The 2007 BUSA season culminated with twenty-five of the teams that represent the University of Leeds successfully qualifying to the national knockout phases.
Four university teams progressed right through to the finals of their respective competitions. The most impressive performers were Women’s Squash who finished runners-up to Birmingham in the BUSA championship – confirming their status as the second best university side in the country. The team, consisting of Sarah Bowles, Zoe Ricaby, Kitty Newsham and Heather Sowden drew 2-2 in the final, but were defeated on count-back by just one set! During their run to the final, the girls had beaten Aberdeen, Edinburgh and UWIC.
Our other three finalists came in the BUSA trophy competition, where once again all sides narrowly missed out in their final match.
During their run to the final, Men’s Football 1st (captained by Roy Sandeman) came through nail-biting penalty shootouts against University of Nottingham and Worcester before losing out 2-1 to Manchester in extra time.
Women’s Basketball (captained by Nicola Snowden) were beaten 62-57 in their final by Oxford, having recorded comfortable victories over St Andrews, Glasgow and Hertfordshire in earlier rounds.
Finally, the Men’s Table Tennis team (captained by Andy Currie) defeated Aston & Warwick universities before lost to Northumbria 9-7 in their final. A small consolation for the table tennis club is that Adam Bleakley & Stephen Denny won the BUSA men’s doubles championship earlier in the season.
Some of our teams who had performed strongly in the league phase of the season came up against tough opposition in the BUSA Championships. Women’s badminton were defeated by the University of Bath in the quarter-finals, but were the only team to take any points of the eventually champions! The Men’s Hockey 1st team were eliminated by the beaten finalists, the University of Birmingham, and could be consoled in the knowledge that they were beaten by four goals from an England international. Finally, after a 100% winning record in the league stages, Women’s Rugby Union were defeated by a strong Leeds Met side.
Despite these early knockout defeats, the performances of both Men’s Hockey 1st and Women’s Rugby Union in the league stages of the competition have resulted in promotion to their respective BUSA premier leagues for the 2007/08 season.
A summary of how the twenty-five University of Leeds teams that qualified to knockouts performed can be seen below. The vast majority of sports that we participate in qualified at least one team to the national knockout phases, highlighting just how broad a base of sporting performance we have at the university.
Club |
Knockout |
Finishing Position |
| BADMINTON I (M) | Trophy | Semi-final |
| BADMINTON II (M) | Plate | Last 16 |
| BADMINTON (W) | Championship | Quarter-final |
| BASKETBALL I (M) | Trophy | Quarter-final |
| BASKETBALL (W) | Trophy | Final |
| FENCING (M) | Championship | Last 16 |
| FENCING (W) | Trophy | Quarter-final |
| FOOTBALL I (M) | Trophy | Final |
| FOOTBALL III (M) | Plate | Last 16 |
| FOOTBALL I (W) | Trophy | Quarter-final |
| GOLF | Trophy | Last 16 |
| HOCKEY I (M) | Championship | Last 16 |
| HOCKEY IV (M) | Plate | Last 16 |
| HOCKEY I (W) | Championship | Last 16 |
| HOCKEY II (W) | Trophy | Last 16 |
| RUGBY LEAGUE I (M) | Shield | Quarter-final |
| RUGBY LEAGUE II (M) | Shield | Last 16 |
| RUGBY UNION I (M) | Trophy | Quarter-final |
| RUGBY UNION II (M) | Plate | Last 16 |
| RUGBY UNION (W) | Championship | Last 16 |
| SQUASH I (M) | Trophy | Quarter-final |
| SQUASH (W) | Championship | Final |
| TABLE TENNIS (M) | Trophy | Final |
| TENNIS (M) | Trophy | Quarter-final |
| TENNIS I (W) | Championship | Last 16 |
Overall, the University looks on track to exceed 1000 BUSA points from sports that compete on Wednesday afternoons – which is approximately 100 more than teams achieved last year.
Throughout a successful BUSA league and knockout season, teams have travelled over 27,000miles to represent the university up and down the country. Our sides have journey to forty different universities, including long trips to Aberdeen, Bath, Bristol and Edinburgh.
Staff and students at the University should be proud of the commitment, passion and skill displayed by our students in playing sport throughout the 2006/07 academic year and of the success that the have achieved.
Archie Sample, LUU Sports Officer
Matt Davison, LUU Sports Development Coordinator
