Neil Hennessy
Homerton, CURUFC, 1999-2000
Where are you now?
Still on a university campus! I am Principal Lecturer at Cardiff Metropolitan University and an Army Reservist, 157 (Welsh) Rgt RLC.
What are your sporting career highlights?
Playing: Gaining my Wales U21 cap (’98) and captaining my country at the Student World Cup (’00); 2x BUCS Championships (’98 & ’99) and representing Cambridge in the Varsity Match (’99).
Refereeing: WRU Cup Final 2015; Steele-Bodger Match 2015; RAF vs Navy 2022
What are your fondest memories of Cambridge Sport and The Hawks’ Club?
Holding a CUWRFC Open Practice for over seventy novice players still brings back fond memories. Likewise, being asked to step in to referee the LXs because the referee had pulled his hamstring and I was in the Clubhouse watching Wales vs. Australia in a RWC quarter-final at the time.
Many a day/night spent at 18 Portugal Place: good food, cheap alcohol, and a bunch of like-minded keenos.
What do you miss most about Cambridge/The Hawks’ Club?
I miss being part of such a great place: the traditions, the pomp and ceremony, the history, the “chat”. I come up at least 2-3 times a year for mentoring/networking/Shakespeare, but not always during Term when Cambridge is at its best.
If you could relive any sporting moment from your lifetime, what would it be and why?
I should like to relive 07/12/99 and put the record straight. #GDBO
