Sports & Socs

By Sacha Gatenby, Associate Sports Editor In my honest opinion matcha is overhyped, to me it tastes like grass and there are so many other things I’d rather order at a coffee shop. But the Orbital’s sports column isn’t the appropriate place to talk about my feelings about matcha, so I don’t understand why the content team behind Sky Sports’ new female targeted social media account, Halo, decided their platform was. In the spirit of the Orbital’s honesty issue, I’ll be providing an honest review on everything that Sky Sports got wrong with Halo, coming directly from a young female sports fan. Sky Sports Launched a new TikTok account on 13th November this year in a bit to appeal to a new demographic of young female sports fans that they felt they hadn’t tapped into yet. They coined th...

By Sacha Gatenby, Associate Sports Editor If you follow the English Football League, then you may have come across the season’s current feel-good story; the post-promotion success of Bradford City A.F.C. Perhaps you’ve also seen the claret and amber chicken stickers floating around on social media captioned; “you’ve just been pecked by the chickens.” Fans of the Bradford City ‘Bantams’ have been invigorated by the team’s current run of victory in League 1, having so far only lost one match (knock on wood) to Doncaster. With this Orbital Issue’s theme being ‘movement’, I thought it would be fitting to look at the progress being made at Valley Parade that is pushing the team back into football relevance after the decades long dry spell. When looking into Bradford City’s team history b...

By Harkomal Shoker- Associate Sport Editor Real Madrid, the 15 time champions league winners, are the dominating force in football- no club can compare to their European success. In their 123 year history Real Madrid have won 36 Spanish league titles, 5 fifa club world wins, 20 Spanish cup wins, 13 Spanish super cup wins and many more. They have built their club to be the biggest force in football, Santiago Bernabéu Stadium is one of the biggest stages in European football, having seen some of the best players.  The best players playing at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium is a very common occurrence for Real Madrid. These players are called Galacticos. Featuring players like: Cristano Ronaldo, Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, David Beckham, Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, Vinicius...

For most, when the sport of Lacrosse is mentioned in an English context, the first things to spring to mind are often scenes from the 2008 film Wild Child and grass-pitch matches played in the sprawling grounds of all-girls public schools. Yet, in the year 2024, it is possible to say the face of Women’s Lacrosse is changing.  While female participation in lacrosse in the UK is often see to be firmly rooted in the public-school playing pathway, University and Club lacrosse is increasingly becoming a route into the sport for women. Within a university context, Lacrosse is primarily managed and run through the competitive body known as British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS). According to England Lacrosse statistics, since 2009, BUCS registered teams have increased b...

In the digital age, everything is recorded. From match highlights to WSL player edits, the continued rise of Women’s Football is documented over the expanse of the internet. As an aspiring journalist who is guilty of plastering both their written and photographic work across Instagram, I have no doubt I’m contributing to the great pool of resources evidencing the success of Women’s Football across the web in the digital age. In contemporary society, this pool of digital resources is not novel however, as a final year History Student, I have quickly begun to realise how, before the digital age, so much of the rich history of the Women’s game is almost invisible and hidden amongst achieves.Until very recently, my use of the university library was almost exclusively online. I have made many ...

After interviewing the President of our own Lacrosse Club here at Royal Holloway for our previous print issue, I widened my enquires to find out if, and how, Lacrosse is being taught across the State Sector. My researching disappointingly led me to largely unsurprising conclusions, Lacrosse is mostly not taught in any developed manner within the State Sector. When held up against the greatly funded and structured tournaments and trainings of Private School Pupils, the pop-up P.E sessions most commonly seen in the State Sector do notseem to stand up to scrutiny. There is, however, exceptions to this generalisation. A key one being found in the unassuming market town of Newbury in West Berkshire. While conducting my research a key school that came up was St Bartholomew’s School in New...

On the 12th of December 2024, decorated Royal Holloway Alumni Sophie Christiansen CBE returned to the University for a visit. Reflecting on her time as a student at the University, she toured campus and met up with members of the current Royal Holloway Riding Club before our interview.    It was clear returning to the Royal Holloway Campus was a greatly nostalgic experience for Christiansen; when asked how it felt to return to her former university she explained, ‘It’s amazing! Every time I come back, I think, when we're here we take this gorgeous building for granted, but every time I come, I comment “wow, did I really come here?”’  When talking about what she was able to take away from her time at Royal Holloway in addition to her MSc Mathematics, she discussed...

In their final game this side of the Christmas break, the Women’s Football 1st Team claimed a strong 3-1 victory over Reading’s 1st Team on the 4th of December.  Multiple players made the scoresheet as the team claimed their second victory over Reading, including a particularly impressive header scored by first team player and social sec Tabby Brown.  Following the match’s conclusion, I spoke to some of the players and their coach about the victory. First team player and Women’s Football Social Media Sec, Megan Regan, discussed the team’s success saying that ‘the second half was a lot better than the first, as we struggled to get into our flow and play our game in the first half and then the second half we figured out how each other wanted to play for the ...

The Women's Football 1st Team are no strangers to winning. Taking home 'Team of the Year' at Colours Ball in 2023 after winning both their LUSL and BUCS leagues and winning the LUSL Cup at the end of the 2024. This year, they set their ambitions high, aiming for two cup and two league wins. Their current standings are promising, placing second in their BUCS league and top of their LUSL League. This week, we look ahead to their fixture against Reading Women's 1s. Having won 80% of their league fixtures so far, the team is in a strong position ahead of their clash with Reading this Wednesday. As a club with a large membership and support group, the match is certain to attract a strong home crowd to support in the final BUCS match ahead of the Christmas holiday. For anyone inspired by...

By Issy Trapnell Hoyle- Senior Sports Editor Ahead of the first BUCS Showcase Wednesday of the season, we caught up with Women’s Rugby to learn a little more about their upcoming season, their club and what their sport means to them.  Welcoming all three media outlets to their Friday afternoon training, the club allowed us to follow their training session and observe their preparation prior to the start of the new season. Seeing the way the team was focused and working together, it is clear the club is getting ready to face the new season with a positive attitude and strong team.  At the end of their training, we had the privilege of interviewing multiple members of the club including President Millie and Treasurer Charlotte. Millie explained to us that she's feeling po...