Newsletter#1, Hilary Term, 1997 (9th February)

When I got back to Oxford in early January the river was frozen solid enough to be able to walk across from OUBC to the college boathouses, or so it seemed. I had actually planned to test this, but was prevented from doing so by a sudden attack of maturity, and the thought of how it would look in the next day's paper if it all went horribly wrong and I didn't even having the excuse of rescuing a dog (the boatmen's dogs are notoriously placid and unadventurous). Anyway, come the end of 0th Week it had all thawed out and the Boat Club was back in business.

At the moment we seem to have 3 men's crews and 3 women's crews. The provisional 1st Torpids are (*denotes ex-1st Torpid/Eight):

Men's 1st Torpid	Women's 1st Torpid
B Peter Murphy	B Sinead Costello
2 Nick Greenhouse	2 Catherine Snook
3 Chris Davies	3 Adrienne Gumm*
4 Paul Hearn	4 Caroline Trotter
5 Ollie Jones*	5 Becky Killick*
6 Ben Brookes	6 Em Thomas*
7 Austin Clayton	7 Bluebell Martin*
S Richard Law*	S Jane Golley
C Helen Barnes	C Sarah Jones*

In the men's 1st Torpid, Peter, Nick, Chris, Paul and Ben are all 2nd years from last summer's 3rd Eight, Austin is a ex-Princeton Lightweight (judging by his kit, not by weight) and Helen is a novice who's already onto her second set of rudder strings. If you're wondering what happened to all the rowers in last summer's 1st and 2nd Eights ... well, it's a good question. In the women's 1st Torpid, Sinead and Caroline come from last year's 2nd Eight, Catherine from the 4th Eight and Jane would probably like to be known as the stroke of the blade-winning '95 2nd Eight but we all know she stroked last summer's slightly less successful 3rd ('Beery Birds') Eight. The women are being 'colourfully' coached by Susan Erb and the men are on the receiving end of my rather more monochromatic style. Matt Wood (M.89) also made the mistake of announcing that he'll be working in Oxford for a couple of weeks so he's been nabbed to coach some of our other crews.

Both 1st crews went to Burway Head yesterday, their first fixture of the term. The men rowed well enough, but the women won the Novice category in a time that would also have won them Senior 3. I think that might be the first time a Catz women's VIII has ever won a Head Race - no doubt someone will correct me if I am wrong. Chris Owens (M.90), who spent three years at Catz welded into the 1st VIII bow seat and then vanished without trace, also reappeared at Burway, now rowing for Bewl Bridge (some reservoir in Kent, I think) but still wearing the same old Durham ARC sweatshirt. The men are having another away-day before Torpids: next Saturday at the Henley Head.

With hardly any stream at the moment, the prospects for running a 'full' Torpids this year are good (I'm going to pretend it's not raining as I write this). The Women's 1st Torpid start 2nd in Women's Division I (4.30 pm), with Osler House ahead and New College behind. The Men's 1st Torpid start 2nd in Men's Division II (4.00 pm) with Exeter ahead and St John's behind. The Men's 2nd Torpid also have a fixed place, starting 12th in Division IV (2.30 pm). If they Row On, the Men's 3rd Torpid will probably appear as a new entry in Men's Division VII at 12.30 pm, while the Women's 2nd and 3rd Torpids would pick up from where they left off last year in Women's Division IV (12.00 noon). So, entertainment all afternoon, then. The Boat Club should also be selling refreshments in the new boathouse in case the excitement gets a bit much. We haven't actually moved our boats in there yet, due to a few hiccups with keys and positions of racks, but it should all get sorted out in the next week or two.

What of the new women's boat? The 'History of St Catherine's Rowing' records the following salutary lesson, extracted from the 1984 Captain's Diary:

'Nothing in a Boat Club seems to create more bickering than the name of a new boat; the decision is left to Liz [the women's Captain] and the lady rowers. A secret ballot is held and Piglet comes top. A good choice when paying by the letter.'

Actually, they probably do. Jon Haynes, a Rowing Society member and ex-Captain of Osler House, sends news that he is currently rowing for Nephthys (the Men's Lightweight reserve crew), plus several other messages implying, quite scandalously, that the information that appears in these newsletters may not be fully-researched and 100% accurate. Of our other triallists, at the moment we're engaged in a tug-of-war with OUBC Development Squad for custody of Ollie Jones (we get to see him alternate weekends) but the real surprise is that Damian West has resigned from OUBC, leaving Emily Lloyd (OUWBC) as our only representative in this year's Oxford-Cambridge boat races. Well, that's not official, it's just what I've heard, OK?

Finally a reminder about the Rowing Celebration Dinner on the Saturday of Torpids. Invitations have been sent out to everyone we can find who's ever been involved with Catz rowing - not just Rowing Society members (needless to say, any non-members who accept will be ever-so-gently leant upon to join) - but the important bit is to get your replies in early to make sure of a place. Two of our three Vice-Presidents should be there, but Jo Gough (M.82) sends her apologies as she'll be working in Switzerland at the time. She also tells me that she married Derek Clark (Keble, Isis, and currently coaching for the Swiss Rowing Federation) last December, so is now Jo Clark - I hope we didn't just order a new batch of Rowing Society headed notepaper.

Anu Dudhia (e-mail: 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