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Tales from the deep

Octopush is also known as “Underwater Hockey”, but forget any thoughts of very long sticks and swimming around on the surface: we really mean it when we say “underwater”. Players wear snorkelling gear, take a breath and dive down to tackle, push and flick the heavy puck across the bottom of the pool. The rules are similar to hockey though.

Unfortunately it’s not much of a spectator sport, so you’d better come and get in the water! What you can see from the surface tends to resemble piranhas feeding on some hapless Bond film goon. Sound isn’t much better – players keep position by watching out for each other, but a level of communication can be established. Utterances through the snorkels might go something like “Um om!” (Come on!), “Orr! O! O!” (Please score the goal now), “Aarrrr s**t!” (Oops, I appear to have been tackled).

Our club is a great way to meet (or become!) people with a wide range of interests, from many different academic backgrounds. We tend not to take things too seriously, but we were very pleased with our comfortably-far-from-last-place 2nd in the 2nd Division of the Student Nationals 2010. Our rampant exercise in the pool is often kept under control by a healthy pizza party, curry or visit to the pub after the session. So come along and get involved!

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