The Boat Club Report 1994-95

This year has been one of the Boat Club's most successful ever. The enthusiasm for rowing has been obvious thoughout the Club and commitment to the sport is at an all time high.

The year began with most of the attention on the novices. This attention was well deserved as they soon, quite literally, dominated the novice scene on the river. Men's novice A and B came first and fifth in the Fairbairns respectively and the A boat came second in the Clares, this due to a contentious re-row against Jesus in the semi-final. The ladies' A boat performed true to form, finishing third in the Fairbairns. The seniors began the year with the naming of our new Empacher Four, 'Marcia'. This boat has been named after Marcia Miller to recognise over 20 years of support for the Club. Ex-turkey-house-shovellers and ex-Lent boat colours are sure to agree that her cooking skills are legendary. The ladies remained in fours all term and this decision paid off at the end of term when the first four came second in the senior Fairbairns.

In the Lents, the Club harvested the crop of novices and produced some blade-winning results. The men's First VIII tasted sweet revenge when they went up three places, hitting back at the crews from last year. The Second VIII, consisting mainly of novices but with an experienced stern pair, went up four places to win their blades in style. Together, second and fourth boats were the first Churchill crews to win blades in five years! The ladies' first boat, with four novices on board, went up three places to finish ninth - their highest ever position in the Lents.

Over Easter both the men and women went to race the nation at the Head of the River races. The women had a superb row in mill pond conditions to finish 83rd out of a field of 220. The men, in slightly rougher conditions, finished 158th out of 420.

The annual training camp in York started the training programme for the Mays. This year saw the ladies there for the first time and meant a record number of people trying to sleep on the gym floor of York City Boat House!

In the May Bumps the First VIII went up two places to finish seventh - the highest a men's boat has ever been. The third boat won blades by going up six places! They got an overbump on Kings II on the first day and never stopped rising. The ladies boat suffered from a lack of experience and size and did well to remain in the top eight places. Despite really good rows, they went down three places. The ladies' second boat finally made it into Division Three after lots of row-overs at the head of Division Four and as sandwich boat in Division Three.

Following Bumps the men took two boats to the Henley Royal Regatta qualifying race. With the loss of the First VIII's stern pair, the forty-strong competition was too much and they finished eighteenth - only the top ten qualified.

Finally a mention to Mark Lantz and James Wakeling who have been pairing since last summer. Their successes include winning the Cam Triathlon, Stourport Regatta, Cam Sprints, Cam Small Boats Head and making the open lightweight final at Notts City Regatta. We wish them good luck for the National Championships in July.

Congratulations to Helen Maudsley and Helen Rutskowska on making the CUWBC development squad this summer and good luck, trialling next year.

Thanks, as ever, to the boatmen Jim and Chris who never cease to fix the worst we can do to our boats, to the coaches who continue to volunteer their time to shout at us and to the rowers who have never been as keen.