Two years unbeaten - and Chichester aces start new season on top too

Rich Pelc, Tom Beales, Cameron Harvey and Josh Spence edged past their rivals 9-8. Pelc, part of a team that won back-to-back league and cup doubles in the past two undefeated campaigns, was voted fresher of the year at the SU Sports Awards in 2017 and helped the team to the Premier South play-offs in 2018.

Pelc said: “A lot of our top players from last year have graduated but we’ll see how our freshers get on. My first season here was a dream and couldn’t have gone any better for me and my team – winning the league, winning the cup and getting fresher of the year.

“We won the league in my second year but couldn’t get promotion to the prem.

“There’s some really tough teams in that division. I’m not sure how we’ve gone two seasons unbeaten in the league! We won a couple of close ones 9-8 thanks to a really good team spirit.”

Elsewhere in racquet sports, the men’s tennis team kept up their unbeaten start with a 12-0 win at home to Reading while the men’s badminton side lost 7-1 to Brunel and Chi’s women’s badminton team suffered a 5-3 defeat at Surrey.

Chi’s men’s football first team returned to winning ways beating UCL 6-1. The twos drew for the second week running, 3-3 with Brighton. The third team lost 2-1 to Sussex ones and the fours were beaten 4-0 by Royal Holloway’s first team.

Premier South champions Hertfordshire got the better of women’s football ones but the women’s football second team shared the spoils with Surrey in a 2-2 draw.

Hector Clements scored four on his debut as the men’s futsal twos beat Westminster twos 12-3. And a late Tom Wisely penalty earned the men’s futsal first team a point in a thrilling 6-6 draw with Westminster ones.

The visitors opened the scoring with an audacious lob and added another before the break after a swift counter. Emmett Dunn got WSIHE back in it with a super strike then turned provider when he set up the equaliser.

Westminster went ahead again before Dunn bagged his hat-trick to put the home side 4-3 up. The lead didn’t last long and three quickfire goals gave the visitors a 6-4 advantage heading into the last couple of minutes.

Students are up and running again

After a nice finish reduced the deficit to one, Wisely converted from the spot with practically the last kick of the game.

Futsal president James Callnon said: “I’m so proud of all our players. Both teams showed great character.”

It was a tough week for Chi’s rugby and hockey players. The women’s rugby team lost 49-22 to Royal Holloway and the same university beat the men’s first team 15-11. Reading thumped Chi’s men’s rugby twos 50-0 and there were heavy defeats for all three hockey sides.

The netball ones beat Sussex 28-13 to maintain their 100 per cent record. The threes drew 36-36 with Portsmouth but there were losses for the twos and fours.

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After a big win against New Bucks last week Chi’s men’s basketball team picked up another victory outscoring St Mary’s 68-58 to maintain their lead at the top of South Eastern 2A at this early stage.

The women’s volleyball side moved up into third place in the league after a 3-0 win at Roehampton while both men’s volleyball sides lost their season openers.