I got involved in the Darts Society at the University of Manchester in my First Year at University. At the time, the society consisted of about 30 people who gathered on a Monday night to play darts. As I settled into university life, I felt ready to immerse myself into the running of the society and became the Social Media and Marketing Secretary. Through a few initiatives such as open play nights, we saw our membership rise to 70 people in the second term of First Year. This was a huge feat for what was (pre-Luke Littler!) a very small sport. I then organised, at Mountford Hall in Liverpool, a charity darts match against the University of Liverpool, with a capacity crowd of 500. This raised over £500 for a student-led charity called Solidaritee, which was a huge bonus.

As second year loomed, I was elected as President of the society. Over the course of the year, we saw our membership grow to 196 people, a 156% increase on the year prior! This was accompanied by a significant rise in female membership. I managed to establish three competitive teams playing across the University Darts UK (UDUK) North Central League, in which our A-Team made it to the National Finals! From a social media perspective, we surpassed over 1,000 followers, and begun to be a real presence around the University Sport Department and the wider campus! As a result of all of the success’, I was nominated to take up a role on the University of Manchester Sports Executive as the Events and Varsity Officer, resulting in the successful leading role in the relaunch of the UoM vs Manchester Metropolitan University varsity, attended by over a thousand students across the sports. 

As an accolade to the growth of the club, we won the highly prestigious University Sports Club of the Year award and I was also nominated into a highly prestigious University Alumni Club, known as the XXI Club. Each year, 21 students from the University are nominated to this for sporting performance, or outstanding contributions to University Life. To get nominated into this group at all is unprecedented, especially as I was only a second-year student! I was also nominated for University Student Leader of the Year, however I didn’t actually win it (much to my disappointment, but there’s 44,000 other students at the University who would have loved to have been on the shortlist!)

This year, I have continued in both my role as Sports Executive and also President of the Darts Society. We have surpassed the final membership total for last year already, standing at 202, making us one of the largest Russel Group University Sports groups. We have so far raised over £1,600 for charities both nationwide and locally in Greater Manchester, something which I have always been hugely passionate about since my time on the NCS scheme at Hymers. I hope to continue this growth as I enter my final semester at university, in which I have also scheduled and begun planning for the second iteration of the Manchester Varsity, which I remain student executive lead on. 

After I graduate, I have landed a Graduate Job at the Bank of New York, working in their Asset Servicing Division (probably to the surprise of Mr Exley, Mr Mutter and Mr McTeare, whom saw my hopelessness with economics!). All of these opportunities were definitely only possible because of the opportunities Hymers gave me to grow and develop in my time at the school. I had the opportunity to undertake multiple leadership roles in my time at the school including Head of House, Leader of the School Council, winning the Goldsmith’s community engagement award, the NCS Changemakers programme and my time playing Rugby/Cricket/Football for the school. All of these equipped me with the confidence to know I can go into a new environment and help drive change for the greater good of people around me. I have always loved getting stuck into any opportunity I have been given, something which I think was fed to me at Hymers!

Tom Edmiston, OH 2018-22