We talked tour, rivalry, and tough decisions with Trent’s captains

Apparently rugby are on their best behaviour

9 years ago

Guides

With three Oceans under our belts Trent’s year is properly underway, but what’s life like for the busiest people on campus?

What makes Boxing better than Rugby? What happens behind the scenes at Trent TV and Fly FM? We went straight to the people who matter to find out.

Conor Boland, Captain of Rugby Union and Economics second year

What’s been your toughest presidential decision so far?

The toughest decision i’ve had to make was that just three weeks into the year I’ve had to cancel our regular Ocean Wednesday and change to a dry social as rugby has to be on its best behaviour this year (unfortunately).

If you had to join another Trent society what would it be?

If I could join another society it would be Trent pole to improve my Ocean moves. I think I have the legs for it.

What’s your best/worst Tour story?

A good story from tour is that someone was accidentally left at the first service station in France and had to continue the rest of the journey on the Manchester met bus, he was fuming.

Who’s your biggest rival society?

We don’t really have rivalries but it could possibly be Lacrosse who are beneath us in all ways including being literally under the rugby corner in Ocean.

Tom Winterton – President of Athletics and Wildlife Conservation second year

What’s been your toughest Presidential decision so far?

Which hot pants to wear on Ocean Wednesdays of course.

If you had to join another Trent society what would it be?

Gymnastics as I look great in a leotard and I once did the splits between two Volvo estates driving down Forest Road.

What’s your best/worst tour story?

A few years ago on tour one of our members got as far as Dover before being taken to hospital and then had to fly out to meet us.

Who’s your biggest rival society?

Trent Dance as they refuse to accept my rendition of Rihanna’s “Pour It Up” from tour, with a walking stick, for first team auditions.

Billy Taylor – Station Manager of Trent TV and Broadcast Journalism third year

What’s been your toughest presidential decision so far?

Basically how many to-do lists I should keep. I’ve now got about five to-do lists in total all reflecting different things. Luckily I haven’t had too many tough decisions so far but the year is still young.

If you had to join another Trent society what would it be?

If I could throw a dart in a straight line and handle my pints better – I’d join Pub Sports. It looks like a laugh but I don’t really have enough time. Would love a personalised darts shirt though – can you help me out guys?

What’s your society’s best/worst story?

At the NaSTA Awards 2015 (it’s like the BAFTAs but for student TV stations) we all got rather trollied and our Head of Production took a stage dive while the ceremony was still in progress. I think he was alright in the end. We won five awards that night (making us the third best Student TV station in the country) which was pretty sick.

Who’s your biggest rival society?

Unfortunately we really like everyone – except for the Conservative society of course because I don’t respect right-wing tomfoolery.

Lydia Meredith – Station Manager Fly FM and Broadcast Journalism third year

What’s been your toughest presidential decision so far?

My toughest presidential decision so far has to be choosing our new presenters and news readers. The Deputy Station Manager, Heads of Programming and Heads of News all came around to my house for a pizza and voice test party where we listened back to all of the voice tests. I felt like I was on the X Factor judging panel. You know when Cheryl Cole used to always get emotional on the show, and you’d be sitting at home wondering why? Well now I know how hard it is to crush little freshers dreams of being a presenter. But hey ho, they can try again next year.

What’s your society’s best/worst story?

Earlier this year we had an incident where somebody (you know who you are) spilled tea all over our mixing desk in the studio. Of course you can’t have radio without a fully functioning studio so that was an absolute nightmare. Thankfully the lovely CBJ (Centre of Broadcast Journalism) technicians let us borrow a spare desk they had. This is why we’re the best society, because we are unstoppable.

Who’s your biggest rival society?

I’d say Trent TV is our biggest rival as a society as a lot of the skills between broadcast medias are transferable, so we keep stealing each others’ members. Fly are obviously better than Trent TV as we get to chat lifestyle, music and funny stories all day every day on our shows. Who wouldn’t want to do that? And word on the street is that the Fly FM’s Station Manager is the coolest person ever.

Blossom Somba – President of Dance and Broadcast Journalism third year

What’s been your toughest presidential decision so far? I think deciding who would make our first team has been the hardest decision so far. We had 119 people turn up to auditions and I had to narrow it down to about 20 people. After deciding the team I even had someone’s mum email me because I didn’t put her daughter on the team.

If you had to join another Trent society what would it be?

To be honest I couldn’t imagine myself being part of any other society. But before university I planned to join Netball, I played Netball for about 10 years and I think I was pretty alright at it.

What’s your society’s best/worst story?

Our best story has to be tour in my first year. The whole week was absolutely crazy to be honest but basically on the third day the theme was ghost busters. So the masters were ghost busters and us freshers were ghosts. Our costume was a bed sheet over our heads with little holes cut out for our eyes. So there was about 10 of us walking down the strip to the boat party in our ”Ghost costumes” and locals thought we were the bloody KKK. Everyone was staring at us, we were getting spat at by locals and everything, definitely wasn’t funny at the time (it’s quite funny now though).

Who’s your biggest rival society?

I don’t think we have a rival society BUT we are definitely the best society at Trent.

Julian Faust – President of Trent Bass and Product Design second year

What’s been your toughest presidential decision so far?

It’s got to be when I had to choose between Kroenenburg or Stella for our Super Sunday Hampden Court street party. We got messy. Well, I did anyway.

If you had to join another Trent society what would it be?

If I were to join another Society it would be cock Soc, those boys know their way around a margarita, woiiiiiii. Great lads.

What’s your society’s best/worst story?

Best story would probably be the fact that on our first takeover of room two at Stealth in early October, I walked into the Trent Bass room and it was going OFF! By far the best room in the club and we certainly gave Mak & Pasteman a run for their money. My worst story is the constant issue of my DJs being too fucked to play. It’s cool though we all ride the wave sometimes.

Who’s your biggest rival society?

Biggest rival society must be Warlock society, they’ve got dubs for days.