Written by Jennifer Lau
Photographed by Joanna Stock
Ask LSE alumni about their best nights here and most land on the same things: Sports nights with their team after Wednesday training, Carol and Fight Night. All of these run through the LSE Athletics Union, the student-run body behind more than 40 sports clubs. In the first issue of the Beaver, the Sports editorial team interviewed the President of the AU, Jake Grey, about what new and returning students can expect this year.
For the incoming class of freshers, welcome to LSE! The Athletics Union is the umbrella body for sports at LSE, covering a wide range from rugby to dance. The place to start is the Freshers’ Fair, where clubs take stalls and you can speak to the captains and committees in person. This is useful whether you’ve played your sport for years or had never heard of it before Welcome week.
Give It A Go (GIAG) sessions are also a great chance to try out a sports club, taster sessions across the first weeks of Autumn Term and Winter Term. No obligations to return, no memberships and no payments, zero risk in trying out a club.
“If you like it, you like it, you stay. If you don’t, no one cares.”
Jake, who plays hockey, remembers people from his own first year who came to a couple of sessions, decided that it wasn’t for them and played an entirely different sport afterwards. He says he understands the anxiety and nerves of starting a sport, but everyone is very friendly and welcoming.
After a GIAG, you can join the club via a membership, where a typical week looks as follows. To start, there’s training on Tuesday, followed by Wednesday matches. Wednesdays usually entail a pres at a teammates’ flat which transitions into a Spoons and sports club night where you can meet up with friends from other clubs. To top it off, regroup for Tuns on Friday and matches on the weekend. Across all clubs, there will be one training session, one fixture and one wildWednesday night.
“It can be really full on or it can be more laid back. It’s kind of whatever people want to do.” Jake recalled his first year trying to do everything and in second year being more deliberate with his time. “Once you’ve settled in after a couple of weeks, you’re able to build time within your schedule.”
If you’ve decided you love the people in the club more than the sport itself, the Social membership may be your best friend. Cheaper than a full membership, you don’t have to attend training or fixtures. Instead, you can enjoy Wednesday nights to wind down from a busy week of work and attend other AU events with the club. You don’t have to be the most athletic member to have AU deliver you your best LSE memories.
Social events across the year include the AU Welcome, sports nights out, Carol in December — where you go clubbing for 24 hours from 5am pres to 3am afters — and the AU Ball. Jake picked Carol as the most underrated event at LSE because the intense event allows you to speak to people you’ve never spoken to.
For returning students, welcome back to LSE. This year, the LSE AU are making big shifts to the events. The main change is that Fight Night will no longer be running. More on this in the next issue. Beside this, the AU is aiming to make the mainstays bigger than previous years, and has big new plans up their sleeves.
First of all, sports night will no longer be at Sway Bar but instead be in XOYO. Due to maintenance issues at the bar and safety concerns, the home for LSE Sports night will move to Shoreditch.
The AU wants to build a bigger Varsity against Imperial, resembling the Leeds against Leeds Beckett games, which can pull crowds in the thousands. Currently, there are separate fixtures against Imperial played by different clubs at different points in the year, and instead, the AU hopes for one event in Winter term with an afterparty. However, this isn’t settled as it needs the SU and more than 40 clubs to agree, alongside the calendar clashes in March.
“That’ll become a key mainstay in the LSE sports calendar.”
There will also be a costume bank with an AU and RAG collaboration. Students can hand in old costumes from the AU Welcome, Halloween and Carol, and the pool is redistributed for the upcoming events. Joining events with the AU can be quite expensive, spending £30 on a single costume for Carol, and thus hopes to reduce costs for students through this initiative. Targeting 100 costumes for free, costumes can be returned after you’ve washed it and will start after AU Welcome. Jake jokes that he would give it another wash considering the grime and dirt of LSE AU events.
“Somewhat selfishly, I’d say the AU is definitely where the most fun can be had.”
There are many opportunities to find your people at LSE, whether that is through classes or accommodations. But, sports is definitely here to stay as one of the big ones. This year seems to be shaping up to be producing more days like Carol, reducing costs for AU participation, and a general theme of bringing LSE together. The Sports editorial team wishes all the Beavers another brilliant year of AU events, and a new brilliant academic year.
