Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 22/03/2024 - 13:16
League titles, cup triumphs, and gold medals – what a term it’s been for the Light Blues!
League and Knockouts
As we close out this year’s BUCS league and knockout season, it’s time to reflect back on a highly successful term for Cambridge!
Since the start of the academic year, 51 Cambridge teams have completed over 550 fixtures across 18 different sports in the regular BUCS (British Universities and College Sport) leagues and knockout competitions. With all fixtures now completed, we can now announce that we have seven league champions! Congratulations to:
Badminton M1, Fencing M1, Fencing W2, Lacrosse M1, Netball 3, Netball 4, and Tennis M1.
Having narrowly missed out on their titles, Hockey W1 and Rugby Union W2 secured promotion for next year, something which Tennis W1 are also hoping to achieve through their playoff next term!
This term we have also witnessed some great cup runs, culminating at Conference Cup Finals Day and BUCS Big Wednesday, hosted by the University of Birmingham and Loughborough University respectively. Representing Cambridge in the Conference Cup finals were Badminton W1, Fencing W2, Football M1, and Lacrosse M1, all of whom were triumphant in their fixture and added some silverware to top off their seasons! Similar successes were displayed by Tennis W1, who defeated a strong Nottingham side in a shootout to win the National Trophy! M1 Volleyball also made it to their National Final, just missing out on the trophy after a close game with Newcastle - a very successful season nevertheless for the Blues!
Check out our final standing and results here.
Pictured: Women’s Blues Tennis after their National Championship victory
Individual Events
Lent saw the return of some of our favourite events, including BUCS Nationals! 90 Cambridge athletes travelled up to Sheffield for one of BUCS’s flagship events, competing across; Badminton, Climbing, Fencing, Indoor Athletics, and Karate. With strong performances across the weekend, Kiron Austin (Robinson) and Karim Yusuf (Homerton) picked up medals in their respective fencing and karate events!
Cambridge athletes continued this success at a host of other events, picking up medals in taekwondo and judo, with the latter seeing students Leah Jackson (Selwyn) and Julian Homann (Girton) qualify for the European University Games! 42 entries at BUCS Cross Country returned an impressive 3 medals for CU Hare and Hounds, with the women’s long course bronze, men’s short course bronze, and an individual silver for UCAPP athlete Phoebe Barker (Robinson) all making their way back to Cambridge. Phoebe was also celebrating after helping the Light Blues to an overall silver at the recent BUCS Cycling 3-up team time trial, which also saw Joe Adlam-Cook (Magdalene), Matt Rizzo-Naudi (Selwyn), and fellow UCAPP athlete Will Lowden (Fitzwilliam) take home men’s silver!
To round off the term, hosts Cambridge University Orienteering Club picked up a number of individual and team accolades at the recent BUCS Championships! CUOC finished the event with overall club bronze, third in the men’s relay (James Ackland, Peter Molloy, Dom Dakin), and individual silver for Peter Molloy (Trinity)!
Pictured: CUOC members at the BUCS Orienteering Championships
After the Easter break, we still have lots more exciting BUCS action to come, with Equestrian Championship and Regional pools, Ultimate Frisbee Knockouts, Cycling and Triathlon events, as well as the outdoor cricket season to name a few. Also fast approaching is the well anticipated BUCS Regatta, which will see CUBC and College Boat Clubs compete alongside each other in pursuit of the overall Victor Ludorum!
Cambridge are currently sitting 20th overall in the BUCS Points table, and 12th in the women’s standings! Check out the full table here.
For the latest sports news & updates, follow @camunisport on Instagram.
Photos by Dik Ng.