NTU Teams Win Four National Titles! – BUCS Big Wednesday round-up

NTU has traditionally been a bit part player in these finals, but their recent rise into the BUCS top 10 overall has seen stronger and stronger representation each year and raised expectations. This year we had 6 teams representing NTU at the finals, another fantastic achievement placing NTU up with the traditional heavy weights of HE sport.

The Women’s Hockey 1^st team were in the National Vase Final, facing rivals University of Bath and looking to finish the season strongly after a challenging league campaign where they still need to secure a playoff win to stay in the National league. They didn’t let previous results against Bath phase them and started strongly taking a 2-0 lead. The NTU team couldn’t finish them off however and Bath managed 1 goal back to set up a nervous last 5 minutes, however the girls saw out the game fantastically and were crowned National Vase Champions for the 2^nd year in a row.

Over at DRSV, Table Tennis achieved a 1^st for NTU, with the Men’s 1^st team making the National Championship finals once again. Not content with this, the Men’s 2^nd team had also made the National Trophy final (trophy final is for teams in Tier 1 – still a national trophy). The 2s were first up and faced University of Warwick 1^st team, while the 1^st faced their long-term rivals and Table Tennis giants University of Nottingham. The 2s put up a great fight but were beaten by their opponents 10-6 but made history by reaching the finals. The 1s were equally up against it and fought valiantly but were eventually beaten 10-4. Two silver medals means another fantastic year from the whole Table tennis programme.

Next up were Women’s Football 1^st team, again in the National Trophy Final, and facing league rivals University of Cambridge 1^st, looking to win the title for the 3^rd year in a row (with a covid enforced gap). The game was an instant classic, with NTU racing to a 2-0 lead, only to be pegged back by half time. Cambridge took an early 2^nd half lead, only for NTU to reply twice in quick fashion to lead 4-3. More drama unfolded and Cambridge equalised against the run of play to take the game to extra time. Nothing separated them for 28 minutes of extra time, until a deep cross found an NTU player in space at the pack post, to head home the winning goal. 5-4 AET and a 3^rd National Trophy secured.