Archive for the ‘Rowing’ Category
A composite crew of Wolfson first and second boat men entered this year’s Head of the River Race. The regatta is a head race (ie time trial) over the Championship Course on the London Tideway. It is the same 6.8 km stretch used in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race (though raced in the opposite direction). The regatta attracts over 400 crews with a wide variety of experience levels, from the famed Leander Club, to various national teams (Czech Republic, Spain, Hungary, Switzerland, and Germany in the top 20), a number of University teams, and then the usual smattering of colleges and local clubs. Wolfson began the race in position 157, set by a very strong first boat crew last year, and finished at position 179 of 404.
Pictures courtesy JET Photographic. Click for one more.
Continuing our Oxford bumps racing exploits, Wolfson had a strong showing at Torpids 2012. I was rowing in the men’s first boat (M1) and coxing the women’s second boat (W2).
M1 bumped up the first three days, moving ahead of Oriel, St. John’s, and St. Catherine’s colleges. On the fourth and final day, we just missed the bump on Balliol by about 1/3 length, finishing 5th on the river overall.
The W2 crew also had a successful campaign, bumping up on Trinity W2 and St. Peter’s W1 in the first two days. On the Friday, we were bumped by Green Templeton W1, and on the Saturday were bumped by St. Peter’s W1 before going on to bump Hertford W2, moving up a net of 1 place on the river.
Most of these photos are courtesy Vaughan Dutton, one of the club’s premiere photographers. Click for more!
This year’s Novice Rowing Season at Oxford has now wound down. I had the amazing opportunity to cox and coach a group of fantastic novice women. They were always ready to train, and ramped up to 8 or more sessions per week long before their big regattas. And the training paid off: on the river each morning, other college crews looked on in confusion, wondering whether the Wolfson boat gliding past was a novice or senior boat. During the regattas, razor-sharp tapping and smooth rollups intimidated the competition. The crew wound up winning Nephthys Regatta (and, in age-old rowing tradition, threw me in the river to celebrate), and went further than any crew in living Wolfson history in Christ Church Regatta, besting some strong opponents along the way.
These pictures are from Nephthys Regatta, courtesy Susan Graham and Laurie Nevay. Click for a few more!
Each summer, one of the local non-university boat clubs, City of Oxford Rowing Club, hosts the Oxford City Royal Regatta. The regatta is a favorite of Oxford graduate students (most undergraduates are still away for the summer) and also attracts boat clubs from across the UK.
This year, Wolfson entered two men’s fours in the Saturday morning events. Both crews had unlucky draws and fell to their respective division winners in the first round. The two fours combined into an eight for lunchtime sprints and afternoon races. Our afternoon luck was better: we reached the finals of the sprints and managed to win the 1000m IM3 8+ event outright. The Wolfson ladies also fared well: their 8+ won the sprint event, and their 4+ made it to the finals.
Click for a few more pictures…
Over the summer, informal Wolfson rowing crews enter external regattas as a fun way to keep our skills and fitness up over the off-season. Our latest was the Henley Town and Visitors’ Regatta, rowed on the same stretch of river as the famous Henley Royal Regatta. Wolfson entered a men’s IV, a women’s IV, and a women’s VIII. My crew rowed a good race but fell to a IV from Auriol Kensington Rowing Club, London. The women’s IV fared a bit better, winning their first race but then losing their rudder in the division finals.
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Similar to the spring’s Torpids, Oxford’s Summer Eights is an eights bumps regatta. Crews of eight oarspeople and a cox pile into rowing shells and take it in turns to try to row into each other for the glory of their colleges. This year’s Eights was another strong one for Wolfson. The M1 boat earned blades, moving up to #4 on the river. My M2 boat bumped three days of four, moving up to the fourth division. The M3 and M4 crews also put on a strong performances. Wolfson’s W1 moved up three spaces, and W2 fought through some terrible luck, with three of their races being aborted by marshals for safety reasons.
The image above is courtesy JET Photographic. Click for more pictures!
Each year, in the 7th week of Hilary Term, the Oxford University Rowing Clubs hold Torpids, a bumps race between boat clubs of Oxford’s constituent colleges. The regatta lasts four days, and each of the six men’s and five women’s divisions race each day. Because the river is two narrow for side-by-side racing, the boats in a given division will line up along the river, one in front of the other, with their coxswains holding onto regularly spaced “bung lines.” At the sound of a miniature cannon, the crews row furiously, trying to “bump” the crew in front before being bumped by the crew behind.
I had the pleasure of rowing in Wolfson College Boat Club‘s second men’s eight. We managed to move up four places over the course of the regatta, and so will start next year’s Torpids positioned to jump into division four.
Click for more pictures!
At the end of Seventh Week of Michaelmas term (Nov 24-27), Christ Church College holds a regatta for novice crews from each of the College Boat Clubs. I had the pleasure of rowing with the Wolfson Men’s B boat, and though we didn’t progress very far in the tournament, most of us plan to continue on into the Hilary term and get geared up for Torpids in March. The Christ Church Regatta was followed by a traditional post-regatta dinner of formal dress and informal antics.
We were a bit busy rowing and cheering to get too many pictures at the regatta, but here are a couple I’ve managed to scrounge up.
Today the good people of the Wolfson College Boat Club set up a rowing taster for the freshers. We got a bit of instruction on an erg and then hit the water for some real-world experience. It was a lot of fun, and I’m definitely considering joining one of the less-intense college teams…
