Moving indoors, we note one of our alumni gained a world record over the summer, while another recently lost his long-standing UK record.

Last summer's history lesson dwelt on the origins of Summer Eights some 200 years ago, so in this edition we move things forwards another 60 years to the first tentative splashes of Catz blades on the Isis.

And finally, the review of where we stand at the end of 2015.

Nephthys Regatta, 20-21st November
Men's Novice VIIIs (8 entries)
Q/F	Wolfson bt	St Catz	Easily

Christ Church Regatta, 25-28th November
Men's Novice VIIIs (72 entries)
Rnd 1	St Catz bt	Queen's A	¾ L
Rnd 2	Balliol B bt	St Catz	Easily
Women's Novice VIIIs (54 entries)
Rnd 1	St Catz A* bt	Brasenose B	4 L
	Wadham B bt	St Catz B	Easily
	Merton A bt	St Catz C	Easily
Rep	University B bt	St Catz B	1 L
	Keble B* bt	St Catz C	Easily
Rnd 2	Corpus A bt	St Catz C	Easily
* 'Friendly crew' — ineligible to proceed

Wallingford Head, 29th November
235 crews were timed
12th	14:41	Oxford Brookes	1st/13 IM3.8
72nd	16:10	St Catz (M1)	8th/13 IM3.8

Women's Nov C having a spot of bother during racing.

Georgios Ntentas, Men's Captain

The men's senior squad had a very dynamic start in Michaelmas Term. Our new coach, Christy Job, set a very demanding training plan from week 0 and most of the men's squad of 12–15 people followed it regularly. We had 5 outings planned per week for 9 weeks and I'm delighted to say that, by having a committed and very efficient squad, we didn't miss any of them! The senior men trained mainly on the stretch below Iffley Lock as the Isis was too packed with novice boats as always. Volume training aiming at Wallingford head was the end goal of this term. We came 8th out of 19 IM3 boats and gained valuable experience racing a long head race off the Isis. We also raced IWL A and came third overall, 2 seconds behind Jesus.

Our novice squad had a great intake and they are looking very promising. We are hoping that about 15–18 of them will continue in the senior squad. After Wallingford head the novices joined the seniors and we had some mixed outings to prepare them for the January training camp.

Emily Hoogkamer, Women's Captain

The women trained as a squad of 10–14 throughout this term. With a focus on bringing together different rowing styles from countries including Canada, India and Germany, the squad has seen a huge progression in technique over the last 8 weeks. Weights training and technical exercises on the water during outings have been really beneficial in making the whole of the stroke powerful and efficient. Having such a diverse group of women rowing has meant that the women's senior team only entered one race this term. In IWLB, the racing crew came 6th out of 14 boats, having only had one or two outings as a fixed crew.

Looking onward to Hilary term and preparation for Torpids and bumps racing, the women's squad will be settling into fixed crews, with a strong intake of novices. We are all looking forward to what should be a great next term of rowing with more effective training under our new head coach Christy.

'We came up with the idea as a personal challenge. George [fellow cadet, acting as the 'cox'] kept me going throughout, telling me how far I'd rowed in terms of the English Channel and Panama Canal, as well as providing a sense of perspective with stories about overcoming adversity, such as Shackleton's Endurance expedition to the Antarctic.

'In the latter stages it turned into a mental battle, I was fighting every stroke to stay on the split.

'The back-up plan was to settle for the British record, but it's a great honour and I'm absolutely delighted to have broken both.'

Charlotte Marshall on her way to the 100 km record
Image from www.royalnavy.mod.uk

We also note that Matt Pinsent's UK 2 km record, set 11 years ago, has just been broken by Mo Sbihi, a member of the GB VIII, and now stands at 5:41.8 (average split of 1:25.5). And that's still 5 seconds slower than former NZ sculler Rob Waddell's World Record. Hmm. Perhaps you might want to check those 100 km records again for something seemingly more attainable.

The following year, a St Catharine's VIII was entered for Torpids. Starting 21st of 22 boats, they rowed over for 2 days before gaining their first bump (on Christ Church II) with further bumps on Hertford and Corpus Christi over the 6 days of racing.

1876 was also the year of St Catharine's first appearance in Eights. Starting 21st, and bottom, they rowed over all 8 days. But, on the positive side, we do actually have contemporary evidence of their arrival on the river: a flat line drawn the Brasenose minute book. They had to wait another year before gaining their first bump (Jesus).

Apart from J. Sherwood, the only other names we have from those first couple of years are another sculler, J. Lowndes, competing in the 1877 OUBC sculls, and E. R. Fagan, described as 'one of the founder members of the Boat Club' when is death was reported in the 1939 minute book.

Actually ... I suppose first we could look at the current positions of our crews based on their highs and lows of the last 10 years.

Catz Crews: Current Positions
(& highest–lowest positions, 2006–2015)
	Men		Women
	2015	Range	2015	Range
1st Torpid	9th	(4–10)	18th	(1–18)
2nd Torpid	47th	(41–61)	—	(47–57)
3rd Torpid	—	(62–68)	—	(50–55)
1st Eight	15th	(5–15)	24th	(13–24)
2nd Eight	49th	(38–49)	54th	(44–57)
3rd Eight	—	(73–84)	75th	(—)

Not much cheer here, I'm afraid. With the exception of the Men's 2nd Torpid and Women's 3rd Eight, all our boats are at or near their lowest positions. In fact the women's 1st Torpid and 1st Eight are at their lowest ever positions and the Men's 1st Eight is at its lowest since 1998. Due to a rule violation last term, both our Men's 1st and 2nd Eights received an additional 2 penalty bumps to be applied after Eights but, in the finest traditions of accountancy, I've opted to 'bury' those losses in this year's statistics rather than next year's.

So now we get on to the rowing equivalent of the 'Norrington Table'. I remind you that this is based on the finish positions of all crews in Torpids and Eights, with a sliding scale so that gains or losses in the higher divisions count more than equivalent changes in lower divisions.

Pembroke retain their position at the top, with an increased margin, while Wadham and Oriel move up to overtake Magdalen and Christ Church. But as you can see, we've plummetted from 11th down to 17th, so are now 'just above average'. At times like this I usually like to look around to console myself with the thought that there's another College that had a worse year but, try as I might ...

Now, some of you may recall that Catz had quite a good year in the Norrington Table (6th), and that Pembroke were once again bottom (30th). To which all I can say is Magdalen (1st) and Wadham (3rd).

Right, that's 2015 out of the way, may it rest in peace. Onwards and (hopefully) upwards!