One of the biggest sporting events in the university calendar, BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport) Big Wednesday, took place on Wednesday 21 March at the University of Nottingham.
BUCS and the University were delighted to welcome BUCS Patron, HRH The Princess Royal who attended the outstanding event. The Royal Family’s first Olympian — having competed in the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games as a member of the British equestrian team — was on University Park Campus to hand out medals at the volleyball final, and watch the squash, fencing and basketball championship matches.
The event is the pinnacle of the BUCS calendar and the day's activities saw 104 teams, competing in championship and trophy finals, descend on the University of Nottingham for one day of sporting excellence, where over 200 volunteers, officials and BUCS staff delivered a truly memorable athletic experience.
The BUCS league programme sees 100,000 students each year take part in competitions in some 3,500 teams across 600 leagues, making it the biggest student sporting programme in Europe. It accommodates 52 fixtures in 14 sports, including basketball, football, hockey, squash and table tennis.
Hosted by the University for the first time, the event took place in four hub venues in the city, including the £40m David Ross Sports Village on University Park campus and the Nottingham Tennis Centre.
Director of Sport at the University Dan Tilley, commented:
“University of Nottingham Sport are absolutely delighted to have hosted the BUCS Big Wednesday event and to have been able to showcase the fantastic facilities we have here at the University of Nottingham.”
“It’s a huge advantage for our sports teams to be able to compete in a finals on home soil and the thousands of fans that came to watch made the atmosphere electric. We’re very proud of all our athletes who competed today and with seven gold medals from 11 finals, they’ve exceeded our ambitious performance targets this year!”
University of Nottingham team results:
The University of Nottingham — with 11 teams competing in the finals and six of those in the Championship competition — made the most of the home advantage and the huge Green and Gold crowd got behind them to achieve the following successes:
- Women’s Squash Championship winners
- Men’s Table Tennis Championship winners
- Women’s Squash Trophy winners
- Men’s Squash Trophy winners
- Men’s Table Tennis Trophy winners
- Men’s Table Tennis Trophy winners
- Men’s Water Polo Trophy winners
Highlights included a third consecutive Championship gold for the Men’s table tennis squad, who dominated their final winning 10-0 with games to spare against UCL in the last fixture of the evening. It was the fourth consecutive national title for the squad and the third in a row for finalists Adam Harrison and Gabriel Achampong.
Harrison told us: "It's nice to be the favourite to win and to deal with the pressure to win in front of the home crowd here in Nottingham. It's been a long campaign, working week-in, week-out to prepare – it's a relief to finally finish as champions again."
Women’s Squash also dominated – led by their first seed and World top 50 player Coline Aumard, they breezed past Edinburgh without dropping a single set. Captain Hayley Openshaw-Blower was delighted with the win: "We're so happy to have retained our title from last year and to do so in such style in front of all our home supporters. This team keeps going from strength to strength and we're very proud of our achievement."
In the Trophy competition, Women's Squash 2s and Men's Squash 2s wrapped up an incredible day for the club with gold medals in both events. Men's Table Tennis 2s added another gold to their club's tally and in front of a sell-out crowd, while Men's Water Polo stormed past Manchester, winning their final 12-5.
For the full reports from the day, visit the University of Nottingham Sport blog.
All proceeds from ticket sales will go directly to the Official Charity Partner the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre and the event organisers hope to have raised thousands of pounds.
Posted on Friday 23rd March 2018