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The Nouse Sports Awards 2009

July 1, 2009
Adam Shergold and Dan Hyde

Mike Callis during York's 31-8 Roses victory

SPORTS PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR: Mike Callis
“Captain Mike Callis, who led by example in this engrossing game, had certainly earned his celebratory swigs from the champagne bottle”
>> ADAM SHERGOLD

YORK 31 LEEDS 24 – MARCH 18
In an exceptional season for the men’s rugby firsts, which brought promotion from BUCS League 2B, Mike Callis led by example on and off the pitch.
Placed in a challenging division, consisting of leading northern universities, the team generated an unbreakable winning mentality to sweep to the title. Highlights included an 105-0 romp against Huddersfield, during which 17 tries were scored and three players claimed hat-tricks, and a battling 8-6 away win against Leeds, their main promotion challengers. Callis’s on-field influence ensured that York held their nerve in a thrilling divisional play-off against the University of Central Lancaster, which had gone into extra time, and secured a deserved promotion.
The team’s irrepressible form continued at Roses with Callis getting on the scoresheet in a convincing 31-8 triumph.
A quiet but unmistakable voice of authority in the heat of the action, Callis squeezed the best out of a talented team and focused minds solely on winning, resulting in a golden season.
COMMENDATIONS –
EMILY SCOTT, HANNAH BARWICK-WALTERS, HUGH PRYCE, MARLIES NEUNER, RAESSA CHOWDHURY

SPORTS TEAM OF THE YEAR: Badminton
“Promotion to Northern Conference 1A is just reward for a strong group of talented players who have consistently challenged at a high level”
>> DAN HYDE
YORK 5 DURHAM 3 – MARCH 31

Three years of toil. Two years of tormentuous second places. But it has only taken one year of absolute perfection for the men’s badminton firsts to secure their rightful place in the upper echeleons of university badminton.
Led by stalwart captain Will “Warrior” Wiseman, the team cultivated a togetherness, a spirit of fire that gave them an unbeaten season in BUCS League 2B and saw them romp home to an 8-1 Roses victory, accomplished without even dipping into their deep reserves of trick shots. And in that mêlée, they even managed to give Durham a thrashing too.
Team of the Year is a contentious, highly contested categry – probably most so – but these badmintoners have provided an unmatched example of professionalism. Talented doubles pairings – Wiseman with the experienced Paddy Clarke, and John Choi with the enigmatic Ricky Kanabar – have complemented the grit of Ed Chuck and the sublime, unpredictable brilliance of one of the university’s most talented sportsmen, Duy Hung Nguyen: to watch them has been to love them.
COMMENDATIONS –
MEN’S RUGBY, BOAT CLUB, YUSnow,
WOMEN’S LACROSSE, WOMEN’S SQUASH

PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR: Men’s football
“If Lancaster Sport were a dead dog, in this game York picked up its feeble carcass, read a brief memoriam and threw it into a quarry”
>> JOHN HALSTEAD
YORK 4 LANCASTER 0 – MAY 10

Roses had long been decided before the football first teams took to the field on the Sunday afternoon, but this game seemed to encapsulate the sublimity of York’s weekend.
Seeking revenge for a heavy and controversial defeat the previous year, the home side demolished Lancaster 4-0 in a fond and fitting farewell for many third-year players before a large crowd.
Mark McLeod stepped up to send Lancaster’s goalkeeper the wrong way from the penalty spot after ten minutes, after Dom O’Shea had been pushed.
The lead was doubled on the half hour when wing-back Ian McKellow headed home from Joe Brennan’s cross, before Anton ‘Dreamz’ Murphy took advantage of some hesitant defending to nod home a third early in the second-half.
O’Shea rounded off an outstanding afternoon by scoring a fourth, again benefitting from the goalkeeper’s uncertainty. Captain Matt Witherwick, playing his last university match, was understandably delighted by his team’s performance of the season.
COMMENDATIONS –
NETBALL vs. HUDDERSFIELD (February 18), RUGBY vs. UCLAN (May 13), BASKETBALL vs. LANCASTER (May 10)