Good evening everyone and welcome to the 22nd York Sport Union Colours Ball. This
year we are celebrating the achievements
of the 65 different university sports
clubs; the players, the coaches, the
student journalists, and the committees.
Colours Ball 2020 will be one like never
before.
Whilst COVID-19 has meant we sadly cannot celebrate in person we hope you'll join
us for an evening celebrating you the
students and your achievements as our
surprise guests help unveil the winners
of each award. So sit back, relax, grab a
drink, a snack, a three-course meal, and
enjoy the evening. 2019-20 was a short
but great year for York Sport Union. We
hosted and won a successful College
Varsity which attracted more spectators
than ever before. Before BUCS was cut
shot by COVID we were sitting at 37th in
the league table. This would have been
our best league table finish in several years. We also had seven Conference Cup finalists,
one Trophy finalist and one Shield
finalist, as well as many fantastic
individual performances in BUCS Nationals. Despite bitter disappointment at the
cancellation of Rose's 2020 York Sport 
Union rallied and took part in the first
ever Virtual Roses. We once again showed
Lancaster that Roses Are White and won the
weekend. I want to say a massive thank you to the 40 clubs and societies who got
involved over the weekend, and helped to
raise four thousand eight hundred and
eighty three pounds for a wide range of
charities. I have loved getting to know all
the Clubs over the course of the year,
it was a real highlight of the week to
get out on the field and into the Sport
Centre on Wednesday afternoons to
chat to supporters and players on the
sidelines. I can't wait to do the same
again when it is safe to do so. I want to
take this opportunity to say a huge
thank you to the wider team who work
tirelessly behind the scenes to make
sure sport can happen day in day out at
the University of York. A massive thank
you needs to go out to York Sport
staff as well as Estates who you will
hear more from later this evening.  Also to Annie Potter,
Nisha Desai and Maisie Clarke without whom your fixtures, travel, bookings, you name
it, simply would not happen. You're
an absolute joy to work with! Also to the
York Sport Union Committee, who despite
not having the end of the year they
would have wanted, have been absolutely
amazing this year.
These eight students give up countless
hours to bring to life campaigns, events
and charity fundraisers. Not only this,
they have helped shape this year's
College Varsity and Roses tournament and
I'm sure we'll see the results of the
hard work at next year's Roses, which I
expect to have them all back for as VIP
guests. So without further ado let's get
started with the awards! Our first guest
of the evening, here to present Sports
Journalist of the Year is York Sport
Union Comms Officer Jade brewer. Let's
have a quick recap of the shortlisted
individuals. Let's take a look at the
shortlist. Patrick Hook-Willers, James
Moultrie, Lucy Wilde, Dom Smith,
Alex Woodward. Hi everyone I'm Jade
Brewer. I am Communications Officer for
York Sport Committee and I am here to
introduce the Sports Journalism of the
Year award. The Sports Journalist of the
Year is awarded to a student who has
raised awareness of a variety of
sports throughout the year, used an array
of social media and other platforms to
further engage a wider audience for
sports at York, and increased sport
journalism participation with a
professional attitude. The winner of this
award is James Moultrie. James has been a fantastic asset to the Nouse Sports team
this year and was a key part of their
nomination for Best Sport Coverage at
the s.p.a awards for the third year in a
row. Every week he goes and watches BUCS
matches to write match reports and has
written several good comment pieces on
hard-hitting sport issues including
gambling addiction and homophobia in
Rugby League. Congratulations James. Thank you for the nomination. It's so nice to
be nominated alongside the rest of the
Nouse Sport team. And I think it just shows
how hard me, Dom, Lucy, Alex, and Pat have worked
to continue the exceptional
success from last year.
Also I'm very grateful for everyone at Nouse for being very accepting and everyone in the
Senior team and across the paper made it so enjoyable to cover sport this year and
lastly thanks to Maddi and everyone
at York Sport Union for giving us a lot
of news and information to cover across
the year, so yeah thanks again. Our second
award of the evening is for Charitable
Club of the Year. The shortlisted clubs
are Swimming and Water polo, Boxing,
Lacrosse, Netball, James College Men's
Football. And here to present the award
are Nicholas Gardiner Communications
Officer and Georgina Newey York Sport
Union Treasurer. Nominees for this award will
have raised money and awareness for a
variety of charities throughout the year.
The Highly Commended winner in this
category is Lacrosse. This year Lacrosse
have held a series of fundraisers and
events to encourage a positive
conversation around mental health. They
hosted a drinks reception and charity tournament
raising money for York Mind and the
Charlie Watkins Foundation. The Charity
Tournament drew a crowd of 80 people as
the York team took on Hull. Well done
Lacrosse. Now over to Georgie for the
winner. And the winner of the Charitable
Club of the Year is Netball. This year Netball have organized several fundraisers.
They held the Netball Rugby dinner to
raise money for York Mind as well as the
Charity Netball tournament which saw
lots of college and university clubs
take part. Netball also spearheaded the
Roses Are Blue campaign as part of the
Virtual Roses fundraiser. A special mention
must be given to the Netball
President Sky who was instrumental in
organizing this, working alongside the
York Sport Union Committee to bring this
idea to life. Thanks to Sky, the campaign
engaged ten other University and College
teams and raised over two thousand
pounds in one weekend for NHS Charities
Together. So UYNC, congratulations, you really
deserve this award. On behalf of the Netball Club I just want to say the biggest
biggest thank you for this award. Charity is something that means an
awful lot to us as a club and is
definitely something we've tried to
focus on more this year so to receive
this award is amazing. Thank you to
everyone that's donated to everyone
that's come along to our events and
wanted to get involved in our campaigns.
It feels really weird it just being me
in this video.
It obviously should be the entire club
so I'm really sorry for that, but thank
you so so much for this award it means
an awful lot.
Thanks very much Georgie and Nick. Our
third award is for Equal Opportunities.
And here to present this award
is York Sport Union Equal
Opportunities Officer Christopher
Oldnall. Before Chris presents the award,
here's a reminder of the shortlist.
Fencing, Archery, Gymnastics. Hello my name is Chris and I'm the Equal Opportunities
Officer for York Sport Union. Equal
Opportunities at the University is so
much more than the stripe logo that we
wear on our kits. It represents a genuine
effort to strive for equality in the
games that our clubs play, the training
that teams do, and the community
engagement that York Sport provides.This
year has seen absolutely amazing work
from clubs to engage in Equal
Opportunities. Both by providing outside
specialist training in addition to some
clubs giving every student in their
club the skills in health and safety to
progress equally within their Sport.
We've seen a united front from York
Sport Union in supporting the Red Flag
Campaign a campaign which promotes
warning signs in relationships of all
forms. As well as this, club's provided
specialist sessions for This Girl Can
week. Whilst there's always more that can
be done to promote and engage with Equal
Opportunities in sport, we can safely say
that York is doing their part
and always striving for the best.
Therefore, it's now my pleasure to
present the Equal Opportunities award.
This is an award that is presented to
an individual or club who have made a
positive difference in promoting
equality, inclusivity, and diversity
within sport at York. It is with pleasure
that I can announce the Highly Commended
club is Fencing. Following the
establishment of a wheelchair fencing
team last year,
Fencing have gone on to train three
students this year who have been invited
to attend the GB national squad training
camp. This is in addition to a national
squad member already training with the
club. It is also with pleasure
that I can now announce the Equal
Opportunities Award winners are Archery.
Archery have championed accessibility and
inclusivity this year. They took part in
Movember as well as campaigned for both
LGBTQ+ History Month and International
Women's Day. They also ran a disability
awareness shoot that gave a focus that
not all disabilities are visible. Archery
have also established an inter college
league within the club to give all members
the chance to get competitive experience.
Congratulations Archery. Hi on behalf of
the University of York Archery Club I'd
like to say thank you very much for the
Equal Opportunities Award I think it's
very well-deserved. The University of
York Archery Club Committee has worked
incredibly hard this year to make the
club the most inclusive Club at the
University. And I mean first and foremost
I'd like to say thank you to the Club
Secretary Tara Course. She's done an
absolutely brilliant job and put simply
the club wouldn't have run without her
never mind would have won such a great
award. I also think the coaching team
Jess and Siobhan have done a fantastic
job with the beginners course and made
it very inclusive to everyone. And the
club captain has done a brilliant Vinny
has done a brilliant job of running the
competitions for everyone and also
worked very hard
along with Jess on the Movember campaign
in support of men's mental health. So
thank you very much and it's been a
pleasure to be the President of such a
brilliant an inclusive Club.
Thank you.
Thanks very much Chris the next award is
a new award this year, College Varsity
Team of the Year and here to present
this award is College Sport Assistant
Maisie Clarke. The club's nominated for
this award are James College Darts,
Derwent College Women's Football, 
James College Men's Rugby, Langwith
College Basketball and Alcuin College
Women's Rugby. Hi my name is Maisie and
I'm the college sport assistant for York Sport Union. I'm here to present the College Varsity
Team of the Year. This award is to
recognize the club that has performed
strongly throughout all college varsity
events demonstrating hard work,
dedication and passion. The Highly
Commended winners are Derwent College
Women's Football. They went from failing
to qualify for varsity last year to this
year qualifying as top seed and winning
their match four one against Collingwood.
The club has grown massively in size,
enthusiasm and dedication in the past
year through the excellent work of the
President and Captain's to create a
skilled and inclusive Club. And the
winner is James College Darts. During
qualifiers James College produced two
comebacks to qualify as top seed. They
were matched against Grey College who
have been Durhams top seed for the past
three years. On the day Grey college were
no match for James who beat them winning
the Darts A match in a York first. They
also arrived at 8:00 a.m. to help set up
with the darts staging, stayed to referee
the B match, and stayed behind to pack down
the RKC afterwards. So thank you so much
and congratulations to James College
Darts. Thank you very much. I'd just like to
start by saying that it's been an
absolute pleasure to captain this James
darts team for the past two years and
especially this year has just been a
fantastic year for their for the team
the the resource we've had the events
we've put on the recruitment that we've
had with new players it's all been
fantastic and then Varsity just capped
it off really. The whole weekend,
organizing with Durham's
team to make them bigger, to get more people involved
everyone's hard work to set the stage
to run the event and then to cap it off
with the victory was just was just
phenomenal. Everyone's performances
throughout the year and especially on
that day was fantastic so just like
especially thanks to Mike Mark David
everyone else, they all know who they are.
They've made my life easy for the past
two years and thank you very much. Our
next award this evening is for Most
Improved Sports Person of the Year. The
nominees are Nicholas Muyimba, Stella Gowans, Rhian Jones, Daniel Riley, Juliette
Packard. Our guest to present the award
this evening is Richard Orr from York
Sport. Hello. I hope everyone's keeping
safe and well. My name is Richard Orr and
I'm the Business Manager at York Sport.
I'm here to present the award for the
Most Improved Sports Person of the Year.
The award for Most Improved Sports
Person goes to an individual who has
shown notable and consistent improvement
in their standard of performance
throughout the year and has gone above and
beyond to improve their individual
performance in their sport and has
improved representational standing
within the club. This year's Highly
Commended winner goes to Nicholas Muyimba. Nicholas joined the Volleyball club
having never played before. He went from
being on the second team to making the
first team in his second year. In his
third and final year Nicolas was elected
President of the club. His energy on
the court is contagious and he will
stop at nothing when it comes to
motivating his team's on the court.
Congratulations Nicholas. And the winner
of the Most Improved Sports Person of
the Year goes to Stella Gowans. Stella
first started playing squash in her
college team when she came to university.
In her second year she made the
university first team and has been
climbing the rankings ever since. This
season she was unbeaten in every BUCS
and local league match. She also
represented squash in the Conference Cup
final winning her match after coming
back from two love down. Congratulations
Stella, Most Improved Sports Person of
the Year. I hope everyone's keeping well during
lockdown we can't wait to get you back
on campus as soon as it is safe to do so.
Thank you. Thank you so much for the Most Improved Player Award. I really enjoyed
learning a brand new sport
while I've been here at uni and I've
been really lucky to play on the team for
the past two years. I've made loads of great
friends and I've had a really fantastic
time and I'll definitely be playing
squash into the future.
Congratulations to Stella. The next awards are for Sportsman and
Sportswoman of the Year. These awards are for an individual who has fulfilled one
of the following criteria a motivated
dedicated and passionate team player
consistent and exceptional performance
throughout the year outstanding
contribution to a major event game or
tournament represented their sport at a
regional or national level. The
individuals shortlisted for sports man of
the year are Ben Hardy, Dan Jones,
Nakibul Khan, Matteo Albino and
William Graham. I would like to welcome
Ashley Smith from York sport to present
this award. Hello good evening to everyone at York Sport Union on what is
hopefully your first and only virtual
Colours Ball. My name is Ashley Smith I'm
the Senior Operations Manager for the
York sport village and and I am
privileged to be awarding the
sportsman of the year award tonight and
I'm sorry we all can't be there and
we're all sat at home I'm at home same as
all you guys and usually this night is a
brilliant night for celebrating all the
successes of individual athletes and
teams throughout the year and for many
through their three years at the
University of York or even longer
despite the fact that we are all at home
and and how the year ended and let's
take some time to recognize all the
achievements that's gone on. There's been
some brilliant results, some tremendous
achievements and I've been privileged to
be able to get out on to the 22 acres
and the 3G pitches and actually see many
of these myself. And I'm pleased that
these awards have continued albeit in a
virtual sense but are continued because your success needs
to be recognized so congratulations to
all the nominees and all the winners and
anybody taking part in sporting that's
taken part in sport and activities this year on campus. I'm here
to present the Sportsman of the Year award and the first award is a Highly
Commended award and that's going to Dan
Jones. Now Dan has acted as a volunteer
coach for the novice program at the Boat
club this year and he's won the GB
trials in the two-kilometer ergs for the
under-23 lightweight men. He also came
first in the same category at the BUCS Indoor Championships. He's been invited to the
third stage of the GB trials this year
unfortunately this has been cancelled but I
am sure that he has many many great
achievements ahead of him. And
congratulations on everything that
you've done this year. The award winner
of Sportsman of the Year goes to Ben
Hardy. Now this year Ben has had some
phenomenal results both when representing the Cycling Club and his team Swift
Carbon Pro Cycling. He's placed second in
the BUCS road race as well as sixth in
the BUCS Time Trial. His performance in
that road race was the best ever
achievement by a York cyclist ever.
He's also placed 36th in the national
championships road race and 13th in the
under-23 national time trial, and completes
regularly on the European stage as part
of Tour events as part of Swift Carbon
Pro Cycling and has excelled in his role
as club captain leading on a number of
training rides throughout the year, 
something elite riders have tended not
to do attend in the past. And in doing so
he's inspired them to take part in
Competitive Cycling. So congratulations
Ben on your award. Many, many
congratulations on your success and to
everybody that was nominated in this
category and all the other categories,
and I hope you have a great evening for
the rest of the day, and I hopefully
look forward to seeing many of you on
campus very soon. Take care, stay safe,
have a good evening. Hi everyone.I guess if you are watching this then this has gone pretty well for me.
I've been happy with my results this year before lockdown and my
progress and everything so to get some
recognition for that is real nice. Massive
thanks to YUSU.Their support this  this
last year with everything from the
scholarship and everything else they do
is kind of integral to the level I race
at which yeah I'm very thankful for
Also to the Cycling club. Great club.
Feel free to join in September
if you can. Yeah I hope you're all well
and look forward to getting back to
York in September so cheers. Congratulations to Ben. Now on to the Sportswoman of the
Year award. The athletes shortlisted are Tesni Jones
Emma Lowe, Lauren Oates, Lauren Palmer-Jones, Amy Ockleton, Katie Mole. And here to present
the award is Annie Potter Opportunities
Manager at YUSU. hey everyone my name's Annie
I'm the opportunities manager at YUSU.
Even though I've worked here for six years
I still continue to be inspired by all
the hard work and achievements of all York Sport Union members.
I particularly enjoy seeing how much women thrive
at York. This year forty eight percent of
our members were women yet fifty three
percent of the total BUCS points earned
were from our women's sports teams and
individual athletes. A particular
highlight was when women's volleyball
won the BUCS Northern Conference Cup the only York team to do so. It's not all
about winning it's about supporting
women and given them the platform to
succeed in their chosen activity
everyone deserves to play and everyone
should be able to do that freely and without
facing barriers. So let's continue to
provide that support at York and
together we can succeed. Now on to the
award of Sportswoman of the Year. If you
ever needed to take inspiration from one
person to achieve your dreams this
athlete can certainly provide that. This
athlete is a picture of hard work and
dedication.
Even though she has to be in the biology
lab seven to eight hours a day she still
manages to train sixteen times a week.
Some of her achievements include
finishing eighth in the under-21
g/b trials, she won the BUCS Indoor
500 metre event alongside winning a variety of other national rowing competitions. On top
of this she also helps to coach within
her club. If you hadn't already worked it
out by now the winner of Sportswoman of
the Year is Katie Mole.
Congratulations. Hi everyone, if you're
watching this I've been awarded Sports
woman of the Year. I'm so incredibly
grateful and other than maybe winning
some races summer I can't think of a
better way to have ended four years of
sport at York. It's been the most amazing
four years from learning to row as a
novice to going through the GB trials
process I never would have imagined that
sport would have had such a big impact
on my university life. York Sport, the GB
Start Centre, Boat Club and coaches have
all played a massive part in this. I
think what sets York apart is the small
bits of help that are not always
expected just a few examples include the
kindness of barbell saving me from yet
another failed lift in the gym, catering
staff who slipped me an extra-large
coffee when I come in from training wet
and cold, lecturers who cast a blind eye
when I turn up eating a three-course
meal and the gym staff who have raised
minimal objections to my gym playlist
and always greet with a smile even early
on a Monday morning.
I'm incredibly privileged to have
received as much support as I have and I
want to thank everyone who's played
their part in this no matter how
seemingly small. Ironically it's only
since starting to compete as an
individual I've realized how much of a
team sport rowing can be so thank you.
Congratulations to all our winners so
far this evening. We will now be awarding
full and half colours. Colours are awarded
to those who have represented their
clubs and the university or who have
demonstrated outstanding commitment to
their sport and the sport union as a
whole. Full colors are awarded to Thomas
Wilson Daniel Morris Jack Brennan
Harry Burge Luke Wellings Chris
Sydorenko Flynn Moore Adam Bates
Jessica Hutchinson Duncan Garner Rachel
Ayrton George Mallinson
Edward Lines George Phillips Claire
Jones Chris Martin
Daniel Hogg Alice Smith Alice Murray
Sarah Hopkins Amber Malik Hope Schulz
Antoine Echassoux Tally Jones Robert
Thorpe Thomas Dufty Alina Gatley Abby
Allin Katie Jago Elouisa Lewis
Sarah Holdway Zoe Disley Andrea
Pothecary Faith Phillips Meghan
Hemingway Sarah Louise Spendlove Olivia
Rowe Parr Lucy McQueenie Tesni Jones Jade Brewer Jessica Tidy Sofia Pagnonis  Sarah Coggan
Holly Scrivner Meghan Field Anna
Patterson Kate Thorncroft Jacob Turp
Tom Minchin Ben Mills Tom Baucher David
Fincham Dylan Parrot Matt Axton Ritchie
Haynes Emma Weston Louis Hinds Connor
Ellis Millie Bell Lucy Liddle Luke
Silver Abby England
Jason Pereira Rebecca Castellon Ben
Crompton Sarah Ruth Apatowski Jessica
Hutchinson Emily Palframan Josh
Westwood Owen Dearman Andrew Mabbutt Piotr Przyborowski
Annabel Jennings Eetu Jyvala
Georgina Williams Matthew Bowen Hannah Coppillie
Skye Kirkham Jasmine Lawton Max
Benincasa Dominic Handscomb William
Coleman Oliver Ryan
Beatrice Trascau Jonty Herschel-
Shorland Luke Kent Louis McManus Ross
Davidson Charlotte Robertson
Emma Albery Hannah Collier Laura Jakeman Katie Crawford Alana Sullivan Will
Mitchell Louis Compton Chris Sharrock
Georgina Newey Ross Macdonald Mike
Strahilov Joe Lansbury
Richard Nolan Miguel Benitez Jack
Simpson Sky Hormbrey Ellie Poland
Lucy Tyndale Ned Gill Estella Harrowing
Talia Burgess James Woodley Cameron
Fennell Joe Kimbling Emma Lowe Julia Davis
Olivia Almond Jasmine Eames Kennedy Tonks Eleonore Ostheim-Dzyerowycz
Charlotte Pether Will Drysdale Sean
Cocoran Tamsin Nicklas Stella Gowans
Eilidh Smith Billy Macleod Phil Smith Nisha
Desai Verity McCoy Astrid Morkot Helen
Smithson Lauren Bekavac Emily Saxton
Holly Milnes Cat Cadenhead
Lauren Palmer-Jones Emma Jones Lilly
Humphries Jacob Boyle
Charlie Eshelby Ollie Perry
Florian Yeates Emily Sherratt Jacob Salter
Caleb Davenport Lottie Bruckner Ben Paul
Harald Fredheim Peter Fisher Eleanor
Ashworth Lili Dimitrova Nicholas
Muyimba Katherine Traintor Jack Mason
Nicholas Gardner Christopher Oldnall
Jade Brewer
Ope Ajanaku Rhys Pownall. Half
Colors are awarded to Katrine Hjulstad
Said Abdulrahman Callum Simpson Danny Figg Tom
Barnes Alice Steele Cara Gibbons
Olivia Mann Muhammad Adrian Azaharaini
Kataryna Durczynska Tim Mitchell Alex Hodder
Williams
Kirstin Barnard Rob Stott Sam King
Alex Deakin Rowan Jackson Georgina
Williams Tom Petchell Adam Brighty Aaron
Gammon Amy Colbourne Lucy McLuckie Rachel Mountford Phoebe Munro
Abby Seaman Louise Thorpe Emma Shore
Bethany Quinton Lauren Oates Aurora
Pople Molly Jones
Nadine Greenhalgh Lauren Morris Shrina
Patel Cara Ullyatt Amelia Dunn
Simaran Patel Sion Edwards Cherelle Clarke
Esther Knuckey Kate Duncombe Sophie James Jessica Stewart Morven Rae-Seaman
Izzy Simms Katie Moran Hannah Rigby
Megan Siddown Amber Walsh
Ellen Codling Kitty Harker Beatrix
Greenwood Brooke Schlipf Lois Butterwirth
Adam Davies Jack Cleary Alex Derry
Oliver Still Joe South Oliver Hopkinson
Cook Tendai Kalima Will Mitchell Bethan Williams Chanda Lamb Emma Dodworth
Isabelle Ringrose Lily Lewin
Louise Ager Naomi Sessions
Samantha Eckerford Sarah Turner Tilly
Craddock Phoebe Henson Kieran Ledwell
Avanish Mistry Alex Hewer
Josh Carr Pietro Riccardi Jeremy Forget
Julius Alesiunas Eloise
Mcminn-Mitchell
let's get straight back to it with the
awards next up is coach of the year
here's the shortlist Derek Norris from
Squash, Charlotte Wilson from Equestrian,
Tom Prosser from American Football,
Duncan Moyes and Daniel Seal from
fencing,
Rob Cree from Boat. And here to present
the award this evening is Gemma Vesset
Communications and Activities director
at YUSU. Hi I'm Gemma the
Communications and Activities director
for YUSU and I was also fortunate enough
to be one of the judges for this year's
Colours Ball. Reading through the
nominations showed the sheer amount of
sporting talent we have here at York and
something we should be immensely proud
of. In recent months I've also witnessed
how our clubs have responded and adapted
during the pandemic. A significant
example of this being Roses 2020 where
collectively York sport Union raised
£5,000 for deserving charities and
led our clubs to virtual victory. From
all the staff at YUSU thank you for being
a pleasure to work with this year. Now to
Coach of the Year. These nominees have shown
commitment and dedication to a club and
led a club or team to sporting success.
They have promoted and developed
teamwork and an inclusive Club ethos.
They have also been a positive leader for
change throughout York Sport Union as a
whole. And Highly Commended Coach of the year is Tom Prosser. Tom marked his first
year as head coach of the Centurions by
leading them to their most successful
season. They won their league, earned
promotion and were the number one seed
in the playoffs. The team are incredibly
grateful for his hard work and
dedication often coaching them at 7:00
a.m. in the morning and having to put in
contingency plans when the weather
affected 22 acres. And the 2020 Coach
the Year is Derek Norris. Derek has been
at the heart of transforming the squash
club into a hard-working and focused
Club this year. Derek has brought so much
knowledge and expertise to the club and
has been behind the
Men's 2s nearly going on beaten and the
Women's 1s having their most
successful cup run in history reaching
the final of the northern conference Cup.
He has also organized trips to go and
watch pro circuit matches as well as
meet some professional players to
discuss how to improve players standards
of play. He voluntarily comes to as many
club matches as possible to give in-game
analysis and cheer from the sidelines.
Thank you so much for this award. These
are hard times and like so many people I'm
not able to do the job that I love.
Working with the squash teams at the
University of York has been a privilege
and a pleasure. All of the players have
progressed with their games this year.
Team results are a testament to their hard
work. Well done all of you.
Fingers crossed for the next season and
thanks again for this award. I'm now
going to go celebrate in the garden so
thank you my great Squashies, keep
safe and keep well. Thank you. The next
award this evening is for Services to
Sport having won Highly Commended for
this award last year I'm incredibly
proud all the students who received
nominations for this award. The shortlist
is as follows Antoinette Echassoux, Nisha
Desai, Emily Sherratt, Katie Eames, Ross
Davidson, Jade Brewer. Nominees for this
award have shown an outstanding
commitment to a club or York Sport Union
throughout their university experience.
They have a passion to initiate and
drive improvement and development of
their club or sports and are motivated
to go above and beyond their role and
responsibilities within a club, team or
committee. The highly commended winner is Emily Sherratt. Emily has been a committed
member of the trampoline club being a
coach, competitor and club member
throughout her four years at University.
She joined the committee in her second
year as captain which saw her organizing
competitions for the trampoline club.
Emily then became
President where she was instrumental in
getting the club a fourth trampoline to
allow it to expand.
She has also since become a member of
their NEUT committee who organise
Trampolining competitions between
universities in the north of the UK. This
is a vital role as inter-university
trampoline competitions would not be
possible without the committee. And the
winner of the Services to Sports Award
is Nisha Desai when you look at Nisha's
achievements it is incredibly hard to
find anything she has not done. Over her
four years at York Sport she has held
committee positions for three clubs Pool,
Swimming and Water polo and Surf. She
has been the President of the Swimming
and Water polo club not once but twice,
broken several swimming records and
played for the water polo team. She has
been the first York athlete to compete
in BUCS Surf individuals, was appointed
Fundraising and Events officer for the
York Sport Union Committee and in her
final year she became the BUCS Sports
Assistant. I know that without Nisha this
year's BUCS Wednesday's would have looked
incredibly different and I can't thank
her enough for the effort she has put in
not only this year to keep Wednesday's
running smoothly but also for her
contributions to York Sport Union as a
whole. Thank you so much for this award
it genuinely means so much to me. I have
adored getting so involved in sport at York
and all the opportunities that's given
me and I've got to meet loads of amazing
people. I have to give a shout out to my
friend Chris Unsworth who won this award
a few years ago and has always inspired
me to make the most of my time at York. I
also need to thank my YUSWC family
there are way too many of you to name
individually but you have made my
university experience so memorable and
it would not have been the same without
you. Thank you to my friends at YuSurf
who made the cold winter surf trips to
Scarborough so much more enjoyable. And
to my friends from Goodricke and
Uni Pool. Thank you for showing me a
totally different side to sport and for
encouraging me and other girls to get
involved in
what is typically a male-dominated game.
And finally thank you to my YUSU sports
team, so Tatenda, Annie, Maddi and Maisie 
you make my job not feel like work and
it's an absolute pleasure coming to the
office every day I'm working with you. So
just from the bottom of my heart and
massive thank you for this award. The
next award is for Most Improved Club.
Here to present the award is Sean Greenwood
from York sport, but first here's a
reminder of the shortlist. Equestrian,
Polo, Softball and Baseball, Golf,
Constantine College Hockey. Good evening everyone
I'm Sean the Senior Operations
Manager at York Sport Centre and it's
actually my first time attending the
Colours Ball. So this year with it being
virtual it's actually the norm for me.
Hopefully next year everything will be
back to normal and we can all celebrate
together. now then the award for the Most
Improved Club is awarded to a club with
a commitment to improve performance, that has
improved professionalism in al aspects of the club, that has increased
engagement in the local community and
increased participation and diversity
within the university community. We have
two highly commended winners in
Equestrian and Polo. Equestrian have gone
from a small club but only one semi
competitive team who had not had a team attend regionals in over ten years to a club
who this year had two teams qualify
for regionals and two individuals
competing at Nationals. Polo have
committed to improve their performance
levels over the last 12 months. At last
summer's Nationals the club failed to
place but at this years winter nationals
two of their teams came in the top three
and the third came in the top 10.
They've also introduced new termly
memberships and tiered membership
options to up participation levels
and improve affordability of the club
for new members. The 2020 Most
Improved Club goes to Golf.
Congratulations Golf. Having struggled
with numbers to even fill one team the
turnaround with golf has been impressive.
They've built up numbers over the past
few years to a point where they have
been able to enter a second team into
BUCS. This year their first team won the
division winning all their matches with
the second team recording a strong
finish. They've also created a brand new
service for members to receive lessons
from an external coach in order to
improve their play.
Congratulations Golf, well deserved. I'm
really pleased to be able to accept this
award on behalf of the Golf club. We've
had a great year and would really like
to thank York Sport Union and YUSU for
their continued support throughout the
season we hope everyone is safe and well
in these hard times and is still able to
keep up with training. A huge well done
to everyone who was shortlisted for and
has won an award and I'm sure we are
all looking forward to getting back into
our sports next year. We hope you all
have a good evening.
The penultimate award this evening is
team of the year before Katherine
Traintor one of York Sport Union's
Tournaments Secs presents this award here's
the shortlist. Men's 1s Volleyball, Pom
Squad Cheerleading, Men's 1s Table
Tennis, Women's 1s Volleyball, Men's
Cross Country, Women's Squash. My name's
Katherine and I'm really pleased to be
presenting the award for Team of the
Year at this year's online Colours Ball.
Before I give the award if my eyes dart
across it's because I've got notes about
with the exceptional teams I don't want
to miss any critical information out. So
this award is given and presented to a
club that has demonstrated outstanding
sporting success an event a tournament
or a competition has contributed to
overall BUCS points and medals through a
consistent and sustained team
performance throughout an academic year
or who have seen an exceptional
achievement within their league. The
winners of Highly Commended Team
of the Year are the Men's 1s
Volleyball team and the Men's Cross
Country team. The Men's Volleyball team
came second in the division on the
back of promotion last year. They also
made it to the final of the Trophy and came
second in the largest inter-university
Volleyball competition in the country, the
Student Cup. In addition, Matteo was
awarded the MVP, most valuable player
award, at the tournament which is an
amazing and tremendous achievement. The Men's Cross Country team has seen a
resurgence this year with successes on a
local and national level. In partnership
with the City of York Athletics club
they won three out of four rounds of the
West Yorkshire cross-country League
which meant that they won the series. At
the BUCS cross country championships
the team came 10th in the Men's A race,
this is an exceptional performance given
that every University that had beaten
them has a funded
performance program which helps them
attract Britain's top athletes. But
finally onto the winner of the Team of
the Year which is the Women's 1s
Volleyball team. The Women's Volleyball
team won the league undefeated and have
been promoted to Division One. They also
went undefeated in the Northern
Conference Cup, where they were the only
York team to win gold. An amazing
achievement. Well done to all the teams
and particularly to the Women's
Volleyball team. You guys deserved it. Hi
guys my name is Lili Dimitrova and I'm
the captain of the Women's Volleyball
team of the University of York. I hope
everyone is staying safe in this
pandemic and I am really really sorry
that we couldn't have done this in
person and that we couldn't play Roses
and show them that Roses are actually
white. So yeah firstly I would like to
thank York Sport for recognising us as
Team of the Year and I cannot express
how proud and happy I am with what the
girls and I have achieved this year and
I'm really really sorry that I couldn't
play Roses with them again and that I
won't be able to play with them again
ever. So thank you girls for staying on
top throughout the whole season, for
overcoming difficulties such as losing
key players, having injured players, and
yet we remain on top of ourselves. So
thank you for making my final year
amazing and thank you to every single
member of the volleyball club for
showing the amount of support that you
did because we couldn't have done it
without you guys. So thank you that's it
for me bye. Congratulations to Women's
Volleyball. Now we will move on to our
final award of the evening, Club of the
Year. Here to present the award is Keith
Morris, Head of York sport, and a reminder
of the shortlist. Volleyball, Women's
Rugby, Cheerleading, Fencing, American
Football. Good evening. I hope you're all
keeping safe and well. A few months ago I
was at a Sports Awards which admittedly
felt a little bit different to this one.
However, at it IBF world featherweight
champion Josh Warrington was was telling
people that at times things can feel a
bit different and a bit difficult and at
times its dedication and perseverance
and determination that will help you see
things through because it can feel
like it's just not your year and at such
times you need to recognise and take
the positives out of what's happened
so you can move forwards positively into
the future. I referenced that because I
see those qualities in our teams and our
clubs
and those involved in sport around the
campus. And and this year the way the
seasons finished and for some how their
university experience is finished it
might seem like it's just not been your
year.
And what I would flag up is that you
are still like tonight you are part of
something special and you shouldn't lose
sight of the experience, what you've
achieved, the experiences you've had, the
friendships you've made and the memories
you've made because those friendships
and those memories are going to last
way past lockdown and way into the
future and past your time of university.
Even tonight is different, it feels
different, however we're not celebrating
in the same place together but we are still
celebrating outstanding achievements,
performances and commitment and
contributions. Wherever you are tonight
as part of the worldwide University of
York community don't lose sight as a
York student and particularly the sport
students and those involved that we're
celebrating tonight, you bring a vibrancy to the campus.
You're the lifeblood of the campus, and
while things might have felt quiet in the
last few months, that vibrancy will
return, and a lot of that will be through
you, and the contributions you make, and
what you go on to achieve. However, I'm
here to present the Club of the Year
award. This is an award that's given to a
club that's had fantastic, outstanding
sporting performance, has increased its
participation and its engagement,
promoted diversity and inclusivity, as
well as got involved in local community
or fundraising on a local and national
level. Very strong category,
and there are two Highly Commended clubs
in the category and they are York
Hornets and York Centurions.
Congratulations to both of them. The
Hornets had one of their most successful
seasons ever,
despite being curtailed because of
COVID like so many. They took eight
teams to the Nationals winning three
first places three second places and one third place. Their captain Tesni
Jones won a choreography award, and as
well as that they've increased their
development squad to give more people an
opportunity to participate, as well as
holding various charity events including
a showcase event in central hall.
Congratulations to them to the Hornets. 
The Centurions also had their most
successful season ever. They won their
league, were promoted to Division
one and were top seed in their playoff
game for the first time ever, as well as
raising over a thousand pounds in the
Movember campaign. So congratulations to
the Centurions also. However, the winner
of the 2020 Club of the Year award is
Women's Rugby. Congratulations to
Women's Rugby. Having been promoted last
year their first team finished second in
the Premier Division again finishing as
York's highest BUCS ranked team. The
second team won Division three, winning
all but one of their games and gaining
promotion also. And at the same time the
club have expanded their development
squad to give more opportunity to more
people, as well as working widely within
York Sport Union within the Red Flag
Campaign, the Charity Darts Event for
British Heart Foundation and SASH but
also for the Virtual Roses relay
organized by the Netball Club. So
congratulations to Women's Rugby,
congratulations to all of the winners
and nominees tonight and also
congratulations to Maddi and the team and
everyone who has been involved in sport this year and put tonight together.
Congratulations and stay well! I'm Julia
I'm the president of Women's Rugby. It's
an absolute honor to be nominated for
Club of the Year and an absolute privilege to
win. We've had another amazing year here
at UYWRUFC and despite all the
challenges of the year, the first
team have finished second in the
Premiership division despite
thinking that we were we were going to
struggle to stay in that league, and the
second team have been promoted for the first
time in years, which is absolutely
fantastic, and the improvement we've seen
from them has been amazing. And overall
the years just been it's been fantastic
to be President of such an amazing club
and I'm only upset that we haven't been
able to end it with roses in the way
that we'd wanted. But I'm wishing
everyone well in these unprecedented
circumstances and I hope that everyone
has a wonderful summer.
As Colours Ball 2020 comes to an end, I
would again like to say a massive thank
you for the hard work, dedication and
passion you have displayed whilst
representing York Sport Union this year.
This evening is just the latest in a
long line of events where our community
has come together despite being further
apart than ever before. It is truly
inspirational to see you continuing with
your activities while they are
restricted and this spirit and initiative
will stand you in great stead wherever
your future takes you. To all our
graduating students goodbye and thank
you.
We hope to see you back at Roses next
year. Thank you for watching. Stay safe
