Match Report: Team ARU versus Loughborough – Ultimate Frisbee

By Joshua Dowding

On Wednesday the 20^th of November, the university’s Ultimate Frisbee Team played an away match against Loughborough University. The 3rds game kicked-off at around 3:30 PM with Team ARU on the defence and Loughborough playing aggressively from the get-go.

For the first half, Charlie A., Tom R. and Xico remained in the cup to stop any quick throws coming their way – the majority of which they managed to shut down with ease. Though a few high throws slipped through their defence, these were caught by the combined force of Nick, Tom M. and Richard playing at the back.

With this formation, Team ARU managed to turn over the disc multiple times resulting in a few quick points early on. But Loughborough was quick to retaliate, keeping the scores even until both teams tied at four points each.

It was at this point that Team ARU decided to go on the offence. Their long runs quickly out-manoeuvred Loughborough’s defences, breaching the end zone and running short for quick passes across the field. And by the end of the first half, the points began to slide in Team ARU’s favour. Securing a lead of 8 – 4 by half-time.

The second half began with Team ARU sticking to their offensive strategy. An early fast point extended their lead to 9 – 4, though Loughborough wasn’t about to give in.

As the game continued, Team ARU put up a strong defence against Loughborough’s advances. The lead extended further to 10 – 4 with another fast point scored for Anglia, and over the course of the rest of the game Team ARU capitalized on an increasingly weary Loughborough by taking their score to the hard-cap of 15. Loughborough managed to score one more point before the end of the match, though the result was a triumphant 15 – 6 for Team ARU.

The team came away from the match feeling elated at their victory. It must have been a huge morale boost for Team ARU to win by such a wide margin, and we can only hope that their good fortunes carry on throughout the rest of the season.

For more information about the Ultimate Frisbee Team, check out their website.

Team ARU Ultimate Frisbee Team – winners!

Source: Charlie Alfandary – Team ARU, Ultimate Frisbee Team

Team ARU: Cambridge Half Marathon

Sunday 3rd March 2019 – Cambridge Half Marathon

Roughly 10,000 runners took part in the 13.1 mile race in its biggest ever year. This year was the 8th annual Saucony Cambridge Half Marathon and the 5th year we as a University have supported the race.

Sunday’s Cambridge Half Marathon took runners on a truly unforgettable journey through the beautiful city of Cambridge, passing countless historic landmarks such as the Round Church, King’s College and the Fitzwilliam Museum.

170 ARU Students, Staff, Alumni and family members/friends of ARU associates were entered into the marathon.

The wet weather conditions did not dampen our runner’s spirits. It was a brilliant day which saw many different reasons for racing to come together to drive our runners on and towards that all important finish line. Ruskin the Rhino was out in full force, motivating runners and keeping their spirits high at the half-way stage as well as our team of staff who were supporting the event and our runners throughout the day.

Joseph Hawes was the first male member of the Anglia Ruskin team to cross the line in an impressive 1 hour 20 minutes and 15 seconds, with Susie Chesher crossing the line first from our female runners in a time of 1 hour 25 minutes and 03 seconds. Another impressive result was from Phoebe Aldrich who finished as the 3rd best female junior runner with a time of 1 hour 43 minutes and 25 seconds. All our entries put on a fantastic display.

All ARU runners did everyone at Anglia Ruskin University proud and showed great effort not only on race day but putting in the hours of training beforehand.

The University also supported the event by hosting 2 training seminar evenings in early January 2019, these were open to all Cambridge half marathon runners who travelled from up and down the country to get an insight from experts into nutrition, pacing, injury rehabilitation and prevention. For the second time the university also hosted the Cambridge Half Marathon Expo event on Friday 1st March and Saturday 2nd March, which was a chance for all runners to collect their race packs and meet other fellow runners.

For the Cambridge Half Marathon official race results, please click here

To check out our coverage of the day, follow our social media activity here.

Team ARU: BUCS This Girl Can Week 2018

This Girl Can runs annually and is an opportunity for Higher Education to highlight the different opportunities available for women to get active and involved in sport during their time at University. The week aims to target gender equality – break down the barriers that stop females playing sport and empower women to become more active.

From inspirational female students, fancy dress tournaments, social media takeovers and our BUCS This Girl Can photo frame appearing in your newsfeed more often than Brexit. Check out our highlights from the week here.

We want BUCS This Girl Can Week to have a lasting legacy so please continue to use the hashtag #ARUGIRLSCAN. If you are unsure about how you can get active at Anglia Ruskin University please just email us on teamaru@anglia.ac.uk or just ask a member of the Team ARU staff, we are always happy to help.

We hope that BUCS This Girl Can Week has further demonstrated that there is plenty of enjoyable and safe environments for you to try a new activity or pick up a sport you have lost touch with.

Team ARU: Mens Hockey Match Report

By Tom Smith

Anglia Ruskin University vs University of Leicester 

Score:  4 – 2, WE WON!!

Goals:

• Callum Carter
• Hamish Leslie
• Tom Burrows
• Herbert Jrn Mudzamiri

The boys knew they had to win this game and that’s PRECISELY what happened. They started well with Hamish dribbling into the D and slotting the ball through the keepers legs. The team then scored a potential goal of the season, with Alex Johnson flinging an aerial and Callum taking it in the air and smashing it past the keeper. We pressed on, Callum scoring our third goal, which was then somehow bizarrely ruled out by the umpire who ‘didn’t see the ball go in the goal’. This caused a little bit of ‘discussion’ amongst the 2 coaches, but it didn’t affect the game and Burrows scored our third goal after a short corner. ARU got slightly complacent and Leicester scored from their first short. It could have been worse had goalie Ben not been sharp off his line to prevent another goal.

We came in at half time knowing the game was nowhere near won. Our boys nearly started the second half badly, Ben kicking a ball that had been hit from the Leicester half, straight back to their striker. Luckily this didn’t result into a goal. We did however concede a 2nd goal, after a mix up between Henry and Rolland. After they kept strong and kept moving the ball, and it paid off. Herbert securing all 3 points with 5 minutes to go after good work down the right hand side from Tom Burrows. The boys ran and gave everything for the team. A massive shout out to Miles Fiddes who in his first start, and second game had an absolute worldly. Playing all positions on the park, trapping aerials, slapping balls with quality into the D, and defensively class. Burrows a close second for MotM with 2 assists and a goal.

Man of the Match: Miles Fiddes

Next week ARU Men’s 1st will play Loughborough Men’s 5th at home on Wilberforce Road Sports Grounds. Come and support them from 3pm onwards.

Team ARU: Taekwondo Report

By Jessica Marie Baloso

BSTF Autumn Championships and LUSL 2018

Results: x4 Gold, x9 Silver, x5 Bronze

A very early start for the team driving to the Jean Brown Indoor Arena in Ilford. We eagerly waited for the weigh-ins to start. A number of universities had also started arriving and some students had been exercising to burn off any excess weight to ensure they met their weight requirement. Other competitors were also practicing for the first set of competitions known as Poomsae, which is a distinct pattern of attack and defence actions.

The world weights division for sparring began around noon and Team ARU athletes were warming up, stretching, and practicing kicks before their fights. There were some issues with more than one of the team members’ matches happening at the same time. Therefore, those who were not yet competing were split all over the place, supporting as many of the team members as possible. The coaches too were doing an incredible job of managing multiple members of the team, one after the other as everyone’s matches were close together.

Every single member of the club performed very well and scoring a number of points and all at advancing the semi-finals as a minimum. A valid kick to the trunk is two points but four if it is a turning kick, and a kick to the head is three, but five if it is a turning kick.

After a lunch break to rejuvenate the athletes, the rest of the matches for the first session continued and soon came to end, and the Olympic weights division followed. Despite losing some matches, the team had a 100% medal rate and were able to take home 18 medals. The full results were:

– Maria Michael: x2 Silver, Bronze
– Jessica Marie Baloso: x2 Silver
– Lidia Iazzolino: x2 Gold
– Piyush Dattatray Dixit: Bronze
– Miranda Ventrella: Bronze
– William Moore: Gold
– George Dennis: Bronze
– Abdul Khan: Silver
– Muhammad Shoaib Shahid: x2 Silver
– Alexina Oladipupo: Gold, Silver
– Neuza Nunes-Cossa: Silver, Bronze

The Taekwondo club has improved greatly over a short period of time, from the number of members signing up, down to the progression of the hard-working individuals. The new committee members have been actively involved with their members of the group and supporting one another through running Mondays’ training sessions, as well as promoting the club with a new Instagram page being set up. The club has also gained an extra training session at a new facility at North Cambridge Academy.

A massive thank you to Barbora Hodorova for volunteering as corner and Poomsae judge, Kian Ziari, Shoaib Shahid, and Piyush Dixit for doing a wonderful job of coaching the team! Next stop: Student Nationals!

Team ARU: Girls Hockey Match Report

Written for Team ARU by Jessica Richardson

Warwick University V Anglia Ruskin University 

Score: 0-2! WE WON!

After being cramped into a small minibus for 2 hours, we arrived at Warwick University wanting to win more than ever. Despite starting off the season a bit rough, the team has finally found their determination to win again.

The game started off with ARU staying strong and focused and having most of the possession however, Warwick had a good defence and our girls struggled to find a way in to the D and score goals. That didn’t stop them from giving up and Katheryn Soame on her debut game back found an opening and ran the ball into the D, hit it to the post for Neve Chacksfield to deflect it in!

Going back in to the game after half time is normally where ARU loses their heads a little but, the girls wanting to win so they can get a McDonald’s from the driver meant that they worked even harder to keep the win a good one. This half was all about possession as we watched Warwick struggle to get the ball. ARU’s second goal came from a short won by Merel van Schooten and scored by Phoebe Aldrich with an incredible straight strike! 9 minutes later and the whistle is blown allowing us to celebrate their first win of the season!

Girl of the Game:

Caitlin Dean as she showed how much she has grown as a player in this match!

Next week we see our cup game against Nottingham – let’s try get another win!

Reflections from the Cambridge Half Marathon

Half Marathon? Why not! 

Over a week ago, the 7^th edition of the Cambridge half marathon started at 9:30am. Over 9000 people descended to Midsummer Common to run in the cold March weather, which is more than double the number of runners from when it started in 2012. Not being the most athletic I decided to join this group, getting to midsummer around nine am and the grass was already replaced with mud, luckily the organisation had provided tin foil blankets to keep us all warm. Which apparently are donated to the homeless shelters around Cambridge after the marathon. The organisation had done an amazing job organising all the stalls and tents around the common to accommodate the amount of bags and bikes brought along.

The route of the marathon led us from Midsummer common to Chesterton road past King’s College and Fitzwilliam museum all the way through Trumpington and the toughest bit around Grandchester which is where you run past the halfway point to go back into town and past the backs to make it back to the common where lots of family and friends have gathered to cheer you on.

Sketch of a runner by our new illustration artist: Maisy Ruffels 

When signing up for a half marathon non-runners declare you for crazy and experienced runners will tell you about how rewarding it is when you finish. This is the second time I’ve participated and I can tell you, while that might be the feeling for some – it was not in my case. When you finish there was nothing of the feeling of reward, I regretted starting in the first place. In fact; this is the second time I’ve ran and despite it – I’m pretty sure I will do it again. Why? To prove that I can do it, but also so I can get that medal and a great Instagram post!

So do join us next year at the 8^th edition of the Saucony Half Marathon that is currently up for a favourite award for half marathon with 5000+ entries at the Running Awards at https://therunningawards.com/vote/179/183#vote

Well done again to everyone who took part!

By Merel van Schooten 

18 March 2018

Illustrations by Maisy Ruffels.

Team ARU: Bumps Riverbank Carnage

By Elle Haywood

Bumping happened up and down the River Cam on Saturday as the colleges of Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin University fought to become Head of the River, by attempting to over-take or “bump” the boats in front of them.

There was chaos in the Men’s 2nd division, as a huge crash occurred on Grassy Corner. The 1^st Year Downing boat Cox, Pranay Bose, said: “The Selwyn boat crashed into the bank which left a hole in our own boat and demolished one of our blades, just unbelievable.”

The ladies from the Jesus-W1 boat maintained their title – but there were unprecedented results in the Men’s 1st Division. The Lady Margaret-M1 boat was crowned Head of the River as they gained Blades from moving up from 4^th to 1^st.

Colleges that were bumped down the divisions, were given Spoon Awards and colleges that bumped up every race were given Blade Awards. They were given to Clare-M1 and W1, Downing-W2, Jesus-W1, Lady Margaret-M1, Newham-W2, Robinson-M2, St Catherine-W2, Trinity Hall-M2 and Wolfson-W1. ARU missed this award after a crash on Day 1 – but rumoured they will be the ones to watch in the following months.

All five days were filled with foliage crowns and muddy towpaths. The May Bumps will occur in June, post-examinations. Rory Bradshaw, 22, who is an Engineering student for the Newnham-M3 boat said: “Few experiences compare to the exhilaration of getting the bump whilst being bumped. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to it.” It is expected that over a thousand will attend the summer races.

ARU Men’s & Women’s Teams from Lent Bumps 2017 down on the River Cam:

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Image Credit: Angus Parker from Cam FM 97.2