Wednesday's racing was run as normal, but the sudden snow-flurries and wind-chill created numerous problems so, with even worse weather forecast, racing on Thursday and Friday was cancelled. By Saturday the wind had dropped, the temperature had risen above zero, the towpath and pontoons had been gritted, and patio-heaters had been acquired and positioned along the towpath to keep the marshals warm and happy (see picture on left). So racing went ahead, but just for the top crews rowing in half-divisions, and with safety launches also doubling up as ice-breakers. Well, that's the background — the captains report on the actual rowing.

The Tideway boat races are next Saturday (24th March) and this year Catz have a representative in the Women's Boat Race. In the last newsletter I reported that the Cambridge crews had been making all the early running but, looking over the performances since then, ... well, you'll have to judge for yourselves. Tomorrow (18th March) it's the 'Henley' boat races, although now relocated to Dorney.

Generation Snowflake? the Women's 1st Torpid on Wednesday. Yes, it is snowing, but not in a fluffy warm sort of way.

Despite not having a full-length Torpids due to the weather, plenty of racing has happened this term

Half (8) of the novice squad from last term continued with rowing this term; promising numbers compared to last year's 2 people, but still can be improved upon. They made the majority of the M2 boat (and the bow seat of M1), perhaps lacking the skill of last years veteran M2, but making up for it with plenty of aggression when it was needed.

They raced at IWL D and E, both times unfortunately lacking their Torpids stroke, Adam Megyeri. For IWL D, the order of the day was a healthy portion of crab, and so posted a 5:41. IWL E on the other hand was far better, and towards the end they really got into their stride, and so posted an much improved time: 5:06. When Torpids came, the Beast from the East threw a blizzard at them for their warm up. This didn't phase them one bit, and you would barely have been able to tell the difference between the gun firing and Wadham III (who denied M2 Torpids Blades last year) conceding. This was largely more power than skill doing the work, but had their division not been cancelled for the rest of Torpids, it could have been very interesting.

M1 isolated itself from the Isis drama for a few weekends this term by going down to Abingdon to train on the empty river. This was beneficial, a session at Abingdon feeling like 2 on the Isis. As the term progressed, M1 gradually got faster, posting some extremely encouraging times in training, however whenever something serious came along, the rhythm was lost. Our IWL E time of 4:26 was respectable, but nowhere near what we had been producing. On the Wednesday of Torpids we rowed over, by the end we had held station with Wadham ahead, but only because of a charge down the Green Bank after a poor start. I was unfortunately not racing on the Saturday after my knee getting caught in a disagreement with my bike and the road, but M1 veteran Julian Malisano stepped in. Unfortunately, Christ Church steadily gained on us, and even after we thought we had lost them after they scraped the bank at the corner just before Univ boathouse, they lept forward and bumped us along Boathouse Island.

For next term M1 will need to work on keeping a cool head in race conditions, and M2 will need to just keep on refining their skill. Bring on Summer Eight

This year Catz women have really been biting back since our coaching difficulties last year. With Chloe Laverack and Matthias Mergenthaler as co-coaches this past term we have gone from success to success and almost doubled the size of the women's squad with two firm boats which form an integrated and competitive squad.

Our first boat has competed in almost every IWL this term improving on our slowest time of 5.53 to our fastest in the last race of the term of 5.23. W1 have also vastly improved their Torpids campaign since last year where we suffered quite a harsh defeat. This year, however, we managed to bump Wadham's second boat after narrowly escaping Exeter W1. Although the middle two days of racing were cancelled, we were met on the final day with similar success, firstly bumping Worcester W1 in a matter of minutes but sadly missing an opportunity for a second bump as sandwich boat between the second and third divisions. After Brasenose bumped out early we gave Mansfield a good chase but didn't quite manage to catch them. W1 have also hugely benefitted by a set of shiny new blades, which have doubtless helped them achieve their bumps!

W2 also made a very strong start this term, firstly in Rowing On, in which they qualified with flying colours, coming 4th in the time trial out of 26 boats. On the first day of racing they were sadly being chased by a more experienced Green Templeton crew and were bumped. With the rest of racing cancelled for their division, they didn't have another chance to prove what they are capable of.

All in all it's been a very triumphant term and we hope to carry our successes on into Summer Eights in Trinity!

Crews for the Tideway Boat Races crews were announced on 26th Feb, with both Cambridge's men's and women's Blue Boats weighing in heavier, and measuring up taller, than Oxford. Not that size has been a good indicator of outcome in recent years. For those of us who don't like surprises on the day, it's been gratifying to see that both men's crews have been arranging private fixtures against the same opposition. Annoyingly, both Oxford and Cambridge contrived to lose to Oxford Brookes by about the same distance (a length) and beat University of London by the same distance (several lengths), so the only conclusion is that they are of similar speed. And just to emphasise their current dominance, Oxford Brookes tied with Leander as the fastest crew in last weekend's Head of the River Race, with their other crews filling 3rd, 5th, 11th, 17th and 34th places. UL were 6th.

So, despite my best efforts to read the runes, my only prediction is that next weekend we shall have two 'proper' boat races, at least until one crew decides that it isn't going to win.

Our last women's Blue was Emily Woodeson in 2000 but this year Catz student, and ex-US lightweight, Morgan McGovern been selected to row for OUWBC, and is currently in the 5-seat. Our other interest in this particular race is that it will be umpired by Catz alumnus, and Rowing Society Vice-President, Matt Pinsent. I also note that the umpire for the Osiris-Blondie race is a certain Matt Smith, who may well be the former Catz blue (2000–2003), and the assistant umpire for the Men's Boat Race is Caroline Smith who, although at Somerville, coxed the Catz men's 1st Torpid to blades in 2001. So if there's any umpireageddon this year, let's hope it's in the Isis-Goldie race.

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