Oriel
once again showed their consistently high standard at the top of men's division
1, comfortably retaining the Headship which they have now held for 30 years out
of the last 32. Lower down men's division 1 there was plenty of action, with
the
Magdalen
Torpid, which contained an Isis, a lightweight oarsman and a current OUBC spare,
moving up from 4th to 2nd on the river, but never managing to challenge
Oriel for the Headship. Further down men's division 1,
illness caused havoc in the
Exeter 1st Torpid, rendering them unable to row on
Friday, so giving
New a technical bump.
Exeter ended the week down 2. There were no blades in
men's division 1 this year, however
Christ Church and
Lincoln both managed to gain spoons falling 7 and 5
places respectively with
Christ Church falling out of the top division.
Further down the men's divisions,
Trinity M1 and
Balliol M1 were both awarded blades after finishing
the week up 5, while
Magdalen M2 went one better finishing at the bottom of
division 2, up 6 places over the week.
It was all change at the top of the women's first division this year with an
impressive looking
New College crew (who will be hoping to do the double
this summer) replacing the previously dominant
Merton who were subsequently bumped by
Oriel,
Christ Church and
Queen's, ending the week with spoons (down 4).
Elsewhere in the first division, a resurgent
Osler-Green boat ended the week up 3 after a ding-dong
battle with
Somerville, who
Osler bumped on Thursday, were bumped by on Friday,
and then bumped again on Saturday. The big losers were
Lincoln, who ended up down 12 from 11th on the river,
and
Wolfson W1 who went down 5, although
Wolfson W2 somewhat made up for this disappointment,
gaining blades in division 3 and ending the week up 4. The other big winners in
the top divisions were
St Edmund Hall W1
Hertford W1,
Keble W1,
St Hugh's W1,
Trinity W1 and
Wadham W2, all of which ended the week with blades
after having gone up 4.
St Anne's W1 went one better ending the week at 6th in
division 3, a rise of 5 places.