Talented athletes triumph at BUCS Big Wednesday
The culmination of British Universities and Colleges Sport team sport leagues, BUCS Big Wednesday is undoubtedly an important date in many student-athlete’s calendars.
Almost forty TASS-supported athletes from nine different sports competed in the Championship events, proudly representing their respective university teams.
Hosting proceedings this year was University of Bath, who are celebrating their 50th anniversary. Events took place within their compact campus site including the Sports Training Village and Founders Sports Hall.
In total, hundreds of students participated in more fifty finals across the epic one-day competition, with several TASS athletes putting in outstanding performances.
The first winners of the day for ‘Team TASS’ were Loughborough’s Men’s (Matthew Claire, David King, Greg Mairs) and Women’s (Jenny Moore, Victoria Williams) badminton teams .
Meanwhile, a Nottingham derby in the Men’s Table Tennis saw University of Nottingham (Daniel Reed, Adam Harrison, Gabriel Achampong) defeat Nottingham Trent with a score of 10-2.
Team Durham were out in force to support their team mates (Dom Beesley, Jen Ren, Jess Ren) on the tennis courts and it paid off with the North East university taking two Championship tennis titles from two.
In a momentous battle on the rugby league field, Team Northumbria (Patrick Hargreaves, Kieran Bruce, Sandy Rae, Sam Luckley) ended Leeds Beckett’s (Zack McComb, Sam Druce) winning streak with a 18-24 victory.
Over on the squash court, the team from University of Nottingham (Matthew Broadberry) were defeated by University of West England.
Team Durham (Freya Savage, Emma Adams) dominated against University of Exeter in the Women’s Lacrosse, ultimately winning 7-2.
Squads from Team Northumbria competed in both the Men’s (Matt White, Darius Setsoafia, Liam Jenkinson, Kieran Sowden) and Women’s (Paige Fullerton) Volleyball Championships.
The women’s team lost 2-3 against a strong Durham University side, while the men eventually came out on top following an intense five-set match against Sheffield Hallam (Leon Davis Chambers, Alex Calpin, Sam Thompson, Aaron Simon).
In an electric Women’s Basketball final, Loughborough University (Jamila Thompson, Mollie Campbell) battled through to beat Durham 113-110 in extra time. The men from Loughborough (Alex Roberts, Josh Ward-Campbell) followed their lead, also defeating Team Durham.
There was more success for the team from Loughborough in the netball (Rosie Harris, Vicky Oyesola), with a convincing victory over University of Hertfordshire.
Meanwhile in the pool, the men from Manchester Metropolitan University (Dan Paddon, Jordan Elliot) took on Durham in the Waterpolo Championship, losing 5-9.
The top three title winning universities across the day were University of Nottingham in third with 6 wins, narrowly beaten to second by Loughborough with 7, which meant Durham took the top spot with a whopping 12 titles.
To view the full gallery of photos from the event, visit the TASS Facebook page.