Thursday of 8^th Week (11^th March) will see Balliol running the first ‘Spring 2^nds Regatta’, an event open only to boats in lower divisions of the bumps chart, with the aim of enriching the experience of rowing for those who may not otherwise get to compete in external regattas – and of improving collegiate rowing throughout Oxford. As with all plans for rowing in Hilary, we are at the mercy of the weather, but if high stream and winds force the cancellation of another Torpids this year, Spring 2^nds will be the only intercollegiate competition on the calendar this term!

Watch this space for more details.

With one week of full term passed, and our training plans still frustrated by a red flag on the Isis, the lower squad of the men’s boat club are growing impatient to return to the water. So far they have had to make do with tank sessions and technical ergo work on sliders – all well and good, but a distant se’cond to the real thing, especially if every other lower boat in Oxford is doing the same. ‘Mileage makes champions,’ as Fairbairn said, and if we hope to raise a glass to our blade-winning crews come Torpids Dinner, as is our aim, waiting around for conditions on the Isis to change will not do.

While my vice-captains are running the inaugural ‘other’ BIRC (the Balliol Indoor Rowing Championship, a series of demanding erg tests) to keep the troops in competition during the week, as of next weekend Balliol will start ferrying the most promising M2 triallists out to Wallingford so that they can take advantage of the long stretch of clear water there (and perhaps be spotted by the OUBC coaches!), while other boat clubs sit around in Oxford waiting for the flag to change.

Eddie

With 12 girls currently trialling for the 1st Torpid, I’m confident that this year’s crew will be stronger than ever (and we can finally bump into the first division!). Despite the poor river conditions, we’re keeping positive and making use of the land training to ensure our fitness is the best in Oxford.

This year, Torpids will be held in 7th week (3rd-6th March). Please come down to the boathouse and support us – it really makes a difference hearing the roar of supporters as you reach the end of boathouse island.

Due to low numbers of triallists for the OUWBC boat, two Balliol girls (Jo and Christina) have been asked to return to the squad to help in the boat race against the Tabs at the end of term. Nehaal continues to trial with OUWLRC. Good luck to all three girls for when the crews get announced in the next few weeks!

This year’s Henley Boat Races will be held on Sunday 28th March. If you can possible make it, it would be great to have a strong Balliol contingent to support the girls.

After saying our goodbyes at the end of term, a captain always worries how much fitness will be lost as crew mates sit about eating mince pies and watching the Queen’s speech. Needless to say all my fears were put to rest by a gruelling regime requiring individuals to log their training progress into an online spreadsheet. Bad weather was no excuse – notably one international student spent a morning shoveling her driveway of snow to keep her heart rate up. Well done to Brianna, Clarissa and Edie who share the prize (a healthy bottle of wine!) for the most committed vac effort.

Despite the disappointment of Christ Church Regatta last term which was largely called off due to bad weather, the novice spirit has stood the test of the vac and we’re delighted to have so many keeping with the sport. This term’s coaches have certainly been impressed by the talent they’ve seen so far – thanks especially to excellent coaching from Christina, Kirsty and Anja last term. The fresh influx into the senior boats each January helps to keep us older girls on their toes, as (in genuine True Blue style) “nobody’s seat has a reserved sign on it”.

New term, new coach. This year we’ve been lucky to find Chris Cooper.

With an impressive rowing, sculling and coaching CV (and many years of Oxford boating experience) the prospects are looking better than ever for our W2 girls. With 3 sets of blades in the bag for that last 4 bumps races, things can only get tougher as the amount of ‘driftwood’ above us in the divison dwindles and we start to take on some real opposition. Wish us luck!

As too often happens in Michaelmas, another set of novices were left frustrated in 7th week, as Christ Church Regatta was once again cancelled, this time after just one day of racing. This year the Red and Blue crews have particular cause for frustration as both had, after clearing their afternoons as well as mornings to make room for outings, proved themselves to be amongst the fastest on the river the previous weekend at the Nephthys Head and Regatta: Red, deprived of their stern pair by a blown-out knee and a diplomatic mission to China still came second in the Head race, losing to New College by 2 seconds, but comfortably beating 10 other men’s novice crews, not to mention Balliol W1. Their internecine rivals, Blue, were denied of victory in the Regatta by a blade that snapped half way down the course in the semi-final, losing out to eventual winners Trinity. Definitive proof of Trinity’s sabotage has yet to be uncovered.

These strong results were the core of Balliol’s success as the Victor Ludorum of the Nephthys weekend.

With the river still at red flag, the question that has sparked much heated debate over the term, “who’s faster, Red or Blue?” was settled at our annual Christ Church Dinner with a boat race, in which the members of Blue managed to drain their glasses at a pace that Red could only dream to keep up with.

With both Red and Blue cruelly denied the Christ Church trophy, and Greene a chance to prove their worth, training for Torpids has already begun in earnest. Trials for M1, M2, and M3 are now underway, and with three sets of blades up for grabs and nearly five boats’ worth of oarsmen all hungry for glory (including plenty of novices wanting to challenge for a seat in the top boat), competition for seats is already hotting up…

Despite some early setbacks I think all would agree that this term has laid some strong foundations for our Headship campaign next summer.

After a strong recruitement drive for new rowers at the start of term we easily filled two novice boats. The girls were all dedicated and enthusiastic which made them a pleasure to work with. Despite disappointments in the cancelling of Christ Church regatta, we are strengthened by the knowledge that our crews were undefeated! Special thanks must be directed towards the two vice captains, Kirsty Duffy and Anja Hayen, without whom the novice training programme would not have existed. Christina Schoenbach, an ex-blue and ex-vice captain herself, kindly agreed to coach the A crew. With this strong foundation several of the the strongest and keenest novices also attended senior squad outings at Godstow (coached by Nick Bevan) to give them a taster of things to come.

At the start of this term the senior squad looked worryingly thin on the ground, due to several experienced girls leaving and others off sick. However, this gave a good opportunity for girls from last year’s W2 and W3 boats to move up into the 1st boat (more specifically our lovely Empacher, Happy Rogers) and experience Nick’s exceptional coaching.

Last week myself and both vice captains benefited enormously from attending a GB rowing technique workshop organised by British Rowing (formerly the ARA) and lead by Steve Gunn (one of the Team GB coaches). This focussed on novel ways to coach technique on the ergs, as well as how to objectively test which muscle groups require more training. We immediately started to implement our new-found knowledge into everyday training and are already seeing benefits in increased power output and greater core muscle stability.

BCBC is also proud to keep up our tradition of supporting the University squads: this term Nehaal Bajwa has been trialling with OUWLRC, whilst after a short break from last year’s boat race both Jo Williamson and Christina Schoenbach are now thinking of returning to OUWBC after the vacation to compete in another. I will keep you posted on their progress!

I hope that everyone has an enjoyable Christmas and look forwarded to keeping you updated with our progree in 2010.

Elizabeth Mumford, BCBC Women’s Captain

After a hard term’s training and some promising results in the Nephthy’s races, we were all frustrated that poor weather conditions (and in particular the high winds) resulted in all but the first day being called off.

In particular it was a shame that the severe delays on Wednesday meant that the women’s novice B crew did not get a chance to race at all, despite waiting at the boathouse in the cold all afternoon.

The remaining women’s novice A crew and all three men’s boats did us proud, most winning their races by a sound margin.

Several bystanders commented to me on the day that this year’s novices at Balliol are the strongest, and have the best technique, that they have seen in recent years. We all hope that this early setback in the year’s racing calender will not deter our new rowers from keeping up the sport after the vacation, when it is certain we will come back and dominate Torpids as in previous years.