all areas in the UK it seems that the groundsman at Stodmarsh has his work cut out for him if there is to be any football played in the coming weeks.

This league is a fine example of everything that is right in football, one of the top teams in the league CCCU 4th team was one of the BUCs teams last year for the University but fell brunt to the cut backs the University had to take. Even though many of the team’s first choice players had been scouted to play for BUCs teams this year, the team stayed together and have continued to play as a team this year.

With football having such a big impact on the sport societies at Christ Church something had to be done when the University had to cut two of the BUCs teams this year, and it is no over statement to say that they have found the perfect replacement. With all teams involved being more than pleased with how the season has gone so far and a friendly environment at a cut of the price, the only problem the University have been left with now is how to deal with all that snow!

By Samuel Francis

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