The Boat Club Report 1992-93

This proved to be one of the Boat Club's most difficult years with very few senior rowers left from last year, especially in the Ladies' Club.

The Michaelmas Term saw the usual influx of novice rowers who performed with mixed success in the end of term races. The Novice A men's crew, who had shown early potential, experienced every kind of equipment failure possible in the Clare Novice preliminary race. As a result of several blades coming out of the gates and rowers coming off seats they were relegated to the Plate division where they were never able to show their true potential. Unfortunately, the men's Novice B and C crews did not perform as well as they have done in past years, mainly due to the restrictions placed on the number of outings. The ladies' Novice A boat also experienced mixed fortunes with a poor result in the Fairbairns but making it to the quarter-finals of the Cup division of the Clare Novice regatta. Following past form, the ladies Novice B boat came almost last in everything.

For the Senior Fairbairns, the men turned out a fun eight as a serious boat was not possible due to lack of rowers. Donning fairy lights and Santa Claus hats a crew of non-serious senior rowers amidst a sea of cleaver blades (not their's) excelled in the Senior Fairbairns VIIIs division. The senior women performed better than they have for a couple of years with good results in the Senior IVs division of Fairbairns. Both crews performed better than the crews of the previous year, despite rowing only twice a week and not being the largest of crews.

We had two triallists this year - Dan Maynard and Jodi Del Giorno. Both were successful until very late stages and Dan Maynard was spare man for Goldie. He had many successful races throughout the year representing the University and we wish him well for the coming year.

The Lents saw many of the previous term's novices rowing in senior boats. The men's First VIII suffered from lack of time on the water and consequently went down two. Unfortunately the ladies First VIII, after putting in a lot of time on the water, were unable to make up for the fact that they had almost a completely novice crew and dropped three places. The term ended with the third annual Camarathon - a 31-mile row from Cambridge to Denver. Churchill entered three crews including a ladies crew which had a hotch-potch of subs and rowers rowing on the other side for the first time. The weather held out quite well and six hours later several exhausted crews sat down to a well-deserved meal at a pub in Denver.

The May Term looked to be quite daunting for both the men's and ladies' First VIIIs. The ladies again had an inexperienced crew. After a gruelling term of outings and weight training they performed much better than all expectations and dropped only two places to end at fifth in the first division. With seven crew members of the May Boat and the cox at Churchill next year it seems that the ladies are in an ideal position to go back up next year. The men's First VIII again had a tough term with a lot of experienced oarsmen but not much time on the water. However, with the crew following a training programme designed by Dan Maynard they were able to capitalise on the experience they had and eventually ended the Mays one place up, having bumped in spectacular fashion in the Plough reach. Men's Second VIII had their work cut out for them to retain the position attained the previous year. Starting from the highest place ever reached by a Churchill men's second crew, they finished only one place lower after several exciting but gruelling races. The highlight of the Mays, however, came from an unlikely crew - the ladies Second VIII. Having been bumped on the first two days it seemed that they were following in the footsteps of many Second VIIIs before them and heading for wooden spoons. However, on Friday they rowed over and on Saturday they had a New Hall crew in front who had been double-overbumped and over-bumped and then over-bumped again. The Churchill crew showed their true class when they bumped the New Hall crew in the Plough reach and spent the rest of the day celebrating the first bump in the ladies Boat Club in four years with several bottles of champagne.

Finally, thank you to Jim Cameron and Chris Lloyd, our boatmen, and to Dr Tristram, the senior treasurer, and to all those coaches who have dedicated so much time and effort to College rowing.