6 I OXFORD UNIVERSITY I SPORTS REVIEW 2010 www.sport.ox.ac.uk2009-10 marks the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the Oxford University Sports Federation.HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THE SPORTS FEDERATION!Ten years on from the foundation of our Sports Federation, the current President discovers how it all began.For ten years the Federation has provided central administration and student representation for all Oxford athletes, witnessing hundreds of Varsity victories, 12 sabbatical Presidents in office, the founding of numerous new highly motivated sports clubs, the building of a new pool at Iffley Road and, more recently, the planning approval for the new Iffley Road redevelopment plan. To celebrate the past decade of the Sports Federation I sat down with the inspirational and busy Director of Sport, Jon Roycroft, to talk about the ideas behind the successful Oxford sport set-up and the first founding years of the Federation.The original idea came to Jon in 1997, after his first year in Oxford, during his input to the University's Review of Sport. Jon recognized the independent nature of the Oxford sports clubs, loosely based on the College set-up, and the challenges with that "leading to all sorts of issues with inefficient use of resources, no cost savings through bulk purchasing and importantly a non-professional outlook on how sport should be run." For the clubs to be able to develop and grow there would have to be a central administrative support service - a system that our rivals at Cambridge still completely lack. Jon was also very determined to ease the administrative "I REALLY QUESTION WHETHER SPORTS CLUBS COULD COPE WITH THE NUMBER OF COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS WITHOUT SPORTS FEDERATION HELP."INTERVIEW WITH JON ROYCROFT

I 7 www.sport.ox.ac.ukpressure on student athletes. "Importantly I also saw that the stress and pressure on normal students trying to cope with both club administration and an Oxford degree was beginning to become untenable. The fear being that either a student's academic work would become seriously affected or clubs would just deteriorate in terms of administration and performance, or perhaps both."Compared with other UK Universities the Oxford set-up is very unique - the Sports Federation functions independently as a part of the University Sports Department, instead of being a part of the Student Union, which is the case at most other universities. "I came from a Student Union Sports set-up at Brighton and although I was very aware of the problems involved with sport being entwined in SU politics, I also knew that the inherent strength of a student-led organisation for sport was huge, as long as it was focused on sport and not easily sidetracked." One of the advantages of having a sabbatical Sports Federation President outside the Student Union is the election process; "From a capability point of view I was always both suspicious and disappointed that a Sports sabbatical, and in fact any sabbatical, could be voted in on say 5% of the student numbers and then win on a popularity competition rather than through any real process of scrutiny or in fact ability." Now the set-up ensures that the Sports Federation President is voted in by the Sports Federation Sports Council, consisting of the Sports Clubs and College sports representatives - the people who are actually involved in Oxford Sport.As the current Sports Federation President I am keen to hear more about my predecessors and the important legacy of my position. The first sabbatical President, Jonathan Rose, was appointed rather than elected. Jon says, "We were well into the last term when approval and funding were granted, and given the fact that we didn't actually have an approved method of elections, nor a constitution, we asked for final-year student applications." Jonathan's first task, working closely with the new Sports Federation Administrator Piers Jones, was to start providing the central services identified as being needed in the Review. "Jonathan, who was Fencing President and a Blue, worked from September 1998 to June 1999 in the Sports Federation, and then for the Development Office for six months on fundraising. The first elected President was Serena Gosling who was elected in February 1999, but held office from October 1999 until June 2000, thereby making it ten years, but technically twelve Presidents, to date." Many of the past Presidents have continued very successful careers in sport - the first elected President Serena Gosling works for the London Organising Committee (LOCOG) for 2012, Kate Filochowski (President 2006-07) works for Podium, engaging UK higher education with the Olympics, and the most recent President from 2009-10, Ruth Holmes, is busy fundraising for the Great Britain 2012 Team. Before the Sports Federation was founded the organisation of University Sport was left in the hands of each individual Club Committee and their Senior Member. "There was simply no health and safety or insurance overview and accounts were only occasionally scrutinised if there was a complaint, which was rare. Facility usage was dominated by male clubs and bookings were based on the historical block bookings." Jon sees the role of the Sports Federation as being more important than ever: "I really question whether sports clubs could cope with the number of compliance requirements without Sports Federation help." Having acted as the Blues Captain of the Women's Basketball Team for two years, I have to agree.Encouragingly the last decade has seen Oxford steadily climb the national BUCS ranking. In the past few years Oxford has finished in eighth place overall in BUCS, a fantastic achievement for a University that bases its admission purely on academic excellence! Jon thinks that in a very good year, with a large number of team entries, we might make it to sixth place, but continues to say that "as long as we consistently out-perform our lighter blue colleagues in both BUCS and Varsity, I will believe what we do is clearly successful." Turning to the long-term goals of the Sports Federation, Jon mentions the need to improve and centralise club coaches; something that will eventually boost the overall performance of our teams, as well as increase the Oxford recruitment profile in terms of targeting Oxbridge candidates to come to Oxford if they are sportingly inclined.So has the purpose of the Sports Federation changed in the past ten years? Jon sees the Photo courtesy of The Oxford Mail"MY FAVOURITE OXFORD MOMENTS IN TERMS OF PERFORMANCE INCLUDE THE 1999 BUSA (AS BUCS WAS THEN) BASKETBALL FINALS IN LOUGHBOROUGH WHERE BOTH OUR MEN'S AND WOMEN'S TEAMS WON, THE WOMEN BEATING LOUGHBOROUGH BY 50 POINTS IN THEIR OWN BACK YARD! IN TERMS OF EVENTS MY FAVOURITE MOMENT IS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST FOUR-MINUTE MILE, WHICH GOT INTERNATIONAL TV, RADIO AND PRESS COVERAGE." Federation as constantly developing to respond to the needs of the clubs and the development of sport. The initial aim and goal of the Federation was to provide a professional, centralised sports administration service to all registered sports clubs at Oxford, and an elected sports-club-mandated sabbatical to ensure that the clubs, and students' interests, are represented at all times. After ten years, and 84 sports clubs down the line, the goal of the Sports Federation remains stronger than ever - here's to the next ten years! ? Enni-Kukka TuomalaJon Roycroft with Libby Payne, Sports Federation President 2003-4, at the 1st Annual Sports Federation Ball and Awards CeremonySports Federation Presidents 1998-2011Jonathan RoseSerena Gosling Will Spencer Ruth Grigor Fiona Worrell Libby Payne Georgie Webb Susan Lowrey Kate Filochowski Lisa Ravenscroft Beth Wild Ruth Holmes Enni-Kukka Tuomala