Another year has passed in Cambridge’s long history; another year of fairly minimal change. Despite Cambridge’s grand “800 Years” celebrations, most sporting students are still largely unaffected by the £1 billion of funds raised. Our great University has many things - a reputation to envy, a motivated and hard-working student body, and some of the finest minds in the world, all set in a beautiful city; quality sports facilities, it has not.

We are far behind our academic rivals, both in the UK and overseas, and even some of our academic “inferiors” in terms of sporting facilities. There is concern amongst the University hierarchy that this will lead to top students choosing to study in institutions where their needs are best catered for. If Cambridge doesn’t invest in its facilities, it stands to lose some of the very best applicants to, in particular, Ivy League schools. Something must be done.

The lack of sports facilities in Cambridge was recognised in the Krum Report in the 1980’s; however, even as early as the 1920’s it was mentioned as bizarre that many of the public schools from where pupils came could boast better facilities than the University. Laughably, or perhaps tragically, this is still the case; in order to pull on the Light Blue and Red Lion, most University teams rent facilities off schools, colleges or councils – often at great cost.

As an example, the swimming club spends £22,000 p.a. renting 6.5 hours of pool time a week, a phenomenal sum of money. The Badminton team, unable to find a venue in Cambridge, played their Varsity Match in a small village hall where the ceiling was too low to perform a legal serve. The successful Cambridge lacrosse teams have no adequate training venue; can you imagine any other contact sport having to train on a college tennis court? The basketball team are only able to rent Kelsey Kerridge at 11pm to train. In an institution that prides itself on achieving the very best results and striving for excellence, this is almost shameful.

In Cambridge, being an athlete means that you inherit not only the strain of combining training and study, but also a financial and logistical nightmare. University players often find it more expensive and difficult to hire and afford facilities than their college counterparts, the lack of facilities often prevents people from playing the sports that they would have previously pursued before “coming up” and prevents newcomers from being able to gain new skills and experiences. Surely this is not the epitome of the Cambridge University life – opportunity for all to excel?

In 1999, plans were drawn up and approved for a Sports Complex on the West Cambridge site to serve the whole student population. Sadly, the largest step taken towards constructing the Sports Centre is the model that sits in Fenners reception. Rather ironically, the section about the Sports Centre on the PE Department website is hidden as an option in the “Facilities” area. To attract sponsors directly, the following message is a direct quote; “The University is seeking sponsors in order to capital fund this project. The facility which can be built in three seperate (sic) phases may be subject to ammendment (sic) when an appropriate donor is identified. Any one wishin (sic) to discuss the sponsoring the development (sic) should contact the Director of Physical Education in the first instance”. Hardly likely to have the millions flowing in...

As it stands there are two obstacles to funding this project. Firstly, the University Development Office is responsible for fundraising within the University, but for a fundraising campaign to succeed, there needs to be a lump sum of £10-15 million to kick start it, preferably coming from the University itself to show its support; without this, large donors will see it as a non starter and withhold their donations.  Secondly, the uninspiring rallying cry for support, hidden in the backwaters of the PE Department website, is hardly likely to attract any interest. With the high quality Cambridge graduates that are aching to put something back into the next generation of Light Blue sportsmen and women, raising £50 million for a high quality sports centre should pose no problem. However, after a decade of astonishing inaction, many alumni are not aware that this project exists, let alone has approval. This has to change.

The Registrary, who is the senior administrative officer of the University, is all for improving the facilities in Cambridge. He intends to commission a Report into the state of the facilities and use the findings to determine what needs to be done. Unfortunately, to go ahead, the Report needs a Chairperson; one is yet to be found.

University sports Clubs abound with famous alumni; Tom James MBE (Olympic Gold Medallist, CUBC), Stephanie Cook (Olympic Gold Medallist, CUMPC), Gavin Hastings (Scotland and British Lions, CURUFC) to name three. There are also countless athletes of international and Olympic standard currently studying and representing us, and without doubt a top quality sports centre would increase this number. But on top of this, the huge number of students who take the time and pay the price to represent their University, deserve to be valued as significant parts that count toward what makes Cambridge so special. Not to mention the infinite number of College players who would be able to use the facility; healthier, more rounded students surely make better students.

Representing the University of Cambridge at sport, any sport, is never anything less than an honour. To ignore this vital missing piece of the Cambridge jigsaw is a disservice to the University’s mighty reputation. “Every great journey starts with a single step”; the project is ready to go, the journey will be easy. But we need the University to commit and take the first step, otherwise we’ll spend another 801 years getting nowhere.

 

[Thanks go to Pat Crossley for co-writing this piece.]