Wallingford Head - senior squad gets some of the glory; win-loss record for the term

Yesterday the senior men took to the water in freezing cold, rainy conditions for Wallingford Head of the River race. One of the day's bigger challenges was trying to put our boat together; not helped by a slimy surface underfoot that mademoving around like skating on sludge. Lovely.

The signs were encouraging on the way up to the start. Our Vespoli hull is as fast as anything on the water when it gets moving, but is notoriously the most difficult make of boat to sit at low rates. Our balance boded well for the race. At the start our main focus was on keeping warm. As Tim, our cox, read out the race plan our coach had lovingly prepared, a gust of wind caught the sheet of paper and blew it out of his hands. It was fished out of the water by Trinity College, who promptly started reading it. Damn.

Trinity were going off straight behind us in the race order, which added to the pre-race nerves. One of my tute partners coxes Trinity; another rows for them, so it was especially important to beat them. As it was, the result was never in doubt. Keble had put a whole minute into Trinity by the end of the race, overtaking the three crews in front. Beforehand, our coach had revised the target rate from 32 down to 30 in light of the strong stream and head wind. In the event, we went over the whole course at 32 to finish with a time of 18 minutes. This was enough to beat every Oxford college on the river except New and Christ Church (Corpus Christi, Somerville, Trinity, Wadham and St John's). New are unfortunately the crew directly in front of us come Eights and, with former Eton 1st VIII and GB junior rowers, they're going to be a tough proposition. What was most pleasing about the results was that we are well within striking distance for the Summer, especially with two of our strongest rowers yet to come into the boat. It's clear that even if we're behind New at the moment, we're on a much steeper trajectory.

The race put the seal on what has been an excellent Michaelmas term's training. Last year, almost all the crews we beat would have been way ahead of us. This year the tables were turned, proof that all the hard work pays off.

In the meantime, I've been calculating a win-loss record for Keble crews this term. Any college crews beaten count as a 'win'; any college crew beating a Keble crew counts as a 'loss'. The final total stands at (drum roll please): 13 wins for 5 losses. Good work all round I think...


Julian Bubb-Humfryes
Captain, Keble College Boat Club

Christ Church Regatta - the final report

With both men's and women's crews having impressed in victories over other colleges' A crews, it was left up to the women to show Keble's colours on the final day of racing. First up was Brasenose A, a crew which had been training six times a week and ranked among the favourites for the competition. The verdict? Four lengths to Keble.

Next up, the girls met St Anthony's, a much larger graduate crew. Unfortunately, technique lost out to raw grunt and Keble went down by two lengths. Nonetheless, it was a superb run for the women's novices and they have every reason to hold their heads high. A lot of these rowers will be going straight into the First Eight for Torpids and from here their form looks highly encouraging.

Unfortunately, I and the rest of the men's senior squad were unable to witness the final day's racing - we were de-rigging our boat for the trip to Wallingford Head, of which more anon....


Julian Bubb-Humfryes
Men's Captain