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.

1.30pm Nephthys to row over

2.00pm Women’s Reserves - Osiris v. Blondie

2.30pm Lightweight Women’s Boat Race - OUWLRC v. CUWBC Lightweights

3.00pm Women’s Boat Race - OUWBC v. CUWBC

3.30pm Lightweight Men’s Boat Race - OULRC v. CULRC

4.30pm Trophies presented at Remenham Farm.

For details of coaches to and from Cambridge and tickets to the Boat Race Ball, please contact Louise Connell on vice-president@cuwbc.org.

Blue Boat:

Lightweights:

Blondie:

Spares:

* previous Blue
+ previous Blondie Colours
# previous Lightweight

You’re rowers at Cambridge, that sounds posh. We’ve seen your men on TV. How can you need money?
The Cambridge University Women rowers train extremely hard, but we have nowhere near enough sponsorship to cover even a fraction of the expenses associated with training or racing. The day-to-day costs of travel to and from Ely where we train every morning, kit, race entries, transport to and from races, accommodation etc. all fall heavily on the shoulders of the rowers, most of whom are undergraduates with already stretched student loans. This financial burden, estimated at £1,200 per trialling year (September to March), is paid personally by each athlete as the financial sacrifice for their sport their love of rowing and to represent their university in the boat race.

It seems to be working though; what is the problem?
On top of the day-to-day costs of rowing for Cambridge, the week leading up to the Henley Boat Races themselves represents a significant portion of this expenditure. Accommodation in Henley for the week leading up to the race, boating, racing kit, transport and other items directly related to the boat race cost each athlete a further £500. We already struggle to pay for the costs of training. so cannot hope to pay this for ourselves on top.

Sponsor-A-Seat

Therefore, CUWBC has launched a fundraising campaign called ‘Sponsor-A-Seat’. The idea is simple: each athlete is hoping to raise £500 to cover the costs associated with Race Week. We are hoping that family and friends of athletes, companies in around Cambridge and Henley or who feel an affinity with CUWBC, College funds and bursaries and others may be able to help us. CUWBC is wholly dependent on this generous support and we are extremely grateful for it.

What would I get out of it?
If you were so kind as to offer to help sponsor one of our athletes, your name or company’s name would feature on our website. Donations of £150 and above will have the donor mentioned in the official Henley Boat Races programme as well as featuring on the T-shirts worn by rowers in training. As our athletes are frequently undergraduates from a wide variety of backgrounds, these T-shirts will be visible on top-level athletes all over the country. Apart from this you would gain the immense gratitude of a whole club and the knowledge that you had made a great contribution to Women’s Rowing, no matter how small your donation. Every penny is greatly appreciated!

Are you eligible for Gift Aid?
Yes we are. Thorugh its affiliation with the University of Cambridge, donations to CUWBC via the Cambridge Foundation are eligible for gift aid. In practice, this means that for every pound you donate, we receive £1.28 which is a 28% gain! It also means that if you are a higher rate taxpayer, you can claim back for yourself the difference between the higher rate of tax at 40% and the basic rate of tax at 20% on the value of your donation.

Why should I help?
The financial burden of rowing for the University is a major deterrent for aspiring rowers and returning Blues. On race day, every individual in a rowing eight is vital. Thus, every athlete who decides not to trial is a small advantage to Oxford. If we do not succeed in our Sponsor-A-Seat campaign, it will leave a debt behind for future years of triallists to cope with. This will incur further costs, discourage more strong and able College rowers from trialling for the University, and will be extremely detrimental to our long-term campaign against the Dark Blues.

I want to help. What can I do?
First of all, thank you! For even reading this far you have done a service to our cause. If you would like to help, contact Anna Railton who is at six in the 2009 Blue Boat and in charge of Sponsor-A-Seat this year.

If you are a U.K. taxpayer, please make out cheques to ‘The Cambridge Foundation’ and fill in a Gift Aid form

If you are not a U.K. taxpayer, please make out cheques to ‘CUWBC’.

Cheques may be sent to:

A. Railton
Pembroke College
Cambridge
CB2 1RF

If you have any further questions please contact lightweight-captain@cuwbc.org or president@cuwbc.org

Thank you!

Conditions on the day were challenging; strong wind and rain meant that the water was quite choppy in places, which provided a sharp reminder of the choppy conditions which we are expecting at Henley next March.

I was racing in CUW III, along with the bow girl and cox from my Blondie crew, and two new triallists. There was a long wait at the start before our category (WS3) was set off. The race started well, we had a strong solid start and soon settled into our race rhythm. Before long we started to overtake the crews in front of us. We came passed Cambridge 99’s III easily, before inching passed the Oxford Brooks crew which had started in front of us. When we crossed the finish line we were confident that we had rowed well, but were slightly concerned that we could have pushed a little bit harder.

When the results were published, we were very pleased to see that we had one our category, beating all of the other Cambridge fours and five of the seven Oxford fours in the process.

Click here (http://www.hor4s.org.uk/results.htm)for full results.

The fours also performed well, winning both the Senior 3 and Senior 4 categories.

The focus now is on the Fours Head of the River Race in two weeks time. Four crews have been entered; two in WS2 4+ and two in the WS3 4+ (academic) category.

See http://www.hor4s.org.uk/ for full details, and check back soon for a report on the days racing.

Initially our training will be split between fours and eights and we will gradually settle into crews for the lead up to the first races of the year; Cambridge Autumn Head on 18th October and the Fours Head of the River Race on 8th November.

Following this, all training will move to Ely and we will train in eights. Michaelmas term will also bring the Fairbairn Cup races and will finish with the Trial Eights race at Dorney Lake on 17th December.

Check back here for regular updates on our progress throughout the year.

We arrived in Kingston on a beautiful summers day ready to race. The three lane course provided valuable side by side experience for all the crews, and we finished the day with victories in the Novice and Senior 3 categories.

We weren’t greeted by such fine weather in Nottingham the following weekend. Instead we faced cross winds that were strong even for Holme Pierre Point! A difficult lane draw put all the CUW crews in the most badly affected lanes in the heats, but the top heavyweight boat and the lightweight crew made it through to the repêchage, where we finished third and fourth, not quite making it through to the final.

In all, the day provided some challenges and some valuable experiences for all the crews and everyone was given a taste of what it is like to row in challenging conditions.

President: Harriet Eldred, Newnham

Vice President: Louise Connell, LMBC

Lightweight Captain: Sarah Allen, Peterhouse

Honorary secretary: Thomas Walton, Jesus