Sports

My third season was spent in Switzerland with the CERN Cricket Club. You'll eventually be able to read about my exploits with them on my Swiss pages.

Take a look at scorecards from some of the games I've played. You can also look at the old Particle and Nuclear Physics (PNP) Cricket pages. For general cricket coverage the absolute best source is Cricinfo (UK mirror).

Rowing

Once I migrated to Somerville, I signed up with the Somerville College Boat Club to row in Christ Church Regatta 1999. I was assigned to row at five in the Men's Novice B crew. We were a scrawny crew, but we made up for our lack of bulk with lots of heart and (eventually) sound technique. After catching a crab off the start to lose our first race unluckily to Hertford A, we worked our way through the repechage, trouncing Trinity D, holding off St Hugh's B, edging out Worcester B and beating Jesus B to make it to the quarter-finals. We were up against eventual champions Lincoln A, and after giving them a scare we succumbed by less than a length. The quarter-finals was as far as the Somerville A crew got as well, despite their smallest rower being bigger than our biggest, giving proof that the Somerville B's deserved their monicker "The Real A-Team".

"The Real A-Team", Men's Novice B crew from Christ Church Regatta:
(back row l-r) Chris Pell (coach), Will Allen (bow), Ben Salter (two), Rob Hadley (three), James Loach (four);
(front row l-r) me (five), Potter (six), Natalie Shenker (cox), Chris Hignell (seven), Dan York-Smith (stroke).

After our success in Christ Church, we couldn't break up a winning team. Sure enough, five of the Novice B's returned to form the nucleus of the Somerville Men's 2nd VIII for Torpids 2000. After numerous personnel changes and a rerigging of the boat forced by the 1st VIII crashing their boat, I settled in at number five in a bow-rigged boat. We eventually came together well as a crew, and despite having to rebuild our boat just an hour beforehand thanks to the 1st VIII not doing it as promised, we qualified with the 2nd best time of 2:51 to be placed 5th in Division IV. Our time was better than any of the boats ahead of us and starts were our strong suit, so we were all set to bump our way up into the permanent divisions. Alas, the first bit of serious rain all term came just before the regatta and all of Torpids was washed out.

Obviously there was a feeling of unfinished business, so rowing in Eights 2000 was a must. Once again five of us Novice B's formed the nucleus of the Men's 2nd VIII. With the short training period we weren't as sharp as in past terms, and our start in particular was a bit chaotic. Fortunately last year's crew had bumped up into the permanent divisions, so we could kick up our heels during Rowing On. However, with timing eerily reminiscent of Torpids, the rains came between Rowing On and the regatta proper and things were looking gloomy. OURC's pressed ahead with the regatta on the first day over the EA's protests, but only with half divisions for the top five men's and top three women's divisions. Starting 9th in Division VI meant we were sidelined that day, but we took heart as all of the other Somerville crews bumped. Fortuitously the weather improved for the rest of the week and we got to row on the other three days. With Jesus III bumping the competition off our tail, we had all the time in the world to chase the crews in front of us. Without much trouble we bumped Univ III, St Catz III, then Oriel IV. We would've surely bumped on a fourth day had we rowed, so the first day washout had cost us blades. Still we ended with the best results of the Somerville crews to cap off a successful year.

Men's 2nd VIII from Eights:
(back row l-r) Jamie Hamilton (coach), Will Allen (two), James Loach (seven), Jamie Macdonald (six), Adam Alvarez (five);
(front row l-r) me (three), Ben Salter (bow), Chris Hignell (stroke), James Hawes (four), Mike Harris (coach);
(seated) Emma Fowlds (cox).

The actual rowing wasn't the only involvement I had with regattas that year. I volunteered with Oxford University Rowing Clubs to be a marshall at Torpids and Eights. While Torpids was a washout I did get to spend some time marshalling at the finish of the OURC's College Head Races. I did lots more at Eights, driving safety boats, marshalling at the old OUBC site, manning the OURC's desk and even making announcements over the PA system. It was an enjoyable and worthwhile way of spending the day by the river.

I also acted as an umpire in one race during Torpids 2001. I was assigned to follow the sandwich boat, Merton II, of Women's Division II. Merton II bumped Jesus in short order and without controversy, so my role was quite straightforward.

After taking a gap year from rowing I got involved in getting together a novice graduate crew for Christ Church Regatta 2001. Being an experienced rower I obviously couldn't row in the regatta, so I chose to serve as the cox (and effectively as a coach as well). Sitting in the hot seat gave me quite a different perspective on outings and crew development, and let me bear witness as the squad matured rapidly from eight individuals who could barely coordinate themselves singly let alone with each other into a more than respectable team of rowers. They reminded me of my Novice B crew in that it was a pint-sized (mixed) crew that could rely on its reasonably good technique to surprise a few people. We were entered in the Men's Division as Somerville C. Our first round race pitted us against the bulky Mansfield A, and while the crew rowed valiantly they simply couldn't match up to the pure brawn of the oppo. In the repechage the crew rowed even better to hold off a late charge and thereby shock a supremely confident New C! Naturally this famous victory sparked ecstatic celebrations within the boat, and the euphoria had us dreaming of greater glory to come. So it was on to the second round, where reality came crashing down on us as the crew again acquitted itself admirably but were simply outmuscled and comfortably outdistanced by the even bulkier Univ D. That meant that we were out of the regatta, but we could hold our heads high. I am tremendously proud of what the crew achieved in a scant month of training, and look forward to charting their progress in future terms.

The "Gradu-VIII" Novice crew from the first day of Christ Church Regatta: (back row l-r) Dorjana Sirola (spare), Michael Sommer (three), Alex Kioupkiolis (five), me (cox), Marc de Rosnay (coach), Josh Yiu (six), Mauricio Gamboa-Marrufo (four); (front row l-r) Hannele Nicholson (two), Annika Velthut (seven), Kate McCleery (bow), Hiromi Kinoshita (stroke). Photo courtesy of Kenneth Kar.

The victorious "Gradu-VIII" Novice crew from the second day of Christ Church Regatta: (back row l-r) Michael Sommer (three), Josh Yiu (six), Marc de Rosnay (coach), Alex Kioupkiolis (five), Mauricio Gamboa-Marrufo (four); (front row l-r) Dorjana Sirola (bow), Hiromi Kinoshita (stroke), me (cox), Annika Velthut (seven), Jenny Enarsson (two).

More photos are available for viewing courtesy of:

Shooting

As mentioned elsewhere, my first experience with shooting came as part of Modern Pentathlon Cuppers in first year. Shooting air pistols at 10 metres, I quickly learned to appreciate the difficulty of shooting accurately and consistently as my hand would refuse to hold the gun steady. While I didn't entertain any serious thoughts of trying modern pentathlon in earnest, I was intrigued by shooting and thought I wouldn't mind trying it again in future.

This notion resurfaced during the summer before third year as I spotted an entry for the Oxford University Pistol Club while browsing through the Sports Federation site. So after contacting the team captain and going along to the first shoot I decided to give the sport a year. Initially I tried shooting with both hands, and for a time I shot better with my left hand than with my right, even when we moved to 25 metres! However, after a few weeks the natural order was restored, and I now shoot exclusively right-handed.

Michaelmas term was a bit of a laugh as none of the coaching seemed to be sinking in and there was little correlation between how I thought I shot and how my actual results turned out. However, something clicked in Hilary term as I could now see my mistakes and try to make a genuine improvement. My shooting became more consistent, my average crept up towards the high-80's, and shoots in the 90's were not uncommon occurrences. My personal best series was a 96 from two sets of 10-second rapid fire. Funnily enough, it hadn't felt like such a good shoot, but it did serve to increase my confidence immensely.

All of this practice was with the aim of making the squad for the varsity match with Cambridge. This year's match was held in Cambridge on Sunday, 18 February, as part of the 29th Varsity Games. Despite a scare caused by my pistol breaking a week and a half before the competition, I had the honour of being selected for the A-team. My teammates and I found conditions in Cambridge difficult as we suffered in temperatures hovering just above 10 degrees and struggled to get ourselves sighted in on the shorter 20-metre range. The pressure of the situation didn't help either as I failed to recreate my best form. However, my score of 484/600 was third best in the team and was better than any of the Cambridge scores, although admittedly I pipped their top shooter by a mere point! All of the team performed well as we comfortably defeated the Tabs 1984 to 1900. Our strong B-team also convincingly trounced their B-team 925 to 877. Unfortunately our Ladies team could not complete the clean sweep as they lost 922 to 893 to a team that included two A-team shooters. Still it was a great day for us and for me personally as I earned a Half-Blue!

You can have a look at my scorecard.

The varsity team members:
(centre top) Rachel C. Dixon (Mens A and Ladies, Mens captain);
(back row l-r) John Devoy (Mens B), Kelly Fuerber (Ladies), Michael Reade (Mens B), George Berry (Mens B);
(middle row l-r) me (Mens A), Stephen Hebbes (Mens A), Jo Everitt (Ladies, Ladies captain), Michelle Wu (Ladies);
(front row l-r) Pedro Castelo Ferreira (Mens B), Richard Heylin (Mens A).

At the same time as I was starting pistol shooting I also tried shooting smallbore rifles, both gallery style (standing rapid fire) and prone (lying down). Naturally this was much easier than pistols because you have a much more stable grip. I felt that, in contrast with pistol shooting, there wasn't much of a physical challenge. It was mostly mental as to whether you were patient enough to line yourself up properly for the shot. Time and economics persuaded me to put this pursuit on hold. While the Pistol Club does shoot gallery rifles in Trinity term, I was away in Switzerland at the time and thus missed out.

Baseball

In my first year I joined up with the Oxford University Kings Baseball Club. The club was also in its first year, but had aspirations of evolving from a social sports club into fully fledged Blues squad. It also aimed to introduce the sport in a country not traditionally know for its prowess at it. I had never played baseball back home, but I had played softball for three summers which stood me in good stead for picking up the hardball version. Ironically, I had played one game of cricket in Canada, but none (yet) in England.

I started at first base in the first game in the club's history on Sunday, 28 February 1999. It was against Oxford-Brookes University as part of a triangular series that included Cambridge University. We lost 6-1 since we fielded several first-timers (including me). I played a mostly solid game at the bag, although I muffed up a couple of pick-off attempts, and got on base several times through walks and basehits.

During the season I was settled into centre-field to provide a "veteran" presence in the outfield while often flanked by two neophytes to the game. I was often batted near the top of the order because of my switch-hitting and selectiveness at the plate. We won all of our games early in the season and only towards the end did we start to falter.

The highlight of the year was being selected to be the starting centre-fielder in the inaugural varsity match against Cambridge University in Cambridge on Saturday, 5th June 1999. I provided my usual solid presence in the outfield and scored a run during one of my traipses around the basepaths. The game was a tense, see-saw affair which we eventually won 11-8.

The winning 1999 varsity team:
(back row l-r) me (CF), Mallar Batacharya (1B), David Hamilton (RF), Santo Bains (3B, captain), Mike O'Leary (C/LF), Mike Tomko (SS/P), Taylor Umlauf (P/SS);
(front row l-r) Richard Pan (LF/C), Will Cordeiro (sub RF), Jason File (2B).
Photo courtesy of Oxford University Kings Baseball Club.

Reports on the match:

Team report
Cherwell article

The season ended with the British Baseball Federation playoffs. We had one match against the Guildford Mavericks to win promotion to Division One. I started in my usual centre-field position. Unfortunately a number of regulars had gone home for the summer, so we fielded a weakened side and failed in our bid to be promoted. However, we had given a strong start to the club and prospects were very good for future years.

Because of my burgeoning cricket commitments I no longer have time to play baseball. However I continue to support the team (from afar) and wish them the best of fortunes.

Curling

I will eventually have an account of my trip to the World Curling Championships 2000 held in Glasgow, Scotland.

My favourite sources for curling news are

Other Sports

Soccer

Everyone has played soccer at some point, and everyone in England has played lots of it. In my first term I was drafted to play for the Univ MCR team in the Premier Division of the MCR League. I started at left midfield in the season's first game and even managed to score the team's first goal of the season. However I missed all of the other games that term, and, realizing that the other players took the games too seriously for my tastes, I decided to bow out of further competition.

Modern Pentathlon

Modern pentathlon is a much more rarely practiced sport. An eclectic mix of showjumping, pistol shooting, fencing, cross-country running and swimming, it embodies the trials faced by couriers in days of old. I was asked to compete for Univ in Cuppers competition during first term. I didn't actually do all five disciplines since Cuppers rules only required competitors to do three each. I chose to do shooting, fencing and running. Shooting was entirely new to me, and I rather (alarmingly) enjoyed the experience. After missing the target completely in the first couple of rounds, I managed to score with most of my remaining shots, although not enough to record any pentathlon points. Fencing I had done while at Queen's, which gave me an advantage over other first-time pentathletes despite pentathlon using epee rather than my favoured foil. I defeated most of the people who were below my level, and even stole a few points off superior fencers with my surprisingly quick lunges at their feet, a target area which most forgot about. Running was more or less a disaster as I was not up to the standards of this competition. Still, I acquitted myself competently and was happy for taking up the challenge.

Teddy Hall Relays

The signature event of the university running year is the Teddy Hall Relays. It is an event that attracts entries not only from assorted college and university sports teams but from local running clubs and other university teams as well. It involves each person running 3.5 miles, with four people per team for men and mixed and three for women. I got my chance to become involved in this tradition in third year as an intrepid pair of us tried to form a Pistol Club entry. Our eagerness was not matched by other club members, so we had to turn to a pair of OUPC "substitutes". Late arrivals on the day forced a last-minute switch to the first leg for me. This meant that I got to face the consternation of watching the rest of the field tear away from me at the start. With no one to chase, I had plenty of time to contemplate the prospects of having to run an extra leg should the others not turn up. This was made more daunting by the race course being extended to over 4 miles to avoid quarantined areas affected by an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. Fortunately everyone did show up eventually, so I had only the one leg to run. I finished well down the field with a time of 28:52, although I acquitted myself about as well as I could hope.

The Pistol Club entry to Teddy Hall Relays:
(l-r) me (1st leg), Michael Reade (2nd), Neil Evans (3rd), Mike Selby (4th)

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