At the end of last term, during the first sub-zero spell, five of our University Triallists raced over the Tideway course, one of those races also being umpired by a Catz alumnus.

Noting that there were just two Catz novice VIIIs last term, I've been through the records to see how this compares with previous years, and how many novices actually continue rowing.

We finally reach the top four in the list of those who've done the most starts in bumping races. Those of you who've been paying attention won't be surprised to learn who's top, and may hazard a decent guess as to who's second, but ... I'll leave it there.

Torpids is a week earlier than usual (22–25th Feb), so most crews are going to be short of water time, and the cancellation of the last two IWL only adds to the general air of unpredictably. In that same spirit I'm afraid we've also left it rather late but we're still hoping to arrange the Rowing Society Dinner & AGM for the Saturday of Torpids, 25th February.

Our two participants in the men's lightweight race, Zac Abel and Tom Wagstaff, were rowing at either end of the Paris crew. With limited practice time due to illness and injury, they made a good fight of it initially but, after a blade clash, Atlanta pulled away and established a commanding lead. Poignantly, the two crews were named not after mythological characters but after the cities of the first and last Olympic Games to hold lightweight rowing events.

A week later, in freezing but mercifully windless conditions, Helen Nielsen-Scott, in the OUWBC Artemis crew, lined up against Athena, stroked by her older sister. Once again Catz came out on the wrong end of a one-sided race.

Nowadays the designated Boat Race umpires introduce themselves to the crews by also umpiring the Trial VIIIs races. For the Women's Boat Race that umpire is Matt Smith, a former Catz Blue. He was the OUBC stroke in the epic race of 2003 when they defeated Cambridge by just 1 foot. And, as it happened, the CUBC bow-man on that occasion was his own brother. I don't know if he had any advice to pass on to the N-S sisters.

So, later that afternoon, it fell to Freddy Orpin and Jonny Davidson, sitting in the 3 and 4 seats of the Beetle crew, to try and secure Catz first win. The OUBC race was a much tighter affair, with threatened and actual blade clashes all the way up the course until, approaching Barnes Bridge, a final clash resulted in Wedge's bowman getting an overhead crab, allowing Beetle to row away.

Catz students Orpin and Davidson, at 3 and 4 on the right, fully engaged in the OUBC Trials race. Photo from OUBC Facebook.

Cambridge did a better job of producing matched crews; their men's race was decided by a third of a length and their women's by a mere 6 inches.

Attention now switches to the various private fixtures and any indirect comparisons that may be made from the results. One thing already clear is that with both Oxford and Cambridge reduced to core 'student' crews, the likes of Oxford Brookes, Leander and UL are smacking their lips in anticipation. The feasting has already started; last weekend the Cambridge women, who've been nigh on invincible the past couple of years, were badly mauled by the women from Brookes.

I won't speculate on the reasons for this, or suggest any solutions, but I do have data. So, to try and put things into a longer-term perspective I've collected the statistics over the past 25 years on how many novices raced in Christ Church Regatta, and how many continued beyond that.

The first notable feature is the reduction in numbers; we used to regularly have 5 or 6 novice VIIIs. Some of this is undoubtedly due to the OURCs requirement, brought in around 2010 I think, that all rowers must complete a swim test before they are allowed to race. But even so, the numbers in the past couple of years are well down on the period 2010–2018.

Until 2018, however many novices raced in Christ Church, the number continuing to row thereafter remained surprising stable: about an VIII's worth of men and women for the remainder of the academic year, and a IV's worth beyond that. This suggests that mere quantity of crews may not be a useful metric of how well the novice programme is working.

Obviously we don't yet have the data to see what happens to the novices of the last two years, but the small number of novice men racing last term could be a problem in the making.

Perhaps one last statistic. Over the past 5 Eights we've averaged 5 crews (3.2 men's VIIIs, 1.8 women's), which puts us 15th out of 36 college boat clubs. As one of the largest undergraduate colleges shouldn't we be a bit higher up?

Pos	Starts	Name	Active
1st	100	Mal Spencer	2006–2019
2nd	64	Anu Dudhia	1978–1988
3rd	55	James Wills	2015–
4th	58	Keith Pritchard	1983–89

Keith Pritchard was a chemist, who learnt to row in his first year as an undergraduate at Catz and continued to row through his doctorate. As captain of boats, he won blades in the '85 1st Torpid, taking the crew into the 1st Division in the process, all the while maintaining his skills at darts (hence his nickname 'Eric') and table football. After Oxford he went into management consultancy and these days is a Partner at Quorsus, no doubt having developed more lucrative skills along the way.

James Wills, currently pursuing a DPhil in physics, is still an active member of the Boat Club. He's mostly been coxing, winning blades with the 2017 Men's 1st and 2018 3rd Eights, but subsequently switched back to rowing, winning yet another set of blades rowing in the 2019 3rd Eight. But, unless he also fits in a bit of extra coxing on the side, I reckon my position is still safe for another year.

Well out in front though is Mal Spencer, who hung up his lycra after an extended career in which he reached 100 starts, mostly rowing but occasionally coxing the women's 2nd VIII. He's now back in Oxford, working as a librarian in the Bod, research opportunities in his specialist field — Russian history — being, understandably, somewhat limited at present. A hundred starts makes a nice round number but, when it comes, as it surely will, I wonder if he'll be able to resist 'the call'.

Torpids will be run from Wed 22nd until Sat 26th February. Last year it was decided that an extra women's division would be added this year, making 6 of each, and that racing would therefore start at 11:30 instead of noon (assuming that was all agreed with the Proctors!). I believe the pattern will be Men's Div 6 off first, then divisions every half-hour with the last race of the day being Women's Div 1 at 5pm.

Torpids 2023
Starting positions of our 1st Torpids and last year's changes in position
Men's Div I 1 Oriel = 2 Christ Church +2 3 St Catherine's = 4 Wolfson +2 5 Balliol +1 6 Wadham +3 7 Pembroke −5 8 S.E.H. −3 9 University +3 10 Keble −2 11 Merton +2 12 Trinity −2	Women's Div II 1 L.M.H. +4 2 G.T.C. −1 3 Brasenose +4 4 St Anne's −2 5 S.E.H. +5 6 Lincoln = 7 Balliol −7 8 St Catherine's +1 9 Wolfson II +2 10 Somerville −6 11 Mansfield +1 12 Corpus Christi +3

The men's 1st Torpid start 3rd on the river, the position they've finished for the past two years, having been promoted from 4th when Wadham failed to put out a crew for the first post-Covid Torpids. Last year Catz bumped Pembroke on the first day, giving them a couple of (long) shots at the Headship before Christ Church elbowed their way up past them.

We've not seen Oriel or Christ Church on the Isis but, with their resources, one assumes they've been getting in water time somewhere. Wolfson were 12 s quicker than Catz in the IWL-A at the start of last term, while Balliol were a further 17 s slower, but that was a long time ago, and there have been a number of changes in the Catz 1st VIII since then. They are being coached by Laurence Whiteley, MBE, a gold-medallist in the GBR mixed double scull in both the Rio and Tokyo Paralympics.

The senior women have been low on numbers so IWL-A was the only time this year that they've raced as an VIII (the new four's been getting a lot of use). However, then, they were 8 s quicker than Balliol and, although Wolfson beat Catz by 1 s, that was presumably their 1st boat (Wolfson women are currently Head of the River in Torpids, although I don't think even they expect to remain there). Somerville women were only racing in a four last term, but Mansfield looked good, winning IWL-A and getting to the final in Nephthys Regatta. The women continue to be coached by Rowan Nicholls, who's been with them since 2018.

The men's 2nd Torpid will be starting 9th in Div3 (2:30pm). They rose three places last year and now find themselves sandwiched between the 1st Torpids of Corpus (ahead) and Green-Templeton (behind). If there are any other Catz crews, they'll have to qualify in the Rowing On races on Friday 17th Feb.

The Women's 1st Torpid at Dorney last weekend photographed — I'm guessing, rather than 'photobombed' — by their coach Rowan who, I'm relieved to see, has not resumed his lockdown beard.

Anu Dudhia

Diary