After a winter of training and feasting to excess, we returned to Oxford to put together our crews for Torpids. Sadly we lost a few people to their degrees for the term, but still managed to create very competent 1st and 2nd VIIIs, with each a mixture of old and new members.

Training continued as it did in Michaelmas, with weather conditions confining us to the land. The 1st VIII managed to win IWL C again by a very convincing 11.5 seconds, but we were beaten to the overall trophy by Brasenose because they gave OURCs more entries money.

The weeks before Torpids were a tense time with a series of alarming weather predictions being bandied about by OURCs, though luckily the sky cleared and river dropped just a week before the event, allowing us to get some much-needed water time.

I am sure you will all be familiar with Anu's excellent reports on the racing, and hearty congratulations to our ladies for such a fine performance. In future we would ask you to stop being so predictable and give us some exciting racing to watch from the boathouse. On the men's side, we had some incredible performances over the week. Our 1st VIII managed to bump St John's and Wolfson in or before the Gut, and 2 solid row-overs to break the Oriel 'man-stallions' run for blades. The 2nd VIII bumped Lincoln II, Jesus II (overbumping the infamous Exeter II) and St John's II, continuing their annual rise through the ranks. Although they missed out on blades, I hope that fantastic crop of bumps at least consoles them somewhat. Our illustrious 'Mach 3' 3rd VIII took to the waters to bump Trinity III (overbumping Christ Church III) and Brasenose III. Congratulations go to the ragtag band of rowers busy studying that made up this crew.

The Men's 2nd Torpid start their campaign

With Torpids now behind us, it's time for us to look forward to Summer VIIIs. Although we have no returning Blues there are still lots of talent in our squad ready to step up and we expect to have strong 1st and 2nd VIIIs. Perhaps Trinity term will see a return to water-based training, which would be very pleasant indeed. In any case we can look forward to a promising Summer Eights campaign.

The first Captains' Meeting of this term was dominated by rumours of a Torpids cancellation due to the continuing rubbish weather. This was a frustrating threat to the 26 members of the Women's squad who had continued to do land-training over the Christmas vac in any way they could: all building up towards trials at the start of term. Due to the nature of the river this year's W1 was dominated by those who had rowed before 2012 but we were left with a fit 2nd boat and a potential W3 (should the river provide enough water time).

As had become the norm, it didn't, and the W3 that rolled over the starting line on rowing-on had never been in a boat together before. They did not make it into Torpids, but put on a solid performance and showed a promising pool for Summer Eights and future top boat selections. I must congratulate them on their perseverance and commitment even at these early stages of their rowing careers.

W1 and W2 had been lucky enough to get around a week's water time, and even managed to get some race experience at Bedford Head thanks to the support of the Rowing Society and the College. Bedford Head was another wet experience, but it ran, and the excitement of actually getting water time seemed to drown out the bad weather. Both VIIIs stepped up and rowed well and W1, with the imminent and still scheduled Torpids in mind, managed to bump the boat ahead in their second race. We were also pleased to come in 20 seconds faster than the Balliol W1: the only other Oxford women's VIII competing.

Thankfully Torpids went ahead and even saw some sunny afternoons. The first day was a nerve-racking event: hopes high, but everyone wondering if the other colleges had actually been matching or even surpassing our rigorous land-training. It soon became evident that, at least for the boats sandwiching our two VIIIs, they had not.

W2 were fourth fastest in Rowing On, and with this evidence that the boats ahead of them were catchable, continued to dominate Div V. The first day saw them bump St Antony's II after about 1 minute of racing; the next day took down St Johns III; Friday saw them over-bump Exeter II who had begun four bung-lines ahead of them; and on Saturday they clinched blades with a bump on Merton II. I was very impressed to see the girls maintain level heads and listen to their

The Women's 2nd Torpid bearing down on St John's III

W1 decided on their goal early on this year: blades. Between informing our new stroke, Anne de Geus, not to be surprised when the race was started by a cannon firing and praying we could regain the dignity we mislaid in the tree opposite Longbridges during the Saturday of last year's Torpids, the crew was tense for our first row which was at the head of Division 2. However the nerves served us well and we rowed over easily, leaving Exeter five or six lengths behind and even easing off to a technical row along Christ Church meadow. An hour later we were on the sandwich bung-line for Div 1, and with an injection of confidence bumped Queen's before we had even finished our start, following our cox Josh Morgan's warning: `Concede or we will smash you!'. We were pushed up two spots the next day when Hertford were bumped by Univ whom we had already caught before Donny Bridge. We bumped Worcester on Friday and achieved our goal on Saturday with Christ Church. The last start was neat, the rowing was strong, and although Christ Church tried to push off just after Donny Bridge (making it our longest bump) we were only incentivised by the horde of Catz spectators running alongside and the smell of blades.

W1 took part in the time-trial the following Wednesday to see which college would race against Cambridge's equivalent VIII. We came in second to a very strong St John's, however now we know who our competition are we're all feeling positive for Summer VIIIs and are already knee deep in our Easter vac training.

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