Continuing their dominance over college rowing
Oriel defended the Torpids Headship confidently and
assuredly, rowing over three and a half lengths clear of
Exeter past the boathouses on Saturday. In fact over
the four days the only change to the top seven came from a rapidly rising
Queen's eight (who ended the week up five) replacing
the
Worcester 1st eight in fifth on the river. There was
more movement further down, however, with blades being awarded to
LMH, who went up five in the four days bringing them
into the first division, and
Hertford, who went up four. The top division's big
losers were
Brasenose first eight, who plummeted 12 places from
eighth to 20th on the river.
Worcester ended the week in ninth having got spoons,
and
Catz returned to the second division for the first
time since 1999, having gone down four in the last two
days.
There was no change at the top of the Women's first division either, with
Merton remaining at the top for a second year despite
some close racing at times. Below them,
New moved up from fourth the second on the river,
Oriel moved to their highest position since the
admission of women to the college, finishing third on the river, edging ever
closer to the Torpids double headship
[achieved in 2006]
Christ Church followed
Oriel, also moving up three to finish fourth. Blades
were awarded to
Wolfson and
Osler-Green, both of which went up four to finish
eighth and ninth respectively. Meanwhile
Magdalen and
Teddy Hall both went up five, finishing the week in
12th and 16th. There was less good news for the
Catz first eight that dropped eight places from second
to tenth on the river, and
Univ, that plummeted from tenth in the first division
to bottom of the second, a drop of some 14 places. The other big faller in the
second division was
Balliol, who dropped 12 places to end up second in
division three.