In this Issue ...

Women's Boat Club Report

The Women's Novice A Crew

This term the women combined our novice and senior programs: training, rowing and racing together. We entered a IV in Autumn Fours and a Novice VIII in Nephthys Regatta. For Christ Church Regatta rowers from our Novice B crew rowed in the 'Mixed' Men's Novice D. Our Novice A rowed well in some very close races, coming from behind to beat Lincoln A by a bow-ball but losing the 3rd round to Magdalen A in another close race decided only in the last 100m.

The Boat Club started off Michaelmas term with a major emphasis on bringing new talent into the program through a series of recruiting events. These efforts were successful in terms of both numbers and quality. At the end of the term, we had over 30 novice men and two novice coxswains participating in Christ Church Regatta.

The Men's Novice A Crew

We entered three Novice Men's VIIIs and worked with the women to form a Mixed VIII so that everyone who wanted to race had an opportunity to do so. Disappointingly, the lower crews all lost in their 1st round and repechage races. The Novice A crew, however, advanced through to the 4th Round, where they lost to Exeter A, who ultimately won the event. Overall, the novice men came away from Christ Church excited and determined to do better next term - over 25 novice men have indicated they intend to trial for Torpids boats.

I have many happy memories of my time as Captain of Boats. Sadly, they remain overshadowed by the untimely death of Mark Neave, my friend and Vice-Captain, only a few years later at the tender age of 29.

As well as being an extremely supportive Vice-Captain, Mark was a stalwart of the 1st VIII that year, which, under the able tutelage of Anu Dudhia and Adam Tinwell, enjoyed a successful season despite finishing Torpids, frustratingly, one bump short of Blades. Nonetheless, our progress in the first division took us up three places to finish 7th which, at the time, was the second highest position ever reached by a Catz men's crew. And this despite the obvious reservations of Steve Eyles at bow, who seemed far too afraid of the prospect of actually making contact with the crew in front to be at all cut out for bumps racing.

The 1989 Men's 1st Torpid which gained 3 places, reaching 7th on the river. Steve Eyles (bow), Olly Hassall, Mark Neave, Andy Silverbeck, Charles Courquin, Keith Pritchard, Alan Supple, Jim Bigger (str), Neil Chugani (cox).

We also managed to become Cherwell Regatta Sprint VIII Champions, a somewhat dubious competition which I'm sure must have been discontinued since. Tactics for these shortest of races principally involved using up as much of the course as possible trying to start slightly up on the opposing crew (much to the impotent frustration of the umpire) and then jumping the start anyway. With savvy veterans like Chas Courquin, Keith Pritchard and Jim Bigger on board, we successfully mastered the dark art of free-start match racing without too many problems and claimed a rare piece of silverware for the Club.

The 1st Eight, having trained at Radley under Jean Le Manac'h, finished Eights week up two places, which perhaps didn't quite do our speed justice. Perhaps we shouldn't have been quite so satisfied at being the first crew in the beer tent at Thames Ditton regatta earlier in the term.

The 1989 Women's 1st Eight which won blades, finishing top of Div.2. Laura Maclehose (bow), Alex Marson, Nicole Dupont, Claire Thomas, Eleanor Cooper, Cath Zissell, Sarah Frost, Heidi Avery (str), Annabel Bryett (cox).

The Women's 1st Eight, meanwhile, deservedly won blades - despite some equipment problems mid-way through the week which threatened to de-rail their progress. As ever, though, Jim the Boatman (I never did find out his full name ...) managed some hasty repairs, fashioning a new shoulder for Piglet, probably from some driftwood and sticky-back plastic. Their High Table Bumps Supper duly followed, sullied only by the interloping presence of the Men's Schools VIII, celebrating their men-against-boys victory down in the bowels of the bumps charts ...

The 1988/89 season was not only successful, but a hugely enjoyable chapter in my rowing career as well. Despite all the inevitable frustrations involved in being Captain, like waiting for the final member of a novice crew to turn up at an early morning outing, again; or trying to persuade the Master that the next Boat Club dinner couldn't possibly be as debauched as the last so please could he not cancel it; or constantly being on the end of a bar footie thrashing from Anu and Keith (who developed their table football skills to a disturbingly refined level), only the happy memories really stand out. As I remember it, there was a buoyant, collegiate spirit about the Boat Club that year, and with our ranks swelling, we even managed to assert something of a 'Boatie' dominance over the forever grumbling 'Bar Crowd' in the JCR.

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