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Announcement

The UBBC Men’s Alumni Varsity Crew that raced on the 26th of April regrettably contained two ineligible oarsmen. Despite the fact that they were not active rowers neither was a graduate and the Committee recognises that their participation was against the spirit of the event. The Committee has decided to concede the Alumni Race to UWE who now win the overall Varsity trophy by 3 races to 2.

George Style

Club Captain

BUSA Regatta 2008

UBBC has returned from Strathclyde with its most successful BUSA ever, winning 2 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals.

In the finals of Men's Novice Eights, the novice 1st VIII stormed the start and maintained their decisive lead all the way to the line. This allowed them to race as a junior VIII the following day, where they had great success in reaching the finals and finishing 5th.

The novice women also achieved success, as they reached the final for the first time in recent years, and achieved a very respectable 5th place. The following day saw the squad put out a novice coxed four which, when faced with 4th place at 350m to go, decided to open out and rampage through the field to take the silver, half a length down on Imperial College.

A promising start was made to the regatta season by the senior women, who won the bronze in Championship Double Sculls. On Monday, Carrie Thomas finished 5th in the repechage of Championship Single Sculls, whilst Lara Brock won the silver in the junior event, making her the only UBBC athlete to return with two medals.

This regatta saw the senior men enter a strong squad of three IV's and two VIII's. The junior coxed four sailed through their repechage to finish 4th in the final, whilst the championship coxed four finished 7th. The coxless four saw another championship medal for Bristol, as they brought home the bronze. The well-drilled 2nd VIII controlled their field all Sunday, and saw off any challenge for the gold medal seemingly without breaking sweat, while the 1st VIII improved on last years position to finish 4th in the championship event.

Varsity 2008 - Amanda Moore

Bristol emerged triumphant from the Varsity match against UWE. This is always a hotly contested event where feelings run high and reputations are at stake, so some exciting racing was definitely in store for the many spectators that turned up to enjoy the rowing (and the beer tent). It was a beautifully sunny day for the racing and at midday the competition got underway with two 'processional' races. The first of these was the Bristol senior men's 2nd eight against a crew from City of Bristol rowing club. Bristol University dominated the race, winning comfortably and truly showing the class of their second eight.

Next were the women's alumni from both UWE and Bristol, and once again Bristol won easily, under-rating their opponents down the course and rowing at what looked to be a very solid and comfortable pace. Not bad for a crew that had had one outing in which to practise! The success of the Bristol women's alumni is a very promising sign for years ahead and also strengthens the case for this race being made part of the five varsity challenge races.

The first of the Varsity races that counted towards the overall victory was the novice men's race. In a highly exciting race, Bristol took the lead at the start and held this firmly until the last bend, which was in UWE's favour. UWE chose this moment to make their big push and really put the pressure on Bristol, closing the gap between the crews fast. Bristol responded and both crews sprinted for the line to reach an incredibly tight finish. Everyone was on tenterhooks as the verdict from the umpire was waited for. Eventually a victory of 4ft to Bristol was declared, a truly well deserved result for the hard working men's novices.

Next the women's novices took to the stage for another convincing Bristol victory. The Bristol novices led off the start with both crews rating very high in a determination to crush the opposition from the beginning. In the middle of the race, UWE managed to take advantage of the bend that was in their favour, to draw level with the Bristol boat, but if they were going to try to take the lead, this would have to be increased to a boat length's difference to counter the fact that the last bend was in Bristol's favour. UWE failed to get the lead they needed, and as the last bend swung back to the Bristol girls' advantage, Bristol looked to be the more 'together' and settled of the two crews in the final sprint for the line. The final verdict was a victory of 1 and a half lengths for Bristol.

The third qualifying race of the day was the men's alumni race. The Bristol alumni crew was quite a prestigious one, containing as it did, four of the highly successful men's first eight from last year, two of whom are now training with the GB squad. Bristol looked masterful as they swept to an overwhelming victory, clearly asserting their dominance over the UWE alumni, who were nowhere in sight as Bristol crossed the finish line! Bristol were now assured victors of the Varsity Challenge, but two of the most prestigious races of the day were still to come, between the senior crews of each club.

First up were the women's seniors. Both crews leapt off the start, rating at the same very high pace, both trying to edge the lead. UWE managed to get a slight advantage, which they increased to 1 length whilst they had the inside of the bend in the middle of the race. Bristol then knew they'd have to come back extremely hard around the final bend in their favour if they were to get back on terms with UWE. Bristol put in a massive push to the finish line but sadly it was not quite enough to catch the UWE crew who, hardly surprisingly, would not relinquish their lead. The final verdict was a win of 1 length by UWE, but it was a creditable performance from Bristol, fought right to the line.

The final race of the day was between the men's senior 1st eights. This extremely tightly fought race started out once again with both crews going for the quickest start to try to steal the lead. UWE kept pace with the Bristol eight for the first 500m and from then on a painful side-by-side battle had begun. Bristol pushed hard to take advantage of their inside bend, but sadly didn't manage to get enough distance on UWE to counter their advantage on the final corner. Both crews sprinted for their lives to the finish line, but the UWE men played the course to their advantage and rowed Bristol down around the final bend. UWE won one of the tightest races of the day by just a canvas.

BUSA Sprints 2008

Three Bristol squads entered the BUSA sprints this year, held for the first time in the Cotswold Water Parks. UBBC again showed great strength in depth, bringing home gold medals for the women’s novice VIII and the men’s junior VIII, silver medals for the men’s championship VIII and Carrie Thomas in her single scull, and a bronze for the men’s novice VIII.

Hamish Roots also won the ARA Open S3 single sculls in the 3rd fastest sculling time of the day.

Head of the River 2008 - Simon Wilson

Unlike last year, this year's HORR went off smoothly and without incident. In fact it was a great day for racing and the results proved so. The novice's once again showed their class in their respective division to come 8th and 30th and the 2nd VIII despite having UWE steer into them and subsequently holding them up for at least 20 seconds came in 3rd overall but 2nd out of the university crews in Division 4. The 1st VIII were chased down the course by a relentless Durham 2nd VIII to come in 8th overall and 5th behind Durham, Oxford Brookes, Imperial and Reading.

This report marks the end of my contribution to the UBBC website. Good luck to all our crews for regatta season!

Race For Life - Cancer Research

Emily Hill is taking part in this year's Race for Life to raise money for Cancer Research UK. Since many of us have relatives and friends that have been touched by cancer it is an extremely worthwhile cause.

Hi, I'm taking part in Race for Life to raise money for Cancer Research UK. Its on 18th May and its 3-mile run around the downs. If you'd like to, please sponsor me -its really simple all you have to do is to go to: http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/emily_hill

Its really quite an important cause to me, so I would really appreciate the support.

Please join me in supporting Race for Life and a fabulous cause!

Hammersmith Head - Simon Wilson

Another weekend of second place for the men's 1st and 2nd VIIIs was disappointing but against some tough opposition from Tideway Scullers and a win against London RC A for the 1st VIII it was a good result at the end of the day. Credit also to the second VIII for such a good result despite losing their cox box before the race started.

Women's Head - Amanda Moore

The turbulent nature of the day's events fortunately did not reflect the conditions at this year's Women's Head of the River. Windy but sunny weather made for some fairly good conditions for the race on the 1 st of March and the UBBC women put in a strong entry of 3 crews; 2 novice boats and the senior 1 st eight.

The day threw up some mixed results, especially for the senior boat, who had come from a successful, but tiring, BUSA head the previous weekend. At the last minute, one of their key crew members found herself injured and unable to race, but after a hasty search for any unwitting victims who could possibly sub in, the brilliant Lizzie Knowles, who rowed for UBBC all last year, was able to step into the breach. The women are eternally in Lizzie's debt for this amazingly gutsy decision to race at the last minute- certainly no mean feat- and they are extremely grateful to her. Although it would be nice to say that the seniors then stormed down the course and won their pennant, unfortunately the women's 1 st eight did not have the best row of their lives. This resulted in a rather average placing of 35 th in their senior 3 category of 58 boats; certainly not what they were hoping for. However, lessons have been learnt and the squad are moving forward from this with a hungry and positive focus for the summer, which will be kick-started by a camp over Easter.

The novice 1 st eight did however have one of the races of their lives- or at least of their rowing career so far! They picked crews off all the way down the course and are to be heartily congratulated for the excellent result of 11 th out of 53 in their S4 category, and coming a very short distance behind the senior boat. After yet another display of strength from the novice women, great things are expected from them this summer.

Sadly the novice 2 nd eight did not have such a positive experience on the Tideway. This legendary and brutal stretch of water claimed another victim as their boat was damaged and they were forced to pull out of the race. This experience was of course highly frustrating (and a little bit chilly no doubt!) but the girls can at least have the badge of honour of an epic Tideway story to tell, and they will certainly be spurred on to race extremely hard whenever they next get the chance.

Reading University Head / BUSA Head - Simon Wilson

Having a daunting weekend of race after race the boys and girls of UBBC once again did the University and themselves proud. Both seniors and novices performed equally well but that's not to leave out the people behind the scenes such as George, who without, the whole weekend wouldn't have been possible. Thanks also go out to the coaches who took time out to make the long and ardous trip to both Reading and Nottingham.

On the rowing side of things, the first VIII came second behind ISIS on Saturday and second behind Durham on Sunday. The second VIII came 3rd on Saturday and tied for second on Sunday. The senior women couldn't row their respective decision on Saturday morning and Sunday convincingly defeated UWE. The novice men's A boat came in 3rd despite having to row the very difficult Hudson and the men's B boat came 17th but were 1st in comparison to other B boats. The slick outfit that has become the novice women came in 4th and 16th.

New Club Treasurer - Simon Wilson

Matt Ridley joins the Committee team as Club Treasurer having taken over from Rachel Cotton. The Club would like to than Rachel for her time as Treasurer and wish her all the best for the future.

Quintin Head - Simon Wilson

UBBC has once again won the Quintin Head making it two years in a row. Three years ago the 1st VIII managed to win their division but not overall. Last year the VIII won by 2 seconds with a subsitute rower but this year with a full strength crew and all guns blazing they stunned the field with a 10 second gap between their nearest competitor. This was despite the fact that coxswain Simon Wilson called the finish 100m before the actual line! with prompt response from the bank shouting "Keep rowing!" the VIII bound into action and raced the last ten strokes at 40.

There was also great results from the 2nd and 3rd VIII and the men and women's novice VIII's. The 2nd VIII came a close second in their division and the 3rd VIII came in 3rd. The women's novices put in a fantastic result and are looking great thanks to the coaching of Alex Gerald, Georgina White, Emily Hill and some gutsy performances on the part of rowers and cox. They came 3rd on the day losing only by 3 seconds to first place.

 

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Disclaimer: With apologies to Gerry Sutcliffe MP, any comments on this website may not accurately reflect the views of anyone.