![[Amy Banham-Hall]](../../pics/amy.banham-hall.jpg)
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The big focus of this term has, of course, been Christ Church Regatta and our novice programme. The girls' crew stood out for their hard work and enthusiasm, reflected by their Christ Church results where they had a good draw and won their first two races easily. Their third race showed their best performance yet, though they were narrowly beaten by Hertford A. Nearly all of the crew are keen to carry on for Torpids.
Despite having lost a chunk of our senior team to finals this year, our remaining senior girls have shown impressive dedication in both land and water training. The newly established 'Erg Club' has seen regular attendance from many of us, with everyone getting regular PB's (Personal Best performances) in the Monday night torture sessions!
Four of our top rowers and our cox teamed up with girls from Merton and Pembroke to compete in Wallingford Head at the end of term, where we performed extremely well, despite having to stop several times for boats we'd caught up in front.
![[Peter Goult]](../../pics/peter.goult.jpg)
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This term began on shaky legs due to the lack of a boathouse or boats to use on the Isis. After senior training in 0th week using the IVs we finally began to get deliveries from Janousek of the boats we had ordered. With nowhere to store then, all sorts of ideas and questions were put out into the rowing community, considering storing the boat in St. Catz Hall at one point, but finally we managed to secure two racks in Balliol Boat House, thanks to James Bennett.
After a large and highly successful recruitment drive from the Committee, we established a novice programme running from here using two Janousek VIIIs, while maintaining senior training throughout the term. As I desired to avoid puncturing a hole in the new shinny boats, thanks Univ), I was frantically scouting around for an old second hand boat that we could buy for a decent price for novices to destroy, and hit upon a St. Anne's boat that had been redundant for several years. After a heated negotiation I got the boat for 25% of their original asking price, (ultimately £100), and with the help of our trusty boatman, Jim, restored it to it's former glory, (almost). Due to it's wooden hull and hazardous crews, it was affectionately known as the Trojan Horse for a while, before becoming known as "The Log".
We soon settled boats for Christ Church, putting a fairly even spread of undergraduate rowers in both A and B boats, but due to an awesome recruitment effort by our MCR President, Mathias Rufino, we were able to arrange a C boat entirely of MCR boys, (and occasionally girls too). Using this, we attempted to free up water time in the mornings by bending the rules and putting the MCR boat out after 8.30am in the morning when the river is officially closed. Though technically against the Proctor's rules, this made sense to us and OURCS because Graduate Colleges are allowed to work outside water time rules, so we continued this until we got a little slap on the wrists but it never the less proved highly effective in developming our crews.
It was a term for wrist slapping, because we also bent the rules a little by thinking outside the box and putting crews out below the Lock at the bottom of the Isis. This allowed us to put more boats out and have a clear stretch of water for once, and was only possible because of a valuable little device to move the boats over the lock in record time - crews for Christchurch have successfully trained head on head in this part of the river - impossible in almost all other stretches of water available to Oxford Colleges.
We settled crews for Chch Regatta early on, but took some of the most promising rowers from the novice boats into the senior squad to develop them more quickly - Nick Powell and John Anderson are to be noted for this commitment throughout the term. Eventually we managed to piece together a fleet and in about 5th week we finally got our boathouse back, good as new. A huge amount of effort went into sorting this out and I would particularly like to thank James Bennett for his stalwart performance throughout, and thank all those people who have helped and advised me over the summer.
In addition to our Pirates and Fairies crew dates with St. Hildas Women's BC and many others besides, we had a night in with our five Blues in 6th week in preparation for the biggest event of the term, Christ Church Regatta. Colin Smith, Nick Brodie, Bastien Ripol, Bruce Magee and Stephan Molvig were all good enough to come and talk our novices through this years boat race and impart the benefits of their experience to up and coming rowers.
At Chch Regatta in 7th week we entered three men's crews, all of whom won their first race on Wednesday. This made us one of the most successful colleges in the University, achieving a standard of rowing uniformly across the boat club, due entirely to the dedication and hard work of this years SCCBC committee. Unfortunately temperamental weather conditions called off the racing on Thursday and racing was cancelled on Friday due to bad forecasts. This ruined my attempts at entrepreneurial fund raising by holding a Bacon Sandwich and Tea stall outside to Boathouse, but I am sure we will make much more profit come Torpids. All losing crews were eliminated putting all of our crews through to the third round. The regatta was continued on Saturday using a shortened course from Chch Boathouse to the Head of the River. Despite an admirable performance from both the B and MCR crews they were eliminated, though I a pleased to say they had an enjoyable term's rowing, achieved a lot and we have built some excellent rowing potential for Torpids out of them.
However, SCCBC President Darren Chadwick's coaching efforts paid off with the Men's A boat who destroyed very though competition from Worcester A, but then raced against Exeter A boat in the 4th round. They were neck and neck for the first 3/4 of the race, with Catz taking a decent yard or so off them at one point, but in the finish the superior strength of Exeter, comprised more significantly of older, larger, uglier rowers gave them the slight edge that allowed them to pull away by almost a canvas. It is a small consolation to know that Exeter A then went on the win the entire regatta, and defeated every other crew they raced against from then on by a much more significant margin.
On an aside, eight members of St. Catz went to the British Indoor Rowing Champs in Birmingham National Indoor Arena to compete in a 2K test. Australian MCR import James Hutton managed to do us proud with a 6.26 minute time, despite heavy drinking, partying and rough and tumble on every crew date, as well as Steve Wicks who pulled a decent 6.40 time and achieved a new personal best. I pulled a diabolical time myself, but excuse myself with having eaten too many Mars bars while sitting writing emails to disorganised rowers.K evin Skinner, our beloved Chairman, cast down the gauntlet with a respectable 6.50s time and our five Blues I'm sure Anu will deal with, including the mighty Nick Brodie.
In the debris that was Chch, there was one final challenge: Wallingford Head. Catz Entered one men's VIII, which trained in our new and rather sexy Sims boats, (bringing our complement of VIIIs up to seven). After a few teething difficulties these state of the art first boats were up an running, and allowed our new coach, Matthew Elliot, to really make the crews shine. Despite only training during Eighth Week, and having four novices in the boat, they put in an excellent performance at the Head Race, one day after the end of term, coming second in the Novice competition over 5K by only 10 seconds. All who took part are to be congratulated in a splendid effort.
It has been a tough but successful term, with many ups and downs. Having a boathouse and boats makes Amy and my lives a whole lot less stressful. The club in not fully refurbed and with new furniture and heaters is more sociable than it has been in recent years. We have new and excellent boats and oars to use, and a huge men's squad to use to produce two killer boats for Torpids, and at least a third of an excellent standard. We also have the largest coxing pool for recent years, thanks to Fleur-Estelle Shaw, our Captain of Coxes. We are holding a winter Training Camp in 0th week at Catz, and with eight weeks run up to Torpids, we hope to do some serious damage in each division we enter.
We are still one of the only Men's 1st Div crews training on the Isis and I believe if we are to become one of the best Colleges in the University, as we should be given our size and undergrad turnover, then we need to get our first team squad off the Isis. We are also looking at an International Training Camp in Easter before term starts, in addition to a 0th week training camp - these may combine with the Head of the River Race down on the Tideway on the 25th, which we hope to enter. Thanks again to all those who have helped me this term, and well done to all crews. I am really excited about next year as I hope it is going to be one of the most successful in Catz Rowing for some time. Merry Christmas!"
![[Darren Chadwick]](../../sccbccrews/2006//darren.chadwick.ht06.jpg)
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Michaelmas term is always a rather stressful affair, but this year was a little more frantic than most. With only brand new shiny boats to put novices in, Peter, Amy and I have all gone a little bit grey! But the worry was aleviated a lot by the acquisition of a wooden eight from St Annes, "The Log" as it is afectionately known! A new epoch seems to have started here at Catz, new boats, new coach, and a huge sense of optimism. Catz are hungry for success, and this term has shown we are well on our way
The recruitment BBQ was a great event, swelling out ranks with some very talented novices and some experienced oarsmen too. In fact, I felt very small when I was giving the after outing defriefings to M1, but I'm getting used to that now!
The novices had a strenuous training schedule, and with the stretch of river below the lock now being used by Catz crews, the amount of water time each crew had set them in good stead for the Christ Church Regatta. The standard was set by the M1, who proved to be one of the fastest novice crews on the river. This is due to the depth of talent and great coaching down the squad, and I would like to take this oppertunity to thank all the seniors who coached this term, especially Amy, Clare, Dave, Hutto, James, Katherine, Mike, Oli, Peter and Steve. It is great to see how much these seniors, many of whom are finalists, are giving back to the club.
Matthew Eliot, the Senior Coach has started a new institution this Year; Erg Club. Although I'm strcitly not allowed to talk about it, I'm sure I can relax the rules this once. It consists of two 20 minute tests each week, and then takes into account any extra ergs done over the week to give a weekly rank, which is totalled up over the term. This is a complete leveller, Girls vs Boys, Novice vs Senior, the ergs don't lie! It is great to see that Clare Shakespeare won this term's series emphatically, with Amy Banham-Hall coming a close second. The top man was James Hutton, who has been consistantly excellent over the term, including pulling a 6.25 erg (PB) at the National Erg Champs in Brimingham, only seconds behind some of the Blues. Most notable performances have come from some of the novice men, John Anderson, Dominic Moser and Nick Powell, who have all pulled consistantly well over the term, and are deservedly up at the top of the table. One more rower needs noting for his effort and commitemnt, James Mee. He's turned up this term with a great attitude to training and as a result is pulling good ergs, so well done. You're setting the standard for all of us.
None of this means anything though if we don't go and convert it on the water, and convert it we have. With the 2nd, and 3rd and 5th in Isis winter league, great results from BIRC from Hutto and Steve, but more importantly to college rowing, we had a great Christ Church Regatta and followed it up with a great result at Wallingford Head.
We were one of only 2 colleges to have all our crews win their 1st round matches, but bad weather meant that racing was cancelled on Thursday and Friday. We were faced with a tough draw, and the MCR boat, MNC lost to a tough St Anthony's MNA, THe MNB boat lost narrowly to the fast Hertford MNC, but MNA upset the favorites, Worcester MNA to win by almost a length. The draw didn't get any better for MNA, who faced Exeter in the next round. To the total disbelief of Charlie Thorogood, the Regatta Captain in charge of starting the race, Catz pulled away from Exeter off the start and went half a length up. Then it all went wrong. The Janouseks have caused us a lot of problems, especially the seats, and James Draper, the Catz strokeman, lost his seat for three or four strokes as it jammed. This gave Exeter a way back into the race, and although the boys battled hard, they lost by a canvas. Exeter then went on the win all subsequent races easily, and so we can take a little heart that we were at least the second fastest crew out there.
We took sucess at Ch Ch onto the next race Wallingford Head. With three seniors, one junior and three strong novices, the boat was set to do well, and after the division was delayed and a small hiccup at the start, the crew raced well, very well in fact. Within the first 2k, we had overtaken 3 boats and were starting to move past Abingdon A. Abingdon did not move over to let us, the faster crew past, and so we had to overtake them in the very heavy stream, which cost us time. We came in 2nd, only 10 seconds behind St Paul's A, who had been looking very good. a great result though which leaves us in a good position for Torpids next term.
The senior crews will all be coming back for a pre-term training camp in 0th week, and many rowers have been continuing training over the Christmas break. If you want to be in contention for a seat in the top boats next term, you need to be training now, so send your training stories and records in.