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Vice Presidents: Don Barton, Richard Peters, Sir Matthew Pinsent CBE, Ben Sylvester. |
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| Newsletter#1, Michaelmas Term, 2004 (31st October) |
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| St Catherine's College Rowing Society |
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| ||
|
Vice Presidents: Don Barton, Richard Peters, Sir Matthew Pinsent CBE, Ben Sylvester. |
|
| Newsletter#1, Michaelmas Term, 2004 (31st October) |
|
[PDF version] |
Contents |
Links |
It made the Sydney win seem positively comfortable, didn't it?
While Matt Pinsent's exploits have long since acquired a following
well beyond the readership of these newsletters, other students
and alumni have also been making a bit of a splash.
There's an item on the Boat Club of 10 years ago, along
with news from those who rowed in it, while
Don Barton and Tom Shafto contribute from the Boat Club of 50 years ago.
2004 Olympics
![[GB Coxless IV]](rsmt041a.jpg)
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I should, of course, start with the Athens Olympics, even though the story will be well-known to most of you. The GB men's four beat Canada by mere inches to earn Matthew Pinsent (M.89), his fourth Olympic Gold medal. Credit should also be given to the Canadians, not only for producing such a great race, but also displaying such sportsmanship in the aftermath. There has been some debate about whether the GB four were lucky to win on the surge of the stroke, but, having rewatched it on video, it seems to me that the crews crossed the line at the parts of the stroke which gave any advantage to the Canadians.
Henley Women's Regatta, 18-20th June | |
|---|---|
Senior Eights - Final | |
| Vesta bt Mortlake A&A | 1 1/4 L |
| (Caroline Trotter rowing at no.7 in Vesta) | |
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Henley Royal Regatta, 30th June - 4th July | |
|---|---|
Student Coxed Fours - Final | |
| Imperial College bt Isis | 1/2 L |
| (James Woodrow and Paul Holland rowing in Isis) | |
Diamond Sculls - Final | |
| Marcel Hacker (Ger) bt Colin Smith | Easily |
Stewards (Coxless Fours) - Final | |
| Leander & Imperial bt Melbourne U & U Queensland (Aus) | 2 L |
| (Matt Pinsent stroke of Leander & IC) | |
World U23 Regatta, Poznan, 6-8th August | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Men's Single Sculls - Final | |||
| Gold | Latvia | 7:24.00 | |
| Silver | Great Britain | 7:24.98 | (Colin Smith) |
| Bronze | Netherlands | 7:25.36 | |
Olympic Regatta, Athens, 15-22nd August | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Men's Coxless Fours - Final | |||
| Gold | Great Britain | 6:06.98 | (Matt Pinsent) |
| Silver | Canada | 6:07.06 | |
| Bronze | Italy | 6:10.41 | |
![[U23 M1x Medallists]](rsmt041c.jpg)
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As mentioned in the last newsletter, a St Catherine's crew made an unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the Intermediate Coxed Fours event in Henley Women's Regatta. However, Caroline Trotter (M.95) met with more success in the Vesta crew which won Senior Eights.
In Henley Royal Regatta Catz students and alumni appeared in three of this year's finals. Paul Holland (M.03) and James Woodrow (M.02) rowed for Isis in the new Student Coxed Fours competition, losing narrowly to Imperial. Matt Pinsent stroked the GB four to victory in the Stewards, which also happened to be the first race in their Olympic line-up. Colin Smith (M.03), stroke of OUBC and Catz 1st Eights, had a good run in the Diamond Sculls, including (ahem!) eliminating the designated GB Olympic sculler, until he came up against a former World Champion in the finals.
Colin went on to represent GB in the U23 World
Championships in Poznan, Poland, where he won the silver medal (the podium
picture, right, being one of the more remarkable of the year's rowing
images).
Not a bad haul for a fresher.
One wonders what he has planned for his second year.
Paul Halfpenny (M.97)
I went to the
World Masters with the Swiss team this year - with pretty much the
same results as last year:
2nd in the single scull, 3rd in the double and 1st (a
medal!) in the mixed quad.
Tony Mitchell (M.78)
I Raced in a Quintin VetC quad which came second in the heat but was ill
with a throat infection so had to withdraw from VetB 1x and VetC 1x. Tried to
get a mixed 2x together with Sue Brown, (nee Clarke, St Anne's, I think,
about my
time), Xpress member, but she never called or wrote.
So went to plan B: got pissed and went
sightseeing in Hamburg and Lubeck. Probably the fittest sightseer in
Lubeck
but there were no prizes for that.
Anyway, I hope to be back in 2005 and will
open my World Champs campaign with Swindon Splash and Dash family coxed
quad, including
my son, both my daughters and my father in law (72). Always good to aim high.
Don Barton (M.48)
In 1950 the Captain of Boats, Geoff Sworder, entered our eight in
Reading Regatta early in June. Eights Week was not a great success;
the 1st VIII made 2 bumps but were bumped in turn on the last night.
It was decided that a composite eight might benefit from an extended paddle
down to Reading, with bursts of rowing along the way. As Secretary, I was
deputed to make the necessary arrangements. These were not onerous; a letter
to each of the downstream lock-keepers giving an estimated time of arrival,
and a request that if river traffic permitted their locks be kept full to
speed our passage; a letter to Pangbourne College seeking brief use of their
landing stage on the second day; and letters to arrange our mid-day
refreshment.
On the Thursday prior to the Regatta we paddled down to Wallingford, housed
our boat with Wallingford RC, and took the service bus back to Oxford.
The next morning we resumed our paddle downstream.
Pangbourne provided us with our perhaps most memorable incident. A riverside
guest-house had laid on a modest sit-down lunch, served by an unsophisticated
but spirited waitress. We engaged her - as one does - in some chat and
light-hearted banter. At one stage she volunteered that it was her half-day
off, and that after lunch she was off to Reading. One of our number
jocularly offered to give her a lift in our boat - to us a self-evidently
unrealistic proposition. But not to her; she bridled, and observed that
'I wouldn't trust my arse with you lot'. Who says women's lib began in the
1960's?
Chastened, we made our farewells, and paddled on to Reading, initially rather
sluggishly. As for the Regatta, we did not distinguish ourselves; we drew
against University College Hospital, who knocked us out in our first heat.
Excerpts from the History of St Catherine's Rowing
Elliott Wiseman, Men's Vice-Captain
After the antics of Torpids, the Men's Boat Club have a new saying:
'It's not how you do it, but doing it that counts!'.
We moved up one place without actually bumping anyone, quite an achievement
considering the sporadic nature of outings during a term once again dictated
by the weather. Lack of time on the water was certainly supplemented by hours
in the gym and that, no doubt, had a strong influence on the end result.
After being technically bumped
down on the 1st day [for failing to wear a lifejacket, a rule
introduced that year], Balliol were after our
scalps but we held them off admirably proving that we were worth our new
position in Division I.
World Masters (Hamburg, 2-5th September)
A Summer's Outing
10 Years Ago ...
|
Newsletter, 16th June, 1995
... Which brings us to the Men's 3rd VIII. How can mere words ever do full justice to this crew? They came dressed as 'Supermen', complete with theme music, spare pairs of socks (funny how all the women I spoke to had noticed where they had stuffed them) and, on the last day, the full Clark Kent-to-Superman strip-off in front of OUBC. Which led to the previously unconsidered question: 'Just where does Superman keep his boots while he's being Clark Kent?' (Odd that you never think of these things until you see someone try it).
Cheryl Hardy, Women's Captain
The 1st Eight, feeling mean and dangerous with new ultralight hatchet blades (the men were very jealous) moved up two places to end up 6th on the river. We bumped Univ just before the Gut on Wednesday, and Brasenose at Timms on Friday. On Saturday our motto 'an inch a stroke' came into play as we closed on Somerville, but, although they managed to hold us off, their expressions of huge relief at the finish line showed us that we had them worried.
On news of the new boathouse project ...
... which has elicited responses from old members varying from 'Jolly good' to 'AWESOME!!' - by the way, one of these is an American - but I thank Nick Curson (M.84) for summarising what many of us must be feeling at this moment:
'Good news. I trust that uppermost on the agenda is a well stocked bar with vastly subsidised Pimms in plentiful supply. Oh, and a couple of racks for boats too ...'.
The next year the Army, having waited patiently during my 3 year deferment was
so eager for my services that about a week after Schools I received my little
brown envelope with rail warrant and summons to Whittington Barracks. Authority
graciously allowed me 2 days freedom to attend my viva but after basic training
and OCTU it realised how sad I had been at missing the main event and
generously found me a little war to attend in Korea.
Then followed marriage and ten entirely forgettable years with one of the big
insurance companies. Academia started to beckon and the rest of my career was
spent lecturing, writing text books and coping with two daughters followed by
two granddaughters and a grandson. One daughter went to St Hugh's but rode
horses instead of rowing and is now teaching. In academic life I developed an
interest in writing and tutoring for distance learning and this still keeps me
busy and more or less solvent.
Unfortunately my late wife's declining health kept me from the 1949 fifty
year reunion but I am still in contact with Don Barton and Ben Sylvester and
often think back to those days on the river, the beery evenings on the barge
and especially the Saturday afternoon trips to Abingdon. After all, I just had
to sit back and admire the view.
I rowed for about four years at MIT before finally growing tired of the
early mornings. Unable to give up over-exercise, I replaced the rowing
with running, climbing, and triathlons. By the way, it has taken me quite a
while to finally beat your marathon P.B. [Unfortunately for Dom,
I've improved by a couple more minutes since he left Catz],
running three hours dead in
the NYC marathon last fall. Next year's ambitious goal is to run 2:50.
I'm hoping that the altitude training (it's about 2200 m here) will help!
In the next issue, assuming the river goes down, there will be reports on this term's rowing from the new Captains, news of our triallists and a look back at the Boat Club of 20 years ago (84/85) when Richard Peters and Marie-Clare Sowerby were Captains. If you rowed that year, please send an item for the Alumni news section. Contributions from other alumni also welcomed.
Anu Dudhia (email: dudhia@atm.ox.ac.uk )
Diary
| 23-26 Feb 2005 | Torpids |
| 26 Feb 2005 | AGM & Dinner |
| 26 Mar 2005 | Henley Boat Races |
| 27 Mar 2005 | The Boat Race |
| 25-28 May 2005 | Eights |
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