Concourse Issue Eight

CONCOURSE M A G A Z I N E

CONCOURSE M A G A Z I N E

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VA R S I T Y ‘10 Keele Army Wins VARSITY 2010, Full Match Reports Inside

I have a confession..... Whilst at Keele, Ihave been to four AU Balls, watched count-less sporting matches, and have seen manya friend suffer from the hardship of defeatand experience the ecstasy of winning...But... I have never joined the AU... or asports team...or taken part in any form ofcompetitive activity in my years here. So ina bold attempt to make up for my lack of

commitment to Team:Keele, I have decided to dedicate thisissue to all of Keele’s sportsmen & women for all their hard-work they have put in over the last year so that Keele canbring the Varsity trophy back to where it rightfully belongs.

So sit back and try and taste that sweet flavor of victorythat keele has been basking in for the last few weeks, alsobe sure to read the brilliant musings of Keith Harrison on theMen’s Football match, also don’t miss the Men’s Hockey re-port... its one for the Team Keele history books...

Other than that, I hope you enjoy this issue of Concourse,and lets not forget... Come on Team Keele!

Nick Heath - VP Comms

Any views expressed are not necessarily

the views of Keele University or Keele

University Students’ Union. No part of

this publication may be reproduced with-

out the explicit permission of the editor

Produced anProduced andd Edited byEdited by

Nick Heath Nick Heath

Vice President Vice President

Communication & DemocracyCommunication & Democracy

Editorial/Submissions

NickHeathVPComms

[email protected]

01782733702

Advertising

KUSUMarketing

[email protected]

01782733712

News

04 ..Whats makes you so special?

05...............KUSU Election Results

features

06...............................Music Reviews

07............................................Politik

08..............................Societies News

Entertainment

09 ..................................KUBE Radio

10..........Keele SU Entertainments

12...................Found on Facebook

13 ...................Games and Puzzles

Team Keele

14 - 20..............Varsity Results

CONCOURSE

NEWS

Are you a career ostrich or a career racehorse?

If you are hoping to put your head down, plough on with your degree

and hope graduate employment will be buoyant by the time you grad-

uate you are probably an ostrich. If you are racing ahead, trying to en-

hance your skills, develop networks, undertake voluntary work, be

involved in societies and gain relevant work experience then you must

be a racehorse. In reality, you will probably be a bit of both.

In the current climate it might be advisable to take on a few more

racehorse tendencies – not at the expense of your degree because,

let’s face it, that’s what you came to university for. But in order to max-

imise the impact of your degree in life after Keele you do need to offer

a degree plus.

There is no one set of skills employers are looking for but there are

a number of skills that are always high on most recruiters’ shopping

lists. Many of these you will develop through your degree but not all of

them. These skills include:

Self-Awareness : Having the knowledge of and confidence in your

skills, strengths and working styles. Possessing the ability to review

your behaviour and impact in order to learn and develop.

Communication : Having the ability to communicate in a variety of for-

mats and contexts both orally and in writing.

Teamwork : Being able to work effectively with and through others to

achieve a result.

Adaptability : Having the ability to think and work flexibly in the light

of changing circumstances.

Problem solving : Thinking matters through in a logical manner,

analysing and processing information selectively and appropriately

then developing solutions.

Motivation : Possessing enthusiasm and drive to complete projects to

a high standard.

Leadership : Being able to encourage, support and motivate others,

whilst taking a lead.

Initiative : Having the ability to self motivate, see opportunities and set

goals.

It is worth taking the time to think through which of these skills you

have had the opportunity to develop or will do so in the future. Are there

any gaps? Are these gaps important for what you might want to pursue

in career terms? What can you do to fill these gaps?

Some of the skills areas and issues you need to learn more about

will be dealt with in the What Makes You So Special? programme run-

ning in May. Take a look at What Are Employers Looking For? which

will be co-delivered with a Marketing Development Manager from the

Regent Theatre. See Boost Your Job Prospects: Volunteer giving you

an insight into the voluntary opportunities available. Read about Three

Seconds to Success for a day’s workshop series on presentation skills,

networking, interview techniques and more with an input from Price-

Waterhouse Coopers. See Assertiveness Training for tactics and tips.

Take a look and register at www.kusu.net/special

Also seethe Careers Service website and pop in to speak to a Ca-

reers Adviser on drop in about your development opportunities and

where your degree might be taking you. See www.keele.ac.uk/ca-

reers/ and click on Seeing an Adviser.

Students go Bananas

for Fairtrade Fun! Mark Holtz

Keele students were treated to lots of Fairtrade freebies from Sainsbury's

in Hanley last Tuesday, as staff from the store teamed up with student

volunteers to sample Fairtrade products and find out more information

from Britain's largest Fairtrade retailer.

Sainsbury's now sell over 800 different Fairtrade products, and Keele stu-

dents got a taste of bananas, chocolate, coffee, tea, sugar, biscuit bars

and many more of these. The biggest hit though, was the wine - "I'm con-

verted!" announced law student Sara Sordillo, we're off into town this af-

ternoon to buy some more!"

Many of the students got to take their goodies away in a Fairtrade shop-

ping bag, others received a free tupperware box to encourage them re-

duce food wastage - in line with Sainsbury's recent 'Make a Difference'

Day.

To make still greater use of the day, Sainsbury's also brought along sports

relief products from their Hanley branch to sell. The wristbands, socks

and water bottles were snapped up by students wanting to take part in

Keele's Sport Relief Mile, taking place on Sunday 21st March. Students

still wanting sports relief products can still buy them from any Sainsbury's,

and those wanting to take part in the mile can sign up online at

www.sportrelief.com/the-mile/keele-university-mile!

Vice President Communication and Democracy Nick Heath commented,

"Our students are tremendously supportive of good causes, and when a

local branch of a supermarket like Sainsbury's is prepared to work with

us, we can do great things!" Sainsbury's PR Ambassador Mark Holtz

added, "The student volunteers were fantastic, and a big thanks to all

those who purchased Sport Relief products!"

Keele’s WifeGeorgina Couch

Carol Ann Duffy, first woman poet laureate, once again graced Keelethis evening with her refreshing poetry. A calm and undoubtedly coolDuffy treated the packed out Westminster theatre audience to an emo-tional poetical rollercoaster ride.

Readings from the hilarious, ‘The World’s Wife’ resulted in uproars oflaughter from the audience, the gentleman next to me looked as thoughhe might burst a lung. We then had our heart strings pulled as she readfrom ‘Rapture,’ a collection that documents the turbulences in life thatcome with love and relationships, from first kisses to first arguments.The finale was a delicious taster of her unpublished works, one of whichseems to have caused quite a stir across the Atlantic called ‘Achilles(for David Beckham)’ which is due to be published in The Daily Mail andThe Guardian newspapers later this month.

A standing ovation was received as the ex Keele student walked offstage, and I think that I speak for all of us when I say that we felt en-lightened and contented at the same time, the only negative aspectwhich comes to mind is the duration of the whole thing, frankly an hourwith that woman is nowhere near enough. Miss Duffy’s books are avail-

able to buy in the campus bookshop and any good online book retailer.

04

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HELPING FIRST-TIME BUYERS GET ON THE PROPERTY LADDER

Issue Eight

NEWS

05

The Results are In! Nick Heath

After weeks of campaigning and months of planning KUSU has fi-nally voted in its new Sabbatical team for 2010/11. Even if you couldnot stand any of the candidates, it was clear that election feverswept campus for three very long days in early March, and for thefirst time ever Keele moved in to the 21st century with the use ofonline voting to let the student body vote, and while the systemwas not perfect, overall the system was deemed a success...(if nota little too complicated) So it is my proud honour as the ReturningOfficer for this election to introduce your new Keele University Stu-dents Union Sabbatical Team.

President :Kari Rittoo

Vice President Communications & Democracy: Fadi Dada

Vice President Education & Welfare:Nikki Cooper

Vice President Finance & Activities: Rosie Weatherly

Vice President Sports & Fitness:Sonia Douz

For full election results visit www.kusu.net/elections

Kari Rittoo Fadi Dada Nikki Cooper Rosie Weatherly Sonia Douz

Hot Chip One Life Stand

Hot Chip's follow up to 2008's Madein the Dark mostly continues the in-trospective and romantic elements ofthat album, rather than its boister-ous, chaotic side. As its title suggests,One Life Stand is a soothingly loved-up album and whilst the songs have inmany cases slowed, the band's ap-petite for new sounds has not. Be-sides the single and title track,perhaps the best effort here is “WeHave Love”, featuring a title whichsums up much of the album as well asa sideways snaking exotic synth lineand processed vocals that act like acall to prayer. Hot Chip's deity? Ro-

mance.

Your Article Here!

Music is for everyone. We realise that here at thegood ship Concourse, and so this is your oppurtunityto make a contribution in these pages and have yoursay. I'm looking for writers who have something inter-esting to say about music and would like that some-thing to be printed in Concourse's music section. I'mopen-minded – whether you have an article about abrand new release or a classic album in your favouritegenre, or whether you've seen some great live musiclately, Concourse can help you to get your musicalvoice heard. There are no limits but for space – 350words should be about right for articles, and around100 words will suffice if you'd like to write a review ofa new release you've just heard.

If you're interested in taking up this chance,you can email me with your article idea, whether it'sa finished article or still at the drawing board stage.

Let me know a bit about what you've done or arethinking of doing, as well as a bit about yourself and

Helping Haiti“Everybody Hurts”

So apparently Simon Cowell is Gor-don Brown's go-to charity single man.You don't have to look far online tofind people who have explained moresuccessfully than I could how thischoice of song is in very poor tastegiven the ongoing humanitarian situa-tion. “Hang on” the people of Haiti aretold, “don't let yourself go.” What arewe meant to think they're doing? Bothcrass and misguided in its message andmusically far inferior to R.E.M.'s origi-nal, this is a deeply cynical effort re-deemd only by its contribution tocharity. Better to snub Cowell and justdonate directly to a charity instead,surely?

MUSIC

Feature

Andy Johnson - Music Editor

06

any writing experience you may have (although this isfar from essential). As music editor, I'll help you guideyour articles from first idea to being ready to print.Once that process is done your work will be in Con-course in no time – with your name in lights, so tospeak!

We can't publish everything but to be in with a chance,here's a recap of what you need to do:

Write a 100-word review of a new release you've heard(LP, EP or single, as recent as possible) OR write a 350-word article on a music topic of your choice (opinionpieces, retrospectives etc) Email your piece or an ideafor one to me at [email protected]

Help me polish your work to perfectionHappily see your words being read around campus!

I look forward to hearing from you...

Jedward Feat. VanillaIce – “Under Pressure(Ice Ice Baby)”

Let's just deconstruct this. 1990 –American rapper Vanilla Ice samplesthe 1981 song “Under Pressure” with-out crediting its writers, Queen andDavid Bowie. The result is “Ice IceBaby”. 2010 – inexplicably popular re-ality TV duo Jedward fuse the twosongs into a horrendous and whollyredundant cover. Why Vanilla Icewould be daft enough to actually par-ticipate is beyond me, but the worstthing about this is that it will proba-bly precede a full-length Jedwardalbum. Musically, this is a genetic ex-periment as abominable as Jedwardthemselves/itself.

Reviews

PolitikIssue EIGHT

07

Matthew Davies - Political Editor

Any of our Business?

There has been much talk re-cently about the personal life ofJohn Terry. The question overwhether he should have beensacked as England captain has ap-peared in every newspaper, hasbeen discussed on Question Time,has featured on every news bul-letin and the question was evenput to the Prime Minister!

There are those that are morethan happy to discuss and to

judge his personal life and those that do not think that itis the right of them or anyone else to involve themselvesin a private matter. It is becoming increasingly difficultto know what the boundaries are and how far we can goin to discussing what goes off in the personal life of thosein the public arena. The same concept can be applied toanother sports person, Tiger Woods, but also to the PrimeMinister himself.

There was much debate about whether Gordon Brownshould have appeared on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories and

Freedom of speech isn’t just for thosewho can afford it!

Nikki Cooper

I have always thought thatfreedom of speech is impor-tant, but UK libel laws seem tobe tipped much more heavily infavour of protecting reputa-tions than ensuring our right tosay what we think.

I agree that there should be laws in place to prevent peo-ple from saying things which impinge upon the rights of oth-ers – such as incitement of racial hatred – but it is absolutelyridiculous that newspapers, for example, can get sued sim-ply for telling us the truth about things we have a right toknow.

Last November, Keele’s very own MP Paul Farrelly won theSpectator’s ‘Inquisitor of the Year’ award following his rolein getting the gagging order which had been placed uponthe Guardian newspaper when it had tried to report uponthe Trafigura toxic waste dumping scandal in Africa. Sincethen, also prompted by Mr Farrelly, the Culture, Media andSport select committee has made strong recommendationsthat the law surrounding libel and press freedom needs tobe changed – and the government has been forced to listen.

For years it has been too easy for companies and wealthyindividuals to scare newspapers off by threatening legal ac-tion, while at the same time there has been insufficient reg-ulation of press standards to ensure that newspapers are notable to simply make stories up. Libel law has been so bad

whether he should have been asked the questionshe was asked. There are no doubts that elementsof Gordon Brown’s life have involved tragedies.However, does this affect how good a Prime Minis-ter he is? Or is this a positive move in re-aligningthe politicians with the electorate, so that peoplecan feel that they know more about those who arerunning the country?

One thing is clear, that the case of John Terrywill not be the last where the public have an in-sight into the personal lives of those we see sooften in newspapers and on the television screen.As the twenty four hour media grows and ascelebrities become more established as nationalicons, the debate is set to rage as to what privateinformation we should know about those in thespotlight. Have we any right to comment on andto judge the personal lives of celebrities anymorethan we have the right to comment on and judgethe lives of those around us?

that even honest medical and scientific commenthave been compromised – and I do not believe anysociety can claim to be truly civilised or democraticunless scientists are completely free to state theirviews.

In the few weeks since the report was published,the Ministry of Justice has already been spurred intoaction over the impact of our libel laws and the Jus-tice Secretary, Jack Straw, has already announcedthe reduction of success fees that can be charged bylawyers in defamation cases. The fact that lawyerscould make such a huge amount of money out of asingle case was one of the major reasons for UK libellaw having become so disjointed in the first place,so this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Human rights organisation Global Witness hasagreed with Mr Farrelly’s assessment, stating that“the UK legal system is already being used by therich, powerful and influential to attack publications”and had backed calls for a better balance betweenprotection of reputation and freedom of speech.

Even Concourse, on numerous occasions, has beenwary of printing stories that might be seen as toocontroversial, however important they may havebeen – and as somebody who believes in the sanctityof free speech, I am really pleased that our own MPhas been taking action to ensure that we, along withthe rest of the general public, cannot have the truthhidden from us by corporations and individuals with

huge pots of money (and armies of lawyers).

SocietiesCONCOURSE

Amnesty International Society

Keele's Amnesty International Society is a student move-

ment who campaign against human right abuses.

Amnesty International is a renowned world-wide organisa-tion devoted to protecting human rights around the world.Its activities range from educating people about human rightsissues to actively fighting injustices across the globe. Amnestyinternational is based on the belief that committed action onthe part of ordinary people can lead to extraordinary change.While this may seem like an overly optimistic belief, AmnestyInternational’s record of achievements show that, with thehard work of ordinary people, injustices across the world canbe eliminated.

Some of the changes that Amnesty’s work has helped bringabout over the years include; The end of apartheid in SouthAfrica, the release of tens of thousands of prisoners of con-science, the abolition of the death penalty in countries acrossthe world and, more recently, significant moves towards atreaty restricting the global arms trade. The Keele AmnestyInternational Society works on a wide range of campaigns pro-moted by Amnesty. The current campaign is Shell.

Human rights are abused throughout world by many includ-ing corporations that are household names. In fact the oil gi-ants Shell – a rich and powerful company – have committedhuman rights abuses in Niger Delta. Shell is exploiting Nige-ria's weak regulatory system in order to bypass well estab-lished international laws, such as the right to a decentstandard of living including food and water. The pollutionfrom Shell's oil industry destroys livelihoods, decimates foodsources and damages the environment. Furthermore the poorand haphazard maintenance of the oil pipes leads to oil spills,which cause devastating damage to the landscape. One of thecruel ironies isthat despite liv-ing in an oil richarea, the peoplein the NigerDelta suffer inabject povertybrought about bytheir govern-ment's adminis-trative neglectand Shell's unre-lenting pursuitfor profit.

However Amnesty International is committed to fightingthese abuses. Amnesty International's ability to apply pressureon politicians and powerful organisations leaves hope for op-timism. Keele's Amnesty group is holding a demonstrationagainst Shell's human rights violations of the Niger Delta onthe 13th March. The place and time of this demo is to be an-nounced. If you’re interested in these issues, or human rightsmore generally, please join our facebook group (KeeleAmnesty International Society 2009/10) or come along to oneof Amnesty's weekly meetings every Thursday (the time and

place will be posted on the facebook page shortly).

Media Audio & Design Society

First things first: welcome to our new com-mittee members! In the elections last Sunday

the following people were elected:

MAD webmaster: Enric TorrentsMAD secretary: Ibbi Onasanya

MAD advertising/design officer: Becci Barnard

They have already begun work to provide you with some bril-liant opportunities that you will be impressed—demolished—by!One of these will be an event which includes as many of the cre-ative societies as possible. It will take on the style of an exhibi-tion on a wide scale, and will give us all a chance todemonstrate what we’re made of and network with the peoplewho can help us develop our talents. We will also be offeringsome workshops, the details of which will be discussed on ourforum: www.Mad-Keele.com

So register yourself on there and check it regularly—you cantell us what workshops you want, which will get you more of thetraining that matters.

We are planning a specialsocial coming up! So keep aneye on our forums and face-book! We are hoping to holda Photo-Hunt in Keele Woods.Bring your camera - whetherit is disposable, Canon, Nikon- whatever! We will provide apicnic, more details later...

Finally, congratulations tothe winner of our photogra-phy competition, VictoriaBuntanu. She submitted athought provoking image

which used architecture and advertising to express emotionaldebilitation, which we all agreed had a remarkable originalityto it. Well done! Victoria’s image will be published in the artmagazine Shoestring. We will be having more competitions ofthis kind, so keep an eye on those.

Showcase Showdown

Showcase Showdown is one of the biggest events of the aca-demic calendar in Keele University. It began in 2008 created asa revamped version of the well known International Extrava-ganza. The event presents the various cultures of Keele studentswith the aim to raise funds for Cancer Research UK. There’ssinging, dancing, acting, a themed fashion show, amongst otherthings.

Showcase Showdown is a wonderful experience that catersfor all tastes. It is guaranteed to get your feet moving as wellas feeding your appetite to learn about other traditions. It is anevent that is not to be missed. The performances are colourful,imaginative, entertaining, vibrant, educational, and exuberant;a great event that epitomises the cosmopolitan feel/environ-ment of Keele University.

08

Cobra Starship, an alt-rock dance group from NewYork, that toured the UK last February. KUBE DJEleanor Hopkinson caught up with Ryland Blackintonin Manchester

Hi I’m Eleanor from KUBE Radio and I’m here with Ryland Blackintonfrom Cobra Starship

How did you guys get started out?

Well, Gabe started the band in 2005, they had a Myspace up witha couple of songs on it, and he had been in a band before called Mid-town, and he just started writing some songs I guess, and he askedme and Alex if we wanted to go on tour together and we just saidyeah! I was catering at the time and got bored

What is your favourite song to play live

I like, ‘Smile for the paparazzi’, I like anything where I get to playkeyboard

Your US fan base has exploded with ‘Good Girls Go Bad’, what ef-

fect has that had on your UK fan-base?

I don’t really know because the record is not out till the 15th ofFeb, and so it’s hard to tell right now but maybe we will know betterif we come back after a month or so

What do you guys like to do in your free time in the UK?

When I’m hear I like to go Big Hands, it’s one of my favourite barsin the UK and I like to walk around take pictures, around Manchesteris a really cool gallery, which is pretty cool, go to the Gemini to eat,go to the bookstore maybe, there’s a cool music store here to, youknow just the usual stuff, I try to get out I like England a lot and tryto get in as much as possible

How do you get your ideas for the Cobra Cam podcast?

Well I usually sit down with Jack the camera guy who used to dothe Academy Is webisodes, and we usually just sit around we havesimilar influences, like Fawlty Towers, the Python, stuff like that,we just riff and give off ideas, write it down and just wing it.

KUBE Radio Deal or No Deal Trip

On 22nd February, a mini bus full of KUBE-ites hit the road down to Bristol for the film-ing of Deal Or No Deal. Members were part ofthe audience for the filming of two episodesof the daily ITV show.

Not only were the KUBE and KUBE-ettes ableto see Noel Edmunds in person, but they alsogot get see how daily TV shows that are shot

in front of a live studio audi-ence are filmed and man-

aged. Paul Mitchell,Head Of News, had thisto say: “It was a fun day.I had fun. Everyone hadfun. It was fun!!”

K U B E R a d i o w w w . k u b e r a d i o . c o m

09

What made you want to start Cobra Cam?

Well I went to school for acting, I got my BFA inlike 2004, and so I was always trying to find a wayto work that side of me into things, I feel like peo-ple like to see videos of us being ourselves, andbeing goofy. So we were on tour with the Academy Is and they were doingtheir webisodes, and it seemed like a good idea, cool thing to do… Jackhas a really good sense of humour and he’s very talented so we just saidf**k it, do you want to go on tour with us because we can do it as well. Wejust did it randomly at first and just put them out whenever, and then thelabel said we should do it once a week. We were nervous about that, it’sa lot of work but I’m glad we did it in the end. Just having fun, just some-thing extra.

Where is your favourite place to play in the UK?

I like the Reading and Leeds festival; we only got to do that once though,that was like the best time ever. Dinosaur Jr played, and Battles, was awe-some, that was one of my favourite things, but I guess that’s not really avenue, but I like to play here.

Your side project – This is Ivy league – how’s that going?

I wish we had more time working on it, we’re writing a new record now.

Any time frame for that?

Yeah, we’re just working on it; we’re half way done maybe so hopefullyby the end of the year, we don’t have a lot of time off. After this we go toSouth East Asia, New Zealand, Australia. Come home for a moment, thena tour of the States with 3OH3, and then we have just a little time to workon our next Cobra Record, so not sure when, the futures uncertain!

Don’t forget to join the

KUSU Entertainments Group

on Facebook to take part in weekly

free tickets and prize giveaways.

LOVE KUSU : LOVE KEELE

You Wanted Bands....You got Bands!!

After much hard work and devotion by the Ents team, we bring you a selection of live music this upcoming se-mester. There is something for everyone jammed in to one semester, all at affordable prices.

We have 'The Fall', a post-punk group, heavily influenced by The Velvet Underground and were named as one ofFranz Ferdinand's biggest influences. With 27 studio albums and recently signed to a new record label, The Fall are

rocking the Ballroom on the 2nd May and costs £15 in advance. After announcing that they are currently working ona new studio album, Young Knives hit Keele on the 6th May. Breaking onto the music scene with their single 'The Decision'and supporting The Futureheads, Dirty Pretty Things and appearing on 'Later With Jools Holland', Young Knives are head-lining their own tour with Keele as its second stop, and are set to showcase a variety of new material as well as theclassics. Tickets can be found at the SU reception now and are £10 in advance.

Aside from Live Music, we have the Easter party fast approaching on the 31st of March. The theme of which is 'MadHatters Tea Party'. Tickets are just £5 and can be purchased from Reception at the SU again. This is wrapping up to be agreat event and shouldn't be missed. If anyone would like to help with decorations for this, please get in contact witheither Dom Greenslade or Allie Coombs!

The next Live Lounge will be held on 28th March. Anyone that is interested in playing please contact Allie Coombs, itwould be nice to get as many people performing as possible.

We also have the usual drinks offers and promotions running Wednesdays and Fridays, 2 - 4 - 1 on House Spirits (9 - 11)including Vodka, Malibu, Archers, Gin Bacardi and Whisky. It doesn't end there, we still have the Student Scrambleparty and Woodstoke 3 to offer you, details to be revealed soon!

Just a quick Congratulations to all the new Part and Full time elects here at Keele! Well Done!

That's all for now, check back to Kusu.net for the latest updates!

Dom GreensladeEnts Team

Are you in one ofthese three photos?

If so you’re on theGuest List for our

Wednesday NightProject

Just go up to theents office to getyour name down!

You have been asking for the DJ in the Ballroom to get anew CD all year now, but did you know that you can get yourfavorite songs played every night just by requesting them?!?Just go to the front of the stage and shout your loudest!

1 Don't Stop Believing Jounrey/Glee2 Twist & Shout The Beatles3 Riverside Sidney Samson4 Bad Touch Bloodhoun d Gang5 Bulletproof La Roux6 Fireflies Owl City7 In For The Kill La Roux8 Mr Brightside The Killers9 Pump It Black Eyed Peas10 Single Ladies Beyonce11 Stars Come Out Calvin Harris12 Telephone Lady Gaga13 The One and Only Chesney Hawkes14 Tik Tok Kesha15 Tubthumping Chumbawumba16 Bad Romance Lady Gaga17 Bonkers Dizzee Rascal18 Fight For This Love Cheryl Cole19 Fire Kasabian20 Killing In The Name Of Rage Against The Machine

Ballroom Top 20 Requested Songs

Found something on Facebook andwant to share it with the rest of the KeeleBubble? Just Email the photo [email protected] or upload

it to the Concourse Facebook group; if cho-sen, you could WIN free entry For you and amate on a night of your choice!12

FOUND ON

WINNINGPHOTO

Kenny Never Looked So Cool...

a m a z i n g s u p e r p o w e r s . c o m

GameS &

PUzzleS

3 1 5 4

5 7 1

3 6 2 9

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KUSU SUdoKU

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KUSU CroSSword

Across

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10.Turnedup(8)

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14.Animal(4)

17.Dailythingboardinga

boathere(5-2-5)

20.otherwouldcompletethis

saying(3-5-2-2)

23.Release(7)

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besolidgold(5)

25.WhattheGreekscallair(4)

28.Mountainclimbingcanbethis(8)

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2.Offered(8)

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6.Notnew(4)

7.Producedduringcooking(6)

8.stronglyassociate(6)

11.Unrecognisableafterthis(5-2-1-4)

15.Sentriesaskforonetodothisand

deliver(5)

16.Widowsusuallyhaveone(5)

18.Afaircop(8)

19.Noseyparkers(8)

21.Gymastsareusuallythis(6)

22.Founditextremelynice(6)

26.Manycoinsareputinthis(4)

27.Castlesusuallyhaveone(4)

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Coming Soon

VA R S I T Y ‘ 10

Women’s RugbyKeele - 26 Staffs - 20

Sonia Douz

After a few weeks of intense training sessions taken by three louder andharsher coaches than myself the women’s team had put rugby union to theback of their minds and were ready to play staffs at their own, rather bor-ing, game of rugby league.

Having been undefeated at home this season we were not only looking towin Varsity, but maintaining our clean record sheet. Having watched partof the lad’s game the girls were getting nervous but fired up. With the ban-ter slowly being directed to them during our warm up the common cheerof “Staffs will smash you” did not faze them. With the fact that we lostVarsity last year in extra time in the back of their minds, and unfortunatelytheir team captain also being the very fiery AU President, the girls werenot only focused but ready for war…literally!

Stepping onto the pitch with so many people watching at first made allof us uneasy but loved. The atmosphere just added to what we knew wasgoing to be an awesome game. In the first ten minutes Staffs broke throughscoring the first try but missing the conversion. I didn’t need to say muchto the girls after that. Restarting the game we hit back harder scoring twoquick tries and making a conversion. Considering Staffs are a rugby leagueteam it was clear to see we went out there with a game plan and it wasworking! The Staffs team kept fighting back and scored a few more timesbut you could see we were tiring them out. The amazing combination inthe Keele back line in the form of Momo, Pip, Pam and the Welsh WonderKayleigh not only outsmarted them but outran them! Big hits in the for-wards from Lea (bulldozer), Jamie, Guinness and Hughesy no doubt justscared them and well hurt them! There was much pushing and shoving fromthe Staffs team but after our 6th try it was all just one big blur! It was fastfrom start to finish and clearly both sides wanted to win.

Unfortunately for Staffs we showed why we are 3rd in our leaguethis year and why they have lost every tournament they have playedin. When the final whistle went it was simply a moment of purehappiness! With the Keele crowd storming the pitch we knew wehad made everyone proud and finally shut the Staffs lot up!The final score being 26-20 it was job done! ApparentlyStaffs are converting to Union next year..now that willdefinitely be a game to watch!

Every single Keele girl on that pitch playedamazingly! I would just like to say it has beena pleasure being your team captain thisyear and I have enjoyed every momentof it! I am extremely proud of you all!

Men’s RugbyKeele - 15 Staffs - 40

Roger Weston

Keele Men’s Rugby went into this game on the back of what has beena disappointing season, but full of confidence after lots of hard workduring the 2nd semester in an effort to be ready for the game.

The game itself turned out to be a huge disappointment for the de-fending champions. After taking a 3-0 lead from a straight-forwardRoger Weston penalty from 30 yards, Keele slowly surrendered controlof the game. In the 1st half Staffs scored three tries and took a 19-3lead into the break. In truth Keele had more prolonged periods of pres-sure than thier opponents, but failed to score. Staffs, in stark contrastmade three visits to the Keele 22, and converted everytime.

Strong words at half-time turned things round briefly, after conced-ing an early penalty and going 22-3 behind, Jordan Grimshaw scoredin the corner from a neat Keele line-out move. The try was convertedand Keele were within two scores. Poor discipline after a Staffs breakconceded another penalty and the deficit was 15. This meant Keeleneeded a huge push and started taking risks. Unfortunately thesedidn’t pay off and Keele were further behind after conceding a penaltytry. At 35-10 Keele scored via a scrum move through Greg Wood, butthis would be the last time they troubled the scoresheet as Staffseventually ran out 15-40 winners.

The disappointment will live with the squad until they get a chanceto put things right in 2011. A weak defensive shift in the 1st half cost

us any chance of winning the game and as the chased the nearimpossible mistakes crept in and their scoreline didn’treflect the quality that the Keele team possesses, butthey young lads are learning that you have to keepyourselfs within touching distance at this level.

We have to now pick ourselves up, dust our-selves off and fight for out North 2 status for theremainder of the season.

I’m sure the lads would like congratulate allthe teams that won on Varsity day, unfortunatelywe couldn’t contribute as we did last year, but wepromise to bring back the Doji Shield and a Varsitypoint for Team:Keele next year!!

14

VA R S I T Y ‘ 10

Cricket Keele - 91/4 Staffs - 91/4

Bowl Off Keele - 0 Staffs - 1Andrew Nicholson

Wednesday 10th March finally arrived and allthe eager anticipation was over. At 9am theKUCC boys gathered in the New Sports Halleager to avenge the dismal showing againstStaffs in the 2009 varsity match. As the crowdgrew, the sense of anticipation started to growalso and by the time skippers Mike Dunningand Danny Milligan tossed up, a crowd in ex-cess of 150 people were on the balcony makingone hell of a noise, led by chief chant leaderVP sport Roger Weston.

Milligan won the toss and inserted Dunninginto bat. Dunning and Tom Fenn opened up forKeele but disaster struck on ball 6 with Dun-ning being run out attempting a tight run. Thisbrought Warwickshire starlet Valeed Butt tothe crease and Butt and Fenn set about takingit to the Staffs attack. Gucci in particularcame in for some serious tap which only addedto the serious stick he was taking from thecrowd, Allan "Little Ginge" Holly and Tom "SexPest" Crosby being particularly vicious to theStaffs opener. Fenn retired on 25 bringing MattPhilpott to the crease who picked up whereFenn had left off getting after Spaxman andSherrat. Butt perished on 23 when he was wellcaught by opening bowler Ian Kirk and wasshortly followed by the departure of ChrisBenoit who was well caught behind by StaffsKeeper Matt Bond off Kirk. It was left for JackStorrow and Fenn to see out the remainingovers of the Keele innings and a good last overfrom skipper Milligan restricted Keele to 91/3from their 12 overs.

Following the turnaround, Ian Kirk and Gucciopened up for Staffs, with Gucci still the vic-tim of a barrage of banter from the crowd,abuse which to be fair he only brought on him-self after weeks of being a keyboard warriorand banter which to be fair to the lad he tookin very good spirits and every credit to himand the rest of the Staffs team for that mat-ter. Kirk set about after the Keele bowling re-tiring on 25 where as Gucci remained solid atthe crease. Staffs looked in danger of runningaway with it in the early stages but once skip-per Milligan departed Caught and Bowled byMatt Philpott the tide turned in Keele's way.The wicket of Spaxman caught by Storrowagain off Philpott was followed by the depar-ture of Bond bowled by a Valeed Butt yorker.With 2 overs to go things looked like goingKeele's way. However no balls from Butt andsome decent batting from the returning Kirkmeant that with the final over to be bowledit was Staffs needing just 6 runs who werefavourites. Nerves of steel from Tom Fenn ashe sent down 4 dot balls, the 5th Staffs man-aged a 3, leaving 3 to win from the final balland despite not hitting a wall Staffs were ableto scramble through for a 2, meaning a tie on91/4. With number of wickets lost even alsoit meant that the dreaded bowl out was totake place.

In the bowl out it was Staffs bowler AndrewSpaxman who kept his nerve and managed toclip the leg stump bail to give Staffs a 1-0lead. Unfortunately, despite Valeed Butt and

NetballKeele- 41 Staffs - 28

Rachel Mobberley

With Keele winning the netball match inthe previous 3 years on this fateful day, thepressure was on to maintain our undefeatedrecord. With Varsity training mounting up,the Varsity team slowly but surely gelling to-gether and a warm-up routine to die for, wefelt confident (yet nervous enough to soilour pants) that the game was ours for thetaking...so when we found ourselves a fewgoals down in the first quarter, we were notbest pleased.

Despite our best ef-forts and the immenseencouragement fromthe seemingly hun-dreds of peoplewatching the gamedid not get off to thebest start and youcould see it on Staffsfaces that they feltthat this year, withtheir brand new coach

and all, the netball trophy would finally betheirs...not likely! A slight change in theteam and the bringing on of some fresh legsmeant that we brought the result up to adraw by half time, and the next 2 quarterssaw Keele fight for every goal, every inter-ception, every loose ball, and never letStaffs feel again like there might be eventhe slightest chance of them winning.

Despite quite a few dodgy calls by theirumpire and some of their team making un-necessary remarks towards us, Team:Keelenever dropped their heads for even a sec-ond, but we fought till the end and deserveevery inch of that shiny silver trophy. Playerof the match went to our Goal Shooter,Susan O’Toole whose shots were on fire!Overall though if I was asked to pick my ownplayer of the match I wouldn’t know whatto tell you- every individual player playedout of their socks but also played as a teamand I could not have asked for more. Some-times wanting something badly enough re-ally is the key to winning.

Team: Rachel Mobberley, Kelly Richardson,Susan O’Toole, Kasia Skrakowski, GeorgieWeston, Melissa Bain, Clair Woolford, AmyMeadows, Charlie Fisher, Biba Saseg-bon, Gemma Hindley.

Women’s LacrosseKeele - 25 Staffs - 1

This is the first year that lacrosse has beenplayed as separate men’s and women’smatches, rather than mixed so it was hard topredict which side had the better team to startwith. Keele women played Staffs once beforethis season as a friendly and won 12-6; how-ever Staffs were 4 players down and were play-ing without subs. Keele have been playingreally well this season, although we’re not inthe same BUCS league as Staffs. Also this wasa home game, so we had our supporters andwe had our own pitch.

From the start it was clear that Keele woulddominate the game. Play seemed almost en-tirely confined to Keele’s attacking end, withonly one shot on Keele’s goal before half time.Staffs’ defence couldn’t stop the onslaught ofgoals from Keele’s attack. The score at halftime was 13-0.

After half time play swapped ends, givingKeele another advantage as the sun had comeout and would be shining into the faces of theattacking Staffs players. Keele’s defence didan amazing job to keep the ball away from ourdefensive end, although Staffs did manage tosneak one goal in.

By the final whistle however, the score was25-1, giving Keele a phenomenal win overStaffs, adding insult to injury as Keele men’slacrosse had also just beaten Staffs men 7-6. Every single player gave their all on the pitch,the attack were amazing, scoring goal aftergoal, and the defence were brilliant at keepingthe ball out of Keele’s defensive end and get-ting it back up to our attack. Go Keele Tigers!

Jack Storrow coming agonisingly close none ofthe Keele lads were able to hit. None of theStaffs lads managed a further hit either mean-ing that Staffs took the bowl out 1-0 and a 1-0lead in Varsity 2010. Also a 2-0 lead in the var-sity series at cricket.

Skipper Mike Dunning spoke of his disappoint-ment at the loss "It was a great effort by allthe lads, after last years showing we were des-perate to put things right this year and we'reall gutted"

When all was done the cricket proved to be afantastic curtain raiser to Varsity 2010, 2evenly matched sides fought out a fantasticgame of cricket played in great spirits with asuperb atmosphere.

One advantage of playing first thing was thatcome half 11 we were done and could crackopen the crates of beer, which we duly did. Al-though the beer would have been all the moresweeter were we drinking it celebrating a vic-tory the KUCC boys stuck together and setabout following and supporting all the otherteams who had so loudly and passionately sup-ported them in the morning.

15

VA R S I T Y ‘ 10

Men’s Hockey Keele - 3 Staffs - 8

Alex Platt

After the girls match Staffs came outhard, scoring 3 times early on, and pen-etrating our defence easily. After asloppy start, a beautiful threesome in-volving Scott Voicey, Kabir Bowry & TomButterworth ended up with the ball inStaffs net.

Our midfield took advantage of Staffsgaping holes and pushed for another goalentering their box with good ball con-trol, but unable to avoid Staffs bad tack-les with Adam Priston winning a flick...Kabir stepped up for a stroke, and witha good quick wrist action hit the back ofthe net.

After playing with each other for oneseason Keele came together for theequaliser. Phill Will put it hard betweenthe keepers legs even though he was notused to this position. A messy second halfmeant the Staffs keeper lifted his legover Kabir.

Staffs pushed forward with stamina,coming out on top at the climax. Nextyear we hope to grab everything we canand expect another hard one. X

After a team bonding Varsity break-fast and long warm up, Keele girls wereraring to go right from the startingwhistle. Unfortunately the run of playwent such that Staffs started out ontop, with a goal from them in theopening minutes and an injury to LauraThomas putting us on the back foot. Upstepped Sara Blackwell from the benchto do a sterling job to replace Laura.Against the flow of play Keele wereable to win a penalty corner, allowingus to equalise with an excellentstraight strike from Stefanie Kent.

Staffs restarted play coming backstrong again, pushing hard for anothergoal, but yet again Keele were able toget another penalty corner. Good workfrom Geri Perkins won us our secondgoal to give us the lead at 2-1. After alength of equal play, Emily Postleth-waite was floored by a dirty tackleearning a Staffs player a very forgivinggreen card – much to the dismay of theKeele supporters! She got her revengeby picking up her game to score a goalby beating the goalie from whatseemed an impossible angle.

At 3-1, the game seemed to bein Keele’s hands, until a Staffsplayer broke free to leave herselfin a one-on-one with our goalieTheo Izzard, and was able to closethe gap back up to 3-2. Staffs’ de-fence then made a vital error andleft Vicky Golbourn free in their D,which we were able to utilise witha long ball through to her, result-ing in a rather inevitable goal froman experienced striker, putting thecushion back up to two goals.

Finally, Laura Thomas who hadreturned to the field put the finalnail in the coffin to make the endscore a 5-2 win for Keele. The Var-sity hype leading up to the matchreally helped us to be focussed onwinning and we played as a tighterunit than ever before. Our half-time ‘ORGY’ chant was oh so true– the women’s hockey girls gave anexcellent display of teamworkthat enabled us to beat Staffs forthe fourth year running.

Women’s Hockey Match ReportKeele - 5 Staffs -2

VA R S I T Y ‘ 10

Women’s BasketballKeele - 74- Staffs 48

Ele Yap & Amy Meadows

After the intensity of the men’s game, women’sbasketball were more determined than ever to winand bring home another point for Keele. The bleach-ers were rammed with spectators, adding to thenerves the squad were feeling and leading to a roughstart. Despite easily winning the tip, passes werepanicked and easy interceptions were made by Staffsdue to their structured defence and good composureon court, taking a quick 4 point lead. Once theadrenaline had kicked in and the crowd began tochant, our first basketball was scored and we beganto make the game ours. This lead quickly increasedand Staffs began to struggle to keep up with us.Keele’s defence was tight, putting Staffs under pres-sure, with numerous rebounds and interceptions inthe key, making easy work for Julia Parnell and EleYap, to play a fast break down the court and nocthup points on the scoreboard. Fiona Halton and VickyTsang had no problem controlling the pace of play,feeding the ball in well to post players Faith Kaseguand Amy Meadows for easy under-the-basket points.Amanda Klein kept the crowd happy, making four 3’sduring the game to increase the lead further.

By half time, Keele had a 20 point lead but know-ing how easily a game can change, everyone contin-ued to put their all into playing. After leaving thecourt at half time for their a team talk and restruc-ture their play, Staffs began to close the gap, butcontinuous defence from Kate O’Sullivan, OlaAwosika and Lindsay McOwat ensured that we keptcontrol of the lead. Despite playing out of position,Hanna Salehi rebounded well and kept the offenceout of the key to stop any further baskets fromStaffs. Jackie To worked well with the point guardswhen bringing the ball down the court and lead tofurther points for Keele. With 4 minutes on theclock, the starting five were brought back on, notonly did we beat Staffs but we annihilated them!

The crowd were amazing throughout the game andsupported us to the very end, without them,the 74-48 victory wouldn’t have tasted sosweet!

Men’s BasketballKeele - 64 Staffs - 62

With almost a brand new team this sea-son, with 7 of the 11 players picked forvarsity being in their first year at Keele,the Men’s Basketball team showed theyhave the passion for Keele to put on a per-formance when it mattered. From day oneClub Captain Matt Youds and Team CaptainJustin Wong drilled it into the squad howimportant this game was to the whole uni-versity. Every single player that pulled onthat Keele jersey played with 110 % com-mitment, passion and fight.

The game started with Staffs taking anearly lead, but after Keele shook off theirnerves, started to play with a bit of flair,consistently and control, and at the end ofthe first quarter were up by a few points.The performance in the second started abit flat, with more turnovers than liked,but after a time-out and some strongwords from the captain, Keele played likea team determined to win and not let thecrowd down, and at the half time werestill up. The third quarter saw Keele takea 8 point lead at one point and at the endof the quarter were up by 7. The thirdquarter was some of the best basketballKeele have played this year, with strongsolo drives from Sam Passey and JonathanLima got the crowd jumping up and down,and Odell Kenneth Bent with some quickpoints on the fast break. Joshua Roberts-Mensah came into his own and controlledthe offence which left Matt Youds andJonathan Lima with open shots and left the Staffs defencestatic.

The Staffs coaching staff were obviouslygetting worried, and their coach got thema technical after a pointless arguementwith the officials and table, and Matt

Youds stepped up to shoot both freethrows to rub salt into their wounds, de-spite abuse from the stands. The fourthwas the lowest scoring quarter, as nervesstarted to creep in again. Staffs put on afull court press and Keele got caught a fewtimes, and with three minutes left tookthe lead for the first time since the open-ing quarter. Odell Kenneth-Bent got fouledout in the fourth, which could have causeda worry for Keele as Odell had been im-mense on defence throughout the game,however Ivan Navi stepped up and playedout of his skin. Sam Passey took anothersolo drive to put Keele back in the leadand Justin Wong nailed one of his free-throws after a deliberate foul on the fastbreak with the crowd going wild in antici-pation of a Keele victory. Staffs put on thepressure, however incredible defence andcrashing of the boards from Paul Hansonand Adeo Fraser, who both had been bril-liant all game on d, made sure Staffs hadto do something special to win. With 9seconds to go, and down by 2, Staffs hadpossession after a poor decision from theofficials.

The Staffs coach called a time out inhope to win the game. They gave the ballto their number 6, who’s shooting hadbeen impressive throughout the game.However he must have felt the pressureand threw up a brick which crashed off theback board which left him in tears and theKeele defence scrapping for the ball be-fore the buzzer for full time sounded, andKeele celebrated a well deserved victory.

Top Scorer’s Matt Youds - 18 Sam Passey - 15

17

VA R S I T Y ‘ 10

Women’s FootballKeele - 2 Staffs - 1

Carla Swift - Club Captain

With three league game wins in a row we knew we had a teamthat could win at Varsity and so when the starting whistle blewKUWFC were straight to the ball. We dominated the first half hour,with the Staffs defence being kept under constant pressure. Jasand Irish up front both had several chances which they failed toput away and so it was from midfield that our first goal came. Wewere about half-way through the first half when Beci Jones foundback of the net with a beautiful shot from the right wing, much

resembling the goal shescored at Varsity lastyear.

The rest of the firsthalf was much thesame, with Keele work-ing very well as a unit.Beci Jones was awe-some on the right wing,putting in crosses andcreating chances. Jasand Irish continued torun rings around theStaffs defence but wereunable to find the tar-get. The half time whis-tle blew and KUWFCwere leading 1-0.

The second half started and we were quick to pick up where weleft off, putting pressure on the Staffs back four and keeper. Itwasn’t long before our hard work paid off, when the Staffs cen-tre-back brought Irish down in the penalty area, and the ref madeno hesitation in pointing to the spot. Jas stepped up and coollyslotted it away to put us up 2-0.

The next 10 minutes were more pressure from Keele, and theStaffs defence struggled to cope with our two strikers. However,despite a number of chances Jas and Irish still failed to hit the tar-get, and so the score remained 2-0.

With fatigue setting in for the home side and Staffs desperatelylooking for a goal, the pressure switched about 20 minutes fromthe end and we found ourselves under a lot of pressure. However,our back four were solid and their attempts to break through werequickly halted.

About 20 minutes from the end, a pass from the Keele midfieldwas intercepted by the Staffs forwards who quickly maneuveredthemselves into a one-on-one with our keeper and found the backof the net, making the score 2-1. The remaining minutes of thegame seemed to last forever and the play shifted from one end ofthe pitch to the other. Keele centre-backand Team Captain Sabrina kept usahead on several occasions with vitaltackles and centre midfielder Josefinmade a great effort in defence aswell.

After 8 minutes of added time,the final whistle eventuallyblew and Keele won 2-1!Thanks to everyone whocame down to support us.The atmosphere was awe-some and we hope you en-joyed the game!!

Men’s & Women’s Fencing

Men: Keele - 135 Staffs - 78Women: Keele - 122 Staffs - 135

Oliver Wakefield

Both the Men and Women's Fencing teams we're eagerly anticipating theirmatches against Staffs, with the Women's team riding high after recentleague successes and the Men's team confident in their 100% win rate thisentire season.

The Men's team confidence extended as far as some pre-Varsity 'banter'with Staffs. This banter saw our Men's team posting their impressiveleague results for the Staffs Men to peruse at their leisure, at their sportscentre at Staffs campus.

At the matches we finally had the opportunity to accommodate specta-tors this year, with an inspired turn-out to watch some epic matches. TheWomen's team started out with a hopeful few bouts with the beginnerspunching well above their weight, and showing the old-timers how it'sdone! Successive good bouts saw the Women's team in contention untilthe last, but unfortunately this year, for the first time, they were justpipped to the post by their rivals Staffs Uni, in a gritty match that sawthem only lose by a few points in what was a very impressive performancefrom a relatively new squad...Watch this space for much deserved futuresuccesses!

The Men's match was with all the arrogance the team could muster awhite-wash. Even a Staffs broadcaster had predicted a heavy defeat forthe Staffs away team a few days before Varsity, needless to say this pre-diction was very much realised. The match started very much how itended, with the Men's Fencing team showing it's Staffs rival how to winmatches. The crowd played a pivotal role in what turned out to be a crush-ing defeat for the Staffs Men's Team, which was readily evident in the man-nerisms of a number of the away team's players!

After a healthy lead throughout the entire match news flooded throughfrom excited spectators that a win at Men's Fencing would see a Keele vic-tory in Varsity as a whole. This anticipation reached a climax when theKeele Men's Fencing team could claim victory at the start of the thirdweapon epee. I had the pleasure of claiming the required 3 points fromby first epee bout to win Men's Fencing, and ultimately the Varsity Cup forKeele, in the most memorable moment of my 7 years at Keele to date. Ittruly was a great team performance by all, from the best friends I have(...sorry Bigsby), infront of a brilliant crowd (including by beautiful girl-friend :-P ), and I say sincerely, it truly was my greatest honour to havehad the opportunity to fence for those points and bring the Varsity Cup toit's rightful home......

With all my heart, thank you all!

Love:Keele

VA R S I T Y ‘ 10

Keith L. Harrison MSc FIIS - Football Coach

On Wednesday 10th March Newcastle TownFC again hosted the 10th annual VarsityFootball Challenge Charity match. Theweather was good and as ever the pitch wasin good order, although a little bumpy fromthe game the previous night.

As the ground started to fill the playersstarted to get a sense of the task beforethem, although the Varsity Sports day hadbeen decided it placed a different pressureon each team. Staffs Footballers needed toclaw back lost pride of the earlier failings,and retain the Varsity Challenge Trophy, andKeele needed to compound the overall winand snatch back the Mt Everest “rock”.

The Keele Manager, Keith Harrison had theluxury of a fully fit squad, “This squad is ar-guably the best squad that Keele have hadin a Varsity Final during my tenure. Whoevergets left on the bench could just as easilyhave made the starting line up, it’s a niceproblem to have.”

Prior to kick off the teams, and match of-ficials were introduced to the Lord Mayor ofStoke-on-Trent. On returning to her seatafter the introduction she did seem a littleupset at all the noise being generated by thetwo very Partisan sets of supporters. Whatdid she expect a chorister jamboree!?!

Once underway the game started at a fu-rious pace, Keele had pre-empted the Staffsformation by taking the unusual step of hav-ing a 4-4-2 formation in an effort to stiflethe Staffs 1-5-4 formation. When it lookedlike the initial wave of attacks had passedKeele reverted to their usual 3-5-2, a forma-tion that has served them well this seasonboth in the BUCS, and the Saturday footballof the Staffs County Senior League, whereKeele are having a fine first season, cur-rently sitting third in the league.

Early exchanges were contested at a furi-ous pace, which I knew would suit Keele asthe game wore on, Keele’s hallmark is theirsuperb fitness regime. A flowing move sawMatt Alexander sending over a powerfulcross from the Keele right narrowly missingthe boot of the onrushing Joe Norton. Thiswas a precursor of things to come. Staffswere moving the ball about very well with-out really breaking down the well drilledKeele defence.

On 18 mins whilst attempting to orches-trate a switch of play the usually depend-able Jonny Clay lost possession some 30 mtrsto Nathan Blissett who raced clear to scorepast a stranded Craig Patterson. Keele didnot moan or groan they just got on with thegame, knowing that they had time enoughto reorganise and compensate the hiccup.

Keele were on the offensive almost imme-diately with Matt Slark having a good runchecked on the left of the Staffs penaltyarea. On 24 mins Keele drew level with a

finely crafted goal. Matt Hearn won the ballon the Keele left before transferring the ballin side with a switch to the Keele right whereMatt Alexander took on and beat his full backto cross the ball evading both the covering de-fender and the keeper to find Sean Szabo atthe back post, Szabo was well marked but heout jumped his marker to power home a classequaliser past a hapless keeper.

Keele were well on top now with CharlieFotheringham creating a chance for himselfwith a shot wide of the target. Keeles tacticsseemed to over run Staffs in mid field cuttingof any supply to their lone forward, who be-came increasingly isolated as the half woreon. Clay had recovered from his earliermishap and was now dominating all the aerialduels with some conviction, just to proveevery action has an equal and opposite reac-tion. The back three of James Bennett, Clayand Hearn more than a match for anythingthat Staffs were throwing forward. The tire-less efforts of both Keele Captain DominicRandall, and Stu Lester saw them breaking upplay to harass the Staffs mid-field.

On 39 min the same players who had so ablycreated the equaliser conjured up a similarmove. Again Hearn won the ball on the Keeleleft deep in his own half, he ran forward mov-ing in field to unleash a ball to the Keele rightwhere Alexander beat his man to crash theball across towards the near post, again Szabowas quick out of the blocks to get in front ofhis defender to stab home from an acuteangle, another class poachers goal. The onlooking club scouts must have been suitablyimpressed!

A third looked on the cards as Joe Nortonweaved his way into the box only to betripped, lesser players may well have taken atumble to secure a penalty, Norton gained hisbalance but lost control o f the ball. Thestrike partnership of Norton/Szabo was creat-ing a lot of problems for the Staffs back four.HT 2-1

Keele made no changes at half time the ideawas to pile on the pressure and step up the

pace as Keele felt confident with their fitnesslevels. Within a short time Staffs did maketwo subs as the pace took its toll, a third wasmade shortly after due to an injury. This wasthe chance for Keele to send on even morepace to maintain the pressure play mentality,a triple substitution was made in a short spacewith Stu Lester, Matt Alexander and Joe Nor-ton making way for Oliver Rabie, JordanRichardson and Caffrey. All three made an in-stant impact as they had all been primed totake on the Staffs back four at all times.

Keele were reduced to ten men for a shortwhile when Slark had to get treatment to afacial injury, he quickly returned to the frayafter the blood flow was stemmed. The tack-les started to fly about, in true Varsity fash-ion, as tired minds started to make mistakes,the referee did a fine job in keeping the gamemoving without resorting to brandishing yel-low cards. The only strange decision of thenight came about as a result of a foul by theStaffs keeper on Richardson who had chaseda loose ball into the Staffs penalty area onlyto be floored by the Staffs keeper. The lines-man gave the penalty, but the referee overruled him?

With a short time to go Keele made theirfinal substitution, with Szabo coming off andAdam Dawson going on to tighten the mid-field area. In the final minutes Staffs had onefinal effort to push the game into extra time.The ball was launched into the Keele areawhere it bounced around for an age before itwas kicked out for a corner. Staffs sent every-one plus their keeper into the box, the ballwas cleared and as the Keele players ran outto chase the ball the referee blew for fulltime. FT 2-1

The euphoria that was in evidence was theheartache of three years of losing, this wasthe last opportunity for many of the Keeleplayers to win a Varsity Challenge Trophyfinal, and they had done it! This was a finegame of football in the highest of Varsity stan-dards.

The Keele Coach said:

When the Varsity Challenge Trophy Charitymatch was first organised by Richard Mc-Partlin and I fully understood that it had thepotential to grow, and that it has. I would askthat the efforts of those prior to the new for-mat be remembered in the stats as they chal-lenged and fought to win as both Keele andStaffs ambassadors in the pursuit of sportingexcellence, all games have been memorableand long may it be the case.

There was no luck involved in this win justlot of determination, hard work and most ofall a desire to win in the framework of therules. All Keele players know what I say aboutluck, there is no such thing as luck, ‘only theweak believe in luck the wise and strong incause and effect.’

Let sport and charity be the ultimate winner.

The Mt Everest “rock” is back home in theKeele cabinet. Can you keep it therenext year?

The “Rock” Comes Home!Mens Football Keele - 2 Staffs - 1

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TEAM KEELE Est.1949

VA R S I T Y ‘ 10

KEELE STAFFS V

A message from your AU President Sonia Douz

Having been planning and organising Varsity since Sep-tember, March 10th quickly arrived. It was an end to allof the sleepless nights, worrying how we would do, theconstant banter between myself and the AU Presidentof Staffs and the posting of Staffs videos on Facebook.Varsity was here and I had one thing on my mind…WIN-NING!!

It was simply the most amazing day I have ever expe-rienced at Keele! The day started with a very intenseCricket game that went into a bowl off. The lads un-fortunately lost, but set the standard for the day. WEWERE NOT GOING TO LET STAFFS WALK ALL OVER US!The crowds were out in force and the chants were loudand proud. By 5pm in the evening we had won Varsity

with the score being 8-5 to Keele, with two events yet tobe played. By that point the Staffs President had justgiven up and started packing away. I however was runningaround with a smile bigger than the M6 on my face! Iwould like to say big congratulations to everyone thattook part in Varsity! I couldn’t have asked or wanted formore. Everyone played with pride and passion and it was110% effort from everyone! Thank you to everyone thatcame down and supported all the teams. That Trophy be-longs to all of us and we more than deserved it…weOWNED STAFFS!!! Thank you to Michael Huss, Scott Little,Rachel Mobberley, Stephen Johns and the new incomingAU committee for all their hard work in making sure Var-sity went smoothly. A big thank you to the Sports Centrestaff as well for everything they did!

All I can say now is…IT WAS OUR TURF, AND IS OUR CUP!!BRING ON 2011!!

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Concourse Issue Eight

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Transcript of Concourse Issue Eight