{"id":1279,"date":"2010-04-09T11:18:19","date_gmt":"2010-04-09T11:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/2010\/04\/british-army-and-vikram-solanki-attend-nhsfs-6th-annual-sports-competition\/"},"modified":"2020-07-16T18:53:06","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T17:53:06","slug":"british-army-and-vikram-solanki-attend-nhsfs-6th-annual-sports-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/?p=1279","title":{"rendered":"British Army and Vikram Solanki Attend NHSF’s 6th Annual Sports Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rudrajoy Chakraborty<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

NHSF PR Team<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
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The stage was set – Sunday 21st February 2010 would see 27 Hindu societies from across the land come together for entertainment that would give the ongoing Winter Olympics in Vancouver a run for its money. Little did we know that we would also try and rival the games in Canada for the level of snow!<\/p>\n

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When the weather took a turn for the worse just after 0400 on Sunday morning, it would bring about intense snowfall for nearly two hours that would bring an unexpected and novel dimension to the National Hindu Students Forum UK (NHSF) annual sports competition. Fears for the transport of participants and the outdoor football tournament were at the front of organisers’ minds as plans, but with our Hindu dharma that has adapted to every environment and time as our backbone, we find a solution.<\/p>\n

The new plan – move football indoors and alter match times to ensure all those in attendance would still reap the rewards of this highlight of the student sporting calendar. Unfortunately the readjustments led to the debut of Dodgeball being put off until next year, but we would still witness sporting clashes in football, netball, cricket, kho kho and kabaddi, as well as between the fans!<\/p>\n

The opening ceremony this year saw special guest Vikram Solanki, an England international cricketer and one of the finest batsmen county cricket has seen this generation, deliver a speech that spoke of the importance of our dharma in contributing towards his motivation and success. A modest man with abundant talent, Solanki not only inspired all those who heard him, but reminded us that, regardless of our determination for victory, a Hindu student should compete in fair spirit. With the Gayatri Mantra recited to start proceedings, and the opening gambits done and dusted, it was time to let the games begin!<\/p>\n

The contemporary sports filled the morning, and despite the icy roads, nearly every team had managed to make their way to the venue in time for their fixtures, and those weary faces that had contemplated staying in bed were now glad they had battled those early morning blues and were ready to dazzle the NHSF world with their skills. Although match times had been reduced, there was still plenty of time for sporting drama in the netball and football, with a combination of party tricks, slick passing, fine goals and embarrassing mishaps in abundance. With only the top teams from group stages progressing to the knockout stages, there was an added pressure on every match. Big name universities were toppled, but familiar faces marched towards the latter stages alongside some new stars. The football final saw Kings College London (with their wonderful chant of “KCL” reflecting their top quality education) overcome Portsmouth, but good old Pompey were to not go home empty handed, as they beat defending champions Leeds in the netball finale. Central Zone’s grasp on the cricket title was ended as North Zone found that missing ingredient, leaving the Midland universities only an afternoon to attempt to claim a title. The morning also saw a Shiv Puja performed under the guidance of Swami Nirliptananda, the inspirational Guyanese spiritual leader whose Ashram in London has been engaging people in our dharma for over four decades.<\/p>\n

Following a healthy lunch, the Indian gems that are kho kho and kabaddi took centre stage, and as happens every year, those who are unaccustomed to the traditional sports soon realize just how intense, tactical and enjoyable they are to watch and play. Brunel, who had reached the football semi-finals already, continued their excellent day, reaching the final in both of the afternoon sports, claiming victory over Bristol in the kho-kho. However, the day’s denouement saw Brunel, the pre-match favourites, toppled by surprise finalists Warwick in a one-sided match that showed the brute strength and tactical ability required to compete in kabaddi.<\/p>\n

The crowd were also witness to the special NatCom All-Stars challenge, which saw the chapter with the most hours dedicated to sewa activity this year take on a team comprised of members of the NHSF National Committee. In front of all 700 students who had attended, Manchester scraped through and as a result, had the opportunity to play a kabaddi team from the British Army, who had been present all day to join in the proceedings. Despite their inexperience, the army did improve as the match progressed, and were narrowly (come on guys, I’m trying to be generous here!) defeated. There is sometimes a perceived gap between the ethnic minority communities and our army, especially when related to our foreign policy, but NHSF students are keen to show that the Hindu community, and ethnic minority communities in general, are part of the same state that the army represents, and regardless of our support or disagreements over the jobs they are given, we recognise their tremendous service to the nation.<\/p>\n

NHSF President Kajal Valani rounded up the day with a speech reminding us that we were gathered in the name of Hindu dharma, and that our actions should respect and represent the values it provides. The trophy holders may well have been KCL, Portsmouth, Brunel, North Zone and Warwick, but everyone who was involved in the National Sports will take home memories to treasure, and hopefully a desire to continue engaging in sport, with the odd few progressing to higher levels as we do our part to inspire young people to take up sport, stay physically healthy and prepare for the arrival of the 2012 Olympic Games! See you all next year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rudrajoy Chakraborty NHSF PR Team   The stage was set – Sunday 21st February 2010 would see 27 Hindu societies from across the land come together for entertainment that would give the ongoing Winter Olympics in Vancouver a run for its money. Little did we know that we would also try and rival the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":3607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[732],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhsf.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}