• Getting ready to film grad ball…it’s looking awesome! #

• Loughborough is done for another year! We’ve all had a fantastic time and hopefully you’ve enjoyed everything we’ve done. Good luck lufbra! #

• It’s Definitely Tuesday @ Radiothon 2009! Listen Live at lufbra.net/lcr now! #

• LSUTV have just become the first student TV station to have content in full 720p at ~6Mbps. Check it out! http://is.gd/UWs6 #

The Loughborough Aces have, for the past 20 years, been one of the forerunners of British American Football within Universities. The 3 time national champions are looking to build on this heritage by leading through innovation, and its hoped that by contacting their friends across the oceans, they can recapture the National title once more.

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The Tamworth Phoenix were chosen as the opponents, as they too are looking to benefit from this relationship. The Phoenix were promoted in their first season in the league, with the benefit of twenty players from the student team from Loughborough. They certainly proved to be worthy opponents.

Paul Mandina has played American Football at the highest level – as a member of the University of Indiana Hoosiers he regularly played in front of over 80,000 fans, and had stints at the San Francisco 49ers and the Houston Texans in the NFL, yet he’s not seen team spirit like the Loughborough Aces exhibit.

Mandina was over with a group of touring American Footballers to take part in the first annual Griffin Bowl; an exhibition game to showcase the combined talents of the best University and Senior league American Football teams in the UK. The competition was set up by the Loughborough Aces Head Coach Jason Scott, and his counterpart from Endicott College Gulls, JB Wells.

After jumping out of the blocks, thanks to hard running by runningback Yomi Okuboyejo, and a great display of passing from 4th year signal caller John Pimperton, the Aces were within shot of the Tamworth endzone. Faced with a third and long, the Aces went to a combination that had worked so well all season; Pimperton hit reciever Jack Daley for the 12th score of their hugely productive season. Following the kick, the home side were 7-0 up.

It was the Tamworth defence that struck the next decisive blow – lead by Great Britain Internatonal (and Aces Linebacker coach) Matt Davis, the Phoenix piled on the pressure. Pressure that lead to a fumble by second year back Terry Mensah, which new signing Andy Mortimer grabbed and took to paydirt for the equalising score.

A brace of American All Star Linemen took to the field to help protect Pimperton, and his trusted arm hit his targets once more early in the third quarter, with his 20 yard pass to Academic All American Ray Lynch being the highlight play of the drive, as the American lost his balance at the 2 yard line. It was Pimperton, 3 plays later, who turned from provider to scorer as he rushed round the left end.

The students rung the changes, and gave valuable gametime to first year players – many of which had only been playing for 6 months, whilst many of their American counterparts had been playing for 16 years. Linebacker Andy Lyell built on a good first season, whilst second string quarterback Paul O Sullivan hit rookie Raph Adiyinka and Ben Davies in quick succession.

O’ Sullivan’s radar misfired just before the half, as a pass intended for veteran James Hossack hit Phoenix defensive back Jason Martin, which he took for 20 yards and the score.

After the half, it was the visitors who dealt another huge blow – bringing on veteran players Dave Winter and Jay Alexander (both National title winners from their time at Birmingham University Lions) – who’s game smarts helped combine for the next score. Strong runnging from Alexander, gave quarterback Stu Ennis time to hit the Reciever at the back of the endzone.

Ennis pounced again soon after, as he hit Great Britain prospect Ricky Livingstone for the last score of the day. One last drive from Pimperton couldn’t reduce the deficit, even after hitting Lynch and Hossack in quick succession. The final gun went moments later, as one last playaction pass with Okuboyejo fell short.

“It was a great game, watched by an enthusiastic audience” Jason Scott said afterwards – “American Football is a growing sport, and with attitude shown by both teams, it’ll continue to grow at a huge rate.”

Mandina agreed, “I wish the teams that I played on had this team spirit and cameraderie; we would have won the championship every year. The Aces and Tamworth are proof that hard work and dedication pay off, and I really hope that this venture continues, grows and develops”.

The Aces face the National Champion Birmingham Lions in the British University American Football League kick-off event “xpLosION” next November, whilst the Phoenix play a tough home fixture against the Oxford Saints this Sunday at Tamworth Rugby Club. If anyone is interested in getting into American Football, they should visit www.getintoamericanfootball.com.

Submitted by a representative of Loughborough Aces. Photos: Andy Morgan

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• Label’s Style issue now available – pick up your copy from all the usual places (halls, the union, EHB, JamesFrance etc!). #

A few weeks ago, Stage Soc put on a performance of Glimpse Due Solace. Colette Stirling, Label reporter, reviews.

Directors – Jessica Williams and Fiona Armstrong
Cast list :–
Solace : Charlotte Wright
Patrick: Chris Joy
Emma: Melainie Brown
Tim: Stephen Waring
Kate: Kelly Townsend
Emily: Katy Moore
Eddie: Matt Melia
Mickey: James ‘Fish’ Cook
David: David Griffths
Robert: Mahan Arora
Samantha: Emily Wrigglesworth
Tom: Tom Holmes

‘What’s in a name?’ you may ask, well although the title of this play doesn’t reveal much; the social issues reveal why ‘Glimpse Due Solace’ is a play you will definitely remember. The play tells the story of twelve people who are linked through each other at different stages in life. They appear in six groups of two and take an equal amount of stage time for each character couple.

A freeze frame introduces the audience to the characters in which they all hold a separate pose while the audience settle in their seats. They held their pose for an impressive fifteen minutes with only a couple of wobbles appearing every now and then! The first of the five character groups are a mute girl named Solace and Patrick the photographer. At first we do not know the reason for Solace’s lack of speech, however throughout the second half we begin to see these reason which have been cleverly fused together by directors, Jessica Williams and Fiona Armstrong.

The second character couple features a girl, Samantha, in a wedding dress and Tom who is the local train spotter. Samantha is having trouble dealing with the lack of love in her life and attempts to throw herself in front of a train as a last hope to woo the man who comes to her rescue. This witty and humorous character enables the audience to laugh a little even with the intense plot line.

Appearing in the third character group are two male gays, David and Robert. On the outside they both appear average, normal people without a care in the world. However, throughout the scenes we realise they are in a medical centre waiting for the results of an STI test. Robert has AIDS and the cruel long pause is incredibly uncomfortable for the audience. David is shocked to say the least, he’s speechless. Robert’s death is nearing, yet he doesn’t let it get to him; he continues to be happy and crack jokes with David while he tries to avoid those dark thoughts.

As each scene takes places the remainder of the cast members stay on stage in different poses in freeze. They use props to reflect the situation, for example, the medical centre has newspapers and magazines while pictures occupy the photography studio. The fourth character couple portrays Tim who has his eyes bandaged through suffering from an ordeal; he is paired with Emma the psychologist. In the second half it only becomes apparent how Solace and Tim are connected revealing the shocking facts to the audience.

The fifth character group shows two females named Kate and Emily. Kate is pregnant and has been captured by Emily who appears to be psychologically disorientated. She has a missing element to her life and believes Kate’s baby will bring her life together; the missing puzzle piece, so to speak. It is revealed that Kate had cancer as a teenager so she knows the value of life; however she seems to have taken it too far in this scene.

The final character group again features two male friends who have just stolen from an off-license. Eddie and Mickey have to test their friendship as one of them is revealed to be an accidental murderer. A gun is used to symbolise the violence and how situations can easily get out of hand. The play ends with a final message: Who or what decides your fate? Do you have a choice in the matter and if so what will be the consequences?

Glimpse Due Solace is a simple yet touching play with a fantastic team behind the stage as well as on.

Have you seen Label this fortnight? On page 23 there is a 3-page picnic food special but there was just so much good food we couldn’t fit all the recipes in! So here are two more to tantalise your tastebuds.
Feta and courgette couscous salad
Ingredients
300g couscous
vegetable stock
2 courgettes
1 tbsp olive oil
100g feta cheese, crumbled
20g mint, finely chopped
juice 1 lemon

1. Cook the couscous according to pack instructions with the vegetable stock. Chop the courgettes into thin slices.
2. Heat a griddle pan. Drizzle the courgettes with the olive oil and season. Cook for 2 mins until charred, then turn over and cook 1-2 mins more until softened. Tip the courgettes and couscous into a big bowl with the other ingredients and mix together. Serve at room temperature.

Macaroons
Ingredients
110g icing sugar
60g ground almonds
2 free-range egg whites
40g caster sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 170C. Sift the icing sugar and ground almonds into a bowl.
2. Place the egg whites and caster sugar into a bowl and use an electric whisk to whisk them into stiff peaks. Take a third of the meringue mixture and fold it gently into the almond and sugar mix. Once incorporated, fold in another third of the meringue and finally add the last third until the mix appears smooth and glossy.
3. Line a baking tray with baking paper (sticking it on with dots of the mixture in each corner). Dot the mix onto the sheet into uniform discs, the size of a £2 coin, either using a spoon or a piping bag.
4. Tap the baking tray hard against the worksurface to flatten the discs, then leave the macaroons for 15 minutes to settle.
5. Bake the macaroons for about 12 minutes- they are ready when they peel freely off the paper with a palette knife. Leave to cool completely.
6. To assemble the macaroons, use a small spoon to put a pea-sized amount of the filling on the flat side of half the biscuits. Sandwich them together and leave at room temperature to set for a couple of hours.

Variations
-Salted peanut and caramel-
1. Roughly chop 20g unsalted peanuts, and scatter over the discs before baking.
2. To make the filling, boil a tin of condensed milk for 3 hours (or buy a jar of dulce de leche) and mix 100g with 30g finely chopped peanuts and a pinch of salt.

-Lime and basil-
1. Finely chop 5 large basil leaves and incorporate into the mixture with the zest of one lime before piping out the discs.
2. For the filling, cream 100g unsalted butter, 45g icing sugar, the juice and zest of 1 lime and 5 finely chopped large basil leaves together.

• ‘It’s Definitely Tuesday’ podcast now up – http://is.gd/GME4 #