St Catharine's College Boat Club

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!

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

On Sunday 20th September, two SCCBC members with more sculling ability than perceived common sense decided to spend a day on the picturesque, if somewhat extensive, River Witham.  The Boston Marathon is a somewhat unique event in British Rowing, a 31 mile (49 km) head race that starts in Lincoln and finishes, as the name suggests, in Boston.  While this can inspire awe, horror, adulation or disgust among the larger rowing community, it does not make for exciting race reports. However, it did serve as a pleasant reminder that there is more to rowing than bumps and other "on-Cam" college races.  Racing in the highly prestigious (*coughs*) Im3 Mixed Doubles, spurred on by lovely weather, thinking thoughts of "How hard can it really be?" and ignoring the fact that we hadn't had a crew outing since June, we overtook many boats, were overtaken once or twice, and finished in a time of 4:16:07.8. With the other competitors in our division over 40 minutes behind us, we collected our trophies and agreed it had been a good day's work.  A memorable experience, and one which I hope future Catz crews will be inspired to recreate.

So it happened. We got spoons.

On Saturday, we had LMBC III chasing us, and in Ivan's words (or an approximation thereof), this 'will only make us push harder'.

And push harder we did: the row down was chunky, our crew finally firmly united together - it was some of the best rowing and best set we had all term. Alas, LMBC III knew we were spooning and they also seemed invigorated. When the start cannon sounded (and sound it did. By this stage of the week, our station was getting ever closer to the bridge!), both boats flew together. Whislst our start was good,  it was not good enough, and the sheer power in LMBC's boat showed through, as they hammered towards us as we entered the second minute. We eventually succumbed on first post reach.

But every cloud has a silver lining: I'm very greatful to the whole crew for the fun term of rowing we've had. Sure, we may not have been the fastest Catz M2 to grace the boathouse in recent years, but we certainly had the spirit. I'm not sure when I'll get the opportunity to row again, but this term and last week in particular have really made me remember why I took up and have enjoyed the sport over the last 4 years. To the laughs, the jokes, and the teamwork.

I'll miss you all.
- David Edey