SCWBC Lizzie Robinson (SE 2011) writes After the successes of SCWBC’s previous season, matching it was always going to be a challenge. Even with three members of the club training with CUWBC (Hannah Evans, Vicky Shaw and Lizzy Johnstone), the squad was unusually large and was made up of 12 rowers and 2 coxes. Thus, we split into a IV, which would train for Uni IVs and Fairbairns, and an VIII, which would focus entirely on Fairbairns at the end of term. The W1 IV crew put in a great performance at Uni IVs and very nearly caught a strong First and Third W1 IV but unfortunately a strong gust of wind sent us into the bank as we came onto the Long Reach. After the efforts of our new coach, Alex, both crews made serious improvements through the term in strength, technique and determination although these improvements were perhaps not reflected in our Fairbairns’ results: the IV came 12th out of 17 crews, and the VIII came 3rd out of 6 W2 crews. Nonetheless, the crews gained a lot of experience throughout the term and many went on to row in the W1 crew in Lent Term. The 3 novice boats, led by an enthusiastic pair of Lower Boats Captains (Sophie Clarke and Helen Lambert), did very well. Particular mentions must go to NW1 and NW2 for coming 8th and 14th respectively out of 42 crews in the Fairbairns’ Cup. Lent Term brought the amalgamation of the senior and novice squads into one and, owing to the large numbers of novice rowers continuing and senior rowers returning, three crews were formed. After extensive trialling, six senior rowers and two ex-novices were selected for W1 and the lower boats were also formed of a very promising mixture of seniors and exnovices. Unfortunately, Lent Term also brought the city council’s decision to paint the Green Dragon bridge which meant that CUCBC enforced a one-boat-rule in the mornings, significantly cutting down the time that all of the crews would have to train. CUCBC, the organisers of college rowing, also cut down the number of divisions in Lent Bumps to reflect the limited training time, meaning that unfortunately W2 and W3 did not get a place in the bumps start order, despite their best efforts to train in a difficult situation. W1 regained their position from last year as sandwich boat and started Bumps week with a very convincing row-over in front of a strong Magdalene crew on the first day. The second day, we were bumped by a very quick Girton crew and, although getting very close on the third and fourth days, we never quite got the revenge bump that we deserved. Both W1 and W2 spent the last two weeks of term training for Women’s Eights Head of the River Race on the Tideway in London. However, weather conditions including gusty winds and a strong tide made the river unsafe for inexperienced tidal rowers and thus W2 had to be scratched from the race. W1 went on to compete and came 174th, a very good result considering our lack of training time. The Easter vacation saw the whole club descend on Abingdon for a week for our annual training camp. This year’s camp was a huge success with an enormous female turnout of 16 rowers and 2 coxes, enough to form two VIIIs which was highly useful for sparring. Coached by a team made up of Chris Cottingham (former SCBC captain) and Alex Courage (SCWBC Head Coach), the girls made excellent progress and were really well set-up for a new term of rowing.
With a number of girls returning from CUW or other university sports, the club was strengthened further as we went into Easter term and we were able to put out 4 women’s crews for May Bumps. Hannah Evans and Will McDermott returned from the University women’s reserve crew, Blondie, to stroke and cox W1 respectively. The combination of their experience, Alex’s coaching prowess and exceptional commitment from every member of the boat saw W1 form into a very good crew. This was unfortunately not fully reflected in our May Bumps results in which we only bumped once (albeit in 47 strokes) due to very strong boats either side of us at the bottom of the first division. W2, however, performed exceptionally well and went up three, bumping Girton W2, St Catharine’s W2 and Magdalene W2. Due to CUCBC once again cutting the number of women’s divisions in bumps, both W3 and W4 had to do the getting-on race to get a place in the start order. W3 rowed very well in the race and got on and then managed to keep their original position in the start order by both bumping once and being bumped once. W4 was mostly made up of rowers from the Sirens’ club and many of them had never rowed before. Considering this, they formed an incredibly strong crew and would have done well in bumps had they been given a place. However, amongst controversial CUCBC rulings, they didn’t race quite fast enough to gain their position in the start order of bumps and will have to wait until next year to make their mark on the bumps charts. Overall, it’s been a very successful year for the women’s side of the club with a huge amount of participation in every term. Combining the skill and strength of the more experienced rowers with the enthusiasm and dedication of the less experienced rowers produced not only good results for the upper boats but also promises great things to come from those who formed the lower boats this year.
Crews Women’s Lent First Boat H L Reeves N J Wood F Powell E R Johnstone E M Robinson S Gammage S L Forman E Corrie Cox: L R Kerr
Women’s Mays First Boat N E Martin N J Wood S L Forman E E Wigham E R Johnstone E Corrie E M Robinson H M Evans Cox: W J C McDermott
Women’s Lent Second Boat T Baron G M E Ogilvie G S H Hughes H Hussain F C N Firth H L Warwicker H V M Griffith H Wardle Cox: E J Thompson
Women’s Mays Second Boat T Baron P Fooks F Powell H Wardle F C N Firth H L Warwicker H L Reeves G M E Ogilvie Cox: L R Kerr
Women’s Lent Third Boat O C Peel H Balasubramanian A L North E O'Leary C C Seneschall S Clarke E A Hunt Cox: J Tiwana
Women’s Mays Third Boat C J Worrall J Tiwana C C Seneschall E A Hunt E O'Leary R L G Haggie O C Peel D Jayawardena Cox: I A Fayyiz
Women’s Mays Fourth Boat S Penney H E Miller R Lawrence A M B Browne L E Leyland Z Evans A G Adams A L Bond Cox: E J Thompson