Last night was the Annual Sydney University Sport Blues Dinner, where the 2005 batch of Athletes who have achieved the University's highest sporting award are inducted.

While the Touch club is yet to have a Blue awarded, last night both Paul Hickey and Gary Reynolds were awarded Golds for their services to sport at the University of Sydney.

Jacqui Bonnitcha, current Gecko, was awarded a Blue in Sailing - and as World Champion was an excellent choice for the trophy for being the Female Blue of the Year.

Read more for information on Paul and Gary's nominations.

Paul Hickey

Executive Positions: Treasurer (2001, 2002); Vice President (2003, 2004, 2005)

Participation: Paul has been responsible for organising the Touch teams at Inter-Varisty games since 2003, and has done an excellent job. In the 6 games that he has been responsible for organising, we have always sent 3 teams, leaving him responsible for roughly 45 athletes, coaches, and managers per event.

He is a proactive organiser, sourcing accommodation and merchandise up to 12 months in advance to ensure that our teams are well looked after when we go away.

Paul has been an active part of our representative teams for the past 2 seasons. He was playing in our Mens Open team in the Vawdon Cup (Sydney’s toughest weekly Touch competition) until he broke his arm mid-season.

Paul has also acted as a Manager during this time for our Mens, Womens, and Mixed teams competiting in NSWTA events.

Special Assistance: University Games Manager - 2003, 2004, 2005

Other Matters: At the Club’s annual awards night Paul was awarded the “Most signifigant contribution to the club” award in recognition of his efforts this year. This was voted upon by University Games athletes, as well as our representative teams.

Paul is a Foundation Executive Member of the Touch Club, and continues to sit on the Executive today.

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Gary Reynolds

Executive Positions: President (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005). Resigned October 2005.

In 2003 Gary developed a “memorandum of understanding” with NSW Touch, that allowed Sydney University to not only run a competition at a discounted cost to students, but also allow for Sydney University to compete in representative competitions. In acting upon this MOU, Gary was responsible for organising a social competition, that catered for 28 teams or some 350 active participants to play touch at Wentworth Park on a weekly basis. Much to Gary’s credit this is a successful competition that generates a considerable amount of income for the club.

It was with this income that Sydney University touch was able to subsidise players to attend the “World Club Challenge”, in Singapore in 2004. Gary was responsible for the organisation of this tour, and selected everything from teams to uniforms, accommodation and flights. It was another successful tour where Gary also played in the Mixed team that was able to beat national teams such as Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

Gary has also organised teams for Sydney Championships, State Cup and the Yass knockout. In 2004 we increased the number of teams that participated in each of these events and for each of the events Gary was the club organiser.

Gary has had considerable influence on the organisation and management of University games teams. In 2004 Gary not only played with the Mens team, but was also the coach of the silver medal winning Womens team at EUG’s. He was able to perform these duties whilst also acting as the Team Captain for Sydney University Sport, and also as a team manager for the three touch teams on tour.

Gary is responsible for the maintenance and moderation of the club website that is accessible to all members. Currently there are over 800 people who are capable of receiving up to date information via electronic newsletters, and our club website is used daily by club members with over 300 hits each day. Gary performs these tasks whilst running his own business and also working as Regional Director for the Rebels National Region.