Sports Federation Dinner 2010


On Wednesday the 17th of March, once all the drama of varsity was over and done with, hundreds of Christ Church students made their way to the Ashford International Hotel where they were to enjoy a night of fun, food and fantastic wine at this year’s Sports Federation Dinner.

All dressed up in their Sunday best the students were to meet on campus outside the Old Sessions building and file into any one of the number of coaches that would be taxiing them to and fro this years event.

The location for the Sports Federation dinner 2010 was perfect as was the food and the complementary wine that all came included with the purchase of a ticket, but once all the niceties had been a heard to it was down to the night’s main attraction and what all of the guests came to see. The award ceremony.

At each Sports Fed dinner there are always certain awards that are handed out, per team there is; player of the season, most improved player of the season and main contributor of the season. And then following on from this there are other awards handed out in front of the entire audience, awards such as Team of the Year and Varsity team of the year. Girls Hockey won the acclaim and took home the trophy of Team of the Year after an amazing season which saw them end the season as Varsity Champions, League Champions and they went all the way in their cup competition, adding more silverware to their trophy cabinet. Whilst Men’s football won the right to Varsity Team of the Year with a clean sweep of victories in this year’s competition with all four teams winning their respective games.

Once the award ceremony was finished and the first part of the night began to wind down, with the most eager of guests leaving for the first coach ride back, for the rest, a few more trips the bar were still to be had and a few more jokes were still to be told.

However, when the night did eventually end in Ashford it was merely just beginning in Canterbury. Once all the coaches were again filled up they made the short journey back to Canterbury where the guest received free entry to local night club, Baa Bars, to round off an eventful but entertaining evening.

Stephen Staunton, second year Law student and current men’s football fourth team centre back, believes Sports Fed is always a nice way to end the Universities sporting calendar “After all the hard work we put in throughout the season, and the chaos of Varsity it is always nice to end it all with the whole sporting society together and have some form of celebration.”

Shortly, work will again start on preparing for the next Sports Federation dinner where guest can expect the same, spoilt treatment, and if this year’s event is anything to go by, then all is set for yet another success.


Samuel Francis

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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


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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