The University of Sheffield’s Tenpin Bowling Club beat 26 other universities to win at the British Universities Sports Association (BUSA) Tenpin Bowling Championships in Nottingham last month.
The male and female teams both won gold in their competitions despite the female team trailing Sheffield Hallam University after the first day.
The University of Sheffield took 10 students to the nine game event which is the only BUSA competition of the year for the bowling club and the only chance for them to win points.
“I was really proud of everyone,” said club captain Cath Todd.
“I couldn’t wait to get back and tell the sports officer that we had won 46 Varsity points and it is such a big achievement because we cannot get points any other time.”
Todd, who also captains the BUSA England women’s squad, headed the women’s line up, alongside Cat Chesney, Hui Yiang Tay and Nadine Keefe competed in the individual event.
Tom Slatter was in the male team that won BUSA gold. It was his first BUSA gold in 10 competitions after notching up 10 years at university. He has previously won seven bronze and two silver medals.
He was joined in the male team alongside Andy Giddings, Craig Harmon, Alex Higgins, Jez Knight and Tom Millington.
Both male and female sides were in second place after the first day of bowling but they recorded memorable comebacks on the second day.
The impressive Todd put the female team ahead of local rivals Hallam, who have only had a bowling team for two years, by 13 pins after trailing by 40.
The female team went ahead by 60 pins with one event remaining which proved to be an unassailable lead.
“It was like a mini Varsity in the competition because we were up against Hallam for gold,” Todd said.
“It was nice though because we train with Hallam and there was a lot of banter. It really pushed us to win it because nobody wants to lose to their local rivals.
Hallam began well and reduced the arrears to 49 pins but the University of Sheffield held on and retained their title with a 55 pin victory.
The male side moved to the top of the table with victory over Brunel University after good bowling by Slatter, Higgins and Millington.
Knight, Harmon and Slatter notched up notable scores of more than 200 to secure gold for the men in their final game against Manchester.
Harmon won an individual bronze medal for the tournament with an average score of 205 and five University of Sheffield players were selected to represent their country in the BUSA England squads.
Todd will captain the Women’s BUSA England side for the second year running and she is joined by fellow University of Sheffield students, Hui Yiang Tay, Cat Chesney, Tom Slatter and Craig Harmon.
There are 10 men and 10 women who make up the 20 strong squad for England and nearly half are representing Sheffield with five bowlers from the University of Sheffield and three from Hallam.
But Varsity is the next big event for the two Sheffield universities and Todd is very optimistic that her side can triumph as they did last year in a 16-5 win.
“I’m going to get killed if we don’t win it,” she said.
“We have got a strong team going out on Wednesday so we should win.”
The University of Sheffield Bowling Club are competing in Varsity on Wednesday 5th March 2008 at the AMF Firth Park Bowling Centre between 2:00pm and 5:00pm. The event is free to watch.
By James Leyfield
