Newsletter#2, Hilary Term, 1998 (21st March)

Bumps charts are over the page. As you'll notice, not much happened on the last day: racing was cancelled due to a combination of high stream and strong winds. A more detailed inspection will show that not one Catz crew got bumped this Torpids!

From the Women's Captain, Caroline Trotter:

I think it would be fair to say that it's been a really good term of rowing for the women's boat club, with 3 crews training in all, and 2 crews rowing in Torpids.

The 1st Torpid, as I'm sure you know by now, rowed over all 3 days to stay second on the river. Our rowing had been improving each day (as the stream got worse!), and I had a feeling that Saturday just might have been the day when Osler steered into the bank! The first day was rather calamitous: thanks to a re-row of women's Div 2 that rather limited our warm up time, we only just got onto our bungline. I was taking off my leggings on 20 seconds (Anu had reassured us we had plenty of time) but at least I wasn't as bad as the New College bow who was still doing her hair as the gun went off. Earlier in the term the 1st VIII had a trip to Burway, and retained our Novice title from last year. We were ably coached all term by Steve Williams from Oxford Brookes University, with help from Martin Thorneycroft (Teddy Hall) who was our whistle man and general confidence booster!

The 2nd Torpid had a great term too, and worked exceptionally hard, to become the second highest 2nd Torpid on the river (guess who's the first!?). None of them had rowed in bumps before but they kept their heads to catch Wolfson II on the 1st day, before rowing over twice in hot pursuit of Corpus Christi. They were so close on the Friday I couldn't stop shouting at them as I cycled along the bank (probably helpful comments like 'ROW HARDER!'), which meant that I sounded like Minnie Mouse for the next week. Thanks to [Dr.] Jon Haynes for coaching, I hope they didn't miss him too much at the hospital! Finally the third VIII were unfortunate not to row on. The flags hindered their early training, but they remained enthusiastic throughout (particularly at the Rowing Society Dinner). They're all coming back for another try next term, when hopefully the weather will be a bit kinder.

As for me, I've had a great time as captain but now I'm off to the library .... just don't mention the f-word!

This year, the men's boat club managed to conjure up enough people (admittedly not all men) for five VIIIs. In addition to the 3 'standard' crews, we also had a crew consisting entirely of American visiting students here for a year, and a 'Beer' VIII with several schoolboy rowers who will hopefully be rowing with the first VIII next term. Of these crews, the 3rd, 4th and 5th VIIIs all had to 'Row On' to qualify for Torpids. Unfortunately, due to the change in the rules which turned one of the men's divisions into a women's division, the 3rd VIII missed qualifying by 3s. The 'USA' VIII also failed to qualify, and although both were due to race in Cherwell regatta at the end of term, this was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. The 'Beer' VIII did qualify, as the 3rd Torpid (2nd overall in qualifying times), and had gained 3 fairly straightforward bumps before racing was abandoned on the Saturday.

The second Torpid were a little unfortunate in only obtaining one bump, although they did succeed in reversing the downward trend of recent years.

The first Torpid also had a successful three days - after narrowly missing Wadham on the first day, we proceeded to hold off Trinity on the second, and finished the week off with a 3rd row over on the Friday. We also went to Burway Head in 5th week, where we came 2nd in the Novice category, and 16th out of 44 overall. As I write this, I'm eagerly awaiting the results of the Head of the River race - held on the Tideway. Starting 263rd, we began in a better position than last year, and with the stronger tide this entails, I'm hoping we've improved this position further in readiness for next year. [actually finished 284th, 23 places better than last year].

Finally, I should thank Anu and Richard Law for all their efforts in coaching the 1st VIII this term, as well as all the boat club members, particularly Helen Barnes, who helped to organise and coach the other crews we had this term.

Anu Dudhia (email: dudhia@atm.ox.ac.uk)

Links

St Catherine's College

Oxford University Rowing Clubs

St Catherine's College Boat Club

St Catherine's Rowing Society