CALVERTSTAN

Newcastle

Northumbria

By Jonty Mawer at Northumbria Sports Central

STAN CALVERT FINALE 2015

NETBALL

32

33

! e frenetic " nale of this year’s Stan Calvert was held this year at Sport Cen-tral, Northumbria’s cavernous venue in Sandyford on Sunday, and rounded o# another largely unsuccessful year for Team Newcastle in this competition. Much like last year’s " nale, the overall tournament had already been decided. Northumbria, for the second consecu-tive year, have proved themselves the superior sporting power in this city and, to Uni’s detriment, have done so by quite some margin. ! e 29-point de" -cit is de" nitively ugly reading for Team Newcastle, and totally epitomises the gulf in overall athletic ability between these two universities. It is now there for all to see.

For the NUNC " rst team, however,

all this surround sound was immaterial and irrelevant. ! eir focus was " rmly on the job in hand; taking the " ght to Northumbria in their own back yard and trying to regain some pride in the beleaguered red lion.

! e stage was set for a tantalising and dramatic contest. You can’t fault the Poly for their penchant for the theatrical; the main arena of Sport Central had been ceremoniously bedecked in blue and red with loud music and $ ashing lights cre-ating a scintillating atmosphere on and around the court. For each player who took to the court on Sunday evening, it will have undoubtedly been the biggest and grandest stage on which they ever will have played, making every pass, every shot, every attempted intercep-tion more special than any other their sporting lives.

! e game itself started with spell-binding intensity as both teams insti-gated advances on their opponents net. ! e Newcastle centre Hattie Grant was bounding around the court like a ga-zelle; energising her side, pressurizing the opposition and producing won-derful scoring opportunities for Emily Whiteside up front. ! e score however seemed perpetually even throughout the " rst quarter with neither side entire-ly in the ascendency. Both teams were both dogged in defence and tenacious in attack in equal measure, but as time went on, Newcastle began to pull away

slightly and by the time that the whis-tle sounded, they led 13-7 against their local rivals. ! is marked a hugely posi-tive start for the netballers, one that they were keen to build upon.

! e second quarter began with the same intensity of the " rst. Both sides were tireless in their relentlessness in their pursuit of points, gleefully putting their bodies on the line for the sake of victory. Grant most prominently em-bodied this inspiring attitude in the centre with the help of her partners in crime alongside her: wing attack, Al-ice Hagyard, and goal attack Hannah Swainson. Uni were on top, looking the far stronger out" t; not bad for a team which has never been featured on Sky Sports, unlike their lo% y opponents. As the half time whistle blew, Newcastle led by four points, meaning that if they could hold on for another 30 minutes, the day would be theirs.

In keeping with the theatrical nature of the whole a# air, during the half time show, the Newcastle cheerleading squad produced a masterpiece. Combining both red and blue squads for the very " rst time, the cheerleaders delivered a mesmeric display of choreography that managed to simultaneously stun and excite each and every member of their captivated audience. Despite competing regularly around the country, the cheer-leaders surpassed all expectations with the high level of technical di& culty of

their demonstration with most of their stunts surpassing competition-level complexity. ! is routine was therefore a true embodiment of their class and an exhibition that de" nitively justi" es their reputation as one of the top out" ts in the country. ! e Northumbria cheer-leading display, in comparison, was less spectacular but nonetheless, a relative triumph.

With the colourful atmosphere of the occasion enhanced to almost impos-sible levels, the netball resumed at its customary intensity and vigour. Poly, it seemed, had regrouped to promising ef-fect over the half time break and were beginning to rediscover the form which had been frequently alluded to in the press conference two weeks ago. New-castle, however, were stoic at the back, thanks to the enterprise of their defen-sive holy trinity Jasmine Whitlock, Mia Archer and Jo Murnane, who religiously pestered the Poly forward line from the get go, making goal scoring opportuni-ties an infrequent occurrence for the home side. Poly’s perseverance however started to pay o# as they proceeded to narrow the gap between the two sides and eventually took the lead as the third quarter " nally came to a close.

Consequently, the score stood at 25-24 to Northumbria going into the " nal quarter and all was certainly to play for. Newcastle had started by far the strong-er but Poly, as they so o% en do, man-

aged to painstakingly claw themselves back into the context. ! is was the " nal showdown; this is where it all ended.

For most of the " nal quarter, how-ever, both sides seemed rather wasteful in their approach; fatigue had started to hit causing both sides to make mis-takes in build-up play and at the basket. Notwithstanding this, no one could have possibly prepared themselves for the madness of the closing minutes. ! e result of the match was hanging in the balance; miraculously the two sides found themselves at 32-32 with 42 seconds le% on the clock. Either team could have clinched it, though in the dying seconds, the Poly snatched victory, leaving the Uni desolate in de-feat. ! e Newcastle netballers could be seen strewn across the $ oor in tears, such was their passion for this " xture, whilst their counterparts euphorically pranced around the court, their victory achieved.

Sport can be cruel, particularly in terms of " nals, yet the gut-wrenching nature of this defeat was palpable to all who witnessed it. ! e NUNC should me immeasurably proud of their en-deavours, both in terms of the season as a whole and in the context of Stan Calvert. Yet again we look forward to next year for some salvation, whether anything of that sort will be realised is yet to be seen.

Centre  of  attention

! e heartbreaking SC " nale saw Newcastle lose in the last secondPhotography by Cat Scharöter

How  the  story  of  

Super  Sunday  

unfolded

9am 11.11am! e " rst action of the day gets underway at

the Northumberland Club, and North-umbria waste no time in getting stuck

into their opposition. Eventually they will complete a resounding 12-0 victory in the

women’s " rst team match.

Newcastle’s AU O& cer Caleb Jones bounds out of bed, bright eyed and bushy tailed, and tries to rouse the troops on Twitter: “Huge day.

Huge. Let’s go win our cup back”, he says. ! e points gap was eight points in Northumbria’s favour at this point, two points greater than at this point last year, but his optimism starts to spread through the

Uni ranks.

With both teams having failed to reach the playo! s this year, Sunday’s matching between the Newcastle Raiders and the Northumbria Mustangs was purely for bragging rights as to the best team in the Toon. " e bitter rivalry was made extra intense with the long awaited match against former Newcastle Student, Raider and Head coach Ben Johnson, who traded in the blue and white for the red and black this season.

Led by rookie quarterback Kai As-soun and assisted by some of the ‘larger than life’ players upfront, the Raiders’ bulldozing o! ence took the # eld # rst and quickly asserted its dominance against an aggressive Mustangs defence. " e resulting big hits and inevitable trash talk getting the better of the Poly’s #21 who celebrated his last game by get-ting ejected in the # rst 2 minutes. " e Mustangs responded to the opening score with the unveiling of the all too

familiar double wing playbook, which the Raiders D made easy work of, even without the backing of the self-pro-claimed ‘defensive guru’ Coach James ‘Jim’ Harvey. " e half ended 14-2, the Poly’s only points coming from a special team’s error resulting in a safety.

Somehow the weather got worse for the beginning of the second half yet the story remained the same with the Raid-ers’ o! ence trundling down# eld with hard running from Mike Seyani, Rory Osborne and Mike Towsey. Unfortu-

nately Newcastle’s third score of the day was denied by ‘happy go lucky’ of-# ciating from a local hero known to the Raiders as ‘Ref Arm Bar’.

" e fourth quarter started with Northumbria # nally reacting to the failure of the double wing, resorting to a 60 yard ‘hail mary’ down the middle, which, with the 2-point conversion, re-sulted in a 14-10 score line. GAME ON. Again hampered by penalties the Raid-ers’ o! ence surrendered the ball to the Poly until a fumble recovery touchdown

put the Raiders back in the driving seat. Northumbria’s fans could only look on in despair as two consecutive intercep-tions from rookie free safety Jon Kissun and another TD # nally iced the game.

" e # nal 28-10 score cemented the Raiders’ seventh straight Stan Calvert victory. It was a # tting end to a hard fought season and a brilliant send o! to all Raiders graduating this year. Even Coach Johnson enjoyed witnessing Newcastle’s ongoing dominance in the sport.

“We did really well considering the weather. " e team has signi# cantly im-proved from prior years. WA$ er losing our o! ence coordinator and head coach to Northumbria in 2012, things looked a bit uncertain for a while but we’ve never slipped.”

“We keep having great years and that’s got a lot to do with the great rookies we have from solid recruitment drives. " ey’ve made sure that we keep doing what we do best - beating the Poly.”

" roughout the last couple of years, Newcastle University’s fencers had con-sistently exempli# ed their dominance over Northumbria by collecting all four Stan Calvert points on four consecu-tive occasions. " us, the hosts went into their Super Sunday clash with Poly in the role of obvious front-runneWrs but this burden never really prevented them from living up to the high expectations.

Yet another two convincing victories over their # erce rivals has been Newcas-tle’s objective all along and both the men and the ladies did not waste time to get the job done. At the brand new Newcas-tle Fencing Centre, " e Royals, led by the experienced Daniel Ming and Molly Jowsey, needed less than three hours to dispatch their opposition.

Newcastle’s ladies were impatiently expecting their showdown with North-

umbria hoping to end an otherwise un-inspiring season with a glorious high. A$ er last year Molly Jowsey competed alongside Ellie and Maddie Ivanovi, the Bulgarian sisters have now embarked on two semesters in Spain and allowed for some fresh faces to come in instead. " ese faces came in the shape of Ellie Irwin and Daisy Billowes who did not stay in the shadow of their predeces-sors for too long leading Newcastle to a famous 135-60 victory. " e disappoint-ing # $ h position in the already # nished BUCS league and the early exit from the Conference Cup obliged the girls to get the most out of their Stan Calvert clash. Exactly what they did.

First in line, Molly opened the game with a con# dent 5-0 advantage setting the tone for a smashing performance in the foil round. Newcastle seemed to be in a ruthless mood letting the pas-sive Northumbria fencers earn only 12 points before the break. " e change of weapon did not cause a change of mo-mentum at the Fencing Centre as " e Blues continued to push hard with the épée in hand building up a fascinating 90-27 lead. Eventually, Northumbria managed to so$ en what was shaping to be a disastrous defeat but did not avoid conceding a worse result in compari-son to the previous Stan Calvert edition (123-86).

Meanwhile, Newcastle’s men got o! to an extremely rusty start against a pumped-up Northumbria squad whose players kept exploding in joy in re-

sponse to every single point. " e guests had plenty of reasons for satisfaction in the opening stages of the match as they met an initially unconvincing home side. " e apparent underestimation and lack of concentration on the part of Newcastle resulted in a surprising 3-12 de# cit.

However, " e Royals quickly over-came their nervousness managing to

come back and # nally get in front at 25-22 a$ er more than half an hour of trailing behind. " e standout man Daniel Ming, who was participating in his last ever game for the Uni, took control of the situation guiding his teammates to a 90-45 edge on the two-hour mark. " en, it was Andrew Dixon who extended Newcastle’s advantage in the épée round before Ming closed the

match producing a special memory for himself. " e team’s top point scorer in the 2014 BUCS league pierced his op-ponent with a trademark move and sent Northumbria to bed at 135-72 to pro-long Newcastle’s impeccable Stan Cal-vert run in the fencing department.

Newcastle

Northumbria

By Peter Georgiev at Newcastle Fencing Centre

STAN CALVERT CUP 2015

FENCING

2

0

Newcastle

Northumbria

By Will Hughes at Longbenton

STAN CALVERT CUP 2015

MEN’S AMERICAN FOOTBALL

28

10

Poly  put  to  the  sword

Raiders  wreck  and  pillage  in  Stan  clash

Ming ended his Uni career with a memorable Stan Calvert victoryPhotography by Peter Georgiev

" e Raiders got the better of Poly for a seventh consecutive timePhotography by Andrew Dale

12pm 12.48pm 13.06pm" e women’s second team football match

and women’s second team hockey match get underway. A tough, nuggety performance

sadly goes unrewarded as the footballers go down 2-0, but the hockey players grab a late

winner a$ er dominating.

In the men’s badminton second team match, the tide turns decisively against

Newcastle as losses in the doubles mean that the best they can hope for is a draw.

Northumbria eventually prevail 6-2.

A conversion from Northumbria’s women’s rugby team e! ectively kills that game,

putting the score at 19-0. " e Uni team do manage to grab a consolation try in the

second half but lose 31-5.

Snapshot:  Images:  Cat  Schroeter

Results for Basketball in the Stan Cal-vert have been somewhat uninspir-ing over the past few years for the Knights. Having lost for the last six years, it did not seem this year was go-ing to be their year, especially given Northumbria’s current performance in BUCS. Being top of the Premier Divi-sion and boasting several British Bas-ketball League players within their ranks, this game was indeed a case of “David vs Goliath” as Coach Ian Hewitt alluded in the pre-game interview.

Played at Northumbria’s Sports Cen-tral, the crowd was ready and raring to go with a small yet dedicated of New-castle students making the journey to support the Knights. Coach wanted his team to watch for their transitions and play the mismatches. Northum-bria got the tip o! right from the start.

Newcastle started the game in their customary fashion, feeding the inside ball to Duru in order to gain some mo-mentum. Adrenalin was running high for the away team, and though this ini-tially worked in their favour, mistakes were beginning to occur as Baugh threw the ball away needlessly. Northumbria, in return, hit back hard with an And-One opportunity which, though unsuc-cessful, allowed for them to score o! the rebound, a nasty blow for the Knights. Newcastle were under extreme pres-sure in defence and their Coach was furious. Despite the three pointer by

Oyefusi, Baugh was still pushing for-ward when the player should have gone back to set up the half-court defence leaving them open to attack. Alex was desperately trying to " nd his rhythm and he was leading the game in points and he even converted a three-point play whereas Northumbria had still not managed to " nd their shooting touch.

With the shot clock winding down, who else would you expect to knock down the jumper from deep but Cole. # e time-out was called and Coach wanted no slacking on defence.

A$ er the short interlude, a strong drive by Duru drew the foul as Northumbria was gunning for the 3 pointer. North-umbria coach told his guys to be patient and coach Hewitt sent on a defensive specialist to secure rebounds and up the defensive pressure. Cole hit the big shot every single time and he knocked down the 3 as the shot clock wound down again. # e " rst quarter ended 23 to 16 with Newcastle keeping a slender lead.

A foul on a three pointer by Jack was de" nitely not what Newcastle were looking for and with that the score was cut to 23 to 22. # is was the " rst time in a while that Newcastle has not dominat-ed in the score. A spot up three pointer from Baugh turned the momentum slightly but they gave away another bas-ket and the foul. Coach called the time-out, wanting to get on help side and be more physical. Cutting down on fouls would de" nitely be a priority as well.

Within a matter of one possession, Newcastle were called for two fouls and Duru took the sweet step back jumper but Northumbria answered right back, keeping the Newcastle lead at four.

A$ er the " nal Newcastle time out. Northumbria took " ve consecutive points and managed to draw the foul on Newcastle for two free throws, from the excellent play of Scott Martin. And the game was tied. Under a cold spell o! en-sively, Newcastle were struggling on de-fence as well and resorting to desperate fouls as Northumbria pushed the tempo.

With a buzzer beater from North-umbria, they took a " ve point lead. 47

to 42. # e entire team seemed to be in an incredible form from the jump shot and the Knights seemed a little shell shocked at this situation, hav-ing recently won the National Shield.

Right from the second half, North-umbria scored " ve straight points and Newcastle had two sloppy turnovers. # e Knights were going to have to dig deep and they started with a three from Alex. Coach said the game be-gins now, despite being down seven. Baugh said that games were won on defence and the Knights needed to move the ball constantly. # e players also needed to communicate and re-ally needed to stop the Northumbria jump shot from being so e! ective.

Our o! ense was in a slump and the players could not " nd a basket any-where. Coach Hewitt did not have much to say too as he knew the play-ers were trying their best. # e lead for Northumbria now stood at 13 and it was looking bleak for the Knights. Even Baugh was shooting airballs and it was clear the Northumbria crowd were getting a good laugh out of this play from the Knights. It was 8 minutes into the 3rd quarter before the Knights still have not scored their " rst basket

Duru scored the only four points in the entire third quarter. Emotions were running very high and frustrations were being felt throughout the team. Coach wanted the team to " nish the game as a team and to have each other’s back. It has indeed been a long season and the score was not ideal but no one can fault the team for trying their best. North-umbria was indeed in a very strong vein of form and a di! erent level altogether.

# e boys were playing for pride at this point and everyone from Newcastle willed the Knights to " nish the game with their heads held high. If there were moral victories to be had, Baugh had a poster dunk on a Northumbria player before the game ended, helping the Newcastle players forget all about the score and realise that while they may have lost in terms of the score line, they had kept their pride intact.

Night  falls  on  the  Knights

Troy Baugh with the monstrous dunk led Newcastle in the clashPhotography by Phil Haswell

# ursday night saw the Newcastle Men’s and Women’s 1st teams fall in the Stan Calvert volleyball " xture to resounding 3-0 defeats at Northumbria University’s Sport Central. # e Poly, an elite side that consistently dominates the sport at national level, reigned supreme and bagged four shiny points to add to their running total.

As the time came for the ladies to take to the court, both the red and blue fans had a chance to see their champions. In

their warm-up, the abundance of knee guards marked both sides out as com-mitted to the pursuit of a win. Evidence then, that despite the overwhelming odds against them, Newcastle were pre-pared from the start to " ght on their knees to make the di% cult touches nec-essary to hold out against the Poly.

Northumbria climbed the score sheet with an e% cient mix of long-range serves and near-net spikes that kept Newcastle scattered and divided. # ey o$ en responded well to smashes into their half, with diving blocks that saw them hit the & oor with enough force to make the average spectator wince. How-ever, the art of the Poly playing style was not in preventing Newcastle reaching the ball, but ensuring they could do lit-tle with it once they did. Sure enough, the force of the initial shot meant that blocks merely sent the ball careering out of the court. Northumbria couldn’t rely on this totally however, and the ladies became better at controlling the ball as the game progressed, but momentum never really le$ the Poly and they " n-ished their " rst set 25-10. # e net swal-lowed several Northumbria serves and

it helped build Uni con" dence to see the scores creeping up on the home side. It may have explained some truly remark-able plays, like the surprise punch by #9 that caught Northumbria unawares and sent the ball just shy of their atten-tion, or the heroic dive by #3 that put the Poly through their paces. However the league di! erence between the two teams began to show as the second set wound down and Northumbria landed successive shots that helped their point advantage grow into double " gures. A promising start to the third set, with long-range, court-uniting passing that gave each player a chance to level shots at the Poly, sadly gave way to a North-umbria onslaught that tied up the game at 3-0.

# e Newcastle boys had an even greater challenge before them. Since Team Northumbria " eld two Olym-pic athletes in their volleyball squad, the league di! erence between the two teams was even starker in the second game. # at said, play kicked o! with a miraculous " rst point to Newcastle. A vacant Poly struggled to respond to the serve and the ball bounced o! their

right & ank and trundled out. 1-0 to Uni then. If only it would last… A string of near-net e! orts put Newcastle on the back foot and precipitated a points win-ning spree for the home team. Uni bat-tled on fearlessly though, exempli" ed by #32’s painful double block that saw o! two consecutive spikes. # e New-castle men built an e% cient network of blocking and playmaking in their half, but the brute force of the other side forced jerky touches from them that ultimately fed the Poly’s score. As with the women though, Newcastle were steadfast in their dedication to the game and refused to let the odds get the bet-ter of their game. #21 unleashed a well-placed spike out of Northumbria’s reach that preceded a string of consolation goals for the blues, and despite each set ending with a double-digit di! erence in points between the two teams, both sets of fans would have to concede that the plucky Newcastle boys and girls put on a hell of a show. A particularly zeal-ous poly in the crowd greeted the boys in their last set by shouting encourage-ment to his team through a megaphone. Feedback drowned out most of his

words but pockets of Newcastle fans hidden away in the red sea responded in kind with shouts of encouragement. It was heartening to see, and Uni were no doubt bolstered by it to pull back 5 points in their last set from a poly romping. It became the most closely-fought set of the game, with #14 leaping from line to line to make some impos-sibly di% cult blocks and #7 refuting the poly’s near-net dominance with a blistering spike that cut the front two in half. # e men’s game ended 3-0 too, but the spirited show from both the Uni teams will be remembered as the night’s de" ning characteristic.

Head Coach Ashley Fantazia o! ered her take on Newcastle’s performance. “Our main focus tonight was to have fun and take the opportunity to play against some world-class sportspeople. And even though Northumbria had some really good sets, we didn’t roll over. We were the underdogs and we gave a good " ght. One day we could overturn their advantage, anything can happen in this sport.”

Newcastle 1st

Northumbria 1st

By Huezin Lim at Sports Central

STAN CALVERT CUP 2015

MEN’S BASKETBALL

67

85

Newcastle 1st

Northumbria 1st

By Jack Marley at Sports Central

STAN CALVERT CUP 2015

VOLLEYBALL

0

2

13.26pmQuite suddenly, a few results turn the Uni’s way and

bring about a wave of optimism/straw-clutching: the table tennis teams bring home some points, and

a strong squash showing as well as the aforemen-tioned consolation try perk Uni fans up in spite of

the growing points de" cit overall.

14.44pm# e Poly hit the 40-point mark with an easy 96-31 win in the men’s third team basketball game. Traditionally, the " rst

team to 40 points goes on to win the Cup, and con" dence begins to spread among

Northumbria’s fans.

15.12pmA second wave of optimism & oods the Uni, with the

men’s third team rugby union match ending 27-7, and the second team storming to a 14-0 lead. On

top of that, the netball third team grab a win and the women’s hockey team seal their late win. # ere are still

43 points to play for, with the gap at 14 points.

On an unhappy Wednesday morning where Uni went in 7-3 behind in the overall standings all hopes lay with Newcastle University Cricket Club and their two strong sides to bring Stan Cal-vert back to a level playing ! eld head-ing into the back end of the week. South North Cricket Club was the scene, with a hard, pacy and somewhat plastic pitch it all started so well for the boys in blue.

Michael Darby led his second team

to a victory with both strong batting and bowling performances. Having re-stricted the Poly to 90 o" their 10 overs it seemed a relatively easy task to chase the runs down in what is in an intrigu-ing game. For those who don’t know about indoor cricket and are complete outdoor specialists, such as myself, it is di# cult to adjust to. Anything that hits the side is two runs, regardless of whether it would be a boundary out-side, for instance, from the ! rst ball of a lovely looking innings from Smith opening the batting, he played a glo-

rious cut into the side netting which only wielded a single. $ e second team cruised to a victory in this game with great performances all round but with stand outs from Fox, Smith and Darby, who put in a true captain’s performance.

$ en came the time for the 1st team. A chance to pull level in this year’s frac-tious tournament. Street and his team came out swinging with Ollie Sale tak-ing a wicket with the ! rst ball of the match due to a top edge from the shaky looking Northumbrian opening bat. With AU o# cer and cricket club mem-ber Caleb Jones calling for every ball to be a wicket there was a lot of hope and expectation riding on this side. $ e pressure told. Extras started to creep in and the fact that a seemingly unstop-pable Spears managed to total up 38* in a game where batsmen have to retire at 25 tells its own story. Street did how-ever keep it extraordinarily tight in his ! nal over and to constrain a rampant Northumbria batting line up to 107-4 from what looked a promising start was impressive from the Uni bowling attack.

Castleden and Clarke looked to set

the tone of the innings for Street’s men but just couldn’t beat a negative Poly ! eld with two men marking the back wall at all times. $ en, with Castleden quickly followed by another two quick wickets it all looked a bit doom and gloom in what had looked like a prom-ising day for Newcastle’s hopes in this Stan Calvert tournament. Sale, one of those two wickets, looked set to go long with an unbelievably well timed straight drive for 6 only to hole out trying to do the same next ball. Captain Street and Anderson did rescue their team from

what would not only have been disap-pointing but mightily embarrassing re-sult for NUCC and their side. With 34 needed o" the last over Captain Fantas-tic Street found the middle of the bat, but unfortunately it was too little too late for a % at looking ! rst team. NUCC ! nishing on 96 at the end of their allot-ted overs. It is clear that the slow start

really did for this originally very strong looking out! t.

On the way out of the centre Street looked inconsolable. Staring into the middle distance as he walked discon-solately away from the cricket facilities of SNCC a& er a lacklustre performance from his team. Never has the clubs hash tag of ‘we go again’ been more appro-

priate. $ e cricket is now to be moved outside and expanded to a 20/20 format for future Stan Calvert competitions a& er its raging success last year, when 3000 revellers basked in the Jesmond sunshine.

$ e men’s footballers played out a thrill-ing 2-2 draw with their Poly coun-terparts last Monday in a match that typi! ed the spirit of Stan Calvert. A late strike from man of the match Alex Ames earned NUAFC some well-de-served spoils as the two sides battled it out on a cold and wet night, in front of an impressive crowd.

$ e match had been billed as one of the hardest to predict, with Newcastle sitting pretty at the top of BUCS North-ern 1a league whilst their opponents, historically stronger, have experienced

mixed fortunes a league above. $ ose who made the journey to Longbenton were duly rewarded; the usual whole-hearted tackles were accompanied with some attractive football, dramatic saves and a touch of late drama.

League standings considered, New-castle would have been the most likely to take a point pre-match. $ e in-form lions though matched their higher-ranked opponents on the night and will feel that the 88th minute leveller was more than just reward for their hard work and commitment, epitomised by goal scorer, Ames, who ran tirelessly at the Northumbria defence all evening.

Despite tormenting the Poly right back on a number of occasions, Ames still had an extra spring in his step when his team needed it most, reacting ! rst to the rebound whilst others around him looked on in exhaustion. $ e Newcastle number 7 smashed the ball home a& er originally turning it onto the post from an expertly delivered in-swinging cor-ner.

It had looked for a while as if it wasn’t to be Newcastle’s day, twice falling be-hind and with two of their in% uential mid! elders Jake Salisbury and James Golby picking up match-ending inju-

ries. $ is put more pressure on Ames to deliver out on the le& . $ e Geordie coach on the sideline increasingly en-couraging his players to feed the winger.

Northumbria dealt the opening blow on 9 minutes with a swi& counterattack that stemmed from a Newcastle corner at the other end. $ e Poly number 8 lead the charge, racing away into space in the centre of the pitch, with the New-castle defence caught three on three. $ e ball went wide, before a rather tame low cross seemed to catch Scott Huntley

and then Jack Taylor o" balance, falling kindly at the feet of the Alex Djukivic to tap in from close range.

$ e Posh reacted well to this setback and within ten minutes of conceding, the scores were even once more. A clever ball forward found Espin in the opposing half. $ e number 8 picking out centre forward Walker, who quickly shi& ed it onto his le& , needing only a yard to make room for a shot. $ e weak

strike looked an easy save, but to the surprise of those on the touchline, the net rippled and the keeper cursed.

A& er the early caginess and with the score delicately poised at 1-1, the two sides eased into the match and both be-gan to show glimpses of quality on the ball, despite the torrid conditions. Tacti-cally, the formations looked very similar with Northumbria possibly winning the physical battle in the centre of the pitch, but otherwise the individual match-ups were ! ercely contested.

Both goalkeepers deserve a mention also, and were called into action either side of half time. On 39 minutes, New-castle’s Dan Readman was forced into dirtying his new sparkling gold strip as he dived to get a crucial palm on the ball, timing the intervention to perfec-tion, that otherwise would have been a penalty and a brandishing of a card of some colour.

Meanwhile Alex Newton, in goal for

Northumbria, did well to tip over a ! zz-ing long-range strike from Ames, ! ve minutes into the second half, before blocking the volleyed e" ort of right back Mairs from the resulting corner. At the other end Readman was again called into action to deny Luke Hannant, but moments later was helpless to prevent Ben Murdoch’s follow up a& er centre back Pilkington’s goal line clearance.

As Newcastle pressed for an equaliser, the mood on and o" the pitch seemed to be one of hope more than expecta-tion. $ e Uni side saw a lot of the ball with the Poly content on playing on the counter. Perhaps for the boys in black, lessons were learnt from the 0-3 defeat to Liverpool John Moores the week be-fore where a series of counter attacks was their eventual undoing.

$ e Geordies survived a scare on 72 minutes when Northumbria rattled the post. Spurred on by a large proportion of the spectators, the hosts eventually gambled and a formation change to 3 at the back seemed to do the trick. $ e pressure eventually paid o" , two min-utes from the end, when Ames’ equal-iser sent the Newcastle faithful, led by AU o# cer Caleb Jones, into delirium.

“Ames’ equalizer sent the Newcastle faithful, led by AU o! cer

Caleb Jones, into delirium”

Newcastle 1st

Northumbria 1st

By Calum Wilson at Longbenton

STAN CALVERT CUP 2015

MEN’S FOOTBALL

2

2

“" e second team cruised to a victory in this game with great

performances all round”

Newcastle

Northumbria

By Josh Nicholson at South North Cricket Club

STAN CALVERT CUP 2015

MEN’S CRICKET

1

1

Rory the Lion in joyous spirits as at South Northumberland CCPhotography by NUCC

16.38pmJust as the wave of optimism crests, it breaks: the Team

Northumbria Twitter feed con! rms their win. Overjoyed Poly players celebrate by deploying their sel! e sticks for

victory photos, while Uni fans console themselves with the knowledge that they will at least not be doing anything as

tragic as using a sel! e stick.

18.10pm$ e netball second team let a ! ve-point lead slip to lose 33-31. Poly celebrations reach blood-boilingly insu" erable levels,

leaving Uni fans to kick inanimate objects and snap at loved ones.

21.10pm$ e ! nal insult: a brave, battling, gutsy, highly

skilled performance from the netball ! rst team ends in the cruellest manner possible.

Having equalised with eight seconds le& , Northumbria break up! eld and take the win

with the last throw of the game.

It was points for Poly at Northumbria’s Sports Central in the Stan Calvert futsal on ! ursday night, as Newcastle were put brutally put to the sword. Four Stan Calvert points were up for grabs in the men’s and women’s futsal but Newcastle lost 3-2 and 10-1 respectively, as North-umbria put on a masterclass in their impressive sports hall.

First up were the women, playing in front of a packed viewing gallery as supporters and athletes alike cheered on their respective universities, hoping for some points in the bag. However, it was only ever the home side at the races as they opened the scoring four minutes in, a" er dominating from kick of. A" er the # rst goal, unfortunately for Newcastle the $ ood gates opened, with the second and third goals hitting the net before the visitors had managed more than one shot on their opponents’ goalmouth. Northumbria managed to

score three more goals before the break, with a glanced reverse header and an open goal tap in both # nding their way into the away side’s net, despite a strong period a" er the third goal where the visitors didn’t concede for # ve minutes, and had begun to create some chances themselves.

However, a" er that pre half time $ ur-ry the job was done for Northumbria as Newcastle had given themselves it all to do in the second twenty minute half. ! e plan will have been to keep it tight at the back, before going in search of re-gaining some ground on the Northum-brians. ! is was unfortunately blown apart by a goal within the opening min-ute from Team Northumbria whose fans were now louder than ever.

A wicked shot was tapped in a" er it had rebounded o% the post before the Newcastle ‘keeper fumbled the ball over the goal line for Poly’s eighth and ninth, before the double digits were broken into from a simple free-kick routine. ! ose who were present to support Newcastle University’s Stan Calvert e% ort did have something to cheer late on as the girls pulled a goal back, but the game ended 10-1 and two points went Poly’s way before the lads came out for warm ups.

! is was a much tighter a% air, and the tension in the air was evident as the match could not have been closer. Northumbria came out of the traps $ y-ing with plenty of trickery and skill, however Newcastle’s defence was ro-bust and their transition from defence in attack looked like it could hurt the

home side if their concentration slipped at any point. It took six minutes for the home crowd to have a goal to cheer and in honesty it was deserved, however so was Newcastle’s instant equaliser as their pumping aggression straight from kick-o% was worthy of a goal. ! e three minutes of fury culminated in yet an-other goal, as Poly restored their two goal advantage but it was Newcastle with the goal of the game when the home crowd had to witness the ball

skid into the bottom corner from long range just before half time. Until the break Newcastle battled hard, and were perhaps unfortunate to go in behind as they had grown into the game superbly and were no longer allowing Northum-bria the time on the ball they needed.

! e second half was one of the most tactical displays you will see from a Newcastle side in Stan Calvert this year, as they executed perfectly the strategy the ladies would have been aiming for

- contain Northumbria and hit them on the break. With their solid box forma-tion when Northumbria were in pos-session the home side were frustrated at the lack of opportunities they were able to create, however unfortunately Newcastle simply didn’t get the rub of the green on their counter attacks. ! e whole twenty minute second period ended without further goals, and it was Team Northumbria that took all the spoils.

Newcastle

Northumbria

By Alex Hendley at Northumbria Sports Central

STAN CALVERT CUP 2015

FUTSAL0

2

With the Stan Calvert Cup of 2015 score at 27–18 before Super Sunday, New-castle were under immense pressure to put some points onto the board. At the Upper Hall in Northumbria’s Sports Central, the table tennis contests mat-tered even more so as the guys and girls in blue were heavy favourites. ! e 1st and 2nd teams played concurrently over four tables and matches kicked o% to little fanfare. Newcastle lady, Joey was feeling somewhat nervous, despite a substantial time to warm up. She was sending all her forehand shots well wide. Northumbria girl, Alex defended really well at the same time so if Joey could reduce the number of unforced errors, she would de# nitely have gained a lot more con# dence and found her way into this match.

Amongst the Newcastle Firsts, Paris on the other hand, was doing an ex-cellent job against her opponent with plenty of good backspin shots. She was gaining in con# dence and it was clear to see as she was playing with a smile on her face. Newcastle were # nding a lot of joy in their # rst round of matches and as Newcastle won the # rst match through Paris, it was de# nitely a good start for the Newcastle ladies, # nishing before everyone else.

Muse was also having an enjoyable time against her opponent and it was clearly a good start for the ladies. With

Stan Calvert being one of the last times playing competitively in the academic year, all the ladies wanted to enjoy themselves as much as possible. ! e # rst match between Joey and her opponent was going down to the wire and both players were making plenty of unforced errors, the nerves and the pressure play-ing a major part. However, Alex from Northumbria prevailed and won this time around against Joey with a nail-biting # nal game of 14 to 12.

A" er the # rst round of matches, both teams were all square a" er the # rst round of matches with the score 1-all for Newcastle and Northumbria. ! e second round of matches began and it was a completely di% erent a% air with a lot more patience and concentration needed for Paris to take down her op-ponent, Alex.

Frustrations were being felt by North-umbria against Joey and that de# nitely gave her plenty more opportunities to relax and cut down on unforced errors. With that, she also hit many more win-ners.

In the matches of Newcastle’s second team, Matrina was sticking to the basics and hitting the ball consistently back into the table, banking on her opponent making the unforced error. Muse was also handling the opponent with some comfort, being careful and patient. Un-like Matrina however, she was not afraid to go for the winner. ! e two ladies from Newcastle Seconds took their matches comfortably, putting them in good stead for the win.

Joey won her matches in three straight games, which must have been a relief considering the poor performance in the previous match. Paris was still up against Alex and this was de# nitely the closest contest of the day. Emotions were de# nitely taking its toll on her and her coach took a moment to give her some advice. Despite this, Paris would not be denied and she won the match, giving Newcastle’s # rsts and seconds an insurmountable 3-1 lead regardless of the doubles encounter.

Newcastle

Northumbria

By Huezin Lim at Northumbria Sports Central

STAN CALVERT CUP 2015

TABLE TENNIS3

0

Newcastle  given  a  kicking

Northumbria  naff  at  whiff-­whaff

Newcastle’s Joey, Paris, Muse and Matrina rallied to grab six SC pts Photography by Huezin Lim

Newcastle never really troubled Poly at the Sports CentralPhotography by Alex Hendley