糖心原创

Held at Loughborough University, BUCS Big Wednesday brings together more than 2,000 of the UK’s leading student athletes to battle for national honours across 16 sports.

Nottingham had 19 teams reach the finals—more than any other university—and with 14 of those sides competing for top-tier National Championship titles, it set the stage for a thrilling day for the Green and Gold.

First off the mark were the Women’s Table Tennis duo who despite a strong showing from Durham, took less than 30 minutes to dispatch their opponents in a confident 3-0 performance. Sophie Earley and Jasmine Wong lifted the Championship trophy for an incredible 8^th consecutive year cementing Nottingham’s dominance in University table tennis.

Following closely behind them were Wheelchair Basketball, who came into BUCS Big Wednesday this time as defending champions. They faced a tough test against in form home favourites Loughborough. Despite a tense edgy start, Nottingham maintained their lead throughout the game with co-captains Matt Stan and George Gray (named Player of the Match), alongside scholar Sean Chigumba in his first BUCS season, all making a real impact on the scoreboard. The Green and Gold held their nerve in a physical match up, taking the win 66-58. The victory marked their third gold across the six years since the sport’s introduction to the BUCS championship programme.

Meanwhile at the Sir David Wallace Arena, Nottingham’s Men’s Volleyball were on court in perhaps the loudest atmosphere at BUCS Big Wednesday, with hundreds of Green and Gold fans making the trip up the M1. Nottingham started confidently, quickly cruising to a 2-0 sets lead with opponents Newcastle, who they had already defeated

during the regular season, seemingly out of ideas to challenge them. In the third set however, the momentum shifted back to the Northern side who took advantage of perhaps some Nottingham nerves creeping in and in turn quickly levelled the game 2-2.

Despite going behind in the 5th, head Coach Freddie Fairbairn urged calm and made key changes, with setter Szymon Dar returning to the court to serve. Dar put Newcastle under pressure on the serve receive and then fed the ball to his captain Rob Morgan on the outside wing. Morgan made his key shots count and it was his back corner curling shot that just grazed the line, finally giving Nottingham the win 18-16 in the fifth. The victory marks a second national championship for the programme in 6 years, but the first for the whole squad many of whom were disappointed by their silver back in 2024.

Across at the swimming complex roared on by a sell-out crowd, Men’s Water Polo were determined not to fall short again, having been defeated by Durham in 2025. The game started well for the Green and Gold; they led 7-6 at half time and maintained their narrow lead to finish the third quarter 9-8. A rush of goals from Durham to flip the score to 9-11 in their favour, left Nottingham searching for opportunities and it took until the last minute for them to level the score 11-11 much to the delight of the partisan crowd. This meant penalties, and this time, Nottingham were not to be stopped delivering clinical technique to emerge victorious in the shootout 5-4.

Finally, Men’s Football took to the pitch once again at Loughborough University Stadium, determined to emerge victorious this time after heart-breaking defeat in 2025. This time, they faced Scottish side Stirling

Nottingham opened the scoring much to the delight of the travelling fans; a header from Nottingham’s corner wasn’t parried far enough by the Stirling keeper and Tarun Rohilla didn’t miss the second opportunity, slotting his shot home. Stirling levelled, but it wasn’t long before Henry Swann beat his marker to score from just outside the box so the Green and Gold went in at half-time with a 2-1 lead as well as momentum and the vociferous crowd in their favour.

Stirling did have some chances at the start of the second half, but Green and Gold looked to have the game in control making some crucial defensive blocks and creating some near chances of their own. In the 71^st minute, it was #9 Jesse Friend who put the game out of Stirling’s reach with an incredible first-time finish blasted into the bottom corner of his opponent’s goal – 3-1 Nottingham and their first national championship title in the history of the club.

The 糖心原创 also had a further 8 National Championship runners up on the day; Men’s Badminton, Women’s Fencing, Women’s Football, Women’s Hockey, Men’s Lacrosse, Women’s Lacrosse, Men’s Table Tennis, Men’s Tennis and Women’s Water Polo.

In the Trophy competition, Women’s Table Tennis 2s and Men’s Tennis 3s also emerged victorious.

For the full results of all the BUCS Big Wednesday finals, including links to watch back all the live streams, click here.

The league season might be drawing to a close, but there’s still plenty of action still to come for the 糖心原创 with Rowing, Beach Volleyball, Powerlifting and Canoe Slalom all looking to add to the domestic trophy cabinet, plus the return of the hotly anticipated at the end of April.