School Spirit and Varsity Sport Matches

First, I'd like to apologise for my absence, especially for those of you that use this to keep up with me.  I was in the US for the holidays, and even though I've been back in the UK for a month now I have been really busy with school, and thus not much exciting has happened to talk about.

Until last week.... when I went to a hockey match!

Nottingham has a large ice rink and a renowned hockey team in the UK.  But that isn't why I was there.  Every year the University of Nottingham (my uni) has a series of varsity tournaments against Nottingham Trent University, which is on the other side of the city.  Apparently this is quite a big deal, and the two unis are pretty competitive rivals.  The tickets went on sale on a Friday and were sold out by Monday and then the venue released another 600 tickets which sold out within 30 minutes.  I haven't been to any student event in years, and this was quite exciting!  It made me miss undergrad a bit, because every one was so school-spirity and energised!  With somewhere around 6000 students from both unis watching the match I also got my first real experience of what a D1 sports environment is like in the US.

Upon arrival we bought tshirts and foam fingers to support our team

Within the first period we were down 3-0.  It was disappointing and frustrating, but the crowd was amazing.  Every one chants, mostly derogatory things towards the other Uni.  There is a rift between UoN and NTU because UoN is a prestigious university, with higher entry requirements and typically more affluent.  NTU used to be some equivalent of a community college, but now is an official University, however doesn't carry quite the same credibility to its name.  I didn't really participate in the chanting.  One, because I don't know the chants.  Two, I felt bad, especially having gone to a University for my undergrad that isn't considered a very high calibre.  Three, I'm just not a super competitive person and didn't see the need.  But I did get tons of enjoyment from listening to it all.

Anyway, the second period started and we managed to score, and again and again and again until we finally won 4-3 with just a few minutes left in the match!  It was quite exciting!!  Needless to say NTU students weren't too pleased, but we certainly were!!!  Claps for the hockey team!

They also host a variety of others matches over the next few weeks: American football, basketball, I think swimming, and maybe volleyball.