Sports & Societies
Sports
College Sport
Girton has a vibrant sports scene, with team representing most sports for both sexes, including athletics, badminton, basketball, cricket, football, hockey, rowing, rugby, squash, swimming, table tennis, tennis, volleyball, water polo. There are also many students playing other sports, such as ice hockey and lacrosse, at University level. For more information on University sports please see http://www.sport.cam.ac.uk/university-sports-clubs/
Facilities
Main sports grounds:
The main sports pitches, used for cricket in the summer, and football and rugby in the winter, are located at the back of the College on the Crewdson Field, which borders Girton Road and the A14. College recently inaugurated full-size rugby and football pitches, thanks mainly to donations from alumni. Before this the rugby and football pitches which had been laid out in the first years of men, 1979 and 1980, were not full-size and overlapped slightly.
Hard courts:
Hard courts for basketball, netball and tennis are available year-round and are located by the old orchard, bordering Orchard drive.
To book the pitches or hard courts click here.
Gymnasium:
Girton is unusual amongst Colleges in having an on-site gymnasium located in Peartrees, equipped with free weights and a cross training machine, as well as a separate rowing machine room in the squash court. It costs £10 per term to join the College gym, which is open to all students, Fellows and staff of the College. Forms to join the gym are linked from this page, below.
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Join the Girton College Gym Facebook Group, by clicking on the Facebook button below:
Squash:
Girton has an on-site squash court, a key is available for members of College from the Porters’ Lodge.
Boathouse:
The College rents a space in the boathouse on Cutter Ferry Lane owned by Corpus Christi College. This houses all the College’s boats and is shared with Sidney Sussex and Wolfson Colleges as well as Corpus. For further information please refer to the Girton College Boat Club (GCBC) web site or for financial information go to the JCR web site.
History:
The College’s grounds always included space for sport, and in its earliest days as a women’s college Girton boasted a cricket and a hockey team. Competitive sports were very much a part of College life as evidenced by the annual Newnham v. Girton hockey match, and the building of a swimming pool on the premises in 1900.
The College also had a number of sporting pioneers. One of its earliest students, Dame Louisa Lumsden, one of the first students in 1869, is credited with introducing the sport of Lacrosse to Britain. She was Headmistress of St Leonard’s School, St. Andrew’s, and had seen the sport being played in Canada. The first match was played in 1890. Dr MG Jones, a renowned historian who was Director of Studies in History from 1920–1940 was also a hockey international for Wales. The College from its earliest days boasted a cricket, hockey and tennis team.
Up until the men’s Colleges went co-educational, Girton and Newnham largely made up the University women’s teams. The College still boasts a large number of women’s blues, and since it admitted male undergraduates in 1979, has had a number of male blues in nearly every sport.
In the College’s earliest mixed years, the number of men was limited so that the rugby, football, and rowing teams were often made up of the same people. The sports teams, and pitches, were established thanks to the encouragement of Dr John Marks, Life Fellow of the College. Sport was an important aspect of integrating men into the life of the College.
For more information on the current sports teams, please see the JCR site:
Sporting future
The College is currently fundraising to build a new pavilion on its sports ground, the Crewdson Field. This will enable it to have the best on-site sports facilities of any College in Cambridge. Click on the link for more information on the new Sports Pavilion
| MCR Sport Officer | Stefano Tasselli (st482@cam.ac.uk) |
Groups
- Poetry Group
- The Tower Magazine (Facebook page)
- Access and Academic @ Girton (Facebook page)