Worcester 2 – 0 Wadham WORCESTER raced to a surely insurmountable lead in the Premier Division with a 2-0 home victory over second place Wadham.  The win sees Worcester establish a seven point gap at the top of the table which, based on today’s performance, they look unlikely to surrender.
The importance of this match couldn’t be understated as newly-promoted Wadham represented the best chance of usurping the reigning champions. Their defeat on Wednesday, though, surely leaves Wadham’s title hopes in tatters. The visitors will rue a missed opportunity but might reflect that the scoreline was a just one in the face of a dynamic Worcester attack.
Worcester kicked off but were panicked into an immediate clearance as Wadham rapidly chased the ball down. As the half wore on, however, the home side settled into a rhythm of sorts, making some incisive breaks down the right hand side. Wadham, unable to cope with Worcester’s tenacious midfield and the strength of their central defence, resorted to long balls down the left flank which, as the final score suggests, failed to make an impact.
The first goal was the result of Worcester’s sustained and at times fluid attacks on Wadham’s defenders. Kunal Desai cut the visiting defence with a quick through ball, which striker Rich Adams latched onto. Making no mistake, his angled shot left the keeper flailing and put the first points on the scoreboard.
Wadham hit back with one of their best attacks of the half, putting together a slick sequence of passes, although the attack fizzled out tamely near the corner flag. Wadham’s inability to penetrate their host’s well-marshalled defence highlighted the impotence of their attacking play and as was so often the case their strikers were left bereft of any real chances.
The second half continued in similar vein. Although Worcester were evidently more dangerous with their incisive passing sequences, neither side were able to win outright dominance. That said, as play restarted Wadham seemed better co-ordinated, with their midfield retaining possession and showing more composure on the ball. Worcester, however, were soon back on the offensive.
An hour in, Matt Sinnett’s beautifully timed run and resulting header made it 2-0 and, with clear cut chances few and far between, the mood of home the crowd was confident. With the clock running down, Desai nearly added another goal as his free kick was narrowly tipped over. Wadham nearly grabbed a consolation goal, though, when midfielder Michael Edwards’ rifling free kick was cruelly kept out by the crossbar. 
Worcester’s continued dominance of this division is richly deserved.  An excellent defence is backed up by an attack boasting flair and skill in abundance. Special mention must go to Desai, Plaxton and Butts who all contributed with outstanding performances.
What made Worcester so impressive was the variety of attacking options available, with Desai’s able deliveries from set play and the searing pace of their wingers stretching Wadham’s defence.
The visitors do deserve plaudits for keeping Worcester out for so much of the game, and indeed their backline showed considerable composure against arguably the most potent team in the league. The more cynical observer might highlight the crunching tackles inflicted in particular on Desai and Plaxton, the former at one point having to leave the pitch.
That this Wadham team was best placed to halt Worcester, yet could not score against the table leaders, highlights the champions’ dominance within this division. With no obvious weaknesses in the team, their march to  another championship title seems almost inevitable.

Oxford 3 – 0 St Mary's A COMMANDING performance saw the Oxford Women’s Hockey team continue their glistening run of form, in the dark surroundings of Iffley Road. 
Having begun the BUSA season impressively, the Blues were eager to assert their dominance over a struggling St. Mary’s team, who had no points to their name coming into the game. The home side put pressure on their opponents immediately, forcing early errors from the St. Mary’s back four. Beth Wild was the first to make inroads, linking up with her team mate on the right hand side, before failing to get on to the end of an over-weighted through-ball. This began a frustrating period for the Oxford girls, who were unable to translate dominance into early goals. Despite a profusion of carefully rehearsed short corners, the Blues struggled to beat the resilient St. Mary’s keeper, who pulled off impressive saves to deny first Ravenscroft, and then Cook.
At the back, the Blues were well organised and communicative, despite struggling to contain their opposing captain, Lee. The midfielder demanded close attention from the Oxford players, who found it hard to cope with her physicality at times. In the 30th minute, she came close to putting her side ahead, having muscled her way in to the Blues’ area only to be denied by a good tackle from central defence.
Shortly afterwards, Oxford deservedly went ahead via Beth Wild, whose athletic run allowed her to beat her marker and nestle the ball into the corner of the goal. After this breakthrough, Oxford played more freely, penetrating the St. Mary’s defence with consummate ease, despite failing to add to their tally before half time.   
After the break, Oxford seized momentum again, causing problems for St. Mary’s on both flanks. Straight away, Ravenscroft was unfortunate not to get on the end of a forceful cross from the right, whilst Wild also came close to increasing her tally. At the other end, St. Mary’s were beginning to compete and the home side were fortunate to see Patterson’s deflection sail over the bar from a short corner.   
From the touchline, the Oxford coach referred to his players as ‘guys’, making no allowance for laziness or technical deficiencies. He displayed his demand for professionalism when he cursed a rare mistake by Sumpter in defence. St. Mary’s failed to capitalise on this uncharacteristic error, allowing the Blues to dispatch the dangerous loose ball to safety. Shortly afterwards, Alice Cooke increased Oxford’s lead, displaying impressive dribbling skills before tapping the ball past the St. Mary’s keeper to make it 2-0.
Surprisingly, it was the match officials that provided the most controversial dimension to a game that was hard-fought throughout. Both sides were bemused by the referee’s judgement when he awarded a number of dubious short corners, particularly as he was often behind the run of play. Whilst these mistakes might have balanced out over the game, Oxford were more capable of exploiting them; the assistant’s questionable decision to award the Blues a short corner allowed the home side to put the game beyond doubt at 3-0.  By this stage, there was little anger from the St. Mary’s bench, who had resigned themselves to the fact that they were fighting a losing cause against superior opposition.

Brookes 10 – 8 Greyhounds FREEZING cold conditions did nothing to deter players on either side from attacking with physicality, but Brookes’ staunch defending denied the Greyhounds a second victory to follow their more assured performance at Iffley just over a month ago.
From kick-off Oxford carried the ball through the forwards, which proved successful when they scored after just five minutes. A solid lineout gave them good ball from which the forwards could apply pressure on their opponents defence and a rolling maul tumbled over the line to put 5 points on the board.
Unlike at the home fixture, Brookes responded quickly to the Greyhounds’ attempt to control the match, and a late tackle on their fly-half put them in a good position. A smoothly executed move saw the ball passed deftly through the backs and put the Brookes full-back in the corner, where he dived over the line to draw his team level.
The ‘hounds pack worked hard to dominate up front, but without first-phase ball the backs struggled to link up, and handling errors prevented them from scoring on a few promising breaks. They were also restricted by very aggressive tackling, and the Brookes’ flanker was sent to the sin bin after a series of over-zealous tackles.
With the score drawn at 5-5, the game was punctuated with penalties as both teams were caught offside, with Oxford’s scrum-half eventually sent off for 10 minutes. But the winger salvaged three points just before half-time, when Brookes were blown up for pulling down a maul, and the ball sailed between the posts to give the visitors the advantage going into the second half.
In an unusual decision, the referee responded to claims against Brookes for foul play in the ruck with a yellow card for the Greyhounds. They then struggled in the scrum and the home side’s flanker burst out to make a break up the left wing and score. In the last quarter, the ‘hounds were unlucky not to score with the ball held-up over the line and a missed penalty, but their inability to convert late possession into chances was testament to the resiliance of the underdogs’ defence.

Loughborough 0 -5 Oxford AFTER a slow start to the season, Oxford’s decimated and rejuvenated Blues squash team have acquired a taste for victory against their weaker BUSA opponents. Having racked up convincing wins at Warwick and Nottingham in the preceding weeks, the team was all out to dominate an unsuspecting Loughborough side, and for the most part did not disappoint.
The event kicked off with crushing wins by the Oxford numbers four and five, Nick Douglas and Mark Blundell, both new additions to the team. Mark, who has cruised comfortably through each match since his Blues debut, stayed head-to-head with his opponent for the first few points, before pulling away to win in straight games 9-4, 9-1, 9-2. Despite a lack of quality in the racket department, and being paired against a hefty Loughborough man, Mark’s superior racket skills left his opponent without much hope from the start.
Nick Douglas’ blistering pace and infinite fitness has seen him gain a reputation for ‘Forrest Gumping’ his opposition off court. Though these skills were not necessary on this occasion, Nick had them at hand, dragging the rallies out with a few too many loose cross-courts and lofty drops. When his shots were firing though, his opponent had little to retaliate with, so Nick powered through to win 9-1, 9-2, 9-3.
At number three Matt Hall has gained a comparable reputation to Nick’s, forcing all who come against him to ‘witness the fitness’. Earlier in the season he broke a man from Warwick after fighting back from 2-0 down. This week, though, taken aback by the unexpected quality of his opponent and at times making hard work for himself, Matt put in a captain’s performance nevertheless, winning 9-6, 9-3, 9-6.
At number two, Tom Coode-Bate dropped 14 of the first 17 points, but going back to basics he clawed back to two games all. Things were looking grim at 6-1 down in the deciding game, but a quirk of fate found him finish on top: 3-9, 9-6, 4-9, 9-1, 9-7.
Number one seed, superstar fresher Nelson Fung, has stunned the Oxford squash scene this term, last week beating an ex-Pakistani international. This week was no exception, Nelson hit just one or two unforced errors in the entire match. His score-line, 9-0, 9-2, 9-0, was another promising result. Oxford will be relying on him to meet expectations set by former Tab-bashing Blues in this year’s Varsity.

Thursday
After a minibus test, I turn my attention to the forthcoming week. Unusually, the Blues have only played one BUSA Premier League fixture so far, so the season is yet to get going.
Friday
An early start with Fitness at 7.30am, led by last year’s captain Bethan Walsh who is one of two former players now in the Wales squad. Before the evening session, I meet with the coaches and Panthers captain to define our aims for the rest of term.
Saturday
A ‘day off’ today is for College Rugby. Over 100 girls – from total beginners to Blues – are involved on a regular basis, boosted by support from the men’s teams.
Sunday
This morning’s session involves more contact rugby and it’s fantastic to see the positive effects of regular club training on the players. The Blues work through attack and defence, with Margariete and Jake Howard, who have decades of club and international rugby experience between them.
Monday
An evening session is dedicated to running through scenarios and moves with the squad. This week’s opposition, Marjons, are usually tough and physically brutal so we must focus. The committee meets to discuss our Lehman Brothers Varsity Match – this year in Oxford on Saturday 1st March.
Tuesday
I try to switch off from rugby for the most of the day and get down to some work, before a team supper and an early night.
Wednesday
I’m always nervous in the morning so time flies before kick off. Everyone is pumped and really committing to the game. We dominate the first half but unfortunately take our foot off the gas, miss some chances and draw the game 20-20. It’s disappointing but we have to keep thinking positively.We end the week on a high with a team social in fancy dress!

Catz 31 – 7 LMH/Trinity

UPON promotion to the top flight, the last thing any side would want is to face a team that ran in over a hundred points in their last two fixtures. Unfortunately for LMH/Trinity, an in-form Catz were their opponents in the first game of the new league season.
Dark clouds and driving rain greeted the Division One new boys, who arrived without any substitutes and therefore no margin for error in terms of injuries. Catz, too, had players out, but even their shallow strength in depth was more than enough to comfortably see off their newly-promoted visitors.
With the home side coming into the game on the back of a second place league finish – the college’s best in years – they were looking to build towards going one better in the new season.
Catz began by tearing into LMH from the kick off, immediately camping deep in their opponents’ twenty-two. The only reason for the home side being denied an early score was a slight lack of composure in front of the line.
All that changed on ten minutes after some hard-hitting play in the midfield saw the ball find Catz outside centre Femi Fadugba.
Embarking on one of his trademark jinking runs, Fadugba left the LMH defence trailing in his wake before touching down underneath the posts. Captain Sam Donaldson converted to give his side an early 7-0 lead.
Catz barely let their opponents catch breath, running the ball straight back into the Tigers’ half and causing all sorts of problems for their defence. Good work from the home pack allowed the backs to put through Peter Jones for the first of his two tries.
At this stage LMH were on the ropes, being repeatedly jabbed by their hosts. Time after time Catz would break the defence, with Donaldson adding to his points total with a try and another conversion.
By now, even the St. Catherine’s forwards were after a piece of the action. Prop Tom Ward took a great inside ball before good work from hooker Charlie Thompson led to Matt Perrins touching down for the fourth try, plus conversion, of a punishing first half for LMH.
The Tigers looked more fired up after the break and took advantage of a sleepy Catz to score a converted try of their own, but were immediately brought back down to earth with a second try from Jones.
Injuries on both sides then brought down the quality of the game, with uncontested scrums being introduced thanks to a front row casualty. Catz came close to scoring a sixth, but Jamie Menzies was brought down just before the line.
Their dominance of both the lineout and the tackle area meant that the Manor Road outfit would always create more chances, and wing Leo Masson forced good covering tackles from the Tigers’ defence.
With LMH’s numbers dropping as low as twelve thanks to injuries, the referee brought matters to a close ten minutes ahead of schedule.
On this evidence, the new members of elite rugby have a lot to do to retain their top flight status. Upcoming fixtures against Magdalen and champions Keble leave LMH with little chance of picking up any points before Christmas. Catz, though, will fancy their chances of improving on last season’s second after a strong start in poor conditions.

It is difficult to imagine what Union President Luke Tryl envisaged when he first decided to invite Nick Griffin and David Irving. Did he believe there would be a fierce but gentlemanly debate in the chamber, with Oxford students feeling a sense of pleasure that free speech was encouraged and extremism ground away? Whatever his intentions, sincere and genuine that they were, he could not have predicted the scale to which the local and national community would focus on a debating society clustered in a small corner of Oxford University.
With the weeks and days to the 8th week forum drawing closer, the Oxford bubble has burst and continues to be ripped apart by the national press. Condemnation rather than applause has been heaped on the Tryl administration, with the exception of the far right, who have already taken advantage of the situation to claim a moral victory.
What the invitations have reaffirmed is the importance of the Oxford Union in a national context. Everyone, from right-wing bloggers to professional media pundits, has had something to say on the issue, no matter their geographic or  intellectual distance from the University.
Already, however, the event has been overshadowed by negative repercussions for Oxford students. The issue has caused serious divisions and fractures within normally unified colleges. The threat of protests and demonstrations has hit minorities, particularly for students from the Jewish and Muslim communities. They rightly fear a sudden influx of pro-debate protesters from far-right groups like the British National Party.
But conversely, many ordinary students wish to see the debate, yet fear being labelled racist or anti-Semitic by demonstrators for doing so. Even journalists at this newspaper, ordinary students without any extremist views, have been personally accused of reviving Holocaust denial by the national press.
With his term coming to an end, it will be interesting to see how posterity treats this Union President. Was he a deliberately divisive leader with no concern for minority opinion, a media pariah, seeking out controversy for his own fame and publicity? Or was he a brave advocate for the Union’s role as “the last bastion of free speech,” daring to challenge the silence and taking on extremists single-handedly?
Whatever the final judgement, Tryl is to be admired for sustaining blow after blow of withering criticism and sticking resolutely with his beliefs. At Liberty’s recent ‘Big Debate’, an indicative poll of a few hundred Oxford students showed that roughly three-quarters were behind him, and Tryl has promised a poll of Union members’ opinions to be held concurrently with the termly elections.
But what has this all achieved? Fear, violence, intimidation and division. Although there may be discord and perhaps even arguments between Oxford students, in the face of outside interference we must unify. When all is said and done, Union matters are the business of Oxford students only, and not for external groups who believe they know what’s best, or that we are incapable of solving our own problems.
To British National Party supporters and national anti-fascist groups, to Holocaust deniers and their opponents, to all and sundry who would involve themselves in our affairs, we quote this newspaper’s first editorial in 1920. Like those students before us, in the face of absurd politics we call for whimsical parochialism: let us “exclude all outside influence and interference and from our University. Oxford for the Oxonians.”

ON a wet and windy afternoon, spectators who braved the conditions were treated to an extremely physical encounter between the increasingly dominant Keble and a dogged Hall side, Keble running out 14-7 winners to continue their unbeaten run.
Keble entered the game as league champions and, fielding an unchanged side, were definite favourites to beat a Hall outfit that had just avoided relegation. To make matters worse for the Teddies, they were also without their injured iconic captain Phil Satterthwaite, meaning that they were forced to to concede five points and play with uncontested scrums.
Starting 5-0 down, Hall were eager to get early points. After a scrum on their opponents’ twenty-two, fly half Harold Buchanan fed the all-American Marc Wayshak in midfield who ploughed through two tackles to score under the posts. The try was converted to make it 7-5 and give Teddy Hall an early, morale-boosting lead.
Keble then began to get into the game, playing simple but effective rugby, with good ball retention. The Hall defence held strong, but was eventually forced into conceding two penalties which were duly kicked by fly Half Peter Bolton to regain the lead for the home side, making it 11-7.
Late in the first half, a poor kick from Keble that failed to find touch was seized upon by Tom Theodore, who glided through the home side’s defence and fed Wayshak on the right wing. With the try line at Hall’s mercy, the last pass failed to go to hand and was fly hacked into touch to the sound of the half-time whistle.
The second period was played out in a similar vein to the first. Early Keble pressure led to another penalty, again converted by Bolton, but they were unable to threaten the Hall try line. Hall’s defence was ferocious, with back rowers Patrick Cooper and Dusan Uhrin stopping the Keble forwards on the gain line.
However, the Teddies simply did not take their chances in attack: four clean line breaks were made in the second half which were not turned into points. Keble’s basic but controlled rugby eventually held on, and they emerged deserving winners at 4-7 thanks to Hall’s lack of clinical finishing.
After the game Keble captain Max Cole was happy with the result saying ‘We’ve come away with a win, and that’s all that really matters’. Hall captain Satterthwaite, after having to watch the game from the sidelines, called his side’s performance a ‘defensive masterclass’ and rued Hall’s missed chances.
A solid but unconvincing win by Keble should set them up to win this second league with reasonable ease whilst Hall, having produced their most spirited performance of the year, will know that if they can turn breaks into points they can, and should, finish in the top half of the table, instead of fighting relegation yet again.  

by Peter BowdenAll student journalists must die; every single one, rounded up and shot in the face at point-blank range, for the good of humanity. I don’t exaggerate; we’d lose nothing. Hear me out.
We are not in a golden age of student journalism. Whatever the opposite of gold is, that’s the age we’re in – the age of soil, or gonorrhoea, or festering cats.
Originality is dead: this is an age in which it’s hard to find a non-news article starting with anything other than (1) a vapid rhetorical question, (2) “You probably think some baseless stereotype is true – well, THINK AGAIN!!!”, or (3) some needless recitation from the Big Book of Oxford Clichés, as though Pimm’s were offering ballgowns lined with crack for every reference.
This is an age in which the whole stinking shebang is run by grey, insufferable sub-humans who the words “malaise” and “brainstorm”, and still think they’re going to change the world. Change the world, rather than – say – spend five years “in media” fetching lattés and spellchecking the sudoku, before getting their only break as a stand-in online Guardian columnist explaining how the new Lily Allen album really reminded them of the Palestine situation. Before dying alone. And poor. Probably.
My first contact with the world of student journalism was in my first term here, at a meeting of the Features department of the Oxford Student. Going to this was, naturally, a bad idea on more levels than I can ever find words. We did start with “brainstorming”, which in itself was enough to make me want to gouge out the vocal chords of everyone in the known world, armed only with a biro, and grim, righteous determination. I held back.
The format went as follows: one of them would give a broad, sweeping topic idea, unoriginal to anyone who’d as much as scanned the contents page of an in-flight magazine. Then they would end the sentence with the words, “maybe we could do a feature on that?”, and then there’d be nods, and that would be it. Idea. Conclusion. Repeat. Nothing else was ever needed.
The first was “Abortion. Maybe we could do a feature on that?”, as though they just expected to splash some dead foetus pictures over a centre-spread, slap on a quick point-counterpoint, and call this an article. Next we had “houses”. “Prostitution”. Then, for some reason, “China”. Few of us had been bemoaning a recent lack of China-centric OxStu journalism, but still this got the nods.
Here I abandoned all hope, and considered the use of the biro in self-lobotomy. In retrospect, this might not have helped: most likely they’d just have seen the blood gushing through my nostrils, then they’d wait, point, and say, “maybe we could do a feature on that?” They’d snap a few polaroids, and use me as a tragic example in a poignant piece on student self-harm. Clearly, I’d be a popular, handsome student, and their first sentence would probably be along the lines of: “You probably think life in the ‘dreaming spires’ is heaven for everyone. Well, THINK AGAIN!!” They’d call this a “scoop”. Death’s too good for them.
There might be a case made for their existence, if only they didn’t insist on being taken quite so seriously. On the way into the meeting, we were told not to leak anything to Cherwell. This made me laugh on two levels. First of these was at the thought that they were half-expecting Cherwell spies to sit for an hour, make notes, and report back: “An article on China, you say? We must outmanoeuvre them! Get me a typewriter!”
Secondly, more importantly, I laughed at the implication that anyone would truly care that much about student papers: they don’t. Contrary to their own delusions, Cherwell v OxStu isn’t actually World War VI with Fit College and pashminas. As battles of wit and guile go, it’s closer to Soggy Biscuit – an analogy which, coincidentally, works on a number of levels.
If the infamous million typewriting monkeys could manage Hamlet, it’d take them half an hour to shit out an Oxford Student, before moaning at being overqualified, and applying for jobs in telesales. Kill all the student journalists – and now I’m here, I’ll be happy to start with myself.