Newsletter#2, Michaelmas Term, 1996 (14th December)

As ever, in the second of each term's newsletters, I ask the Captains to write something. This is from Richard Law, the Men's Captain:

This was always going to be a difficult year with the large number of quality rowers leaving or studying for finals. The main aim this term, though, was to get large numbers of novices taught and racing in Christ Church Regatta. We put out two fairly competitive Novice crews, coached by Frank Wagner and Daljit Gill. Daljit's crew went out on Thursday, but Frank's crew upheld Catz tradition by going out on the Friday, rowing very well despite the chemical imbalance caused by the previous evening's heavy drinking. [The Chairman of the Rowing Society may have been a little premature in writing off the potency of Catz Night (p.38 of '96 St Catz Yearbook).]

The Senior squad were somewhat more successful, contrary to my opening comment. Three IVs were entered for Autumn Fours, with all performing very well, especially the one propelled along by Damian West's space-time distorting puddles. Kingston Head was a minefield of technical difficulties but both IVs gained very respectable times. The 2nd IV came 2nd in their class, just 13 seconds from winning (and that was without a fin!). Nephthys Regatta saw the 1st IV perform brilliantly to win in a very hard fought Open Fours final. The Junior VIII also rowed well.

The end of term saw considerable disappointment with the cancellation of the long awaited race between Catz and Christ's College Cambridge. The disorganised, chickening "tabs" ....

There were two main aims for the term: to produce a competitive Senior squad to challenge Osler for the Headship next term and to inspire the novices to row in Christ Church Regatta and beyond. Caroline Trotter in her position as Captain of Lower Boats took on the novices. Three women's boats were entered in Christ Church Regatta, coached by Mat Holdcroft, Bluebell Martin and Caroline. They all put on good performances with Mat's crew and Caroline's crew both making it through to Saturday; luck was not on our side as various technical difficulties [As I heard it, one of these 'technical difficulties' included the unexpected appearance of the river bank - always a bit unpredictable, those river banks.] led to the elimination of both crews in a fiercely competitive regatta, eventually won by a strong Keble crew.

The Senior squad meanwhile followed a pretty similar timetable to the men, entering two IVs in Autumn Fours and in Kingston Head, with a Senior VIII and a Junior IV entering Nephthys. The results from these races were very encouraging with one of our crews being placed second in Autumn Fours and coming third in the Novice class at Kingston. Nephthys proved to be a grand finale to the term's racing with the Senior VIII winning Open Eights in the Regatta and coming equal first in the subsequent Head Race.

So with the new eight arriving in early January and the boathouse scheduled to be functional for Torpids, next term promises to be very exciting!

It has been drawn to my attention, by a certain Eton schoolmaster and nowadays 'just a cold supporter on the bank', that in my round-up of our alumni's summer activities in the last newsletter I omitted Alayne Wilson (M.90). I last saw her in May, coxing a Marlow VIII full of men old enough to know better, that beat our 2nd VIII at Coate Water Regatta but didn't get much further. Since then she's progressed to coxing a Marlow women's IV and won Open Fours at Women's Henley. And (rowing as 'England') Women's Fours in the Home Countries Regatta. And the Open Coxed Fours in the Fours Head. If she keeps that up, maybe they'll give her decent crew! ... and perhaps I shouldn't go sculling down at Marlow for a while.

Also rowing in the Fours Head, in the Isis crew that won Senior 2 Coxed Fours, was our Ollie Jones, currently on the fringes of the OUBC 'last 16'; in the 'teens rather than 'twenties, I think. He didn't make the OUBC Trials Race last week, but Damian West was there, rowing in 'Y-Fronts', which lost a fast, hard-fought race to 'Boxer Shorts' (OUBC humour remains as classy as ever). Selection is particularly tough this year. Apart from Damian, there are another three senior internationals, most notably Tim Foster, stroke of Rupert Obholzer's Olympic four and former pairs partner of Matt Pinsent back in the days when they won the World Junior Championships. Despite all this wholesome Catz influence, he has regrettably opted to join St Cross College (who generally row as the Wolfson 2nd VIII).

I assume Emily Lloyd is still rowing for OUWBC but they've been a bit quiet this term - certainly when compared to Catz Boat Club. I see they've just posted a request for someone to cox an outing at Henley next Tuesday morning, and I may just volunteer out of curiosity (I can do quite a good impression of a competent cox, right up until that bit where the bank suddenly jumps out in front of me).

If you've always meant to come to the annual Rowing Society Dinner on the Saturday of Torpids, but have never quite got around to it, the next one would be a good time to start (8th March). It will be a special dinner to celebrate the completion of the new boathouse and the College will be sending you an invitation shortly (together with a picture - our bay is the one the left). Perhaps members of last summer's Men's 3rd VIII will even think up an amusing sconce for the Rowing Society chairman for failing to mention their blades in the '96 Catz Yearbook.

Anu Dudhia (e-mail: dudhia@atm.ox.ac.uk)

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