Newsletter#1, Hilary Term, 1998 (1st February)

One of the functions of the Rowing Society is to enable former members of the Boat Club to keep in touch with each other. [I'll apologise now to those of you who've decided to make a stand against the tyrannical onslaught of the 'internet': you might want to skip to the next paragraph]. So I've been compiling a list of our members - currently around 50 - with email addresses, and putting these on the Rowing Society Web pages (address below) so now you can all find each other by yourselves. If you want to be added to that list, just let me know. Of course, one of the pleasures/hazards of such a list is that you might receive messages from out of the blue from people you'd feared/hoped you'd never see again. Recently, I received just such a message from Dean Asofsky (M.86) to let me know he's now 31 (ha!), only 'slightly' heavier than when he rowed in the 1st VIII (mind you, he was already 15st then), working for Morgan Stanley, married, and still has all his hair - can't think why he felt he needed to add that last part.

As you may recall, in 1989 the Rowing Society produced a History of the Boat Club. Needless to say, that prompted a flood of additional material that should have been included if only we'd known about it beforehand and so, ten years on, we're thinking of producing a second, rather more substantial edition. In the original we attempted to list everyone who ever rowed for St Catherine's, along with their crews. However, as you can imagine, there were one or two omissions. At our Rowing Society Committee meeting last week, Tony Hancox turned up with a couple of old illuminated Catz rudders, so now we know who rowed in the 1st VIII in 1882 and 1883 (what do you mean 'you didn't realise we had a boat club that long ago'? In fact we already knew some of those same people had entered the Wyfold Fours at Henley in '83). However, we don't know anyone who rowed in 1955, and only know of 5 people who rowed between 1974-76. 'Patchy' seems the appropriate adjective. Actually, since 1978, records are reasonably complete but if you have any details pre-1978 which did not appear in the original history, please get in touch. By the way, if you want to check the current state of our database, it's all on the RS web pages [Oops! Sorry - won't mention it again].

Frank Gignac (M.58) informs me that, in the annual CAMSIS boatraces between Oxford and Cambridge alumni in Washington DC, Cambridge extended their recent run of victories in the men's race but Heidi Avery (M.88) also maintained the rather longer series of Dark Blue victories in the women's race. Incidentally, while surfing the inter...um, I mean: thanks to a remarkable series of events, possibly involving the fortuitous alignment of certain electrically charged particles, I've managed to discover that Quintin Hogg (M.92) now seems to be signed up as a member of that same club.

And Jo Clark (formerly Jo Gough, as on the RS notepaper), now resident in Switzerland, sends news that she was also at the recent World Championships in Aiguebelette, as the coach of the Lithuanian Men's Lightweight Sculler (long story). [OK, I admit that the Swiss and UK postal services were not necessarily involved in the transfer of this particular information.]

While the rest of us struggled with the wind and rain over the New Year, our University triallists have been enjoying themselves in the sun: Ed Foster and Ollie Jones going Seville with OUBC, Ben Brookes to Banyoles (also Spain, but not quite so warm) with the Lightweights. On the other hand, Heather Booth and Sarah Jones probably didn't bother to pack the suntan lotion for the OUWBC winter training camp at Henley. So far, Ben has been selected for Nephthys (the OULRC 2nd boat - no Cambridge opposition but no more weigh-ins either) while the fates of the others continue to hang in the balance. I see St Catherine's College Boat Club getting a mention in the latest Regatta magazine for winning the Unipart trophy (in a piece about OULRC's sponsorship).

The fallout from all this weather was that the Isis was unrowable until the end of 1st Week, so a lot of time was spent in Catz gym. I'm told that at the end of last term the University Safety Officer paid a visit to the gym and sort of 'freaked out' at what he saw: presumably people lifting bars with - gasp - heavy weights on the end!? Anyway, during the first couple of weeks of this term the place was completely revamped and now features lots of bright, shiny, complicated but apparently completely safe machines. I expect there'll be carpeting soon, followed by mirrors, muzak, and, dare I say, even heating? Going down to the gym every day and finding yet more new toys certainly broke the monotony of land training, but I'm really going to miss that Horizontal Rowing table.

So far, at the end of 2nd Week, three men's crews and three women's crews have taken to the water, with a couple of others still only existing on paper (beermat, more like). The current 1st Torpids are (*denotes ex-1st Torpid/Eight):

Men's 1st Torpid	Women's 1st Torpid
B Hanssen Wendlandt	B Laura Rose
2 Sid Iyer	2 Catherine Snook*
3 Chris Palazzolo	3 Emily Woodeson
4 Greg Halton	4 Liz Smith
5 Paul Halfpenny	5 Suzanne Maguire
6 Geoff Baker	6 Caroline Trotter*
7 Tom Wright	7 Em Thomas*
S Paul Hearn*	S Jane Golley*
C Helen Barnes*	C Sarah Askew*

Most of the men are new to the college 1st VIII: Tom and Greg rowed in previous 2nd VIIIs, Paul 1/2p's a 'mature' novice fresher (one of only two people in the Boat Club who remember Fireball XL5 on the TV - I'm the other one); Sid, Hanssen and Chris are all spending a year at Catz having done a little previous rowing in the US (nothing we can't put right with a little patience and, maybe, a diet of marmite and warm beer); leaving Geoff the only one with any real previous 'form', having rowed at Eton (not a Geographer, though). Richard Law and myself are sharing the coaching. The women's Boat Club have maintained rather more continuity, just as well considering that they'll be chasing Osler-Green for the Headship again this year. Laura, Liz and Suzanne coming from last year's successful 2nd VIII and Emily a novice fresher who's being persuaded that stomping on people on the river is more fun than stomping on people on the rugby pitch. The Rowing Society is funding Steve Williams, formerly of Oxford Brookes University, to coach them, and Jon Haynes and Matt Pinsent should also be helping out, if we manage to find them.

The Women's 2nd Torpid having, at long last, gained a place in the permanent divisions start 11th in Div. III (1.30 pm), the Men's 2nd Torpid 4th in Div.V (2.00 pm), the Men's 1st Torpid 3rd in Div. II (4.00 pm), and the Women's 1st Torpid 2nd in Women's Div. I (4.30 pm). Other crews succeeding in 'Rowing On' will be rowing between 12--1.00 pm. Refreshments should be available at the Boathouse all week.

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

Links

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