University of Cambridge Sport

Mens sana in corpore sano
More than that, access to sport should be
promoted as part and parcel of daily life for all
members of the University. For the majority,
regular exercise helps to keep the pressures of
academic life at bay and, research suggests, to
improve their cognitive abilities. The opportunity
to join a team brings with it social benefits while
developing the skills of co-operation and
leadership which employers are always looking
for. For the gifted few, the University has an
obligation to nurture their talent, and by doing
so, should justifiably be able to promote itself as
a centre of sporting excellence.
Current facilities
A few sports are well catered for at élite
University team level. Cricket, rugby, rowing, and
athletics have made significant investments in
their facilities in recent years. Most other sports,
especially indoor sports, have poor or nonexistent
facilities at University representative
level. Individual Colleges, of course, provide their
own students with a range of facilities for
College-level sport, but not all Colleges have the
means or the land to do this, so provision even at
this level is patchy. For the majority of staff, who
do not belong to a College, it is non-existent.
Indoor sports as a whole have consistently missed
out on University funding. The most glaring
lacunae are the absence in the University of a
sports hall and a swimming pool. This deprives
the swimming and water polo teams and around
80% of the University’s sports clubs of a training
base and competition venue. It also means
students and staff who merely wish to exercise
recreationally are forced to use expensive,
frequently-congested City facilities.
The cramped fitness suite and out-of-date
circuit room and gymnasium at Fenner’s are
permanently in use and massively oversubscribed.
There are no full-sized basketball,
netball or volleyball courts anywhere in the
University and only a couple of badminton
courts. Virtually all indoor Blues matches have
to take place in rented venues. This state of
affairs is particularly disadvantageous to the
development of women’s sport in the University.
The story so far
Back in 1998, it was agreed that the University
should commission a feasibility study for a new
sports centre at the West Cambridge site. Not
only would this address the University’s need for
improved sports facilities, the sports centre was
also intended to play an important part in
integrating the University’s West Cambridge
site into the University as a whole.
The architects, Arup Associates were appointed
in 1999 to oversee the project, along with
quantity surveyors Davis Langdon & Everest. By
the end of 2000 a draft feasibility study had been
approved by the University Sports Syndicate and
the West Cambridge Development Group, both
of whom agreed that the plans would meet the
University’s sporting requirements in the short
and medium term. Arup Associates then
delivered their striking conceptual design in 2001
which was well received by both the local
community and by the planning authority and
full planning approval was granted.
Plans for the new Sports Centre
The brief for the new Sports Centre was agreed
after extensive consultation with Clubs and user
representatives.
7