#ManOnSide campaign in full flow as MMU shines in BUCS

The #ManOnSide campaign is designed to bring awareness of equality in sport, to celebrate those sporting communities that break down the gender barriers and to allow all to embrace sport no matter who they are.

Sophie Binder, Activities Officer for MMU, said, “me and Natasha (Jaworski, Activities Officer for the Cheshire campus) decided to put on our #ManOnSide campaign as we believe equality in sport is a massive issue.

“We knew that our sports teams would be totally behind it and we were right.

“The sports teams got behind the campaign 100% and made a fantastic effort all over social media to spread the word.”

With MMU Manchester and Cheshire campuses competing in over 50 fixtures this week, NQ will bring you the highlights of the matches played across the North.

Starting the roundup this week is the superb effort from Netball 1s against Liverpool. They went into the game off the back of an impressive victory over Durham to go on and beat Liverpool 60-20.

A squad that continue to impress are Men’s Basketball 1s as they recorded their sixth league win of the season and remain unbeaten. The 1s hosted Northumbria 2s in Northern 1A and surged to victory as they defeated their opponents 87-70. They have now extended the lead over their league rivals to nine points.

Men’s Rugby Union 1s proceeded to get back to winning ways in the league this week as they travelled to Bangor. A bonus point 29-7 victory over Bangor means Rugby Union 1s stay in the promotion hunt. Rob Jones, Men’s Rugby Union coach, said, “On a pitch that became possible to play rugby on I was happy with a bonus point victory, closing the gap on league leaders Liverpool and maintaining our promotion challenge.

“Man of the Match Hallam Chapman’s defence was awesome and Scholar Connor Wilkinson’s offence was outstanding.”

Men’s Lacrosse won their fifth straight game of the season with another astonishing victory. Liverpool travelled to face a MMU team tearing up the Northern 2A league. Men’s Lacrosse dominated the game from start to finish, winning the game 20-2.

“We smashed it 20-2, Liverpool fought hard in the first quarter with MMU only 2-0 up, but by half-time we were dominating the game 11-1 and kept the momentum,” Bob Thurgood Phillips said.

“Oli Curtis and Dan Condron, two of our forwards, controlled the speed of the game the whole way through. Man of the Match was Stephen Hanny for his stand out debut performance in goal.”

Women’s Rugby maintained their winning streak after beating a tough UCLan side 39-14. They remain at the top of the Northern 2A league following the second round of games.

Samantha Bundock, captain on the day, said “it started out tough after we conceded a try early on. We were clearly on the back foot for most of the half but we were able to bring it back and earn a convincing win.”

Men's Squash 1s faced local rivals the University of Manchester this week in Northern 2A. With fixtures across all sports between the two Universities always tense affairs, MMU were able to snatch a 3-2 victory.

Some other great results from this week include a third 8-0 victory in a row for Women’s Badminton 1s against Salford, a commanding 16-1 win for Men’s Table Tennis 1s over Keele and Women’s Squash 1s travelling to Chester and winning 4-0.

There were also some impressive results from the MMU Cheshire campus. Men’s Football 1s faced the University of Manchester 2s and ran away with a 4-1 victory, recording their first win of the league season.

Men’s Rugby Union beat Edge Hill 20-13 in a tight affair as they now prepare for a cross campus clash against Manchester-based Men’s Rugby Union in the Conference Cup next week.

Another team continuing their undefeated start to the season is Women’s Hockey 1s. After a weeks rest they travelled to face a Keele side who were at the top of the Northern 2A league. The 1s blew their opponent off the park with an outstanding 6-0 victory to clinch the top spot in the league.