Newsletter#1, Michaelmas Term, 2000 (29th October)

So where were you in the small hours of Saturday morning, September 23rd? Chances are that you were sat in front of a telly along with 7 million other Britons watching a certain rowing race unfold in Sydney. Er ... hang on - 7 million, at that time of night? What's happened to our quiet little sport? In hitherto boatie-free zones (yes, there are one or two in my life), I've suddenly found myself being ambushed for an opinion on GB crew selection or an explanation for the outcome of Lucerne Regatta; I expect many of you with known rowing tendencies have had similar experiences. For those of you living abroad, I should explain that the BBC had long ago decided that the coxless fours race would be the centrepiece of their Olympic coverage, and the newspapers were happy to run with it until the intensity of it all got pretty scary. Is it just me, or do others occasionally shudder at the thought of the bleak wasteland we would all be inhabiting had the Italians been just a little quicker? ... Oh, just me then - well, put it down to too many years spent chasing Catz crews up and down the towpath.

Anyway, back with the actuality, I imagine there's some freshly-promoted BBC executive who gets down on their knees in a plush new office and daily gives thanks to Messrs Pinsent, Foster, Redgrave and Cracknell for making it all happen. The men's VIII also winning a gold and the women's quad a silver only added fuel to the flames, and when it was discovered that rowers stuck in front of TV cameras turned out to be surprisingly presentable any hopes of a quiet, relaxing homecoming were completely blown away. When I say 'presentable', admittedly the cox of the men's VIII did manage to slip in the traditional 'f' word in the live post-race interview, but at least it was at 2am UK time so could be edited out for later family viewing. Apart from Matthew Pinsent (M.89) - no more quiet dinners in restaurants for him! - we should also note the gold medals achieved by a couple of our former coaches: Tim Foster, coach of 1997 Women's 1st Eight; and, from the GB VIII, Ben Hunt-Davies who coached the 1994 Men's 1st Torpid.

Returning to the beginning of summer, Sarah Boddy and Helen Barnes both had wins rowing with the women's lightweights' summer squad, Richard Law (OULRC) and Matt Smith (OUBC) raced at Henley Royal Regatta, and Emily Woodeson and Floss Williams rowed in the OUWBC VIII at the National Championships, finishing just outside the medals, but ahead of Cambridge (which is, after all, the important thing).

There was a good turn-out for the Gaudy paddle on 8th July. We boated a leisurely VIII consisting of Basil Barrett (M.81, bow), Gill Wheeler (Rhodes, M.82), Sean Fanning (M.80), Elliot Papageorgiou (M.97 - just happened to be in the area), Andy Walter (M.78), Anthony Jones ('Jonah', M.78), Mandy Firth (Hicks, M.80), James Sergeant (M.84, str) and Catherine Corcoran ('Corky', M.81, cox); and a slightly more spritely - well, at first, anyway - IV containing Olive Law (Spurway, M.79, bow), Kip Marks (M.79), Gareth Williams (M.79), Tony Mitchell (M.82, str) and Melanie Merricks (Sore, M.82, cox). Thanks to Raph Schapiro and Michael Bull for being around to help. Tony Mitchell was sufficiently inspired by this and the Olympics to have started taking the double scull out regularly since then, although I do hope he's managed to replace that moth-eaten Isis kit by now.

The St Catherine's IV at the start of the 2000 City Bumps. Matt Denmark (bow), Michael Bull, Simon Evans, Richard Law (str), Cath Ellicott (cox).

And, to answer the question posed at the beginning, I was sat watching TV with four other Catz rowers who were about to take part in the newly-revived City of Oxford Bumping races the next day (we figured that all the opposition would be staying up late to watch the race as well). The event was for coxed fours, basically racing under Torpids rules but with all four days racing compressed into a single day. There were seven men's crews entered, and Catz starting 5th, rowed over for the first three races but finally got a bump in the last race when City of Oxford II blew up after an all-out attempt to catch Merton. In spite of the inspirational efforts of their bow-man, Peter Murphy (M.95), City of Oxford III rowing 6th never got close. If this event does get going again - next round due in April - it would be nice to know that Catz were in there at the start.

Yesterday on the towpath the rain was lashing down almost horizontally and suddenly summer seemed a long time ago. My apologies to Becky Killick (M.94) who'd probably hoped to make a quiet return to Oxford, starting off on undergraduate life again as a medic at Christ Church and perhaps this time around seeing what it would be like without all the rowing. Unfortunately, on the first day of term I spotted her cycling up St Aldate's in her Catz splashtop, happened to mention this to a couple of people, and at 6.45am the next morning she was back in a Catz boat. Sorry!

The men's and women's senior squads are currently being coached by Bobby Gibson. He's recently moved down from Aberdeen to take up a coaching position at Headington School, and the Rowing Society are providing the funds for him to coach Catz in his spare time (thanks, incidentally, to Rob Trythall (M.80) of Aberdeen RC for a little background info - amazing how far the SCCBC old-boy network reaches). I don't know how he's getting along with the women, but some of the men's squad have had a few problems 'stomaching' his erg work-outs. Also, I'm told there could be 6 novice VIIIs out for Christ Church Regatta; provided, that is, they haven't been put off by the sight of the senior men heaving away at their ergs.

We've now got less than half our run of 250 copies of the Boat Club History remaining, so don't delay too long if you want to see your name in print. Cost is £19.99 from the College Development Office. For those in the US or Canada, Craig Klafter (M.83) has now kindly offered to handle local distribution, so contact him instead (cklafter@bu.edu).

Finally, an advanced warning of the 'Rowing Dinner' to be held on the Saturday of Torpids, 3rd March, 2001. This is one of the big College-organised affairs open to all alumni, as we had in 1997, not the usual cosy little Rowing Society dinner for 70 or so. Perhaps a good opportunity to try and contact any of your crewmates and arrange to meet up? See the RS web-pages for details of past crews, and contact the College Development Office if you need help with addresses. Any suggestions as to whom we might invite as guests of honour?

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

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