Award shortlists for Blues and Colours 2023

Cameron Strachan - Badminton 

Cameron has over five years of coaching experience, currently one of the club's head coaches working with the 2nd to 6th Badminton teams, giving up his own time to support players on top of training 10 hours a week himself playing for the 1st team. His hard worked has resulted in a great season for the club in the BUCS Scottish Mixed Leagues this year. He also supported the recruitment of assistant coaches supporting their experience and skills as a coach by giving them a chance to contribute in sessions. 

Gordon Megson – Women’s Football 

Gordon has injected an abundance of youthful energy and positivity into the team, which has been reflected in training commitment and matches this season. Gordon also steps up to coach Futsal when the teams need a coach making sure every player on the team feels valued. Gordon is always working further his knowledge to develop himself as a coach, completing mental health, and football psychology ID courses. He has been accepted onto the UEFA B course as a 19-year-old which is very impressive. 

Hannah Campbell – Triathlon 

Hannah has coached the club for four years, completing her level 1 and 2 to support the coaching of the club, this year, supporting many of the club to prepare for the BUCS Duathlon, a new event to multiple athletes. She has also worked to ensure others can gain coaching qualifications contacting Scottish Triathlon to set up a coaching qualification that successfully saw 15 club members through their level 1 and 5 members through their level 2 qualifications. Alongside her coaching Hannah has been part of the Triathlon Performance Squad for the past 4 years and on occasion has sacrificed her training, stepping up to cover coaching of swimming and running sessions when the head coach has not been available.  

Tom Hutchinson - Mountaineering 

As the club Training Secretary, Tom has held skills training sessions each week for the past 2 years to improve the knowledge and level of safety in the mountains when the club goes on their trips. This year alone Tom has run sessions for over 85 individual members. Throughout this he has developed a curriculum to ensure future training secretaries can continue the learning of the club members making it easier to identify skills gaps.

Bruce Flockhart - Badminton

With a level 3 coaching qualification (the highest coaching qualification in badminton), international playing experience and over 20 years coaching experience Bruce has made a huge impact on the Badminton team’s performance having its best results in many years. Bruce coaches the club alongside his full-time job and other coaching commitments, often rearranging his working hours to coach the team, and has gone above and beyond in creating individualised training plans for players and supporting them at competitions.

Ella Paul – Korfball

Ella has ensured the Korfball first team has achieved the best results in recent memory, consistently ensuring the team are prepared and have played in different positions across the year to build up playing experience. She worked hard to improve the performance of a relatively inexperienced group of players organising extra training and increasing opportunities to play supporting each individual player.

Ewan Mackie – Men’s Hockey

As a new coach this year, Ewan has made an impressive impact on the Men's Hockey 2’s with the team winning BUCS Scottish 1A for the 2^nd time in the club’s history. His exceptional leadership, guidance, and coaching expertise have helped the team to their best-ever record of 20 wins, 3 draws, and 2 losses.

Gordon Lyon – Ladies Rugby

This year Gordon stepped up to take the lead coaching role when head Ladies Rugby coach and a number of players went to the Rugby World Cup with Scotland. During this period, Gordon took the team to the top of the league and maintained an unbeaten streak. Gordon committed an incredible amount of time to the club during this period, sacrificing his day job to cover all training sessions and run analysis.

Alexis Boissel - Volleyball 

Alexis is a Grade 3 Volleyball referee, allowing him to second referee in all national league game and first referee in all leagues below the premier divisions. He always displays composure and professionalism when officiating. On occasion Alexis has shown his commitment officiating both away and home games on the same day to help the club fulfil its officiating obligations. 

Isla Hutchinson – Women’s Lacrosse 

Isla is a level 2 umpire and has umpired over 30 games this season. She has also organised officials for every single BUCS match by herself within a Scotland Lacrosse umpiring crisis. Isla balances this alongside her committee position as club secretary and being a first team player. 

Lily Hart – Korfball 

Lily has been the volunteer shot clock operator for the Korfball 1’s for the past season. Lily is always on hand to resolve any problems that arise mid-game with it being the first year shot clocks have been used in BUCS competitions, often being complimented by referees she assists for the accuracy with which she works. Additionally Lily is the only active female qualified referee in Scotland stepping in to referee when she is not playing. 

Cameron Wilson – Athletics 

Cameron has given over 1600 hours of volunteering to the athletics club over five years on committee, overseeing a 50% increase in members since joining the committee in 2019 and the club affiliating to Scottish Athletics. He has taken time to support several club members to upskill through coaching pathways, going above and beyond to secure them all the funding required to complete their courses. Cameron regularly steps in to coach sessions and fill in for other committee members, doing whatever is required to support athletics activity. He is willing to support all members, coaching those who are taking part to stay active as well as high level athletes creating an inclusive culture across the club. 

Colette Elliott – Futsal  

Colette has shown outstanding commitment to many aspects of University sport, being women’s captain and coach for the Futsal club, Intramural hockey officer and held the position of National Leagues Fixtures secretary on the Women’s Hockey committee for 2 years. Colette’s hard work has seen the biggest intake of futsal-only female players the club has ever seen, and after leading multiple sessions herself at the start of the year has been key to recruiting coaches for the women's teams to enhance their experience and performance. 

Hannah Adams – Sports Union  

During Hannah’s time at University she has gone above and beyond being involved in the Intramural programme, from starting as Medics Netball player and volunteer coach to Netball officer, Intramural Sports Coordinator and 2022/23 Vice President Intramural. In these roles she has organised the biggest IM event, Intramural All Stars, doubling the sports involved, introducing netball, basketball and squash. During COVID Hannah ensured all 24 Netball teams were affiliated with Netball Scotland unlocking extra funding for the programme. This work was pivotal in the Sports Union being gifted additional netball posts and equipment in which they were subsequently able to use to open outdoor netball facilities, making the Sports Union the largest offering of netball in Scotland. 

Peter Sawkins – Badminton 

When he is not baking, Peter's dedication to all levels of Badminton, from beginner through to the first team, has been exemplary. During his time as part of the Badminton club Peter has taken on various committee positions including the role of Treasurer and President, sustaining 170 members in the club during the pandemic and leading the club to success at the Sports Ball being crowned the 2021/22 Club of the Year. Most recently Peter has been 1st team captain. Additionally, Peter has gone above and beyond to represent the club within the Sports Union, sitting on at least one SU committee for the past four years, currently holding the position of Honorary Treasurer, chairing the Finance Committee. 

Seb Hudson – Jiu Jitsu 

Seb has been an extremely committed committee member of the Jiu Jitsu Club Committee, having held 5 committee roles over 4 years, taking on multiple positions in years to ensure the clubs longevity throughout the COVID period. This has meant Seb has been involved in all aspects of the clubs functioning operating, from putting processes in places for administration, supporting the future of the club, to creating opportunities for others to go on training courses and learn new skills as well as taking on a coaching role, often teaching beginners the basics, key to ensuring all members are safe taking part. Additionally to all the great work Seb does with the University club he also helped restart the sister club at Edinburgh Napier University and is a key member of the coaching team at a local school. 

Gavin Chung 

Gavin showed incredible playing ability and determination in the SSS Badminton Championships, playing in back-to-back games, Men’s Singles and Doubles. The endurance needed for this many games adds to how impressive of a performance he showed on this day. Gavin impressively went onto win both titles, alongside teammate Cameron Strachan in the doubles. 

Mandy Yang 

At the BUCS Trophy Final at BUCS Big Wednesday, Mandy was a key member of the women’s 2’s team, being the only member to fence all 3 weapons. In the Sabre they were 26-40 down, with King's College only needing 5 points to win the weapon, Mandy went on to pull back an incredible 19 points and score the 45th point leading Edinburgh to victory in the Sabre. Made more remarkable by the fact that Sabre isn't even Mandy's specialist weapon, this stands testament to Mandy’s skill, perseverance and stamina to perform at a phenomenal level across all three weapons. 

Men’s Hockey 1st Team 

The Men's Hockey 1’s pulled off an incredible comeback victory in the BUCS Vase Final against Nottingham. With nine minutes to go the team found themselves 2-0 down, demonstrating exceptional belief and resilience the team equalized to make it 2-2. Goalkeeper Charlie Gates remained calm and composed saving two penalty strokes, with Scott Lindsay’s deceive penalty stroke securing the victory for the team winning 4-2 on penalties. 

Alice Goodall – Hare and Hounds 

Alice earned a place on the GB team at the U23 European XC Championships, helping the team to a gold medal. She also placed 2nd at the Scottish Athletics Senior Nationals race in Falkirk. She has competed in every race for the Hare and Hounds Club this year finishing 6th in the BUCS A race and recently winning gold in an outstanding result at the BUCS 10,000m Championships. 

Eve Pearson – Women’s Hockey 

Eve represented Scotland at the 2022 Commonwealth Games as part of the Women’s Hockey team, earning 5 caps throughout the tournament. She also represented Scotland in the European qualifies in 2022 where the team finished 1st. Eve is part of the Great Britain Elite Development Programme, being selected for the 2022 and 2023 squads. Alongside her excellent high level sporting performance Eve is this year’s Women’s Hockey 1st team captain playing in 95% of the teams BUCS fixtures. 

Fiona Bunn – Orienteering 

Fiona has a number of impressive accolades including a silver medal at the 2022 BUCS Orienteering championships and U21 Scottish Individual Championship. She is currently the 3rd ranked British female on the British Orienteering’s ranking list, having represented Great Britain at 2 World Cup races in 2022. 

Tom Carswell – Swimming and Water Polo 

Tom has had a phenomenal season this year, representing Wales at the 2022 Commonwealth Games as part of the 4x100m relay team who placed 4th.  He also had a success at this year BUCS Long Course Championships where he picked up 4 medals across Men’s 4x100m Medley, 50 butterfly, 100 freestyle, and 50 freestyle.