Around the Grounds at UNSW
UNSW Rugby
Around the Grounds - July 16
AFL
The good recent form of the AFL Club has continued with a big win over St George leaving UNSW-ES clear in third position. With 5 matches remaining, the games against ladder leaders East Coast Eagles and Western Suburbs will be an indicator of their finals potential. All of the other teams except the U18s are in finals contention.
Basketball
The UNSW Basketball Club’s Premier teams are travelling well and are looking good for final’s action later in the year. After nine rounds, UNSW’s two teams in the Men's Premier League sit 3rd and 7th on the competition ladder. The Women's team sits 4th after 11 rounds.
Baseball
The Baseball club fields three teams in the Sydney Winter Baseball League. After 11 rounds the teams look to be out of finals contention with the best placed team being the firsts in 7th place.
Cricket
Former UNSW Lexcen Scholar and current Universities Cricket Club player, Alex Blackwell has recently completed a tour of England with the Australian Women's Cricket team. Coming off a semi-final loss to England in the earlier T20 World Cup, the Aussies took revenge in their first T20 match. Thereafter in the 5 One Day Internationals, the Aussies struggled, with World Champions England winning four and one match abandoned. Alex reported on the ODI match played at the historic Lord's:
Our last ODI was at Lords, the home of cricket. All of us who took the field were playing on the sacred turf for the first time. Only Rolly in our camp has played there ever before and in all her years playing even she’s only been lucky enough to play there twice so it was a special day for all, but extra special for Rachael, who was making her debut for Australia!
The dressing rooms are amazing, with leather lounges all the way around, and a beautiful outlook from the balconies. Thinking of all the greats who have played there it was really a day to remember and we were all soaking up the experience. Warnie had been in the same room the night before playing for the Rajastan Royals in their game against Middlesex!
Justin Langer made a visit to our rooms and it was a great opportunity for us to ask him questions, particularly Shell and Rach as our left-hand top order bats. He gave us a few tips about Test cricket and how to keep the team in good spirits over the extended form of the game. The weather was not kind to us though (a bit like now!) and we were on and off a number of times during our batting innings. The game was shortened, we managed to take two early wickets with England needing 115 off 30 overs, and we thought we were in with a chance. But then the heavens opened, hail peppered the field, and Lords turned into a lake! Game Abandoned!
In their final match, a four day Test match, Alex scored a terrific 68 in the second innings, with the Aussies setting England a target of 273 from 81 overs. But with rain interruptions neither side was able to push for a win and the match ended in a draw with England 3-106 at the close.
Football
The Men's State League Division 1 team continued its recent success with a 3-0 win over Blacktown. UNSW have been impressive in their climb up the competition, making it a remarkable seven wins on the trot as they move to 25 points and a whisker outside the semi final spots. UNSW scored two goals early, with Byrne (16’) and Richards (24’) giving them a comfortable half time lead, before Byrne put the result beyond doubt with his second on 50 minutes.
Hockey
The UNSW Club first grade Women's team plays in State League Div 2 in the SWHL and currently are in 1st position on the ladder challenging for promotion to Div 1 next year. The Men's first grade plays in Division 1A of the SHA and after 14 rounds are still struggling with a win and three draws to their credit after 16 rounds.
Rugby Union
With five wins in succession UNSW has recovered to 3rd position on the ladder. In the all important Club Championship which determines promotion to Div 1, they have improved to 2nd position behind Lindfield.
On 25th July the UNSW Rugby Club will be celebrating its 60th anniversary with matches on the Village Green from 12.45 followed by a celebration at the Doncaster Hotel.
Softball
The Softball club plays in the North Shore District Softball League with teams in A2 and B3. Both teams are looking for wins over the next few rounds to improve their position on the table.
Volleyball
The UNSW Club has teams in the Sydney Volleyball League. The Men's Honours team is third after seven rounds and the Women's Honours team is 5th.
Alex Minchin represented Australia at the World University Games with the team finishing in 19th position with a three sets to one win over Hong Kong.
Water Polo
UNSW Lexcen Scholar Johnno Cotterill was a member of the historic Gold Medal winning Australian team at the World University Games in Belgrade. This is the first international gold medal win by an Australian men's team and the first win by a non-European nation at the World University Games. Johnno is in contention for the Senior Australian team which will compete in the World Championships in Rome starting on July 19.
WUG Men's Water Polo Team getting instruction during a match
UNSW Killer Whales goalkeeper Lea Barta was part of the Women's team at the World University Games, where they defeated Serbia for 5th place after losing to Canada in the quarter finals.
Other World University Games Results
UNSW's other representatives at the World University Games were George Tang in Table Tennis and Bridey Delany in athletics.
George finished 2nd in his pool in the singles with 2 wins and a loss but this wasn't enough to progress to the round of 64. In the Teams event, Australia finished with 1 win and 2 losses and in the doubles, George reached the round of 32 but was defeated by the Japanese pair.
Bridey finished 9th in the final of the women's 1500m after winning her earlier heat.
Overall the Australian team finished 10th on the medal tally with 5 golds, 2 silvers and 1 bronze which was a vast improvement on the 3 medals won at the last edition of the Games.