The Boat Club Report 1991-92

This year has seen the Boat Club in a very strong position, with many rowers from last year's top crews still in College. Despite this, results for the Michaelmas Term were average, with small boats providing the best performances for the senior boats. Both men's and women's novice boats turned in excellent results. A combined crew from A & C boats won the men's novice category of the Winter Head very convincingly. Men's novice A then went on to come second in Novice Fairbairns and, after a disastrous first race, won the Plate in the Clare Novices Regatta. Women's novice A raced superbly in the Clares, beating favourites Jesus, and were narrowly beaten in the final.

Churchill had three trialists this year. For the men's crews, Sam Short trialled for most of the term and was in the CUBC A squad until he was forced to drop out due to injury. Ben Bryant trialled for the lightweights but was unsuccessful. For the women's crews, Elaine Anderson trialled for the second time, and was selected for the lightweight crew. This crew then went on to beat Oxford in the races at Easter. In addition, CUBC ran a development squad throughout the year, and one of the new novice rowers, Dan Maynard, was selected to be part of this squad. During the year he had many successful races both at home and abroad, racing for Goldie B.C. We wish him every success in future trials.

The Lents saw many of the previous term's novices rowing in senior boats. The usual races at Peterborough and Cambridge led up to the Bumps. Men's 1st VIII had a memorable row against Selwyn on the first night (reported in many of the national papers) which resulted in a bump by the bus shelter, and Churchill rising to 8th in the first division. Sadly this was short lived, with a drop back down one place by the end of the week. Women's 1st VIII dropped two places.

For the second year a training camp was held at York, with three VIIIs training with the help of St Peter's School, and several ex-Churchill rowers. The women's VIII hald a similar camp in Cambridge before term.

Two very fast VIIIs performed well in the Cam Head and Cam Sprint Regatta. where both reached the semi finals. The delivery of a new men's 1st VIII was welcomed, and all looked well... But, coming up to Bumps, both crews were hit by injury problems, with one member of each crew dropping out. 1st VIII had to cope with a new stroke two days before Bumps, and rallied well to produce some good rows, although going down two overall. 2nd VIII rowed well and went up, finishing 10th in the Second division. Women's 1st VIII rowed well all four days, despite a substitute cox for the latter two, and remained 3rd on the river.

They then went on to Women's Henley, where they were narrowly beaten in the second round by the eventual runners up. Men's 1st VIII regained their stroke and rowed superbly to qualify at Henley Royal Regatta. They drew Tufts University USA in the first round, and had a good race, but lost.

As usual, our thanks must go out to our boatmen, Jim Cameron and Chris Lloyd, and coaches who keep us successful on the river year after year.