SCCBC in the 1970s

From long hair and beards, tie-dyed t-shirts and flares, Led Zeppelin and marijuana via Glam Rock and T Rex through to the mohicans, Sex Pistols and ripped t-shirts of Punk; against this background the SCCBC school report would read “steady but unspectacular”.
The bare facts: we had a Blue in every year except 1971; four Presidents of the CUBC out of ten years; we started at 8th on the River in the Mays in 1970 and ended at 11th in 1979 peaking at 6th in 1973 and 75; we sent crews to Henley most years and got to the semis of the Visitors in ’72 and ’75. Our 2nd May Boat, so strong in the 1960s, dropped out of the First Division in 1970, never to return.
Other notable successes were Cruttenden’s win in the Magdalene Pairs in 70, Duncan winning the Lowe Double Sculls in ’75, Clegg and Davies dead-heating in the Bushe Foxe sculls in ’77 and winning the Light Fours in ’76 in a dead heat with Pembroke. A Cats 4- represented Cambridge at the inaugural University Championships in 1972 and won Gold. But the greatest success was the 1st May Boat winning their oars in 1975, the first Cats boat of any description to do so since 1968 (or was it back in the summer of 69?). For the record we bumped Trinity Hall, Emma, Clare and Selwyn.
1976 marked a major milestone in the Boat Club’s history because that is when our boatman, Steve Summerlee, appeared and this year he celebrates his 32nd anniversary with the club.
In October 1979, there was another event which would change the face of the Boat Club for ever: women were admitted to the College for the first time. The arrival of the fair sex would radically change things down on the river in the decades that followed and their contribution to the Boat Club has been enormous. But those of us who rowed in the 1970s, however “diverse” we may be today, will remain forever stuck in an era when the hair cuts were shocking (if anybody had hair cuts that is), the music was brilliant, the ratio of male to female students at the University was 7:1, and boys were boys.

David Searle (1974)

Blues: David Cruttenden 1970*, Dickie Clarke 1972, Ben Duncan 1973 and 1974*, Andy Powell 1975, David Searle 1976 and 1977*, Simon Clegg 1977, 1978 and 1979*, Nick Davies 1978 and 1979.
Goldies: Ben Duncan 1972, Rolf Munding 1972, Andy Powell 1974, Hugh Perkins 1974, David Searle 1975, Nick Davies 1977, Johnny Moulsdale 1977
* denotes President