2011 was a very memorable year for the Boat Club, but perhaps for not all the correct reasons, as it was the year of “The Great Trailer Fire”. When deciding on which regattas the club was going to attend in the summer Mr Poynter had been keen on kicking off with Ghent, whereas I was happy to take the remainder of the club off to Birmingham. To make life easier for ourselves it was arranged that our boats would be transported to Ghent on the Upper Thames trailer and that’s when our troubles began. A few miles outside Ghent smoke was seen to be coming out of the Upper Thames trailer which immediately pulled over on to the hard shoulder. The driver had just enough time to un-couple his vehicle and pull away to a safe distance before the whole trailer burst into flames (up to 150ft high!) incinerating all of the boats and blades and welding all of the aluminium riggers together into a metal mass worthy of an A* in GCSE Art. Upper Thames lost their brand new Empacher VIII while we lost our older Empacher and also our Vespoli IV – our two very best boats – and twelve oars. When news reached the regatta the Belgian clubs all rallied around and lent equipment so that all of the races could take place the following day.
Back in Woodcote life was far less dramatic and Mr O’Sullivan and I were able to get the boys and their boats to Birmingham without needing to mobilise either the Fire Service or the Police. Here the J14s began to show the promise they had displayed earlier on in the year. We were able to win the gold medal in the quad and the silver medal in the octuple in two hard fought and close finals. There were the usual early season traumas of falling off seats and catching crabs but generally it had been a very good regatta. The boys befriended some young ladies who were Red Bull reps and were given a crate of drinks which was promptly seized by the umpire at the start. Who knows how fast we would have rowed if we had been caffeine fuelled.
A smaller detachment of rowers entered the Ball Cup Regatta the following day in singles, doubles and quads. The problem with entering smaller boat classes is that this generally means anti-social departure times and this regatta was no exception. We were able to see Dorney in the early morning, at noon and in the early evening so when the Olympics take place we’ll recognise every weed and reed. We had waited patiently for our quad race in the early evening and were on the point of carrying the boat to the raft when the regatta officials cancelled the race saying that it was “too windy”. Some people may believe them but cynics may feel that this decision was only made because the regatta was running behind schedule and that it was getting late. Our entry fee was refunded but I will have to think long and hard before entering other crews and returning to the Ball Cup in the future.
The next regatta, Bedford, saw all of the school’s crews taking part together, something which is unfortunately increasingly rare. As always the regatta was superbly organised and had a good mix of Oxbridge Colleges and schools. We cobbled together a fleet of some sort and raced in quads, octuples, fours and eights with differing degrees of success. The J14 B quad had their rudder jammed at the start and went full tilt into a stone wall, thereby showing that carbon fibre is not as strong as stone. Thankfully Jim Ronaldson, the St John’s College boatman and an old friend and ally, was there and was able to take the boat to Oxford and have it repaired so that it was ready to race again at the National Schools’ Regatta, our next fixture.
With our National Schools’ entry we settled on two quads for the J14s, an eight for the J16s and a double for the Seniors. This meant that we could survive with our depleted fleet, especially as the J15s were not being entered, and keep our options open for Henley selections later during the term. The J14s travelled up on Friday and had fine, calm weather. Their memories of Nottingham will be of still water and fair racing conditions – how little they know! The quad races went well with both “A” and “B” crews getting through their eliminators. The “A” quad came third in their semi-final narrowly missing out on a slot for the final. Their time placed them as the 7th fastest quad overall in the A Division. The “B” quad worked their way through to their final and at 500m to go were sitting in the silver medal position. Disaster then struck and, because of a seat coming off, we dropped to sixth position. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth – literally – and it took a fair while for them to calm down and realise that in actual fact the club had done pretty well.
The J16s and Seniors raced on the Saturday and were faced by the Nottingham we have grown to expect – high winds, waves and desperately unfair racing conditions. The eight unfortunately drew Lane 2 in their semi-final and while they were right on the pace for the first 500m they couldn’t make much headway for the remainder of the race when they were faced by conditions similar to those faced by Aeneas off the coast of Carthage (sign on for Classical Civilisation lessons if the comparison is lost on you). Conditions were bad enough for them but were even worse for Pangbourne in Lane 1. Earlier on the Senior double had sculled well and were exceptionally neat but simply lacked the necessary grunt power to survive at Championship level. Even so they managed to beat the American School, Kings Worcester A and B, Bedford Modern, Bristol City and Cardiff.
Reading Amateur and Bridgnorth Regattas were our next two outings. Although Bridgnorth is many miles away, and a great deal further than Reading, it does have a charm of its own and allowed the Oratory Cardinals, undergoing a renaissance, to once more take to the water. So, the Seniors and the J16s were off to Caversham to experiment with possible Henley combinations and the rest of the club was off to the Severn valley. Here we raced in quads, doubles, singles, fours and eights. All the junior crews had at least two races and we ended up winners in J14 singles and quads. The Oratory Cardinals, in their fine new racing kit and stroked by Enno van der Linde, the OSBC captain, managed to win the IM2 Invitation VIIIs which rounded off a really enjoyable day.
Tewkesbury Regatta was cancelled because of high winds the following Saturday although the proto-type VIII raced at Marlow and showed a mixture of both promise and youthful inexperience. Thames Valley Park was on the Sunday and here we had entered a whole range of events. The J16 IV took to the water at the start of the day and managed to qualify for their final which they won with some really gutsy rowing and rating. Not to be outdone the J14 octuple then won their final, sculling through crews from Shiplake and Abingdon to win by a canvas. They then subdivided into two quads and raced for the remainder of the day until they both qualified for the final. Here the “A” quad put in an emphatic performance winning the event in fine style. The last event of the day was the Senior VIII final where we were up against St George’s College and Reading Blue Coat, two crews which had been pre-selected for Henley. Both Saints and the OS left RBCS behind off the start and stormed down together, stroke for stroke, in an excellent and exciting race. We lost by inches but grew by feet. What a transformation from a few weeks ago and a fitting finale to yet another enjoyable regatta.
Encouraged by the TVP race and by a week’s training on the Henley stretch the VIII took to the water for the Henley Qualifiers the following Friday. Mr Sykes and I were travelling to Peterborough Regatta so were not there to see them race thereby missing an Oratory epic. According to Mr P. Tomlinson they “were men, not boys” and they could not have given us anything more. Mr Poynter told me that they rowed their best race of the season, they managed to hit all of the ratings over the course and that he was very pleased with them. They beat crews who had comfortably defeated us at Marlow but even so failed to qualify by 1/10th second. Far from being down-hearted the mood within the club was and is very optimistic: all of the VIII will be back next year, the J16s now realise what is required, and land training will have added purpose.
Peterborough Regatta was the club’s eleventh regatta of the term and Birmingham and Ghent seemed a long time ago. Staying at the hotel on the regatta course gives a sense of occasion for the junior boys and it is a nice way to wind up the year. We had entered quads and octuples and it was soon fairly obvious that the quad was our only realistic chance for a medal. Here we were up against some of the very best crews in Britain so just to get into a final was a significant achievement in itself. In the race we led for the first 500m but were then pushed into third by some canny sculling and a well timed push by our opposition, Yarm and Windsor Boys. I was very pleased by our bronze medal but if the crew could have found a cat to kick they would have.
So as we enter our 50th Anniversary year the club, equipment matters aside, is in good shape and can look forward to 2012 with keen anticipation. Thanks must be given to the staff and the boys, and to our growing band of tow-path followers. We have certainly come a long way since 1962 and who knows what the future will hold.
