Exciting new thingsSally-Anne Bennett, Captain of Club

The Neptunes

WE HAVE MANY exciting articles for you this issue.Firstly, we are delighted to announce thatBarclays will be sponsoring MECBC over thecoming year, allowing us to enter more races andreplace much needed equipment such aslifejackets. Thank you to Holly, the previousFundraising Officer and Ying, my predecessor,for the work they have put into it. Turn to page 4to read more.On the river it has been a successful andbusy Easter term on river for the Club—not onlyhave we had five boats on the river, but we'vealso won three races, and come second whenwe didn't win. It was the first time for over tenyears that our Clubs had three competitive boats

in May Bumps, and by the Friday we hadn'tmissed a single bump. Congratulations to all ourcompeting crews—a fantastic term. Read ourcrew reports on pages 2–3.Off river, we have been keeping up onsocials with the annual Bumps Breakfast, a boatietrip to Peterhouse May Ball and Downing Tribal,a few (presentable) photos are on the last page.Even over the summer we couldn't keepaway from rowing. Read about MECBC's firstTV appearance (page 5), Reana's experience ofrowing with the University Women'sDevelopment Squad (page 6) and Holly's trip toEton Dorney (page 7). It's certainly been a greatfew months for MECBC!

OLAJ

ANUS

Z

October 2012 Volume 5, Issue 1

1

WHAT CAN WE SAY about W3? Not a lot doesthem justice, so let's just say that they areAWESOME. W3 came together as a competitiveboat for Easter term: the first time in severalyears that MECBC had been able to put forward3 senior boats for races.W3 gelled together well and pulled out atruly phwoarsome performance in ChampsHead, coming second after a suspiciously fastTit Hall ‘third boat’. They raced an epic Getting-On Race in some of the windiest conditions Ihave ever seen. Cox Christina should get amedal for keeping the boat straight in gusts of30+mph!!The girls finished the term in style andcarried the flag for MECBC by winning bladesin May Bumps: 4 epic rows and 4 beautifulbumps, congratulations W3! All of that and theymake pretty good cakes.

THE NEWLY SHUFFLED W2 crew had plenty ofopportunities to show off in Easter term andquickly cemented themselves as the fastest W2on the Cam. We benefitted from some excellentcoaching from Watson and Matt: the combo ofWatson's push for power and stamina mixedwith Matt's technical drills put us in a strongposition to fight off any crew.Our first chance to prove ourselves was atChamps Head. On a personal level it was the bestrace I have ever coxed—we were really in tune witheach other and victory made it all the sweeter.W2 have enjoyed eating regular crewmeals together, competing to eat the mostdifferent types of carbs: our current record is 6.It has definitely paid off, unbeaten in Easterterm, including a landslide victory in NinesRegatta, winning every race by over 2 lengths!Well done W2.

Easter Term race reports by

Georgie FieldMollie JonesNatalie Skorupska

2

OLAJ

ANUS

Z

EVEBO

NNER

CAKE

BYSIE

NACA

RVER,P

HOTO

BYOL

AJAN

USZ

Murray Edwards College Boat Club is proudly sponsored by

W1 ENJOYED RETURNING crew members Liz (fromtrialling for CUWBC) and Gina (from BluesNetball) for Easter term. The crew quickly gotback on their competitive game and stormed tovictory in Spring Head to Head. They also hadthe privilege of rowing in women's hour soavoided the early mornings: so much jealousyfrom the other crews!As usual Mark's ‘imaginative’ coaching(and coxing and rowing) spurred them on toconsistent and strong performances in bothChamps Head and May Bumps. Complete withzephyrs and copious amounts of greenery, W1impressively rose up the Bumps rankings for thethird year running and will have the chance toget back into the first division next year.Congratulations W1 you have had anamazing year and definitely deserve to carry thebadge WELL HARD.MECBC have had a fantastic year. Wewant to thank all of our coaches and we lookforward to Michaelmas Term. We have greathopes for an awesome term of novicing, rowingand racing. Bring on another phwoarsome year!

Results Easter 2012

EVEBO

NNER

MECBC is planning on entering these races forMichaelmas 2012. The most up-to-date events list-ing and race results can be found on our website.20 October 2012 - Autumn Head (W1)8 November 2012 - Queens' Ergs (novices)17 November 2012 - Winter Head (W1, novices)29 November 2012 - Novice Fairbairns (novices)30 November 2012 - Senior Fairbairns(W1, W2)

Spring Head to HeadW1: 1st in Mays second divisionChamps HeadW1: 2nd in Mays second divisionW2: 1st in Mays third divisionW3: 2nd in Mays fourth divisionNines RegattaW2: won Women's second divisionMay BumpsW1 up 3W2 up 3W3 got on, up 4Detailed times and rankings can be found onour website http://mecbc.soc.srcf.netMichaelmas Term RacesEVE

BONN

ER

EVERY MECBC MEMBER is boatie-ishly enthusiastic:training hard and rowing their best. Rowing,however, is an expensive sport and the Clubsimply would not be able to continue withoutfinancial support.We are therefore delighted to announcethat Barclays have agreed to sponsor the Clubwith a very generous £3000 this year. We wouldlike to thank Pip Walters, NHBC Club Captain2008-2009 and now working at Barclays, for herquick response to our fundraising drive andinvaluable support in putting MECBC in touchwith Barclays.The Club has ambitions to inspire ourrowers to achieve success everywhere. Thetraining camp that took place in Cheshire lastyear is one of the—hopefully increasinglycommon—opportunities for MECBC to displaytheir talent on other rivers and forge friendshipswith other boat clubs.

The sponsorship from Barclays willsubsidise transport, boat hire, race entry fees andcoaching for more races on and off the Cam.Barclays may also be hosting an event in collegethis term, and we hope that they will get a feelfor how the Boat Club is a valuable communityto the College at large.It is an essential goal of the Club to makerowing accessible to everyone, and the help wereceive, from both donations and our newsponsorship, enables us to do this by keepingtermly subs as low as possible for our members.We recently incurred very worthwhile but largeexpenses in the purchasing of our lovely newboat Octopussy, and, as always, equipmentneeds fixing, coaching fees need to be paid,and we need to enter some races.We look forward to a great year withBarclays, and hope that this will be the start of along relationship benefiting both parties.

Harri ChristieFundraising Officer

WING

YINGC

HOW

4

WING

YINGC

HOW

SITTING IN THE FREEZING cold in a boat for an hour,not doing anything? Sounds suspiciously likemarshalling for a race. But last January, it wasfor television cameras instead. MECBC werefilmed for the BBC series Who Do You ThinkYou Are?We put an eight together, excited by theprospect of being on TV. We were on the riverand warmed up, then found ourselves sittingaround, sadly without any marshalling Haribo.Seeing Hugh Dennis—the celebrity in ourepisode—and being reminded who he was(Mock the Week and Outnumbered comedian,as well as an alumnus of St John's) took a bit oftime. Finally we were filmed rowing.Six months later, I'd forgotten about ituntil I saw that the new series had started. I wastold we may or may not have made the finalcut, so I sat down to watch the programme onthe night, no idea if or when we might appear.Early on they mentioned Cambridge—then they were at St John's—then outside theLMBC boat house—then showing an LMBCboat. It would be now or never. My dad,watching it with me, said he saw our blades atthe side of a shot. Finally, they showed a shot ofME rowing. I saw Chloe and Ying (cox andstroke) before the cut away and that was it. Butwe had been on TV!The programme is available on iPlayeruntil October 24th. We're on 23 minutes in, ifyou only want to see us, but the entireprogramme is interesting to watch. The shortlink to the episode on BBC iPlayer ishttp://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01mmlx5/or Google "Hugh Dennis iplayer".

Filming for Who Do You Think You Are?

Sally-AnneBennettCaptain of Club

EVEBO

NNER

5

MORG

ANO'D

ONOV

AN,AS

SOCIA

TIONO

FONL

INEPU

BLISH

ERS(CC

-BY-NC

-NDLIC

ENCE)

EVEBO

NNER

A typical week in Dev SquadMonday 6:30am outingTuesday 6:30am outing, 5:45pm weightsWednesday 6:30am outing, 6pm outingThursday 6:30am outing, 5:45pm weightsFriday DAY OFF! (evening de-rigging)Saturday RACING (and re/de-rigging)Sunday re-rig and possible sculling/outing

DEV SQUAD WAS an intense and exhausting andfantastic experience. For four weeks, I got totrain twice a day, six days a week, with a groupof girls and coaches who are as nuts aboutrowing as I am. It didn't matter how long youhad been rowing or how strong or technical youwere—everyone came in looking to learn andbecome a better rower. The work ethic andfocus was inspiring, and the progress that wemade each week, usually in different crews tothe week previous, showed what was possiblewhen everyone pushes as hard and as smart asthey can every stroke, from push off to docking.We also had the opportunity to race inregattas at Kingston, Molesey and Staines.Hearing the cox or someone on the bankyelling, “Yeah, Cambridge!” took me a little bysurprise the first time I heard it, and it was amoment before I realized they were talking tomy boat. Not something I'll forget anytimesoon. Made the horrific blisters and deathsquats all worth it.

Dev Squad 2012Reana MaierCaptain of Boats

6

REANA

MAIER

HOLLY

SMITH

EVEBO

NNER

London 2012 at Eton Dorney

Holly SmithHolly is in Tsingdao, China this year for heryear abroad

7

HOLLY

SMITH

ON THE 1ST OF AUGUST, I was lucky enough to havetickets to Eton Dorney, the London 2012 Olympicrowing venue. In order to reach the site two hoursearly, as recommended, my mother and I set outat the perfectly reasonable time of 5am(reasonable if you're a rower!).We were so early I even had some sparetime to use the ergos in the ‘have a go’ tent. Ittranspired we had excellent seats, within the last250m and opposite the big screen showing theprogress of the boats down the course. The firsthalf of the morning was occupied by heats andrepecharges, while the last few races of the daywould be finals. Anticipation was buildingsteadily throughout the morning, so by the timeHelen Glover and Heather Stanning took to theriver, the excitement was nearly tangible. Theyhad trounced their opposition in the heats, and inthe process set a world record. High hopes andbated breath hung over the crowd as thecompetitors positioned themselves, everyonewaiting for the green light.Silence, a klaxon, followed by athunderous roar from the crowds—the race for

gold had begun. A strong start turned into acanvas lead, Glover and Stanning pulled awayfrom away from their competition stroke by stroke,inch by inch. As the coxless pair reached the last500m of the course, they were 5 seconds ahead ofthe next crew. The crowds in the stands rose asthey passed, all willing, hoping, urging the boaton. I don't remember standing up, but I rememberscreaming useless encouragement as Glover andStanning advanced on the finish line. Only whenthey crossed the finish line did I look around meand see the other forty-thousand spectators;jumping, cheering, waving flags and smiling.Regardless of prior knowledge of rowing,whether in the boat or a spectator, this wasunequivocal proof that sport brings peopletogether. For Glover and Stanning, theirs was thejoy of victory; for us, it was the joy of witnessingthat being realised. More than just a medal forGB, this was a medal for women's rowing, and Iam both honoured and humbled to havewitnessed it. So, Helen Glover, Heather Stanning,Anna Watkins, Katherine Grainger, KatherineCopeland, and Sophie Hosking—we salute you.

BENRO

DFOR

D(CC-B

Y-NCL

ICENC

E)

The Neptunes October 2012 by Murray Edwards College Boat Club islicensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 UnportedLicense. Some rights reserved.

Fairbairns Dinner 2012

8

EVEBO

NNER

GINAD

ALGLEI

SH

EVEBO

NNER

EVEBO

NNER

Faibairns Dinner will take place on Friday 30thof November this year. If you are interested inattending, please email the Social Secretaries onboatclub-socials@murrayedwards.cam.ac.uk

EVEBO

NNER

WING

YINGC

HOW