The past twelve months have seen Derwent cement their place at the top of the College standings, as a series of fantastic performances, and dominance in certain sports has seen them overcome the threat of their nearest rivals James, and claim top spot for the second year running.
The most impressive performances have been in rugby, a sport that Derwent have continued their utter domination of this year, brushing aside all their opposition in a manner which to some extent belittles the competition. Last week the point was raised that perhaps Derwent are almost too dominant, and that that is ruining college rugby, as the fate of the title is a foregone conclusion.
In a way the competitive element is removed, and only James have even provided the college champions a contest in rugby this year. For much of the season Alcuin were the second best team, but when they met Derwent in the crunch match, they suffered a humiliating 95-0 defeat. Every week teams turn up against Derwent knowing that they will get thrashed, and you have to question whether that utter dominance will help or hinder the progression of college rugby in the future.
And it seems that their dominance is expanding, as in the past weeks we have seen them claim victory in College Sports Day, reach the College Cup football final, and today annihilate their nearest rivals Alcuin 1sts in the final of the College Cup hockey, as they assert their position as the pre-eminent sporting college.
I played in today’s hockey game, and in two years of being involved in college hockey that was probably the strongest opposition team I’ve ever come up against. Now only two of their squad play any form of University hockey, but there were arguably three or four more who perhaps should be. The same applies to rugby, where the majority of the Derwent team sacrifice the opportunity to represent their University for the privilege of playing College rugby.
Their rugby side is so strong that they have demonstrated that they possess the ability to beat University sides, and you have to wonder whether this mentality of representing your college in place of the University, is jeopardising the progression of University sport.
Of course it is fantastic to see the standard of College sport increase, but that only works if the overall standard improves, not just that of one college. The way that Derwent are progressing at the moment, they are threatening to attain complete dominance of college sport, and a lot of that is down to the mentality and college spirit that they adopt, which has both its positives and negatives.
On a positive level the college benefits, and the infectious enthusiasm possessed by a core of excellent athletes inspires others to participate. But on another level this is hindering the competitive aspect of certain college sports and potentially University sport, as fine individuals pass up the opportunity to represent their University.
In truth this only really applies to rugby, as colleges such as James, Alcuin and Halifax have continued to impress in other major sports such as netball, hockey and football, however year on year Derwent appear to be growing stronger.
The question I suppose is how long will it last? Ten years ago Goodricke were embarking upon a period of domination of College Sport, yet this year they have been lingering at the foot of the table, with only the postgraduates of Wentworth below them. Will Derwent go the same way? The answer to that is surely no, but it won’t be easy to continue to dominate college sport, despite the expansion of the college at the start of this year. James and Halifax both have reputations as strong sporting colleges, whilst Alcuin have improved this year, and pipped Halifax to third place in the standings. Derwent are the ones currently pushing the bar forward, next year it could be someone else…
Enjoyed this article (as well as how misleadingly complimentary the photo is of me)-very well researched and very apt to point out Derwent’s dominance a positive and negative.
That Derwent is so dominant is as much as anything an indictment of the university’s policies towards college life, which prioritise financial gain over student experience and which pose as an obstacle to the huge potential that all colleges have . Derwent has managed to avoid the univeristy’s blitheringly incompetent college policy and flourish due to various reasons, chief among them the role of its superb provost, Rob Aitken.
To ensure that there is more of a parity in college sport, and by an extension an improvment in college life as a whole, the colleges and their provosts need to be given far greater autonomy than the centralied university administration permits them at the moment, as well as recieve greater investment.
Though amongst some, Derwent arouses much hatred, that it has the capacity to do this demonstrates that it is the most successeful college in the university. Derwenters are by far the most passionate students about their college and whatever you think about Derwent, colleges and the university administration could learn a lot from Derwent’s successes to ensure that this ridiclous situation-where Derwent is the only proper college in the university-changes.
What will be interesting to see is how the university’s decision to expand Derwent, which epitomised the university’s reckless and naive attitude towards colleges (it it ain’t broke, don’t fix it) , will affect Derwent and college sport more generally.
When I started at York in the dim and distant past of ’07 I don’t remember getting a choice of college. Is this just because I forgot I chose Goodricke? Or has college admission policy changed?
Anyway, the only point I raise is that once you can choose your college you find specific students grouped together within those colleges. So Goodricke is now disproportionally composed of people studying subjects on Hes. East. and perhaps in future Derwent will contain the best Rugby players as it continues to be so successful.
Completely mixed colleges are an important way to ensure people have a balanced university experience… Bring back no selection?