A day late but nevertheless full of good news – this week’s clubs & societies update! Our Hairstyle & Lifestyle society stopped by at our Men’s Football A team’s match last Saturday to cheer and take photos, so you will see some impressions of that event in this post.
And now, let’s dive straight into last week’s match results:
Once again, the Ustinov teams had a really successful week with one loss, two draws, and five wins. This means that we are currently fourth to last on the College Points Table ahead of John Snow, Stephenson, and St. Chad’s college – an amazing achievement since Ustinov traditionally ends up last and only managed to become second to last in the previous season. Great job, all teams!!
Last weekend our newly formed badminton team had its very first match! As you already saw from the results above, they easily defeated Hatfield, a very promising start into the season. Our badminton team is a mixed team, meaning that it consits of three mixed pairs who have to play against each of the opposing team’s three pairs for a total of nine matches. Here a match report from captain Yao Li:
Rackets and Shuttlecocks
Our first competition against Hatfield took place at Freeman’s Quay sports centre on the 24th November 2018. Our players playing this competition were Lin Jia, Rong Lin, Lei Wang, Qiaojun Li, Randhy, and Winnie. We needed to play 9 matches and the winner would be the team to win at least 5 of them. There was only one court available so we played one by one.
The team’s performance was very good in this competition. The whole game went smoothly, and we were leading in score throughout the game. We won the first eight matches and lost the final match. The game eventually ended with the score of 8-1. We won! We achieved the best result. It shows that we are making a great progress in the training and we can do better in the future games with our players and regular trainings. Last but not least, I would like to give special thanks to Vera who gave us quite a lot of help. Congratulations to all of you! Look forward to playing the next game and hope we can get an even better result!
Well done to our badminton boys and girls! If you keep up this smashing performance, I wouldn’t be surprised to see you being promoted to a higher league next year!
For our second match report, I had asked our Women’s Futsal captain Anna Bird to write about their match on Sunday. Unfortunately, it was cancelled due to insufficient numbers, but Anna has written a short piece to tell you more about futsal nevertheless:
What is Futsal?
Futsal is a 5 a-side game played using a slightly smaller and heavier ball than a football. It is also played on a hard, small court which is usually indoors. The games last for 40 minutes and, in the Durham College League, are self-refereed. One of the five players on a team must be the goal-keeper, and points are scored the same way as in football, by kicking the ball into the net. The game is similar to football, but with fewer players, a smaller ball and court, and shorter halves.
I think many of us learned something new today, thanks for this! Futsal matches take place on the same indoor courts at Maiden Castle where basketball matches take place, so don’t hesitate to stop by and watch them if you have time. Our Women’s football team plays both football and futsal – great committment!
And now, let’s see which of the Ustinov teams have matches in the upcoming seven days:
Pool and table tennis matches take place at the colleges of the home team, as listed. Most other matches are carried out at Maiden Castle. Find out how to reach Maiden Castle and the precise locations of pitches here: https://ustinovgcr.com/sports-facilities/#mc.
Disclaimer: If you plan to visit a match, it is always a good idea to double-check the fixture on the Team Durham website: https://www.teamdurham.com/collegesport/sport/. Matches can occasionally be rescheduled, though usually no more than 48 hours before they are supposed to start.
And that’s it again for this week. As usual, if you go to watch any Ustinov matches and take photos there, please don’t hesitate to email them to cs.ustinovgcr(at)durham.ac.uk for a chance to be featured in these weekly updates!
~ Vera, Clubs & Socs Officer
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