The weather has been kind this term and the extensive results section shows that the Boat Club has made full use of opportunities to compete, and with both the men and women actually winning things. More details are in the Captains' reports.

The historical cycle begins again with the events of 10 years ago, when the weather wasn't so kind, but Catz contributed more than most to the surge of Dark Blue victories.

Autumn Fours, 23rd October
Men's Fours (20 entries)
Round 1	Catz B	bt Osler House	4 L
Round 2	Catz A	bt Oriel C	r.o.
	Catz B	bt Corpus	dqd
Q/Final	Catz A	bt Queen's C	4 L
	Pembroke	bt Catz B	2½ L
S/Final	BNC A	bt Catz A	Easily
Women's Fours (12 entries)
Round 1	GTC	bt Catz	Easily
Women's Plate
S/Final	Catz	bt Exeter	Easily
Final	Catz	bt Wolfson	½ L

Isis Winter League A, 13 November
78 crews raced
1st	4:17	Men's A
20th	4:58	Men's B
36th	5:17	Women's A (6th/22 W8)
57th	6:05	Men's C

Nephthys Regatta, 18-19 November
Men's Novice Eights (27 entries)
Round 1	Univ C	bt Catz
Men's Fours (5 entries)
S/Final	Lincoln A	bt Catz
Women's Fours (5 entries)
Q/Final	Catz	bt Jesus
S/Final	Catz	bt Lincoln
Final	Catz	bt Christ Church

Christ Church Regatta, 23-26 November
Round 1	Men's A	bt S.E.H. B	Easily
	St John's A	bt Men's B	Easily
	St John's B	bt Women's B	3 L
	Women's C	bt L.M.H. A	Easily
	St Anne's B	bt Women's A	dqd
Repechages	Worcester C	bt Men's B	1 ½ L
	Wadham B	bt Women's A	1 ft
	St Hilda's A	bt Women's B	Easily
Round 2	Men's A	bt L.M.H. B	Easily
	Women's A	bt Univ C	½ L
Round 3	Men's A	bt Linacre A	2 L
	Univ A	bt Women's C	1 L
Round 4	Men's A	bt Trinity A	Easily
Q/Final	Men's A	bt Hertford A	Easily
S/Final	New A	bt Men's A	⅓ L

Isis Winter League B, 27 November
37 crews raced
31st	6:09	Women's A (13th/15 W8)

Wallingford Head, 27 November
249 crews raced
52nd	15:32	Catz (6th/30 IM3 8)

The men have had a very successful start to the season this year, both with the novices and the seniors. The most notable success was achieved in Christ Church Regatta, where the novice men's A made it to the semifinals despite having to row 6 times in one day due to re-rows. The other men's crew also rowed well and both crews have a great deal of potential, to the extent that I expect a large number of them to be fighting for seats in the top two boats come Torpids. This success was largely, if not almost entirely, due to the hard work and dedication of our lower boats captain, Josh Morgan. Our success in Christ Church and the astonishing improvement of the novice rowers are a testament to the time and effort that he has put in over the last term. I know that this has not been easy, and I would like to take the opportunity both to congratulate and thank him for his work this term.

The Catz Men's Novice A crew (far side) racing Linacre A in Christ Church Regatta

Our success this term means that I am very excited about the potential that the current squad holds and I hope that a solid effort over Christmas will bring everyone back fit and ready to hit Hilary running in time for Torpids.

Emily Risness, Women's Captain

Michaelmas term started well with a good number of enthusiastic women signing up for rowing, after attending the two talks held in Fresher's week. Thanks to much help from current and former committee members, the session at the end of the week was also a great success, allowing our new rowers to get a taste of rowing in the tank and on the water.

Following this, rapid progress was made with 7 women's novice outings being held per week, all organised by Joanna Harrall. The novice rowers also benefited from coaching from our new coach, Rory Copus, and extra help from Malcolm Spencer.

We were able to enter 3 boats into Christ Church Regatta, although regrettably due to drop outs our Boat A had to be made into a `friendly crew', making them unable to reach the second round. The 6 novices from boat A, with a couple of helpers still managed to put in a great performance and win their first race. Boat B unfortunately lost both their races, performing well against tough opposition. Boat C beat LMH A by an impressive 5 lengths in the first round, and went on to beat Univ C. Sadly Univ managed to get their revenge as their A boat got us by a length in the 3rd round, but the girls managed to maintain great technical rowing throughout. We are proud of all three boats' performances and are very excited to see these rowers progress into the senior boats next term.

Overall it has been a very successful term thanks to all of the committee, especially Jo, who put in an exceptional amount of time organising, coxing and training the novices, whilst still rowing with the seniors. Also a massive thank you to Theresa for helping cox and coach the seniors throughout the term, and to Rory for his coaching and advice. We are now excited to see the strong group of rowers from this term take advantage of our high position in Torpids next term!

The Catz Women's Novice C crew (near side) racing Univ A

But the following report from the Michaelmas Term newsletter has a certain timeless quality to it:

Will Mulholland, Captain of Lower Boats 2001/02

'It never really clicked to me on that night of Summer Eights last year, when I was approached by the captains Laura and Matt D (wearing hula dress/bikini top and toga respectively) that I had just agreed to do this job. Most likely this was because they had waited until the night's end before popping the question, by which time I was excessively inebriated and said yes to them. From that moment on, I was engulfed in the phenomenon of Novice Rowing. Considering Oxford is regarded by many as the seat of learning, thus far I've learned ...

• That it is possible for a novice cox with sufficient gusto, to steer a course from Catz Boathouse to the top and back which, when straightened, would extend down beyond the Isis Tavern.
• That a person can row with their seat backwards if they so desire.
• That Pay-As-You-Go mobile-phone plans are useless if your job title has the word 'Captain' in it.'

Mike Bull, 2002 Men's Lightweight Race

'We'd done the training - 7 months of it - we'd changed our crew order more times than I'd ever thought possible, we'd weighed in, we'd watched our reserves, we'd shaved our heads, there was nothing left to do before the race. And here we were, spinning onto the stakeboat, our race delayed by half an hour, with various `self-important officials' yelling instructions to our cox. I'd been warned about this feeling, but never really understood it until I was there: 'Someone just say GO!'. And then someone did.'

In summer term there was a change of both captains: Simon Risoe replacing Matt Hilton for the men and Fiona Howarth taking up the reins for the women. The term began brightly, with our men's and women's fours winning 'blades' in the recently revived City of Oxford bumping races. But in Eights, despite reinforcements from the University rowers, the men still dropped one place (to 11th) while the women dropped two (to 4th).

This was also the year of the first presentation of the Ben Sylvester Award, Ben himself being on hand to hang the medal around Emily Woodeson's neck. The formal citation read:

'She is an excellent oarswoman who has successfully represented the University against Cambridge and has proved to be an excellent coach in Michaelmas and Hilary Terms when she virtually took over as Captain again to keep the Women's crews together. For this she claimed no more than a bicycle repair whereas the Rowing Society was paying a professional fee to a coach for the men.'

Chris Little (M.67)

[the last newsletter] evoked a forgotten memory - I was on the receiving end of John Corbett's experiments in 1967-1970, both in a boat, and while caving with OUCC in Yorkshire. Typically we would be wired with sensors measuring surface skin temperature and heat flow, and would swallow a radio pill that would transmit body core temperature. Blood samples were also taken before and after exercise.

As the radio pills were expensive, the less said about how they were returned the better.

The levels of ketone in the blood was among the things he was researching - this proved that you were knackered. I think he was surprised about just how exhausted we became, in physiological terms. It is now well known that in extremis ketone smells in your breath is a sign that the body is starting to self-digest proteins to survive, as no sugar or fat are left.

The only benefit of these experiments seemed to be being in close proximity to the stunning nurse he brought with him to take the blood and other readings.

Emily Woodeson (M.97)

According to the school's web-site, in August 2011 Emily started as Head of Science at the Prince of Wales Island International School in Malaysia, having previously been teaching in an Oxford comprehensive.

Mike Bull (M.99)

At Mike's wedding last month I learned that, apart from being something to do nowadays with Air Traffic Control, he also has a talent for making cakes (yes, he made the wedding cake) and knitting.

Hanna Sykulska (M.00)

Recently received a Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship from the Royal Society, aimed at promising young scientists who may benefit from flexible working arrangements. I know this because she's in my lab, although nowadays we're more likely to discuss provision of child-care in Oxford rather than science or rowing.

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