Newsletter#1, Michaelmas Term, 1997 (2nd November)

It's Sunday afternoon and I've just managed to drag myself away from the Isis to write this. My plan this term was to try and organise the Catz coaching rather than do any actual coaching myself - send out a few e-mails, put up a few notices, maybe wander down the towpath now and then to see how people are getting along, that sort of thing - yet I seem to be spending more time than ever at the river. This wouldn't be so bad, except that a distressingly large amount of that time seems to be spent in direct contact with that fearsome semi-intelligent lifeform: the novice fresher! (it's OK for me to be rude about them here, because none of them will read this). Just thinking about it, I find myself inexplicably clenching and unclenching my fist. I hope it's just a subconscious imitation of the 'novice death-grip' on the oar handle, but I worry that it might reflect a darker and more sinister desire on my part. Anyway, I have nothing but admiration for the restraint and patience of new Captains of Boats, Tom Wright and Caroline Trotter, and the Captain of Lower Boats, Helen Barnes, together with all those others who have actually volunteered to act as novice coaches this term (and, often as not, rowers when one of the little ****s decides not to bother to turn up).

But let me return to those halcyon (=Greek for 'novice-free') days of last summer. After the end of term, several of our rowers continued to train with various University summer squads: Caroline Trotter rowing for 'Windrush' the the Club Eights event at Women's Henley; Ollie Jones rowing for Cherwell (Heavyweights) and Ned Fletcher, Ben Brookes and Jon Haynes all rowing for for 'Nephthys' (Lightweights) crews in the Temple Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta. Cherwell, coached by Penny Chuter, had a particularly successful year and won several hard-fought races, no doubt mindful (mijndful?) of the words of encouragement offered earlier in the year by the OUBC Head Coach when he suggested that they all give up rowing and find another sport. They were the only Oxford crew still racing on the last day, when they were narrowly beaten by Imperial in the semifinals.

As I'm sure almost everyone knows, Catz alumnus Matthew Pinsent (M.89) and Steve Redgrave joined up with Tim Foster and James Cracknell as the new GB coxless four, and won the Stewards at Henley, all three rounds of the new 'FISA World Cup' and finished off an unbeaten season by taking the World Championships at Aiguebelette, in France. Post-Olympic years are traditionally quiet years in international rowing as experimental crews and combinations are tried out, but I think they managed to get their message across to anyone else thinking about what events to enter for Sydney in 2000. Tim Foster, having been elected OUBC President last term, failed to find a degree course in Oxford this year, so has been replaced as President by Andrew Lindsay - the younger (and larger) brother of Richard (M.88), a former Catz Men's Vice-Captain. I'm not sure of Damian West's (M.95) present academic status, but he's currently rowing in the GB eight: they were beaten finalists in the Grand at Henley and finished 4th in the World Championships. Harsh!

In August, City of Oxford Regatta usually offers a good opportunity for me to keep tabs ('scuse the language) on which of our alumni are still involved in club rowing: this year we had Chris Owens (M.90) rowing for Bewl Bridge, Tom Skinner (M.76) rowing for Henley RC, and Alayne Wilson (M.91) coxing for Marlow. Ned Fletcher, rowing for Upper Thames, also won Men's Novice Sculls - something which I have conspicuously failed to do on many an occasion (before anyone else mentions it, thank you!).

Well, after that pleasant digression into the joys of summer I think I can now safely return to this term's rowing in a more relaxed frame of mind.

Thanks to the College's continued generosity, we have just acquired a brand new Janousek coxless pair/double scull to add to our fleet. I am sure you are all keen to find out which particular gem from the wit and wisdom of A.A. Milne has been selected to adorn the bows of this craft, but, alas, you will have to wait until the next newsletter (while I bang a few heads together). As usual, our senior rowers are mostly competing in fours this term. In last Thursday's Autumn Fours head race, the Catz men's crews finished 13th/30 in the 'Four Oars' (open) and 5th/8 in the 'Pazolt' (junior), while the two women's crews finished 4th and 10th out of 11 crews in the OUWBC Fours. Next weekend we should have a couple of entries at Kingston Head. As far as I know, we have Ollie Jones and Sarah Jones (cox) trialling for OUBC, Ben Brookes for OULRC, Heather Booth and possibly Caroline Trotter (in her spare time) for OUWBC.

Some of our alumni continue manage to find life outside rowing quite exciting enough. Laura Maclehose (M.88) writes to tell me that she has got engaged to Mike Robeson (M.86), 'St Catherine's heaviest cox ever' (surely not?), and she is currently amongst the minefields of Banja Luka (Bosnia-Herzegovina) working for UNICEF. And last week Richard Peters (M.82) spent an uncomfortable morning in the Lusaka Intercontinental listening to the progress of the recent Zambian coup-attempt, which he describes as 'pretty half-baked' (implying that, if it had been up to him, it would have been much better organised). However, he seems more annoyed that everyone at his office used it as an excuse to take the rest of the day off. But, if any alumni want to contact me with items for inclusion in these newsletters, please don't feel that you have to wait until you see your lives flashing before your eyes.

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

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