SCCRS Newsletter#2, Trinity Term, 2015

	St Catherine's College Rowing Society
	President: Prof Ceri Peach Vice Presidents: Don Barton, Neil Chugani, Richard Peters, Sir Matthew Pinsent CBE, Ben Sylvester, Andrew Triggs Hodge MBE.

	Newsletter#2, Trinity Term, 2015 (26th June)
	[PDF version]

In this Issue ...
Results
Eights Bumps Charts
2015 St Catherine's Eights
New Women's VIII
Men's Boat Club Report
Women's Boat Club Report
Ben Sylvester Award
Coming Up...
Diary

Links

St Catherine's College

Oxford University Rowing Clubs

St Catherine's College Boat Club

St Catherine's Rowing Society

In this Issue ...

In this newsletter we have the results and reports of Summer Eights and other racing. Catz managed to qualify 6 crews for Eights, which would have been our largest entry since 1996. Unfortunately, following a rules infraction (basically having an outing using a sub who had just failed his swim test) the men's 3rd Eight were subsequently withdrawn. Even so, it was the first appearance of a women's 3rd (Schools) Eight since 2003.

Eights 2015 also marked the last appearance of Mal Spencer who has competed, man-and-cox, for Catz in no fewer than 84 bumping races, interspersed with the odd foray into studying Soviet history. The Boat Club found an appropriate medium through which to express their appreciation.

Earlier this term the women finally took delivery of their new VIII, with Andrew Triggs Hodge, currently off international duty due to glandular fever, coming down to the boathouse to perform the honours. And, as is now traditional, the winner of this year's Ben Sylvester Award was presented with her medal on the Saturday of Eights.

*Brasenose (nearest) and Jesus lining up for the re-enactment of the original 1815 Eights race although, on this occasion, staged as a shorter, side-by-side race. Brasenose won again.*

Results

Crew	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Finish
City Bumps, 18th April
Bumps racing in coxed fours

Women's A	-1	=	=	=	3rd Div 2
Men's A	=	+1	=	-2	3rd Div 2
Men's B	=	-1	=	-1	6th Div 2

Bedford Regatta, 9th May
Men's 1st VIII racing

College Eights (6 entries)
Q/Final Catz bt Christ's (Cam) Row over
S/Final Downing (Cam) bt Catz 3 L 3:27
Final Oriel bt Downing 1 L 3:19
IM3 Eights (Div B) (11 entries)
Q/Final Catz bt Hampton Sch. Easily 3:46
S/Final Abingdon Sch bt Catz 1½ L 3:27
Final Bedford Mod.Sch. bt Abingdon Sch. 3 L 3:18

Rowing On, 22nd May

Men's results
fastest 27 from 33 crews to qualify
1 2:38 Mansfield II
26 3:25 St Catz III
27 3:31 New College IV
Women's results
fastest 27 from 35 crews to qualify
1 3:05 Green Templeton II
17 3:28 St Catz III
27 3:43 Queen's II

Summer Eights, 27--30th May
Wed Thu Fri Sat Finish

Men's I -1 -1 -1 -1 13th Div I
Women's I -1 = -1 -1 10th Div II
Men's II = +1 -3 +1 8th Div IV
Women's II = -1 -1 -1 2nd Div V
Women's III +1 +1 +1 +1 10th Div VI

Oriel Regatta, 13th June
Mixed VIIIs (19 entries)

Round 1 Catz A bt Hertford A
Round 2 Wolfson A bt Catz B
University C bt Catz C
Magdalen A bt Catz A

Eights Bumps Charts

2015 St Catherine's Eights

Men's 1st Eight

B: Martin Cusack

2: Alex Barbaro

3: ^*Georgios Ntentas

4: William Beuckelaers

^*Sub: Robert Hamlet (Wed)

Women's 1st Eight

Coach: Malcolm Spencer

4: Oscar Hartman Davies

^*Sub: Marc-Andrea Fiorina (Thu)

Women's 2nd Eight

B: Katarina Martinovic

Coach: Malcolm Spencer

6: Kristian Kostadinov

7: Patrick Tesh

S: Robert Hamlet

C: Conor Dennin

Coach: Georgios Ntentas

Women's 3rd Eight

The Women's 3rd Eight, with a relaxed start to the week as the bottom boat in the bottom division.

[W3]

New Women's VIII

*Andrew Triggs Hodge christening the new women's 1st VIII* All Rabbit's Friends and Relations ...

On Friday, 22nd May, the Women's new Stämpfli VIII was officially christened All Rabbit's Friends and Relations by one of our newly-elected Vice Presidents, and double Olympic Gold Medallist, Andrew Triggs Hodge MBE (although just 'Andy' on the day).

The £ 27 000 cost of the boat was met by a donation from former Catz oarsman David Morris and another alumnus who prefers to remain anonymous. If the new boat's name seems familiar to some of you it is because it was also the name of a wooden clinker VIII that served the Boat Club for many years. As a fresher back in January 1958, Prof. Morris had been one of the crew which had taken delivery of the original in Putney and was keen to see the name revived.

Thanks also to Poppy Lambert, last year's women's captain, for overseeing the whole process.

... and the new boat in action, one week later, during Eights

[W1]

Men's Boat Club Report

Georgios Ntentas, Men's Captain

Trinity was a very active term for the Men's squad, kicking off with a week's training camp on the Isis with the first goal of a solid performance in Oxford City Bumping Races; and then another weekend minicamp, with Darwin College Cambridge, in Peterborough, followed by racing at Bedford regatta. Even if the great atmosphere in the club this term didn't exactly get translated into great Summer Eights success, we are very excited for the next rowing season and aim to build on the good platform we have developed over the last year!

During this term we had some returning seniors which helped increase the speed of both M1 and M2 as well as the overall squad confidence. Notable amongst the returning seniors Malcolm Spencer (also the Women's coach), as this was his tenth and last year of rowing with Catz. Everyone on the Isis could see the enormous Soviet propaganda style Grimsby Express banner draped over the Catz balcony during Eights. Catz men's squad would like to thank Mal for his outstanding contribution to Catz rowing over these 10 years and wish him the best of luck!

Women's Boat Club Report

Emily Hoogkamer, Women's Captain

The women's squad have ended the year with a continuation of the positive attitude that has seen them through the year. Although bungline tangles and klaxons kept a row-over as the highlight of the first boat's Summer Eights performance, the team greatly enjoyed the racing, particularly as it was in a shiny new boat. The second boat put in a very strong performance considering that it was the first set of races for a lot of the girls. W3 cruised their way to blades, showing everyone what a scratch team can do. Looking forward to next year, the women's teams will be aiming to continue the progress made so far, whilst retaining the supportive and motivated approach that has made women's rowing at Catz so enjoyable.

Tribute to Mal Spencer, hero of Catz Socialist Labour (3rd class), for once again exceeding his annual production quota ('Grimsby Express, 10 years, 80 battles')

[Banner]

Ben Sylvester Award

Every year the Ben Sylvester medal is presented to the person judged to have made the greatest contribution to St Catherine's Rowing

The winner of this year's award is Miriam Mahmoud. In her 3 years here, Miriam has rowed in the women's 3rd, 2nd and 1st VIIIs, was a Captain of lower boats last year and women's Vice-Captain this year. She was described by those who nominated her as someone who had 'dedicated her time in Oxford to the Boat Club' and having 'an unshakable love for rowing'.

Maris Serzans proxime accessit. Also nominated were Alex Barbaro, Linda Geaves, Rebecca Lenihan, Georgios Ntentas, Adam Weston and James Wills.

Miriam Mahmoud receiving the 2015 Ben Sylvester medal from RS Chairman, Kevin Skinner.

[BFS Award]