BUCS Nationals 2010
14 March 2010
Hoping to improve on their successful 2009 campaign, an 8 strong Cambridge contingent travelled to Sheffield for the BUCS national trampoline championships. The nationals were this year, for the first time, part of the 'BUCS Championships', which comprised 26 sports, mostly played in Sheffield on the same weekend. As far as trampolining was concerned it made no difference because we didn't get to see any of the other sports, although we did all get a free t-shirt each.
After taking over 2 hours to reach the A1 thanks to the A14 being closed for repairs, we missed virtually all of the Saturday familiarisation session. But we all collected our free t-shirts, so everyone was happy and warm, despite the t-shirts coming in a one-size-fits-all size, which didn't really fit any of us.
We spent Saturday night at Lucy's parents' house, where Lucy's mum had made us a good luck cake with a sugar trampoline on top and 'Good Luck' piped on it. It was definitely the most awesome good luck cake any of us had ever seen. After playing many rounds of the potentially injury causing egg game and a game of ImagineIff, we went to bed to rest up for the big day.
Helen Smith was first to compete for us in women's level 2. She found the spider tramps to her liking and performed close to her best ever routines when it mattered, scoring enough for a half blue. Sarah Pearcey followed in the next level 2 flight and seemed to take inspiration from Helen's performance as she scored an almost identical score to also earn a half blue. On the other panel, Stephen Flexer put down a good level 3 set routine but lost a bit of form in his vol but was still good enough for a top 10 place.
Lottie Pocock completed our trio of level 2 women with a very solid pair of routines that scored just short of the half blue standard. Meanwhile, on panel 2, Dave Chapman put in a couple of excellent routines, finding himself in 4th place with a preliminary score of 50.2, making him the first men's blue in club history. Another solid final routine followed, but it wasn't quite enough to hold on to 4th - relegated to 5th on a tie break.
Our three level 1 entries were next. Kate Bramall and last year's silver medalist, Asha Bayliss, showed their class in the ladies' elite category. Asha just missed out on the final, finishing in an agonising 9th place, but still with a full blue standard score. Kate cut back her voluntary routine difficulty slightly to make sure she got through both routines. The decision paid off with a 4th place finish — one place higher than last year, but agonisingly just out of the medals.
Kate, Asha and Helen combined to finish 5th for Cambridge in the women's team competition, and the men's team finished a respectable 10th. Kate, Dave and Asha were the top 3 Cambridge scores, with which we finished 6th in the combined team competition.
UWIC were the dominant team on the day, comfortably winning men's, women's and the overall team title. The individual championships were won by Emma Scanlon (Manchester University) and Jason Ploughman (University of Kent).
Joel Taylor
Results
Click score to see video of the routine (you'll need to allow JavaScript)
| Level | Place | Name | Set | Vol (DD) | Final (DD) | Total |
| W1 | 4th | Kate Bramall | 23.4 | 28.9 (7.2) | 30.0 (7.2) | 82.3 |
| W1 | 9th | Asha Bayliss | 21.1 | 29.2 (7.5) | 50.3 | |
| M2 | 5th | David Chapman | 23.3 | 27.4 (5.5) | 27.3 (5.5) | 78.0 |
| W2 | 29th | Helen Smith | 21.9 | 26.0 (5.2) | 47.9 | |
| W2 | 31st | Sarah Pearcey | 21.8 | 25.9 (4.7) | 47.7 | |
| W2 | 38th | Charlotte Pocock | 20.5 | 25.5 (4.6) | 46.0 | |
| M3 | 10th | Stephen Flexer | 20.6 | 21.5 (3.5) | 42.1 | |
| Team scores | ||||||
| Women | 150.5 (5th) | (Kate, Asha, Helen) | ||||
| Men | 115.1 (10th) | (Dave, Stephen, Joel) | ||||
| Combined | 153.3 (6th) | (Kate, Dave, Asha) | ||||
Photos
 |
 |
