Clubs/Physical Health Week

Written by Clubs Exectutive | 19 January 2011

Open Indoor Intervarsities 2010

Written by Clubs Exectutive | 06 January 2011

Open Indoor Intervarsities 2010

Indoor Intervarsities 2010 took place in Cork on the weekend of November 20th. This was the first inter-varsity UCC had hosted in a long time, so all players were excited to travel to Cork for an event other than Cork Open. The Open Division was scheduled to go ahead on the Saturday with sixteen teams competing for the title. The Womens Division took place on the Sunday with eight teams entering the competition. The sixteen open teams were divided into power pools of four each. Seventh and eighth seeds would play against ninth and tenth in crossovers before placement games began. UCC’s Mardyke Sports Hall saw its first Ultimate varsity held on its grounds. Most Open teams arrived on the Friday evening meeting their hosts at The Star pub near UCC. Other Open teams travelled down Saturday morning, as well as some Womens teams arriving Friday night to cheer their respective colleges on.

 
The hall doors opened at 9am Saturday morning as games began not long after. In pool one top seeds and reigning champions UCC won their first three games with ease, scoring thirty two points while only conceding eight. DIT and QUB were the groups whipping boys as they both lost to DCU and UCC. The two drew their game in a close encounter and QUB fell into the crossover via points difference.

Pool two saw UCC dominating again, except this time with their second team. Similar to UCC 1, UCC2 amassed a large scoring tally and only conceded single figures. TCD1 were seeded top of this group but could only find enough players to form an iron man team to try and take the trophy home. In a group with UCD, TCD and a dominant UCC 2, DCU 2 found themselves the odd ones out and fell into the crossovers with QUB.

Pool three saw ITT as top seeds, but were unfortunate to have NUIG in their group after they replaced UCD 2 at the last minute. The group would have been a lot tighter if NUIG weren’t there, but their quality shone through as they topped the group over TCD2, ITT and NUIM2. NUIG moved into the crossovers to play DCU2.

 

Pool four finished in a similar fashion to the first two pools; with UCC dominance. UCC 3 beat QUB2 and DCU 3 without conceding a point, and finished the group with thirty six points scored and only four conceded. NUIM would have put up a stronger challenge if they hadn’t formed two iron man teams instead of one full strength side to give everyone a chance of good game time. UCC 3 finished as tenth seeds to play QUB in the crossovers.

In the crossovers NUIG took out DCU 2 in clinical fashion with an 11-3 score-line, setting up an interesting tie with UCC. UCC3 pulled off a shock win against QUB beating them by four points. This set up an even more interesting match-up against UCC 2 in the quarter finals. At the halfway stage of the tournament UCC were dominating on home ground and looking unstoppable on all three levels.
The quarter finals began with every team out to stop UCC. NUIG fell at the first hurdle, losing 11-1 to UCC. In the all Cork match-up an intense game was played out, but the experience of UCC2 over UCC3’s beginner team came through with UCC3 losing on a respectable score-line of 10-6. TCD captain Cian Quinn suffered a nasty arm injury which ruled him out of the rest of the tournament. DCU capitalised on this and beat TCD to advance into the semi finals to play against UCC2. DIT saw off UCD to set up a semi-final rematch against UCC.

UCC showed no mercy against DIT beating them 15-0, sending them into the final to defend their title. UCC2 and DCU played out a spirited and tight game in the other semi-final. UCC2 were edging ahead all game until a fantastic comeback by DCU drew the game level sending it to universe point. After a number of important foul calls DCU scored the winning point to enter their first varsity final of the season by the score-line of 10-9.

UCC were clear favourites after demolishing all their opponents throughout the day, and only allowing DCU to score two points in the group stages. The game started off as predicted with UCC taking a five point advantage quickly. DCU then sparked a comeback, supported by all the Dublin players on the sideline. DCU reduced the deficit to within two or three points, but UCC switched it back on and realised they were letting the title slip. They played hard and sent the game into a points cap, winning the tournament on the final score of 17-6.

TCD2 won the plate division by beating NUIM, after they won a close game against QUB. DCU won most spirited team award for their fantastic attitude towards their opponents and matches. The TDs of the tournament kept stats for how many assists and goals each player scored. The player with the most won MVP of the tournament. Liam Fletcher of UCD was the MVP of the Open tournament accounting for a massive thirty scores throughout the day. MVP of the final was UCC captain Fergus McAuliffe, who again showed why he was placed on the IFDA all-star team of last year. UCC retain the indoor crown and won the first varsity tournament of the season.

Many Open teams stayed in Cork overnight to party and support their womens teams the following day. Door 51 on Grand Parade was the venue as everyone relaxed with a drink and discussed the day just had. The women teams did not have the luxury of staying out late, as they had to be up and raring to go the next morning.

The Final Standings:

Open
1: UCC (Champions)
2: DCU (Spirit Winners)
3: UCC2
4: DIT
5: UCD
6: UCC3
7: TCD
8: NUIG
9: TCD2 (Plate Winners)
10: NUIM
11: QUB
12: DCU2
13: ITT
14: QUB2
15: NUIM2
16: DCU3

By George Pardoe

Women's Indoor Intervarsities 2010

Written by Clubs Exectutive | 06 January 2011

Women's Indoor Intervarsities 2010

Sunday morning began at the later time of 10am, with all teams on time and ready to go. In pool one, the day opened with a Trinity grudge match with TCD playing TCD2. TCD showed why they were the first team by winning 7-1. DIT were ineligible due to having only three DIT players, so they used two pick up players. This meant that all games against them were a 13-0 walkover against them. This didn’t deter TCD as they won 7-1. UCC started strong with a 7-0 victory of DIT and a comfortable victory against TCD2. This set up an exciting match between TCD and UCC to decide who would win pool one. The game could not be any closer as UCC manage to scrape a point at the end to force a 6-6 tie. UCC won pool one with TCD, TCD2 and DIT following them.

In pool 2, DCU proved why they were top seeds of the group by easily beating UCC2 and UCC3 while finding a more challenging game against UCD. UCD comfortably beat both UCC teams to give themselves an advantage for the quarter-finals. This left UCC2 and UCC3 to battle it out for placing in the quarter-finals. UCC2 showed the all beginner UCC3 teams how ultimate is played, winning by an 8-3 score-line. With all the group games played, the quarter-finals started after a brief lunch break. UCC were to play UCC3, DCU played the ineligible DIT, TCD faced off against UCC2 while UCD took on TCD 2.

Group winners UCC took apart their UCC3 colleagues with ease to set up a semi-final against UCD who beat TCD2 by four points. DIT beat DCU by a point, but this did not matter as DCU received the 13-0 walkover. TCD found it easy against UCC2 and made their way into the last four to play against DCU.

UCC carried their quarter-final strength into the semis, beating UCD 13-1 to send them into the varsity final. TCD had a tougher game against DCU, but grinded out a 7-2 victory to set up a much anticipated rematch between UCC and TCD.

After DCU beat UCD with ease to take third place of the tournament, all eyes were on the final. The game was as close as the group game, but this time UCC took the edge to begin with by taking a 5-4 lead. They improved on this to set up a favourable 8-6 score-line. But defending champions TCD weren’t going to go down lying. TCD kicked into gear and made the game 9-9. As the point cap was called TCD scored to make the score-line 10-9, with a game to 11 being the winning score. The next point went on for a long time, with both teams having the disc on the edge of the end-zone. TCD showed why they were reigning champions, and won the tournament on an 11-9 score-line.

Most spirited team went to DCU again, showing that they are currently the most spirited varsity team. MVP of the tournament went to TCD captain Claire Pugh, who accounted for just under thirty scores throughout the day. MVP of the final was awarded to TCD’s Helen Hobson, who found space all over the pitch when it appeared UCC had it all covered. TCD won the tournament for the third year running.
The tournament ran smoothly with little going wrong. The venue was perfect for indoors, and all teams played enough games to satisfy the player with endless endurance.

Womens
1: TCD (Champions)
2: UCC
3: DCU (Spirit Winners)
4: UCD
5: TCD2
6: UCC2
7: UCC3
8: DIT (Ineligible)

By George Pardoe

Quarry Cup 2011

Written by Clubs Exectutive | 06 January 2011

History of the UCC Quarry Cup

            Started over 50 years ago in 1952 the Quarry Cup is UCC's oldest and most successful interclass soccer competition. The competition is so named because it was originally played at the old quarry pitch. Now the location of the Boole Library the quarry provided a focal point for campus life. At lunch time when all Quarry Cup games were held in the past it was not unheard of to have up 500 students surrounding the pitch to cheer on their class mates. The spirit of the Quarry Cup has always been to encourage sporting participation and to foster a feeling of camaraderie and friendship among class mates. Although promoting friendship and camaraderie among classmates, the competition between classes could be fierce. There have been more than a few broken bones suffered over the long and prestigious history of the competition so besides providing a platform for sporting endeavour the Quarry Cup also provided a bit of practice to the many would be doctors on campus.

            The Quarry Cup is organised year on year by UCC Soccer Club and in return the competition as unearthed a number of players including many who went on to win Collingwood Cup medals. Although the old quarry pitch provided much drama and entertainment for participants and spectators alike by the time the final arrived it usually had the dubious distinction of being the only soccer pitch in cork without a blade of grass to play on. So when the pitch had to make way for the construction of the Boole Library in 1977 the Quarry Cup was moved to its new home at the Mardyke with a new all weather surface.

            This year UCC Soccer Club hopes to make this years competition the biggest and most successful to date. If nothing else the Quarry Cup provides a chance for classmates to get out and enjoy a game of soccer for an hour. For fresher’s it provides an opportunity to get to know each other and for older teams each year offers the chance to improve on the last years performance and maybe even get revenge for that last minute penalty loss to Commerce2 or Arts3. Team registration will be held at a table near the library everyday from 12-2. Registration forms can be picked up at the table or at the office of sports and recreation. The draw and fixtures along with more information will be posted on college road website and uccsports.net in the coming weeks so why not get a team together, get them registered and get involved in the one and only Quarry Cup?