Henley Fund Newsletter 2012

SCBC Permanent Henley Fund Newsletter 2012

Content: 1. Captains’ Reports 2. Lower Boat Captains’ Reports 3. Rowing with CUWBC 4. MA outing

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Next year’s Overall Captain Other News Thanks

Save the date: May Bumps 2012 13 - 16 June

SCBC 2012

Henley Fund Dinner 16th June 2012 (Saturday of May Bumps)

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Back to Winning Ways for the Men

In Michaelmas 2011 Selwyn fielded two eights throughout the term, entering the various head races that the term holds. The First and Second VIIIs were coached by Jon Fuhrmann (Girton) and Seb Robins (Corpus Christi) who were both involved in CULRC last year. With a good set of ergo scores and such quality coaching (albeit with slightly different styles), the 1st VIII managed to come fifth out of the Cambridge colleges at Winter Head and Fairbairns. The 2nd VIII, made up mostly of last year’s MCR VIII, improved significantly to place well amongst the 2nd VIIIs at Fairbairns.

At the start of Lent term, on the back of good Fairbairns results, it was clear the squad hadn’t been slacking over Christmas. Probably the best set of ergo scores at the start of the term (certainly that I can remember) matched with some good water training sessions mixing in the new novices meant that M1 and M2 went into Lents full of confidence. A new coaching team came in for the term with Enya Meadows (Rob Roy) and Ben Gliniecki (1st VIII, Mays 2010/2011) taking the reigns of M1 and M2 respectively. We also had a 3rd VIII training to get back the lost place for M3 in the Lents and a mixed 4th VIII with King’s.

The term started well, with M1 defending their pots from last year by coming top of Mays Division 2 at Winter Head to Head, placing fourth out of the Cambridge colleges. However, as soon as term had begun, the ice struck and the Cam was red flagged for almost two weeks, with only the first eight managing to sneak in a few outings whenever the flag was turned yellow.

With M3 succeeding to get onto Bumps, the Men’s Squad was ready for the Lent Races! On the first day we can only say that M1 will be ruing a missed opportunity. Whilst the Catz boat ahead was full of blues lycra, we made big gains into them, and when they bumped out on Churchill (which we expected to happen far sooner than it did) we were only a canvas behind! As it was the week went well, and knowing we were probably the fastest crew in our section of the charts after the first day was a real boost for the rest of the week. We finished up three and back into the first division, bumping King’s, Churchill and Fitz on the way.

Whilst M3 suffered the sad fate of having to row over foot of the river four times, M2 matched the first eight with a fantastically quick set of Bumps to end the week up 3. Well done to them, and I look forward to seeing their assault on a seat in M1 next term! So a good couple of terms for the Men, but now the back patting ends as it’s time to start training for Mays!

(David Barton, Men’s and Overall Captain)

SCBC 2012

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The Women’s Progress this Year It has been a variable year so far for the women's side of SCBC. In Michaelmas, a strong batch of returning rowers meant that for the first time in a while we could put out a senior IV and a senior VIII to train and race together, under the guidance of coach and former SCWBC Captain Laura Kaye (City). Both crews were of mixed experience. The whole squad put in some solid work over the term both on the water and on land, with the introduction of regular weights training for the first time in several years thanks to the help of Selwyn PhD student and powerlifter Matt Llewellyn-Jones. In terms of results, at Winter Head the VIII came a respectable 14th of 22 college crews, but unfortunately their Fairbairn Cup result was less spectacular, coming 29th. The IV had a very successful racing season, coming 6th of 15 student crews (and second only to Newnham of the Cambridge colleges) in Winter Head, and going on to come 5th of all college crews in the Fairbairns.

In Lent term, we saw some strong talent emerging from this year's batch of novices and so members of both the previous term's senior boats along with two former novice rowers comprised this term's W1. Unfortunately, the weather meant we did not have as much pre-Bumps racing experience as we would have liked, with Newnham Short Course and Bedford Head both cancelled due to ice. We rowed over on the first two days, with crews bumping out around us on day one, and chasing Magdalene to the finish on day 2. Unfortunately from there we went down two, as King's caught us when we were a canvas off Magdalene the following day, and finally we were caught by Peterhouse on day 4.

It was a slightly disappointing Bumps, but we couldn't dwell too long on the result as we had to turn our focus to Women's Head of the River the following day! Despite having spent the previous four days giving it our all on the Cam, we were determined to end the week with a good, strong row on the Tideway. With the main focus of the term having been Bumps, we had not had the chance to do much in terms of long pieces to prepare ourselves for a 6.8km head race; however, a taste of disappointment can do wonders for the competitive psyche! After overtaking the crew immediately ahead straight off the start, we soon found ourselves battling for the stream with the next crew ahead. The race became a battle of wills, as we gained and lost seats as we pushed and they pushed back. We crossed the finish line absolutely exhausted and having given it our all! We covered the 4 ¼ mile course in a time of 23:04.7, finishing 139th of 287 crews, 7th in our category, and 4 th of the Cambridge college crews racing. The result is a great improvement on the previous two years, and is a real testament to the hard work put in this term.

As we look towards May Bumps, we know we have some work to do to ensure we can cement our position as a first division crew. We're training hard over the holidays to keep the fitness up, and we're going to make the most of our training camp at Chester to ensure we go into Mays ready to bump up the charts, and christen the bows of our new VIII, John Farr, with some rival colleges' paintwork!

(Lizzy Johnstone, Women’s Captain)

SCBC 2012

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Men’s Lower Boats Thirsty for Mays The rowing season of 2011-2012 so far has been an extremely successful one for the Men’s Lower Boats. After a promising recruitment campaign at the beginning of October, SCBC found itself with 3 novice VIIIs who then underwent a rigorous training campaign to get them river-worthy and to give them the best chances of success. Amongst the new recruits were some beasts of men, already showing promise from their times on the erg. Danny Morris and Carl Salji did particularly well at Queen’s Ergs, coming 6th and 12th respectively.

The results on the water were equally encouraging, the highlight being the Novice Fairbairn Cup at the very end of term. Out of the 74 men’s crews racing, all three novice boats finished in the top half (placing 18th, 28th and 36th), an outstanding overall result. It was with this excellent crop of novices that we moved into Lent term with some confidence.

The Lower Boats of recent years have been suffering a bit, M2 having gone down two in both 2011 and 2010 Lent Bumps, and M3 failing to get on in both of those years as well. It was time to avenge such disappointments. Despite the interruption of water training due to ice, M2 had a highly successful term. Unfazed by the ice, they engaged in a heavy period of land training. Pre-Bumps, their best result was at Pembroke Regatta where they reached the semi-finals. Here they were beaten by Caius II, the boat who was lined up to chase our own M1 on the first day of Bumps, so definitely no shame there! They carried over this success into Bumps, ending the week up three, bumping Churchill II, Magdalene II and St Edmunds I. They were unfortunately denied a chance at blades on Day 2 due to every single crew above them bumping out. With a couple of weeks’ break, they headed off to the Tideway for Head of the River. Here they finished a very creditable 314th, over 30 places up from last year. This sets up M2 for an excellent shot at Mays glory next term.

M3 were not quite as successful as M2, but obviously this would have been hard! Coached by James Thomas, they also had their training interrupted by the big freeze and experienced some mixed results in the lead up to the Getting-On Race, through which qualification for Lent Bumps is achieved. However, it was in this race that they pulled out their best performance, pushing into Robinson III in front of them and sending Sidney III far away behind them. This placed them at the bottom of the 4th Division for the beginning of Bumps (this being the bottom division, this prevented any exhausting sandwich boating). Having achieved the overall aim of qualifying for Bumps, M3 went into the week aiming to just enjoy their achievement. Unfortunately, they found Girton III in front of them to be of a very similar pace to them and they rowed over every day.

But what can be said of the current Lower Boats is that the future of mens rowing at Selwyn is bright. The evidence for this is in the excellent Fairbairns results in Michaelmas, and that the highly successful Lents M2 contained six rowers who had noviced the previous term (as well as five in M3 as well). This makes the prospects for next term’s Mays very positive, so please come and support us if you’re around!

(James Thomas and Matt Parry, Men’s Lower Boats Captains)

SCBC 2012

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Women’s Lower Boats have a great year

From the very beginning there were high levels of enthusiasm on the women’s side. After enticing novices with a barbeque and fun taster-outings, three novice crews were set loose on the Cam. The girls had their taste of success in Michaelmas term, with the novice ‘Nymphs’ coming 16th out of 60 in the Fairbairn Cup, winning against Queen’s in Clare Novice Regatta and one novice pulling the 13th fastest time in Queen’s Ergs. In Emma Sprints, their excellent technique was overshadowed by an incompetent rival crew who insisted on repeatedly smashing their blades into ours.

Novice term saw the emergence of some real rowing gems, with two novices taking their wellearned seats in W1 in Lent term. The enthusiasm and commitment shown in Michaelmas carried on into Lent term. For the second year running we were able to get a 2nd VIII and 3rd VIII, both of which were almost entirely composed of novices eager to improve. With many senior rowers graduating last year, this term’s W2 and W3 had some big boots to fill.

Unfortunately, the two of ice, red flags and a closed river slightly jeopardised the Lower Boats’ chances of becoming really solid crews. As a consequence, they didn’t manage to get as much race experience as they had hoped for. Despite this setback, they demonstrated some tremendous technique when faced with very strong crews in Pembroke Regatta. This was largely due to the excellent coaching of Oliver Crabb (Chesterton), who coached W2 in Lent term, and Ben Glienicki, who took on coaching W3 as well as M2.

Unfortunately, W2 and W3 did not get on to this year's Bumps, although W3 very much managed to get into the spirit of the races by bumping a Queen’s 3rd VIII at the finish line of the Getting-on Race, demonstrating the hard work they had put in over the term.

All those who rowed in the Lower Boats in Lent term are excited about the sunshine and lack of ice of May term rowing. Despite this term’s poor weather conditions, the enthusiasm has not waned and we are hoping to get a 3rd VIII out again this Mays, to hopefully match the performance of last year’s blading Mays W3.

(Isi Bush & Priska Komaromi, Women’s Lower Boats Captains)

SCBC 2012

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Rowing with CUWBC Our trialing with CUWBC began with a development squad last summer, and after all the lovely sunny sessions and regattas Ellie Wigham and I decided to return and trial for CUWBC this year in September. Once term actually started it sunk in quite how much we had taken on, juggling 12 training sessions a week with work and friends was an exciting challenge. We survived the first term, which culminated with the Trial Eights Race at Ely and a couple of weeks at home. We then headed off to Soustons, France, for our week’s training camp in January, which turned out to be great fun, a combination of 3 rowing sessions a day and lots of laziness in between. Finally, at the start of February the crews were announced, Ellie was selected for Blondie, the second openweight boat and I was selected for the lightweight eight. From then training escalated as we focused on coming together as crews to prepare ourselves for the races against Oxford at Henley in March.

Trialing for CUWBC is definitely tough, however it’s been really rewarding and I’m very glad I decided to do it. It gives you the chance to really challenge yourself and the closeness you achieve as crews is amazing.

(Emma Copham)

SCBC 2012

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Class of 2005 return to the Cam

Saturday 25th May saw the return of Selwyn's matriculating class of 2005 to college to collect their MA degrees. This included a fairly large contingent of former SCBC members who were keen to get out on the river for old times' sake. With crews expertly organised by Sarah Gallagher, we put together 2 IVs, one men's and one women's, who were keen to relive the excitement of Bumps with some sparring on the Long Reach.

The women's crew consisted of four experienced W1 rowers, most of whom had kept rowing for some time since their BA graduation - Chloe Dufton, Kitty Jackson, Claire Innes-Hopkins and Sarah Gallagher at stroke, with Paul Holmes coxing. Hopes were high that they could hold off the men's crew who, apart from the Lents 2012 M1 stroke

rowing on the wrong side at 3, had not been anywhere near a boat in 3 years: Richard Ansell, Giles Ekblom, Josh Pugh Ginn and Chris Watterson at stroke, and David Dufton coxing.

Spirits were high on the row up to the lock, as each crew tried to remember how to row, both in general and with each other. ("Bowside's the one where the oar goes out to the left, yes?") On the way back down, several practice starts were attempted, with the aim for the men's IV being to wind it up higher than 45, M1's maximum this Bumps.

The race began with the women's IV starting a length and a half ahead of the men, whose plan of winding as high as possible on the start was successful (reaching 48 spm), but not particularly quick and the women pulled away to about 2 boat-lengths. Once the men had settled down to a sensible rating however, they started to grind down the ladies, and caught them just before the Railway Bridge.

A great time was had by all (particularly the bank-party!), and we look forward to seeing many of this year's MA Bumps crew-members again soon at the Mays Henley Fund Dinner in June.

(Lizzy Johnstone – Women’s Captain)

SCBC 2012

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Matthias Schnellmann will be next year’s Overall Captain Chemical Engineering student Matthias Schnellmann has been elected SCBC Overall Captain for the 2012/2013 season and will lead the Blazers into the Lent and May Bumps.

Matthias rowed at Bow in the successful 2012 Lents M1, and has been in M1 since the beginning of his second year.

Previously he was a successful rugby and hockey player at Merchant Taylors’ School, Northwood but took the sport up when recruited as a fresher.

As the new SCBC Captain, he will be following Engineer Dave Barton in occupying the McEldowney room.

“It is a great privilege to have been elected as Captain of SCBC and I am very much looking forward to leading the club next year.” says Matthias “I am excited to take the helm of the club, and build on the hard work that Dave and his predecessors have put in, to get the club to where it is.”

“Especially on the men’s side we have enjoyed a successful year as a result of a strong novice intake and a large group of keen and motivated seniors returning.

The women’s side did well to retain their place in the 1st division of Lents after a very successful boat the previous year.

With luck the remainder of this year will see the men’s 1st VIII bumping up in Mays and the women retaining their position in the 1st Division. Next year I hope to build on these successes and to be competing with the top college boats.”

Matthias is keen to get in touch with any members of the Henley Fund, who have suggestions, advice, or simply want to chat about the future development of the Club. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with him (mas227@cam.ac.uk).

SCBC 2012

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Selwyn College Boat Club News Our New Ladies’ VIII: John Farr

Donating to the Henley Fund

We are very pleased to inform you about a new member to our family of boats.

John Farr our new Ladies’ VIII, has been named after the Selwyn alumnus who has kindly provided the funding for his purchase. We hope to see you for his formal launch on May 12th. We hope that in due course we will be able to inform you of many successful Bumps that he will be making!

Donations to the Henley Fund make a huge difference to rowing at Selwyn so if you feel you are able to support us please do. If you would like more information get in touch with us at the boat club via Matthias Schnellmann or at the Henley Fund via Fiona Morrison (fiona.morrison@lcp.uk.com).

T-Shirts Sponsorship The search for a new primary sponsor continues. Please get in touch with us if you happen to have any contacts with companies that recruit Cambridge graduates. We have a strong sponsorship package to offer, and the funds are crucial for the running of the Club.

The new Selwyn Boat Club T-Shirt is now available to buy (see below). We are selling them for £14 with £2 flat rate postage (UK only). They are available through the Selwyn College Merchandise website and you can now pay via credit card. We think the t-shirts look great and hope you do too.

Triallists After the successes of Emma Copham and Ellie Wigham with CUWBC this year we will hopefully be seeing more rowers from Selwyn representing Cambridge in the near future. As every year, SCBC will be sending some raw talent to the Development Squads of CUBC, CUWBC and CULRC that run throughout the Easter term. They hope to get some more training and, of course, one day trial and race against the other side. Watch out for Tom Menzies, Petris Erins, Danny Morris, Lizzy Johnstone and Vicky Shaw.

SCBC 2012

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Dear Alumni, The coaching the club has enjoyed over the past year, the new Women’s Eight, the Easter training camp in Chester and most of the Club’s activities that are written about in this newsletter, would be impossible without the continued support of the Permanent Henley Fund. Without this generous support, SCBC would not be able to compete so successfully on the Cam and elsewhere. For this, we would like to thank you very much.

All members of the club, regardless of which boat they row in, enjoy a fantastic experience and many of us have formed friendships and memories that will last a lifetime. With your help we will continue the tradition and development of our Boat Club.

Thank you very much!

SCBC Committee 2011-12

SCBC 2012

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