Thanks again to Josephine Barnett-Neefs for the photos (including, somehow, the one on the right).

Results

Bumps Charts

Men	Women

The Men's 1st Eight (Photo: JBN)

The men's squad started their Summer Eights campaign last April with a successful training camp in Tilburg (NL), where 24 rowers and two coxes trained hard over 4 days (even if the photos might give a different impression ...)

The commitment this term was fantastic and Eights was a great success, with the men's crews gaining a total 9 places. The 3rd Eight just missed blades due to a klaxon on the Friday, a few seconds before they bumped Mansfield III. The 2nd Eight rowed over on Wednesday (though missed the bump also by a few seconds as Hertford II managed to bump out with Catz a canvas away) and bumped up all the other days. The 1st Eight bumped Worcester on Wednesday and then, being the Sandwich boat between Div 1 and Div 2, had to perform 7 more heroic row-overs, and just missed a bump on Hertford on the Saturday by less than a canvas.

I'm really excited for next year as hopefully most of the current squad will continue rowing giving Catz men a squad depth that we have been missing for a while. Since this is my last report as Men's Captain, I would like to wish best of luck to James Winder, the new Men's Captain and to thank our coach Christy and everyone else in SCCBC for a fantastic year!

(Bottom) The men's 2nd Eight closing on Brasenose II.

The Women's 1st Eight closing on Osler House

After a very successful Summer Eights, it is easy to look back on this term and think that everything went perfectly. The women's squad finished with a net gain of 3 places, not only stabilising our position, but turning things around to put W1 back into the upward stream for next year. The first day saw a tough race for our W1 crew, with most of us thinking it was all over as we exited the Gut. But, a big push from the whole crew left Linacre in our wake and spurred the boat on to a row over. This started the week off with the right attitude and set the crew up to bump falling crews on the remaining three days. Pulling together as a team to experience the daily adrenaline highs as we bumped our way up through the division made this a particularly special set of final races for me as Captain and I couldn't have been prouder of my team and what we have achieved over this year.

Looking back over the term and the year, the results of this summer are not just down to the 11 girls who ended up racing. Although we didn't manage to muster a W2 with exams and field trips getting in the way, the wider squad and training throughout the year meant that our racing crew was selected from a large number of girls. Setting the crew late in the term meant that everything ended up coming together very last minute, but I think everyone that raced or came to watch would agree that the team meshed well. One of my favourite things about rowing is that you don't just row for yourself, you row for the other 8 members of your crew and every power 10 or acceleration comes from the crew as a whole. Particularly on day 1 of Eights, it was really evident how much can be gained by working as one machine rather than rowing the boat for yourself.

Looking forward to next year, things are looking up for Catz. With the momentum of a successful Summer Eights campaign, enthusiasm within the Boat Club is high and everyone seems excited to get back on the water as soon as possible. With new members and old faces I can only say: watch this space.

The Women's 1st Eight, very much enjoying their week (Photo: JBN)

Andy Triggs Hodge (M.04) is in the men's VIII. He missed the whole of last year through illness, but the VIIIs was really just about the competition between two crews: Great Britain and Germany, with the British just edging it. This year the British have put their top oarsmen into the coxless IV but such is the strength and depth of the squad that the VIII would be disappointed with Silver. However they've had a shaky start to the season with a Bronze in Brandenburg and dropping to 4th in Lucerne. But today, in Poznan, they got it back on track, finishing just a canvas down on the Germans, having under-rated them by 2 or 3 pips down the whole course. But this year it's not just about these two crews: the Dutch, who weren't racing this weekend, beat the Germans into 2nd place at Lucerne, and the USA and Russians could also get into the frame.

The GB men's coxless four has taken the gold medal in the last 5 Olympic Games and always with a Catz man in the stroke seat. This year they've gone for a Trinity man — we'll see how that works out. You'll also notice, Jo Gough apart, the list is entirely male. The raised status of the Women's Boat Race will no doubt even things out in the long term, but in the short term I'm fairly confident we'll be adding Zoe's name.

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