Sport is Back

JAMAL THOMAS RIZVI REMINDS US WHY SPORT IS IMPORTANT, AND WHY, AS ONE OF OUR NEW SPORTS EDITORS, HE WILL BE COVERING UCL SPORT LIKE WE’VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE

69. Nope, I am not being immature and trying to make a joke about a certain sexual position. This is the number of sports societies that UCL has to offer, ranging from the generic football, netball and hockey to the not-so-generic dodgeball, pole fitness, gliding, grappling, fencing and scuba diving.

So with all these sports societies inevitably having plenty of sports-crazy students as members, why has the notorious Pi Media waited this long to give actual coverage to a subject which most students can’t help but be linked to in one way or another? Pi has been missing a trick.

Students are social. Sports are social. Students like to drink. Sports allow you to drink more by you burning calories. Students like to go out on a Wednesday. Sports happen to have their night out on a Wednesday. We have a lot in common, and these mutual interests culminate in …

Dirt cheap pints in Phineas, deafening chants of “I’m Burlington Bertie, I’m short, fat and dirty…”, dancing/flirting/humiliating yourself on the weirdly charming hotbed which is the bottom floor of Loop. Wednesday night is Sports Nite, and what else are we to do on a Wednesday night but make decisions that we will undoubtedly forget, regret and perhaps get upset about the next day.

It’s the social side of the night out you get with Sports Societies, but it’s also the social side of getting to tell people the painfully embarrassing tales of the night before, that makes Sport at uni even more appealing. So why shouldn’t we report on some of the nocturnal sporting frivolities from time to time?

But that’s not all.

Shall we love our neighbour? To quote that brilliant McDonald’s advert, “Nahhh, you’re alright.” Sport also gives us Burlington Bertie lovers another excuse to express our hatred for our KCL neighbours. We already know we’re better than them in every aspect, but Varsity kindly allows us an annual validation of the London hierarchy. Just for our peace of mind.

After all, the more I look at all the different sports societies available, the more I am kicked in the back, punched in the face and generally pummelled into the ground by the amount of fighting-related societies there are – just over a fifth of all sports societies. We’re clearly well versed in combat, so what do we have to be afraid of against our whimpering KCL rivals? We better get reporting on this Varsity, and not hold back when it comes to the brutal reality of UCL’s devouring of those lesser minds.

Sport is important to me because it facilitates love and hate. It allows us to make friends throughout London, on different courses, in different years, and occasionally different universities – barring the barbaric institution of KCL, of course. Yet it also supplies us with competition, rivalry, and that desire of conflict that is ever-present, just waiting to be unleashed. Everyone’s got a bit of fight in them, but who doesn’t love to find common ground between new friends in expressing a certain shared hatred? There may even be a pint or two involved.

Keep a look out for Pi’s online coverage of the London Varsity Series 2015.

Featured image credit: UCLU