SCCBC - Captains' Reports HT2004

Men's Boat Club

Evan Burfield, Men's Captain

The St. Catherine's men experienced a wide range of emotions over the course of Hilary term, culminating at Torpids, which lasted the full four days for the first time since 1997. There were wonderful moments of pride and heart as well as stinging moments of frustration and bitterness. In the end, a core group of men filled with determination and focus provide a strong hope for St. Catherine's for Summer Eights and for next year.

The reality of this term for the men's 1st VIII was a race against the clock to get a crew with 5 strong novices as much water experience as possible. This goal was made even harder by inevitable high water conditions on the Isis that knocked out several weeks of water time. Our trials became almost amusing when high winds prevented us from getting on the water during a training trip to Dorney Lake. On the positive side, our lack of water time allowed us to spend a lot of time on the ergs and in the weight room, which was evident in impressive erg tests.

In preparation for Torpids, we attended the Bedford Head and Burway Head. Our performance at those regattas indicated to us that the boats immediately behind us on the river at Torpids -- Queen's and Pembroke -- would be quite fast, but that we could be competitive with most other crews on the river.

Our first day at Torpids showed the men both the good and bad side of bumps racing. We achieved a bump of Brasenose in front of the boat house. Unfortunately, Queen's had acheived an even quicker bump on us in the Gut. The introduction to bumps racing proved uiseful to such an inexperienced crew. As one rower said afterwards, "I had no idea it would all go so fast; I'm not sure what happened...but it was intense."

The second day was undoubtedly our finest moment as a crew. We were being chased by Pembroke, who were considered the fastest crew on the river and had overbumped Brasenose the day before. They jumped on us at the start and had overlap on us in the Gut. We managed to hold them off and pull back to a half length as we passed the boat house. They got overlap on us again at the crossover, but we held them off. Finally, with about 150 meters left, they got overlap for the last time. We took a diagonal line toward the finish and managed to hold them off by a few feet as we crossed the line. It was a moment of revelation for the men, when they realized for the first time that they had the potential to be as fast as anyone when they rowed well.

Unfortunately, that was the last enjoyable moment for the 1st VIII. On Friday, our 4-seat lost a wheel on his seat at the start. We held Pembroke off until the Gut but could not repeat our performance from the day before in weakened state. On Saturday, we had a disasterous row. We had a slow start that allowed Lady Margaret Hall to gain quickly on us. We failed to concede in time and their bow became engantled with the 7-seat's rigger. Both boats were unable to steer and careened into the wall just before Donington Bridge. By the time we disentangled ourselves, we had been passed by all the boats in first division.

The men responsed to their good and bad experiences as Torpids by gritting their teeth, learning from the experience, and vowing to train that much harder and do everything possible to show people what we can do at Eights and Torpids next year. Our quest at Eights will be aided by several returning Blues squad rowers.

The men's 2nd VIII had a core of four men that trained hard throughout term. Unfortunately they were unable to pull together a complete VIII until two weeks before Torpids. They did admirably with their limited training. They were bumped each of ther first three days before coming back and bumping Oriel on Saturday.

The men's squad would like to thank John Hill--our Head Coach--for his patience and knowledge. We would also like to extend our gratitude to the Rowing Society for their financial support and, more importantly, moral support. I think I speak for everyone when I say that the Rowing Society dinner was a high point of the term for all the men.

Women's Boat Club