Some of you may be familiar with the rather more serious rowing festival of the Head of the Charles, held in Boston, USA, each Autumn. It turns out there was a 'Catz' entry this year, although rowing in Oxford lightweight colours. Former captain of boats, Tom Wagstaff, provides his account.

Now that we've had a full academic year of rowing, it's time to review how the Boat Club has performed. Also, an overview of how all the various colleges have fared since before-Covid.

This October two students from St Catherine's College travelled to Boston MA to compete in the Head of the Charles Regatta for Oxford University Lightweight Rowing Club. Tom and Zac competed in the Championship Lightweight Double, placing 3rd as well as 13th overall in the Championship Openweight Double, whilst facing strong international competition. They also had the chance to talk with rowers from around the world and gain a greater understanding of the sport and the athletes who compete in it.

They would like to thank the Rowing Society for their continued support of triallists at St Catherine's College which helps athletes make the most of these opportunities when they are presented.

Racing in Christ Church Regatta last year but, women and equipment apart, this could have been any year.

Christ Church Boat Club have announced that they will no longer be running their Michaelmas novice regatta, the event in which most of us met with our first rowing triumphs and disasters (well, disasters mostly).

The Regatta, launched in 1958, was immediately popular with the colleges but the pundits were more cautious.

Mixed Feelings on Early Racing

The Times, Tue 25 Nov, 1958

The new Christ Church regatta, which was announced after the first captain's meeting at Oxford this term, starts at 2 o'clock this afternoon on the Godstow Reach and finishes on Thursday. The finish of the course will be opposite the Oxford University Yacht Club Boat House at Medley.

Whether it is a good thing in the Michaelmas term, when quite a number of the competitors will have been rowing for only a few weeks, to have racing of any sort is questionable. Strictly, it would probably be better to concentrate on teaching men to row than on encouraging them to race at this stage. But the argument that the prospect of a race is necessary to get men down to the river is a forceful one. And if it is accepted, then a regatta of this sort, offering side-by-side racing over a short course, seems to be a good answer. There is no doubt of the popularity of the new fixture, for 62 entries have been received. There will be events for shell, clinker and novice eights, and for shell and novice sculls. Semi-finals and finals will be raced on Thursday.

Racing Abreast through Gut is Success

The Daily Telegraph, Fri 27 Nov, 1959

Christ Church regatta, which was successfully finished here to-day was, in a sense, a rehearsal for next term's new style Torpids, for in all except the novice events the crews raced abreast through the Gut.

At no time was there any threat of a collision. Nor indeed would there have been any excuse had a collision occurred, for there was ample space.

It should be added that the city rowing clubs have been racing abreast over this course for many years and there has never been any valid reason for the colleges not following their example.

Nearly all the finals were well-contested and it was satisfactory to see many of them won by colleges who have not been prominent in recent times.

St. Catherine's who won the shell eights from St. Edmund Hall, were a lively and hard working crew, while Exeter, winners of the clinker event in a time only five seconds slower, showed really promising form.

Jesus, who won the novice eights, were rough but raced very hard for their victory. The coxed four event, well won by Oriel, was a welcome innovation.

The regatta, though only in its second year, has definitely established itself as a valuable event in the Oxford rowing calendar. It was very well managed. Its communications system, with loudspeaker commentaries and announcements of results, could usefully be adopted by the University Boat Club.

In 1989 Christ Church Regatta became a Novice-only event, with senior crews competing the preceding week in Nephthys Regatta, run as a fundraiser by the University lightweights.

The Regatta itself isn't disappearing. OURCs asked for interested colleges to submit proposals for running an equivalent event, and Linacre have now been awarded the franchise.

Michaelmas Term Regattas
	Men		Women
	2018	2022	2018	2022
Entries	4	8	4	5
Races	12	17	8	8
Wins	6	10	5	2
Win%	50%	59%	63%	25%

In the Michaelmas Term regattas (Autumn Fours, Nephthys and Christ Church) the men entered 8 crews, who won 10 out of their 17 races. The standout performance was winning the Senior VIIIs title in Nephthys. The women had 5 entries, but only won 2 of their 8 races. The table (right) shows a comparison of these results with 2018, the last Michaelmas Term in which any significant amount of racing took place (2019 being largely washed out due to a persistent high stream). Bold numbers indicate the better year.

Fastest Catz VIIIs in IWL Races
Date	Event	Men		Women
		Pos	Time	Pos	Time
31-10-21	IWL-A	2nd	+1.5s	2nd	+2.0s
28-11-21	IWL-B	4th	+19.5s	3rd	+12.0s
23-01-22	IWL-C	2nd	+8.0s	9th	+26.0s
6-02-22	IWL-D	9th	+18.0s	6th	+18.5s
22-02-22	IWL-E	9th	+11.5s

There were 5 Isis Winter League time-trials spread over Michaelmas and Hilary Terms, Catz men entering at least one VIII in every event but the women missing the last. The results of the highest-placed VIIIs are summarised below. The best performances came in the first event, with both men's and women's VIIIs recording the second fastest times, just a couple of second behind the winners. Catz also had the fastest of 7 women's fours in IWL-B.

We had a total of 8 triallists for University Crews, four of whom featured in their respective Trials races, in which three were victorious. 2 were subsequently selected for Boat Race crews (Angus Groom, OUBC and Augustin Wambersie, Isis) and both won. Three others were `designated spares'.

Five crews were entered for Torpids, although the Men's 3rd and Women's 2nd crews failed to qualify, both missing out by 3 seconds. That's two fewer crews than in the weird 'Summer Torpids' of 2021, in which there were 3 Catz women's crews racing. The most successful crew was the men's 2nd Torpid, up 3, but the men's 1st Torpid bumped up — temporarily — to 2nd on the river and thus, in the nearly 150 years since Catz started competing, had their first shot at a headship.

The Men's 1st Torpid racing, at least for a couple of days, 2nd on the river, their highest ever position in Torpids or Eights.

Over the Easter vacation there was a welcome return to the Lago di Monate training camp and summer term started with some early racing in City Bumps and the BUCS Regatta. For Eights, both men's and women's 1st boats were reinforced by returning squad rowers, although it was the women's 1st Eight who made the most of it by winning blades, for the first time since 1996. The men's 3rd Eight continued their successful run, having bumped on each of their last 14 days' of racing and are now the highest 3rd Eight on the river.

The Men's 1st and 2nd Torpids, and the Women's 1st and Men's 3rd Eights, are all at their highest positions in the last 10 years.

St Catherine's continues the steady upward progress we've been maintaining since 2015 (when we dropped from 11th to 17th) and are now higher than any time in the past 10 years. Just behind are Balliol and, since all our 1st boats are currently within two places of each other, that particular rivalry is set to continue into 2023.

Wolfson now take the top position for the first time, even though their women lost the Eights headship. Pembroke have been the big losers, dropping from 1st to 5th, with all four of their top boats going down.

Older readers may be surprised to see that some of the former powerhouses of Oxford rowing have now sunk to the bottom half of the table. There will always be good and bad years; the trick seems to be in making sure a bad year is followed by a better year. In retrospect, 2016 seems to have been a key year for St Catherine's.

The Women's Boat Club, celebrating 1st Eight blades for the first time in 26 years.

Diary