Newsletter#2, Michaelmas Term, 1998 (7th December)

It eventually stopped raining, but the river took a while to return to normal. To pass the time, a sweepstake was set up among the coaches betting on when various flag changes would occur (congratulations to Dan Bebber, Cath Ellicott and Richard Law, by the way). There's a rumour circulating that the whole problem was due to the EA deliberately holding all the water upstream just so that the Queen could arrive by river to open the new River and Rowing Museum at Henley. Not that I'd wish to be associated in any way with the circulation of such malicious and unsubstantiated gossip, of course, and please bear that in mind when you pass it on. Incidentally, the museum itself is well worth a visit even if you're only vaguely interested in rowing, but if you do try out that Trireme mock-up, you have to imagine everything darker, more cramped, and covered in a layer of sweat to get a real feel for the original Olympias experience. Trust me on this.

Three 'captains' reports this term. First from Louise Herring, Captain of Lower Boats:

Despite the delays of wind and rain that prohibited our novices rowing for at least four weeks of this term they got in their boats for Christ Church and did us proud. Unfortunately because of the river conditions the races had to be run with experienced coxes (so no novice coxing antics to laugh at this year!). Catz had five crews in total for the regatta, three men's and two women's. All the crews rowed in at least two races thanks to the repechage system and the men's A crew reached the fourth round, the women's A crew reached the semi-finals, losing to the eventual winners, albeit with a little help from Anu! The men's and women's B crews also did well and Jan Janssen's mens C crew were notable for their inability to listen to coxing orders or to make it to races as a whole crew!

It was great to see so many novices being enthusiastic and getting psyched up for their races even though they'd had so little training. Lots of them want to keep rowing next term, so we must have done something right. Congratulations go to all those novices and the long-suffering coaches and experienced coxes.

From Peter Murphy, the Men's Captain:

This term has been characterised by the three or four weeks in the middle of term where no rowing got done due to the river being "red flag". We did manage a few weeks at the beginning of term and a week or so at the end. Most of the rowing was done in fours: we ran three senior squad fours through most of the term, with an eight being put together near the end of the term. The only racing was Nephthys Regatta which, though not a great success, was good fun. Richard Law and former student Jon Haynes (M.92) won the pairs event. Next term I hope to put out three eights for the first time in a few years, and the novices seem to have come along very well considering their lack of practice.

From Emily Woodeson, the Women's Captain:

The women's senior squad this term was rather depleted by people wanting a term off before Torpids and with one, Suzanne Maguire, trialling for the Blue Boat. The four of us that braved the cold and predominantly the wet, went out in a four for as much of term as the river would allow. We entered Nephthys Regatta where, despite rowing reasonably well we got beaten by a Somerville crew that went on to win. The following week brought Christ Church Regatta and I was pleased to see our novices doing so well. This has given us a good base to the boat club and next term will hopefully bring some success.

Thanks to Paul Spedding (also M.76) for supplying the name of the missing '76/77 captain of boats (Tristram Sutton) and some more details on the fate of the college barge:

By the way, the barge didn't sink on the Saturday of Eights - it tipped as the first eight came into the landing stage near the barge and everyone was evacuated. I think the fire brigade pumped it out but it sank on the Sunday as nobody had spotted that the toilet overflow on the barge had become a toilet inflow. Thats why some of the photos of the pre-1950 eights are slightly water stained.

Work on the new edition of the Boat Club History is now under way. So far, the editorial team consists of Don Barton (M.48), Tony Hancox (M.49), Chris Talbot (M.62) and myself, but we'd appreciate another volunteer or two (meeting in Oxford about once a month, on Sunday mornings, and aiming to complete the whole thing by next summer). We have already identified some major gaps: what happened from 1900-1910 is probably lost forever, but the entire 1960's also seems to have gone missing (a feeling which, I believe, is still shared by many of those who were students at that time). Chris Talbot will be writing to the boat club captains from that era, but if you have any relevant information please get in touch; we have the bumps charts, and some crew lists, but that's about it.

Perhaps I should leave the last word to R. J. Stephens, whose history of the Boat Club 1875-1899 appeared in the 1919 edition of the St Catharine's Magazine:

This, in short, is the history of our Boat Club in the first twenty-five years of its existence. Considering the various difficulties that beset our progress and the meagre facilities that were at our command, it cannot be disputed that it is altogether a most glorious page. In the Eights especially our position has been decidedly creditable; one realises this the more so as one compares it with those minor Colleges. The enthusiasm and confidence of our boating men is apparent in the various races, besides the Torpids and the Eights. True, no great success was achieved, true that the record of the minor races is but one long string of painful defeats; but still it is a record of a noble attempt to keep the St Cath's flag flying, and for that the men must surely deserve our respect and admiration. In the Eights and Torpids in the later years of this period, one can perceive decided attempts on the part of our men to rouse themselves from their lethargic state, and to gain more credit and glory; whether with the birth of a new century fortune smiled upon them more benignly, and hastened them on their coveted path to glory is to be learnt from the annals of some patriotic recorder, who it is hoped will undertake to finish the history of our Boat Club, which the present writer had the happy privilege to begin.

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

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