In this Issue ...

For those of you who imagine that the guns during Eights are still fired by someone who is essentially (a) grumpy (b) old and (c) male, I'm afraid that nowadays you'd be wrong on every count.

Results

Bumps Charts
Men	Women

Amy Banham-Hall, Women's Captain

The Women's 2nd Eight

This term has seen St Catz women successes both in College bumps racing and in an external regatta.

Two weeks before Eights, St Catz hit Bedford Regatta in force. The women teamed up with Pembroke to enter several composite events. Those without points from each college entered the Womens Novice Eights races, performing extremely well to beat Worcester (chasing Catz in Eights) in the semifinal but losing out to Balliol in the Final.

The other girls entered a Senior 3 Eight but, apparently, our performance in beating the Cambridge Head crew was so awesome that our opposition (another Cambridge college crew) decided not to show up for the final, meaning we went home with pots and points though feeling slightly cheated out of the opportunity to fight out a final!

Throughout the term, Bianca Rautenbach put in an enormous amount of time and effort running the novice training programme for the women. Despite the fact the 2nd Eight that eventually raced consisted mostly of complete novices, the girls showed an enormous amount of spirit and managed to keep Catz W2 in the fixed divisions, meaning next year's 2nd Eight will not have to Row On.

The Women's 1st Eight

For the 1st boat, Eights got off to a perfect start, quite literally, as we managed to bump Oriel (the Torpids Head crew) before hitting our stride. The next day we were chasing Keble. Another flying start brought us to within half a length of them by the end of the Gut. However, their crew (probably about twice the size of our girls) deserve credit for their guts, and managing to remain composed as they held us off through the rest of the course. Friday followed a similar pattern although this time Keble, rowing as Sandwich boat, bumped Merton. The final day brought bitter disappointment to our crew. Once again we moved up rapidly to have overlap on Merton and were going for the bump when the klaxon was sounded and the division stopped. The Merton cox raised his hand but the bump was not awarded as it was judged to have been just after the klaxon. We shall have to wait until next year for the joy of bumping back into Division I!

This year, though we have no blades to show for our efforts, we have achieved more than our bump shows. Not only have we managed to stop the fall of successive Catz W1 crews over the last few years, but we have proven to be one of the fastest women's crews on the water. I think, if Summer Eights were side by side races, the results would have been a lot different!

In eight years of rowing, I have never had such fun, or experienced such a strong sense of team spirit as I have since coming to Catz. I have learnt a huge amount over this year being Captain, and wish Bianca all the best for next year, when, I am sure, Catz girls will continue to go up!

Peter Goult, Men's Captain

The Men's 3rd Eight, attempting to bring a touch of class to the otherwise vulgar brawl that is Men's Div VII.

Back in College after the Eton training camp, M2 and W1 began training regularly under the coaching of Matthew Elliott, and Amy and I began to hand over the captaincy to next year's victims, Mal and Bianca. They set up a novice training programme, and with the help of some other individuals were able to create a beer VIII (M3) and a W2.

The next big fixture was Bedford Regatta, in which Catz men entered two competitions with M1, a novice VIII and a IV. It was excellent race experience for all concerned despite not winning anything.

Summer VIIIs went very well, with the Beer VIII qualifying and adding a considerable atmosphere to the boathouse, M2 bumping 3 out of four days, very narrowly missing out on blades on the Friday due to the two boats ahead of them bumping out at the top of the division, leaving them without anyone even to overbump. They produced a hugely impressive crew speed given the diversity of rowers in the boat and the quality bodes well for next year.

The Men's 2nd Eight, closing on Univ II on Friday, but Univ were to catch SEH II first.

M1 were a little more difficult. 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.

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

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.