Rowing on went well, with all our three regular VIIIs among the fastest crews, and the composite also qualifying with plenty to spare. (OURCs rules allow for 2-college combinations for women's crews in Rowing On, so our spares teamed up with our Longbridges neighbours', Green Templeton.)

In Eights our 5 crews finished with a net gain of ... 0 places (+1 if we include the composite) but since we've been in negative double figures for the past 3 Eights, i.e., as far back as most undergraduates will remember, they're be happy with that. For now.

Saturday's racing was immediately followed by the 150th Anniversary dinner, and a welcome return to the College Hall, at which the winner of the 2026 Ben Sylvester Award was announced.

It's also the 50th anniversary of the women's boat club and, with the women's 1st Eight gaining promotion to Div II coupled with the sequencing alternating each year, this was the first time that the women's 1st Eight were the last Catz crew racing in the day.

To my knowledge no Catz alumni are currently active Internationals but I've spotted a couple of their offspring in GB crews. I'm afraid I completely failed to organise any rowing for the June Gaudy but I will try to do better for the 5th September event.

The M1 boat had both a disappointing, yet promising experience during summer VIIIs. The boat was bumped once across the four days of racing, and unfortunately due to rudder issues, crashed on both the Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately this was a disappointing end to collegiate rowing to some members of the boat who have now left Oxford. Despite these downsides, the boat rowed over for the first time since 2023. Hopefully this upwards trajectory is maintained coming into next year, helped by a new racing shell.

The Men's 1st Eight boating on the Saturday

This year saw the first competitive M3 boat entered into Summer Eights since 2022; a testament to the new recruitment programme and the devotion of the novices. The crew rowed an excellent piece in rowing on, placing 10th out of 54 and beating numerous M2 boats from other colleges. Due to a three-boat sandwich, the crew unwittingly rowed past a live Pembroke, converting a row over into an overbump. However, this decision was appealed by Pembroke, resulting in a technical row over for both Pembroke and Catz. Thursday was a disappointing race for the crew, due to a crab in the start sequence causing a collision with the bank, resulting in a bump by Christ Church. Thursday ended up with another row over pursuing Christ Church, finishing with a gap of just over a boat length. Saturday resulted in an anticlimactic end to the campaign, with the division being klaxoned less than a minute after the start of the race. Despite the result not doing the promising crew justice, the boat club is still very proud of the efforts of the novices, with 2026 being the most successful season for novices in years.

After a lovely week in Lake Bled with lots of rowing, racing (and maybe a few beers) the women began the 5½ weeks of training for Summer Eights. With a huge amount of buy in from our squad, W1 and W2 were training 5 to 6 times a week, both in our new home in Godstow as well as on the Isis. With the help of Green Templeton College (GTC) we even managed to put out a W3 composite! With the excitement building and training becoming more intense, we did our final race practices, and fuelled our big week with a pasta party.

The Women's 1st Eight boating on the Saturday

Day one of Eights was our most successful day, with both W3 and W2 getting a bump and W1 bumping twice, up into division 2 (despite some dramatic appeals and 3 boats attempting to get on a singular bungline as sandwich boat!). The rest of the week absolutely flew by, ending in +1 for the GTC/Catz composite, 0 for W2 and +3 for W1. The success of our crews, as well as 150 years of rowing, and 50 years of women's rowing, was celebrated with a fantastic dinner in the newly reopened hall.

Not satisfied with ending the rowing year there we entered a development 4+ into Henley Women's Regatta and trained on an almost completely empty Isis. Our crew did not qualify but we placed 28th of 39, beating many university teams. The experience was an amazing one, and was the final race representing Catz for 3 of our athletes, including myself. With that the year came to an end, and we handed over to our lovely new captain Teresa, and vice captain Jane, I look forward to seeing what they bring to the boat club. It's been an absolute pleasure being a captain this year, I have enjoyed every minute of it, and I wish the women next year all the best!

From some of those who nominated him ...

His commitment to the club since he joined, especially this year as both novice captain and secretary has been unmatched. The novice recruitment this year was huge (more than we have seen in many years), and largely maintained throughout the year despite the lack of water time which can be attributed partly to Charlie.

From coxing (and for a large part coaching) the Men's novice boat for the Tamesis regatta, to accompanying the beginners to BUCS, to organising/coaching/coxing M2 and M3 in the eights campaign, Charlie has been unstoppable.

I have found that he consistently ensures a welcome, positive and excited atmosphere at the boathouse and at Catz, which has certainly inspired my commitment over the year.}

Charlie Knight, with the BFS medal