It has definitely been a successful year for LUTC, the University’s Trampolining Club. Not only have they won many medals at competitions, but the club has grown in terms of members. They now boast a variety of members competing at various levels from Novice all the way through to Elite.
Their first competition was held in Loughborough early in the academic year, where Steven Edgar placed third for Novice mens. Later in November they hosted their first 24 hour bounce, raising over £300 for Children in Need in which many people across campus came for a bounce who had never tried the sport before.
President, Alice Clark was placed first in the intermediate womens at Manchester and finished 10th place at BUCS for her category, BUCS 4. Whilst the club has retained its competitive side by taking part in the NEUT league (where all competitions are held in the north) and competing at BUCS for the first time ever, the club has also tried to promote its fun side by making training as enjoyable as possible.They hosted their own inter-club competition in November, where members were awarded with a trophy if they gained the top score for their category.
The club has held numerous socials, including a rather interesting ‘marker pens’ social, where members brought marker pens and t-shirts to be written on. The club has also held more casual socials, such as meals and baking – these events and wide-ranging socials show the fun, friendly and approachable side to the club.
April saw some members jetting off to Ireland for ISTO, (Irish Student Trampoline Open) a fun and friendly competition held in Ireland every year. This year it was held in Cork, which included an intense three days of trampolining and themed socials, such as a festival theme and a night at the Oscars. It is also the prime opportunity to mix with other Trampolining clubs across the UK. Success was found in the form of Alice Carter, who was placed third at the competition for her women’s intermediate routine.
Roses was the last competition of the year, which saw the Lancaster team winning both the Novice and Intermediate categories courtesy of Darianne Brown who came first in Novice. This competition also saw some of their competitors moving up a level: Amy Lea-Wilson moved up to the elite category and Gillian Smith successfully competed within the intermediate category.
The Trampolining club have had a wide variety of ideas to improve the clubs outreach within the next year and some have indeed already been implemented. The new exec look forward to recruiting new members whilst maintaining their current success, as well as promoting the fun side of bouncing: a great way to relieve stress, have a good time and learn a new skill.
