Team UOP looks back at Christmas, lates updates and event highlights.
Hi!
Is it too late to say Happy New Year? I’m going to risk it anyway.
I hope everyone has had a good start to 2026, whether your New Year's resolutions are thriving, hanging on by a thread or already a distant memory. After January’s usual slow start, things didn’t stay quiet for long, with the Refresher’s Fayre, Blue Week, The Takeover and a pretty cool weekend of BUCS Boxing starting things off.
2026 has also been the year 34 became 35, as we officially welcomed our newest Team UOP club - Women’s Cricket! They’ve hit the ground running and are already making waves (and taking wickets) as part of the Team UOP family.
Looking back to December, we wrapped up 2025 with Yellow week for Sophie’s legacy, including the unforgettable Sportos, our Reverse Advent Calendar for the lovely Lifehouse charity and a festive Netball tournament to round off the year.
In this bumper two-month edition, you’ll find:
- Yellow week
- RAG & Event highlights
- Women’s Cricket - our newest club
- Blue week
- Refreshers Fayre
- BUCS boxing
- BUCS action
- The Takeover
- What’s coming up next
So, whether you’re fully back in the swing of things or still pretending that deadlines don’t exist, here’s a catch-up on everything Team UOP has been up to.
Emma Loe
Team UOP Exec Widening Access Officer
December
Yellow week
To support Sophie’s legacy, Team UOP hosted Yellow Week, raising awareness and funds for an incredible charity that supports families with children in the hospital. Clubs across the university got involved showing their support through events, fundraising and wearing yellow to training throughout the week.
Yellow week kicked off in style with dance hosting the legendary Sportos competition. A total of 23 clubs took to the stage, with weeks of preparation culminating in a night full of energy, creativity and enthusiasm. A huge congratulations goes to Badminton, who were crowned champions with their polished and passionate Pitbull-themed performance.
In total, an unbelievable £10,483 was raised overall for Sophie’s legacy. A massive well done to everyone involved, particularly Dance, for organising, coaching and performing on the night and thank you to everyone who came down to support.
Sportos’ this year was AMAZING!! We raised over £10,000 for Sophie’s Legacy, which has made such a difference to them. Being able to have them attend the event was such a privilege, especially having Sophie’s mum open the night with a speech. The night was absolutely incredible, and every club really gave it their all!!
Yellow week didn’t stop there. Hockey hosted a pool tournament while Rowing and Women’s Rugby joined forces for a festive Christmas quiz - Quizmas. It was great to see so many people attending events and showing their support across the week.
RAG and Event highlights
Netball rounded off the term with their Christmas tournament. Teams fully embraced the festive spirit, turning up in Christmas-themed outfits and bringing plenty of energy to the court. The tournament was a great way to come together before the Christmas break, celebrating the hard work put in throughout the term while collecting donations for the Lifehouse charity.
The Reverse Advent Calendar is an exciting movement we take part in as Team UOP. The idea is to bring everyone together in the Christmas spirit to give items such as food, toiletries, sanitary products or toys to local charities. This year, all proceeds went towards the Lifehouse, with each club collecting items during training, resulting in a full basket of over 300 items being donated!!! Huge thank you to everyone who took part, it wouldn’t be possible without each and every one of you.
Zak Taylor
Team UOP Exec RAG Officer
January
Blue Week and Brewlympics
The new year began with Blue week, supporting Sport in Mind and highlighting the importance of mental health through sport. To help beat the January blues, the Team UOP Exec hosted the Brewlympics, which was a fun afternoon of challenges, competition and just a little cheating.
Congratulations to Basketball, who won overall and to Boxing and Women’s Rugby, who claimed best theme with their brilliant 80s disco outfits. Throughout the rest of the week, teams wore blue to training and started conversations about mental health, reminding us all just how powerful sport can be in supporting wellbeing.
Women’s Cricket - our newest club
We’re so excited to be one of the newest clubs to join UOP Sport, and even though we are small, we have big plans.
We compete in the BUCS Regional Indoor Cricket tournament each year and offer two indoor training sessions a week: for developing skills with an indoor soft ball, we train at St. Pauls Gym from 5.00pm - 6.30pm every Thursday; and for hardball training which includes net sessions with an external coach, we train at Portsmouth Grammar School 6.30pm - 8.00pm every Friday. For Friday sessions, a hardball kit will be needed - if you don’t have any kit, don’t worry, we’ll get you sorted and get you hitting sixes in no time.
One of our top goals this year is to form an outdoor team for the summer and enter the outdoor BUCS league, so this semester we will also be offering outdoor sessions to practice on grass and in the sunshine! These will start mid-April and will be predominantly hardball focused to prepare for the outdoor season, but we can cater to both hardball and softball – our main goal is to get more people playing and enjoying cricket!
We take part in varsity against Southampton, playing against them in indoor cricket; however, we had such a great time last year in an outdoor friendly game that we have an official outdoor varsity match set this year! This has been a great achievement for us to be able to have the numbers to not only participate in indoor university cricket but also venture out into playing outdoor university cricket. For me personally, it’s great to have a day where women can take to the field and be front and centre playing a sport they love, surrounded by other like-minded female players.
No matter your skill level or experience, we welcome all abilities at UPWCC and can’t wait to hopefully see you soon!
Refreshers' Fayre
The tables also came back out in January for the Refreshers’ Fayre, giving clubs another opportunity to showcase their sports and welcome new members. It was brilliant to see so many fresh faces keen to get involved in sport this year (just in time for the sunny weather!).
BUCS Boxing
Portsmouth was fighting fit in January as BUCS Boxing came to town for the fourth consecutive year. Competitors from universities across the country descended to Ravelin for an action-packed weekend filled with intense bouts, determination, and unforgettable moments.
BUCS Boxing has been incredibly successful for UOP, with winning 4 gold and 2 silver medals. This is massive for the club and the most successful team we’ve had for years. Being at the Ravelin, we had immense home support from the crowd. Proud is an understatement as these fighters have spent months preparing not just physically but mentally as well.
Tom
Team UOP Boxing Club Vice President
BUCS Boxing Championships 2025-26
Find out more about the incredible event and check out how many medals our boxers claimed this year!
BUCS action
It wasn’t just the boxing bringing in wins in January, BUCS is also back underway, and Team UoP have been smashing it. Volleyball, Badminton, and Lacrosse have all started the term strong, picking up wins - it’s shaping up to be an exciting term ahead.
The Takeover
January wrapped up with The Takeover, as Ravelin transformed into a vibrant and welcoming space for women (cis and trans), non-binary people and those who align with womanhood. The relaxed atmosphere and supportive environment once again made for a brilliant evening, offering a safe space to move, connect and enjoy sport in a comfortable setting. Attendees could attend and try plenty of sessions, from Yoga, Gym workshops, Instructed swimming, Climbing, Squash, Trampolining, the biggest Zumba we've ever done, our Pilates and Dance courses, Nutrition talks and more. We already can't wait for the next one!
What’s coming up?
Pride week
We are celebrating Pride Week this week, recognising and supporting our LGBTQ+ community across Team UOP. Keep an eye out for themed sessions, events, and opportunities to get involved as we continue working towards making sport a space where everyone feels welcome, valued and able to be themselves
We Care About Not Caring
The We Care About Not Caring campaign, which runs through February, gives members of our community the space to share their stories as a member of both, the LGBTQ+ and sports communities. In the hope of raising awareness and challenging discrimination, so that your sexual orientation or gender identity is never a barrier to sport.
If you want to share your story this year, you can do so through this form: We Care About Not Caring form
ED awareness week
Finally, Eating Disorder Awareness Week is coming up later this month, a key moment to raise awareness and encourage positive, healthy conversations around wellbeing in sport. It’s about education, support and making sure Team UOP remains an environment where performance never comes at the expense of health.