Hi everyone,

Welcome back to everyone from last year and welcome to CUSWPC to those who have just joined. Firstly, I would like to thank the committee from last year, especially Ellie O’Keeffe who has been so integral to the running of CUSWPC for the past three years! 2022/2023 was a spectacular year with successes in and out of the pool, with notable victories at Varsity for the Second’s Swimming Team along with the Women’s Blues team, who took home the ladies’ trophy for the first time in 10 years! Yet, the athletic highlight of the year has to have been the performance by the Men’s Water Polo First team, who placed second in the country at BUCS and put over twenty goals past O*ford in a resounding home Varsity victory at Parkside!

The 2023/2024 season kicked off with a CUSWPC first, a swimming preseason organised and led by captains Meg and Tom, where promising freshers were invited to train with the Blues team. This allowed the newcomers to reach Coach Chris’ standard quicker which corresponded with impressive trials performances. With the start of term competitions have come thick and fast with the various men’s and women’s water polo teams securing several victories in BUCS and local league competitions. The Blues swimming team made their debut in the British Universities Swimming League competition (think Arena League for universities) and saw another successful short course BUCS competition. Alongside training and competing our Tadpoles’ President has been hard at work, organising both the Meet the Committee and Tadmas events, which help to integrate new members and allow for the swimming and water polo teams to catch up with each other. The coming Easter term beckons, with an away Varsity at O*ord on March 2^nd, followed by the annual Varsity Dinner which is sure to be a highlight of the year!

Since my first week at Cambridge CUSWPC has been an integral part of my university experience providing not only athletic opportunity but also a brilliant, welcoming place where I have been lucky enough to meet friends for life. In this spirit the Tadpoles’ President, Flynn, and I have been working with alumni James Ganendra on creating a more concrete alumni network, with individuals as contact points for five-year groups of alumni. We hope this new system will allow for better communication from the current committee with alumni whilst also developing a better way for alumni to reconnect with each other. We are still looking for individuals to be alumni contacts so if you’re interested, please get in touch! As ever, we are looking for pictures, stories and memories from past years at CUSWPC, so if you uncover any please let us know.

I personally have high hopes for a successful season, with the potential for big Varsity wins on March 2^nd in O*ford. The passion our members, old and new, have for CUSWPC has been so inspiring during my short time in the club and the friendships and camaraderie throughout the teams is remarkable, making CUSWPC such a special thing to be part of. I look forward to meeting you all in the coming months and celebrating after another successful year at our annual Varsity Dinner!

Ellie Mason, Junior President 2023-2024

Throughout the next year, CUSWPC is looking to facilitate getting old team mates back together through the hosting of alumni events, either in Cambridge or elsewhere! This could be a great opportunity to catch up with some old friends and reminisce on the old days over some drinks or dinner. If you’re interested in attending or organising a reunion event for your year group, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, as we would be very happy to assist in setting things up and getting the word out to fellow alumni. We would love to hear from you.

After nearly a whole week of waiting for the go-ahead due to stormy conditions, the 13^th Channel Varsity race started for Cambridge at 1.30am on 7^th July in a rather frosty Dover car park. Following a rather nervous boat ride to the starting location, Flynn Ryan got the race off to start, diving from the beach into the chilly, pitch-black sea. An hour later, team captain Evie Anema took over just as the sun was beginning to rise. Evie had been preparing all year to swim the channel herself (which she did just a week later!), so an hour in the channel hardly phased her at all, as she was then succeeded by Cambridge Triathlete Ed Cator. Good spirits and constant support kept the team going as we inched ever closer to France, with strong swims from CUSWPC Captain Tom Woolley and President Eleanor Mason brought us just over the halfway point, as Flynn hopped into the water for his second hour in the channel. But it was Jas Eden’s second swim at the 9-hour mark which proved to be the most exciting, as she mustered the energy for a sprint finish into the shores of Calais to finish in a time of 9 hours and 47 minutes, beating the previous Cambridge time by 11 minutes! Unable to make the swim on the same day, the Oxford team swam the channel 2 days later, beating the Cambridge time to take the win.

Weiyi Tan

2022-23 Season Review:

W1 had a tough season last year but made some great improvements in both individual and team play throughout the season, making for a close Varsity match that unfortunately ended with a 10-6 loss but was still a great end to the season. The team finished 5/6 in the BUCS Premier South Division, with memorable wins against Oxford and Bath. W2 also suffered a loss at Varsity, but it was a great opportunity for them to play and own their own match.

Stand out performers included Anna Leeson who led us incredibly through her second year of captaincy. Also, our two speedy wingers, Georgina Quayle who consistently won swim offs, got the ball, swam it into space and scored, and Carrie Day, who displayed incredible stamina and improved incredibly throughout the season.

2023-24 Season Preview:

This season, W1 are still competing in the Premier South Division of BUCS. We’ve had a lot of turn over this year and the team is made up of a majority of water polo novices. Given the strength of the league this year we expect BUCS to be a bit of a trial by fire, but endeavour to enjoy and learn from every experience. So far, we have had one win against King’s College London and three losses, with one closely fought match against Oxford until tiring out at the final quarter, and two very challenging matches against Birmingham and Bristol.

Promising players to look out for include Ffion Gregory, a new strong Pit Defence player who played for Sheffield University previously, and Lucy Wimhurst, our goalie who is completely new to water polo this year but has improved rapidly as she has been thrown quite literally into the deep end in BUCS matches!

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, recruitment was successful, and it is exciting that we have enough players for both a firsts and seconds team, especially given the scare of being left with only 7 members continuing after last year. We are looking forward to our training camp in Amsterdam which will not only provide steep improvement to gear us up for Varsity, but also be lots of fun and team bonding! For the seconds, we will organise friendly matches once the newbies get a hold of the basics. For the firsts, expectation management is key, and although we have tough competition, we are improving with every match and excited to see how far we can go as a team.

Callum Malcolm

22-23 Season Review:

MWP had a great season last year and we’re looking to kick on this year and build on that success.

The M1 team finished 2nd in BUCS Tier 1, missing out on the top spot to Loughborough by one match and made the Finals of the BUCS National Trophy Competition. At Varsity we played an O*ford team who had just won Prem South, the division above, and ripped them a new one by a score of 23-15, cracking the 20-goal threshold for only the 5th time in competition history.

Stand out performers from last year include Ronan “The Moose” Kirby, who finished the season with an outstanding 80 goals. Dan Gilbey, the resident team sharpshooter whose highlights include ripping a self-described “wonder goal” from half pool at the buzzer to help secure a crucial draw against Loughborough. Alastair Horn, team fixer and all-around defensive all-star. All three have unfortunately moved on, but our last standout performer is the ever-steady goalkeeper Andrew te Water Naude who remains between the sticks this season.

M2s also had a relatively successful season, beating O*ford 3 times last year. Stand out performers include goalkeeper Alex Humphries, up and comer Cai Evans, and long-time club servants Henry Stuart-Turner and Arka Banerjee who have both moved on.

23-24 Season Preview:

M1 is looking forward to a strong a season once again with most players returning from last year. The team mantra this season is “we don’t rebuild, we reload” as we’ve gotten significant minutes from 3 freshers to help cover losses from last season and big game contributions from M2 players last year who have stepped up and progressed.

Early season results are strong, we confidently dispatched Notts 2s at home and came away with a tough fought draw at Loughborough in which we thoroughly dominated for significant portions of the match. Despite ending in a draw, I’ve been told by resident club historian Andrew that it’s quote “the best result we’ve ever had away at Loughborough” which sets us up nicely in the table (Promotion Season anyone?). Additionally, we’re looking at challenging again for the BUCS National Trophy, first round is the 25th when we take on Exeter at home.

Some players to look out for are Jurgis Reinotas, last years captain who’s coming into his MJ year (the Last Dance) and looking to capitalise. Zach “Gabriel Martinelli” Lyttle who appears to be under the impression that if you say “Full Blue” often enough you’ll get one but has started the season quite strong, and Joe Gebers who despite never uttering the words is actually likely to get one off the back of his pit performances on both offence and defence.

M2s had a lot of turnover this year and a large number of the squad are water polo novices. The team is making quick strides however and we hope after a few more training sessions and a full camp in Amsterdam they’ll be fit and firing. Big time performer so far is Peter Suman who’s been an utter revelation in goal.

We’re focused and excited for the rest of the season and expect it to be a successful one for the 2nd year running.