Saturday 11th March 2023

The BUCS Scottish Conference Finals 2023 took the town of St Andrews by storm on Wednesday the 8th of March. Student Athletes from across Scotland arrived ready to represent their institutions.

The BUCS Scottish Conference Finals 2023 took the town of St Andrews by storm on Wednesday 8th March. Student athletes from across Scotland arrived ready to represent their institution in fierce competition for either a Cup or Trophy on the day. The standard of play was high and there was fantastic support from friends and fellow students on the sidelines.

Read all about it!

The Conference Finals featured a range of sports, including football, basketball, netball, tennis, table-tennis, volleyball, badminton and hockey. Unfortunately, inclement weather meant that the lacrosse and rugby fixtures will have to be rescheduled.

The day started off with the ICG Women’s Hockey Trophy, where Glasgow Caledonian University 1s faced off against the formidable University of St Andrews 3s. The game was intense, with both teams playing their hearts out but in the end, a dominant GCU took the victory with a 7-1 win over their opponents.

The ICG Women’s Hockey Cup was an Edinburgh derby and equally as tense a game, but a strong performance from the University of Edinburgh 4s lead to a 3-0 win over Heriot-Watt University.

In the highly anticipated Men’s Hockey Trophy students from Robert Gordon University 1s faced off against the home favourites, St Andrews 3s. The Saints put up a good showing but at the end of the day RGU turned the tables in their favour, defeating the home squad 4 – 1.

It was a different story in the Men’s Hockey Trophy, however, with the lads from Edinburgh Napier storming out the blocks. The pace was relentless and didn’t once let up, with the Aberdeen team showing good sportsmanship and grace in defeat. Napier took home the silverware with a 9-1 win.

In Badminton, the University of Edinburgh started well against their Heriot-Watt opponents with a blistering showcase of hand-eye coordination and timing, but it was not to be; Heriot-Watt University won the day, going 9-3 overall.

The University of Strathclyde 3s took on the University of St Andrews in the arena for the EY Netball Trophy.  It was a strong performance from the St Andrews team with good home support, but they couldn’t quite overcome the Strathclyde side, who took home the trophy.

A close match followed in the EY Women’s Netball Cup, with the University of Edinburgh 3s taking the University of Glasgow 2s right to the wire. The team from the West won the day with the final scoreline being Glasgow 40-36 Edinburgh.

Thank you to Sirens for providing match ticket vouchers as prizes for the MVPs of both Netball Finals!

In the Women’s Tennis Cup athletes from the University of Dundee 1s took to the indoor court against the University of Strathclyde 2s. The athletes from both sides played well, but it wasn’t to be for the team in maroon, with Dundee defeating them 5-1 after a valiant show from the Strathclyde students.

The Teach First Women’s Tennis Trophy followed the fast four format and took place on the outdoor pitches. Heriot-Wat University 1s battle sun and snow to win. HWU 6 – 0 Aberdeen.

Tennis Scotland Representative, Jack Ganley, was present to deliver both of the Women’s trophies to the successful teams. Thank you to Jack for giving up his time!

The Teach First Men’s Tennis Cup was incredibly close, with a momentous display of stamina taking place on the courts. The cup eventually went to a shootout, with the University of Stirling defeating the University of St Andrews 4 – 3.

The Teach First Men’s Tennis Trophy was equally close with a massive series of matches eventually ending in a shootout. Both universities were well represented by their athletes but eventually, Glasgow Caledonian’s 1s defeated the University of Stirling’s 7s 2 sets – 1 to take home the trophy.

Heading back into the arena we had the Table Tennis Cup. Tight matches and immense displays of hand eye coordination were in full view as the University of Glasgow battled it out with Heriot-Watt University. In the end it was a dominant display from the team from the cultural capital, ending with Glasgow 14 – 2 Heriot-Watt.

Basketball was another exciting sporting display at the conference finals. In the Women’s Cup final Queen Margaret University faced off against the Granite City’s Robert Gordon University. The game was close, with both teams trading baskets throughout. In the end, it was RGU who took the victory after a valiant fight from QMU.

In the Men’s Basketball Cup Final the University of Stirling faced off against the University of Edinburgh. The crowd cheered both teams on, reaching fever pitch after a late comeback from the University of Edinburgh, but it wasn’t enough as the boys in green took victory!

The Aldi Men’s Football Trophy took place on the outdoor pitches, offering up a whole host of challenges as the players not only battled each other but also contended with snow storms and blinding sunlight. In the end the Univerity of Stirling 4s defeated Heriot-Watt to take home the trophy.

The weather was no better in the Aldi Men’s Football Cup, as a last-minute venue change saw the home side St Andrews take on Edinburgh Napier. After an electric match with a fantastic crowd Napier toppled the Saints 3-0.

In the Aldi Women’s Football Cup the Univeristy of Aberdeen 1s took on home side St Andrews 2s, with a brilliant support turnout spurring both teams on! After an even match the Saints girls just edged it, defeating Aberdeen to take home the cup.

Heading back into the sports hall for the Women’s Volleyball cup, we saw the University of Edinburgh take on the University of Strathclyde. It was relentless from the start from Edinburgh, comfortably beating their opponents 3 – 0.

In the Men’s Volleyball that followed spectators got a brilliant show, with nail-biting sets that went right to the wire. Heriot-Watt University battled it out with Edinburgh Napier University, finishing HWU 3 – 1 Edinburgh Napier.

The BUCS Scottish Conference Finals 2023 was a fantastic day and it couldn’t have been completed without the tireless effort of the officials, venue staff, and volunteers who gave up their time to make it happen. We were also delighted to work with our BUCS partners in the build-up to the event.

Find all of the photos here on our Facebook page!

Check out the highlights video here!

Results: Please click HERE for the results and MVPs of the matches played at St Andrews on 8th March

What Did You Think? Please let us know how you found this event by completing our Feedback Survey!

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Tuesday 17th January 2023

Megan Keith took home the gold at the Scottish Inter-District XC in Perth last Saturday. Read all about it down below!

Megan Keith and Jamie Crowe took home the gold at the Scottish Inter-District XC in Perth last Saturday, 14th January. Following her recent silver medal at the U23 European Cross-Country Championships, Scottish Student Athlete Megan Keith completed the 8k race in 28:58 with a 14 second victory. In second place was Fionnuala Ross representing the West of Scotland, quickly followed by GB international and Scottish Student Athlete Alice Goodall.

The treacherous conditions didn’t make it easy, with Megan commenting in a scottishathletics post-race interview “The hills and the mud certainly made it a tough one. I was cautious over the first lap and a half, and then I tried to put in a hard last lap, but the conditions made that harder today.”

Jamie Crowe made his comeback last week at Bathgate in the East League after a 10 month break due to injury. Now securing his third win at the Scone Palace, Crowe finished the race with a time of 24:55, 10 seconds ahead of runner up Kristian Jones, while James Kingston came in third place. Pleased with his performance, Crowe stated that “I have surprised myself over the past eight days to be honest.”

Scottish Student Sport were thrilled to have thirty student athletes partaking in the event as part of the SSS National Squad, with 15 male and 15 female runners representing SSS. The highest placed Scottish Student Athlete in the senior men’s goes to Callum Tharme, who came in 10th place with a time of 25:58.

Megan and Jamie will be keeping their fingers crossed for selection for the upcoming World Cross in Australia.

See the full Scottish Athletics Article here and the results here.

And check out the Scottish Athletics Youtube Channel here to watch all the races!

We’d like to extend a huge thanks to Scottish Athletics for hosting the event, the Officials for helping to make it happen and to Mark Nixon, SS Cross Country National Squad Team Manager.

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Monday 12th December 2022

Re-live some of the action from the incredible Men’s and Women’s basketball finals

Re-live some of the action from the incredible Men’s and Women’s basketball finals, held at the Emirates Arena in partnership with the Caledonia Gladiators!

Both Livestream VODs are available on the SSS Youtube Channel, or via the links down below.

View the photo album here 📷

Congratulations to the University of Edinburgh, who won both the Men’s and Women’s finals! 🏀 Results and MVPs HERE

 

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Thursday 10th November 2022

Check out the highlights from our recent Boccia Championships!

Check out the highlights from our recent Boccia Championships, in partnership with the fantastic Scottish Disability Sport, where we were delighted to welcome teams from colleges and universities up and down the country!

Well done to all participants and we look forward to seeing you at future Boccia events soon.

📸 Photo album can be found HERE

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Monday 10th October 2022

Stirling University Cycling Club were once again our hosts for the Scottish Student Cycling Hill Climb Championships, taking us back to the annual slopes of suffering to the National Wallace Monument to kick-start the 2022-23 season.

Stirling University Cycling Club were once again our hosts for the Scottish Student Cycling Hill Climb Championships, taking us back to the annual slopes of suffering to the National Wallace Monument to kick-start the 2022-23 season. This year, the exciting new addition of Le Col sponsorship provided even greater stakes, with superb prizes up for grabs.

A total of 46 riders – 31 male, 15 female – took on the brutal 14% average gradients over a course of (only) 500m! The course however was also wet from earlier rain showers, so the riders would have to contend with spinning wheels as they lost grip on the steepest gradients.  This would be a short, but gruelling, effort from start to finish once again – but the riders knew what they were getting themselves in for.

After their warm up and a recce of the climb, the riders started queuing for their chance at glory – though they would be forgiven for thinking the podium would be taken from the start due to the high calibre of riders in the field. First up was the favourite for the day: former Junior MTB XC Champion and last year’s champion (with an excellent time of 1:32), Charlie Aldridge (University of Edinburgh)! Could he set a winning time from the start? It looked likely as he set a ferocious pace to cross the finish line, for the second year running, with a time of 1:32!

Not long after, University of Aberdeen’s Sam Carrotte became the second person to achieve a sub-1:40 time on the day, eventually taking home 4th as the highest placed rider not from University of Edinburgh.

It was Louis Moore (University of Edinburgh), fresh from his first National-B race win the previous weekend that provided what many would call the ‘ride of the day’.  He took 5 seconds off of his time from last year to cross the line in a blistering 1:30 to take a decisive victory.  University of Edinburgh showed they had depth in leg-power as they also claimed 2nd and 3rd on the Men’s podium: Charlie Aldridge pipped for second and Angus Toms in 3rd.

University of Stirling started proceedings in the women’s event, with Charli Alston setting a superb time of 2:28 and taking 3 seconds off of her bronze medal-worthy time from last year. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough to get her onto the podium this year, however, as University of Edinburgh demonstrated breadth as well as depth, taking two of the 3 top positions and knocking Charli in to 4th. Amelia Tyler (University of Edinburgh) took 2nd place in a time of 2:16, whilst her team mate, Anna McGorum, claimed 3rd place with a time of 2:22 – a fantastic achievement given it was her first race in over a year!

The gold medal and second clean-sweep was not destined for University of Edinburgh this time as GB rider and 2x British MTB XC Champion, Elena McGorum (University of Dundee) stormed the climb. Elena flew up the hill with a sensational time of 2:13 to take the top position.

Some fantastic riding by the other women’s riders saw the top 10 rounded out with 2 riders from the Universities of Dundee, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Stirling, all within 20 seconds of each other. It was particularly exciting to have 18 female riders in the event – with entries growing over time from just 5 women entered in to the 2018 competition!

Well done to all riders on the day. The route, though short, it is a difficult climb so it’s a brilliant achievement to get to finish it, regardless of time.  Congratulations to the clubs claiming well-earned points in the SS Cycling Series. With 16 riders competing and taking 5 of the 6 medals on offer, University of Edinburgh take the lead in 138 points.  Second place is the University of Stirling with 68 points, whilst the University of Dundee is currently in 3rd place with 42 points.

It’s still very much all to play for with another 4 events in the season. As 5 points are earned per entry from each institution, not just for places, we look forward to seeing student cyclists out in force: more people, more points!  Keep an eye on our socials for details about our upcoming Cyclo-Cross Championships.

Finally, a massive thank you to President of Stirling University Cycling Club, Daisy Barnes, for making this happen as event organiser.  We are ever grateful to event sponsors, Le Col and Root Cycles for providing some incredible prizes for our riders.  Many thanks to all volunteers who helped on the day, as well as all our wonderful spectators who created a brilliant, encouraging atmosphere for all those racing!

Full results can be found HERE and the photo album from photographer, Craig Fellowes, can be found HERE

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Wednesday 14th September 2022

Before we dive into the new academic year, we thought we’d take a look back at some of the top moments of 2021/22!

SSS ANNUAL REVIEW 2021/22!

Before we dive into the new academic year, we thought we’d take a look back at some of the top moments of 2021/22!

After returning from two years of interrupted play we had our first full season of sport, we worked with partners, tackled some big issues, and continued to sustainably develop our business.

Want to see your stats? Drop an email to info@scottishstudentsport.com and we’ll send through an infographic detailing all the ways in which members from your institution interacted with SSS in the last year!

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Friday 26th August 2022

Are you looking to take part in sport at College or University but don’t know where to start? Then look no further! This is our comprehensive guide to getting involved with Student Sport in Scotland!

Are you looking to take part in sport at College or University but don’t know where to start? Then look no further! This is our comprehensive guide to getting involved with Student Sport in Scotland!

STEP 1 – Have a think!

Do you already play a sport? Are you looking for something competitive or more recreational? Perhaps you’ve been inspired by a recent sporting event like the commonwealth games (Where students from across the UK excelled) and want to try out something new?

The first thing to do is to have a think about what you’d like from your College or University experience. We recommend writing down the sports you’d like to try, why you’d like to try them and how much time you have available to commit to sport whilst at University or College. This can help you work out what’s best for you and will also make searching for a sports club less daunting.

STEP 2 – See what your College or University has on offer

So, you’ve made your list and thought about what you’d like to do, what next?

You’ll want to have a look at what your institution has on offer! We know it can be hard to find the best place so we’ve compiled an A-Z of College and University sport for you, with links to landing pages, club lists or Students Association contacts. If your institution doesn’t offer your sport then don’t worry, you can partake in many Scottish Student Sport events as a non-affiliated student.

Check out the A-Z of Sport below:

Colleges:

Universities:

STEP 3 – Head along to welcome week

Most Colleges and Universities organise welcome weeks, with lots of action on campus and representatives from many of the sports clubs in August and September. Here you’ll be able to chat to club captains, organisers and sports presidents to help you decide on the best clubs for you.

STEP 4 – Chat to your Sports or Student Union 

Many Universities and Colleges have a dedicated student or sports union to help organise and develop Student Sport. If you’ve got any further questions or just need a little help they’ll be more than happy to help out.

STEP 5 – Get involved and have fun

No matter your sport or interests, Student Sport has something for you. So, get out there and get involved!

 

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Monday 11th July 2022

Read on to hear how Saints students got on when they took the #SheCanSheWill Football Cup to a local training session

In the 2021-22 season, University of St Andrews Women’s 1st team won the #SheCanSheWill Cup (full coverage found HERE). In a brilliant fashion, the club have taken this as an opportunity to inspire the next generation of players by taking the prestigious cup ‘on tour’.

On 24th June 2022, two members of the Saints Women’s Squad attended a training session in Auchtermuchty to meet and inspire the 9-12 year old Bellvue Colts Girls Squad. Sophia Anderson of the Women’s 2nd team and Daisy Beddall, one of the finalists and penalty shoot-out scorers from the first team, made the final session before the summer holidays memorable for the 15 girls in attendance.

A fun warm up, a dribbling skills challenge and a match that put the students through their paces ended with the opportunity for the girls to hold the trophy and ask questions. There were smiles all round as the players heard the opportunities in football at university or college after school!

Stuart Milne, Director of Football at University of St Andrews, was delighted with the session and said:

“It is really important to the club to be able to help and support grow the women’s game in Scotland. The club is committed to helping provide young girls and women as positive role models to look up to, that in turn will encourage and inspire them to play the game for as long as possible.

Each week during the academic year we have players from the club who volunteer their time to coach with the St Andrews and East Neuk Girls Football Club. We wanted to help use the success of winning the #SheCanSheWill Cup for the first time, to further showcase our players and give the next generation something to aim for”

The #SheCanSheWill Cup knockout tournament will return in 22-23 so look out for entries going live!

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Monday 6th June 2022

The final SSS Medal Table of the 2021/22 season is here!

The SSS Medal Table is a method for institutions to see how successful their student-athletes have been over the course of the SSS season.

The table includes all events in which medals have been awarded during the 2021/22 season.

All semester 1 and 2 events which took place have been added.

The table defaults to alphabetical but can be sorted by any of the column headings.

 

SSS Medal Table 2021/22

InstitutionGoldSilverBronzeTotal
Abertay University43
411
Ayrshire College112
Borders College11
City of Glasgow College4217
Edinburgh College224
Edinburgh Napier University4217
Fife College1427
Glasgow Caledonian University96318
Heriot Watt University10111334
Queen Margaret University123
Robert Gordon University510722
Scotland's Rural College112
UHI51410
University of Aberdeen23361978
University of Dundee34212075
University of Edinburgh876652205
University of Glasgow466245153
University of St Andrews714138150
University of Stirling433731111
University of Strathclyde32333398
University of the West of Scotland116623
Z-Guest Entries12111538

 

Total Events: 73 (88% of planned activity)

Last Updated: June 2022

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Tuesday 24th May 2022

Friday 8th April saw the long awaited return of the Scottish Volleyball Cup Finals weekend – with our SS Volleyball National Squads taking part and showcasing their talent.

Friday 8th April saw the long awaited return of the Scottish Volleyball Cup Finals weekend – with our SS Volleyball National Squads taking part and showcasing their talent. With a short run-up to the event to bond and build a squad it was going to be a tough set of matches for our students, taking on the U23 Scotland National Select Squads.

Up first were the Women’s Squad. Disaster struck well before the beginning of the match as players from the University of Aberdeen were stranded after their car broke down and led to them missing some of the match. Despite this, Tom Rooney and Marissa Jacobs’s squad played their best, and the eventual arrival of Aberdeen helped shift some points in their favour. However, the experience of the U23 team shone through and our SSS women lost the match 3-0 (25–12, 25–13, 25–18).

A quick net height change, then it was the Men’s National Squad’s turn. Made up of 9 university students and 1 college student, this was a student team with a lot of experience. Two players currently play for the Scotland National Team and one player had played in a previous SS Volleyball National Squad! From the start this match was a close one – going the full way to 5 sets. Despite some close calls and even closer rallies, Graeme Spowart’s passionate debut as Squad Coach resulted in a win, cinching the match 3-2 (25-20, 23-25, 29-31, 25-13, 15-11) with the assistance of Marissa Jacobs.

Thank you to Scottish Volleyball for a brilliant event, the officials for their expertise, the National Squad Coaches and the students for their energy. Photos from the matches can be viewed on the Scottish Volleyball Facebook page HERE and their website. Relive the action via the recorded live stream found HERE.

 

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