Christ's College

The novice rowing effort at Christ’s for this autumn is off to both a quick and promising start. With a furious recruiting effort throughout college by Boat Club members both past and present, we had dozens of new Christ’s students come down to the Boathouse over Freshers’ Week to meet Jack and Jack-O, enjoy a 500m erg test, and spend some quality time in the tub with Alasdair Docwra, who graciously spent a four-day ‘holiday’ on the Cam tubbing new rowers.

After easing many of the prospective candidates into the Nick English for a slow paddle and quelling rampant fears of daily 6am wake-ups, we’re happy to report that both the men and women have fielded two full novice VIII crews. Although the term is only a few weeks old, progress is coming rapidly and keenness is running high; moreover, all the boats and all the novice rowers still appear to be in one piece.

The experience has not only been a new one for the novice rowers and coxes, but for the contingent of six Lower Boats Captains on this year’s committee as well. Most of us having just learned to row a year ago ourselves, we’ve enjoyed our first chances for coaching along the Cam and have all learned more in just the first few weeks of the term than any of us thought possible.

Queen's ergs, as in past years, provided a fantastic night to kick off the novice season. Both women's crews excelled themselves, everyone reaching a new personal best. NW2 held a fantastic steady pace through their race providing inspirational levels of camaraderie when most needed. For NW1, there were highs and lows from clinching a last minute 3rd place in their heat to losing out on a place in the final by 0.7s. We are exceptionally proud of the achievement of all the novices as everyone dived in to the challenge head first and I can't wait for the rest of term where their hard training on the water will really shine though.

All four novice crews have made great strides over the Peterborough training weekend, before moving into the standard gauntlet of novice competitions in the coming month – Clare Novice Regatta, and the Novice Fairbairns Cup. Dozens of crabs and a few more bumps with canal boats doubtless lie in store for us, but if the current pace of progress continues, we can all expect a solid round of results by the end of term and, most importantly, a new batch of talented and committed members of Christ’s Boat Club.

Leland Burns, Lucy Griffin
(Lower Boats Captains)