Posts by BenS:
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- C: Rebecca Dowbiggin
- S: Guen Bradbury
- 7: Elseljin Kingma
- 6: Lucy Wordley (President)
- 5: Jen Reid
- 4: Linda Dennis
- 3: Jen Hawton
- 2: Gillian McFarland
- B: Hannah Bill
- C: R M Dowbiggin # Emmanuel
- S: E R Woolley Emmanuel
- 7: E M Kingma Trinity Hall
- 6: L R Wordley Gonville & Caius
- 5: J Reid Newnham
- 4: J M Hawton * Jesus
- 3: J H Lumley Downing
- 2: G McFarland Gonville & Caius
- B: H G A Bill Pembroke
- C: J M Appleton Girton
- S: A G Bradbury Jesus
- 7: S J Polak Pembroke
- 6: H J Stratford St. John’s
- 5: P Rock St John’s
- 4: L J G Collins * President, Girton
- 3: J R Tavernor St. Catharine’s
- 2: K T O’Hare Magdalene
- B: C E Collas Emmanuel
- C: K J Coffin Jesus
- S: C R A Smith # Pembroke
- 7: C V S Panbianco St Edmunds
- 6: S A Farquhar # Captain, Emmanuel
- 5: L A Rackley Pembroke
- 4: V L Weaver Trinity
- 3: H A Palmer Trinity Hall
- 2: E N Mitchell St Catharine’s
- B: K C Marshall Jesus
- F McDougall Queens’
- C F Hansell Fitzwilliam
- S E Allen Peterhouse
- C L M Harvey St John’s
The Challenge 2009
March 17th, 2009Faced by their opposing crews, Cambridge threw down the traditional Challenge to Oxford at a formal weigh-in and challenge ceremony at The River and Rowing Museum in Henley this morning (Tuesday 17th March) in front of the press and media.
With the Cambridge Blue Boat weighing in at over a stone heavier per crew member than Oxford and Blondie over 6lbs heavier and the warm spring sunshine looking to provide excellent water for racing on Sunday, the Challenges were accepted.
The Lightweight crews weigh in on Sunday 3 hours before their race with their racing rules requiring them to race below 59 kilos per crew member.
Umpire for the Boat Races will be Michael Williams, who coxed Goldie in 1972 and the Cambridge Blue Boat to a win in 1973; Trinity Hall; FISA Treasurer and Executive Committee and Steward of Henley Royal Regatta.
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Henley Boat Races 2008 – Coaches & Ball
February 21st, 2008The Henley Boat Races are approaching! This year the races will be held on the 23rd of March and CUWBC are organising coaches for supporters needing transport to and from Cambridge.
Details:
Departing Cambridge 9am (Queens backs)
Leaving Henley at either 5pm (following the races) or 12.30am (following the Boat Race Ball)
Cost: £15 return
Payment: All cheques payable to CUWBC and to be returned to Gillian McFarland’s pigeonhole at Caius ASAP, along with names, email addresses and Colleges of all travellers and your preferred time of return – either 5pm or 12.30am.
BOAT RACE BALL – for all supporters! Tickets cost £13 and are allocated on a first come, first served basis. Print off this form and send it to the address provided.
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Development Squad 2007
May 13th, 2007Thank you very much for filling in the application form. The closing date for Development Squad 2007 has passed. The standard of applications was particularly high and due to numerous reasons we cannot accept everyone who applied. Over the next few days we will be contacting succussful applicants.
If you are still interested in trialling with CUWBC in 2007/2008 but didn’t fill in the form it would be fantastic if you could email the President, Claire Hansell, ch385.
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Sponsor a Seat 2007
February 9th, 2007Welcome to CUWBC’s 2007 Sponsor a Seat page.
Sponsor a Seat is aimed at helping our athletes fund the personal cost of achieving their goal of representing Cambridge University in the Henley Boat Races.
Click here for more information and to find out how you can join our team by donating to one of our crews or by sponsoring one of our athletes.
Thank you for your support!
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Tough Guy 2006
September 23rd, 2006It was in the state of near-perfect physical fitness but questionable mental stability in which most triallists find themselves during Lent term that we signed up for ‘Tough Guy’, an event that promises to stretch the contestants’ physical and psychological limits in ways involving mud, barbed wire and nettles rather than boats and dark blue blades. Having subsequently lapsed our training somewhat in favour of
pursuits such as sitting exams and drinking Pimm’s it was with a degree of trepidation that ‘Team CUWBC’ gathered in a field outside Wolverhampton on the morning of July 30th – each of us clutching a race number and a ‘Death Warrant’ accepting full responsibility in the event of our untimely demise on the obstacle course known as the ‘Killing Fields’. Nobody was sure what to expect. The website www.toughguy.co.uk spoke of climbing, swimming, crawling and jumping but also of death,
permanent disfigurement and Weil’s disease. Our unease was in no way relieved by the realisation that most of the people around us were not female University students who might not look out of place in a fibreglass rowing boat on the Thames, but hulking tanned men with large muscles bulging from their semi-naked hairy torsos.
We didn’t have long to stand around feeling intimidated though as before we knew it the gun went and we were off on the ‘warm-up’ run called ‘the Country Miles’. In retrospect, the Country Miles is a good time to get ahead as the aforementioned hulking men are largely rather slow and unfit. The main limit to your progress for the majority of the five or so miles cross-country is not your own speed and fitness but
the speed and fitness of those blocking your path (or rather lack thereof); with a little determination though it is possible to dodge and weave your way towards the front of the runners, especially if you are not too concerned about nettles and brambles or their effects on delicate leg-skin. The Country Miles soon gives way to the ‘Slalom’ which is easily the most physically challenging part of ‘Tough Guy’. It consists of a steep hillside which one runs up and down what feels like
nine hundred times but is probably only about ten. By half-way through you are blinded by sweat, seeing grey spots and wondering whether you are going to be able to continue and if you’ll ever regain sight in your left eye after some oaf whacked a branch into it on the second lap; by the end of it you are incapable of coherent thought and can do little more than gasp, groan and glance around for a suitable bush in which to empty your stomach should the need become pressing.
It is almost a relief when the mud begins. The ‘Killing Fields’ (the main part of Tough Guy – the obstacle course around which one runs twice) has mud as one of its main themes, in increasingly large, deep and smelly quantities. Any reservations about getting a bit mucky are quickly destroyed, and there is something rather liberating about completely abandoning the initial desire to stay dry and protect your trainers, and just throwing yourself headlong into a revolting waist-deep pool filled with hay and duckweed. It must be said that in all honesty getting dirtier than you have possibly ever been in your life is probably one of the more appealing parts of the event.
Mud, though a bit off-putting (especially when it’s inside your
underwear, up your nose and drying onto the surface of your teeth) does not actually cause physical harm. Barbed wire, on the other hand, does – as do sharp rocks and spiky thistles, which were all combined in an obstacle called the ‘Stalag Escape’ in which one crawls under rusty barbed wire for 30m or so, made harder by the fact that the tender flesh on your knees and forearms is torn to pieces by the sharp rocks underfoot (/hand/knee). Don’t expect to be wearing a pretty skirt very soon after Tough Guy; by the time you reach the second lap of the ‘Vietcong Tunnels’ (concrete sewage pipes to wriggle through, also too narrow for actual crawling) you are happily grating the skin off your shoulder blades by going backwards just to save the bleeding mess that used to be a pair of knees from further damage.
There are plenty more obstacles to get over/through (22 in total, or 44 if you count both laps), including increasingly high wooden walls to climb, a massive hay-stack with rope ladders covering it (and if you’re lucky a man in a thong climbing up right ahead of you), fires to run over (you’re so mud-soaked at this stage that you probably wouldn’t catch fire even if they dunked you in petrol first), hills to run up and suspended ropes to walk across. It turns out that for completing Tough Guy we need not have worried, light nimbleness will get you much further than muscle and mass. This was clearly demonstrated by Jimmy whose 60 kg frame crossed the finish line in THIRD PLACE, despite having set off far behind the ‘front squad’ and hence having had to overtake thousands of people. Team CUWBC in fact did amazingly – Lilie came in fifth out of all the women (or ‘tough girls’) and our total time was almost an hour faster than the second-fastest women’s team
(Exeter UOTC).
So, the verdict on Tough Guy? The word used most was ‘AMAZING’, closely followed by ‘AWESOME’ [closely followed by 'Oh My God. None of my limbs are in a functioning state. Just as well I wasn't planning on doing any walking/eating/moving for the next week or so then' -Ed] It is not often that one as an adult gets to throw all caution to the wind and regress to a primal competitive desire to get ahead of the people around you regardless of the cost to health, cleanliness or social
etiquette. Plans are currently underway for starting up Varsity Tough Guy for next year. We cannot recommend it strongly enough, bring on Tough Guy 2007 and here’s to beating Oxford while we’re at it!
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Team CUWBC 2006
CUWBC compete at Henley Royal Regatta
July 8th, 2006This year a crew from CUWBC qualified for the Remenham Challenge Cup for the first time ever. With half of the available 8 slots already given away to pre-qualified crews and several other top British clubs vying for the chance to compete, it was clear that Cambridge had to put in a fast performance in the qualifying races. After qualifying in fine style the crew settled down to spend some time in Henley in order to prepare for the real races the following week.
There was strong competition in the form of the three international crews entered, the Dutch, the Americans and the British. The entry restriction meant that it was no surprise when we learned that we were up against one of these crews in the first round – Hollandia Roeiclub, Holland.
The race itself was delayed by two hours since the Dutch had damaged their boat during the warm-up. When the race eventually got underway we started strongly, striding out to 38. We were still level coming off the island and maintaining contact for the first third of the race. As the race progressed their superior weight, height and experience became clear as they began to move away from us, maintaining a high rating. We also had difficulties in finding and maintaining a rhythm during the second half of the race, undoubtedly caused partly by the wash created from the surrounding boats and the prevailing head wind. The Dutch crew went on to win their
semi-final but were eventually beaten by Princeton Training Center (USA) in the final on Sunday.
Now that qualification for this prestigious event has been proved entirely possible, CUW will be looking to maintain and build on this for next year.
Henley Crew:
2006-7 Committee Announced
May 12th, 2006CUWBC warmly welcomes their new Junior Committee. Congratulations to all of them on their respective appointments.
PRESIDENT
Lucy Wordley (Gonville and Caius)
VICE PRESIDENT
Janine Lumley (Downing)
LIGHTWEIGHT CAPTAIN
Lucy Rackley (Pembroke)
HONORARY SECRETARY
Claire Hansell (Fitzwilliam)
2006 Boat Race Crews
February 22nd, 2006The President of CUWBC is pleased to announce the crews for the
2006 Henley Boat Races.
Blue Boat
Blondie
Lightweights
# Denotes previous Half-Blue
* Denotes previous Blondie Colour
Spares
The races take place on 1st April 2006 in Henley-on-Thames from 2pm
Silver in Taiwan
September 14th, 2005
Lightweights have won a Silver medal at the annual I-Lan International Intercollegiate Invitational Regatta. CUWBC have been invited to compete in Taiwan for several years now, but it is the first time that we have won a medal.
CUWBC at the FISA World Rowing Championships, Gifu, Japan
September 12th, 2005CUWBC old girls at the World Rowing Championships have put in some very good performances. In the GB W4x, Sarah Winckless (President 1996/7 and Blue 1996-7) sculled to the Gold medal position with her team mates, edging out ahead of the German team containing the experienced Kathrin Boron, described by some as the German version of Steve Redgrave. All is looking promising as they start their campaign up to Beijing!
Jo Hammond (Lightweights 2001) finished 4th in the LW1x and Annie Vernon (Blue 2003) came 3rd in the B-final of W1x.
And not forgetting our very own Ron Needs who was out there coaching the GB W8+. A development crew consisting mainly of U23 and juniors it placed very well, coming 5th in the final, only a length behind the closely huddled first four crews.
