A proper old-fashioned feel-good event
This weekend has been my first experience of Roses, a fact I’m slightly embarrassed about. Having been too apathetic to attend any games in my first year, and not being involved enough in either the coverage or the playing of last year’s event to warrant travelling to Lancaster, I was surprised by how much the weekend truly felt like a major sporting battle.
Forgive my cynicism, but big events are something York is not particularly known for. Yet from the moment the first scores and reports came in to our website from the Equestrian on the Thursday, I felt as if this was something the whole University was involved in. At first I thought manning Nouse’s web coverage would be the best way to experience Roses. Yet there’s only so much staring at a computer screen you can take, so I decided to take a few hours off each day to actually enjoy the competition.
It was the scale of the event that amazed me. The level of organisation required must have been incredible, yet apart from the poor case of the Lancastrian competitor being taken to hospital during the Karate due to an absence of medical assistance, there appeared to be barely a glitch.
Each match I attended seemed to have its own individual atmosphere, and although at times the total score seemed irrelevant in comparison to the specific clashes taking place all over campus, Tom Moore’s delight at lifting the Carter-James trophy on Sunday afternoon unified the efforts of each individual club taking part.
The attraction of the Roses weekend should not really have come as a surprise to me, as testified by the amount of returning and rarely-seen faces dotted around campus. During my time at Nouse, the two most elusive figures to track down, or interview, or even have a photograph of, have been the Vice-Chancellor, Brian Cantor, and head of Security, Ken Batten.
Yet on the sidelines of the Men’s Football 1sts, there they both were. Cantor was enjoying a game of croquet with Tom Moore and the Lancaster VC, whilst Ken Batten was making sure fans didn’t encroach onto the pitch. For a guy who surely must have Sundays off, was this proof that security is his passion rather than his job?
Considering they are two campus notables that have both received their share of bad press, it did make me think whether having a more visible presence on campus would both boost their popularity and, more importantly, help to allay York students’ fears that the powers-that-be really couldn’t care less about them. A smile and a chat every now and then wouldn’t solve all the communication problems this University has, but it would certainly produce a bit more good faith.
It was also good to see old members of the SU returning, although perhaps the expulsion of Micky Armstrong (Croker’s predecessor) from Roses D wasn’t quite the homecoming he imagined.
What was most surprising was how refreshingly honest they were about matters at the University now they’ve left their positions of responsibility, with quotes regarding campus media rivals and the management of the University that I wished I could have got hold of a year or so ago whilst they were still in power. However, this was probably more a sign of the amount of alcohol consumed over the weekend that any inherent truthfulness brought out by the event itself.
Lancaster also had their part to play in the weekend, and although I wasn’t present at any of the evening events, I had some great chats with them.
All in all the weekend seemed like a great success, even if you don’t actually care about the sporting results. You never know, Roses may actually tempt me back to this place once I leave.
