But let us return to sunnier times. We have reports of a Catz men's eight heading out to race in China and an women's four heading, erm, just out of their boathouse to race in Oxford City Regatta.

I've also been looking through the records to identify the Catz woman who has the most bumps starts to her name. Any guesses before I tell you the result?

Finally, sadly, we note the recent death of Rowing Society Vice-President, Don Barton. A man who would have heartily approved of Catz students seizing any opportunity to venture to distant lands.

Different continent, different culture — same old message. The Catz crew warming up before racing in Nanchang, China.

Shane McCarthy, Men's Co-Captain

On the 26th of June Catz men's rowing club sent off a crew of eleven on a nine day rowing trip to China to compete against both local and international teams in two major regattas, the first being the 'World Leading Universities Regatta' in Nanchang and the second being the 'Second Head of the Grand Canal' in Yangzhou, on the Grand Canal at the Deep Dive centre.

Initially the team, composed of David Zimmer (coach), Clare Leckie (cox), Niels Wicke (captain), Bryce Starr, Rob Kilgour, Rudy Bunel (sub from L.M.H.), Lukas Lohove (sub from G.T.C.), Shane McCarthy, Nantas Nardelli, Rowan Nicholls (the women's coach) and George Newton, arrived in Shanghai, before taking an in-country flight to Nanchang.

Nanchang: Catz boating for the 1 km heats.

In Nanchang we competed in two events: in the early morning was a four-lane 1 km sprint event with heats and then an A, B and C final, where the team, whilst initially struggling in the heats (and the heat!), was able to come out on top in the B final with a time of 3:17:18, beating teams like Cambridge (3:28:40) and MIT (3:24:91).

In the afternoon a 5 km head race took place. Interestingly, due to the size of the lake, half way through the course there was a required spin around a buoy, which was difficult to spot from the starting line. As a result, some unlucky crews did end up rowing more than 5 km in search for this notorious buoy, however the Catz men were spared the extra mileage thanks to the coxing prowess of Clare Leckie. This meant we took fourth place, over Harvard.

In Yangzhou the team were faced with a 6 km head race, which also featured spinning at the halfway point, on the Grand Canal. We came third overall with a time of 21:49, only losing to Harvard University and the University of Otago from New Zealand.

Aside from rowing in the regattas in Nanchang and Yangzhou, the Catz men also took part in multiple indoor erg competitions, most notably one in the centre of a shopping mall in Nanchang, where there was a 500 m sprint and two 8 x 250 m relays, one with the public involved and one without.

Between Nanchang and Yangzhou the team enjoyed visiting multiple museums and tourist sites, such as Nanchang People's Square or the Pavilion of Prince Teng, to learn more about Chinese culture. We were also afforded the opportunity to present what life is like rowing and studying at Oxford to school children at a local school in Nanchang, whilst also getting them to compete in a friendly erg competition in mixed crews of the school children and university students. Not only was the trip educational but it was also thoroughly enjoyable and we hope to be invited back soon.

Just your average bunch of tourists taking in the sights in the People's Square in Nanchang. Wait — I hope those aren't dark blue t-shirts?

We took delivery of a couple of new fours over the summer. The official launch will be next term but the women couldn't resist having a look under the wraps. And having done that, might as well rig it. And maybe take if for a paddle? What's that? Oxford City Regatta coming up soon? Well, now ...

Catz women's IV, having just won their final at Oxford City Sprint Regatta: Clare Leckie (bow), Kaja Fenn (Hertford), Rachel Craig-McFeely, Holly Smith and Niels Wicke (cox). Nonchalant, I'd say.

Saturday's racing is over 850 m from the Head of the River down to the Gut. Catz were drawn against Wolfson in the first round and certainly gained valuable experience as they battled it out side-by-side down the whole course, losing out by just half a length (Wolfson went on to win the event).

Returning the next day for the 500 m sprint event, slightly older but considerably wiser, Catz won both their races comfortably to take the Women's Band 1 coxed fours title.

For those not familiar with the current classifications, the 'bands' are determined once entries have been received, based on totting up the racing points of each crew member, Band 1 being for the top crews.

Anyway, a couple of minutes after the women won their final, that Catz hardy perennial Tony Mitchell (M.78) came storming down the course to win the veteran mixed doubles.

Sarah Talbot and Tony Mitchell (M.78), definitely pleased with themselves after taking the veterans' mixed double sculls at OxCity Sprints.

In the last issue we noted that Mal Spencer had now registered his 100th bumps start in a Catz boat, well ahead of the next person (who I think is probably me, on 64). However, who holds the women's record?

We're counting up how many times someone has sat in a Catz boat when the start gun is fired. Of course it helps if you've both coxed and rowed in the same event, and if you've rowed as Sandwich Boat that counts as twice in one day. Also if you've stayed on to continue rowing as a post-grad. I've done my best to come up with totals for some of the more likely candidates and listed those on 30 or more.

An honourable mention for Holly Smith (see photo above), top of the currently active women, who just fails to make the list with 29.

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