Download - SCWBC Report 2014
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 ex-
novices. 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 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 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 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 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 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