Newcastle University sport teams celebrate league success
12 May 2020
This is Team Newcastle’s second highest number of league titles in any given year. Newcastle will now have 16 teams playing at the highest level going in to the 2020-21 season, the most Newcastle has ever had, with Women’s Fencing, Men’s Football, Men’s Tennis and Women’s Volleyball all being promoted.
Newcastle University was ranked ninth overall with 2204 points in the British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) table before the lockdown started. This means the University was on track to a fifth consecutive Top 10 finish.
Fraser Kennedy, Performance Sport Manager, Newcastle University, said: “Although the rankings and points allocations are unofficial this year it should not detract away from the significant achievements the Performance Sports and their respective teams have made this year. We would have finished again in the top 10, probably 9th but with an outside chance of achieving 8th. This is a ringing endorsement of the hard work of all the teams, athletes and colleagues who keep us as one of the best sporting institutions in the country.”
The overall BUCS league success was fired by impressive individual and team efforts.
In the Conference Cup competitions, Team Newcastle featured five finalists, with Men’s Table Tennis 2nds and Women’s 1sts both winning.
Men’s Rugby League 1sts made it to the final of the national 9’s championships only to come up against the reigning champions for the last 3 years in Northumbria.
Women’s Ultimate Frisbee took the top prize by winning their respective national indoor championships for the very first time.
Newcastle University Boat Club were the overall event winners at the BUCS 4’s and 8’s Head on the River Tyne, winning the coveted Victor Ludorum trophy (awarded to the university gaining most points) for the men’s team, women’s team and the overall race. Over 240 crews took part racing in both 4’s and 8’s over the 5km course.
Basketball Men’s 1s had their best ever BUCS season finishing 3rd nationally and also won the National Basketball League (NBL) D2. They are now promoted back to NBL1, which is the professional league below the British Basketball League.
Focus on recruitment of top athletes from around the world has again paid dividends for the University. Team Newcastle welcomed 143 sports scholars across 19 sports for the 2019/20 academic year in a bid to sustain its position as a leading performance sport university. This included a significant recruitment strategy drive in the USA that resulted in the recruitment of 22 top-quality student athletes who helped boost the University’s sporting performance programme within their respective sports.