Ladies Squash and Men's Table Tennis get their respective first teams into the BUCS Premiership after brilliant seasons
It's been a stellar year for men's table-tennis with a second place finish for the second team in tier 2 and a league win plus promotion to the BUCS Premiership for the firsts.
After comfortably winning the league the men's 1st team (Chun Yu, Nuradin Muktar, Joe Clark, Tom Miller and Harry Sexton) fought through a heated match in Derby and easily put aside Edinburgh in the final playoff to book their place in next season's premiership alongside the University of Nottingham, Nottingham Trent and Sheffield.
It's a just reward for such a talented squad who also reached the final of the BUCS Trophy event, losing out to a very strong Nottingham 2nd team. Head coach Graeme Barella was clearly proud, 'the heartbreak of missing out last season gave us the fire this time round. The players have been great, they aren't aware of their own fantastic potential!'
The squash club at Newcastle University has had a record breaking year for bringing in BUCS points and promotion for the ladies 1st team was the cherry on top of the cake.
With the arrivals of undergraduate students Eve Driver, Emma Turnball and Sophie Yale plus the return of Steph Highwood in her final year the team had real strength and depth.
Team captain Charlotte Cooper lead the team to first place in Tier 1 of the BUCS squash leagues with only a couple of teams challenging the Newcastle squad which left a playoff against Bristol. To head coach Liam Gutcher's delight the team clinched the win 4-1, 'it's a great reward for all the girls including Julia Crowther and Sally Hodgkinson who've often stepped in when the others have been injured.'
Charlotte can now leave University knowing she's helped the girls reach the highest level in BUCS and the rest of the team now have great competitive opportunities for the following season.
Newcastle Racket Sports now have three teams in the at Premiership level for the 2019/20 season: Men's Table-Tennis 1, Ladies Squash 1, Ladies Badminton 1.