Sports
Many alumni continue to play sport long after graduation. Below are the existing alumni sports clubs but please contact ilona.davis@ucl.ac.uk if you are interested in starting up a club not listed below.
Mandy Walker Games, June 3rd 2006
Mandy Walker was a UCL Union hockey player, elected as Sports Officer for 1985/86. She graduated in 1986 but sadley developed septicaemia and died in 1987. According to the wishes of her family, the Mandy Walker Cup for Sports Personality of the Year and Mandy Walker Games were created and first played in 1988.
The Mandy Walker Games will take place on Saturday June 3rd. The Games are UCL Union's annual Charity Sports Day in the summer; where the 'Old Boys' (and Girls) challenge the current students in a range of different sports. This is a chance for alumni to take on the students and win! All proceeds from the 2006 Games will be going to the Meningitis Research Foundation. Details are as follows:
Games
The games we have playing are:
5 a-side football tournament - including men and womens football
Mens Rugby
Mens Hockey (1sts and 2nds)
Womens Hockey (1sts and 2nds)
Lacrosse
Cricket
Tickets
Tickets are £8 for alumni.
Coaches
Spectators are more than welcome and if they wish to get to and from the ground via coaches the timetable is as follows:
Coaches leaving for Shenley (UCL Sports Grounds) at 12pm from outside the Bloomsbury theatre
Coaches leaving for Surbiton at 10.30am from outside the Bloomsbury theatre
Afterparty
UCL Union, 25 Gordon Street. Bar open from 7pm-1am. There will be a buffet and desserts available in Easy J's to keep you nourished. There will also be a DJ so you can dance on into the night!
UCL Bentham Boat Club
The Bentham Boat Club is UCL's alumni rowing club. The club has about 150 members spread around the world and welcomes new alumni members.
Contact:
Mark Osmond
markosmond@doctors.org.uk
Cricket
The University College Academicals Cricket Club joined the Hertfordshire League in 1991, playing all home fixtures at Shenley, the main UCL sports grounds. There are also winter net sessions at the Oval.
We play good quality social cricket, with a leaning more towards the social aspect. This includes several events over the year, including an end-of-year dinner, mid-winter drinks and a pre-season get together.
Contact:
Barry Macdonald, Captain
Tel 07810 480 758
Email barrymacdonald@hotmail.com
Football
The UCL Academicals Football Club (‘The Accies’) runs seven sides in the Amateur Football Combination, the largest football league in the country, playing in and around London every Saturday between September and May. We also have a veterans side, ‘The Optimists’. We cater for all standards and all ages: our 1st team are generally of a high semi-pro standard, while our 7th team aren't.
Our home games are at Shenley, so you can always come and say hello to us there, and we play annual games against the student sides. Away games are played all around London, though the lower sides play regionalised football, generally in the north of London.
You don’t need to know current Accies, and you don’t need to join with your friends, though of course so much the better if you can persuade others to join with you. We'll happily welcome you into the club and if possible, keep you here for the next 20 years! Contact us any time of year – summer is ideal as we prepare for the new season, but we can always take in new players during the season, as we tend to break some of the older ones as we go along!
Even if you’re not ready to join yet, send us an email and we can add you to our weekly email newsletter, so you can see what is going on with the Accies.
Contact:
Danny McConnell
Tel 07932 626 716
Email danny@pbmsports.com
Hockey
The UCL Academicals Hockey Club offers many opportunities to play for all standards of hockey: two men’s and one ladies’ side are entered into the Surrey League and there is regular mixed hockey in Battersea Park on a Sunday. The club also incorporates the Jeremy Bentham Invitational XI as its touring team.
We have a well-established social calendar with the main highlights being the Christmas Cocktails and the Summer Ball.
We would be keen to hear from anyone interested in either hockey or socialising.
UCL Academicals’ Summer Ball
The third annual Academicals’ Summer Ball took place in the opulent and decidedly trendy Adam Street private members’ club on 29 July 2005.
Adam Street describes itself as a ‘retreat for hard-working, intelligent, good-looking, fun, witty and charming people who like to mix business with pleasure’. Clearly, they had never entertained the Academicals before!
Despite this slightly worrying description, the venue was superb and we had the run of the Adam Street Gallery for the night. Amazingly the only casualty was a particularly elegant portrait, which had a run-in with John Mayes’ backside – there could only be one winner! The food was excellent, service attentive and atmosphere relaxed.
The evening was as successful as ever with a fine cross-section of people present, including not only seasoned Academicals, but a number of new faces, including ever-growing numbers of boyfriends and girlfriends.
Following dinner, the season’s awards were announced. It only goes to show that experience can count for much as Jon Mann and Chris Bott, two of the club’s ‘Old Men’, picked up awards for ‘Player of the Season’.
The inaugural Club Man/Woman of the year was awarded to Tom Pickford for his efforts in getting the Men’s Second Team up and running. He will be greatly missed next year, since he has now relocated to Ireland.
Thanks must go to Vicky Emuss in particular for her hard work in arranging such a fine evening. Please contact Olly Martin (email address below) for further information on UCL Academicals Hockey Club.
Contact:
Olly Martin, Club Captain
Email olly.martin@uk.pkf.com
www.uclacademicals.org
Women’s Rugby
The nature of the game of rugby, and the social activities connected with it, probably explains why the women’s rugby club at UCL has forged many lasting friendships. The UCL Alumni Women’s Rugby Club exists to keep everyone in contact, provide updates on what players have gone on to after university, organise socials and organise a team for the annual Mandy Walker Games.
Any graduate from any year is welcome to contact us. Past socials have included trips en masse to Twickenham and watching the World Cup Final. We normally manage to get a 7s or 10s team out for the Mandy Walker Games, but we hope to build this up to a full 15 in the coming years.
Contact:
Sarah Chapman
Email sarahlouisechapman@gmail.com
