SCCBC - Captains' Reports MT2009

Men's Boat Club

Phillip McCullough, Men's Captain

As has been the case in recent years, the river was a cruel mistress. After six weeks of near-constant green flag, fortunes soon changed and we found ourselves under a red flag spell spanning three days of Christ Church, Isis Winter League B and the final week of term. Despite the frustrating lack of week 7 racing, I can safely say that this term has been full of promising rowing.

The seniors have enjoyed a base of 14 returning rowers, from which we have been able to field a boat for all the term's fixtures. Training religiously in the mornings with our new senior coach, Rachel Loveridge, we have made plentiful progress over the course of the term. After a solid performance in IWL A, the crew received a jolt to the system with a disappointing loss against Exeter in the final of Nephthys Regatta. Motivated by this defeat, the crew returned the next morning with a new sense of determination that persisted throughout the remainder of term, and would undoubtedly have showed in IWL B had we not been thwarted by the weather. Armed with a fitness-oriented training plan for the vacation, the crew will hit the ground running in 0th week next term.

This sense of dedication has been mirrored by our promising novices. We fielded two boats, named 'Hurricane' and 'Torpedo', and pooled together with the novice women to field a third, mixed boat, to ensure that everyone has been able to race this term. I have been taken aback by the enthusiasm of this year's intake, with a desire to excel on the water rivalling that of some colleges' senior boats. We entered our mixed boat into Nephthys Regatta, in which they were drawn against a strong, and I point out, all-male St. Hugh's boat. Having not had much practice as a crew, they performed respectably, and were demonstratably more co-ordinated than some of the other mixed crews on the river that day. In Christ Church, 'Hurricane' were defeated by a Corpus boat; however, 'Torpedo' managed to win in a dramatic race against an incredibly strong Benet's (technically Blackfriars) crew. This is a performance to be immensely proud of; this crew's prospects were looking very strong until amber flag swept the rest of the competition - in one college's case, literally - down a side-stream.

Faced with the prospect of propelling our first boat ever closer to elusive Headship, and with an army of eager novices snapping at the seniors' heels, Torpids 2010 will be an event to watch.

Women's Boat Club

Ilsa Haeusler, Women's Captain

Oth week of Michelmas 2009 proved to be very successful after a busy 'Introduction to Rowin' talk and an even busier taster tank water sessions on the weekend. A very keen group of novices piled into the boathouse on Sunday, ready to have a go on the water, in the very capable hands of Tim Rooney, who coxed every novice outing that day. The very helpful committee were on hand to help and coach the new novices, most of which got to row up to the Head and back again.

Twelve very committed novice women dived in to training for Christchurch Regatta, with the help of the Lower boats captain, Alice Pooley. She organised each outing and coached the women with the help of several other senior members. The women were able to train on the water about two times a week and land training, organised by Sarah Hodgson, consisted of circuits, runs and ergs attended by both the Senior and Novice women.

By 7th week, the women were well prepared for the Christchurch Regatta, which, due to increasingly dangerous weather conditions, was only able to run for the first day of competition. Looking great in their new Catz kit, the women waited patiently on the water for an hour before they were able to race. When the time came, the women fought hard against Magdalen but were unfortunately defeated.

The senior women were very lucky to have a fabulous new coach, Rachel Loveridge, to get them back into things after a long Vacation! Rachel was very keen to get stuck into training straight away, so the women completed four water sessions each week, each coached by Rachel. On a few occasions, the four was taken out, which provided an exciting new experience for many members of the crew. The women trained hard throughout the term, entering Autumn fours (in which they reached Round 2 but were defeated by Pembroke), IWL A (in which they finished 4th of the Women's crews with an encouraging time of 5:34:5) and Nephthys Regatta. The women are currently training very hard over the Christmas Vacation ready to defend their Headship during next term's Torpids!

Thank you very much to the committee who were all on hand to help this term, particularly Alice Pooley for training the novices and Amy Carr and Lucy tester, who did an excellent job at organising coxes for each session.