2008-09: A successful sporting year for Sussex

On Friday 8th May, the Lansdowne Place played host to the annual USSU sports awards. The awards celebrate everything that has taken place this year in the world of club and individual sport; with ‘club of the year’, ‘team of the year’ and ‘sportsman’/ ‘sportswoman of the year’ being just a few of the prizes up for grabs. As always the awards themselves were hotly contested between clubs and individuals who had worked hard on and off the field in devoting time to the development of their respective groups.

On the night there were a number of different winners. Cricket scooped the prestigious ‘club of the year’ award for further developing their links with Sussex County Cricket Club and the ten-day and twenty-seven man tour they organised. ‘Sportsman of the year’ this year found its way to Sam Jeffery. As club Captain of the men’s football team he has at times single-handedly run three different teams as well as helped out with a local league team. The Squash Club was also a winner on the night both as a club and individually. They were rewarded for their outstanding fundraising, the women’s second team were rewarded for winning their league with the ‘most improved club of the year’; whilst the women’s captain, Kirsty Westwood, won the ‘sportswoman of the year’ for being the driving force behind this years successes.

A new award this year, the ‘Community award’, presented to the club or individual that carried out outstanding work through sport in the community, went to surf and windsurf. In keeping with their surf roots a number of the club received the award sporting surf shorts and shirts and ties combinations.

Whilst the awards themselves were a good insight into the success this year has seen, it was only the tip of a very big iceberg that was present in Freshers week and has not disappeared. As always the attendances at team trials were massive and helped lay the foundations for a successful season for a number of the teams involved in weekly competition. Early trips like the canoe trip down the Usk and the regular mountaineering trips to Shoreham were similarly popular, with this popularity not waning throughout the year. Our very own ski and snow club took over three hundred people up into (and safely back down) the Alps at different points during the year and were also a victorious team at the annual varsity match against Brighton.

This sporting year also saw our rugby team become overnight celebrities for their appearance on Austin Healey’s ‘Big Tackle’. Whilst the opportunity to appear on television was an obvious lure, the experience itself seems to have been a positive one in developing individual players but also in developing the club as a whole which will hopefully stand those still here next year, in good stead for the future.

The annual Varsity match this year also saw improved success with Sussex narrowly losing eight-five to Brighton, on a day that was dedicated to the sad loss of the much loved Hestor Stewart.

Ultimate Frisbee, winners once again at Varsity also experienced success at national level with the women’s team winning the national competition recently. Other team successes were our Hockey Women 2nds winning SE Conference 6A in an impressive season considering the numbers of new players to the club. The Rugby Women reached the semi-finals of the southeast conference cup. Our Volleyball men won the southeast conference 2A and were runners up in SE Conference Cup, in a season that saw them unbeaten in the league, winning every game along the way and narrowly missing out on the cup.

Individually there were successes both nationally and internationally. Emily Llewellyn, a 2nd year SPRU student won the European 3 Day Eventing Individual and Team Gold medals at the European young Rider Championships as well as the BUCS 3 Day Eventing competition. Elisabeth Brama became the BUCS 10 mile time trial cycling champion, whilst Miles Gandolfi, a bursary student, won Individual Silver at the 2009 Junior Commonwealth Games in Penang, Malaysia. On the international theme, Lena Erdil, briefly World Number One Slalom Windsurfer in early 2009, has consistently been in the Top 10 in the 2008/2009 academic year.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone involved in what has been an exciting and successful year. All this would not have been possible without the volunteers who give up their time to do the things they love and enable others to do the same and to everyone behind the scenes that are responsible for running all the events.