TeamUCL Club Development Report 2023-24

The 2023-24 season was successful across the board. TeamUCL regained the London Varsity trophy after an impressive series win, with victories for Boat Club, Badminton Club, Tennis Club, Hockey Club (RUMS Women), Football Club (RUMS Women), Mauy Thai Club, Netball Club, Hockey Club (Women's), Hockey Club (Men's), Fencing Club, Volleyball Club, Lacrosse Club, Lacrosse Club (Men's), Basketball Club (Men's), Handball Club, Pole Fitness Club, Table Tennis Club and Rugby Club (Men's).

The BUCS season also saw some fantastic performances, with Jack Sibeon (Boat Club), Alexandra Brookes (Cricket Club (Women's)), Catrin Manning (Snowsports Club), Etienne Royer-Gray (Boat Club) and Suyash Poshakwale (Hockey Club (RUMS Men’s)) shortlisted for Captain of the Year. Alexandra Brookes was the incredibly deserving winner.

The Friends’ Cup was awarded to Snowsports Club after their best ever season in BUCS and other national competitions. They won 2 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals, as well a league win across all disciplines. The women’s freestyle team collected 2 medals, the men’s and women’s ski teams claimed 3^rd and 4^th position respectively at the Kings Southern League, and the Snowboard team have absolutely dominated competitions this year, winning the King’s Southern League and claiming 3 medals at BUCS BUDS. 

Netball 1^st team secured their place in the newly formed Premier Tier B after an unbeaten regular season. Basketball (Women's) 1^st team made an immediate return to Division 1, completing a historic unbeaten league and cup double. American football were also promoted to Division 1 for the first time in their history. In cup competition, Basketball (Women's) 1^st team, Hockey (RUMS Men's) 1^st team & Squash Men's 1^st team won gold, with Tennis Women's 1^st team & Basketball (Men's) 1^st team claiming silvers.

Taekwondo continued their dominance in BUCS, finishing top of the BSTF rankings yet again and sending three members to the European University Games. Gymnastics had an incredible BUCS Championships, winning 2 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals. Elsewhere, Amateur Boxing had their most successful BUCS Championships, bringing home 2 golds and 3 silver medals.

It was a fantastic year for our Elite Athletes with successes on both the BUCS and international stage. Deborah Alawode won an incredible 5th BUCS gold medal and Janice Jin and Yohan Nanda secured qualification for the European University Games. Internationally, Amy Westwell was selected for the Great Britain fencing team for the European Championships and Nikhil Koteeswaran featured for Scotland at the U19 Cricket World Cup.

All clubs have been committed to ensuring that club activities are completed with the environment and sustainability in mind. Pole Fitness' purchases of pole wear and pole grip this year have been from carbon neutral and small businesses.

During UCL's sustainability month, Cheerleading partnered with a charity called SmartWorks, where members were able to donate pre-owned business clothes to be given to women for interviews. The club has also developed a buy and sell scheme for previous members' to sell uniforms, cheer shoes and bows to new members at cheaper costs

Boat Club hosted a river cleanup in partnership with the Port of London Authority and Hounslow Council and the club has been declared single-use plastic free.

Basketball (Women’s) organised three clothes donations drives to provide equipment and clothes to the charity Hurdles2Hoops, while also promoting reusing and recycling within the club. The club also held a movie night, where there was a sustainability and environmentally friendly theme.

Football (RUMS Women’s), Ultimate Frisbee, Boat Club (RUMS), Hockey (RUMS Men) & Badminton (RUMS) also ran donation and second-hand kit sale schemes help members avoid buying new kit and equipment. This helped to develop their sustainable practices and increase the accessibility of each club for new members by reducing the cost of participation. Muay Thai worked with the charity Fight for Peace to develop a programme to donate old kit and equipment.

 Read more about Sustainability at UCL

Hockey Club (RUMS Men's) won the Volunteering Sports Club of the Year Award for their outstanding work in the local community and for charitable organisations worldwide. The club raised over £3000 for charities, including Movember, Crisis at Christmas, Save the Children and the Grace O'Malley-Kumar Foundation. The club continued their fantastic work with further volunteering and fundraising events, such as their charity walk to Brighton. The club raised over £500 in collaboration for the Grace O'Malley-Kumar Foundation with the other hockey clubs at UCL making it one of the most successful joint events in memory.

Hockey (Men's) & Hockey (Women's) volunteered with Hockey Inner City (HIC), sending 2 members from each club to Mitcham. HIC was set up to improve the accessibility in hockey for disadvantaged kids where they otherwise could not play. Members of each club helped to deliver weekly sessions and umpire at a youth tournament hosted by HIC. HIC was set up to improve the accessibility in hockey for disadvantaged kids where they otherwise could not play.

Ultimate Frisbee raised over £600 for Alzheimer's Research UK, collaborating with other institutions, including Imperial College London, King's College London & London School of Economics. Football (RUMS Women's) also raised a significant amount of charity, totalling a staggering £3450 for Women's Aid, Student Minds and Save the Children.

Running, Athletics & Cross Country dedicated time throughout the year to volunteer with a number of sporting events. The club volunteered for the TeamUCL 5k runs and assisted at the BUCS Cross Country Championships in Leeds.

Cheerleading Club continued their incredible work in the community, with their own student-led volunteering project “Helping Children Discover Cheerleading”. Members of the club coached UCL Academy students cheerleading skills such as stunts, jumps and tumbling.

Hockey (RUMS Women's) established a buddy system where members of the committee were paired with freshers and new members of the club. This helped to integrate new members into the club, but also address any concerns they may have about university life.

Badminton (RUMS) introduced the RUMS Badminton Companion scheme, a program spearheaded by senior society members aimed at assisting first-year students in their transition to university life. The scheme has received overwhelmingly positive feedback, with 100% satisfaction reported by participants.

To be as inclusive as possible, several clubs consistently ran social events for their members that didn’t centre around alcohol. These included activities like bowling, film nights, cultural events, and fitness sessions. Football (RUMS Women's), Pole Fitness, Snowsports, Amateur Boxing & Badminton (RUMS) were just a selection of clubs that ran cross club collaborative non-alcohol events.

Tennis Club have consistently had a strong offer for their members across all levels of the sport, largely due to their tiered system for social tennis members. The club runs Recreational and Development sessions weekly with sessions aimed at all abilities within the club and has given members the opportunity to obtain LTA Level 1 qualifications via the Step into Coaching Bursary. Similarly, Sailing Club & Ice Club run weekly sessions that are aimed at beginners to their respective sports to encourage club growth throughout the year.

For Cheerleading Club, all coaching positions are currently filled by alumni, and current members are able to access the Physiotherapy service, provided by a club alumnus, at a reduced rate.

Football (RUMS Women's), Hockey (Women's), Ultimate Frisbee, Badminton (RUMS), Horse Riding, Cricket (Women's), Kendo & Football (Men's) all utilise social media platforms, including Facebook and WhatsApp, to keep alumni regularly up to date with the clubs activities.

Pole Fitness introduced an Alumni newsletter to begin to incorporate a greater sense of alumni community throughout pole. Through this they have been able to create greater opportunities for members including more workshop opportunities.

Boat Club won the Louis Car memorial award for their work supporting members welfare this year. Boat Club have gone above and beyond this year in terms of creating a welcoming and approachable environment for members. They have had a dedicated inclusivity officer, participated in TeamUCL campaigns, and have made a Queer group chat for club members, with regular events. Each Monday the club hosted 'welfare hours' which have a mixture of regular attendees and members that 'drop-in' with welfare concerns or just to chat. This has been one of the most successful channels of communication that the club has opened this year, and work in tandem with posts and existing information about welfare. All of this has culminated in an environment where welfare is a priority of the club.

Netball (RUMS) sent out bi-weekly welfare check ins to club whatsapp group chats to help highlight any issues and an open way for people to feel they had someone to talk to. A separate welfare check was set up for the committee to check everyone on committee felt confident and happy with their roles and could highlight any club issues which had been raised to them.

Hockey (Women's) took part in the 30 Miles for Mind challenge, promoting awareness of mental health during exam season, and raised over £750. During exams, Netball introduced club-wide email circulating welfare resources.

This year, Muay Thai have ensured that they host a welfare session for all fighters before every fight night that they compete in during the season.

For TeamUCL Against Hate, over 20 clubs completing training on how they can provide an inclusive environment for all sports club members. Focusing on the three areas of Diversity in TeamUCL, Pride in TeamUCL & Zero Tolerance in TeamUCL, the work that clubs put together in these areas was fantastic to see. Our clubs have led panel events; fundraisers; social media campaigns; fixtures against community teams; themed socials and training sessions; policy updates and workshops, to celebrate and champion inclusive practices in their sports. You can see the full breakdown of the clubs that received Accreditations below.

Silver

Boat Club

Pole Fitness Club

Bronze

Basketball Club (Women's)

Cheerleading Club

Cricket Club (Women's)

Hockey Club (RUMS Men's)

Hockey Club (Women's)

Horse Riding Club

Netball Club

Parkour Club

Snowsports Club

The All Jokes Aside campaign was launched this year with the aim to support male-identifying students at UCL to meaningfully engage in activities to support their mental health and wellbeing. The campaign has been a fantastic initiative to get male-identifying students talking about their mental health and the support on offer, through men's health active and talk club sessions. The Men's Health Active programme encourages using sport and physical activity to look after mental health, including a Walk and Talk group and weekly fitness classes.

Read more about All Jokes Aside.

Muay Thai Club won Club of the Year, largely due to their creation of the Bloodline Sponsorship Scheme, in collaboration with the Bloodline Gym. Competitively, they achieved significant success this year, including running the most successful University Fight Night to date. This competition featured fighters from eight different universities, and the club boasted a record of only one loss across 30 competitors. 

This year marked the first Rugby (RUMS Men's) alumni dinner, hosted at the Queen's club, with a turnout of over 100 current and former students and doctors, serving as a great way to bring the club together and as a networking event.