OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF CARDIFF UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC UNION

Unity - Est. 2011

Issue 04 DECEMBER 2011

Undod

Christmas issue

Contents // 02

AU EXEC

Hello and welcome to the December is-sue of Undod: the magazine of Cardiff Uni-versity Athletic Union. Since the last issue, a lot has happened in the AU, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to fill you guys in on some of the new projects that have taken shape over the past couple of months.

The Athletic Union physiotherapy service is now up and running, operating out of the Stu-dents’ Union. This is a service for AU members

that has been discussed in previous years and it is great that we have finally been able to introduce the service, offering heavily sub-sidised rates for AU members. Appointments can be booked at the reception of the SU.

In terms of recent events, Dodgeball was a great success, with well over 200 stu-dents taking part in a manic tournament; more on this to follow in this issue of Undod!

The Invest in Sport campaign has also started, with a proposal currently being drawn up by myself to present to the University seeking investment in a full-size 3G pitch at Llanrumney playing fields. The campaign will really pick up speed after Christmas and I will keep AU members informed of its progress.

This issue is just a snippet of the huge array of activities going on in the AU and I hope you find it an enjoyable read!

Get Involved, Love Cardiff.

WELCOME // OLLIE DEVON

WHAT'S INSIDE

346

INDIVIDUAL SUCCESS STORIES

FEATURE CLUB

CLUB SUCCESS

This section advertises the successes of club individuals: members who have gone beyond University sport success and created futures for themselves.

Rowers Fundraising Extraordinaire

Here you can find out what’s happening in sports clubs across the AU. To submit a report please contact undod@cardiff.ac.uk

OLLIE DEVONAU Presidentaupresident@cardiff.ac.uk

LAUREN SMITHUndod EditorVolleyball/Cheerleading

JENNA SCRIVENSTrampolining

MAZ POYNTERLadies Rugby

LARRY HUNTAmerican Football

CATHY TUKEMedics Hockey

ANDREW HOWELLS Karate

UNDOD MagazineDesigned by: Lauren Smith, Penny Challans, Andrew Howells

t: 02920 781438e: undod@cardiff.ac.ukwww.issuu.com/undod

11 AU ROUNDUP

Ollie Devon

PENNY CHALLANSAU Vice-PresidentRowing

This is where you can find out what the AU have been up to this term. If you have any suggestions or querys please contact aupresident@cardiff.ac.uk

Ross Molero, captain of the Cardiff Volleyball Men’s team and coach to Cardiff Women’s 1st team, re-ceived news of great proportion last week, when he was selected to line judge at the 2012 London Olympics.

“Everyone wants to be part of the Olympic Games and to have them in your own country makes it all the more important”. Ross explained; “As soon as I heard that the 2012 Olympics were to be held in London, I knew I wanted to be part of it.”

Ross (pictured above, 2nd from left) has played vol-leyball since the age of eight, with a two-year gap in middle school. After being approached by a friend, he restarted the game at the age of 15 for Wessex Volleyball. As part of the Wessex team, he played in a local league in Poole and competed at the Un-der-18 National Finals. From there, he was asked to line judge the UK School Games. “This is the closest experience youngsters are going to get to what it would be like to take part in major competitions such as the Commonwealth Games”, said Darren Campbell, Olympic champion and Sainsbury’s UK School Games Ambassador 2010. After four years volunteering at this level, Ross was headhunted by Volleyball England in 2009.

The following January, he was invited to attend the FIVB World League Championships in Sheffield as a line judge, where he was informed about the poten-tial opportunity in the Olympic Games. “I had to fulfil a certain amount of National League line judging fix-tures in the Super 8 divisions for men and women.” Ross Molero, 2011.

The final barrier to Olympic participation included an Olympic test event at the indoor volleyball venue, Earls Court, London. Matches featured some of the best teams in the world, with the Brazil, USA and Serbia men’s teams and the Netherlands and Japan women’s teams competing on what will be the venue for London 2012 indoor volleyball. After the event, 26 line judges – chosen from the UK School

Games and other international events, were selected to take part in the Olympic Games, Ross among the few.

“Volleyball is one of the largest played sports in the world with 1 billion participants. To be part of that, at the world’s biggest sporting event, will be one of the greatest achievements of my lifetime”, Ross stated. “With the original selection of over 1000, it feels great to know all my hard work has paid off to be a part of the final 26 people line judging these international matches”.

When asked what his plans for the upcoming years are, his answer flew straight back to the Cardiff Uni-versity teams. Having captained the Cardiff Men’s to a 3rd BUCS position in 2010 and 4th in 2009, he aims to reach the finals this year. “It shows we have the natural ability to compete against scholar-ship squads”, Ross quoted. “Results at BUCS helps in terms of credibility and how seriously we are taken as a volleyball university. Also, by attracting more members and competing at a national level, we can convince the AU and Volleyball Wales that we are a major institution within this university”.

On July 26, Ross will going to London 2012 as a line judge for world volleyball. He will be assessing up to eight matches per day in front of over 15,000 spectators, potentially including the semi-finals or the finals.

One of the big questions university poses any indi-vidual is how to get your work-life balance straight. According to new figures from the Athletic Union, Cardiff students are getting more interested in sport. The AU at this university encourages students to take part in sport alongside their academic focus, but some take this further than others, and many are finding careers out of their sporting success.

Craig Lodge, a third-year Cardiff University student and rugby player, seems to have found the path to the ultimate sporting accomplishment. Starting this year off with a win, Craig played in a pre-season

match against a Newport Gwent Dragons select team and beat Swansea away early in the season; not a bad start for Cardiff or Craig, who was scout-ed and reported to the head coach of the Cardiff Blues, Justin Burnell, soon after. What we have seen from many athletes in this university is an ability to compete on a weekly basis, stepping up for their team alongside academic work commitments and, on top of this, seek out further work or employ-ment through the sport they enjoy doing. Craig, after being selected to train with the Cardiff Blues Academy, is subject to an intense training schedule around his university commitments. Using Cardiff’s newly refurbished Park Place gym, he has found the balance between a semi-professional training time-table and a healthy academic degree.

Captain of the Cardiff Snakecharmers Cheerleading team, Laura Harman, has also found a way to achieve this balance of university commitment and life expe-rience. After performing at Magic Weekend and the Heineken Cup final with her squad, Laura cemented a relationship with events production company, Events 360, and is now working part time at some of the biggest sporting events of the calendar year. Jealousy ran high through the Charmers and Cobras when Laura was asked to work at the Buccaneers v Bears NFL game at Wembley Stadium last month. Having proved herself over the summer, Laura re-ceived a promotion to lead stage manager while working this month’s England v Australia game.

These are just two of many students who are find-ing that their futures emerge through the world of sport that Cardiff University has to offer. It is im-portant to get the balance right between academic success and networking opportunity, but if you can succeed in that, then sport can open up a new world of opportunities for any student who wants to reach out and grab them. Contact the AU to find out more.

Laura during the Cardiff Snakecharmers’ Heineken Cup performance, about to reveal the trophy, 2011.

Club success // 03

AU EXEC What’s Been Happening

Olympic Ambitions for Ross Molero by Lauren Smith

OLLIE DEVONAU Presidentaupresident@cardiff.ac.uk

LAUREN SMITHUndod EditorVolleyball/Cheerleading

JENNA SCRIVENSTrampolining

MAZ POYNTERLadies Rugby

LARRY HUNTAmerican Football

CATHY TUKEMedics Hockey

ANDREW HOWELLS Karate

UNDOD MagazineDesigned by: Lauren Smith, Penny Challans, Andrew Howells

t: 02920 781438e: undod@cardiff.ac.ukwww.issuu.com/undod

Taking Sport that one Step Further by Lauren Smith

PENNY CHALLANSAU Vice-PresidentRowing

feature // 04

Your boat!Row Row Row...

The past week has been fundraising week for Cardiff University Rowing Club, having lost a former rower, Dr. Jennifer Bucknell, who passed away on April 5, 2011, at the age of just 23. It was later found that she had a heart condition called ARVC, which is thought to be the second most common cause of unexpected sud-den death in the young. With the loss of Jenny, we chose to raise money for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY).

After lots of paperwork, on Tuesday, October 11, we managed to secure a council permit to collect money in the city centre. We had a great day; though the weath-er wasn’t really on our side, this did not stop us. With enthusiastic rowers out talking to the public about our club’s chosen charity, we managed to collect £898.35. While some rowers were out in Cardiff collecting, oth-ers were in the Students’ Union holding a cake sale. With lots of baking happening over the weekend and fellow students feeling generous, the bake sale was a success and raised another £188.51.

To add to our week, on Saturday, October 15, we

went bag packing at Tesco Extra in Splott, just out-side Cardiff. This was a great day all round, with the Cardiff University Rowing Club Dragons putting in an appearance and proving a massive hit with children at the store. We managed to raise £496.72 to add to our running total, whilst continuing to raise awareness for CRY.

Over the week we managed to raise a total of £1583.58, which will be split 50:50 between the club and CRY. We hope to continue our fundraising efforts throughout the coming season while continuing to raise both money and awareness of the work done by CRY. We would like to extend our thanks to everyone who donated for your generosity and support of both our club and CRY.

And some excellent results...

At Pairs Head of the River, Robbie Massey and Jack Thomas, came 3rd in IM3, Pete Robinson and Josh Buga-jski, came 9th in IM3. Penny Challans came out of retire-ment and paired up with a friend and represented the

words: Amy Hill and Penny Challans

Fundraising in memory of Dr Jenny Bucknell

feature // 05

Your boat!

went bag packing at Tesco Extra in Splott, just out-side Cardiff. This was a great day all round, with the Cardiff University Rowing Club Dragons putting in an appearance and proving a massive hit with children at the store. We managed to raise £496.72 to add to our running total, whilst continuing to raise awareness for CRY.

Over the week we managed to raise a total of £1583.58, which will be split 50:50 between the club and CRY. We hope to continue our fundraising efforts throughout the coming season while continuing to raise both money and awareness of the work done by CRY. We would like to extend our thanks to everyone who donated for your generosity and support of both our club and CRY.

And some excellent results...

At Pairs Head of the River, Robbie Massey and Jack Thomas, came 3rd in IM3, Pete Robinson and Josh Buga-jski, came 9th in IM3. Penny Challans came out of retire-ment and paired up with a friend and represented the

university, achieving a close 4th in IM3 lightweight. Helen Roberts and Becky Girling achieved an impressive 5th in IM2 pairs; Kat Heine and Anna Peace 6th in IM3 doubles. Cari Davies and Sarah Goodison decided they would prefer to row half the course then take a dip.

Saturday, November 12 saw Cardiff University Rowing Club athletes dominating on their home water. With Car-diff City Rowing Club hosting Cardiff Small Boats head, crews raced from the red footbridge in Bute Park to down by the Bay, a distance of approx. 3.5km downstream.It was a long day with most racing twice, but fast times were the order of the day with crews setting down markers for the rest of the season, and achieving some great results.An excellent performance from Josh Bugajski saw him win the IM1 sculls category and be the fastest scull of the day. He was closely followed by team-mates Jack Thomas - who came second - and Robbie Massey, who won the Elite Sculls category. All of the above then teamed up with Nick Moelesy in a quad, where they not only won their race but achieved the fastest 4x, and fastest boat of the day: a fantastic achievement.

Cardiff women put in a strong performance, winning a total of six events. Helen Roberts shone, coming 2nd in WIM3 singles, this being only her 2nd race in a single scull. CURC Women, Dominated the women’s coxed fours events, winning the Novice, Senior, IM3, and IM1 categories, with the 4+ of Helen Iliff (cox), Sarah Goodison, Cari Davies, Beccy Girling and Kiah Basset achieving the fastest W4+ of the day: a great success. The women continued this trend, with their two quads winning their respective categories and the 4x of Cat Battson, Emma Wirt, Kat Heine and Rosie Owens being the fastest women’s 4x of the day. This followed Cat Battson and Rosie Owens teaming in what was the fastest women’s pair earlier in the day.Overall, it was a very successful day for CURC athletes. Meanwhile, the men’s squad raced at Bristol Uni-versity head race with the Intermediate 8+ gain-ing 3rd place and the Championship 4+ with Vince DeLuca, Chris Morris, Shaun Howel, Ben Kirby and coxed by Sarah Davies coming a fantastic 2nd.Hopefully, this success can be carried on into the win-ter season and next year. Well done to all our athletes.

““

Rowers Raise £1583.58

SUCCESS STORIES // 06

Snowsports - Best in the West! After an extremely successful year last year, the Snow-sports Society kicked off their new year in the best possible way. Travelling to the picturesque venue of Pembrey, where Beach Break Live is held, the club com-peted at the fi rst round of four University Kings races.

The races are split into four different leagues, North-ern, Western, Midlands and Southern, with Cardiff in the Western league. Cardiff successfully dominated the Western competition, which included universities such as Bristol, Swansea, Bath and Exeter. Winning both the Mixed and Girls ski competitions, the day was topped off with the snowboard team also winning their competition.

Beating off strong competition from hot favourites Exeter in the mixed team fi nal, Cardiff pulled off a very pleasing win. After three very important triumphs from the day, Cardiff are now leading the results table com-fortably and hope to build upon this. The second round is fast approaching and the club can only hope they can repeat the same performance in the same style.

The Snowsports Society is really looking forward to the ski trip in December; if anybody would like to fi nd out more about the club then email cardiffsnowsports@hot-mail.co.uk as we are always welcoming new members!

Cardiff Sailing Host Annual event

This weekend, Cardiff University hosted their annual sail-ing event, The Welsh Dragon. As always, the turnout was excellent, with over 100 students competing from all over the country. The weather was predictably Welsh, mak-ing the sailing challenging, but undoubtedly the highlight for many was the spectacular Saturday night social, which saw the sailors take over Koko Gorilaz before heading to ComePlay. The result of Saturday night’s antics meant face-painted sailors arriving late in dribs and drabs, and throughout the day there was a great deal of banter and gossip from the previous night to share. The event con-sisted of round-robin preliminary races, followed by a split into Gold, Silver and Bronze fl eets. Cardiff’s fi rst team stormed their qualifying round without losing a race. Com-peting against the top teams in the Gold fl eet, the Sun-day was less of a success and they struggled to continue their run of wins, but their fi nal position of 5th was a solid performance. The second team, after being put together two days before the event, stuggled, but nevertheless managed a few race wins. Despite several breakages, the event was a success and all the races were completed. Many thanks to Cardiff Yacht Club for their hospitality.

PhysiotherApy // 07

We've all been there right? Tense, out of breath, sweaty, mildly drunk, dodgeball in hand, dressed as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. No? Ok, so not everyone, but on Fri-day, October 28, 26 teams of eager stu-dents gathered together in Cardiff Students’ Union’s Great Hall to compete for the mother of all University prizes: a free ticket to Boom-box and a minute behind the bar!

Among the teams were American foot-ballers, lacrosse players, tennis players and some people dressed as Christmas, all try-ing to take part in something new. I was part of the volleyball team squad, who could not think of a more imaginative name than 'Vol-leyball' and consisted of only four actual vol-leyball players. The rest of the team were cyclists that we pilfered off the street. Well, they were captain Laura 'the ball' Singleton's housemates, but they looked like cyclists. The Simpsons, a group of friendly mimes and the Master Chief from Halo also made an appearance.

With such a lively selection of participants and a bar, I don't think that I could ever do justice to the frivolities that ensued be-tween 6pm and 9.30pm that Friday night but I'll give it a go.

The AU Execs came on court complaining of various injuries and ailments. They even had to steal Ollie 'AU Prezzie' Devon from his battalion because they didn't have enough people to play. This almost could have been a stereotypical, heart warming underdog story, except they didn't win. Bad day.

The second game on court two saw the vol-leyballers coming head-to-head with a for-midable team in a game I'm sure we would have won had not I, Megan 'out before the whistle' Smith, failed at even beginning to aim before I was hit, unceremoniously, in the stomach. Furthermore, much to our as-tonishment, halfway through the game we came to find that we were on a court with

a few people on each side and absolutely no balls in the vicinity. Whether they'd been ab-ducted by aliens or rolled through a tear in the space-time continuum we'll never know. It is much more likely that they bounced away under the barriers or got thrown over to another court, but either way, when the referees gave a shout we got bombarded by several dodge balls that had been ferreted out. First loss of the night for the Volleyball team.

After several hours of stressful, serious, in-tense dodgeball playing (lol, jk, I mean several hours of pratting about) the quarter-finals were upon us! Much to our surprise, the vol-leyballers had made it through, possibly due to the fact that after two losses I decided to sit out and the team improved greatly from then on. We were set to play the mas-sively intimidating Cardiff University Cobras Offence. Eek! Needless to say, despite put-ting up an incredible fight and it ending up one-on-one, Sam 'rocked it' Rosa lobbied the final ball in to Deji 'nearly had it' Alli and Volleyball were through to the semis! OK, so perhaps that wasn't needless to say; we were shocked too!

By this stage, the teams left in were Vol-leyball (woop woop), AU Execs dressed as monkey doctors, the Lacrosse team and the Kayakers. Cue the eventual, yet inevitable, fall of team Volleyball, who were beaten by La-crosse. The AU Execs also had to lose their match against the Kayakers so it wasn't so obvious that they had bribed all the teams

while they were organising the matches.

The final of Kayak vs Lacrosse was a brief affair, lasting all of about 30 seconds. After-wards, the real fun began: an all-in fight to the death on one tiny court. With well over 40 people crammed into the space, and more around the edges, the players began to drop like flies. Master Chief didn't last very long and three Cardiff Cobras had to be dragged off kicking and screaming. There were a few arguments with Ollie 'AU Prezzie' Devon's reffing skills when people got a bit too car-ried away with the match. Or perhaps, Ollie was just not as good a ref as the lovely Car-diff Welcome Committee that refereed all of the other matches.

I think it is only fair to mention the man of the match - well, matches - in this article. There can be no opposition to the view that the best player was by far 'I'm going to destroy you' international dodge ball player. Well, what chance did we have with the likes of him leading the Lacrosse team to an even-tual victory? I don't, however, think that his dodgeball prowess entitles him to man of the match. I think this title has to go to Olly 'saved his team's ass a billion times' Birrell of the AU Execs, who spent the end of a few games with just himself against five or six other players and still managed to single-handedly get his team in to the semi-finals. Other mentions have to be given to the frol-icking grannies, who could be seen cavorting around the courts between games; the troop of dancing onesies; and of course the team of Ninja Turtles, who won the fancy dress competition and also for being a team of girls who whooped a team of boys.

All in all, I'd say that it was a very success-ful evening of friendly competition, exercise, university spirit and fancy dress!

(Disclaimer: Some of the above may be fic-tional due to the bar on site)

dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodgeAU Dodgeball Feature BY Megan Smith

Send your articles to undod@cardiff.ac.uk

Club reports // 09

By James Fooks

This season holds a lot of potential for the Cardiff University Cobras American football team as they enter their 25th an-

niversary year. After a strong “rebuilding” year last year, culminating in silverware at the National Plate final, the Cobras have retained a strong squad and as-pire for more this season. As well as a strong core of returning players, the Co-bras have had an influx of new players to bolster positions, some of whom have even developed into starters already.

Following a successful pre-season both on and off the field, led by Presi-dent and Speaking Captain Larry Hunt, which has seen a victorious scrim-mage against Swansea University Ti-tans, a brand new set of club jerseys delivered and thriving socials with the Cardiff Snakecharmer cheerleaders, the Cobras are currently 2-0, hoping to go 3-0 this weekend when they play fierce rivals, the Bath University Killer Bees.

Participating in the British Universities American Football League, the Cobras have one of the most competitive divi-sions in the country, where every game counts and most have become bitter

rivalries. The Cobras’ first game of the season was an away trip to Plymouth University Blitz – never a fun three-hour journey – which saw Cardiff come away with a 14-8 win following a clutch touchdown catch in the last minute of the game by 2nd year wide receiver Josh Hurford. The second game was one of the Cobras’ most important of the year against Bristol Univeristy Barracuda, Na-tional Championship semi-finalists who last year beat Cardiff 27-0, but an excep-tional team effort by a superior team saw the Cobras annihilate the ‘Cuda 46-6 for a great revenge victory that really sets the Cobras up for what will, hopefully, be an anniversary season to remember!

Cardiff Cobras unbeaten

By Josh Thorn

If you do, the hugs become a bit suspect. To turn up to, and continue turning up to, Jiu Jitsu at Cardiff (6-8pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, though I’m not advertising) takes a certain amount of self-loathing. Fortunately for the club, which last year, if I’m honest, was struggling for members, this year’s freshers seem to hate themselves! We can, of course, testify to this, having seen some of the drunken states falling down the union stairs every Wednesday and Saturday.

With some new initiatives for recruitment (public demos didn’t put people off!), and really hard work put in by all members of the club, the membership has shot up, and we’ve benefit-ted from more training partners and a good variety of attackers.Cardiff Jiu Jitsu has gone from strength to strength, with new members from other martial arts coming along to try some-thing a little different, and people with no prior experience find-ing out how to defend themselves from a whole range of attacks, including knives, sticks, chains, swords, bottles, not to men-tion the various punches and kicks that can get thrown around!

With nationals fast approaching, we start to hit the mats harder, with bigger throws, meaner locks, and more inventive pressure points

getting utilised! The professionals call it ‘conditioning’; we call it fun!

At nationals, the club put in an outstanding performance, with a 1st place in lower grades achieved by Josh Thorn, and pain-fully solid performances given by Josh Turner and Rosie Ashworth! Membership is up, attendance is up, and stan-dards are as high as ever. Keep it up, Cardiff Jiu Jitsu!

'Don't make eye contact'

AU Calendar // 10

Over the past couple of months, the AU have been working hard at bringing to-gether services and projects that help you as a club member and encourage en-gagement and interaction between fellow members, new members and the AU itself.

The start of this year saw the AU Fayre open its doors to hundreds of students, offering the opportunity to sign up for the various sports Cardiff has to offer. The day saw memberships to the AU increased by 10.5% from 2010, along with a 12.5% increase in the number of students joining clubs. We hope you have all enjoyed your first term. Early in the term, the Team Cardiff con-cept was launched, allowing students the opportunity to purchase Nike sports kit under the ‘Team Cardiff’ brand. We hope to eventually achieve unity across all the clubs in the AU, bridging the gaps of individual sports, competing under one name and one university: Cardiff. By buying Kit in bulk we aim to drive down kit prices for all the clubs who choose to be part of Team Cardiff. It’s hard to miss the internal promotion of the concept, but over the next few months we hope to expand this and create an internet

campaign with videos, photo shoots and interviews. If you or your club wishes to be involved in any of these promotional as-pects please contact: undod@cardiff.ac.uk You may have also noticed that the AU has its own physiotherapy service, Agile Therapy, offering reduced rates-for Cardiff students. In addition, the AU subsidises this price for AU mem-bers, with one session costing only £10. This term, there have been two rather dif-fering photo opportunities for AU clubs; one, the official team photos and the oth-er, a rather more naked affair with around 20 clubs stripping off for a charitable cause. Not that we needed the excuse!The official team photos saw 48 differ-ent AU teams pose for newly appointed photography company Take That Photo, allowing students to purchase cop-ies on the day for a discounted price.

In addition to this, the AU have been rais-ing money for Right to Play through the annual Naked Calendar. With over 20 AU clubs taking part, it makes an alternative Christmas present for loved ones. Feel free to pick up a copy from the AU office or the Union Shop for the bargain price of £5.

Finally, the AU would like to hear from you. If you have any queries or sugges-tions on how your Athletic Union is being run, please email aupresident@cardiff.ac.ukFrom all of us here in the AU we wish you a great Christmas and a fantastic 2012!

AU Round-up// 11

team cardiff // 12

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