Autumn Fours, 17th November
Women's Fours (10 entries)
Round 1	Corpus bt	St Catz A	6"
	Wolfson bt	St Catz B	4 L
Repechages	St Catz A bt	Somerville B	3 L
Round 2	Brasenose bt	St Catz B	1 ½ L
Q/Finals	St Catz A bt	Trinity	Row Over
S/Finals	Somerville A bt	St Catz A	1 ¾ L

Nephthys Regatta, 22/23 November
Men's Novice Eights (38 entries)
Round 1	Lincoln bt	St Catz	Easily

Catz men's senior squad racing in IWL-A

Christ Church Regatta, 27-30th November
Men's Novice Eights (69 entries)
Round 1	Hertford A bt	St Catz A	1 L
	St Catz B bt	New College B	2 ½ L
Repechage	St Catz A bt	Christ Church C	Easily
Round 2	St Peter's A bt	St Catz B	Easily
Round 3	St Hilda's A bt	St Catz A	Easily
Women's Novice Eights (53 entries)
Round 1	Wadham A* bt	St Catz B	Easily
	Brasenose B bt	St Catz A	1 L
Round 2	St Catz A bt	Keble B	Easily
Round 3	Merton A bt	St Catz A	1 L
	St Hugh's A bt	St Catz B	Easily
*'Friendly Crew', ie allowed to race, but not to progress as winning crew

Robin Muir, Men's Captain

Robin Muir, Men's Captain

The beginning of term saw the arrival of a group of aspiring novices with formidable ambition and drive. This, combined with the excellent organization and coaching work of the Lower Boats Captains Matthias Steiner and Ben Baron, resulted in a very productive Christ Church campaign. During their rowing apprenticeship, some of the Novices were occasionally mixed into the Senior Men's water sessions, forming good bonds within the squad. In the end, the Catz A crew were knocked out by a very strong St Hilda's crew in the third round, putting in an encouraging race. The B crew fought equally hard, and ended up losing in the second round to St Peter's A crew.

Catz Men's Novice B boating for Christ Church Regatta.

Poppy Lambert, Women's Captain

Never afraid of putting the work in, the senior women and Malcolm Spencer returned this Michaelmas with five weeks of training already under our belts. We were lucky enough to be joined by two new seniors from Durham and Massachusetts, and Dolf Diemont, an accomplished coxswain from the Netherlands. Our main focus on the water this term was Autumn IVs; our B crew reached the second round and our crew A progressed to the semi-finals, where they unfortunately lost out to Somerville, the subsequent winner of the event. We of course also raced in the University's Cross-Country Cuppers, once again contributing to a great victory by Catz women.

Catz Women's Novice B boating for Christ Church Regatta.

We gained 22 points, mostly (13) coming from the Women's Torpids, moving us up to 11th at the expense of Hertford and New College. At the top, Pembroke increase their margin despite dropping a few points while Magdalen move up to 3rd, challenging Christ Church.

Torpids and Eights were raced over 6 days, from the Thursday through to the following Wednesday, with Sunday off (so Eights Week really was a week). Bumps rules were the same as for the current Eights, i.e. both crews dropping out when a bump occurred, but Eights was restricted to just the top boat from each of the 22 participating Boat Clubs so Torpids, with 27 crews including 2nd boats, was actually the larger event.

A contemporary postcard showing the Isis in 1889, looking downstream from the Head.

The previous year, during the Cambridge Lent races, there had been a fatal accident with a Clare oarsman being impaled by the bows of Trinity Hall III. As a consequence all boats were now required to have rubber bow-balls fitted.

The 1889 Torpids was run under flood conditions and Oxford suffered its own rowing tragedy on the Saturday when an overloaded punt overturned and a student of St John's College drowned. With a speed that seems remarkable by today's standards, the University Coroner completed his inquest on the Monday and racing resumed on the Tuesday. Following the Coroner's recommendations, O.U.B.C. subsequently passed rules requiring two lifebuoys to be kept at each barge, and for each club to have its own waterman and punt. A temporary bridge was also erected across Trill Mill Stream (at the back of the current Head of the River pub) to encourage more people to walk around rather than use punts.

In the racing itself, St Catharine's fell 3 places, bumped by the second boats of Brasenose, Balliol and Keble and finished 3rd from bottom (although still ahead of Worcester's 1st Torpid). In Eights, after initial success (bumping Worcester), they fell to Exeter, Oriel and Wadham to finish 18th (ahead of Worcester, S.E.H, Univ and Jesus).

In the absence of any Boat Club records, the only Cath's oarsman we can identify from that year is W. E. Robinson, who is listed in Sherwood's Oxford Rowing (published 1900) as rowing in both 1888 and 1889 OUBC Trial Eights races, although he failed to be selected for either Boat Race. He was also the losing finalist in the 1890 University Sculls (the event won by H. M. Kusik in 1913 - see last newsletter).

Helen Barnes (M.96)

We're still living in Bangladesh for the next year or so. Baby no. 2 (boy named Vusi) was born in June and is keeping us entertained.

Ilsa Haeusler (M.08)

Despite still living in Oxford, and indeed, still being a student at Catz, I haven't been rowing for a couple of years. I am currently in my final year of my medical degree, and due to sit my finals in January. So more of the same over the next few months; lots of study!

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