St Catharine's College Boat Club

Having been drafted in to race in M2 for bumps, I found myself sitting at the wrong end of the river as the start cannon went for W2. With a crew who had never rowed before the start of the year, this first day of bumps was always going to be a steep learning curve, but my sources tell me W2 had a strong, clean start, despite starting next to the cannon under the motorway bridge. They moved to within a length of Darwin ahead of them, gaining their first-ever whistle, but were sadly caught by a stronger Hughes Hall/Lucy Cavendish crew on the entry to first post corner. While the plan for tomorrow is still under embargo, let me say this: W2 will be back. And back with a vengance.

As Michaelmas term came to a close, SCCBC's action on the water had only just began, with a total of 9 crews competing in Fairbairns. Thursday saw three novice men's crews compete and one novice women's crew. A special shout out to NM1 who finished 4th out of all the novice crews. NM2, NM3 & NW1 also put in a strong midtable performance. After such a successful novices campaign from our LBCs, the real triumph is that almost all our novices are staying on for senior rowing next term.

On Friday it was the seniors' turn to take to the water, with another 4 college crews and one alumni 4+ competing. After a rocky start to the term, W1 finished in a strong 5th in the senior IVs, and the M1 IVs crew came 7th in their category. The M1 VIII finished as the 10th fastest Cambridge college crew, and were almost a minute faster than the boat they will be chasing in Lent Bumps! M2 were the 6th fastest 2nd boat, beating an M1 boat, and the Alumni 4+ had a fun race and beat several crews despite not spending even a minute in the boat together before the start line. After a less than glorious Lent campaign last year, this Fairbairn's result was a solid performance and hopefully the signs for Catz regaining the Marconi Cup in Lents!

Our win over FaT on Wednesday brought the M1 4+ crew up against Kings in the semifinal at 1.30pm on Friday 30 October.  Based on earlier performances in the week we were confident we could hold them off and get through to the final, but having been bumped by Kings twice last year we weren't taking anything for granted.  We followed the same race plan as before, this time with Kings chasing from behind.  After a decent start our stride again gave Kings the chance to take in a little ground, but just like on Wednesday, we made a strong push on Plough Reach, and again after Ditton to give us some breathing space on the Reach.  Kings couldn't take the pressure as we pulled away from them, and a dramatic crab sent their bows skewing round, giving us a comfortable end to a well-executed race, and confounding the umpires who had expected Kings to win easily.

The final was immediately afterwards, chasing from behind a Peterhouse crew who had already seen off LMBC and Homerton.  Conscious of the high stakes involved now, we upped our game off the start and held onto Peterhouse through the first half of the race.  We followed the same race plan and made strong pushes along Plough Reach and the Long Reach, but Peterhouse were too fast and gradually drew away from us despite our best efforts.  In the end we had to be content with second place - still a great result, and fair reward for much hard work over the last month.  We are already looking forward to next year!

The first race of the year was in the quarter finals of the University Fours competition, against Trinity First and Third, who started upstream of us.  It was always going to be a difficult race, but after training hard since before term started we were confident in our ability as a crew and ready for the challenge.  Our new coach David Oldham had got us to practice the start countless times, and despite a bit of tension (and a small crab) we executed our start well to put FaT under pressure from the beginning.  A clear stride down to our race pace allowed them a bit of leeway around First Post and along The Gut, and for a couple of minutes the race was in the balance.  By the Plough however FaT had given it what they could, and a strong push out of Grassy Corner began to eat up the distance between the boats.  We stuck to our race plan and made another push out of Ditton, taking foot after foot of distance out of FaT all the way up the Reach.  A final effort from the Railings took us over the finish having caught up three or four boatlengths on the opposition, and leaving no one in any doubt about the result.  We will race again in the semi final on Friday.

Stroke side bringing us round First Post

Recently arrived at Catz, or just a returning student looking to get involved with the boatclub?

Check out our getting involved page here!

Most people rowing at Catz started out as complete Novices, and learn throughout their time here - but those who have rowed before are also more than welcome. Find out more at the above link.

We'll be having a BBQ at the Boathouse on Sunday 11th October - pop down for a burger, some tuition on the ergs, and hopefully a trip onto the river in our tub (a really stable boat for learning in). Find all the details here.

We look forward to meeting you soon!