Who Has Heard Of Ziggurat?

“Ziggurat”: what else does this strange word mean other than being the name of the concrete leviathans that sit aside the lake? The short answer is this: Ziggurat is the intramural sporting event set up for staff and students alike.

Do you like obscure sports as well as the regular ones? The kind of sport you played when everything else sport-related was rained off at school. Well, the Ziggurat inter-department sports competition may be right up your street.

The Ziggurat competition includes sports ranging from indoor rounders to racquetball. Taking place every Tuesday or Wednesday between October and March, it encourages students to participate for their schools in a wide variety of sports and activities.

The more conventional activities such as 5-a-side football and netball are there, however, athletics and Ultimate Frisbee are also in the calendar.

Organised by Mrs. Rachel Tomes, the Assistant Director of Student Sport at UEA, each school is represented or merged with another. The school will have their own representatives who attempt to muster the masses to represent their school and defeat their greatest rivals within the academic landscape of UEA.

Points are awarded not only for competing, but for how many reps are present; how many spectators there are for each school; and which members of school staff are prepared to dust off their various sporting items to compete alongside their students.

Ziggurat is a largely untapped concept by the student community. There are the regular attenders (both staff and students), and then there are those who attempt to make it as often as possible.

Other than that, numbers can wane and it is a tough task for reps to scour their school years to encourage people to play. This is surprising as it offers so much, it is not just a simple hours exercise.

The environment at events is reminiscent of the best school sports days and the levels of banter are akin to the best of sport socials. There are some highly dedicated members of the staff and student bodies who are owed significant praise for their organisational skills and ability to cram a full two semesters of activities.

Ziggurat is worth a go (from someone who only started this year and should have started 3 years ago), even if it is just to beat EDU. Oh, and it’s free.