"i'm Proud of my players" - David Gough
David Gough is hoping to take inspiration from his side's strong finish to last season as the driving force to kick start the teams campaign this time around.
Gough has seen his Glamorgan men’s 1st team lose their opening three games, conceding 10 goals in the process, but he is refusing to give up and believes that as soon as his teams luck changes, results will follow.
Speaking after Glamorgan’s 2-0 home loss to Hartpury, Gough said: “It’s been a disappointing start and we would have liked to have done better after the first three games of course.
“Last year we finished runners-up in the league but we didn’t take any points from the first two games, which was the same as this season coming into the Hartpury match where we were looking for a minimum of one point.
“Looking back at the early season so far, there are always things you think you could have done differently.”
Glamorgan showed a real togetherness and fighting spirit in the defeat to Hartpury, but they failed to hold on for a point and conceded twice late on to goals from Scott Wilson and Dan Culley.
The defeat came just a week after Glam fell to a 4-3 loss at Glamorgan Sport Park where they let slip a 1-0 lead before finding themselves 4-1 behind. But despite the early setback, Gough is hoping to use video analysis to help guide his side as they push on, starting with the game against Swansea.
“I’m proud of my players, who have shown great spirit. We had conceded eight goals in our last two games and today came up against Hartpury who are one of the best sides in University history. They haven’t been beaten in five years – with 10 minutes to go we were level, which says it all.
“They’ve won the league every year, and have a brilliant recruitment system, so I’m really proud of my players for giving it a real go out there.
“It just hasn’t happened for us so far, but we’ve got Swansea coming up, a derby game which becomes the biggest game of our season.
“We have every game videoed so we can then analyse it afterwards, before coming together as a team on Friday mornings and going over it to see where we can perhaps improve.”
Despite this, the football and performance coach knows that results are all that matter, but with time, and valuable lessons being learned, Glamorgan can continue the hard work put in by previous management.
“Football is played on the pitch and I couldn’t have asked for any more from my team so far," Gough said.
“We’ve been unlucky at certain times and not always taken our chances, but we’ve seen from Hartpury that the best teams get in front and keep the lead.
“Staying in the league is our biggest priority, it always is. Steve Savage has done an amazing job over the last five years to get this team into the league – making us one of the first Premier teams in the country.
“We are in the top 10 university sides in the UK, so Steve deserves massive credit for that and it’s now our job as management staff to keep this good work going.
“If we stay up by a point or even a goal, I’ll take that.”
Gough has seen his Glamorgan men’s 1st team lose their opening three games, conceding 10 goals in the process, but he is refusing to give up and believes that as soon as his teams luck changes, results will follow.
Speaking after Glamorgan’s 2-0 home loss to Hartpury, Gough said: “It’s been a disappointing start and we would have liked to have done better after the first three games of course.
“Last year we finished runners-up in the league but we didn’t take any points from the first two games, which was the same as this season coming into the Hartpury match where we were looking for a minimum of one point.
“Looking back at the early season so far, there are always things you think you could have done differently.”
Glamorgan showed a real togetherness and fighting spirit in the defeat to Hartpury, but they failed to hold on for a point and conceded twice late on to goals from Scott Wilson and Dan Culley.
The defeat came just a week after Glam fell to a 4-3 loss at Glamorgan Sport Park where they let slip a 1-0 lead before finding themselves 4-1 behind. But despite the early setback, Gough is hoping to use video analysis to help guide his side as they push on, starting with the game against Swansea.
“I’m proud of my players, who have shown great spirit. We had conceded eight goals in our last two games and today came up against Hartpury who are one of the best sides in University history. They haven’t been beaten in five years – with 10 minutes to go we were level, which says it all.
“They’ve won the league every year, and have a brilliant recruitment system, so I’m really proud of my players for giving it a real go out there.
“It just hasn’t happened for us so far, but we’ve got Swansea coming up, a derby game which becomes the biggest game of our season.
“We have every game videoed so we can then analyse it afterwards, before coming together as a team on Friday mornings and going over it to see where we can perhaps improve.”
Despite this, the football and performance coach knows that results are all that matter, but with time, and valuable lessons being learned, Glamorgan can continue the hard work put in by previous management.
“Football is played on the pitch and I couldn’t have asked for any more from my team so far," Gough said.
“We’ve been unlucky at certain times and not always taken our chances, but we’ve seen from Hartpury that the best teams get in front and keep the lead.
“Staying in the league is our biggest priority, it always is. Steve Savage has done an amazing job over the last five years to get this team into the league – making us one of the first Premier teams in the country.
“We are in the top 10 university sides in the UK, so Steve deserves massive credit for that and it’s now our job as management staff to keep this good work going.
“If we stay up by a point or even a goal, I’ll take that.”
Column: Football is the biggest victim of Britain’s ‘sport bug’
On the back end of the most successful summer of sport Britain has ever witnessed, it appears that football has fallen victim to the sporting bug. It was first caught in late June as Andy Murray faced off against Roger Federer and lasted through to the dramatic Ryder Cup finale at the Medinah Country Club in September.
It was an incredible few months of sport which saw tears of pain, tears of joy and every emotion in between. But come August and the start of the new football season, it appeared that many had fallen out of love with the beautiful game. The talk of dramatic finals, tense showdowns, team spirit and gold medals galore, had been replaced by diving, crowd trouble, poor refereeing decisions and claims of racism. Football was back.
The past 12 months has seen the sport dragged through the mud with a drawn-out court case to decide that John Terry had not racially abused Anton Ferdinand, though the FA went ahead and dished out a four game ban and a hefty fine to the former England player, just to show that they were trying to rectify the issue of racism – something which still lingers around the sport, despite countless efforts to eradicate it completely from the game.
With the court case slowly receiving less and less column inches, the current hot topic of football sparked back into life when England travelled to Serbia last month for an U -21 match which will not be remembered for the great defensive show from a young English side, but instead for events that showed football finds it impossible to move into the modern day.
The scenes which seen England’s Danny Rose subjected to vile racist abuse, before triggering a mass brawl, has sparked the debate back into full-swing. It led to players somewhat boycotting the Kick it out campaign by shunning the promotional shirts in pre-match warm-ups, sending out a message to the organisation that it just simply isn’t doing enough.
Rio Ferdinand and brother Anton – the latter of which will probably be best remembered after retiring for talk of racist abuse he was alleged to have received from Mr. Terry, rather that anything he has achieved on the pitch – claimed in a joint statement that not enough was being done to fully ‘kick it out’ of the game. They have a point.
To highlight this, we simply have to look at some stats which perfectly highlight that not enough is being done to punish those found guilty of racially abusing a fellow professional. In 2004, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Ashley Cole were subjected to monkey chants at the Bernabeu Stadium, when England played Spain in a friendly match. It was anything but friendly, with the Spanish FA having to pay up a fine of £44,750.
Three years later, and it was Nedum Onuoha’s turn to be at the centre of a race-storm as he received abuse from Serbian fans during an U -21 fixture (sound familiar?). Serbia were later fined just £16,500.
In September 2008, Emile Heskey was racially abused by Croatian fans who directed monkey chants towards him. The Croatian Federation were fined a mere £15,000 – see a pattern emerging here?
In September 2011, the Bulgarian FA received a fine of £34,000 following abuse aimed towards Ashley Young during a Euro 2012 qualifier in Sofia. This came just days after Sepp Blatter controversially said that racism was not a problem in football.
So let’s put this into some perspective. At this summer’s Euros, Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner lowered his shorts to show a pair of branded Paddy Power ‘lucky pants’. The former Arsenal player was later fined £80,000 for breaching FIFA regulations regarding advertising- that’s more than the fines received by Croatia, Bulgaria and Serbia combined.
On the back of the Professional Footballers’ Association’s six-point plan which aims to clamp down on racism in the sport, it appears that a fine just won’t cut it. UEFA have a chance to send out a strong message on the subject when it comes to looking into the recent alleged racist abuse received by Rose in Serbia (the Serbian FA still deny hearing any type of monkey chants).
In September I travelled to the Balkan state to watch Wales, in a trip that will forever be remembered as Welsh footballs lowest point on the pitch in recent memory, falling 6-1 to the Serbs. All talk of violence was quickly quashed as supporters mingled together in Novi Sad prior to the game. One thing that was clear however, these fans take their football extremely seriously.
With England going 2-0 up on aggregate last month - crushing any hope Serbia had of qualifying in the process – tempers began to flair and the rest is history. Those in charge now have a big decision to make, whether to simply fine the Serbian FA, ban the home supporters, or exclude Serbia from qualifying for any major tournament at all age levels for the time being.
With Serbia receiving numerous fines already in the past couple of years, as well as a ban on home supporters due to violence, it’s clear to see it’s not enough to stop those who think it‘s okay to abuse a player simply because of the colour of his skin. UEFA must come to a decision with FIFA to forget all the logistics and exclude Serbia from international football for a period of time to send out a message.
Forget fining a country. Forget banning supporters. More needs to be done to kick racism out of football for good, and the only way that can be achieved is by strongly punishing players and nations in a way that will truly send across the message that there is no room for racism in football.
It was an incredible few months of sport which saw tears of pain, tears of joy and every emotion in between. But come August and the start of the new football season, it appeared that many had fallen out of love with the beautiful game. The talk of dramatic finals, tense showdowns, team spirit and gold medals galore, had been replaced by diving, crowd trouble, poor refereeing decisions and claims of racism. Football was back.
The past 12 months has seen the sport dragged through the mud with a drawn-out court case to decide that John Terry had not racially abused Anton Ferdinand, though the FA went ahead and dished out a four game ban and a hefty fine to the former England player, just to show that they were trying to rectify the issue of racism – something which still lingers around the sport, despite countless efforts to eradicate it completely from the game.
With the court case slowly receiving less and less column inches, the current hot topic of football sparked back into life when England travelled to Serbia last month for an U -21 match which will not be remembered for the great defensive show from a young English side, but instead for events that showed football finds it impossible to move into the modern day.
The scenes which seen England’s Danny Rose subjected to vile racist abuse, before triggering a mass brawl, has sparked the debate back into full-swing. It led to players somewhat boycotting the Kick it out campaign by shunning the promotional shirts in pre-match warm-ups, sending out a message to the organisation that it just simply isn’t doing enough.
Rio Ferdinand and brother Anton – the latter of which will probably be best remembered after retiring for talk of racist abuse he was alleged to have received from Mr. Terry, rather that anything he has achieved on the pitch – claimed in a joint statement that not enough was being done to fully ‘kick it out’ of the game. They have a point.
To highlight this, we simply have to look at some stats which perfectly highlight that not enough is being done to punish those found guilty of racially abusing a fellow professional. In 2004, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Ashley Cole were subjected to monkey chants at the Bernabeu Stadium, when England played Spain in a friendly match. It was anything but friendly, with the Spanish FA having to pay up a fine of £44,750.
Three years later, and it was Nedum Onuoha’s turn to be at the centre of a race-storm as he received abuse from Serbian fans during an U -21 fixture (sound familiar?). Serbia were later fined just £16,500.
In September 2008, Emile Heskey was racially abused by Croatian fans who directed monkey chants towards him. The Croatian Federation were fined a mere £15,000 – see a pattern emerging here?
In September 2011, the Bulgarian FA received a fine of £34,000 following abuse aimed towards Ashley Young during a Euro 2012 qualifier in Sofia. This came just days after Sepp Blatter controversially said that racism was not a problem in football.
So let’s put this into some perspective. At this summer’s Euros, Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner lowered his shorts to show a pair of branded Paddy Power ‘lucky pants’. The former Arsenal player was later fined £80,000 for breaching FIFA regulations regarding advertising- that’s more than the fines received by Croatia, Bulgaria and Serbia combined.
On the back of the Professional Footballers’ Association’s six-point plan which aims to clamp down on racism in the sport, it appears that a fine just won’t cut it. UEFA have a chance to send out a strong message on the subject when it comes to looking into the recent alleged racist abuse received by Rose in Serbia (the Serbian FA still deny hearing any type of monkey chants).
In September I travelled to the Balkan state to watch Wales, in a trip that will forever be remembered as Welsh footballs lowest point on the pitch in recent memory, falling 6-1 to the Serbs. All talk of violence was quickly quashed as supporters mingled together in Novi Sad prior to the game. One thing that was clear however, these fans take their football extremely seriously.
With England going 2-0 up on aggregate last month - crushing any hope Serbia had of qualifying in the process – tempers began to flair and the rest is history. Those in charge now have a big decision to make, whether to simply fine the Serbian FA, ban the home supporters, or exclude Serbia from qualifying for any major tournament at all age levels for the time being.
With Serbia receiving numerous fines already in the past couple of years, as well as a ban on home supporters due to violence, it’s clear to see it’s not enough to stop those who think it‘s okay to abuse a player simply because of the colour of his skin. UEFA must come to a decision with FIFA to forget all the logistics and exclude Serbia from international football for a period of time to send out a message.
Forget fining a country. Forget banning supporters. More needs to be done to kick racism out of football for good, and the only way that can be achieved is by strongly punishing players and nations in a way that will truly send across the message that there is no room for racism in football.
Glamorgan set to launch gaelic football side
Gaelic football is set to receive a major boost - after current and former students joined together to launch a new university team.
Glamorgan do not currently have a Gaelic football side, despite the fact it is the most popular sport in terms of attendance in Ireland. The lack of attention in Britain is not enough to stop a group of students who are looking to set-up a team to contest in next seasons BUCS division.
Vice President Student Support, Sarah Valkenborghs, 21, is hoping to make the most of the vast amount of Irish students studying in Glamorgan to help create a Gaelic football side – a sport which is heavily contested back in her homeland of Ireland.
Valkenborghs believes that the sport can thrive, it’s just a case of getting the players together, she said: “There are a lot of Irish people at the University of Glamorgan and back home in Ireland Gaelic football is the biggest sport - It’s something that is central to the culture.”
“I looked up the amount of Irish people in the uni and it turned out there was around 300 students from Ireland who are studying here and in surrounding areas, so I felt there had to be at least 15 students who were interested in creating this Gaelic football side – It is such a big sport back home after all.
“Glamorgan did actually used to have a Gaelic football side that were in fact really good, winning the cup and league on separate occasions, hopefully we can get back to a similar level one day”
The former volleyball player of three years believes that the interest is definitely there, and with the help of surrounding universities, the sport can really take off.
“Two years ago a student from Cardiff Met tried to set up a side, but found that there weren’t enough players from that university alone. He asked some of the universities close by to advertise the team and work together to create a combined team.
“We went ahead and set up this joint team, and there was a lot of uptake from students at Glamorgan – even those who weren’t actually Irish – which was promising.
“We had rugby players who were interested in giving it a try, they would go for a few weeks but because the training fields were so far away and hard to get to, they would stop coming after a few weeks because it simply wasn’t worth the hassle.
“So the interest was definitely there, but it was too inaccessible for the Glamorgan students.”
This early interest in the team has left Valkenborghs with the bare bones of a squad, but she is hopeful that by this time next year Glamorgan will have a squad ready to compete in the BUCS league.
“We are not looking at getting into a competitive league at this moment in time, it’s just a case of registering as a club for the time being.
“Although there is a BUCS league around, we missed entry to join due to a lack of players at the time. So this year we will set it up, before looking ahead to next year’s Fresher’s Week where we will have a stall to really push it and hopefully get into the league system.”
For the time being, the Treforest based graduate is focusing on building the team to enter certain one off events, but is also still looking for more players.
“We can still enter one off competitions at the moment, but obviously we would really like to get the squad available to compete in the BUCS league," Valkenborghs said.
"There are local teams in the area away from the uni who are trying to recruit students to play, so we will look into that.
"If there’s anyone interested – whether they have experience or not – come and have a go. There’s nothing to lose by giving it a go and it can be really fun.
"We’ve only had a few meetings and this week had a training session, so people who come along now don’t need to worry about having missed anything.”
It is the start of a process that the current students setting up this Gaelic football team hope will continue down the years, but for now it is a case of simply getting a team in place.
Glamorgan do not currently have a Gaelic football side, despite the fact it is the most popular sport in terms of attendance in Ireland. The lack of attention in Britain is not enough to stop a group of students who are looking to set-up a team to contest in next seasons BUCS division.
Vice President Student Support, Sarah Valkenborghs, 21, is hoping to make the most of the vast amount of Irish students studying in Glamorgan to help create a Gaelic football side – a sport which is heavily contested back in her homeland of Ireland.
Valkenborghs believes that the sport can thrive, it’s just a case of getting the players together, she said: “There are a lot of Irish people at the University of Glamorgan and back home in Ireland Gaelic football is the biggest sport - It’s something that is central to the culture.”
“I looked up the amount of Irish people in the uni and it turned out there was around 300 students from Ireland who are studying here and in surrounding areas, so I felt there had to be at least 15 students who were interested in creating this Gaelic football side – It is such a big sport back home after all.
“Glamorgan did actually used to have a Gaelic football side that were in fact really good, winning the cup and league on separate occasions, hopefully we can get back to a similar level one day”
The former volleyball player of three years believes that the interest is definitely there, and with the help of surrounding universities, the sport can really take off.
“Two years ago a student from Cardiff Met tried to set up a side, but found that there weren’t enough players from that university alone. He asked some of the universities close by to advertise the team and work together to create a combined team.
“We went ahead and set up this joint team, and there was a lot of uptake from students at Glamorgan – even those who weren’t actually Irish – which was promising.
“We had rugby players who were interested in giving it a try, they would go for a few weeks but because the training fields were so far away and hard to get to, they would stop coming after a few weeks because it simply wasn’t worth the hassle.
“So the interest was definitely there, but it was too inaccessible for the Glamorgan students.”
This early interest in the team has left Valkenborghs with the bare bones of a squad, but she is hopeful that by this time next year Glamorgan will have a squad ready to compete in the BUCS league.
“We are not looking at getting into a competitive league at this moment in time, it’s just a case of registering as a club for the time being.
“Although there is a BUCS league around, we missed entry to join due to a lack of players at the time. So this year we will set it up, before looking ahead to next year’s Fresher’s Week where we will have a stall to really push it and hopefully get into the league system.”
For the time being, the Treforest based graduate is focusing on building the team to enter certain one off events, but is also still looking for more players.
“We can still enter one off competitions at the moment, but obviously we would really like to get the squad available to compete in the BUCS league," Valkenborghs said.
"There are local teams in the area away from the uni who are trying to recruit students to play, so we will look into that.
"If there’s anyone interested – whether they have experience or not – come and have a go. There’s nothing to lose by giving it a go and it can be really fun.
"We’ve only had a few meetings and this week had a training session, so people who come along now don’t need to worry about having missed anything.”
It is the start of a process that the current students setting up this Gaelic football team hope will continue down the years, but for now it is a case of simply getting a team in place.
"Positive student experience" at heart of merger decision
SPORTS teams will be a “major ambassador” in getting the new brand of a merged Glamorgan and Newport University out to the public.
The controversial merger - which will see the University of Glamorgan and the University of Wales, Newport combine - has been met with widespread concern by Glam students.
Head of Sport for the University of Glamorgan, Dr Tudor Williams, understands student’s fears regarding transport, financial issues and other logistical problems, but believes the sports teams can help to get this new merged university’s brand out to the wider public.
Speaking to The Phoenix, he said: “I believe that the sports teams will be the major ambassador of getting the new brand out there.
“As the Vice Chancellor has already said, the new brand is going to be the new university – the sport kit will be a big part of getting that name out there.
“There has to be a logo, if you look at anything from Cardiff City to Cardiff Blues, there is always a logo and it’s a case of getting it out there.
“If we’ve got 600 students wearing the kit when they play on Wednesdays, add to this all the hoodies and tracksuits, plus the people on the sports courses, there will be over 1,000 people getting this brand across."
The merger is set to go ahead in September 2013, and will see Glamorgan’s 44 sport teams combine with Newport’s 11. Dr Williams believes that it is vital to keep the positive student experience at the heart of any decision, which may mean leaving a full merging of the two universities into one until a later date.
“Student experience really is key, not just student experience for new coming students, but also for those currently with us," he said.
“If students are currently in the first or second year, then they will be in the second and third year respectively when this potentially goes through.
“For the first year there may not be a lot of change if we are talking about September 2013, but my understanding is that it won’t be until September 2014 that we start moving students from one campus to the other if the merger comes off.”
Glamorgan currently have around 600 students who take part in the 44 sports teams, as well as a further 1,000 students who are members of the Sports Centre in Treforest.
Likewise, students from Newport also have certain membership schemes, something that will be taken into account before the merger goes ahead next year, with both universities sports stars being at the forefront of any big decisions.
“We increased our numbers at Glamorgan by 14 teams this year from what we had last year, so there is a high number of students we are talking about.
“But there are certainly other issues here, because although we have around 600 students involved with sports teams every Wednesday, we also have 1,500 members of our Sports Centre who come in for leisure classes, health and fitness sessions and to use the gym and so on.
“So the sports teams are only about 40% of the activities we carry out each week.
“We have arrangements at the moment for our students based in Cardiff to use Pure Gym or the Marriott Hotel and they do something similar in Newport.
“We must not forget about these gym memberships and people who want to use the classes every week, these are the bread and butter where the high use is, so again if we had a membership system it is important that the students based in Newport and Caerleon have an option to go to facilities close by rather than coming down Glamorgan to play their tennis, badminton or rugby.
“There are two areas to look at: The Student’s Union, who have a cost to join the various sports teams, the cost of kit and also the transport to and from games.
“The second issue regards the joining of the gyms, whether that is a premium membership or a gold membership, we will have to look at facilities at both campuses to make sure it is fair for students.
“If they are currently getting a better deal at one or the other campus, then we will look at equalling that out – we want students to see that there is fair play here in terms of what is happening.”
One concern shown by sports players was the fact that a new merged university could see the loss of certain past honours won, but Dr Williams was quick to quash these worries.
He said: “I would suggest that all past honours for the various sides remain if the merger goes through.
“It’s important that the records will always be there.”
The controversial merger - which will see the University of Glamorgan and the University of Wales, Newport combine - has been met with widespread concern by Glam students.
Head of Sport for the University of Glamorgan, Dr Tudor Williams, understands student’s fears regarding transport, financial issues and other logistical problems, but believes the sports teams can help to get this new merged university’s brand out to the wider public.
Speaking to The Phoenix, he said: “I believe that the sports teams will be the major ambassador of getting the new brand out there.
“As the Vice Chancellor has already said, the new brand is going to be the new university – the sport kit will be a big part of getting that name out there.
“There has to be a logo, if you look at anything from Cardiff City to Cardiff Blues, there is always a logo and it’s a case of getting it out there.
“If we’ve got 600 students wearing the kit when they play on Wednesdays, add to this all the hoodies and tracksuits, plus the people on the sports courses, there will be over 1,000 people getting this brand across."
The merger is set to go ahead in September 2013, and will see Glamorgan’s 44 sport teams combine with Newport’s 11. Dr Williams believes that it is vital to keep the positive student experience at the heart of any decision, which may mean leaving a full merging of the two universities into one until a later date.
“Student experience really is key, not just student experience for new coming students, but also for those currently with us," he said.
“If students are currently in the first or second year, then they will be in the second and third year respectively when this potentially goes through.
“For the first year there may not be a lot of change if we are talking about September 2013, but my understanding is that it won’t be until September 2014 that we start moving students from one campus to the other if the merger comes off.”
Glamorgan currently have around 600 students who take part in the 44 sports teams, as well as a further 1,000 students who are members of the Sports Centre in Treforest.
Likewise, students from Newport also have certain membership schemes, something that will be taken into account before the merger goes ahead next year, with both universities sports stars being at the forefront of any big decisions.
“We increased our numbers at Glamorgan by 14 teams this year from what we had last year, so there is a high number of students we are talking about.
“But there are certainly other issues here, because although we have around 600 students involved with sports teams every Wednesday, we also have 1,500 members of our Sports Centre who come in for leisure classes, health and fitness sessions and to use the gym and so on.
“So the sports teams are only about 40% of the activities we carry out each week.
“We have arrangements at the moment for our students based in Cardiff to use Pure Gym or the Marriott Hotel and they do something similar in Newport.
“We must not forget about these gym memberships and people who want to use the classes every week, these are the bread and butter where the high use is, so again if we had a membership system it is important that the students based in Newport and Caerleon have an option to go to facilities close by rather than coming down Glamorgan to play their tennis, badminton or rugby.
“There are two areas to look at: The Student’s Union, who have a cost to join the various sports teams, the cost of kit and also the transport to and from games.
“The second issue regards the joining of the gyms, whether that is a premium membership or a gold membership, we will have to look at facilities at both campuses to make sure it is fair for students.
“If they are currently getting a better deal at one or the other campus, then we will look at equalling that out – we want students to see that there is fair play here in terms of what is happening.”
One concern shown by sports players was the fact that a new merged university could see the loss of certain past honours won, but Dr Williams was quick to quash these worries.
He said: “I would suggest that all past honours for the various sides remain if the merger goes through.
“It’s important that the records will always be there.”
Students hit out at merger
Glamorgan students have hit back at plans that will see the university’s sports teams merged with Newport - with fears that it could reduce the quality of sport.
The proposed merger – which will go ahead in September 2013 – is set to see the University of Glamorgan and University of Wales, Newport come together to form a new ‘super-university’.
As part of the merger plans, Glamorgan’s 44 sports teams will combine with Newport’s 11 to expand the sports sides, which has left mixed feelings among current sports players.
The general consensus among students is that the merger will have a negative effect on the current university teams, with Newport not being able to add anything to the current structure in a sports sense.
Dai Nicholas, who studies Sports Science and Rugby, believes Glamorgan have worked too hard for a merger to go ahead, he said: “In terms of the sports sides I don’t think we should merge the teams.
“Glamorgan have worked hard to get where they are as a team and as individuals. When you look at Newport in a sports sense, they are not going to bring anything to the table. It will also be hard to get to know the new players.”
Director of Sport at the University of Glamorgan, Dr Tudor Williams, believes that it is important to keep the positive student experience at the heart of any major decisions.
He understands student’s fears that a merged university could mean losing the key team spirit, as well as the extra travelling - these are all factors that will be taken into consideration.
Dr Williams said: “We have students based in Cathays and Treforest who travel to and from Glamorgan Sport Park to take part in weekly matches, and students studying at Newport University will likewise travel from surrounding areas – so for me the main focus is to keep the student experience positive.
“If we have a student sport team playing at a certain level and they train either at Glamorgan Sport Park or Treforest and play on a Wednesday, it wouldn’t make sense to me to have a combined team who then have to travel to play their matches at Newport, and also the other way around.
“We must not underestimate the fact that all the student sports teams have a fantastic collective spirit. You want to represent your university no matter what the sport is.
“The distances between the campuses, particularly for training and matches, could particularly affect the student experience if we are not careful.
“For example, we may have a team playing away at Aberystwyth on a Wednesday afternoon and if we had some students from Newport playing in the side they would then have to travel down to Treforest to get the bus up to Aberystwyth, before coming back to Treforest and then back to Newport again – these are the logistics we have to think about.”
A name for the new merged university is expected to be announced later this month, with students having a say in the final naming of the new merged university.
Though another concerned student, Aled Ball, believes that the merger can have a big effect on the quality of sport in the region, as well as some wider financial issues.
The third year Police Science student said: “I don’t think Newport will bring anything to us, we’ll have to bring new boys in and that will take a lot of time for them to gel, so it’s not a good choice.
“I don’t see the need to merge, everyone talks about making Welsh rugby stronger, but this merger can make the leagues less competitive.
“Our second and third teams can lose an opponent to play, and we’ll have to travel further now that we aren’t playing Newport in any leagues. This can affect travel expenses of course - we’ve got to look at this in the short and long term in terms of these decisions.”
Glamorgan currently sit in 37th place in the British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) overall standings, whereas Newport is much further down in 105th position.
Harry Hendricks, a current second year student at Glamorgan, shares the concerns of many students who believe the current level of sport at Newport can have an adverse effect on Glamorgan.
He said: “I don’t think it will improve the competition, when you look at the leagues, Newport’s sides are quite far down.
“So though you do improve the intake, it doesn’t necessarily improve the level of competition.”
But it is because of these concerns that Glamorgan look set to delay the full merging of the current Newport and Glamorgan sports sides into one until September 2014.
Alex Kennedy, Glamorgan’s Student Union Vice President of Student Activities, talked about the two options that the new university sport teams would be faced with.
He said: “We met with an executive from BUCS and she gave us two options. The first option would involve the university playing as one team.
“This means that players from Newport would have to travel to Treforest, Treforest to Newport and ATRiuM either way. So there are a lot of travel complications.”
The former Glamorgan student also talked about how this option would be funded, he added: “The university has spoken to both unions and discussed that if this option went ahead, then both SU’s would be responsible for how much money they would need to fund things such as travel expenses.
“The second option would mean that effectively we would stay separate and each campus would be named as it previously was under the new name.
“For example if the new name was University of South Wales, then in brackets Glamorgan would be classed as Treforest, ATRiuM would be down as Cardiff, and Newport would stay under Newport.
“I emailed the option list out to the different clubs in the university in Fresher’s week and I’ve had about 250 responses which have gone for option two.
“But with option two, people could only play for the campus that they were at. So ATRiuM students wouldn’t be able to play in Treforest and the same for all other campuses.”
Over the summer, Glamorgan invested over £300,000 on the sports facilities, which included refurbishment work on certain areas, such as the main hall in Treforest.
The University of Glamorgan can boast having some of the finest facilities in the country, as seen when the All Blacks visited Glamorgan Sport Park in November to train ahead of their clash with Wales.
Jenny Fotheringham, a maters student from Exeter, trusts that Glamorgan may be at a disadvantage with the new merger, she comments: “I can certainly see more problems than opportunities.
“We are lucky here at Glamorgan because we have brilliant coaching staff, so that may be an advantage for the Newport girls, but for us it’s convenient to have our rugby here in Treforest.
“I don’t know an awful lot about Newport rugby, but I know that they are not in the Premier Division.”
Despite the fears aired by students, Dr Williams believes that by merging with the Newport, both institutions can work hand-in-hand to provide top class facilities for all students, though it may come at a cost.
He said: “Funding is of course key, we have great facilities at Glamorgan but likewise Newport also boasts having some fantastic facilities.
“This includes the Sports Centre which is only 10 years old, and they have very close links to things like the cycling velodrome and Celtic Manor resort from a golf point of view which is on the doorstep. University of Wales, Newport has a great golf programme also as part of the Ryder Cup legacy.
“Between both institutions there are some great facilities, but my gut feeling at the moment is that students will want to stay reasonably local to where their teaching is and where their friends are for the sport.
“For some of the more specialist areas such as cycling, students may then travel from one place to another to take advantage of what they have available to them.”
Plans were abandoned last month to force a three-way merger with Cardiff Met – formerly UWIC – after the Cardiff based university was opposed to the idea.
The merger go ahead comes after the Welsh government led the drive to rearrange higher education in Wales to create a smaller number of larger universities.
Though despite the merger getting the green light, with no legal barriers in the way, Head of Sport, Williams, believes this news can really help Glamorgan in terms of achievements won.
“As far as success goes I believe this will really help us as a university,” he said.
“Sport is buoyant at the moment. We have had an extra 14 sports teams entered this year and sport participation has increased as well as student memberships who are casually using us.
“We have entered partnerships with the Marriott hotel and Pure Gym, so on the back of the Olympics sport is at a high for not just the university but for Britain as a whole.
“What we need to do quickly is make sure the students are engaged with what is going on. We had our trials weekend recently where 790 students turned up and the whole point of these trials is to let students see what is they are doing and what the brand is.
“The heart and the soul of the sports teams are in the club itself, whether that’s the first team or the fifth team and it is important that they get the same opportunities right throughout.
“Glamorgan have 44 teams that play on Wednesday afternoons, where as Newport have 11.
“We have students based in Cathays and Trefforest who travel to and from Glamorgan Sport Park to take part in weekly matches, and students studying at Newport University will likewise travel from surrounding areas – so for me the main focus is to keep the student experience positive.
“If we have a student sport team playing at whatever level and they train either at Glamorgan Sport Park or Trefforest and play on a Wednesday, it wouldn’t make sense to me to have a combined team who then have to travel to play their matches at Newport, and also the other way around.
“We must not underestimate that. All the student sports teams have a fantastic collective spirit, where you want to actually represent your university no matter what the sport is. The distances between the campuses, particularly for training and matches, could particularly affect the student experience if we are not careful.
“For example, we may have a team playing away at Aberystwyth on a Wednesday afternoon and if we had some students from Newport playing in the side they would then have to travel down to Trefforest to get the bus up to Aberystwyth, before coming back to Trefforest and then back to Newport again – these are the logistics we have to think about.
“For our own teams we are talking about significant numbers here, with between 500-600 students who belong to the 44 sports teams we have got. We increased our numbers at Glamorgan by 14 teams this year from what we had last year, so there is a high number of students we are talking about.
“But there are certainly other issues we are talking about here, because although we have around 600 students involved with sports teams every Wednesday, we also have 1,500 students who are members of our Sports Centre who come in for leisure classes, health and fitness sessions and to use the gym and so on, so the sports teams are only about 40% of the activities we carry out each week.
“We have arrangements at the moment for our students based in Cardiff to use PureGym or the Marriot Hotel and they do something similar in Newport. We must not forget about these gym memberships and people who want to use the classes every week, these are the bread and butter where the high use is, so again if we had a membership system it is important that the students based in Newport and Caerleon have an option to go to facilities close by rather than coming down Glamorgan to play their tennis, badminton or rugby for example.
“British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) have played our hand a little with regards to the merger and told us there are two possible choices available to us: We can either come together as one university, where our 44 teams and their 11 teams will merge together to make one team and that will be the team entered into the BUCS league. So for example if we have three men rugby teams and Newport have two, we will mix together and have five sides, but the second best side may be up in Newport, so the students based here would have to travel to Newport.
“The second option would be staying as we are as parallel institutions, so we would have ‘new university Glamorgan’ and ‘new university Newport’ teams entering the BUCS league in a similar way as we are at the moment.
“What BUCS have said is that once we decide to come together as one university that is it. But you can however start together as parallel teams very similar to where we are at the moment, and then come together at a later date - so those are the choices we have open to us.
“Based on what I have said previously, student experience really is key, not just student experience for new coming students, but also for those currently with us. If students are currently in the first or second year, then they will be in the second and third year respectively when this potentially goes through.
"There’s an expectation if you are currently playing at a team in Glamorgan or Newport for some continuity and minimal change. When you come back after the summer you don’t expect to have to jump on a coach to a different location to play your sport, you want it to be the same.
“So our initial thoughts at the moment are to have two parallel systems for the first year to see how it goes and make sure the student experience is there. We can be one university at a later date, or in fact three different sides – with Newport, Trefforest and Cardiff (Atrium) being separate sides. But my view on it is that we have some fantastic facilities here at Glamorgan, as do Newport, and we will make sure to keep the students at the heart of what we do.
“I would suggest that all past honours for the various sides remain if the merger goes through – it’s important that the records will always be there. There’s an overall BUCS table and I believe we finished 44th last year in the table, but that starts afresh every year.
“As far as rebranding kits goes, it will be key. There has to be a logo, if you look at anything from Cardiff City to the Blues there is always a logo and I believe that the sports teams will be the major ambassador of getting that brand out there. If we’ve got 600 students wearing the kit when they play on Wednesdays, add to this all the hoodies and tracksuits plus the people on the sports courses, there will be over 1,000 people getting this brand out there.
"As the Vice Chancellor has already said, the new brand is going to be the new university – the sport kit will be a big part of getting that name out there.
“I can’t comment on the funding, but what I can say that there are two areas to look at: The Student’s Union, who have a cost to join the various sports teams, the cost of kit and also the transport to and from games. The second issue regards the joining of the gyms, whether that is a premium membership or a gold membership, we will have to look at facilities at both campuses to make sure it is fair for students. If they are currently getting a better deal at one or the other campus, then we will look at equalling that out – we want students to see that there is fair play here in terms of what is happening.
“For the first year there may not be a lot of change if we are talking about September 2013, but my understanding is that it won’t be until September 2014 that we start moving students from one campus to the other if the merger comes off.
“Funding is of course key, we have great facilities at Glamorgan but likewise Newport also have some fantastic facilities such as the Sports Centre which is only 10 years old and they have very close links to things like the cycling velodrome and Celtic Manor resort from a gold point of view which is on the doorstep who have a great golf programme as part of the Ryder Cup legacy.
“Between both institutions there are some great facilities, but my gut feeling at the moment is that students will want to stay reasonably local to where their teaching is and where their friends are for the sport, and then for some of the more specialist areas such as cycling for example, they will travel from one place to another to take advantage of what we have available to us.
“As far as success goes I believe this will really help us as a university. Sport is buoyant at the moment, I’ve mentioned that we have had an extra 14 sports teams entered this year and sport participation has increased as well as student memberships who are casually using us. We have entered partnerships with the Marriot hotel and PureGym, so on the back of the Olympics sport is at a high for not just the university but for Britain as a whole.
“What we need to do quickly is make sure the students are engaged with what is going on. We had our trails weekend recently where 790 students turned up and the whole point of these trials is to let students see what is they are doing and what the brand is.
“The heart and the soul of the sports teams are in the club itself, whether that’s the first team or the fifth team and it is important that they get the same opportunities right throughout.”
The proposed merger – which will go ahead in September 2013 – is set to see the University of Glamorgan and University of Wales, Newport come together to form a new ‘super-university’.
As part of the merger plans, Glamorgan’s 44 sports teams will combine with Newport’s 11 to expand the sports sides, which has left mixed feelings among current sports players.
The general consensus among students is that the merger will have a negative effect on the current university teams, with Newport not being able to add anything to the current structure in a sports sense.
Dai Nicholas, who studies Sports Science and Rugby, believes Glamorgan have worked too hard for a merger to go ahead, he said: “In terms of the sports sides I don’t think we should merge the teams.
“Glamorgan have worked hard to get where they are as a team and as individuals. When you look at Newport in a sports sense, they are not going to bring anything to the table. It will also be hard to get to know the new players.”
Director of Sport at the University of Glamorgan, Dr Tudor Williams, believes that it is important to keep the positive student experience at the heart of any major decisions.
He understands student’s fears that a merged university could mean losing the key team spirit, as well as the extra travelling - these are all factors that will be taken into consideration.
Dr Williams said: “We have students based in Cathays and Treforest who travel to and from Glamorgan Sport Park to take part in weekly matches, and students studying at Newport University will likewise travel from surrounding areas – so for me the main focus is to keep the student experience positive.
“If we have a student sport team playing at a certain level and they train either at Glamorgan Sport Park or Treforest and play on a Wednesday, it wouldn’t make sense to me to have a combined team who then have to travel to play their matches at Newport, and also the other way around.
“We must not underestimate the fact that all the student sports teams have a fantastic collective spirit. You want to represent your university no matter what the sport is.
“The distances between the campuses, particularly for training and matches, could particularly affect the student experience if we are not careful.
“For example, we may have a team playing away at Aberystwyth on a Wednesday afternoon and if we had some students from Newport playing in the side they would then have to travel down to Treforest to get the bus up to Aberystwyth, before coming back to Treforest and then back to Newport again – these are the logistics we have to think about.”
A name for the new merged university is expected to be announced later this month, with students having a say in the final naming of the new merged university.
Though another concerned student, Aled Ball, believes that the merger can have a big effect on the quality of sport in the region, as well as some wider financial issues.
The third year Police Science student said: “I don’t think Newport will bring anything to us, we’ll have to bring new boys in and that will take a lot of time for them to gel, so it’s not a good choice.
“I don’t see the need to merge, everyone talks about making Welsh rugby stronger, but this merger can make the leagues less competitive.
“Our second and third teams can lose an opponent to play, and we’ll have to travel further now that we aren’t playing Newport in any leagues. This can affect travel expenses of course - we’ve got to look at this in the short and long term in terms of these decisions.”
Glamorgan currently sit in 37th place in the British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) overall standings, whereas Newport is much further down in 105th position.
Harry Hendricks, a current second year student at Glamorgan, shares the concerns of many students who believe the current level of sport at Newport can have an adverse effect on Glamorgan.
He said: “I don’t think it will improve the competition, when you look at the leagues, Newport’s sides are quite far down.
“So though you do improve the intake, it doesn’t necessarily improve the level of competition.”
But it is because of these concerns that Glamorgan look set to delay the full merging of the current Newport and Glamorgan sports sides into one until September 2014.
Alex Kennedy, Glamorgan’s Student Union Vice President of Student Activities, talked about the two options that the new university sport teams would be faced with.
He said: “We met with an executive from BUCS and she gave us two options. The first option would involve the university playing as one team.
“This means that players from Newport would have to travel to Treforest, Treforest to Newport and ATRiuM either way. So there are a lot of travel complications.”
The former Glamorgan student also talked about how this option would be funded, he added: “The university has spoken to both unions and discussed that if this option went ahead, then both SU’s would be responsible for how much money they would need to fund things such as travel expenses.
“The second option would mean that effectively we would stay separate and each campus would be named as it previously was under the new name.
“For example if the new name was University of South Wales, then in brackets Glamorgan would be classed as Treforest, ATRiuM would be down as Cardiff, and Newport would stay under Newport.
“I emailed the option list out to the different clubs in the university in Fresher’s week and I’ve had about 250 responses which have gone for option two.
“But with option two, people could only play for the campus that they were at. So ATRiuM students wouldn’t be able to play in Treforest and the same for all other campuses.”
Over the summer, Glamorgan invested over £300,000 on the sports facilities, which included refurbishment work on certain areas, such as the main hall in Treforest.
The University of Glamorgan can boast having some of the finest facilities in the country, as seen when the All Blacks visited Glamorgan Sport Park in November to train ahead of their clash with Wales.
Jenny Fotheringham, a maters student from Exeter, trusts that Glamorgan may be at a disadvantage with the new merger, she comments: “I can certainly see more problems than opportunities.
“We are lucky here at Glamorgan because we have brilliant coaching staff, so that may be an advantage for the Newport girls, but for us it’s convenient to have our rugby here in Treforest.
“I don’t know an awful lot about Newport rugby, but I know that they are not in the Premier Division.”
Despite the fears aired by students, Dr Williams believes that by merging with the Newport, both institutions can work hand-in-hand to provide top class facilities for all students, though it may come at a cost.
He said: “Funding is of course key, we have great facilities at Glamorgan but likewise Newport also boasts having some fantastic facilities.
“This includes the Sports Centre which is only 10 years old, and they have very close links to things like the cycling velodrome and Celtic Manor resort from a golf point of view which is on the doorstep. University of Wales, Newport has a great golf programme also as part of the Ryder Cup legacy.
“Between both institutions there are some great facilities, but my gut feeling at the moment is that students will want to stay reasonably local to where their teaching is and where their friends are for the sport.
“For some of the more specialist areas such as cycling, students may then travel from one place to another to take advantage of what they have available to them.”
Plans were abandoned last month to force a three-way merger with Cardiff Met – formerly UWIC – after the Cardiff based university was opposed to the idea.
The merger go ahead comes after the Welsh government led the drive to rearrange higher education in Wales to create a smaller number of larger universities.
Though despite the merger getting the green light, with no legal barriers in the way, Head of Sport, Williams, believes this news can really help Glamorgan in terms of achievements won.
“As far as success goes I believe this will really help us as a university,” he said.
“Sport is buoyant at the moment. We have had an extra 14 sports teams entered this year and sport participation has increased as well as student memberships who are casually using us.
“We have entered partnerships with the Marriott hotel and Pure Gym, so on the back of the Olympics sport is at a high for not just the university but for Britain as a whole.
“What we need to do quickly is make sure the students are engaged with what is going on. We had our trials weekend recently where 790 students turned up and the whole point of these trials is to let students see what is they are doing and what the brand is.
“The heart and the soul of the sports teams are in the club itself, whether that’s the first team or the fifth team and it is important that they get the same opportunities right throughout.
“Glamorgan have 44 teams that play on Wednesday afternoons, where as Newport have 11.
“We have students based in Cathays and Trefforest who travel to and from Glamorgan Sport Park to take part in weekly matches, and students studying at Newport University will likewise travel from surrounding areas – so for me the main focus is to keep the student experience positive.
“If we have a student sport team playing at whatever level and they train either at Glamorgan Sport Park or Trefforest and play on a Wednesday, it wouldn’t make sense to me to have a combined team who then have to travel to play their matches at Newport, and also the other way around.
“We must not underestimate that. All the student sports teams have a fantastic collective spirit, where you want to actually represent your university no matter what the sport is. The distances between the campuses, particularly for training and matches, could particularly affect the student experience if we are not careful.
“For example, we may have a team playing away at Aberystwyth on a Wednesday afternoon and if we had some students from Newport playing in the side they would then have to travel down to Trefforest to get the bus up to Aberystwyth, before coming back to Trefforest and then back to Newport again – these are the logistics we have to think about.
“For our own teams we are talking about significant numbers here, with between 500-600 students who belong to the 44 sports teams we have got. We increased our numbers at Glamorgan by 14 teams this year from what we had last year, so there is a high number of students we are talking about.
“But there are certainly other issues we are talking about here, because although we have around 600 students involved with sports teams every Wednesday, we also have 1,500 students who are members of our Sports Centre who come in for leisure classes, health and fitness sessions and to use the gym and so on, so the sports teams are only about 40% of the activities we carry out each week.
“We have arrangements at the moment for our students based in Cardiff to use PureGym or the Marriot Hotel and they do something similar in Newport. We must not forget about these gym memberships and people who want to use the classes every week, these are the bread and butter where the high use is, so again if we had a membership system it is important that the students based in Newport and Caerleon have an option to go to facilities close by rather than coming down Glamorgan to play their tennis, badminton or rugby for example.
“British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) have played our hand a little with regards to the merger and told us there are two possible choices available to us: We can either come together as one university, where our 44 teams and their 11 teams will merge together to make one team and that will be the team entered into the BUCS league. So for example if we have three men rugby teams and Newport have two, we will mix together and have five sides, but the second best side may be up in Newport, so the students based here would have to travel to Newport.
“The second option would be staying as we are as parallel institutions, so we would have ‘new university Glamorgan’ and ‘new university Newport’ teams entering the BUCS league in a similar way as we are at the moment.
“What BUCS have said is that once we decide to come together as one university that is it. But you can however start together as parallel teams very similar to where we are at the moment, and then come together at a later date - so those are the choices we have open to us.
“Based on what I have said previously, student experience really is key, not just student experience for new coming students, but also for those currently with us. If students are currently in the first or second year, then they will be in the second and third year respectively when this potentially goes through.
"There’s an expectation if you are currently playing at a team in Glamorgan or Newport for some continuity and minimal change. When you come back after the summer you don’t expect to have to jump on a coach to a different location to play your sport, you want it to be the same.
“So our initial thoughts at the moment are to have two parallel systems for the first year to see how it goes and make sure the student experience is there. We can be one university at a later date, or in fact three different sides – with Newport, Trefforest and Cardiff (Atrium) being separate sides. But my view on it is that we have some fantastic facilities here at Glamorgan, as do Newport, and we will make sure to keep the students at the heart of what we do.
“I would suggest that all past honours for the various sides remain if the merger goes through – it’s important that the records will always be there. There’s an overall BUCS table and I believe we finished 44th last year in the table, but that starts afresh every year.
“As far as rebranding kits goes, it will be key. There has to be a logo, if you look at anything from Cardiff City to the Blues there is always a logo and I believe that the sports teams will be the major ambassador of getting that brand out there. If we’ve got 600 students wearing the kit when they play on Wednesdays, add to this all the hoodies and tracksuits plus the people on the sports courses, there will be over 1,000 people getting this brand out there.
"As the Vice Chancellor has already said, the new brand is going to be the new university – the sport kit will be a big part of getting that name out there.
“I can’t comment on the funding, but what I can say that there are two areas to look at: The Student’s Union, who have a cost to join the various sports teams, the cost of kit and also the transport to and from games. The second issue regards the joining of the gyms, whether that is a premium membership or a gold membership, we will have to look at facilities at both campuses to make sure it is fair for students. If they are currently getting a better deal at one or the other campus, then we will look at equalling that out – we want students to see that there is fair play here in terms of what is happening.
“For the first year there may not be a lot of change if we are talking about September 2013, but my understanding is that it won’t be until September 2014 that we start moving students from one campus to the other if the merger comes off.
“Funding is of course key, we have great facilities at Glamorgan but likewise Newport also have some fantastic facilities such as the Sports Centre which is only 10 years old and they have very close links to things like the cycling velodrome and Celtic Manor resort from a gold point of view which is on the doorstep who have a great golf programme as part of the Ryder Cup legacy.
“Between both institutions there are some great facilities, but my gut feeling at the moment is that students will want to stay reasonably local to where their teaching is and where their friends are for the sport, and then for some of the more specialist areas such as cycling for example, they will travel from one place to another to take advantage of what we have available to us.
“As far as success goes I believe this will really help us as a university. Sport is buoyant at the moment, I’ve mentioned that we have had an extra 14 sports teams entered this year and sport participation has increased as well as student memberships who are casually using us. We have entered partnerships with the Marriot hotel and PureGym, so on the back of the Olympics sport is at a high for not just the university but for Britain as a whole.
“What we need to do quickly is make sure the students are engaged with what is going on. We had our trails weekend recently where 790 students turned up and the whole point of these trials is to let students see what is they are doing and what the brand is.
“The heart and the soul of the sports teams are in the club itself, whether that’s the first team or the fifth team and it is important that they get the same opportunities right throughout.”
Treforest all good for all blacks
The All Blacks paid a visit to the University of Glamorgan’s top-of-the-range Sport Park ahead of their autumn international match against Wales - with manager Darren Shand praising the high standard of the facilities.
World Cup winners New Zealand went on to beat Wales 33-10 in the Millennium Stadium clash, but manager Shand believes the key to their success is down to the hours of hard work put in by Captain Richie McCaw and co.
Speaking exclusively to The Phoenix, Shand – who took over the role as All Black manager in 2004 - said: “We are constantly trying to improve, that’s part of the All Blacks history and legacy.
“You can never have the perfect game, and that is what pushes us on, trying to reach that high benchmark that we have set ourselves.
“We strive to constantly improve, and that can only be achieved by training hard.”
It’s not the first time New Zealand have used the University’s facilities, returning two years on from their last clash with Wales, the world’s number one side took advantage of the indoor facilities to practice their line-out drills.
Though the training session did come at a cost, with Fly-Half Dan Carter picking up an Achilles injury during the 20 minute drill, meaning he missed out on the chance to face the Grand Slam winners. Despite this, Shand was full of praise for the Glamorgan Sport Park facilities, and in particular the 3G all-weather pitch.
“The sports hall and high performance areas here at Glamorgan are great. We’ve had some bad weather, but a lot of work has obviously gone into these pitches with regards to drainage and so on, so that has made a big difference for us.
“The 3G pitches here are great for us because they are as close as we are going to get to the perfect surface. We don’t mind making the short drive down here from Cardiff when we have facilities such as these available to us.”
During the All Blacks visit to Wales, team Media Manager, Joe Locke, also dropped by to chat to Journalism students where he discussed the importance of a strong relationship between the players, media and the public.
Talking of the guest lecture held by Locke, a spokesman from the University’s public affairs and communication team, said: “We’ve hosted the All Blacks for their training through the week, and today’s session was a tremendous bonus for our journalism students.
“The University tries to prepare our students for a career by giving them an insight into the media as it really is, both through work placements and discussion with the experts who do these demanding jobs in the real world.
“Joe’s insight as the lead media handler for the World Cup winners has given the students a great window into the finely balanced relationship between journalists and the communications professionals whose job it is to work with them.”
World Cup winners New Zealand went on to beat Wales 33-10 in the Millennium Stadium clash, but manager Shand believes the key to their success is down to the hours of hard work put in by Captain Richie McCaw and co.
Speaking exclusively to The Phoenix, Shand – who took over the role as All Black manager in 2004 - said: “We are constantly trying to improve, that’s part of the All Blacks history and legacy.
“You can never have the perfect game, and that is what pushes us on, trying to reach that high benchmark that we have set ourselves.
“We strive to constantly improve, and that can only be achieved by training hard.”
It’s not the first time New Zealand have used the University’s facilities, returning two years on from their last clash with Wales, the world’s number one side took advantage of the indoor facilities to practice their line-out drills.
Though the training session did come at a cost, with Fly-Half Dan Carter picking up an Achilles injury during the 20 minute drill, meaning he missed out on the chance to face the Grand Slam winners. Despite this, Shand was full of praise for the Glamorgan Sport Park facilities, and in particular the 3G all-weather pitch.
“The sports hall and high performance areas here at Glamorgan are great. We’ve had some bad weather, but a lot of work has obviously gone into these pitches with regards to drainage and so on, so that has made a big difference for us.
“The 3G pitches here are great for us because they are as close as we are going to get to the perfect surface. We don’t mind making the short drive down here from Cardiff when we have facilities such as these available to us.”
During the All Blacks visit to Wales, team Media Manager, Joe Locke, also dropped by to chat to Journalism students where he discussed the importance of a strong relationship between the players, media and the public.
Talking of the guest lecture held by Locke, a spokesman from the University’s public affairs and communication team, said: “We’ve hosted the All Blacks for their training through the week, and today’s session was a tremendous bonus for our journalism students.
“The University tries to prepare our students for a career by giving them an insight into the media as it really is, both through work placements and discussion with the experts who do these demanding jobs in the real world.
“Joe’s insight as the lead media handler for the World Cup winners has given the students a great window into the finely balanced relationship between journalists and the communications professionals whose job it is to work with them.”
Cathy bastian feature
Balancing study with sport is never an easy task, but for Sport Scholar Cathy Bastian, it all seems to be adding up.
The University of Glamorgan’s Sport Scholarship programme was set up to allow students to excel in both their sporting and academic careers.
For 20-year-old Cathy, her aspirations of becoming a maths teacher are currently on hold as she attempts to pin down a place in the Wales netball senior side.
The Glamorgan student was selected as part of the travelling senior squad last August - an experience she believes has helped her in the long-term.
Speaking to The Phoenix, Cathy said: “A couple of us were selected to go with the senior squad in August. We didn’t get to play, but the experience was really good.
“Being in that environment to see how the seniors prepare for games was great and has certainly helped me.”
Despite not featuring for the senior side, the first year student has already picked up caps at three different age levels – though success has often been restricted to second place.
“I’ve played three matches in Netball Europe Open for the U-21 side and also have caps for the U-19s and U-17s as well.
“We place in silver a lot, with England always seeming to beat us.
“Though England are the top team in the UK and currently third in the world, so they are one of the best sides around.
“They’ve also just won a test series against Australia which shows their strength.”
Ironically, it's thanks to this recent success of Wales’ arch rivals England that is seeing the often sparse coverage of the sport slowly improving.
England picked up a series-whitewash win over a strong Australia side last month – their first ever series victory over the world number one ranked side.
Despite this win - which many claim is a defining moment for netball in Britain - it has still got some way to go before it receives similar coverage to the likes of football and rugby.
“It’s frustrating, because sport coverage is male dominant,” Cathy said.
“It’s certainly good that coverage is increasing at the moment, so the better England do in terms of winning competitions, hopefully the better the coverage in Britain for the sport as a whole.
“I hope the success of England can improve the coverage the sport receives here in Britain. It’s been over the news the last week or so which it never really has been before, so that is really good.
“The sport is certainly pushing to receive more coverage.”
Turning attention back to Cathy’s own personal achievements, the Sports Scholar student believes that travelling to the Cook Islands with Wales at the back-end of last year has provided her with some invaluable experience.
The tri test series on the South Pacific Island saw Wales record a victory over Scotland as well as comfortably beating the host nation.
Talking of the tournament, Cathy said: “We managed to win gold in the competition. It was between us, Cook Islands and Scotland, and it was a great experience to travel across the world.
“I certainly took a lot away from the tournament such as learning to be more calm and preparing more for games.
“I also learned the importance of focusing on the basics, rather than playing ‘flash’ netball.
“It’s also important to work as a team, rather than as individuals.”
Ahead of her side’s cup quarter-final clash against Newport, Cathy – who favours playing as a Wing Attack - doesn’t believe it’s difficult to adapt back to life at Glamorgan.
She believes that the squad strength and qualities of team Captain Collette Johnson help the netball 1st team to push on for honours.
“It’s not really hard to adapt back to Glamorgan because we’ve got a really good team here.
“Collette is someone I’ve always known. She’s a really good player and has been great to work with.
“It’s really good having her as captain because she has also been a part of the Wales set-up, so she knows all about the commitments.
“The standard is also very good here, and the season has gone well for me so far. We’ve got a chance to pick up a trophy this year and that would be really good.”
Turning attention towards the universities top of the range facilities, Cathy reckons that if she continues to train hard, a senior Wales call-up could be on the cards.
Though despite this, the sport is not yet a full-time profession – something the Welsh player hopes will change soon.
“The facilities here at Glamorgan are brilliant. I’ve got a Sports Scholarship, so I can use the gym when I’m in university which is really beneficial because it means I can manage my time more efficiently.
“If I continue to train hard and keep improving my game then I could hopefully go on and get a senior Wales cap.
“I would love netball to be a professional sport in terms of playing full-time, but I don’t think that will ever be the case.
“It’s not a full time sport in the UK, whereas in New Zealand and Australia it is.
“It’s strange that netball isn’t played at the Olympics. I’m not sure why exactly, but hopefully that changes one day, and I certainly hope to continue playing for many more years to come.”
Though looking ahead to the future, Cathy hopes to become a maths teacher – using netball to her advantage to gain some key skills and friends for life.
“Netball has certainly developed my confidence within myself, which is something I can use.
“I’ve also made some really good friends through playing the sport – there’s something about being part of a sports team that brings you closer together.
Cathy’s talents have certainly not gone unnoticed, Sports Participation Manager Emma Bradshaw said:“ Cathy’s experience and skill really enhances the team dynamics.
“When Cathy does play for Glamorgan it gives the team much more options and although she plays Centre, she is such a versatile player that she can slot in just about anywhere.
“She is a real asset to the Glamorgan 1st team.”
The University of Glamorgan’s Sport Scholarship programme was set up to allow students to excel in both their sporting and academic careers.
For 20-year-old Cathy, her aspirations of becoming a maths teacher are currently on hold as she attempts to pin down a place in the Wales netball senior side.
The Glamorgan student was selected as part of the travelling senior squad last August - an experience she believes has helped her in the long-term.
Speaking to The Phoenix, Cathy said: “A couple of us were selected to go with the senior squad in August. We didn’t get to play, but the experience was really good.
“Being in that environment to see how the seniors prepare for games was great and has certainly helped me.”
Despite not featuring for the senior side, the first year student has already picked up caps at three different age levels – though success has often been restricted to second place.
“I’ve played three matches in Netball Europe Open for the U-21 side and also have caps for the U-19s and U-17s as well.
“We place in silver a lot, with England always seeming to beat us.
“Though England are the top team in the UK and currently third in the world, so they are one of the best sides around.
“They’ve also just won a test series against Australia which shows their strength.”
Ironically, it's thanks to this recent success of Wales’ arch rivals England that is seeing the often sparse coverage of the sport slowly improving.
England picked up a series-whitewash win over a strong Australia side last month – their first ever series victory over the world number one ranked side.
Despite this win - which many claim is a defining moment for netball in Britain - it has still got some way to go before it receives similar coverage to the likes of football and rugby.
“It’s frustrating, because sport coverage is male dominant,” Cathy said.
“It’s certainly good that coverage is increasing at the moment, so the better England do in terms of winning competitions, hopefully the better the coverage in Britain for the sport as a whole.
“I hope the success of England can improve the coverage the sport receives here in Britain. It’s been over the news the last week or so which it never really has been before, so that is really good.
“The sport is certainly pushing to receive more coverage.”
Turning attention back to Cathy’s own personal achievements, the Sports Scholar student believes that travelling to the Cook Islands with Wales at the back-end of last year has provided her with some invaluable experience.
The tri test series on the South Pacific Island saw Wales record a victory over Scotland as well as comfortably beating the host nation.
Talking of the tournament, Cathy said: “We managed to win gold in the competition. It was between us, Cook Islands and Scotland, and it was a great experience to travel across the world.
“I certainly took a lot away from the tournament such as learning to be more calm and preparing more for games.
“I also learned the importance of focusing on the basics, rather than playing ‘flash’ netball.
“It’s also important to work as a team, rather than as individuals.”
Ahead of her side’s cup quarter-final clash against Newport, Cathy – who favours playing as a Wing Attack - doesn’t believe it’s difficult to adapt back to life at Glamorgan.
She believes that the squad strength and qualities of team Captain Collette Johnson help the netball 1st team to push on for honours.
“It’s not really hard to adapt back to Glamorgan because we’ve got a really good team here.
“Collette is someone I’ve always known. She’s a really good player and has been great to work with.
“It’s really good having her as captain because she has also been a part of the Wales set-up, so she knows all about the commitments.
“The standard is also very good here, and the season has gone well for me so far. We’ve got a chance to pick up a trophy this year and that would be really good.”
Turning attention towards the universities top of the range facilities, Cathy reckons that if she continues to train hard, a senior Wales call-up could be on the cards.
Though despite this, the sport is not yet a full-time profession – something the Welsh player hopes will change soon.
“The facilities here at Glamorgan are brilliant. I’ve got a Sports Scholarship, so I can use the gym when I’m in university which is really beneficial because it means I can manage my time more efficiently.
“If I continue to train hard and keep improving my game then I could hopefully go on and get a senior Wales cap.
“I would love netball to be a professional sport in terms of playing full-time, but I don’t think that will ever be the case.
“It’s not a full time sport in the UK, whereas in New Zealand and Australia it is.
“It’s strange that netball isn’t played at the Olympics. I’m not sure why exactly, but hopefully that changes one day, and I certainly hope to continue playing for many more years to come.”
Though looking ahead to the future, Cathy hopes to become a maths teacher – using netball to her advantage to gain some key skills and friends for life.
“Netball has certainly developed my confidence within myself, which is something I can use.
“I’ve also made some really good friends through playing the sport – there’s something about being part of a sports team that brings you closer together.
Cathy’s talents have certainly not gone unnoticed, Sports Participation Manager Emma Bradshaw said:“ Cathy’s experience and skill really enhances the team dynamics.
“When Cathy does play for Glamorgan it gives the team much more options and although she plays Centre, she is such a versatile player that she can slot in just about anywhere.
“She is a real asset to the Glamorgan 1st team.”
'Sav' sets sights on ending hartpury's title reign
GLAMORGAN men’s football 1st team have pulled off the ultimate great escape – defeating rivals Swansea on the final day of the season in the battle to avoid relegation.
A crushing 5-0 victory against the Swans on the last day of the season was enough to claw Glamorgan out of the bottom two – with their south Wales opponents replacing them in the relegation zone and dropping out of the division.
The result means that Glamorgan will have a side in the Premier South Division for another season – a huge tribute to the university, which doesn’t boast the same budgets as the likes of league champions Hartpury.
It has been a gruelling campaign for the Blue & Yellows, but manager Steve Savage believes that his group of players can now push on next season and challenge the likes of Hartpury, thanks to some of the links already in place.
Speaking to The Phoenix, Savage said: “We are hoping to push on next season. We’ve had a few years in the Prem so it will still be tough to survive, but we will look to target footballers with the links that we have with Welsh football clubs and the Cardiff City academy, and try to target specific players to come in and have a real go at it.
“The league is too easy for Hartpury in my opinion - they have it their own way every year, so I would like to have a real go at them next year.
“We picked up a point away at Hartpury this season, so we are not a million miles away - it is just a case of one or two very good footballers coming through the Glamorgan doors.”
That point away at Hartpury was picked out by the Glamorgan manager as one of the highlights of the season, along with the one-sided affair with Swansea to round off another year of football for the men’s team.
Though despite these memorable highlights, it has also been a season that has seen many low points with the side battling relegation throughout, something which ‘Sav’ – as he is affectionately known by his players – believes was inevitable.
He said: "I was realistic in the sense that I felt with this squad of players we would struggle, so to get that win against Swansea on the final day and cross the finish line was crucial – relief more than joy because it has been a tough season.
“The reality is, without the top players – and we don’t recruit football players, we rely on students coming through the doors from all over – we will always struggle. But overall it was a good season and a huge tribute to the university to survive.
“We lost eight of our starting 11 from the previous season, so from the outset we knew it would be a challenge and that we would have to give time to allow the side to gel and for us to get our message across to them.”
When Savage, David Gough and the rest of the coaching staff did get their ethos across to the new players in the side, it was all systems go with victories away at Swansea and at home to Brighton which acted as a springboard for the side to push on.
Though Glamorgan failed to find any real consistency in their season, and this was highlighted in the 6-0 mauling at the hands of Chichester in the first round of the BUCS Championship, which meant the campaign of many ups and downs ended on a rather sour note.
“The Northumbria game was a tough one for us,” Savage said in his frank and honest interview with The Phoenix.
“We took the decision to play our same squad players, taking four players that would normally start out of the side. This included our holding midfielder and goalkeeper as well as some other midfielders.
“Because our squad wasn’t always the strongest, these players were always going to be challenging, and this competition was a chance for those who have been loyal to us and trained every week to get their chance.
“We always said the league was our main priority, so this competition gave some of the other players a chance of playing.”
A crushing 5-0 victory against the Swans on the last day of the season was enough to claw Glamorgan out of the bottom two – with their south Wales opponents replacing them in the relegation zone and dropping out of the division.
The result means that Glamorgan will have a side in the Premier South Division for another season – a huge tribute to the university, which doesn’t boast the same budgets as the likes of league champions Hartpury.
It has been a gruelling campaign for the Blue & Yellows, but manager Steve Savage believes that his group of players can now push on next season and challenge the likes of Hartpury, thanks to some of the links already in place.
Speaking to The Phoenix, Savage said: “We are hoping to push on next season. We’ve had a few years in the Prem so it will still be tough to survive, but we will look to target footballers with the links that we have with Welsh football clubs and the Cardiff City academy, and try to target specific players to come in and have a real go at it.
“The league is too easy for Hartpury in my opinion - they have it their own way every year, so I would like to have a real go at them next year.
“We picked up a point away at Hartpury this season, so we are not a million miles away - it is just a case of one or two very good footballers coming through the Glamorgan doors.”
That point away at Hartpury was picked out by the Glamorgan manager as one of the highlights of the season, along with the one-sided affair with Swansea to round off another year of football for the men’s team.
Though despite these memorable highlights, it has also been a season that has seen many low points with the side battling relegation throughout, something which ‘Sav’ – as he is affectionately known by his players – believes was inevitable.
He said: "I was realistic in the sense that I felt with this squad of players we would struggle, so to get that win against Swansea on the final day and cross the finish line was crucial – relief more than joy because it has been a tough season.
“The reality is, without the top players – and we don’t recruit football players, we rely on students coming through the doors from all over – we will always struggle. But overall it was a good season and a huge tribute to the university to survive.
“We lost eight of our starting 11 from the previous season, so from the outset we knew it would be a challenge and that we would have to give time to allow the side to gel and for us to get our message across to them.”
When Savage, David Gough and the rest of the coaching staff did get their ethos across to the new players in the side, it was all systems go with victories away at Swansea and at home to Brighton which acted as a springboard for the side to push on.
Though Glamorgan failed to find any real consistency in their season, and this was highlighted in the 6-0 mauling at the hands of Chichester in the first round of the BUCS Championship, which meant the campaign of many ups and downs ended on a rather sour note.
“The Northumbria game was a tough one for us,” Savage said in his frank and honest interview with The Phoenix.
“We took the decision to play our same squad players, taking four players that would normally start out of the side. This included our holding midfielder and goalkeeper as well as some other midfielders.
“Because our squad wasn’t always the strongest, these players were always going to be challenging, and this competition was a chance for those who have been loyal to us and trained every week to get their chance.
“We always said the league was our main priority, so this competition gave some of the other players a chance of playing.”
Men's football season review
Following the end of another dramatic season for the Glamorgan men’s 1st team, Phoenix reporter Dan Lewis looks back at a campaign that has provided many highs and lows, and gets manager Steve Savage’s thoughts on what he made of the season – including that tense final day survival battle against Swansea, and the cup battering at the hands of Northumbria.
The season began in the worst possible way for Steve Savage’s men, with an opening day defeat at the hands of Chichester being followed up with losses at Bath in a seven goal thriller, and a morale-crushing 2-0 home loss to Severnside rivals University of the West of England (UWE).
Things did start to turn in early November however, with what would turn out to be a huge victory at South Wales rivals Swansea, before a narrow victory at Glamorgan Sport Park against Brighton led to Glam climbing away from the relegation zone.
Savage – who balances his time between managing the Glamorgan 1st team and the Welsh university side – puts the bad start to the season down to the fact that so many new players had come into the squad, with just a matter of days to go before the season kicked-off.
In his honest and frank interview, Savage began by saying: “Coming into the season we were purely trying to stay in the Premier League, which is the top division in the country. There are only six teams in it and two of those sides get relegated, so it is always going to be tough.
“It obviously wasn’t the best of starts, but it was always going to be difficult with the turnaround we had from the trials and selection of our first squad to our first game which was only 10 days apart.
“It is always difficult when you don’t know who is coming into the side in terms of replacing players in certain areas.
“We lost eight of our starting 11 from the previous season, so from the outset we knew it would be a challenge and that we would have to give time to allow the side to gel and for us to get our message across to them.
“When the group did click together then we started putting some results together.”
Following a positive run of form through November with those victories against Swansea and Brighton, the men’s 1st team failed to build any real momentum, crashing to Chichester and Bath in successive weeks by the same 2-1 scoreline.
The Chichester game in particular was a bitter pill to swallow for the Blue and Yellows who fell to a late Sam Goodge winner. It was a contest which saw Glamorgan fail to capitalise on their opportunities – something which Savage believes could have cost them dear at the end of the season.
“Stats show that we have dominated a lot of games this season, but have failed to win. I was left thinking that if we had taken our chances in more games this season then we would have gained some extra points along the way.”
As for points gained, the away trip to Hartpury at the three-quarter-stage of the season that Glam faced whilst low on confidence, turned out to be a personal highlight for manager Savage, who saw his side come back across the Severn Bridge with a hard fought point.
Despite this unexpected draw, the well regarded manager believes his side could have come away with more, saying: “In terms of team performance that was a personal highlight against a very good Hartpury side who go out and recruit ex-professionals or budding future football stars.
“To pull off a draw was a huge achievement. We took the lead and could have - and probably should have - won the game - not many sides have taken points off Hartpury so that was great.”
Glamorgan would have two months over the Christmas and New Year period to reflect on the season to date, but any hopes of avoiding a final day relegation fight were quashed by a Brighton side vying for revenge.
Glam would fall to a 2-1 defeat at the Falmer Campus, meaning that with just one match remaining they were staring relegation right in the face.
Swansea on the other hand had two matches – home to champions-elect Hartpury and away at lowly Bath - to leave Glamorgan in real trouble and confine them to their worst fears of dropping out of the league, but the Swans failed to pick up any points in both matches, meaning we would have a final day relegation battle on our hands.
“In terms of the South Wales derby it was a big game for us – an all or nothing clash where the winner would stay up,” Savage said.
“Swansea only needed a point, but we put a huge emphasis onto the players to deliver and we managed to take that into the game and take our chances when they come.
“You can’t afford to lose too many games on the bounce and you certainly need to win a minimum of three or four games – so to stay in this division was our main aim and we achieved that with a victory here.”
The match itself was built up as being a close-fought and fiery affair, but in truth Glamorgan eased any nerves early on thanks to striker Sam Bailey’s goal after just four minutes, before three goals inside the opening 10 minutes of the second half sealed Glam’s place in the division for another season.
“I mentioned that from a performance point of view the Hartpury away game was a highlight, but the overall highlight has to be this 5-0 victory because it was down to the players to decide where they wanted to play next season - League 1 or the Prem - and they went and delivered.”
Though in what many ways can encapsulate the entire season, Glamorgan failed to build any real momentum from their final day survival, crashing out of the cup the following week at the first hurdle.
Visitors Northumbria ran out 6-0 winners in a one-sided contest that ended the season on a low note for the Prem survivors. Despite this, Savage believes his players can be extremely proud of themselves following a big team effort, which culminated in some of those who haven’t had so much game time this season featuring in the cup defeat to the Northumbria.
He said: “The Northumbria game was a tough one for us. We took the decision to play our some squad players, taking four players that would normally start out of the side. This included our holding midfielder and goalkeeper as well as some other midfielders.
“Because our squad wasn’t always the strongest, these players were always going to be challenging, and this competition was a chance for those who have been loyal to us and trained every week to get their chance.
“We always said the league was our main priority, so this competition gave some of the other players a chance of playing.”
During his interview with The Phoenix, ‘Sav’, as he is affectionately referred to by his players, also pointed to the importance of the links the university has in place with Cardiff City, or more specifically, the Championship sides' academy, which is based at Glamorgan’s Treforest home.
Referring to the state-of-the-art facilities, Savage said: “We have a good partnership in place so we do try to pick up those players who have been released by the academy. If they have been through the Cardiff City academy at the ages of 16-18 then they are technically good players, it is then a case of getting them to step up to men’s football at the older age level.
“Mama [Mamadou Diallo] and Luke Jones were good academy players for us to pick up and they have added to our squad – that goes to show the benefit of having these strong links in place.”
Despite these football connections, Savage still laid bare the challenges facing his Glamorgan side, who don’t receive the same funding as some of the larger sporting universities, such as South Division Prem champs Hartpury.
“The reality is, without the top players – and we don’t recruit football players, we rely on students coming through the doors from all over – we will always struggle. But overall it was a good season and a huge tribute to the university to survive.
"I was realistic in the sense that I felt with this squad of players we would struggle, so to get that win against Swansea on the final day and cross the finish line was crucial – relief more than joy because it has been a tough season."
When pressed, Savage also picked out his personal player of the season, Chris Miethke, though he stressed the importance of the entire squad, who gave their all throughout.
“My personal player of the season would be Chris Miethke, who scored three against Bath when we lost 4-3. He started all of our games, and in terms of consistency he was always a threat and also worked hard to track back with his defensive duties.
“I felt he was one of the outstanding players for us, but all of the lads did a good job and it was a real team effort, rather than an individual effort. That is probably why we struggled in some games because we didn’t have enough individual stand-out performances."
Finally, attention turned to next season, where Sav and his players embark on another term in the Prem South following their dramatic survival – hoping to now challenge some of the bigger sides.
“We are hoping to push on next season. We’ve had a few years in the Prem so it will still be tough to survive, but we will look to target footballers now with the links that we have with Welsh football clubs and the Cardiff City academy, and try to target specific players to come in and have a real go at it.
“The league is too easy for Hartpury in my opinion - they have it their own way every year, so I would like to have a real go at them next year.
“We picked up a point away at Hartpury this season, so we are not a million miles away - it is just a case of one or two very good footballers coming through the Glamorgan doors".
And with that Glamorgan end what has been a challenging, but overall successful season. Savage, Gough and the rest of the 1st team back-room staff will now prepare to do it all again in October.
The season began in the worst possible way for Steve Savage’s men, with an opening day defeat at the hands of Chichester being followed up with losses at Bath in a seven goal thriller, and a morale-crushing 2-0 home loss to Severnside rivals University of the West of England (UWE).
Things did start to turn in early November however, with what would turn out to be a huge victory at South Wales rivals Swansea, before a narrow victory at Glamorgan Sport Park against Brighton led to Glam climbing away from the relegation zone.
Savage – who balances his time between managing the Glamorgan 1st team and the Welsh university side – puts the bad start to the season down to the fact that so many new players had come into the squad, with just a matter of days to go before the season kicked-off.
In his honest and frank interview, Savage began by saying: “Coming into the season we were purely trying to stay in the Premier League, which is the top division in the country. There are only six teams in it and two of those sides get relegated, so it is always going to be tough.
“It obviously wasn’t the best of starts, but it was always going to be difficult with the turnaround we had from the trials and selection of our first squad to our first game which was only 10 days apart.
“It is always difficult when you don’t know who is coming into the side in terms of replacing players in certain areas.
“We lost eight of our starting 11 from the previous season, so from the outset we knew it would be a challenge and that we would have to give time to allow the side to gel and for us to get our message across to them.
“When the group did click together then we started putting some results together.”
Following a positive run of form through November with those victories against Swansea and Brighton, the men’s 1st team failed to build any real momentum, crashing to Chichester and Bath in successive weeks by the same 2-1 scoreline.
The Chichester game in particular was a bitter pill to swallow for the Blue and Yellows who fell to a late Sam Goodge winner. It was a contest which saw Glamorgan fail to capitalise on their opportunities – something which Savage believes could have cost them dear at the end of the season.
“Stats show that we have dominated a lot of games this season, but have failed to win. I was left thinking that if we had taken our chances in more games this season then we would have gained some extra points along the way.”
As for points gained, the away trip to Hartpury at the three-quarter-stage of the season that Glam faced whilst low on confidence, turned out to be a personal highlight for manager Savage, who saw his side come back across the Severn Bridge with a hard fought point.
Despite this unexpected draw, the well regarded manager believes his side could have come away with more, saying: “In terms of team performance that was a personal highlight against a very good Hartpury side who go out and recruit ex-professionals or budding future football stars.
“To pull off a draw was a huge achievement. We took the lead and could have - and probably should have - won the game - not many sides have taken points off Hartpury so that was great.”
Glamorgan would have two months over the Christmas and New Year period to reflect on the season to date, but any hopes of avoiding a final day relegation fight were quashed by a Brighton side vying for revenge.
Glam would fall to a 2-1 defeat at the Falmer Campus, meaning that with just one match remaining they were staring relegation right in the face.
Swansea on the other hand had two matches – home to champions-elect Hartpury and away at lowly Bath - to leave Glamorgan in real trouble and confine them to their worst fears of dropping out of the league, but the Swans failed to pick up any points in both matches, meaning we would have a final day relegation battle on our hands.
“In terms of the South Wales derby it was a big game for us – an all or nothing clash where the winner would stay up,” Savage said.
“Swansea only needed a point, but we put a huge emphasis onto the players to deliver and we managed to take that into the game and take our chances when they come.
“You can’t afford to lose too many games on the bounce and you certainly need to win a minimum of three or four games – so to stay in this division was our main aim and we achieved that with a victory here.”
The match itself was built up as being a close-fought and fiery affair, but in truth Glamorgan eased any nerves early on thanks to striker Sam Bailey’s goal after just four minutes, before three goals inside the opening 10 minutes of the second half sealed Glam’s place in the division for another season.
“I mentioned that from a performance point of view the Hartpury away game was a highlight, but the overall highlight has to be this 5-0 victory because it was down to the players to decide where they wanted to play next season - League 1 or the Prem - and they went and delivered.”
Though in what many ways can encapsulate the entire season, Glamorgan failed to build any real momentum from their final day survival, crashing out of the cup the following week at the first hurdle.
Visitors Northumbria ran out 6-0 winners in a one-sided contest that ended the season on a low note for the Prem survivors. Despite this, Savage believes his players can be extremely proud of themselves following a big team effort, which culminated in some of those who haven’t had so much game time this season featuring in the cup defeat to the Northumbria.
He said: “The Northumbria game was a tough one for us. We took the decision to play our some squad players, taking four players that would normally start out of the side. This included our holding midfielder and goalkeeper as well as some other midfielders.
“Because our squad wasn’t always the strongest, these players were always going to be challenging, and this competition was a chance for those who have been loyal to us and trained every week to get their chance.
“We always said the league was our main priority, so this competition gave some of the other players a chance of playing.”
During his interview with The Phoenix, ‘Sav’, as he is affectionately referred to by his players, also pointed to the importance of the links the university has in place with Cardiff City, or more specifically, the Championship sides' academy, which is based at Glamorgan’s Treforest home.
Referring to the state-of-the-art facilities, Savage said: “We have a good partnership in place so we do try to pick up those players who have been released by the academy. If they have been through the Cardiff City academy at the ages of 16-18 then they are technically good players, it is then a case of getting them to step up to men’s football at the older age level.
“Mama [Mamadou Diallo] and Luke Jones were good academy players for us to pick up and they have added to our squad – that goes to show the benefit of having these strong links in place.”
Despite these football connections, Savage still laid bare the challenges facing his Glamorgan side, who don’t receive the same funding as some of the larger sporting universities, such as South Division Prem champs Hartpury.
“The reality is, without the top players – and we don’t recruit football players, we rely on students coming through the doors from all over – we will always struggle. But overall it was a good season and a huge tribute to the university to survive.
"I was realistic in the sense that I felt with this squad of players we would struggle, so to get that win against Swansea on the final day and cross the finish line was crucial – relief more than joy because it has been a tough season."
When pressed, Savage also picked out his personal player of the season, Chris Miethke, though he stressed the importance of the entire squad, who gave their all throughout.
“My personal player of the season would be Chris Miethke, who scored three against Bath when we lost 4-3. He started all of our games, and in terms of consistency he was always a threat and also worked hard to track back with his defensive duties.
“I felt he was one of the outstanding players for us, but all of the lads did a good job and it was a real team effort, rather than an individual effort. That is probably why we struggled in some games because we didn’t have enough individual stand-out performances."
Finally, attention turned to next season, where Sav and his players embark on another term in the Prem South following their dramatic survival – hoping to now challenge some of the bigger sides.
“We are hoping to push on next season. We’ve had a few years in the Prem so it will still be tough to survive, but we will look to target footballers now with the links that we have with Welsh football clubs and the Cardiff City academy, and try to target specific players to come in and have a real go at it.
“The league is too easy for Hartpury in my opinion - they have it their own way every year, so I would like to have a real go at them next year.
“We picked up a point away at Hartpury this season, so we are not a million miles away - it is just a case of one or two very good footballers coming through the Glamorgan doors".
And with that Glamorgan end what has been a challenging, but overall successful season. Savage, Gough and the rest of the 1st team back-room staff will now prepare to do it all again in October.
Glam making waves in the pool
Just a year into their existence, Glamorgan’s water polo side are looking to round off a promotion winning season in style when they face Dundee in next week’s cup final (12 May).
With promotion to the second tier secured, all attention now turns to the Shield Final where Glamorgan will come up against a tough University of Dundee side who, like Glam, won all three games in the league to reach the final of the competition.
With all the success, it would be easy to mistake this Glamorgan team as an established outfit, yet just 12 months ago this side didn’t even exist.
“The team was actually entered before we got the players in place,” one of the side’s star players, Tom Greenfield, tells GlamSport.
“Captain Graham Harrington got a Sports Scholarship, and [Head of Sport] Tudor Williams felt it would only be right to then help set up a team, before getting the right numbers to compete.”
It’s certainly been a season to remember for the men’s water polo side, though as Greenfield tells us inside the £32 million Cardiff International Pool – the side’s current training base – recruitment for players is not easy, though recent success will certainly help.
“Often I’ll say to people, ‘why don’t you join the team,’ and they didn’t even know we had one - so it’s a case of getting others aware of it. Though we train out in Cardiff Bay and Llantrisant, which isn’t exactly local which doesn’t help us.
“We got a mention at the recent sports’ award night, where we were nominated for the best team award – it was nice to get recognised for this, which can again help with getting others to join in. That’s the key now to try and get more players into the system to build on our success.”
Greenfield represented Great Britain in swimming last year in the European Short Course Championships in Poland, as well as the European Grand Prix in Holland and Belgium which he puts down to “a lot of hard work which paid off in the end.”
The third year chiropractic studies student – who picked up a silver medal in the Senior British Nationals with a personal best time – played a big part in helping Glam establish themselves in the sport, alongside Graham Harrington, who took up the role of captain.
Harrington, who has also represented GB in his sport, reckons that Dundee will provide Glam with a tough test in the final, something which hasn’t been the case so far for these BUCS debutants.
“UWE were the only side to come within two goals of us, all other games have no necessarily been a walk-over, but have been fairly comfortable,” he said.
“As of yet in the cup we haven’t really had push on to win games, we’ve been relatively comfortable, but we’re expecting it to be a different matter when we face Dundee. Cup finals are a one off, so all form goes out of the window.
“We had the Celtic tri-nations event down here last month, and three of the Scottish team were from Dundee, which includes their best player and two of the bench players – man for man it is going to be a close contest.”
Despite having the chance to win the league and cup double when they face Dundee, Harrington is keeping his feet firmly on the ground and already preparing for what will be a tough campaign next season, where the standard will be as high as ever.
“We’ve already advertised to get more people to participate next year, where we can hopefully get a second men’s side, and a women’s team going.
“We’ve done great this year, especially considering it’s our first season. There are a few of us who have played water polo before this year, but for nine others this was their first time playing, so to get that top spot is a brilliant achievement, and we’ll have to now build on that next time around.
“The standard of water polo is stronger than expected at university level. You’d expect the standard to perhaps be a step down, but even in the top leagues there is varying levels – you have players who have played in the National League, Division 1 and Division 2, and then some players who haven’t reached that level. Overall the standard is relatively strong at university level.
“Any newly promoted side will be looking to consolidate in their new division, but like with any uni sport, there will usually be a large turnover of players who are leaving – fortunately we are only going to lose one player at the end of this season, so hopefully we can press on next year.”
Despite having the ability to succeed even further in the sport, Harrington is firmly focusing on his history degree, believing that the gruelling training schedule – which was put in place in January – actually helps with his studies.
“Realistically water polo is never going to be a huge sport in this country,” he continued.
“History is something I have always enjoyed doing, so I would like to carry on with it, get a degree and see where things end up.
“Training provides me with a nice break from uni work. I’ve always found that these sessions - whether it’s an hour or two hours – will help to freshen me up to allow myself to push on with work afterwards.”
Harrington shares the views of teammate Greenfield in terms of player recruitment, where the side will need to push on following their recent success in the sport, despite coming into the current season simply looking to gain experience.
“It was surprising to have been as successful as we have been this year, because so many of our players were new to the sport. Our main target coming into the season was to basically make sure everyone knew the rules and gained some experience before pushing on next time around.
“It’s a popular enough sport. A lot of my friends were interested in it when I told them about it, so it’s a case of getting others down here and watching it and being aware of it.
“Water polo is a great sport to play, and is obviously really good for you in terms of fitness. There’s also that team element as well that swimming alone won’t give you. We’ve got a tight-knit group here, but we’re happy to take on new players in the future should they wish to join us.”
Following the London Olympics last summer, coverage of the sport – which dates back to the 1900 Olympic Games – began to increase, though it is still lacking in mainstream media exposure, which Harrington reckons could be down to wider issues such as funding.
“Coverage of the sport increased around the time of the Olympics, but that was the same with all sports. In the build up to the London Games, Sky Sports put together a highlights show which helped to improve the coverage, but it is still nowhere near the level which it should be at.
“The sport is struggling in terms of funding so it’s difficult to get others taking part at grass roots level, but as this university team has shown there is interest there.”
Though funding may be a key factor in whether the sport pushes on in the future, Glamorgan have this year shown that with the right attitude to succeed, anything is possible.
With promotion to the second tier secured, all attention now turns to the Shield Final where Glamorgan will come up against a tough University of Dundee side who, like Glam, won all three games in the league to reach the final of the competition.
With all the success, it would be easy to mistake this Glamorgan team as an established outfit, yet just 12 months ago this side didn’t even exist.
“The team was actually entered before we got the players in place,” one of the side’s star players, Tom Greenfield, tells GlamSport.
“Captain Graham Harrington got a Sports Scholarship, and [Head of Sport] Tudor Williams felt it would only be right to then help set up a team, before getting the right numbers to compete.”
It’s certainly been a season to remember for the men’s water polo side, though as Greenfield tells us inside the £32 million Cardiff International Pool – the side’s current training base – recruitment for players is not easy, though recent success will certainly help.
“Often I’ll say to people, ‘why don’t you join the team,’ and they didn’t even know we had one - so it’s a case of getting others aware of it. Though we train out in Cardiff Bay and Llantrisant, which isn’t exactly local which doesn’t help us.
“We got a mention at the recent sports’ award night, where we were nominated for the best team award – it was nice to get recognised for this, which can again help with getting others to join in. That’s the key now to try and get more players into the system to build on our success.”
Greenfield represented Great Britain in swimming last year in the European Short Course Championships in Poland, as well as the European Grand Prix in Holland and Belgium which he puts down to “a lot of hard work which paid off in the end.”
The third year chiropractic studies student – who picked up a silver medal in the Senior British Nationals with a personal best time – played a big part in helping Glam establish themselves in the sport, alongside Graham Harrington, who took up the role of captain.
Harrington, who has also represented GB in his sport, reckons that Dundee will provide Glam with a tough test in the final, something which hasn’t been the case so far for these BUCS debutants.
“UWE were the only side to come within two goals of us, all other games have no necessarily been a walk-over, but have been fairly comfortable,” he said.
“As of yet in the cup we haven’t really had push on to win games, we’ve been relatively comfortable, but we’re expecting it to be a different matter when we face Dundee. Cup finals are a one off, so all form goes out of the window.
“We had the Celtic tri-nations event down here last month, and three of the Scottish team were from Dundee, which includes their best player and two of the bench players – man for man it is going to be a close contest.”
Despite having the chance to win the league and cup double when they face Dundee, Harrington is keeping his feet firmly on the ground and already preparing for what will be a tough campaign next season, where the standard will be as high as ever.
“We’ve already advertised to get more people to participate next year, where we can hopefully get a second men’s side, and a women’s team going.
“We’ve done great this year, especially considering it’s our first season. There are a few of us who have played water polo before this year, but for nine others this was their first time playing, so to get that top spot is a brilliant achievement, and we’ll have to now build on that next time around.
“The standard of water polo is stronger than expected at university level. You’d expect the standard to perhaps be a step down, but even in the top leagues there is varying levels – you have players who have played in the National League, Division 1 and Division 2, and then some players who haven’t reached that level. Overall the standard is relatively strong at university level.
“Any newly promoted side will be looking to consolidate in their new division, but like with any uni sport, there will usually be a large turnover of players who are leaving – fortunately we are only going to lose one player at the end of this season, so hopefully we can press on next year.”
Despite having the ability to succeed even further in the sport, Harrington is firmly focusing on his history degree, believing that the gruelling training schedule – which was put in place in January – actually helps with his studies.
“Realistically water polo is never going to be a huge sport in this country,” he continued.
“History is something I have always enjoyed doing, so I would like to carry on with it, get a degree and see where things end up.
“Training provides me with a nice break from uni work. I’ve always found that these sessions - whether it’s an hour or two hours – will help to freshen me up to allow myself to push on with work afterwards.”
Harrington shares the views of teammate Greenfield in terms of player recruitment, where the side will need to push on following their recent success in the sport, despite coming into the current season simply looking to gain experience.
“It was surprising to have been as successful as we have been this year, because so many of our players were new to the sport. Our main target coming into the season was to basically make sure everyone knew the rules and gained some experience before pushing on next time around.
“It’s a popular enough sport. A lot of my friends were interested in it when I told them about it, so it’s a case of getting others down here and watching it and being aware of it.
“Water polo is a great sport to play, and is obviously really good for you in terms of fitness. There’s also that team element as well that swimming alone won’t give you. We’ve got a tight-knit group here, but we’re happy to take on new players in the future should they wish to join us.”
Following the London Olympics last summer, coverage of the sport – which dates back to the 1900 Olympic Games – began to increase, though it is still lacking in mainstream media exposure, which Harrington reckons could be down to wider issues such as funding.
“Coverage of the sport increased around the time of the Olympics, but that was the same with all sports. In the build up to the London Games, Sky Sports put together a highlights show which helped to improve the coverage, but it is still nowhere near the level which it should be at.
“The sport is struggling in terms of funding so it’s difficult to get others taking part at grass roots level, but as this university team has shown there is interest there.”
Though funding may be a key factor in whether the sport pushes on in the future, Glamorgan have this year shown that with the right attitude to succeed, anything is possible.
Adams set to stand down as manager
Sarah Adams is set to stand down as manager of the women’s football team - just weeks after celebrating a league and cup double.
Glamorgan won every game as they cruised to the top of the Western 2B table, picking up the Western Conference Cup last month to round-off another successful season under the management of Adams.
After finishing second in both competitions in the 2011/2012 season, Adams used this disappointment as the key motivation to dominate both league and cup this time around – with a 10 – 0 victory against rivals Swansea sticking out as a personal highlight for the Bristolian.
Speaking to GlamSport, Adams said: “There was a clear motivation from the players that they were going to work hard to avoid the same disappointment as last season, and that desire to win shows in our results this year.
“My personal highlight was our victory over Swansea’s 1st team. For me this win highlights the hard work we have all put in over the last three years. Whereas four seasons ago it was us that faced a 10 – 0 defeat in the same fixture, it was now the other way around.”
“Though unfortunately this season will be my last as I feel I have taken the team as far as I can. I am massively proud of what we have achieved over the past three years and wish them all the best as they continue to grow.”
In Adams’ three years at the helm, football at Glamorgan in terms of female football has well and truly pushed on, with this season’s promotion the pick of the accolades. This is down to a number of long-term goals put in place by Adams, which in turn comes down to the hours of hard work carried out by her players.
“The standard of Female Football at Glamorgan has improved drastically in my time here,” Adams said.
“When I started I set a number of long term goals – the first of which was to increase the opportunity for females to participate in football at Glamorgan, which we have now done with the resent inclusion of a second team who have proved to be a solid side who will continue to improve.
“Secondly we set out a playing philosophy which we have stuck to and trained week-in week-out to give us that edge over other teams.
“Our success has not been down to luck or individual players it has been possible because of the hard work, determination and will to achieve from everyone, which has seen us triumph in both competitions.”
It was last month’s cup success which truly put the icing on the cake of what has been a memorable season for all involved in women’s football at Glamorgan. Scoring 20 goals without a single goal being conceded in the three rounds to the final, Glam not only won the cup, but won it in true style.
It culminated in the 8-0 victory against UWE, which the soon to be ex-manager again puts down to the organisation and hard work of her squad.
“We weren't tested with our opponents and sailed through until the final,” Adams continued.
We have played UWE twice in the league and have come out on top both times afters very tough competitive games, so we knew we would have to be organised and prepared to get the win.
“We worked hard in the weeks leading up to the game and this showed as the girls played incredibly and deserved the eight goal winning margin.”
The success of the women’s football team hasn’t gone unnoticed, with Adams’ side picking up the Team of the Year award at last month’s Glamorgan sport gala. Following the event, Head of Sport, Tudor Williams said: “Sarah has made a fantastic contribution to the Women’s football programme at the University.
“The results for the first team this year has been superb and Sarah has been extremely dedicated in her coaching of the team. For the first time this year we also had a second women’s team in the BUCS programme and they finished third in the league in their first season.
“I am very sorry that Sarah is stepping down this year after many years of commitment to the university football team. Sarah can be very proud of her achievements particularly this year winning the ‘double’ - getting the first team promoted, being unbeaten all year and having a successful second team.
“Sarah leaves the University team in very good health and I am extremely grateful for all her hard work.”
Glamorgan won every game as they cruised to the top of the Western 2B table, picking up the Western Conference Cup last month to round-off another successful season under the management of Adams.
After finishing second in both competitions in the 2011/2012 season, Adams used this disappointment as the key motivation to dominate both league and cup this time around – with a 10 – 0 victory against rivals Swansea sticking out as a personal highlight for the Bristolian.
Speaking to GlamSport, Adams said: “There was a clear motivation from the players that they were going to work hard to avoid the same disappointment as last season, and that desire to win shows in our results this year.
“My personal highlight was our victory over Swansea’s 1st team. For me this win highlights the hard work we have all put in over the last three years. Whereas four seasons ago it was us that faced a 10 – 0 defeat in the same fixture, it was now the other way around.”
“Though unfortunately this season will be my last as I feel I have taken the team as far as I can. I am massively proud of what we have achieved over the past three years and wish them all the best as they continue to grow.”
In Adams’ three years at the helm, football at Glamorgan in terms of female football has well and truly pushed on, with this season’s promotion the pick of the accolades. This is down to a number of long-term goals put in place by Adams, which in turn comes down to the hours of hard work carried out by her players.
“The standard of Female Football at Glamorgan has improved drastically in my time here,” Adams said.
“When I started I set a number of long term goals – the first of which was to increase the opportunity for females to participate in football at Glamorgan, which we have now done with the resent inclusion of a second team who have proved to be a solid side who will continue to improve.
“Secondly we set out a playing philosophy which we have stuck to and trained week-in week-out to give us that edge over other teams.
“Our success has not been down to luck or individual players it has been possible because of the hard work, determination and will to achieve from everyone, which has seen us triumph in both competitions.”
It was last month’s cup success which truly put the icing on the cake of what has been a memorable season for all involved in women’s football at Glamorgan. Scoring 20 goals without a single goal being conceded in the three rounds to the final, Glam not only won the cup, but won it in true style.
It culminated in the 8-0 victory against UWE, which the soon to be ex-manager again puts down to the organisation and hard work of her squad.
“We weren't tested with our opponents and sailed through until the final,” Adams continued.
We have played UWE twice in the league and have come out on top both times afters very tough competitive games, so we knew we would have to be organised and prepared to get the win.
“We worked hard in the weeks leading up to the game and this showed as the girls played incredibly and deserved the eight goal winning margin.”
The success of the women’s football team hasn’t gone unnoticed, with Adams’ side picking up the Team of the Year award at last month’s Glamorgan sport gala. Following the event, Head of Sport, Tudor Williams said: “Sarah has made a fantastic contribution to the Women’s football programme at the University.
“The results for the first team this year has been superb and Sarah has been extremely dedicated in her coaching of the team. For the first time this year we also had a second women’s team in the BUCS programme and they finished third in the league in their first season.
“I am very sorry that Sarah is stepping down this year after many years of commitment to the university football team. Sarah can be very proud of her achievements particularly this year winning the ‘double’ - getting the first team promoted, being unbeaten all year and having a successful second team.
“Sarah leaves the University team in very good health and I am extremely grateful for all her hard work.”
Harwood to call it a day after seven years
When Carl Harwood took up the opportunity to coach the university’s volleyball sides, it was a case of getting Glamorgan in a position where they could compete with the best – seven years on and that mission looks to have been surpassed.
With the men’s 1st team winning the BUCS Cup last month to go alongside their second place finish in the league, combined with the women’s 1st team reaching their first Cup Final, it is clear to see that Harwood has had a huge impact on volleyball at Glamorgan.
Despite this, the veteran player and coach has taken the decision to stand down at the end of the season after seeing a huge transformation in the sport, believing the university’s four sides need to be taken to the next level.
“I’ve been coaching here now for the last seven years, and I will be taking next year off,” he told GlamSport.
“I’ve nominated some replacement coaches who are stricter than I am. I believe this is what the teams need now – a more heavy-handed approach and some more discipline on the court.
“I will be in the background watching the teams, being there on an advisory capacity. I’ve never classed myself as a great coach – I’ve classed myself as a good manager and a good organiser – hopefully I’ve proved that over my seven years here.
“It now needs to be passed onto someone who is a good coach who has discipline, and the coaches I have nominated can now help push the volleyball teams on further next year.
“It is just temporary at the moment, but after seven years of coaching at Glamorgan two or three nights a week, plus matches on the weekend, I know it’s time for me to take a break. Whether that is a one year break or long-term break as far as Glamorgan is concerned I don’t know.
“During my time here volleyball has improved amazingly; in terms of support we have had from the Students Union and the support we’ve had from the Sports Development Officers it has been great.”
It’s clear to see the joy that Harwood takes from volleyball – a sport he has been associated with for nearly 30 years now - something he aims to pass on to potential stars of the future.
His university coaching journey has seen him take Cardiff University into the top division, before focusing solely on Glamorgan – a move that has certainly paid off.
“I started off coaching Glamorgan and Cardiff University at the same time which was hard work, but volleyball is a sport I love, so I got a lot of enjoyment out of it.
“Cardiff University went up to the First Division, so I thought it was safe for me to leave them at that point and concentrate on Glamorgan who had only just introduced volleyball. Glamorgan needed that three-year-plan to bring them to the point that they are at now.
“My policy is not so much for results, but for people to enjoy playing volleyball. A lot of these players are foreign students – and also a lot of British students – so this gives them the opportunity to try a sport that they have perhaps not tried before and go away with the knowledge of playing the sport.
It is this attitude to the sport that has allowed Harwood to build up a great team spirit that led to Glamorgan men’s 1st team lifting the Western Conference Cup in Bristol in March – an honour which certainly went some way to cover the disappointment of missing out on top spot in the league on points difference.
“Winning the cup was a great success for the university,” Harwood continued.
“We finished joint top in the league but missed out on ‘point’s difference’ as they call it. It was disappointing because the same thing has happened to us before, where we should have won the league but didn’t.
“BUCS arrange it so that if we play the team that are in joint first place, if they win by however many points, they automatically go up. So rather than doing it by points on home goals and away goals scored, it comes down to this other system.
“Winning the cup does help to soften the blow. This year has been a good year because we’ve had two men’s teams and two women’s teams.
Though the success didn’t stop there, as Harwood also oversaw the women’s 1st side reach the Cup Final, where they fell 3-0 to rivals Swansea. This, along with the semi-finals appearance for the men’s 2nd team, shows that the decision to bring in two additional sides certainly paid off.
Talking to GlamSport after another gruelling season, Harwood said: “In the seven years that I’ve been here we’ve had the one team for both the men and women - so it has been a lot harder work with the additional sides coming in, but a better outcome as far as I can see.
“The players have had more play and training time, helping to build them into the teams that they are now.
“Both the men and women’s 1st teams reached the Cup Finals and finished towards the top of the league. So it has proved its worth having the two sets of teams, especially for the men whose second side also reached the cup semi-finals.”
The lasting impact Harwood has had on the Glamorgan volleyball sides is highlighted when looking at the women’s 1st team, whose Cup Final appearance this season was the first time they had ever reached that stage of the competition.
Though delighted to see the women’s side reach the final – as well as finishing third in the domestic league - Harwood believes that more could have been done in terms of the set-up of the sport.
“The women’s side reaching the cup final is a good achievement in a sense that in the seven years that I have been coaching at Glamorgan, it is the first time that we have reached that stage of the competition.
“It is a disappointment in terms of the organisation of the volleyball competition which tied in with a lot of student exams, so we lost a couple of top players for some of our major matches.
“I think that cost us in a few games because we were unable to field our strongest team - we had to sacrifice some points, otherwise I believe the women would have been top of the league, as well as in the cup semi-finals.”
With a successful season complete, attention can now turn towards next season, where Harwood believes that all four Glamorgan sides can truly push on to the next level: Promotion to the top tier.
“There is no reason why the men and women’s sides shouldn’t push on to the higher division next season,” an optimistic Harwood said.
“I think that the men should definitely press on into the First Division next year.
“The women’s sides have some great players, so I see no reason why they can’t also now move up a league. They perhaps need to fight a bit harder, but there is no reason why they can’t push on now just like the men next season.”
These positive views also extend to the women’s 2nd team, who finished bottom of their league. Harwood puts this down to the fact that there is a large turnover of students in such a short amount of time, though this looks to now be changing, which is all down to the recruitment system in place at Glamorgan.
“A lot of students in the 2nd team are on a three or four year course, so there is potential there now to build a good 2nd team and a brilliant 1st team.
“It can be difficult because a lot of students are only there for a year or so, so we put in a lot of work and it’s not so much wasted, but it means that we can now build on that ahead of next year with two full teams who are around for another few years.
“The reason there are so many volleyball players in Glamorgan is to do with our extensive campaign at the start of the year at the Fresher Fayre where we look to recruit players. At these initial sessions we can have at least 80 people come along, though that then gets whittled down, but it is an extensive push for volleyball players during these Fayre’s which can prove successful – too successful in many ways because we then have to cut these numbers down!”
Despite the love and passion that Penarth resident Harwood shows towards indoor volleyball, it’s actually another version of the sport which first got him interested in a career which has now spanned for close to three decades – beach volleyball.
In fact, his passion for the beach-based sport was enough to persuade him to set-up Barry Island Beach Volleyball Club – the biggest of its kind in Britain.
“My love of volleyball is actually beach volleyball, which I have played for nearly 30 years. But I’m of course getting older now so I don’t play as much, though I am the founding member of Barry Island Beach Volleyball Club.
“I founded that 17 years ago and it’s now the biggest beach volleyball club in the UK where we now have over 175 members. I still play on weekends and even coach now-and-then, but when it came to winter months I got a little bored, so that’s why I moved more towards indoor volleyball.
“Indoor volleyball has six people, whereas beach volleyball has only two people – so there is a big difference. With beach volleyball, all the players need to know all the different skills, with indoor volleyball, the six players each have their own specific skills – so the two types of volleyball require a completely different mindset and the tactics can of course vary where with beach volleyball there are just two of you on virtually the same size court as indoor.”
On the back of the biggest summer of sport Britain has ever witnessed – including additional coverage of sports such as volleyball – Harwood believes that more still needs to be done with regards to getting youngsters interested in the sport.
Volleyball doesn’t receive the same coverage in Britain as it does in other European countries, and this looks set to continue with the Olympic committee recently announcing that it is set to cut funding for the sport.
“Volleyball doesn’t get half as much coverage as it should do, because it really is a great sport to watch. We’ve lost a lot of funding through the Olympic committee, so there is no funding there, but I would certainly love to see it covered more.
“Volleyball is the second most popular sport in the world after football, so judging by that it doesn’t get the coverage in Britain that it needs. I don’t think anybody in Britain has latched onto the enthusiasm of the sport, whereas in other countries across Europe there is good television coverage and massive crowds attending matches which is lacking in this country.
“The main reason for that is the fact that volleyball is not on the curriculum in schools in Britain outside of Scotland – that is why there is a higher attendance in volleyball in Scotland than in Wales or Northern Ireland, for example.
“This is where our problems lie, if it was to be brought into the curriculum then there would be more interest generated. It is a non-contact, non-sexist sport – played by men or women - and there are not many of those sports around. The government says these are the types of sports would need to encourage youngsters to play, but that opportunity has never been taken up.”
The sport in general may not have moved on in terms of coverage, but Carl Harwood can be happy knowing that he has played his part in helping to revolutionise volleyball at the University of Glamorgan. Now it’s over to the new management team to take Glamorgan to the next level.
With the men’s 1st team winning the BUCS Cup last month to go alongside their second place finish in the league, combined with the women’s 1st team reaching their first Cup Final, it is clear to see that Harwood has had a huge impact on volleyball at Glamorgan.
Despite this, the veteran player and coach has taken the decision to stand down at the end of the season after seeing a huge transformation in the sport, believing the university’s four sides need to be taken to the next level.
“I’ve been coaching here now for the last seven years, and I will be taking next year off,” he told GlamSport.
“I’ve nominated some replacement coaches who are stricter than I am. I believe this is what the teams need now – a more heavy-handed approach and some more discipline on the court.
“I will be in the background watching the teams, being there on an advisory capacity. I’ve never classed myself as a great coach – I’ve classed myself as a good manager and a good organiser – hopefully I’ve proved that over my seven years here.
“It now needs to be passed onto someone who is a good coach who has discipline, and the coaches I have nominated can now help push the volleyball teams on further next year.
“It is just temporary at the moment, but after seven years of coaching at Glamorgan two or three nights a week, plus matches on the weekend, I know it’s time for me to take a break. Whether that is a one year break or long-term break as far as Glamorgan is concerned I don’t know.
“During my time here volleyball has improved amazingly; in terms of support we have had from the Students Union and the support we’ve had from the Sports Development Officers it has been great.”
It’s clear to see the joy that Harwood takes from volleyball – a sport he has been associated with for nearly 30 years now - something he aims to pass on to potential stars of the future.
His university coaching journey has seen him take Cardiff University into the top division, before focusing solely on Glamorgan – a move that has certainly paid off.
“I started off coaching Glamorgan and Cardiff University at the same time which was hard work, but volleyball is a sport I love, so I got a lot of enjoyment out of it.
“Cardiff University went up to the First Division, so I thought it was safe for me to leave them at that point and concentrate on Glamorgan who had only just introduced volleyball. Glamorgan needed that three-year-plan to bring them to the point that they are at now.
“My policy is not so much for results, but for people to enjoy playing volleyball. A lot of these players are foreign students – and also a lot of British students – so this gives them the opportunity to try a sport that they have perhaps not tried before and go away with the knowledge of playing the sport.
It is this attitude to the sport that has allowed Harwood to build up a great team spirit that led to Glamorgan men’s 1st team lifting the Western Conference Cup in Bristol in March – an honour which certainly went some way to cover the disappointment of missing out on top spot in the league on points difference.
“Winning the cup was a great success for the university,” Harwood continued.
“We finished joint top in the league but missed out on ‘point’s difference’ as they call it. It was disappointing because the same thing has happened to us before, where we should have won the league but didn’t.
“BUCS arrange it so that if we play the team that are in joint first place, if they win by however many points, they automatically go up. So rather than doing it by points on home goals and away goals scored, it comes down to this other system.
“Winning the cup does help to soften the blow. This year has been a good year because we’ve had two men’s teams and two women’s teams.
Though the success didn’t stop there, as Harwood also oversaw the women’s 1st side reach the Cup Final, where they fell 3-0 to rivals Swansea. This, along with the semi-finals appearance for the men’s 2nd team, shows that the decision to bring in two additional sides certainly paid off.
Talking to GlamSport after another gruelling season, Harwood said: “In the seven years that I’ve been here we’ve had the one team for both the men and women - so it has been a lot harder work with the additional sides coming in, but a better outcome as far as I can see.
“The players have had more play and training time, helping to build them into the teams that they are now.
“Both the men and women’s 1st teams reached the Cup Finals and finished towards the top of the league. So it has proved its worth having the two sets of teams, especially for the men whose second side also reached the cup semi-finals.”
The lasting impact Harwood has had on the Glamorgan volleyball sides is highlighted when looking at the women’s 1st team, whose Cup Final appearance this season was the first time they had ever reached that stage of the competition.
Though delighted to see the women’s side reach the final – as well as finishing third in the domestic league - Harwood believes that more could have been done in terms of the set-up of the sport.
“The women’s side reaching the cup final is a good achievement in a sense that in the seven years that I have been coaching at Glamorgan, it is the first time that we have reached that stage of the competition.
“It is a disappointment in terms of the organisation of the volleyball competition which tied in with a lot of student exams, so we lost a couple of top players for some of our major matches.
“I think that cost us in a few games because we were unable to field our strongest team - we had to sacrifice some points, otherwise I believe the women would have been top of the league, as well as in the cup semi-finals.”
With a successful season complete, attention can now turn towards next season, where Harwood believes that all four Glamorgan sides can truly push on to the next level: Promotion to the top tier.
“There is no reason why the men and women’s sides shouldn’t push on to the higher division next season,” an optimistic Harwood said.
“I think that the men should definitely press on into the First Division next year.
“The women’s sides have some great players, so I see no reason why they can’t also now move up a league. They perhaps need to fight a bit harder, but there is no reason why they can’t push on now just like the men next season.”
These positive views also extend to the women’s 2nd team, who finished bottom of their league. Harwood puts this down to the fact that there is a large turnover of students in such a short amount of time, though this looks to now be changing, which is all down to the recruitment system in place at Glamorgan.
“A lot of students in the 2nd team are on a three or four year course, so there is potential there now to build a good 2nd team and a brilliant 1st team.
“It can be difficult because a lot of students are only there for a year or so, so we put in a lot of work and it’s not so much wasted, but it means that we can now build on that ahead of next year with two full teams who are around for another few years.
“The reason there are so many volleyball players in Glamorgan is to do with our extensive campaign at the start of the year at the Fresher Fayre where we look to recruit players. At these initial sessions we can have at least 80 people come along, though that then gets whittled down, but it is an extensive push for volleyball players during these Fayre’s which can prove successful – too successful in many ways because we then have to cut these numbers down!”
Despite the love and passion that Penarth resident Harwood shows towards indoor volleyball, it’s actually another version of the sport which first got him interested in a career which has now spanned for close to three decades – beach volleyball.
In fact, his passion for the beach-based sport was enough to persuade him to set-up Barry Island Beach Volleyball Club – the biggest of its kind in Britain.
“My love of volleyball is actually beach volleyball, which I have played for nearly 30 years. But I’m of course getting older now so I don’t play as much, though I am the founding member of Barry Island Beach Volleyball Club.
“I founded that 17 years ago and it’s now the biggest beach volleyball club in the UK where we now have over 175 members. I still play on weekends and even coach now-and-then, but when it came to winter months I got a little bored, so that’s why I moved more towards indoor volleyball.
“Indoor volleyball has six people, whereas beach volleyball has only two people – so there is a big difference. With beach volleyball, all the players need to know all the different skills, with indoor volleyball, the six players each have their own specific skills – so the two types of volleyball require a completely different mindset and the tactics can of course vary where with beach volleyball there are just two of you on virtually the same size court as indoor.”
On the back of the biggest summer of sport Britain has ever witnessed – including additional coverage of sports such as volleyball – Harwood believes that more still needs to be done with regards to getting youngsters interested in the sport.
Volleyball doesn’t receive the same coverage in Britain as it does in other European countries, and this looks set to continue with the Olympic committee recently announcing that it is set to cut funding for the sport.
“Volleyball doesn’t get half as much coverage as it should do, because it really is a great sport to watch. We’ve lost a lot of funding through the Olympic committee, so there is no funding there, but I would certainly love to see it covered more.
“Volleyball is the second most popular sport in the world after football, so judging by that it doesn’t get the coverage in Britain that it needs. I don’t think anybody in Britain has latched onto the enthusiasm of the sport, whereas in other countries across Europe there is good television coverage and massive crowds attending matches which is lacking in this country.
“The main reason for that is the fact that volleyball is not on the curriculum in schools in Britain outside of Scotland – that is why there is a higher attendance in volleyball in Scotland than in Wales or Northern Ireland, for example.
“This is where our problems lie, if it was to be brought into the curriculum then there would be more interest generated. It is a non-contact, non-sexist sport – played by men or women - and there are not many of those sports around. The government says these are the types of sports would need to encourage youngsters to play, but that opportunity has never been taken up.”
The sport in general may not have moved on in terms of coverage, but Carl Harwood can be happy knowing that he has played his part in helping to revolutionise volleyball at the University of Glamorgan. Now it’s over to the new management team to take Glamorgan to the next level.
University of South Wales receives promotion boost
The University of South Wales is set to receive a promotion boost of its own thanks to Cardiff City’s promotion – with a potential increase in student figures.
The Bluebirds’ memorable climb to the Premier League has led to many in the South Wales area cashing in on the achievement, with more students expected to locate to the area in order to watch the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool on a more regular basis.
Swansea University saw an increase in student figures upon the Swans own promotion to the Premier League via the Play-offs three years ago – something which the newly branded University of South Wales could themselves look forward to.
The university already has strong connections to the club with the Cardiff City Academy based at the Sport Park in Trefforest, as well as other links in place which has benefitted the men’s football sides over the past few seasons.
A spokesperson for the University said: “The University congratulates Cardiff City on its promotion to the Premier League. As a university we work closely with the club which has its training academy base at our own USW Sport Park.
“The promotion will raise the profile of Cardiff and the South Wales region across the globe, and it is exciting for our students be studying in a city which is home to a premiership football team.”
Cardiff University became the first university to take advantage of Malky Mackay’s side’s promotion to the Promised Land by placing a “Cardiff City Connections” page on the university website the day after promotion, which has remained active for the past month - a ploy which can be expected by the University of South Wales in the coming weeks.
The Bluebirds’ memorable climb to the Premier League has led to many in the South Wales area cashing in on the achievement, with more students expected to locate to the area in order to watch the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool on a more regular basis.
Swansea University saw an increase in student figures upon the Swans own promotion to the Premier League via the Play-offs three years ago – something which the newly branded University of South Wales could themselves look forward to.
The university already has strong connections to the club with the Cardiff City Academy based at the Sport Park in Trefforest, as well as other links in place which has benefitted the men’s football sides over the past few seasons.
A spokesperson for the University said: “The University congratulates Cardiff City on its promotion to the Premier League. As a university we work closely with the club which has its training academy base at our own USW Sport Park.
“The promotion will raise the profile of Cardiff and the South Wales region across the globe, and it is exciting for our students be studying in a city which is home to a premiership football team.”
Cardiff University became the first university to take advantage of Malky Mackay’s side’s promotion to the Promised Land by placing a “Cardiff City Connections” page on the university website the day after promotion, which has remained active for the past month - a ploy which can be expected by the University of South Wales in the coming weeks.
Snap-happy 'keeper aiming high
Women’s hockey goalkeeper Izzy Marsh is hoping to capture success on the field with Glamorgan in order to keep her dream of representing Wales and Great Britain alive.
The photography student, who played a key part in Glam’s promotion on the field this season, is hopeful of picking up her first cap at U -21 level following game time for her country in the Four Nations tournament.
With success for both her university and club side Newport, Marsh believes now is the perfect time to push on, though it hasn’t been an easy journey.
Talking to GlamSport, Marsh said: “I joined the Wales squad at U -16 level but didn’t get selected for the first couple of years, before moving up to U -18 level where I got to represent the country in my final year in that age category.
“It was hard at times because I had to do a lot of training, and was left thinking at times ‘what’s the point, I’m not going to get selected’, but I kept training and got selected to represent Wales in Edinburgh in the Four Nations tournament, picking up two caps.
“I have been pushing on to try and get some caps at the next age category – U21 – or even a full senior cap, but it’s a case of waiting and seeing if they want me to train with them.
“Winning the league with Glamorgan was really good. I was also lucky enough to win the league with my club side as well, which again was nice as well because we set some records along the way – I hope to push on from that.
“Winning the league with Newport was brilliant. We were playing in the Second Division, but we’ve now been promoted for just the second time.
“The last time the side reached that level they came straight back down, but hopefully now I can help keep them there. We scored the most goals, the most points and I conceded fewer goals than any other ‘keeper which was nice.
It was certainly a season to remember for the student photographer, though a recurring injury – first picked up last season – came back to haunt the goalkeeper, meaning a lack of training for both Glamorgan and Newport.
“My season was good, though I did pick up an injury which was frustrating,” Marsh said.
“I pulled a muscle in my thigh which meant I had to have a lot of physiotherapy, meaning I wasn’t able to train, though I could play matches as there was less pressure on my legs. Apart from that my season has gone really well.
“I picked up my injury whilst playing for my club side during a cup game. It was a really cold day and pouring down with rain, when at the start of the second half I lunged to save the ball and felt my leg go.
“I didn’t have to do much up until that point so I was pretty cold and just felt something straight away. It was really painful and I had to have it taped up every week, though thankfully I could still play games for both sides.”
Like many Sports Scholars, Marsh has to balance her love for sport alongside academic study, though her love for photography certainly makes it easier.
It is a line of work that the first year student is hoping to move into in the future, though the recently held Olympic Games have given her a taste for success on a different front.
She said: “Photography is something I’m really interested in, but I’m going to stick with hockey as well and see where it takes me.
“I’d like to still be doing both in the future, and would particularly love to take part in an Olympic Games – though I’m not sure that will happen.
“I watched hockey at last summer’s Olympics where Britain picked up a bronze medal – this inspired me a lot and it something I would love to do myself one day. That is the top ambition.
“Realistically I will be focusing more on the photography side, but still playing hockey as well.
“I came second in a Newport City Council photography competition for adults when I was just 15, so that made me proud – it was the same sort of feeling as pulling off a save in hockey.
It’s a long journey ahead, though as Marsh has shown this season with both Glamorgan and Newport, she has every right to aim high in terms of caps for Wales and Olympic joy with Great Britain.
The photography student, who played a key part in Glam’s promotion on the field this season, is hopeful of picking up her first cap at U -21 level following game time for her country in the Four Nations tournament.
With success for both her university and club side Newport, Marsh believes now is the perfect time to push on, though it hasn’t been an easy journey.
Talking to GlamSport, Marsh said: “I joined the Wales squad at U -16 level but didn’t get selected for the first couple of years, before moving up to U -18 level where I got to represent the country in my final year in that age category.
“It was hard at times because I had to do a lot of training, and was left thinking at times ‘what’s the point, I’m not going to get selected’, but I kept training and got selected to represent Wales in Edinburgh in the Four Nations tournament, picking up two caps.
“I have been pushing on to try and get some caps at the next age category – U21 – or even a full senior cap, but it’s a case of waiting and seeing if they want me to train with them.
“Winning the league with Glamorgan was really good. I was also lucky enough to win the league with my club side as well, which again was nice as well because we set some records along the way – I hope to push on from that.
“Winning the league with Newport was brilliant. We were playing in the Second Division, but we’ve now been promoted for just the second time.
“The last time the side reached that level they came straight back down, but hopefully now I can help keep them there. We scored the most goals, the most points and I conceded fewer goals than any other ‘keeper which was nice.
It was certainly a season to remember for the student photographer, though a recurring injury – first picked up last season – came back to haunt the goalkeeper, meaning a lack of training for both Glamorgan and Newport.
“My season was good, though I did pick up an injury which was frustrating,” Marsh said.
“I pulled a muscle in my thigh which meant I had to have a lot of physiotherapy, meaning I wasn’t able to train, though I could play matches as there was less pressure on my legs. Apart from that my season has gone really well.
“I picked up my injury whilst playing for my club side during a cup game. It was a really cold day and pouring down with rain, when at the start of the second half I lunged to save the ball and felt my leg go.
“I didn’t have to do much up until that point so I was pretty cold and just felt something straight away. It was really painful and I had to have it taped up every week, though thankfully I could still play games for both sides.”
Like many Sports Scholars, Marsh has to balance her love for sport alongside academic study, though her love for photography certainly makes it easier.
It is a line of work that the first year student is hoping to move into in the future, though the recently held Olympic Games have given her a taste for success on a different front.
She said: “Photography is something I’m really interested in, but I’m going to stick with hockey as well and see where it takes me.
“I’d like to still be doing both in the future, and would particularly love to take part in an Olympic Games – though I’m not sure that will happen.
“I watched hockey at last summer’s Olympics where Britain picked up a bronze medal – this inspired me a lot and it something I would love to do myself one day. That is the top ambition.
“Realistically I will be focusing more on the photography side, but still playing hockey as well.
“I came second in a Newport City Council photography competition for adults when I was just 15, so that made me proud – it was the same sort of feeling as pulling off a save in hockey.
It’s a long journey ahead, though as Marsh has shown this season with both Glamorgan and Newport, she has every right to aim high in terms of caps for Wales and Olympic joy with Great Britain.
Pickard aims to balance study and sport
After picking up his first cap for the Welsh badminton team at the age of 15, it’s fair to say that Chris Pickard hasn’t looked back. Further caps for the senior side followed, to go alongside individual victories in the Junior National Championship and Senior National Championships – a competition he won in February this year after numerous near-attempts.
Though the Welsh U19 singles, doubles and mixed doubles champion had to make a tough choice between study and sport, opting to balance the two with a particular focus on his Masters Degree which is now coming to an end.
As victory earlier this year in the Senior Championship shows however, Pickard still has the hunger to succeed in the sport alongside his study.
"Winning the Senior Championship was great, especially because I wasn’t really expected to win it,” Pickard tells GlamSport.
“I just couldn’t seem to win it in the past. I won the Junior Championships for four years running, but always missed out when it came to senior level – until this year.
“Obviously there are players who are a lot older than me playing in the competition, so over time I built up my experience before finally winning the trophy which was a really good feeling.”
Pickard’s route into the sport was rather unusual, though it’s fair to say he has not looked back, despite his Masters Degree in computer forensics now taking immediate priority – an area he would love to one day work in.
“My cousin invited me to a local badminton club when I was younger and as I had nothing else to do I went along. I started going every week then before getting scouted for a county squad, and I then got better and better.
“I got into the Welsh squad when I was 15 and represented Wales from then on really, picking up my first senior cap when I was 19. I was junior national champions between the ages of 15 – 19, which was a great achievement.
“Badminton has taken a back seat of late as I’ve been focusing on my master’s degree, but once that is out of the way I would like to get back into the sport.
“I originally actually studied sports science at Cardiff Met, but it was too much of the same thing so by studying computer forensics it kept my study separate from badminton which meant it was fresher.
“I’ve put my studies first, but now that is coming to an end I can get back into training and get playing for Wales again.
“I love computer forensics and it is an area I would love to go into in the future, but of course I am also focused on the badminton side of things.”
Despite the individual accolades picked up over the years by Pickard, it has not been a season to remember for Glamorgan’s badminton side with a bottom placed finish.
Pickard puts this down to certain key players moving on, though he is keen to use his experience in the sport to push on fellow students in order to help Glam – now formally known as University of South Wales - climb up the tables in future seasons.
“Glamorgan haven’t done very well this year,” Pickard continued.
“It’s a shame really because a few years ago we were in the Premier Division, but a lot of the players left so this year we’ve been struggling, simply because we haven’t had the same number of players.
“I’ve been coaching players to help bring them on a bit, and I’m hoping to stay involved next year - as long as I have a job around here. I want to still have something to do with this project, because there are some players who can be really good.”
Using his experience to push on others in the sport is something that Pickard would like to do more of in the future, though right now he is focused on the playing side of things, with forensics very much still on his mind.
Picking up more caps for Wales upon the end of his Masters is Pickard’s key priority, with plans already in place to allow his transition back into the Welsh playing system.
“I really enjoy the coaching side of Badminton, but I need to get some more qualifications in that area really.
“Coaching is something I’ve always been involved with – I used to coach the disabled badminton team, so I do enjoy it, but at the moment I want to just focus on the playing side rather than the coaching.
“I left the Welsh squad because of university. I was having to do too much really, so that has meant I’ve been pretty much training by myself. I have however spoken to those who run the Welsh set-up and hopefully after the summer they can integrate me back into the system once all my work is out of the way.
“I’m focusing on completing my degree before eventually making my way back into the Welsh squad where I hope to win as many caps as I possibly can and represent Wales, before giving back to the sport through coaching.
“At the same time I would like to keep my career in forensics open, because it is something I really enjoy doing.”
Despite representing Wales in numerous ranked tournaments around the world, Pickard’s ranking has understandably fallen of late as his focus has moved towards his degree. Though he is hoping that with attention turning back to badminton after his studies, he can climb back up the rankings before challenging for a 2018 Commonwealth Games spot.
“I’m a bit too late for the Commonwealth Games as you have to be in the top 60 in the world to get picked so that’s pretty much out of the question now,” said a realistic Pickard.
“Because I’ve been focusing on university work I haven’t been going to the tournaments to pick my ranking up which is a shame – but I am certainly looking ahead to the next Commonwealth Games in five years time, that would be a special achievement.”
A special achievement it certainly would be; Pickard has the highly regarded tournament right in his sights – this time it will have his full attention with his studies almost out of the way.
Though the Welsh U19 singles, doubles and mixed doubles champion had to make a tough choice between study and sport, opting to balance the two with a particular focus on his Masters Degree which is now coming to an end.
As victory earlier this year in the Senior Championship shows however, Pickard still has the hunger to succeed in the sport alongside his study.
"Winning the Senior Championship was great, especially because I wasn’t really expected to win it,” Pickard tells GlamSport.
“I just couldn’t seem to win it in the past. I won the Junior Championships for four years running, but always missed out when it came to senior level – until this year.
“Obviously there are players who are a lot older than me playing in the competition, so over time I built up my experience before finally winning the trophy which was a really good feeling.”
Pickard’s route into the sport was rather unusual, though it’s fair to say he has not looked back, despite his Masters Degree in computer forensics now taking immediate priority – an area he would love to one day work in.
“My cousin invited me to a local badminton club when I was younger and as I had nothing else to do I went along. I started going every week then before getting scouted for a county squad, and I then got better and better.
“I got into the Welsh squad when I was 15 and represented Wales from then on really, picking up my first senior cap when I was 19. I was junior national champions between the ages of 15 – 19, which was a great achievement.
“Badminton has taken a back seat of late as I’ve been focusing on my master’s degree, but once that is out of the way I would like to get back into the sport.
“I originally actually studied sports science at Cardiff Met, but it was too much of the same thing so by studying computer forensics it kept my study separate from badminton which meant it was fresher.
“I’ve put my studies first, but now that is coming to an end I can get back into training and get playing for Wales again.
“I love computer forensics and it is an area I would love to go into in the future, but of course I am also focused on the badminton side of things.”
Despite the individual accolades picked up over the years by Pickard, it has not been a season to remember for Glamorgan’s badminton side with a bottom placed finish.
Pickard puts this down to certain key players moving on, though he is keen to use his experience in the sport to push on fellow students in order to help Glam – now formally known as University of South Wales - climb up the tables in future seasons.
“Glamorgan haven’t done very well this year,” Pickard continued.
“It’s a shame really because a few years ago we were in the Premier Division, but a lot of the players left so this year we’ve been struggling, simply because we haven’t had the same number of players.
“I’ve been coaching players to help bring them on a bit, and I’m hoping to stay involved next year - as long as I have a job around here. I want to still have something to do with this project, because there are some players who can be really good.”
Using his experience to push on others in the sport is something that Pickard would like to do more of in the future, though right now he is focused on the playing side of things, with forensics very much still on his mind.
Picking up more caps for Wales upon the end of his Masters is Pickard’s key priority, with plans already in place to allow his transition back into the Welsh playing system.
“I really enjoy the coaching side of Badminton, but I need to get some more qualifications in that area really.
“Coaching is something I’ve always been involved with – I used to coach the disabled badminton team, so I do enjoy it, but at the moment I want to just focus on the playing side rather than the coaching.
“I left the Welsh squad because of university. I was having to do too much really, so that has meant I’ve been pretty much training by myself. I have however spoken to those who run the Welsh set-up and hopefully after the summer they can integrate me back into the system once all my work is out of the way.
“I’m focusing on completing my degree before eventually making my way back into the Welsh squad where I hope to win as many caps as I possibly can and represent Wales, before giving back to the sport through coaching.
“At the same time I would like to keep my career in forensics open, because it is something I really enjoy doing.”
Despite representing Wales in numerous ranked tournaments around the world, Pickard’s ranking has understandably fallen of late as his focus has moved towards his degree. Though he is hoping that with attention turning back to badminton after his studies, he can climb back up the rankings before challenging for a 2018 Commonwealth Games spot.
“I’m a bit too late for the Commonwealth Games as you have to be in the top 60 in the world to get picked so that’s pretty much out of the question now,” said a realistic Pickard.
“Because I’ve been focusing on university work I haven’t been going to the tournaments to pick my ranking up which is a shame – but I am certainly looking ahead to the next Commonwealth Games in five years time, that would be a special achievement.”
A special achievement it certainly would be; Pickard has the highly regarded tournament right in his sights – this time it will have his full attention with his studies almost out of the way.