The weather for the opening day of Torpids was remarkable: like one of the better days of Summer Eights, and in complete contrast to last year's big freeze. Indeed, apart from a couple of icy days, and a couple of high stream days from the subsequent thaw, there have been few obstacles in the way of training. In this issue we have the results, photos and Captains' reports on the term's rowing.

On the other hand, those of you who occasionally venture outdoors, may have noticed that, since Torpids, it's got rather windy. This caused the cancellation of the Women's Eights Head, which should have taken place today (scuppering Catz first participation in living — well, internet — memory), and also depriving armchair Boat Race analysts of a useful form guide. Nevertheless, I'll do my best. The Blue Boats have been announced and it seems that Catz will have its first male Blue since, well, our new President (2009).

A tense moment as the women's 1st VIII prepare to start their Torpids campaign. Need they have worried ... ?

The Men's 2nd Torpid chasing down Keble II on the Friday

Alex Herkert, Men's Co-Captain

The men's side of SCCBC had a successful Hilary term building upon the success we had, especially with our novices, in Michaelmas. Our M1 and M2 boats both got chances to race down the Isis at multiple IWLs, and furthermore we took our M1 to Henley Fours and Eights, where we finished second to only Wadham of the Oxford college crews over the 3 kilometre course.

We are excited to keep building upon this success for next term, and will be training as a full squad for a week in Monate, Italy before Trinity term begins.

The Men's 1st Torpid

The highlight of this term was perhaps unsurprisingly Torpids week. As many will already know, our women's squad had a very successful campaign with W2 fighting back in the latter half of the week to finish just -1 after a bit of a rough start and W1 putting on a very dominant performance to earn blades.

With Torpids looming, there was less emphasis on external regattas this term than in Michaelmas. That said, we sent a coxed four to Henley Fours and Eights Head, winning our band and crossing the line as the fifth fastest women's four overall. In the weeks since Torpids, W1 were busy preparing to race in the Women's Eights Head of the River Race on the Saturday of 9th week, but due to a particularly nasty weather forecast the event was sadly (though understandably) cancelled.

Going forward we have a lot to be excited about. There will be 11 women with differing degrees of experience travelling to our training camp in Italy in -1st week of Trinity. We're also expecting to have two very strong crews come Summer Eights, with a W3 entry looking like a very real possibility at this stage. As always, much credit to our coach Rowan Nicholls and strength and conditioning extraordinaire Alex Bowmer!

... No, apparently not. No worries at all.

Cambridge comfortably won the Henley Fours and Eights Head, with Leander only just taking second place ahead of Goldie. Arguably, it's Oxford Brookes who set the standard these days, but unfortunately both their private fixtures against Oxford and Cambridge were victims of the recent strong winds. Oxford have yet to race as an VIII, but it seems they may have rescheduled their fixture against Brookes for tomorrow and next weekend they're due to take on Leander.

The Cambridge Women are undoubtedly strong but looking more vulnerable than in recent years: at the end of January they again won Quintin Head, but only by 6 seconds (over 13 minutes) from UL; and in subsequent private matches they lost to a strong Dutch Nereus crew and had to work hard to beat Oxford Brookes. OUWBC have only been in action once, against Imperial, whom they beat convincingly. But IC were some 24 seconds slower than Cambridge in the Quintin Head, so it would be a worry if they hadn't.

Unusually, both the men's lightweight crews met at Quintin Head, Oxford emerging 21s faster, maintaining the superiority evident in last term's Fours Head. That was a while ago now, but Oxford must be clear favourites for their first Tideway Boat Race next Saturday.

The women's lightweights race the following Saturday, as the finale of the Henley Boat Races (Wadham are representing Oxford in both the men's and women's intercollegiate races this year), and the weekend after that it's back to the Tideway for the four heavyweight Boat Races.

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