The season has started, the players have been picked and the club is growing. We are delighted to say that we have gained some fantastic new players ranging from freshers to PHD students, with immense talent from international students as always!
Firstly to start with our Development Squad who are now enjoying two sessions a week and have already made substantial improvements! The Squad have had a successful start to the intra mural league with Sharks A undefeated and Sharks B with 1 win and 1 loss. The team enjoyed their game challenging the Men’s 2nds, with Development Sec. James Brignull saying “our match against the seconds proved to be a huge learning experience, helping us to continue to work on our game, and we are hoping to organise some other friendlies in the future.” The squad is looking promising with more games in the pipeline to look out for!
In terms of the BUCS league, the line up is interesting, as both of our Men’s teams are in the same league, with Bristol University facing the same situation. Last Wednesday saw both Bristol teams battling it out in the Jubilee against our 1sts and 2nds. The Men’s 2nds had a terrific game against the Bristol 1sts and it was end to end action for most of the game until Bristol clinched the win. Exciting things to come from the Men’s 2nds who are currently 3rd in the league with a 66 – 44 win over Marjons 1sts! The Men’s 1sts came out on top against Bristol 2nds, which gives them the perfect start to their BUCS season with 2 wins putting them at the top of the table!
The Sharks started their National League campaign winning 2 games and sadly losing 3 games by a few points. The new players coming in have added strength and depth to the squad and the season looks promising with Captain Omar saying “NL seems pretty competitive, however with our continuously improving team chemistry, competitiveness in NL and our focus sport strength and conditioning program we should be able to dominate the BUCS league achieving our goal which is the promotion to Division 1.”
The Women’s team have had one of the most promising starts to their season to date, even though the results might not paint that picture. The season started with TWO hard-fought games going into overtime, and although the Sharks had been in a winning position, the win just slipped away from them by a couple of points. Regardless, the girls team is looking so strong, and after a convincing 65 – 43 win over the then unbeaten, top of the table Cardiff University, the Sharks are full of confidence sitting mid-table! The talented core of players from last year have gelled almost immediately with our 2 new coaches, our new recruits and the two new freshers Rhianne Williams and Najla Mouasher who, with 3 years to come, are already on their way to becoming SUBC legends. Najla scored 20 points in the important win against Cardiff and Rhianne is already seeing the benefits from the Focus Sports program as she goes from strength to strength under the basket each game! Returning from a year out, old player Kim Fenton said “I have never started a season with so much confidence in the team, we are working hard at training and the talent is incredible! The two overtime losses at the start were hard on the team as we played incredibly well but ultimately lacked the composure to put the game to bed… however, after a great game against Cardiff, we are definitely bouncing back and have a great shot at winning the league, with the Premier League play offs in our sights!”
Overall, October has been a positive month for the Sharks, and the season looks promising for all of our teams! Bring on the next games!