Meet the captains

You’ll see them walking around in their stash and out for sports night every week. We caught up with this year’s sports captains about their plans for the year.

American football: Ian Whitehead

American Football, it’s not rugby. Ian (far left)

“We finished mid table with a record of four wins and three loses. Unfortunately we lost to Oxford for the first time in our history, which was hard to get over. This year though we are aiming to be National Champs. With some of our guys playing for GB I believe we can get there.”

From what Ian told us American Football like to party, with big socials for every Fuzzys. This is probably where you see them most, as all of their games are played up in Wheatley.

Cricket: Robbie Catling

Robbie (bottom left)

Robbie was full of praise for his teams’ performances last year: “Our second team got promoted last year and our first team is one off the highest league.”

Looking towards this year he said they were aiming high: ” We really want to break in to the premiership next year with our first team and looking to build off the success that all of our teams had last year.”

Interesting in picking up cricket? Just drop Robbie a message as they are always looking for new recruits.

Hockey: Dan Rhodes and Harrie Brown

Squad goals

When thinking about Brookes sport, often the first team that comes to mind is hockey thanks to their great work last year, with both girls’ and men’s first teams staying in the premiership. Both are aiming to do the same this year, but the men’s are shooting for a top three spot.

Dan Rhodes, the men’s captain, told The Tab: “We lost a few good third years at the end of last season, but with our new coach we can reach our goals.”

The girls captain Harrie Brown said the girls’ team was in a pretty similar position: “We also lost some good third years that helped us to our 3-3 record last year.” But she sounded confident they would stay up in the premiership.

Rowing: Rory Copus

The best cox on campus

Rory is the freshers’ coach for the rowing team, as the rowers don’t have a captain. He was very quick to make us aware we have the “best rowing programme in the country”, and as well as winning BUCS last year, the team nearly won the Henley regatta too. They also won the most badass rowing race in the world, Outrow.

Building on from the amazing year they had last year, Rory is now looking to “build more depth in his squads, along with making sure the women are winning just as many medals as the men”. Put simply, he said he wants “more boats and more medals this year”.

Ultimate frisbee: Dominic Timmins-Jones and Sian Simpson

Dominic (far left) and Sian (far right)

We managed to speak to the president, Dominic Timmins-Jones and the girls’ captain, Sian Simpson, about what they’re looking to do this year. Sian was very quick to say she wanted more girls to know “they can play ultimate frisbee too”, as there are too many boys right now, and their mixed team needs some girl power. Dominic was telling us this year “there are lots of beginners to try and help grow from last year’s results. With the mens finishing eighth in the South East region and the mixed finishing 12th”.

They were also very keen to mention their big presence every week in Fuzz, so look out for flying coasters.

Women’s rugby: Rosie Doherty

The Unbeatables

“We won the league and got the final of Midlands but unfortunately came second. This coming season we are looking to stay in the top league along with starting up a second team.”

This is big news as Brookes has never had two girls rugby teams before. To read more about the girls’ incredible season last year, click here.

Rugby league: Jack Bonnick

TOTY 2K15

Speaking to the president of Rugby League Jack Bonnick, we got the impression he was just a bit pleased from his teams results last year: “We won every game in league and cup, meaning we went unbeaten all year.”

Thanks to that, the first team managed to clinch promotion and the seconds maintained their place in the same league. This year, along with “recruiting big”, they have also taken on another sponsor enabling them to “focus a lot on strength and conditioning this year”.

Netball: Sarah Adeniji

We got them to sit down because their too tall

Alice Atkin seemed very happy to tell us about their success last year: “Our first team came second in their division and our thirds came top of theirs (fourth division).”

Their divisions aren’t push overs either ,with eight to 10 teams in each division. This following season they just hope to “keep winning, which looks likely as many of the girls from last year have stayed on”. If you want join in on the girls’ winning streak, get hold of Alice or any other committee member to join a squad.

Football: Matt Haynes

just a bunch of really nice lads

The footballers were buzzing from their results last year:”Our first team won the league and were runners up in the cup. Overall, it was a very successful year.”

Thinking ahead to this year’s season they were very positive with “not losing many players keeping a string squad this year. Our goal this year is to win the league, AGAIN.”

They then went of to show us the massive list of sign ups they had for their trials. Looks like another strong year for the lads.