WE’RE MAKING IT TOUGH FOR LOUGH!

“When the going gets tough none get tougher than Lough” This season Team Durham has proved this renowned quote to be more fiction than fact. Our sport’s teams have been destroying Loughborough this year, crushing their unjustly large egos and completely wiping out the aura of arrogance that swamps their state of the art pitches. Loughborough’s reputation as an “all-sporting powerhouse”, brimming with its internationals and gold medals, seems to be fading for the first time thanks to our very own athletes.

Our 1st XV rugby team made a laughing stock of their opposition when they travelled to Loughborough this season. The home team did us the honour of making it their game of the day, of reporting the fixture on their web for the week before the game, playing at 6.30 under floodlights and attracting a crowd of well over 1,000. And did they regret this?! Durham made sure they did with a casual 44-14 domination. One member of DURFC states, 'it was advertised as THE BIG MATCH…all that was BIG was the Durham score.’

Earlier this month, Durham’s hockey boys took on the reigning national champions, a side full of internationals, and still came away with a shell shocking 5-1 victory. This is the biggest defeat that Loughborough have ever had at home. Chins. A DUHC player remarked after the game, ‘Were they John Snow in disguise?’ I think that says it all really.

The hockey girls kept this winning streak going with a convincing 2-1 defeat of the old enemy, as did the lacrosse girls, demolishing a weak and feeble looking Loughborough side 17-3. Their performance both on and off the pitch at this game was quite frankly, embarrassing. To quote a conversation I overheard between some Loughborough boys on the sidelines, ‘Mate she’s giving you evils, I’d watch it, she has a stick’. ‘Well I have a fist’ was the retort. Really, really strong from them- no wonder they’re all doing sports degrees there.

I could go on forever listing our teams that have annihilated Loughborough this year- both men’s and women’s tennis teams gave them a smashing, as did badminton, basketball and our cyclists. At a recent competition our women’s hill cycling team won Gold while Loughborough had to settle for the dull and murky shade of bronze. I do hope they like this colour because we’ve proved that their golden days are long gone.

If you ever happen to find yourself wandering around their very own merchandise shop you may be lucky enough to spot one of the T shirts which says, ‘When I grow up I want to graduate at Loughborough University.’ ‘SAUSAGE’ was the response of two of our lacrosse players to that ridiculous statement (see below). “Sporting Powerhouse” I hear you say? Durham thinks not.