Meet the King’s captains

We get the ball rolling on a brand new season of sport with all the gossip from your new club presidents


With the start of a new term comes the start of a fresh season of university sport. One thing that keeps sport at KCL so exciting is the yearly influx of new talent. As the veterans pass the baton to a new squad of athletes, we welcome a host of new club captains. We caught up with them to find out everything you need to know for the year ahead.

BOYS

Men’s rugby union – Barney Lynock

Barney Lynock, 3rd year History, Men’s rugby

Course and year: BA History and 3rd year.

Hometown: Bohortha, Roseland Peninsula

Most memorable moment from last season or tour: Naked skydive/Iguana battles

Proudest moment from last season: Watching my son Pedro develop. Fierce athlete.

What makes you the best sport club at uni? Well, firstly, because we actually won the award for best society last year. Secondly, we combine a very welcoming ethos, a ‘work hard play hard’ attitude and a wide spectrum of sporting ability with unparalleled social dynamism.

One to look out for in your club: Fantasmo. A sideline unit with passion and flair.

Men’s football – Nicola Catanzano

Nicola Catanzano (left), 3rd year Business management, Men’s football

Course and year: Business Management 3rd year

Hometown: Milan, Italy

Most memorable moment from last season or tour: First Pub Golf

Proudest moment last season: Reaching the Semi Finals of the LUSL cup with the 2s.

What makes you the best sports club at uni? The size of the club, counting more than 110 active members spread out in 6 teams. This gives the opportunity to players of all levels to play football. And pub golf – KCLFC definitely has the best social scene at King’s.

One to look out for in your club: Stan Abyszkin: He was under a lot of pressure last season and didn’t meet his team’s demanding expectations. This year, under the guidance of our new manager Riteesh Mishra, I am confident this Polish centre forward will be scoring no less than 20 goals. You’ll see at Varsity (I Hope)

Cricket – Balaji Mahendran

Balaji Mahendran, 5th year Medicine, Cricket

Course and year: Medicine, 5th Year.

Hometown: Singapore

Most memorable moment from last season or tour: Our former president (see below) hitting the ball straight to a fielder, putting his head down and charging to the other end and getting run out. He nonchalantly puts his bat under his arm and walks right off (we had pizza delivered as he was batting, we still think that’s why he did that).

Proudest moment from last season: We played a varsity cricket tournament, getting into the finals. Whilst not everybody could play, most did turn up to the ground, with the rest keeping up with the match through Whats’app. It was a good insight into the camaraderie that the club has fostered amongst the lads, something that I hadn’t seen in the previous years. Of course it did help that we had good performances throughout!

What makes you the best sports club at uni? We are an incredibly open and welcoming club. People who don’t know about cricket are welcome, as are ex-county age group players. Heck we even had a girl training with us! As mentioned before, there is good spirit, top banter, and it’s just good fun all around. Don’t worry if you don’t know cricket or have no one to go for training with, we’ll ensure you eventually play for England. Or your local village club. Same thing really!

Who to look out for: Haseeb. Ex-president, 4th year medic (your lives in his hands in a year’s time!), shite bowler, and all-round doofus. Guaranteed provider of laughs all year long!

Men’s hockey – Amrik Nagra

Amrik Nagra, 3rd year Ancient history, Men’s hockey

Course and year: 3rd Year, Ancient History

Hometown: Caterham, Surrey

Most memorable moment from last season or tour: Eddie Bower (last year’s President) performing a stately naked lap of the Waterfront Bar after the KCLA games. He’ll tell you it was completely worth it.

Proudest moment last season: Seeing the boys beat UCL in the first ever London Varsity Series despite spending the whole season the league below and being billed as significant underdogs.

What makes you the best sports club at uni? We’re just another KCL sports team at the end of the day. But there’s a reason you’ll see so many of us dotted around campus wearing kit – there’s a certain pride that comes with being a KCLMHC member. I think a large amount of it is to do with how successful we’ve been over the past years and a lot is to do with how enjoyable hockey is as a sport. Oh, and we’re joined with a girls club which makes Wednesday nights interesting.

One to look out for in your club: On the pitch? Probably Mike Wakley. He’s improved year on year and despite breaking his leg during first year, he’s come back a better player. As for at the bar – Alex Jupp is one to look out for in the sense that you’ll see a unicorn on the strand before you see him regurgitating Snakebite in the KCLSU lavs.

Rowing – Jerome Condry

Jerome Condry (right), 4th year Medicine, Rowing

Course and year: 4th year medical student

Hometown: Canterbury

Most memorable moment from last season or tour: The Cambridge tour: everything from the party in the curry house after racing to crashing out in the sports hall early in the morning afterwards.

Proudest moment: Seeing all the freshers at the AGM who’d spent all year training with us and were now a big part of the club – we had over one hundred freshers last year!

What makes you the best sports club at uni? Members of the squad train up to 14 times a week, By the end of the year everyone is an important member of our team no matter how much time they have put in. Anyone can join and make as much out of their membership as they like.

One to look out for in your club: Julian Ahluwalia – handsome, stylish and a real go-getter, you either want to be with him or be him!

Lacrosse – Lewis Saunders

Lewis Saunders (left), 3rd year Medicine, Lacrosse

Course and year: Medicine (MBBS), Year 3, taking an Intercalated BSc (iBSc) in Clinical and Molecular Endocrinology.

Hometown: Beccles, a small town near Norwich.

Most memorable moment from last season or tour: The whole club descended on Guy’s Bar for our annual ‘Geek Week’ social – the combination of a massive turnout, impressively dedicated geeky outfits and the student bar made for a hilarious night!

Proudest moment last season: Probably when we were standing by the big letters at Amsterdam on tour last year. The fact that there were so many of us there and how we pulled off such an amazing trip really highlighted to me how far the club has come. And more excitingly, how we can keep building it over the next few years!

The KCL Lacrosse club in Amsterdam

What makes you the best sports club at uni? Definitely our openness to students from all areas and our willingness to let freshers play from the start. We are a mixed team, open to both KCL and GKT students, and the result is a brilliant mixture of people that you might never have met otherwise. Sounds corny, but the club really does have the feeling of a big family!

One to look out for in your club: That’s a tough question! The best thing about our club is that everyone improves so quickly, so you can’t be sure who’s the ‘one to watch’. Probably though for spectators I’d have to say Kristjana Çaka – she spent the majority of last season ripping defences to shreds, and I’m fairly sure she’ll be doing the same this season!

Running – Theo Irvine

Theo Irvine (right), 3rd year Music, Running

Course and year: I am studying Music and I am going into my third year

Hometown: Bournemouth

Most memorable moment from last season or tour: Simon Smith’s antics (specifically his cross-legged running improvisations among other shenanigans) caught on KCL TV during one winter training session…

Proudest moment: Hosting the Wimbledon LCL race last year in which KCL Running performed with true enthusiasm and great bravado!

What makes you the best sports club at uni? We are all-inclusive and have a huge variety of abilities. We are also both determined to compete determined to have fun!

One to look out for: Carlos Vázquez García because of his running but more importantly because of his party tricks.

GIRLS

Women’s football – Emilia Gibson

Emilia Gibson, 2nd year International relations, Women’s football

Course and year: International relations, second year

Hometown: Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada

Most memorable moment from last season or tour: When the entire club went full tourist mode when we all got to the Eiffel tower on our football tour to Paris and made a music video

Proudest moment from last season:

Mine: singing Oh Canada in the face of an obnoxious american on the night bus in Paris.

For the team: every Thursday evening when the stragglers from the previous Wednesday night show up to practice, especially current social secretary Camilla Johnsen, and our coach Riteesh is working in fitness.

What makes you the best sports club at uni? Our diversity – we have players from Singapore, Malaysia, Scotland, Ireland, England, India, Mexico, Indonesia, Canada , the US , France, Italy, Sweden, and the list only goes on, yet we all love football. Making football the best sport and KCLWFC the best club!

One to look out for in your club: Mariama Connell, always known as M. It is difficult to sum up her character without writing an article of my own; come along to a walkabout Wednesday and find out for yourself!

Cheerleading – Angela Liao

Angela Liao, 3rd year Medicine, Cheerleading

Course and year: I’m a medic intercalating in Imaging Sciences this year, which will be my third year at King’s!

Hometown: London

Most memorable moment from last season or tour: The whole 7 days of tour! However I won’t divulge details as what goes on tour stays on tour…I think all King’s sports clubs should do Salou 2015, it would be insane!

Proudest moment last season: When our stunt group were crowned University National Champions in our division!

What makes you the best sports club at uni? Cheerleading not only keeps you fit but you will meet some amazing people and along the way, form lifelong friendships. We are very much a big family. We welcome all students from King’s to join us, whether you study History or Medicine! In addition we have an extremely active social side; our Easter tour being one of the highlights of our social calendar. We also enjoy weekly socials at Guy’s Bar or Walkabout- need I say more? This year we are hoping to do even better at competitions, and put on a great show at Varsity!

One to look out for in your club: There definitely are a few people who stand out but in our sport, every single person matters to the point where a routine wouldn’t work if one person was away!

Women’s hockey – Amy Worsfold

Amy Worsfold (right), 3rd year Philosophy, Women’s hockey

Course and year: Philosophy, 3rd Year

Hometown: Bath

Most memorable and proudest moment last season: Winning our Varsity game in front of a crowd of 500 people. The moment that the final whistle blew at the end of the game is my fondest memory of uni so far. We played with such skill and composure. I was really proud of how many people came to support us as well, I was proud to be a student of KCL. Everyone acted in a sporting manner.

What makes you the best sports club at uni? We are now the focus sport at King’s, due to our double promotion last season, Varsity and Macadam Victories. Our first squad plays in South Division One.

The whole team

Netball – Hannah Skingle

Hannah Skingle (left), 2nd year Business management, Netball

Course and year: 2nd year, business management.

Hometown: Bishops Stortford.

Most memorable moment from last season or tour: Hmm I don’t know if I can say… haha…initiation dressed as a gold fish. Although winning photo of the week and free entry for dressing up (and as a result doing a shift) as a bouncer in Walkies has to be up there.

Hannah at her new post as a bouncer in Walkabout

Proudest moment: For me, winning fresher of the year…and getting president. But for the club, getting so far in the cup was amazing. And the show of support at our varsity match from our girls shows what a tight and encouraging club we are.

What makes you the best sports club at uni? We are the best because we are a very social club – we are all very pally as we spend so much time together. We are also a very inclusive club; everyone’s involved regardless of ability. It’s also the friendliest netball club I’ve ever been in which is a delightful change.

One to look out for in your club: Niamh Pryke. She showed last season that she’s an all-round amazing player, playing both as defense and shooter. And just wait til you see her on a Wednesday night…

 Women’s rugby – Helena Winstone

Helena Winstone, Biomedical science, final year

Course and year: Biomedical Science, I’m going into my final year this year.

What is your hometown: Ascot – yes the only thing it’s known for is the racecourse and the big hats.

Most memorable moment from last season/tour: The most memorable moment was probably finally pulling off the most bizarre line out move in the last game of the season ending in a pile up over the try line. The funniest…there’s a lot to choose from but I’ll go with waking up the last day of tour still drunk to my friend dancing around our room in a nun’s wimple, a T shirt and nothing else. I still don’t know how she got the wimple.

 Proudest moment last season: Just seeing our team play at the Macadam Cup, half of whom had never played rugby before last season, and watching how far they’d come and seeing them bounce back and play so well after such a narrow loss at Varsity.

 What makes you the best sports club at uni? We play hard and party harder.

 One to look out for in your club: Liz Osborne (2nd year Geography student) – brandishing the powers of social sec this year if you mess with her you’ll regret it in the form of pints and punishments. Or by being on the receiving end of her chop-tackle…