After watching Gemma Gibbons’ awesome display of British fighting prowess at the 2012 Olympics, our rugged band of surviving Judoka returned to university desperate for some rough Judo action on the mat. The return was not, however, without trepidation. The end of the 2011/12 academic year saw more than its fair share of farewells to many of our long term-graded players, so those of us remaining approached this year with some uncertainty, but even more determination. And it’s paying off. After an insane Serendipity (borderline harassing people with sweets), we saw our number swell to levels not seen in a…
Author: Matt Jackson
It may not be the most lucrative trophy to most European clubs, and a lot of English football fans will be completely unaware that the Club World Cup was even happening, but it will be a major blow to Chelsea and Rafa Benitez who were hoping to get their hands on their first chance of silverware this campaign. For Corinthians, the trophy is a much needed trophy. Whilst many over here may not consider the Club World Cup to have the glitz and glam of the Champions League or the FA Cup but across the Atlantic it’s considered to be…
David Beckham has left LA Galaxy and will now be on the hunt for a new club. He spent 5 years at the MLS outfit and many pundits have credited his arrival in America by saying it has revamped the MLS. Currently the MLS has superstars such as New York Red Bulls striker and Arsenal legend Thierry Henry, LA Galaxy forward and former Ireland captain Robbie Keane, and Barcelona hero Rafael Márquez, who have all ventured across the Atlantic since the arrival of Golden Balls. Beckham has had a fairly special career in his 37 years. Part of Manchester United’s…
Premier league round up As we enter into the Christmas period, the premier league has thrown up some very interesting sporting events for us since the kick-off of the 2012-13 season. There are still a handful of games before we hit the end of December, but, normally, around this stage, the bottom three clubs are those that go down. This year could see that idea challenged. With the bottom three clubs being QPR, Reading and Southampton and eight points between bottom place QPR and seventeenth placed Aston Villa, the safe zone; it’s still all to play for. Up at…
The BBC has released their 5-man shortlist for the African Footballer of the Year. No doubt some of the names on the list will be expected by most fans but there will definitely be one or two surprises. The short list consists of: Demba Ba – Newcastle & Senegal Yaya Toure – Manchester City & Côte d’Ivoire Didier Drogba – Shanghai Shenhua & Côte d’Ivoire Christopher Katongo – Henan Construction & Zambia Younés Belhanda – Montpellier & Morocco Premier league fans will be familiar with three of the names on the list as Demba Ba, Yaya Toure, and Didier Drogba…
It’s 7 o’clock in the morning on a Thursday… you would think the only people who are awake in Bangor at this time are the locals, those who have children going to school. You would definitely not expect any University Students to be up at this hour, especially not after Wednesday’s “Hey You!” night in Academi – the biggest student night out of the week. This is where you would be wrong; in Bangor Swimming Pool, there are a crazy bunch of half asleep, dedicated university students who are members of Bangor University Swimming Club! You may now be thinking,…
Resident Evil 6 was meant to be a landmark in the franchise, after a successful yet heavily criticised 5, and a 4th instalment that was effectively shunned by some fans, the 6th game aimed to go back to its survival horror roots. The game has 3 primary story arcs that eventually link in with each other. Whilst Leon’s campaign feels like it has gone to the bare bone of the series, fighting his way through the more traditional enemies, Chris’ missions seem more like a bastard love child of the classic Resident Evil game and a modern day first person shooter such…
Saint George’s Park finally opened its doors in October, the long term footballing project formerly known as “Burton” has been pegged as the new home of the England national football team. With state-of-the-art sports science facilities and modern accommodation the FA hopes that the new facility will help with the development of young English prospects and mould them into future international stars. The complex sits in Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire and sits on a 330 acre plot. It was opened on the 9th October by the president of the football association, the Duke of Cambridge. The site has replica Wembley pitches…
Considered by many to be our national sport, the beautiful game has recently been struggling with racism. The England under-21s were racially abused in Serbia and top footballers have been shunning the FA’s Kick It Out campaign. Top flight players were expected to wear the black “one community” Kick It Out t-shirts to coincide with the FA anti-racism week which started on the 18th October. The problem is high profile stars such as England defender Rio Ferdinand and Reading striker Jason Roberts have rejected wearing the t-shirts because they believe the campaign isn’t doing enough. Kick It Out began in…
As a third year now I’ve been a peer guide twice. I believe that peer guiding is one of the extra-curricular activities that has taught me the most during my time at Bangor University. I’ve always thought of myself as quite a loud and extrovert character; no doubt there are people reading this nodding in agreement. During my own Freshers’ Week my peer guides did such a good job that I felt as though we should all be compelled to take up the cudgels in our second year. And so, as my time arrived, I collected my purple t-shirt. My…
The Bourne Legacy is the fourth film of the Jason Bourne series based loosely on Robert Ludlam’s novels. Following years of will they won’t they the film finally came around to be developed without original director Paul Greengrass and without the appearance of Matt Damon as lead Jason Bourne. This paved the way for Jeremy Renner (previously Hawkeye in the Avengers) to take the mantle of protagonist Aaron Cross. The ‘Bourne Legacy’ carries on quite well from the previous trilogy; however it becomes obvious that the film was never meant to be stand-alone. The plot itself not only carries on…
England batsman Kevin Pietersen has been dropped from the tour of India following controversial circumstances in which it was revealed that he had been sending provocative texts to his South African counterparts; although Pietersen has denied that the messages revealed tactics. Despite claiming he had apologised to former captain Andrew Strauss (who in the wake of the scandal retired from professional cricket) and current captain Alastair Cook. Pietersen had threatened to retire from international cricket himself and had already cast doubt over his future prior to the third test against South Africa; he was instead left out of the squad for…
Over the summer Handball has picked up in popularity following London 2012, and in the run up to the Olympics Bangor University handball club was founded a year ago. The club attracted a lot of interest; especially from people who had never played before. Every year the club will compete in two main tournaments, the regionals and nationals. Their first win came at regionals with an 8-5 victory over Liverpool. The club finished 3rd out of 4 at regionals; it was a positive start. The team knuckled down and kept training hard for nationals, they faced tough opposition in Chester’s…
The English premier league clubs haven’t been too afraid to spend money in recent transfer windows andthissummer was most certainly no exception. Premier league new boys Reading, Southampton, and West Ham all strengthened their squads by signing a number of key players, with West Ham taking Liverpool forward Andy Carroll on a season long loan, and replacing departing Rob Green (who joined QPR) with former Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen. Arsenal saw some key players move in and out of the club with Alex Song leaving England for the much sunnier Spanish climate to play for Catalan giants Barcelona in a…
Barcelona FC players are no strangers to winning awards on not only the Global stage but on the European stage as well,Andrés Inies ta picked up the 2012 European player award but has definitely not been the man stealing the headlines about the award. The media focussed themselves on a semi-professional forward from Welsh Premier League club Bangor City FC. It is believed that a single nomination was enough to get crowd favourite Les Davies on the short list for Europe’s most prestigious award. Davies who has been one of Bangor’s most prolific scorers in recent seasons was a shock…
Spain make it a competition hat trick at Euros Record breaking Spain, on Sunday retained their Euro crown by defeating former world champions Italy by a record breaking margin that saw Fernando Torres secure his own personal record for scoring in successive championship finals. Torres, who has been heavily criticised this season not only adds a Euro winner’s medal to the FA Cup and Champions League winner’s medals but his 88th minute assist for Chelsea team mate Juan Mata saw him collect the golden boot ahead of German Mario Gomez and £80 million Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo. The final itself…