The Henley Boat races 2008 were held on March 23^rd in unseasonably cold weather and high winds, although fortunately the conditions did not require the shortening of the course as in 2007. The organizers agreed, however, that the weather would be likely to be better earlier in the day, so the Women’s Blue boat race was swapped with that of the heavyweight reserves. Unfortunately, the weather did worsen throughout the day, making it challenging for all crews and extremely disruptive to the Blondie/Osiris reserves race.

The the first race of the day was the Women’s Blues. Both crews got off to a good start, despite the extremely choppy water in the first 500-meters of the course. The CUWBC Blue Boat pulled out to a slight lead in the first 250 but Oxford coped with the conditions better coming into the 500, pulling out to around a third of a length. Cambridge continued to push the strong Oxford crew and by the 1500, Cambridge took up the rating and looked to be gaining on Oxford. Yet the dark blues responded to our final charge, holding CUWBC to a half length at the finish. Nevertheless, it was a race for the Blue Boat to be proud of, as many were predicting a procession following the 30s defeat at WeHoRR 3 weeks previously.

The next race was the Lightweight Women, who were fired up after great improvements in the last few weeks of training. The race was a close one, with Oxford taking a slight lead in the first 500m. However, CUWBC’s better rhythm and bladework in the choppy conditions edged them past in the middle of the race. Despite a late charge by the Oxford crew, they held them off at the end to win by a third of a length, the closest race of the day, and prevented a Dark Blue clean sweep on the day.

The Blondie versus Osiris race began in very challenging conditions, with spray flying off both crew’s blades as they battled through the choppy water. Coming up towards the 500 meters, Blondie were rowing strongly and ahead of the Osiris crew. However, disaster struck in the form of a particularly vicious wave, which resulted in an unavoidable boat-stopping crab, and their race was effectively over. After recovering, they made up significant ground on Osiris, but sadly never enough to challenge them.

A DVD of the races is available from Rock the Boat at http://www.rock-the-boat.co.uk/cat-4-subcat-11-product-364

CUWBC Lightweights victorious by 1/3 length over Oxford, Blue Boat have an extremely gutsy and well-drilled row but go down by 1/2 a length, and Blondie very unlucky to be caught by a particularly bad wave in the bad conditions and unable to show their true speed.  More detailed report to follow

The President and Officers of CUWBC are pleased to announce the crews that will race Oxford at Henley-on-Thames on 23rd March 2008.

Blue Boat

• Steffi Warrillow, Emmanuel
• Louise Connell, St John’s
• Elselijn Kingma **, Trinity Hall
• Inka Borchers, Clare Hall
• Samantha Bennett, Pembroke
• Erin Weber #, Newnham
• Stephanie Jacquot, Trinity Hall
• Chiara Ferrara, King’s
• Anna Simpson **, Corpus Christi

Lightweights

• Abigail Fox, Trinity
• Fran Rawlins *, Trinity
• Chloe Swords, Fitzwilliam
• Camilla McCorkell, Queens’
• Jocy Williams, St John’s
• Jenny Davenport, St Edmund’s
• Claire Hansell *, Fitzwilliam
• Julia Summers, Trinity
• Sarah Allen, Peterhouse

Blondie

• Chris Burfiend, Churchill
• Harriet Eldred, Newnham
• Alice Wordley #, Queens’
• Laura Creek, Pembroke
• Rachel Croft, Trinity
• Sabrina Stewart, Gonville & Caius
• Katie Wood, Girton
• Evgenia Ilyinskaya, Darwin
• Fionnuala Ratcliffe, Clare

Spares

• Charlotte Allen, Queens’
• Jennifer Bromley, St Catherine’s
• David Dufton, Selwyn
• Zoe Rutterford, Darwin

** = Previous Blue * = Previous Half-Blue # = Previous Blondie

This year’s trip to Nottingham for the annual Head of the Trent saw both the Blue boat and the Lightweights win their divisions.  The Lightweights put in a strong race and came away the victors in the WS3 8+ over the 6000m course.  Encouragingly for the Blue boat, they won the Senior 2 division, despite a steering difficulty that forced a stop and re-start in the middle of the race.  Blondie also raced well, despite a near miss on the same bridge which interrupted the Blue Boat’s race.  Overall, it was a successful trip with two crews taking the pennants and spurring CUW on towards Boat race day.

The 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.

As most other people were thinking about new gym memberships to work off the holiday’s excesses, CUWBC convened at Dorney Lake on January 2nd for our yearly training camp. With two outings per day, all three boats made great technical improvements, leading up to a 2000 time trial on the final day. The lightweights put in a good performance, as well as the Heavyweight A-crew who came in at a similar time to the Trial VIII’s race. The Heavyweight B-crew, however, showed they could really push the other crews: after starting slightly before, they held off the A-crew all the way to the line. All in all, the training camp set up the crews very well for the term to come.

On Friday 14 December CUWBC’s chief coach Roger Silk was presented with an ARA Lifetime Contribution to Coaching award.

We are delighted that Roger has received this award which recognises his outstanding and long-standing contribution to rowing in the local area and his commitment to the many athletes who benefit from his coaching.

CUWBC won both WS4 8+ and WS3 8+ in the Cambridge Autumn Head on October 20th, and were second and third fastest women’s crews overall (beaten only by a veteran crew containing several ex-CUWers!).

The next event on the CUWBC calendar is the Fours Head on the Tideway, on the 3rd November, where 3 coxed IVs and one coxless will be braving the ‘championship course’.