SURHUL – The Orbital

25Jan

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Features

Will you Go Green in 2016?

The week January 25th- 29th is Go Green Week and as a University we will be highlighting and putting a spotlight on the environment. Environmental issues such as climate change and energy consumption are more pressing than ever as the international Climate change talks or COP21 have shown with global commitment by over 200 countries to not let global temperature rise beyond 3 degrees have shown. This can be further seen by President Barrack Obama who said during the talks ‘We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.’ As a university it may seem redundant to try to reduce amount how much students contribute to man-made Climate change as international agreements such as COP21 seem to be the real ways to achieve subs...

5Nov

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Features

Puppy Therapy

Monday morning moods- we all get them. However, on the 26th of October a huge number of Royal Holloway students had a sudden burst of energy, converting their Monday morning traipsing to lectures, into a brisk power walk heading in the direction of the SU. In the name of what? Puppy therapy sessions! There were four pooches present: two Labradors, a Cocker Spaniel and a Bearded Collie; who were all moved from Rialto to the SU hall due to popular demand. It was quite comforting to be able to cuddle and just generally be in the presence of dogs. I stayed with Barney (black Labrador) the longest as he reminded me of my dog, it really brought a ‘home’ status to Royal Holloway. He rolled over to have his tummy scratched and gently put his paw in my hand.Dogs don’t ask formed questions or jud...

Women’s Football – Still Walking on Water

26Nov

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Sports & Socs

Women’s Football – Still Walking on Water

Currently undefeated and top of their BUCS league, Women’s Football’s first team faced Portsmouth in the first round of the South Eastern Conference Cup this Bears day, and were keen to maintain their winning streak! There was no question it would be a fast paced game, with right midfielder Alicia Lyne making some impressive runs down the wing, and setting up a beautiful cross for striker Flora Green making it 1-0 to Holloway in the 22nd minute! Krissie Glover set up Portsmouth’s subsequent own goal from an on point corner and went on to assist yet another Holloway goal placed neatly in the back of the net by Michelle Iversen Badiane in the second half! With Portsmouth having lost one of their best players to injury, as well as their keeper, who casually popped her shoulder back into pl...

26Nov

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Sports & Socs

#BearsDay- Rowing? Paddle-happy winners!

The rowing club, over the last few months, has had a great start to the academic year, and we are all really excited to show our potential at BUCS too. We’ve had a brilliant intake of freshers, and it’s great to see the team spirit continue from last year. We are aiming to maintain the high levels of enthusiasm as well through the frosty winter mornings we all love so much! We have been taking on more opportunities to train, work out and improve our standards. In October the senior squad competed at Cambridge Autumn Head. Both the Men's 8+ IM3 and the Women's 4+ IM3 won their category, whilst the other boats competing on the day (two more women's and one more men's boat) were able to gain very respectable times providing us with a lot of confidence for the rest of the year. Lastly, we ha...

26Nov

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Sports & Socs

In Your Socs- Drama Society’s Poetic Charity

On Thursday the 6th of November, the Drama Society provided the opportunity to take part in a Poetry Workshop run by their chosen charity, Safe Ground. Safe Ground works to decrease the stigma faced by families of people in prison, and strives to promote a social change by connecting communities and rehabilitating the prisoners’ relationships with their families through the use of drama, dialogue and debate. The workshop took place at the South Bank University and was run by the writer and performance poet, Dean Atta. I found the workshop particularly engaging because I was familiar with his work. However, Atta made it clear that a keen interest in poetry was not required, as he successfully involved each participant in a captivating three-hour session. All the exercises were conduct...

26Nov

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Sports & Socs

In Your Socs- Rocking the Games

The Lyell Geoscience Society hosted our first sports event of the year 'The Rock Games'. The tournament featured games such as football, rounders, handball, touch rugby and tug-of-war, where post-grads and lecturers were up against under-grads. A total of 8 teams attended the event, which was held on Sunday 19th October on Founders Field. Throughout the day cakes were being sold at the Kayleigh Sugar Fund Cake Sale. On top of cake sales, half of the sign-up costs for the teams were donated to the Kayleigh Sugar Fund. A total of £47.50 was raised for charity. The event was a huge success. UCL’s Dr Fabio Crameri presented the second lecture in the Lyell Geoscience Society’s Lecture Series on Thursday 23rd October. The title of his presentation was 'Numerical Modeling of Global Mantle Convec...

26Nov

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Sports & Socs

In Your Socs – Say a Little Prayer for Gospel

Gospel Choir is a group of roughly forty people who all come together on Monday and Thursday evenings to sing popular, well-known songs with a gospel spin. The first two songs that we learnt this year were “Lean on Me” and “I Say A Little Prayer”. Rehearsals start with a number of warm-ups including breathing techniques (which turn into competitions) and singing short extracts from songs in three to five part harmonies. After this, Katie and Michelle sing the soprano, alto and tenor parts one by one so that we can all learn our parts; then comes the slightly terrifying part where we put all the parts together. Nine times out of ten this goes to plan and sounds incredible; however, when it goes wrong, we all have a laugh about it, go through our parts separately and then try again. We...

#BearsDay- Triumph for Men’s Football VI: IMPERIAL 5’s 1-2 RHUL

18Nov

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Sports & Socs

#BearsDay- Triumph for Men’s Football VI: IMPERIAL 5’s 1-2 RHUL

The lads of Royal Holloway football club's fourth team returned to campus with all three points, winning by two goals to one against Imperial fives. It was a game won thanks to organisation and communication across the pitch. The score line does not reflect the stream of chances that were carelessly squandered. Eventually on the stroke of half time a thirty-yard screamer from Geri Soni flew beyond the reach of Imperial’s to go into the break one up. It was to Holloway's disadvantage that the referee had a particular, and perhaps irrational, distaste for high feet which resulted in the conceding of a free kick on the edge of the box.The set piece was converted to make things level. At one a piece Holloway were reminded that it only requires one incident for the game to be turned on it...

2Nov

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Sports & Socs

Have Your Say Day: What You Thought.

“Improved? Oh no I love the SU!” Slavyana Katie and Lily are two very friendly people I met in Tommy’s Bar. To them, the SU is a “friendly place”, with “always stuff going on”. They seemed very much in the know about the “cheap” nights out on campus, but also that the SU is a “great place to go for help”. Not just sticky floors then. Syed is another guy in Tommy’s, this time claiming his free chips for having his say. When I asked him to sum up the SU in a word he was very obliging. “Effective”. Short and sweet. Nathalie is a girl with something to say. Outsid...

2Nov

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Sports & Socs

#BearsDay- A Great Start for Volleyball

Great start of the season for both the Men’s and Women’s teams, who won their home matches. The Men’s team defeated Middlesex in Egham Leisure Centre with a secure 3-1. Despite the gloomy and depressing location, the boys started the game imposing a solid rhythm on the opposition and took the lead winning the first two sets with a good margin. During the third set, the team’s concentration went down, and due to far too many mistakes the opposition won the set 25-23. However, in the fourth and last set, the team went back on the court feeling determined to close the game. Thanks to new energy and a powerful and constant service, the boys won with a satisfactory margin of seven points. It was a fairly good game, and a special mention goes to all our new players, who did a great job consid...