| St Catherine's College Rowing Society |
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Vice Presidents: Don Barton, Richard Peters, Sir Matthew Pinsent CBE, Ben Sylvester. |
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| Newsletter#1, Hilary Term, 2013 (8th February) |
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[PDF version] |
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| St Catherine's College Rowing Society |
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|
| ||
|
Vice Presidents: Don Barton, Richard Peters, Sir Matthew Pinsent CBE, Ben Sylvester. |
|
| Newsletter#1, Hilary Term, 2013 (8th February) |
|
[PDF version] |
Contents |
Links |
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1815 was the year of the battle of Waterloo and the start of the Eights
bumping races. It was also the year that Oxford's
Radcliffe Meteorological Observatory began
what was to become
the UK's longest continuous record of daily weather observations.
You can guess
where this is going.
2012 turned out
to be the second wettest year in that record - only 1852 was worse.
But the rain does not respect calendar years and
has continued well into 2013. Apart from a freezing couple of weeks at
the start of term,
the river has remained shut (although now, even as I write this, the
Red Flag has finally changed to Amber ...)
In this issue we look at some early form guides to this year Boat Races, Tony Hancox writes of some of the participants in the 1912 Olympic Regatta and, from our own past, we revisit the events of 50 years ago when the cold rather than the rain was making the news. There is a report on the current term's activities (including some actual rowing) and prospects for Torpids. Finally I include a summary the current state of the Rowing Society finances and details of our AGM and Dinner on 2nd March. |
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This could be
the first year since 1988 that there has been no Catz representation
in any of the 6 Oxford-Cambridge student boat races.
That's not counting Matthew Pinsent, who has been named as
the umpire for this year's men's Boat Race.
Nevertheless I assume RS members continue take some interest in the
Dark Blue prospects.
OUBC have 5 returning Blues, most notably including Constantine Louloudis after a year out with the GB VIII, and a new Canadian Olympic oarsman, Malcolm Howard. Against this, Cambridge have 7 returning Blues and their cox from last year. The best chance of any comparisons between the two squads was in the Tideway Fours Head (see above, under 'Results'): assume the top two fours will constitute the Blue Boats, etc., but allow for the fact that some crews are coxless fours. The consensus is that Oxford came out on top, but not by much. |
Both Oxford and Cambridge held their Trial Eights races on the
13th December, but the difference in the tide makes time comparisons
meaningless. Oxford's race was a red-blooded affair with blade clashes,
constantly changing fortunes and a final verdict of 'two seats'.
Cambridge's race, in comparison, was more of a gentlemanly procession.
The two Oxford women's crews finished well ahead of all the Cambridge boats in the Fours Head, so they'll be firm favourites for this year's Women's Boat Race at this stage. Oxford had originally entered four crews, but only managed to put two together on the day which makes me worry that they're low on numbers. If so, I hope that they don't come raiding our 1st Torpid again or, if they do, at least that they have the decency to wait until after Torpids this time. There could yet be a Catz student in this year's Boat Races. |
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Following the item in the last newsletter on
the 1912 Olympic Eights, I have received the following from
Tony Hancox, former President of the Rowing Society.
There were more than two crews from Great Britain at the Olympic Regatta a hundred years ago: with Leander and New College in the eights, we (GB) also entered the single sculls and the coxed fours.[footnote: There was one other event, without any GB entry: 'coxed fours, inriggers' (as opposed to 'outriggers'), which were more like skiffs] William 'Jock' Kinnear from Kensington Rowing Club, won the gold in the sculls and Thames Rowing Club's IV won the Silver Medal behind Germany, the crew being Julius Beresford, who started his rowing and sculling career also at Kensington RC, Karl 'the Bean' Vernon, Charles Rought, Bruce Logan (str) and Geoffrey Carr (cox).
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St Catherine's Boat Club and Rowing Society alumni will be particularly interested to know that Karl Vernon coached St Catherine's 1951 1st Torpid - nearly forty years after Stockholm - including subbing at the age of 70 when someone in the bows fell ill (without in the least disturbing the run of the boat). Probably most important of the members of the 1912 Olympic coxed four was Julius Beresford for his influence on British rowing from the last years of the nineteenth century until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. No more about him at the moment other than to say that he won his Olympic medal at the age of 44, weighting 10st 2lbs. He began a family dynasty of rowing and sculling sons: Jack, Eric and grandson Michael. Between 1920 and 1936 Jack won three Olympics gold medals and three silver for both sculling and rowing - the last, winning a gold medal in Berlin as Adolf Hitler watched. Julius has not been appropriately recognised: it would have been good to have published about him in 2012 but your present author's monograph is a little late. More later. |
| In 1962 the Boat Club of the newly relocated St Catherine's College had won blades in Eights, and celebrated with a bump supper in the old Society's Hall (the new Dining Hall being presumably not yet completed), but 1963 was to be a rather more difficult year. Not only was Torpids cancelled but in Eights the 1st boat were bumped every day to finish at the top of Div III, and the lowest 1st boat on the river. The following extracts are from an article contributed by John Haden to the Boat Club History. | St Catherine's Boat Club was based on the barge, the first in line from Folly Bridge and probably the leakiest, and Salter's Boatyard. Our eights were launched into the tail-race of the bridge, and just upstream from the moored pleasure 'steamers' which spent the winters alongside the path on the north bank. This hazardous procedure kept a skilled boat repairer busy! We had one decent shell, a good clinker eight, and a collection of elderly boats, from eights to coxed pairs. January 1963 was the year of the Great Freeze, when it was possible to drive an Austin 7 from Folly Bridge to Donnington Bridge and to skate from the Isis all the way up the Cherwell to Islip. The SCBC First Torpid had the distinction of a photo in the Oxford Mail, training in deep snow on the towpath beside a very solid river. When it eventually thawed, the flooding prevented all but a very brief preparation, and some very messy racing by healthy but inexpert crews on a lot of water. |
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Although many of our rowers
were back early in the hope of getting in some water time
before the start of term, the river remained shut until 1st week
when the freezing weather finally reduced the river flow to
safe levels. The price was two weeks of bitterly cold outings and, when
the temperature did finally rise, the melting snow coupled with more rain
conspired to close the river down once again.
During this brief window, OURCs held another Isis Winter League head race. The men's 1st Torpid successfully defended their title from last term, winning by an even bigger margin of 14 seconds (in 4½ minutes of racing), with Brasenose again the second fastest crew. However, with most of the top men's crews absent (being based off the Isis and not inclined to transport themselves all the way back and forth for a single event) one should not read too much into this.
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The women didn't enter the IWL but instead used this period to conduct water trials for their 1st and 2nd boats. They are, however, planning on entering both crews for Bedford Head next Sunday (10th Feb) and Henley Head the following Saturday (16th Feb). The last time Catz women ventured off the Isis to race was in the summer of 2009 but at least they've had a trip to the Tideway last term to practice derigging and loading boats. |
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Torpids is scheduled for 7th week of term (27 February - 2nd March).
Since we're now at the end of
4th week that doesn't leave much time for training so,
depending on the mood of the Captains' meeting and the Senior Umpires,
Colleges may be excused their usual forfeit of 6 places if they decide
not to enter their fixed division crews this year. And if the
stream remains high, there is the option
to race just the top crews in reduced divisions of 6 boats each.
Anyway, nothing's decided yet and, assuming the full version of Torpids goes ahead, the expected Wednesday start times for our crews are are listed below.
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On the first day
the men's 1st boat will be chasing St John's and pursued by L.M.H.
The women will be aiming to row over at the top of Div II keeping clear
of Exeter and then bump up into Div I by catching Queen's.
Given the lack of racing so far this year, it's difficult to know what
to expect but Catz are at least in the fortunate position of not having to
rely on novices
to fill their top boats,
although finding experienced coxes is a bit more of an issue (there having
been very few days since October when novice coxes have been allowed out).
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A full set of Rowing Society accounts is produced for the AGM each year but
for those of you who glaze over at the sight of a spreadsheet, I thought
it might be useful to summarise the current state of affairs.
Income We have two main sources of annual income: £3500 from subscriptions (for which, many thanks), and £3000 from sponsorship (thanks to PwC). So a total of £6500 a year. Expenditure We have two big items of annual expenditure. £3000 a year goes on coaching, i.e., £500 a term each for the men's and women's coaching. And £2000-£ 3000 a year, depending on funds, is set aside for new boats. That basically leaves around £500 - £1500 for everything else. Everything else includes, in approximately decreasing order: subsidies for student RS members at the RS Dinner (typically 30 at £10 subsidy each); contributions towards expenses of our University triallists (typically 3 a year at £100 each); contributions towards Boat Club training camps or entries at external regattas; food and drink at the boathouse (just tea, coffee, biscuits etc. to make the place a bit more civilised). |
Assets So we currently have around £3500 in ready cash, and about £15 000 in the new boat fund. With new eights costing around £20-25 000, but the College paying half the cost, we're ready for when the women to tell us they need a new one. Outlook Although we currently seem comfortable, the sponsorship is precarious (renewed only on an annual basis) and it doesn't take an accounting genius to see that we also need to find an extra £1000 a year if we are to fulfil our ambition to buy a new eight every 3 years (the men got a new eight last year, but that was funded from the insurance pay out when they wrote off their previous boat). Hopefully that's whetted your appetite to attend the AGM to discuss plans on how we might improve the situation. |
Coming Up ...In the next issue there will the Captains reports on the term's rowing or, at a pinch, the term's land-training, more news of the University crews and a look at the events of 75 years ago. News items or other contributions from alumni always welcome.Anu Dudhia (email: dudhia@atm.ox.ac.uk ) |
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