Shortly after the last newsletter I received an email from Douglas Adams (who, I notice, also featured as a 'Legacy Luminary' in the latest edition of Catz Eye). I had presumed that the Dean got his way in naming a new shell in 1954, but Mr Adams points out that he most definitely did not, and the boat was duly named Winnie the Pooh. And so began the tradition, a full 5 years before All Rabbits Friends and Relations.

On the men's side, we reflect on a term marked by significant disruption yet considerable adaptation and progress.

With river restrictions on the Isis forcing us off the water for the entirety of Hilary, we quickly explored alternatives for water-training elsewhere. We were very lucky to be able to leverage our coach, Nigel Smith's, connections from his time at Reading. This meant we were able to train at Burghfield Sailing Club. The training proved invaluable as the Thames became unrowable throughout term both up- and downstream of Oxford. Burghfield was simple to reach for athletes and coaches via train, and provided a simpler and more cost-effective option compared to the likes of Gloucester, Dorney or Swindon. We trained there for a total of five weekends, conducting multiple sessions per trip.

This helped us further train our Novices who are developing into competent rowers under Orlando Williams' coaching. We were also conscious that a lack of water training has made Novice retention difficult in prior years, which made our commitment to training in Burghfield particularly important. Despite the lack of water training in Oxford, the Novices demonstrated resilience and commitment throughout the term, staying on the ball.

Given the amount of time and effort we put into training off the Isis, Sam and I were particularly saddened at the decision made by OURCs to cancel Torpids. Instead, 'TorpHeads', a time trial race on the Isis, was held. Although our performance here was not phenomenal, it was competitive and solid.

With our Novices now gaining even more water time in Bled, Sam and I are confident that they will be competing with the seniors on M1 seats. This will provide both the Seniors and Novices with the necessary motivation to maintain rigorous training standards, giving us a positive outlook for Summer Eights.

The men's 1st VIII landing after TorpHeads

Crews assembling before the start of Women's Div D of TorpHeads

Lucia Pyne, Women’s Co-Captain

My Michaelmas report naïvely read ‘with the stream and weather on our side, Catz women made the most of the river time’. This term, with not a single day of rowable river conditions, the Isis geese have lived a largely undisturbed term on the river empty of college crews. However, I don’t like to be negative, and although Catz women may not have been able to make the most of the river time, we did make the most of our new home, Burghfield Sailing Club, where for 5 Saturdays in a row, our crews raced up and down preparing for what we believed to be an exciting Torpids week. We worked hard doing double outings on each trip, speedrunning through technique drills and pieces in the surprisingly choppy lake (should we become a coastal rowing crew?). When we weren’t taking early trains across Reading we were making the most of the gym and the ergs, novices and seniors alike saying things like ‘at least we aren’t out in that rain’, knowing full well if it meant we could row we would love to be ‘out in that rain’. I am extremely proud of the commitment shown by our rowers this term, keeping up with the lovely, supportive and determined atmosphere despite the non-lovely amount of 6:30 am ergs.

Then came Torpids week. Our 2 women’s crews were eager to race, however, river conditions meant we could only race our W1 in a one-day Heads race replacement ‘TorpHeads’. Ecstatic to be on the river for the first time, our W1’s hard work paid off as we battled to 1st place in our division, overall placing 9/34, beating many crews in the divisions above us. We spent our final week of term trying out some new sports, going for sunny runs and trying out Olympic weightlifting, giving us a good fitness base for our training camp and the eagerly anticipated Summer Eights next term!

The women's 1st VIII after TorpHeads

Oriel men were the fastest crew on the day, but they only beat Wolfson by 1.5 s, not enough to regain the Headship. Hertford were 3rd fastest and can only dream of the happy times they would have had working their way up from the bottom of Div I.

No argument about the women's Headship, though. Pembroke, the head crew, were also the fastest in TorpHeads, 6.5 s ahead of 3rd place Univ but 47 s ahead of 2nd place Christ Church, who suffered the indignity of being overtaken (although definitely not bumped) by Univ.

We can also use the results for some informed speculation on how our own crews might have fared. Below are plots of the speeds of the crews that started around our 1st VIIIs (further to the right means faster). It should be noted that neither Worcester nor S.E.H., the two crews immediately behind the men's 1st Torpid, chose to race, and neither did Linacre or Wolfson II women, the crews 2 and 3 places behind the women's 1st Torpid.

This suggests that the men were very much in the middle of the local pack. Taking 5 s difference as the minimum required for a bump, it seems that even if Catz men managed to evade Queen's over the week they would almost certainly have been caught by Trinity by the second day. If they kept their heads they might have limited their losses 1 or 2 places but with a chance of a bump on St Hugh's later in the week.

The women were the fastest boat in their locale and looked well set up for a successful week: probably bumping St Hilda's on the first day, St Peter's on the 2nd and St Antony's at some point (I've had to add 30 seconds to St Antony's speed just to keep them on the same plot). But let's not get ahead of ourselves; time trials are no substitute for actual bumps racing.

Cambridge women raced in the Women's Eights Head on 14th March. Their top boat finished 6th (they were 3rd last year), only just ahead of the Molesey 2nd VIII. On the other hand the Cambridge reserve crew, Blondie, comfortably beat a Molesey crew in their private fixture last weekend.

Cambridge men don't seem to have raced in any timed event this term but, according to their website (so much more informative than Oxford's) they beat Leander in a side-by-side fixture last week. Leander, not necessarily the same Leander, won yesterday's Head of the River Race. A Cambridge University crew finished 14th in the HORR but apparently this was just their development squad (!).

Oxford's only public outings against a stopwatch were a fortnight ago in the Netherlands at the Heineken Cup. It's a complicated format with racing over 250, 750, 2500 and 5000 m. Oxford women won the Elite event, beating Dutch crews. They beat Leander last weekend in a private fixture, Leander (with the usual caveats) having won the Women's Eights Head the previous weekend, 25 s ahead of Cambridge.

Oxford men came 2nd in the Heineken, beaten only by the Dutch national squad. They also beat Thames A by about 11 s over 5 km. Since Thames also raced in yesterday's HORR (finishing 5th), Oxford's time would have placed them 3rd, 15 s behind Leander and 6 s behind Brookes.

Just to remind you: Cambridge have won the last 3 men's Boat Races by an average of 3½ lengths and the last 8 women's races by an average of 5½ lengths. With 6 (student) races each year, Oxford's only victory in the past three years was when Osiris beat Blondie in in 2024.

This year's races are being televised (in the UK) by Channel 4 instead of the BBC. A touch ironic since the newly-designated DG of the BBC is himself an ex-Cambridge Blue. Triple-Blue actually, although — checking the records — I note that he lost on all three occasions (those were the days) so maybe he's not so keen on the event after all. Given the understandable, but slightly toe-curling, efforts by the BBC to make the whole event more 'relatable' (is that the right word?) it is with some trepidation we await Channel 4's offering.