The Boat Club held their post-Eights dinner at the Cherwell Boathouse (it's now diversified from just hiring out punts), which provided a suitable background for announcing this year's winner of the Ben Sylvester Award, not least because the dinner had been organised by the recipient of the award.

Finally, for those I didn't get to talk to at the Gaudy itself, I apologise for the lack of a Gaudy paddle this year. Now I'm on the 'examiner' roster, the end of term sees a ramping up rather than a winding down of demands on my time. I'm not expecting any sympathy, but I am amazed just how much stuff I was once expected to know, on top of all the rowing.

The men's 1st Eight pushing off on the Saturday

Before this term started, our senior squad had a successful training camp in Italy. Here, our athletes got practice in more mixed boats in terms of ability as well as new boat classes including the quadruple scull. The newer members of the squad comprised most of the attending athletes, who all benefitted greatly. Rowing in smaller boats allowed them to hone their individual skill, while being in larger boats with experienced members allowed them to understand how to move a boat as a team. This put us in good stead for the term ahead, especially as there were no races scheduled before the ominous Summer Eights.

From the start of term to the beginning of Eights this trend of mixing experienced and new rowers continued due to factors such as exams and the like. Although this further improved the newer rowers, the more experienced bunch were not really learning anything new. This was quickly fixed however with the involvement of our Blues athletes, who catapulted everyone's training to the next level. In the 5 weeks of training we scheduled more sessions with multiple boats out at a time in view of the more lax river restrictions, and even managed to battle paddle colleges such as Hertford. All this put us in good stead for the biggest and only race of the term Summer Eights.

The men's 3rd Eight. 'Intimidating? Who — us?'

Following on from the success of our training camp in Italy, Trinity term has proved to have been an eventful, busy, and exciting term for Catz rowing. The season kicked off with City Bumps, with our crew managing to bump up a division. The following weekend saw nine members of the squad heading to Nottingham for BUCS for a very competitive and rewarding day of racing.

Both our W1 and W2 crews trained incredibly hard in the lead up to Summer Eights. Due to a series of klaxons, our W2 crew had a somewhat chaotic Summer Eights experience, which meant that they rowed over on all but the last day, when they were bumped by St Edmund Hall W2. Our W1 had a very successful campaign for Summer Eights this year, bumping Somerville, Linacre, St John's, and Balliol, which meant blades!

Those who nominated Niamh said

'Niamh is an indispensable member of the club. She has made SCCBC such a well-run and warm environment in which to learn and thrive ... Niamh epitomises the phrase 'team player'; she is dedicated to the success of the club and always thinks about the greater good of the whole squad.'

'Niamh Louwman is the head and heart of SCCBC. While she's been absolutely amazing as president in managing the logistics and communication for the boat club, I'm nominating Niamh for her contributions to the culture. Joining as a novice (with neither coordination nor talent), I felt immediately welcome, encouraged, and included.'

Also nominated: Tom Aston, Lucy Bartel, Emma Coakley, Kan Li and Isabel Milner.