Isis Winter League A, 14th November
Time	Crew	Overall	Class
4:49	M8	10th/82	10th/24

Nephthys Regatta, 20th November
Men's Novice Eights (44 entries)
Catz A	R1	lost to Univ A

March or Die! Catz Men's Novice A, aka the 'Foreign Legion', heading off on a warm-up run before their first race in Christ Church Regatta.

Christ Church Regatta, 24-27th November
Men's Novice Eights (79 entries)
Catz A	R1	lost to Exeter A	2 L
	Rep	lost to BNC C	1 ½ L
Catz B	R1	lost to Ch.Ch. B	¾ L
	Rep	beat GTC B	½ L
	R2	lost to Queen's A	1 L
Women's Novice Eights (66 entries)
Catz A	R1	beat Queen's A	1 L
	R2	bye
	R3	beat Keble A	¼ L
	R4	lost to Pembroke A	¼ L
Catz B	R1	beat St Peter's B	dqd
	R2	bye
	R3	lost to Univ A	1 L

We had a great start to this term with a particularly large fresher intake, and the committee really worked overtime to get them all out and into the spirit of rowing as fast as possible. Thankfully the term has been green flag, and so we've managed to make some good progress with both new rowers and coxes alike.

Martin Ramsdale, Men's Captain

The senior crew has lost some key members from last year, but as the term has progressed, I am happy to say people have stepped up to the mark and brought a new, fresh vibe into the club. We've had a good performance in Autumn Fours, and IWL A, with some novices subbing into the latter. Throughout the term we've been focusing predominantly on technical rowing, spearheaded by our cox Theresa, who's been an invaluable resource for the entire club. Naturally the Christmas break is going to be all about fitness to really get the ball rolling for Torpids next term.

In Christ Church we entered two boats, Foreign Legion (mainly graduate rowers) and Torpedo, two fantastic crews both showing dedication in the training leading up to the races. Unfortunately F.L did not make it past the repechage, being beaten by Brasenose. Torpedo got through to the second round beating Green Templeton, but their journey ended there being beaten by Queens.

Thank you very much to all of the committee, in particular Theresa, Dave, Phil and Boxall who have all put in so much time, and supported me throughout this term.

Catz Men's Novice B ('Torpedo').

Michaelmas 2010 began very successfully with a full 'Rowing at St Catherine's' talk. After this a morning of tank sessions followed by sessions on the river. The committee were fantastic and on hand the whole time to help coach the new novices or set the boat. This gave all the novices the chance to row at least up to the head and back again with some of them rowing up to sixes even in this short time.

Katrina Spensley, Women's Captain

Over 30 novice women decided, based on this experience, to take the mandatory swim test imposed by OURCs and following this began training for the Christ Church Regatta. All training was managed magnificently by Leah Carden, who arranged every outing and dealt calmly with all the late cancellations and no-shows that invariably come with novices. The women were able to train 3-4 times per week on the water, and began to attend the land training, mainly ergs and circuits, organised in conjunction with the senior women by Phil McCullough.

Catz Women's Novice A, with cox Phil McCullough.

Catz Women's Novice B, having just won their first race in Christ Church Regatta.

The seniors, without a fixed coach struggled initially to get in to the swing of the sport but by second week were regularly attending 3 outings per week plus land training. The initially plan to enter two teams in the Autumns Fours fell through after a major kit clash forced the B crew to scratch, but the A's went on to win the Repechage plate. The women trained hard throughout the term, and are now in to training hard over the Christmas vacations ready to regain the Headship during next term's Torpids. With some strong new talent as well as the old sturdy base, we will hopefully give Magdalen a challenge.

Leah Carden, Women's Lower Boats Captain.

Thank you very much to the committee who were all on hand to help this term, particularly Leah Carden for training the novices, Theresa Kevorkian for training the seniors, and Phil McCullough and Chrissy Hookham, who did an excellent job at organising coxes for each session.

The 2006 Women's 1st Torpid closing for a bump on Merton on the Thursday.

Newsletter, 18th December, 2005

Our five triallists were distributed among the top three OUBC boats in the Fours Head (Colin Smith winning the Elite 4- class in in Isis I) and were all still going strong by the time of the OUBC Trials Race on 13th December, which meant that Catz men filled 5 of the 18 seats available (beating last year's record of 4), including both stroke seats. In an exciting race, Slash, stroked by Colin Smith with Bruce Magee at no.6, took an early lead but Burn, coxed by Nick Brodie, stroked by Bastien Ripoll and with Stephan Moelvig at no.2, managed to pull back level by Chiswick Eyot and finally broke clear after Barnes Bridge to win by just over a length of clear water.

The 2006 Boat Race (Colin Smith)

When the press saw Oxford rowing backwards and forwards in the rough water, and 'yanking their finishes' to quote the Daily Telegraph, they had a field day. Cambridge looked 'better', had more experience, were more serious in their approach, and as if they didn't have it all already, the press claimed that Cambridge had a lightning fast start. Clearly they didn't do their homework properly!

We dominated off the start, forcing Cambridge to work very hard just to stay in contention early on, and then made our move right before Hammersmith and went on to win by five lengths. There is a difference between pretty rowing and effective rowing!

In all my life, I don't think I have been through an experience that has been so well planned and so well executed. The Boat Race is famous for being unpredictable. No one has a race plan that goes past the first four minutes. And normally, there is some point in the race where you have to do something superhuman to win. That wasn't the case this year. The amount of effort, physical and mental, that went into our preparation, from the first day of training to the way we conducted ourselves in front of the media during the final week, was far beyond my previous OUBC years, and far beyond the effort that I have seen put into any other project. It is an incredible feeling for that effort to pay off, especially so handsomely.

Now I must try and pass my finals in 2 weeks time!

2006 Eights (Peter Goult, Men's Captain)

With two Blues, the Isis stroke and cox, a Harvard Varsity oarsman an Olympic lightweight gold medallist all becoming available to row for Catz this term, it was set to be interesting. But with crew members disappearing to Denmark, Germany, France and Croatia, and technical problems with the boat (which had to be returned to Sims for fixing) we only got about 4 outings in before the first day of Eights.

Despite this, we had quick starts and lots of horse power and bumped Teddy Hall, New College, Exeter and Oriel (giving the last one spoons - Yes!), all in the Gut or by Donny Bridge, winning us blades, and putting the Men's 1st boat 5th on the river, its highest ever position in Torpids or Eights [It also means that I am no longer a member of the last Catz Men's 1st Eight to get blades (1982)! - Anu Dudhia] With the successful Torpids (finishing 6th on the river), it is also the first time that a Catz 1st boat has won 'double' blades

The 2006 Men's 1st Eight. With 7 different nationalities in the crew, they decided to settle for displaying the Boat Club flag.

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