115th Annual Blues Awards
Published Mon 13 Nov 2023
Over 100 people gathered at the National Wine Centre on October 31st for the 115th annual Blues Awards Ceremony. The event celebrated the successes of clubs and athletes throughout the year.
The history of the Blue began in 1836 following a boat race between Oxford and Cambridge Universities. It began as a blue ribbon tied to the bow of the Cambridge boat, and later as the colour of the stripes worn by the Oxford crew. Over time, any student who represented Oxford against Cambridge was entitled to wear a dark blue jacket. Eventually, Blues were awarded for outstanding achievement in university sport – a tradition adopted at universities in many parts of the world.
At the University of Adelaide, the Blue was adopted in 1908 as the highest recognition for sporting achievement by students at the University.
Half Blue recipients were as follows:
- Edward Chipperfield, Rebecca Monck, Grace Seppelt and Nick Burr (Boat)
- Jeremy Harford (Football)
Blue Award recipients were as follows:
- Kyle Miller and Hugo Wurm (Boat)
- Phuc Nguyen (Judo)
- Rafe Liebers (Rugby Union)
- Sophie Davidson, Maia Hodge, Charlie Ryan-Kane, Kanika Singla and Mikaila Thomson (Sailing)
- James Yip (Swimming)
- Jason de Groot (Wing Chun Kung Fu)
- Bailey Wightman (Cricket)
- Niamh Davis (Football)
The AU Sport Board and Blues Committee believe students who are not necessarily members of AU Sport clubs should be recognised for exceptional performance at Intervarsity events. This is the 7th year the Intervarsity Certificate of Merit was awarded.
This year, our winners of the Intervarsity Certificate of Merit were:
- Nicholas Blackman, Flynn Carroll, Kyle Miller, James Ritossa and Hugo Wurm (Boat)
- Edward Steele, Ashleigh Haigh, Lachlan Hunter, Isaac Jurecky, Evie Lovell, Tamika Reid, Isaac Hampel, Josephine Harris, Toby Hunt, Scarlett Miles, Luke Mollet, Bailey Nathan, Steven Parfitt, Harry Reemst and Samuel Wooley (Basketball)
- Emilia Rinaldi (Netball)
- Harrison Bagley (Athletics)
- Lachlan Davis (Gymnastics)
- Roshan Chandran (Fencing)
Club Letters - Competition award winners were:
- Alex Nixon (Judo)
- William McLachlan (Rugby Union)
- Kieran Ong (Touch Football)
- Scarlett Groom-Ransom (Wing Chun Kung Fu)
- Callum Deckers (Boat)
- Ethan Bamber, Miles Hammond, Ashish Negi, and Heather Westwood (Cricket)
- Sam Lawrence, Elliot Hewish, and Joshua Richards (Football)
- Ivan Lam (Judo)
- Ellie Konopka and Brianna Nathan (Rugby Union)
Club Letters - Service award winners were:
- Deepak Chetry, Leo Panzarino and Katherine da Silva (Cricket)
- Kathryn Drewer and Jacqueline Gunn (Hockey)
- Adila Abdul Halim and Scott Carnie-Bronca (Swimming)
- Emily Clark and Caitlin McMahon (Touch Football)
- Declan Hoare, Callan Bubner and Ricky Han (Volleyball)
Daniel Broadbridge and Mark Stephens (Baseball) received awards for Service to AU Sport recognising significant service over more than 15 years.
Volunteer of the Year, Coach of the Year and Club of the Year Awards were also given out on the night.
Our Volunteer of the Year Award was split into two categories, student, and non-student with Callan Bubner from Adelaide University (AU) Volleyball taking home the non-student award and Angus Crouch (Rugby Union) winning the Bill Scammell volunteer student award.
Our Coach of the Year award highlighted two outstanding individuals with Mick Gray (Touch) for Development Coach and Sam Morton (Boat) for Elite Coach.
The Patron’s Cup is awarded to a club for outstanding sporting achievement across the year, which saw AU Boat named the winner.
Our Club of the Year awards were also split into two categories, recognising our larger and smaller clubs.
The Jessop Shield Club of the Year Award recognised clubs with less than 50 members, with the AU Swimming Club taking out the award for the second year running.
Lastly, the Bennett Shield Club of the Year recognised clubs with more than 50 members, with the AU Volleyball Club named as the winners.
Adelaide University Sport and Fitness would like to congratulate all 2023 award recipients.
