Awards Night for the 17-18 Season

Riding high off the back of the 48-6 mauling in Varsity, everyone was keen to see who this year’s awards winners were. A lot of the success we had can be attributed to having such a large squad. This year we assembled our biggest registered players; 44, many of whom are rookies, so let’s see who got the silverwear.

Offensive Rookie of the Year : Arb Xhameni. WR

Honourable mentions: Cameron Clarke who played running back (24 rushes) and kick returner. Richard Heit who started every game at Right Guard and Zak Carroll who pulled in a receiving touchdown at wide receiver. Arb brought in over 100 yds in catches as well as a touchdown and his speed became a real problem for defenders.

Defensive Rookie of the Year: Rory Smith. DT

Honourable mentions: Yune Kwon at linebacker had several crucial goal line stops, he notched up 10 tackles and one tackle for loss. Lewis Morgan played safety and kicker, and he racked up 11 tackles, 2 tackles for loss as we as recovering a fumble. Leon Hughes became our starting hard hitting Cornerback claiming 7 tackles, 2 tackles for loss and an interception.

Yet Rory Smith dominated the dline as soon as he stepped on the field, plus he had a massive impact in the Kickoff game with his near perfect open field tackling. He brought in 18 tackles, 2 tackles for a loss and a forced fumble.

Hammer award for lineman. Rob Main Center/Dline

Honourable mentions: Rory Smith and Richard Heit were both nominated as roookies which goes to show the great impact they had. The loud and proud Billy Osborn was the last nomination and he played defensive end, having moved over from Linebacker in the seasons before, his nine tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 1 sack, 2 forced fumbles and 1 field goal block put him in contention for this award.

However club captain and offensive line coach, Rob Main, not only had 12 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 2 sacks and a fumble recovery but he also started every game at Center (plus he had a couple of bursts at running back in Varsity). To be able to play at such a high level on both sides of the ball, without barely taking a snap off all season and coaching the offensive line throughout the yet shows the magnitude of this player.

Special Teams award: Lewis Morgan. Safety/ Kicker/Punter

Honourable mentions: Lucas Stolle’s pace at punt return and kick return brought in over 100 return yards. Joe Muse also had some great runs from kick return as well as some crucial tackles in our Kick off team. Rory Smith had important tackles also on kick off.

Though Lewis Morgan’s boot often saved our drives in the punt game, as well as having a demon boot in the kick off game, plus he scored two Pats.

Most Improved award: Arb Xhameni. WR

Honourable mentions: Tom Rizvi moved from Wide Receiver to Defensive End and his game came alight. He picked up a Pick 6 in our first game against Bath Spa, as well as adding 4 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, and 1 sack. Richie Matheson became our starting Cornerback as the season progressed and became a hard hitting tackler, he shows no fear against bigger running backs coming his way and he picked up 6 tackles. Yune Kwon, was also nominated for his role at Linebacker, where he ended up starting despite stiff competition early in the season.

Of these four players Arb probably had the biggest climb. With 8 wide receivers ahead of him in the pecking order, Arb despite being a rookie was determined to make an impact at wide receiver and by Varsity he was a starter and made a massive impact the games late on in the season. Hard work and dedication made Arb grow and grow week on week

Lancer of the Year Award: Billy Osborn.

The exec decided to merge the “veterans” award the Guy Dawes award into a new category, the Lancers of the Year award, and this was open to how the players interpreted that, be it leadership, inspiration, performance on the field etc. Club President Josh Allen and Club secretary Jon Pease were both nominated, both having worked extremely hard in their executive roles.

Though it is hard to not be uninspired by our very own Billy, one simple rally cry from this man and you will want to strap the helmet on and get out there and play with heart and passion.

Touchdown of the year: Tom Rizvi; “Wanna put me on D? Fine, here is a Pick6 +spike” Vs Bath Spa

Honourable mentions: With 27 touchdowns scored (our second biggest seasonal tally in our history) it was hard to pick just one, however these were all pretty special. Andy Badger’s laser to Jamie Fowler in Varsity. Arb’s crucial touchdown against Bournemouth from a slant route and then a 30 yard whizz to the end zone. Connor’s stampede in Varsity that saw him break five tackles. Will rolling to his left, avoiding a sack and putting up a peach of a ball, for Andy Badger to catch from the corner route having adjusted his body twice on the flight of the ball. Taylor’s catch against Stags in the corner of the end zone.

Asshole of the Annals : Rory Smith

In his fourth nomination of the , Rory picked up his second award. A clear winner for a player who was late for the bus and the coach had to stop for Rory to catch a train and intercept the bus. Lucas Stolle was the Honourable mention.

The Champagne moment of the year was clearly the huge 48-6 win in Varsity. The main other honourable mention was the new team record of beating Bath Spa 76-0 and scoring ten touchdowns on them.

Offensive MVP: Will Szymanski. QB

Honourable mentions: Andy Badger came in with so much experience having played for Harvard some years before. He picked up three passing Touchdowns, three receiving Touchdowns and over 200 yards receiving, as well as some rushing yards, and some tackles and one interception on defense for good measure. Connor Thompson had 6 rushing touchdowns and over 66 yards on the ground. Lucas Stolle at Wide Receiver had 4 receiving Touchdowns over 300 receiving yards as well as playing as a back up Running back.

Will at Qb lead the offense in what was a fully stacked offense, spraying the ball around for 11 eleven passing touchdowns, three rushing touchdowns, over 100 yards in rushing and over 1000 yards in passing and culminating in an offensive that put up some huge numbers.

Defensive MVP: Harvey Appleby

Honourable mentions: Rory Smith (his fifth nomination of the night), Josh Allen- who despite having recovered from knee surgery made an impact with 17 tackles from all the defensive back positions as we all as 3 interceptions. Rob Main was nominated, and a shout out out has to also to go American import, Aidan Salamone who was only in Oxford the team’s second term, but in those three games he put up 21 tackles, more than anyone in the season!

Harvey however lead the defensive calls and was ruthless against the run, he picked up 17 tackles, two tackles for loss, 1 sack, 1 interception and a fumble recovery. Harvey changed his jersey number to #54 and it did not back fire because he played like Brain Urlacher all season long.

Most Valuable Player: Connor Thompson

Honourable mention: Josh Allen. Club president made a huge difference on the field when he came back from injury. Rob Main was a non stop machine in the trenches on both sides of the ball. Will Szymanski had his second best season, sending the ball to 6 different wide receivers for touchdowns and helping generate an offense that scored 26 offensive touchdowns.

Connor Thompson has been the first choice running for his third straight season, despite stiff competition each year. His 4 touchdowns and over 200 rushing yards against Varsity gave him that game’s MVP status. With those kind of stats against an opponent in the higher division goes to show what kind of player Connor is.

Half Blues

This year’s half blues players are: Will Szymanski, Oscar Rhanama, Andy Badger, Lucas stole, Lewis Morgan, Harvey Appleby, Billy Osborn, Jimmy Blackwell, Rory Smith and Richard Heit

18-19 New Club Executive members

President: Will Szymanski

Secretary: Jamie Fowler

Treasurer: Jamie Forstyh

Kit Manager: Joe Muse

P.R/Media: Max Rumbol

Social: Tom Rizvi