Following the AGM, we welcome two new committee members, one of whom seems to have been already pressed into action rowing with our men's VIII in tomorrow's Head of the River Race. As well as the HoRR, tomorrow is also the day of the Henley Boat Races, featuring a couple of our ladies, and we also look forward to the Tideway Boat Races the following weekend. Well, I'm looking forward to the Women's Boat Race, but as for the Men's race ...

Hilary was a rather successful term for the Men's squad. We kicked off our Torpids campaign with a training camp at Nottingham Holme Pierrepont last January and had about 25 rowers training throughout the term.

The weather wasn't as kind with us this term as during Michaelmas and the river was on 'red flag' for a significant amount of time. In order to keep up training we organised outings at Dorney lake and on the Tideway using the Auriol Kensington Rowing Club facilities at Hammersmith. We have now established a good relationship with AK and we hope to maintain the link for future Tideway training.

We had a good performance in Torpids where both M1 and M2 went up one place each. In Division 1, M1 bumped Trinity on Thursday and rowed over the other days.

The Men's 1st Torpid (Photo: JB-N)

The Men's 2nd Torpid (Photo: JB-N)

In Division 4, M2 bumped St John's II and Univ II, got bumped by Magdalen II but then bumped them back on the last day. However they went up only 1 place due to a penalty incurred when the Race Committee decided that they had been too aggressive when bumping Magdalen.

We also entered a Men's 3rd Torpid, which was unfortunately scratched on the day of Rowing On due to high winds.

These results are very promising for Summer Eights considering that most squad members are continuing next term and we will possibly have some more returning seniors.

We are currently preparing for the Head of the River Race on Saturday the 19th March and will start our Summer Eights campaign with a training camp at Tilburg in Holland in the beginning of April.

We're really excited about next term!

The Women's 1st Torpid (in a more relaxed moment)

Emily Hoogkamer, Women's Captain

This term the whole Boat Club saw through a successful Torpids, with every boat gaining one place overall!

The women's squad is building up, having had an influx of rowers with previous experience this year and with a group of enthusiastic newcomers to the sport. We've seen a lot of progress from many of our squad members, making the prospects for next term and next year very exciting.

Muddied, but still-bowed: All Rabbit's Friends And Relations after Thursday's unscheduled visit to the bank.

After a few overly dramatic days of racing in Torpids, the women's first boat saw its way to bumps on both L.M.H. and Worcester, but lost one place to a blades-winning Jesus crew. Despite having to dig our beautiful new boat out of the bank after a steering malfunction, the week was a success and we already really enjoyed some clean, powerful rowing, particularly on the Friday.

The 2nd Torpid, as a Rowing On crew, had to contend with a messy division on most days, but also gained 2 bumps, on St Antony's II and Hertford II, before losing one place to another blades crew on the last day (Christ Church II).

The women had hoped to finish the term by racing at Kingston Head, but unfortunately that was cancelled due to high stream.

With Summer Eights just around the corner, our preseason training camp in the Netherlands over the Easter break is going to be a really productive block of training that is sure to get everyone even more ready to race and train in the sun next term. We hope to see lots of people down at the boathouse for what should be some exciting races.

The Women's 2nd Torpid

For the women, however, I'd still bet on Oxford. CUWBC raced in the Women's Eights Head and finished 5th, just behind the likes of Imperial, Molesey and Oxford Brookes, although to be fair they had previously beaten Brookes and Molesey in private fixtures. OUWBC didn't race in the Women's Head, but did have a convincing win in the Quintin Head back in January, finishing well ahead of Imperial and Molesey. Subsequently they've had private matches against Molesey and Newcastle University (8th in the Women's Head) and, unlike their male counterparts, have never looked anything less than totally dominant. And the fastest Club crew in the country.

Anu Dudhia (email: dudhia@atm.ox.ac.uk )