University of Chichester teams get feeling of deja vu

Their women’s rugby team, who have started in great form, won by the same 40-5 scoreline as their season opener the previous week while the men’s football firsts suffered another defeat to a side from Wales.

The women’s football firsts drew against another university from Cardiff and the mixed golf team picked up a win over University of Kent for the second time in seven days.

In a match against Kent at Goodwood Downs, golf captain Jack Raison found things weren’t as straightforward for his team of Jordan Brown, Josh Henderson, Beth Yeoman, Charles Kelly and James Jardine as it had been in an earlier 5-1 win over the same team.

But a 4-2 win sent Chichester to the top of South Eastern 2A.

The golfers are hoping to build on a year where the team, also featuring Cameron McLagan, Robin Irving and Ryan Allison, picked up Most Improved BUCS Club at the Sports Awards. Jordan Brown was also voted most improved player.

“We had a very solid season although it ended with a loss to Royal Holloway in our last league game,” added Raison.

“We then got to the cup final at Goodwood against the same team. We thought going into it that we had a good chance because they were away and this is a tough course. But we ended up losing that as well so we came second in the league and runners up in the cup.

“Royal Holloway got promoted so they’re no longer in our league or the cup. This year I think we can go unbeaten and win the cup and the league and get promoted. It will be nice to see how we do against the teams above us.”

In Premier South football, Cardiff Met went in 1-0 up at half-time against Chi thanks to an early goal from Rhys Thomas.

Zak Sharp, Lorenzo Dolcetti and Tafadzwa Kanjanda linked up nicely for Chi ten minutes after the break without an end product before the visitors doubled their lead with a well-struck effort into the bottom right hand corner from Ben Bowler.

Dolcetti might have pulled one back moments later but after twisting and turning to elude several defenders in the box he couldn’t keep his shot down. A cool finish by Tim Parker with a couple to go sealed a 3-0 win.

The women’s football firsts were 4-1 down against Cardiff Met before No9 Lucy Cook inspired a dramatic comeback. Cook scored all four for Chichester – the last strike, in time added on, nicking a point, with coach Perry Northeast describing it as a ‘smash and grab second-half performance’. That’s three games unbeaten now in the Prem South for the women.

There were cup wins for the men’s threes and fives and a walkover for the sixes.

The volleyball men’s and women’s first team both had chances to take top spot in their divisions. The men took advantage with a 3-0 away win against Portsmouth but the women lost 3-1 to Pompey at the Tudor Hale.

Chi’s netball firsts and seconds won tight matches against UCL and Kingston in the league and cup.

At Westminster all four men’s tennis players found themselves playing higher-rated opponents. Harry Vaughan and Charlie Fennell continued their winning streak with straight-set singles wins but both Tom Pullen and Joey Graham lost theirs in tough matches.

Vaughan and Graham came through with a 6-0, 6-0 win and Pullen and Fennell dug in for an impressive cup win in a high-intensity 6-4, 7-5 decider.
Results: Lacrosse Men’s First 3-3 Brunel University First; Football Women’s First 4-4 Cardiff Metropolitan University First; Volleyball Men’s First 3-0 Portsmouth First; Volleyball Women’s First 1-3 Portsmouth University First; Golf Mixed 4-2 University of Kent; Netball First 45-43 University College London First; Netball Second 42-41 Kingston University First; Rugby Union Women’s First 40-5 University of Surrey First; Tennis Men’s 8-4 University of Westminster; Football Men’s First 0-3 Cardiff Metropolitan University First; Football Men’s Second 2-3 Universities of Medway Second; Football Men’s Third 4-3 St Mary’s Third; Football Men’s Fifth 6-2 University of West London Second.