SU Spring Elections 2026 Interviews: Stuart Rance, VP Sports

In the run-up to the Warwick Students’ Union (SU) Spring Elections, The Boar offered all Full-Time Officer (FTO) candidates the opportunity to be interviewed.

Stuart Rance, President of Warwick Men’s Cricket, is running for Vice President for Sports, and spoke to The Boar about his thoughts on student engagement, University support for athletes, and his own experience playing on campus.

Why did you decide to run for this position?

“It’s something I really wanted to be a part of,” Rance said, speaking on the projects being pushed by Warwick Sport. Having been President of Men’s Cricket for the past year, he said he’s been able to see closely the work done by Louis Gosling, the current holder of the role, who he said he’s built a personal relationship with over the last two years.

“Getting to see through the Presidents group all the work he does and the passion he has for sports really inspired me.”

With the current rebrand of Warwick Sport’s identity taking shape, and other projects being moved forward by Team Warwick and the SU, Rance is keen to be a part of this.

“It’s something I really wanted to be a part of, and to help shape how students get to experience sport at the University, and make the sporting experience better for everyone here.”

What’s your experience with Sports at Warwick?

“Primarily for me, it’s been playing cricket as my main sport,” he said.

The head of the Men’s Cricket Club has been in the cricket set-up for three years: “I’ve been a first-team cricketer for three years and that’s been amazing. I’ve loved all my time with the community around cricket and everything there.”

“I gave rugby a bit of a go in first year,” Rance added. “I wasn’t very good at it, but all the guys were so inviting.” He has also played “a bit” in Warwick’s Intramural Leagues, in Cricket and in 11-a-side and 5-a-side football. “They’ve all been brilliant as well.”

Warwick Sport is currently undergoing a rebrand, with potential mission statements including ‘For the W’ and ‘Beyond is Where We Belong’. Is this an important step forward for student sport? And how will you continue to listen to the opinions of sports club members throughout the rebrand?

Rance was unabashed in praising the rebrand, arguing that it is “necessary for really improving the sporting experience at Warwick”.

“I think with the current branding, it’s kind of reached a peak of where it can be, and to have wider engagement and more involvement from the central University, it needs this rebrand to align better with the central University’s branding. For them to repost anything, for them to get involved in anything, this rebrand was necessary.”

He himself is a fan of the ‘For the W’ slogan, lauding it as “clean, simple, and I think they can do a lot with it”.

Rance did, however, stress the importance of making sure that when implementing the new brand, this is done firmly in conjunction with the existing identities of Warwick sports clubs. “One I think of is American Football, who are the Wolves, and that’s their branding. If they get asked to remove that, it’s almost like starting a new club from scratch and getting rid of the old one.”

“So I think it’s being able to align our values with the central University’s, as well as keeping our own identities on the side as individual sports clubs. And making sure those individual sports clubs do still fit into the new total rebrand.”

How would you seek to support and improve sports clubs performances in both BUCS tournaments and non-BUCS competitions in the year ahead?

There are a few ways to do this, Rance said. “Obviously everyone would love more money to get more coaching, better equipment, and greater access to improve your sporting ability, but that’s not the only thing I think that affects BUCS competitions.”

“We’re all student athletes, we all come here to study foremost and then play sport afterwards. So supporting students who are playing sport through their studies as well, I think, is as important as supporting their actual athletic ability.”

He said that could involve keeping lectures off Wednesday afternoons, when people have sports, so that they don’t have to worry about catching up afterwards. “Or, where that isn’t possible, helping them in any way I can, and to lessen the load of being worried about being behind.”

Students can be unaware of when sports clubs are playing fixtures on campus, leading to low crowd turnouts for sports fixtures: the One Warwick programme last year drew crowds of only 400 people over two terms. How will you ensure Team Warwick isn’t just something that only sports club members feel part of, but that every Warwick student feels part of through being able to support their peers?

“I think this goes along really well with the rebrand stuff,” Rance enthused. “That rebrand will allow the central University to be more involved with sports, hopefully. We hope that they’ll start posting stuff on their central University site, and advertising sports clubs as not like a separate side of the University, but as a part of the whole University.”

Publicising fixtures more frequently would be key to creating a culture where students want to go and watch University sports, he feels. “Especially with things like football, rugby, cricket, netball, hockey, and then obviously all the other sports as well, a lot of people who aren’t involved in those sports clubs play those sports.

“And it’s about getting people down and wanting to watch their team that represents their University, rather than just saying, ‘Oh yeah, there’s a football club but I didn’t get in’, or, ‘I didn’t want to join it, so I’m not going to go watch their games and support them’.”

As a cricket player, Rance noted he only plays in the summer, so he has tried to watch a few sports throughout the year. “I’ve always really enjoyed it. So it’s about getting people down to that first game, hoping they enjoy it, and then hoping they’ll continue to come and watch more and more.”

This interview, along with all other interviews for Full-Time Officer positions, can be watched in full using the link here.

You can also view a list of all candidates and their manifestos here.