Team Sunderland’s week nine round-up

With the Christmas break moving closer into view, Team Sunderland played their penultimate round of fixtures of 2023, and it was a mixed bag of results in week nine of the 2023/24 BUCS campaign.

After last week’s postponements due to the adverse snow conditions in the region, four of the football teams were back in action, with some important results.  

It was a first win of the campaign for the Men’s 1sts, as they beat a previously undefeated York 1sts 6-4 in a ten-goal thriller at Ford Quarry Hub on Wednesday night. 

It was also success for the Men’s 3rds, as they made it three wins from their last three, with a convincing 5-0 victory over York St. John’s 6ths, whilst for the Men’s 7ths, it was another defeat, as they were easily beaten 14-1 by Northumbria’s 9ths.  

For the Women’s 1sts, it was also a second successive defeat, as they fell to an 8-0 loss to Northumbria’s 2nds.

In more positive news, though, both Men’s Basketball teams picked up some important wins on Wednesday, as the Men’s 1sts bounced back from last week’s defeat to Northumbria’s 2nds with an 83-79 victory over Durham at CitySpace, whilst the Men’s 2nds made it three wins on the bounce, with a 60-50 win over Leeds’ 3rds.  

For the Women’s Volleyball 1sts, a 3-0 victory saw past Leeds’ 2nds, whilst the Women’s Rugby Union 1sts made it back-to-back defeats, as they couldn’t respond to week seven’s defeat to Manchester’s 1sts and dropped to a 24-19 defeat away to Northumbria’s 2nds.  

However, it was also defeats for the two Badminton teams in action, as a relatively inexperienced Women’s 1sts were easily beaten 8-0 to the much more accomplished Northumbria’s 1sts, whereas the Men’s 2nds were also defeated, as they lost 7-1 to Leeds’ 2nds.  

Yet, after an impressive start to the season for the Netball teams, it was disappointment on Wednesday’s session, as all three teams fell to defeats.

It was a second loss of the campaign for the Women’s 1sts, as they narrowly lost 55-45 to Sheffield’s 3rds, whilst it was also the 2nds’ second defeat of the season, as they lost 56-17 on home turf to Sheffield’s 5ths. 

For the 3rds, they didn’t have any luck either, as a 71-12 point defeat to Northumbria’s 5ths meant that their wait for the first win of the campaign goes on.  

And, for the Men’s Fencing 1sts, it was heartening 135-88 defeat at home to York’s 2nds, despite coach, Beth Davidson, stating afterwards that “the better team won”.