As the 2023/24 BUCS season concludes for 85 of our Bristol teams, our Performance Sport Manager Matt Paine reflects on term two having ended the term in the top 10 of the national BUCS Points table, as well as remembering our Head of Hockey, Ben Dudley, one year after he lost his fight to cancer.
I always seem to say it, but wow this has been a special term. From teams in BUCS and National Competition, to individuals playing Super League Netball, and to top that, some very exciting sporting playoffs to come over the next few weeks!
Since the term started in January, we’ve had pre-season to support athletes in balancing their revision, exam period, and using sport, strength & conditioning and friends to help them through the tricky assessment period. We ran this over two weeks, and with this being the last year the University will have exams in January, it’s going to allow a very exciting opportunity for us; more on that in our Summer Performance Sport report.
This term has seen some real magic across our teams and sports. We have had Conference Cup Final wins, league title wins and promotions, fighting all the way in some leagues right to the end (!), and the cherry on top; seeing Men’s Hockey bounce straight back up into the National League under Chris White’s first season of leadership. What an achievement!
We are coming up to mark a year without our very special Head of Hockey, Ben Dudley; he lost his fight with cancer in 2023. His memory is in the walls of the Division and especially the Performance Office. I often look up to the sky and wonder ‘what would Ben have said, or asked me in that situation?’. He normally had a very good reply for me, or a conversation to have. Grief is like a river someone once told me, it’s always moving, sometimes it can get stuck behind some leaves or a rock, but it finds a way to push forwards to its destination. You have no choice.
I would like to remember Paul, Sally and the whole family at this time of the year with all of our love and thoughts, and to say that our memories of Ben stay vivid, and clear, with smiles on our faces… never to leave us.
Looking ahead, we have some very exciting months of sport to enjoy, both in Bristol and the World Stage; a small Olympic festival on the horizon, around the stunning streets of Français with Bristol alumni out in full force!