Varsity 2009/10 – Students and staff at NEW College and Wakefield College raised £790 in aid of the RFL Benevolent Fund: NEW College Pontefract students were crowned Varsity Champions for 2009/10 on 18 December 2009. The Varsity Challenge is an annual day of sports fixtures and events held between NEW College and Wakefield College. Pontefracts’ sporting and academic talent shone on a day that saw over 200 hundred students from each college competing in the activities, and further groups of students involved as volunteers, leading or fundraising at the events. The day saw the colleges compete in Boccia, Hockey, Netball, Golf, Debating, Football, Basketball, Dance, Womens Football, 5 a side, with the Grand Finale of the day’s events being the first team Rugby League game held at Wakefield Wildcats, Belle Vue Stadium.

Tache for Cash 2010 – Students and staff at NEW College raised £200 in aid of Sport Relief A mix of ten students and staff at NEW College bravely agreed to grow a crazy moustache or beard for six weeks up to the Tache for Cash final on Thursday 18 March 2010. An audience of over 100 voted for their top three ‘taches’. All three finalists then went to a staff panel to vote for the overall winner. It was a close run competition, with all competitors putting in a massive effort to jazz up their ‘tache for the final. Tim Neale, Carl Brookes and Paul Barron made the last three. The panel eventually awarded the 2010 Tache for Cash crown to Carl Brookes, for his Village People look-alike tache and outfit to match!

Carnegie Rowing Challenge 2010 – NEW Colleges team of staff and students raised £300 in aid of the RFL Benevolent Fund NEW Colleges’ five-man marathon team consisted of both students and staff. Each member completed a distance of 8,438 metres broken down into four endurance sprints of 2,110 metres. All the team members, Tim Neale, Nathan Fozzard, Andy Petch, Tom Shaw and Alex Nicholls were exhausted at the end of the challenge and took advantage of free massages courtesy of Leeds Carnegies’ sports therapists. The team completed the marathon in 2 hours 49 minutes, finishing just after the Super League referees and the Wakefield Wildcats team.