The 1978 Blue Boat

Extract from Chapter XIV of A History of St Catherine's Rowing 1875-1999

[Chapter written by Tristram Sutton, St Catz' first Blue Boat oarsman]

First of all, I should explain that I was quite an unlikely athlete when I arrived at St Catherine's. Thick glasses and a school history of asthma and hayfever should have qualified me for mornings spent shuffling from library to lecture and afternoons marshalling Earl Grey in the attempted seduction of some blue-stockinged fortress. Instead I was to spend most of my three years working late, studying hurriedly, meeting other rowers for the drive to wherever we were practising, exercising in the gym, eating, then, exhausted, falling asleep before the cycle resumed.

It was Rowland Hill (Catz Captain of boats, 1976) who pulled the Betjemanesque ideal beyond my reach for ever by putting my name down for OUBC trials. He thought that my build (6'2" and a fairly fat 14st) would be useful for the College boat, and more useful after some coaching by the selectors before I was forced out and sent back to St Catherine's.

Photo: The 1977 Men's 1st Eight, which won blades. Crew: John Greenway (bow), Paul Travers, Tim Alderson, Simon Morgan, Tristram Sutton, Colin Please, Jon Wilmshurst, Robert Hughes (str), Paul Spedding (cox)