TCBC News Michaelmas Term 2015 President s Report Lucy Martin Last year was a great year for TCBC, with three sets of blades across the club. In Torpids W1 and M3 won blades while a very strong W2 secured blades at Summer Eights, showing the strength of TCBC across all crews. This year the squads will be hoping to build on that success. More details follow in the captains reports, but this term has seen a huge volume of training from both the men and the women in an attempt to get that head start for Torpids, and the hard work is definitely paying off. This term the senior men s squad has been training on the Isis with new coach Thomas Frost and the women at Godstow with coach Robin Wilson. The recent purchase of a new launch with a generous donation to the boat club has allowed the Men and women to train on two different stretches of river on the same mornings, maximising our water time. On behalf of the boat club I d like to extend our sincere thanks for the donation. Again this year we ve seen a strong intake of novice rowers, with 2 men s crews and 1 women s crew entered into Christchurch Regatta and our novice women reaching the final of Nephthys regatta. Looking ahead to next term we ll be arriving back early for our winter training camp in January and training through to Torpids, which will be in 6th week of Hilary term. Both the men and the women are hoping to enter crews into the Head of the River Races, before we once again head to Seville for our Easter training camp. Recent years have seen a great deal of success in the boat club. I m pleased to say that all of the trophy blades ordered for the years before 2015 have now arrived and can be collected from college - the boat club has been so successful we re running out of storage space for them!
President s Report Lucy Martin Excitingly this year we have launched the TCBC Alumni Society, led by recent graduates Anna Birley and Charles McMillan. The society will serve the best interests of the current and former members of TCBC by organising events for alumni to gather and reconnect, and as a central focus for future fundraising support for the college boat club. The first event the society is running is Boat Club Drinks in London in January, If you would like to be involved in the society please contact tcbcalumni@gmail.com. We hope to see you at either a TCBC or Alumni society event soon, Its always fantastic to hear from old members and friends of the boat club, so please don t hesitate to get in touch! Men s Captain s Report Rob Jones Summer VIII s 2015 was somewhat of a less successful week compared to the recent successes that Trinity has become accustomed to, with only a single bump by any of the three crews, picked up by M2, and M1 dropping 2 places in Div I. However, despite this dip in form every crew was competitive and on multiple occasions came incredibly close to bumping but unfortunately didn t quite have enough to finish it off. A special mention should be given to Mike Di Santo and Constantine Louloudis, both of whom were members of the Blue Boat in 2015 and went on to compete in the World Rowing Championships in September, for the USA and Great Britain respectively, with Stan sitting in the 2 seat of the gold medal winning GB M8+. As some of you may be aware, the men s squad went much of last year, to all intents and purposes, without any proper coaching staff. Obviously this was not a situation that is sustainable to the men s crews performing to any level this year and was something that was of paramount importance to sort out. I am pleased to announce a whole new-look coaching team for this year Tom Frost, formerly of OULRC, who is coaching the 1st VIII, and Caitlin Barry, of OBUBC, who has been coaching our many novices and will continue on to coach the 2nd & 3rd VIIIs.
Men s Captain s Report Rob Jones Following the long break of the summer vacation the year started with the senior squad returning to college 5 days early to commence the year without the distractions of work and other commitments. This proved to be a hugely productive and enjoyable long weekend with Tom able to begin his technical reconstruction of almost every aspect of our rowing! Progress that has been made by the senior squad this term has been absolutely tremendous. A massive amount of work is still to be done and many, many hours of hard and gruelling training is still required. In a year in which we don t have a single returning rower from our Summer VIII s M1 crew, however, a tough time is to be expected! As ever, Michaelmas term came with the mass influx of novices. The taster day was hugely successful with 23 people signing up to the novice squad. This number, however, was quite quickly whittled down to a more manageable 16, following us introducing them to the trusty ergo! I was able to enter two VIIIs into Christ Church regatta, and following a disappointing first day with both boats losing in quite spectacular fashion, they found their feet with thanks to the repechage. The A boat made it to the round of 16 only to win the race but as a result of minor clash were forced to do a re-row, and unfortunately they were beaten by a length. A valiant effort that showed great promise by all those involved! As Michaelmas term draws to a close we turn our heads towards our Torpids campaign, which will commence in full in January with winter training camp. I m confident that this year, given the strength and depth of the squad, that we may well be able to put out three competitive VIIIs for Torpids, which would be an achievement in itself. I d also like to take this opportunity to formally extend our thanks to our boatman, Mark Seal, for his continued support and for assisting us in keeping the Trinity fleet in top nick. I look forward to hopefully seeing many of you at the river in the near future, and if anyone is interested in more news on what s going on with the men s squad, please do feel free to contact me. Rob Jones. Men s Captain. robert.jones2@trinity.ox.ac.uk
Women s Captain s Report Trinity term 2015 saw the women field one of the strongest first eights for a long time, not least thanks to the tremendous effort put in by all the members of the squad but also the addition of Emily Reynolds, Trinity s own University Blues rower. They rowed fantastically across all days of summer Eights but were unfortunately unable to win the much-desired and warranted blades due to a klaxoned race on the Friday. Nevertheless, their 2000m row-over on the Saturday saw the Women once more at the highest position they have ever been on the river. Eleanor Roberts The second eight built on success from day to day a brief appeal over a three-boat sandwich provided added tension, but a strong performance saw them achieve the blades they had worked so hard for. The new Academic year has brought new challenges to the squad, with many of our experienced rowers graduating, or leaving for years abroad. This has made Michaelmas a steep learning curve for all, but last year s second eight have more than stepped up to the mark, training with our coach Robin Wilson at Godstow throughout the week. Meanwhile on the Isis, a strong intake of new novices drawn from across the academic year have been working hard, coached by former OULRC cox, Harriet-Rose Noons. With no bumps to look forward to, this year the seniors entered a four into IWL A and made good time across the course, and had hoped to enter City of Bristol Head but were unable to do so when the weather forced the event to be cancelled. The disappointment was not shared by the novices however, who after making the final of Nephthys Regatta, made it to the last race on the penultimate day of the Christchurch Regatta. They rowed well across the races, coxed along by Women s Vice-Captain, Phoebe McGibbon, who has put tremendous effort and time into the novice training this term, making sure that they have all enjoyed their first term rowing with Trinity. Looking forward to next term, we will be training before term in preparation for Torpids integrating the new novices and continuing to work with Harriet and Robin to build on the strengths of last year. Despite our loss of senior rowers from last summer, the future looks good for a diverse and integrated squad in years to come. Eleanor Roberts Women s Captain. eleanor.roberts@trinity.ox.ac.uk
Eights Dinner 2016 28 th May 2016 Trinity College Boat Club Annual Dinner Saturday 28th May, 2016 7.30pm in Hall Champagne Reception 7pm in the Beer Cellar Dress: Black Tie For further details please contact: president.boatclub@trinity.ox.ac.uk