Boat Club bring in 111 BUCS points

The River Nene has been kind to Imperial College Boat Club (ICBC) on occasions, and this year’s BUCS 4s and 8s Head was one of those as success after success was had over the weekend. Every crew entered were in the top ten of their event, 111 BUCS points were won from the club’s performance in the Championship events and the medal haul was impressive with 4 golds, 2 silvers and 4 bronzes awarded.

It was an early start on the cold wet Saturday morning as the ICBC Novice Squadron made their way to Peterborough for the first day of racing, which is dedicated solely to Beginners. Once assembled on the boggy banks of the river with boats rigged, the Team Chat was given by coaches Don McLachlan, Stu Whitelaw and Dougie Thoms. The first races were for the women’s four (Harriet Cross/ Maddy Whybrow/ Rosie Davies/ Sarah Tattersall/ cox: Libby Richards) and the men’s eight (cox: Jess Johnson/ Tommy Hirst/ Tom McArdle/ Xavier Lorrain/ Tom Carpenter/ Alex Quigley/ Mattieu Burnard-Galpin/ Robbie Hernandez/ Reuben Hill). As they boated, with the rain pouring down, the 2.5km race ahead suddenly seemed much further.

All was going well in the men’s eight as lengths of clear water were put on crews around them until the final 500m, when an unfortunate crab by the strokeman cost the crew valuable seconds and they finished 8th in their category. In the meantime, the women’s four were storming down the course, avoiding crews crashing all around and crossed the line, snatching the bronze medal in the process. In the second division, four further members were added to the women’s four to make the eight (Cox: Alice Wickham/ Rowena Harrison/ Tattersall/ Davies/ Rio Stoddart/ Cross/ Joanna Taylor/ Whybrow/ Lucy Adkins) who came 9th overall. In the mean time, the men’s four (Hirst/ McArdle/ Lorrain/ Carpenter/ cox: Johnson) were hindered once again, this time off the start, by some “week-old novices” and yet still managed to take 6th place.

On Sunday, the senior rowers awoke to dry skies and all were feeling relatively positive. On arrival at the course, it was obvious why the locals refer to it as Peter-bog-rough Head; the field had become a mire overnight. Unaffected, all of the seniors boated for the first division. The Championship and Intermediate head is run over double the distance (5km) of the Beginner Head and, immediately, the squad started as they meant to go on, bringing home three golds and a bronze. The lightweight quad (Tom Pearson/ Tim Richards/ Wilf Kimberley/ Gareth Brown) was the fastest boat of the division, winning their category in 11 seconds ahead of every other. The coxless four (Danny Bellion/ Henry Goodier/ Matt Whaley/ Rory Sullivan) won their category by another convincing 9 seconds ahead of arch-rivals, Durham. Another gold was won by IC’s Intermediate coxed four (Adam Seward/ Jake Lea-Wilson/ Matt Lunt/ Paul Jones/ cox: Jess Johnson,) who overtook the boat ahead within 200m from the start. The Championship coxed four (Simon Steele/ Alistair Hudson/ Ben Spencer-Jones/ Leo Carrington/ cox: Libby Richards) started first in their division and brought home the bronze medal.

As soon as the first division was complete, preparation for the second began. Frantic re-rigging of the lightweight quad to a coxless four and the heavyweight four to a quad was required once the boats were off the water. In the blink of an eye, the Men’s Championship quad (Sullivan/ Goodier/ Hudson/ Steele) and the Lightweight Four (Pearson/ T Richards/ Kimberley/ Brown) were back on the water and were bringing home more medals; silver and gold respectively, with the lightweights having a lead of 35 seconds on every other crew.

The start of the second division also marked the arrival of the women’s squadron whose Championship quad (Chloe Symmonds/ Louise Connell/ Christina Duffy/ Selina Graham) campaign didn’t quite go to plan when a log tangled itself around the fin and gave the crew an extra deadweight to lug down the course, costing them vital time. Despite this, the girls managed a very respectable sixth place and increased the total BUCS points. It was then their turn to de-rig and re-rig their quad to a four (Symmonds/ Connell/ Duffy/ Graham) and rapidly returned to the river for their next race, which they successfully smashed to bring home another bronze medal for the club.

By the time of the third division, 10km had already been raced flat out by many members of ICBC, and yet the most important race of the day (to many) was yet to come – Men’s eights. On the way to the start, both ICBC crews kept the pressure light to let the aching legs attempt to recover before smashing it down the course for a second or third time. The Intermediate eight (cox: Johnson/ Pearson/ T Richards/ Bellion/ Lea-Wilson/ Seward/ Brown/ Lunt/ Jones) had an eventful finish to the race as they ambitiously attempted to overtake two crews at once but unfortunately this ended in a clash with Newcastle, causing Lunt to crab and break his footplate in one fell swoop 200m from the finish. Despite the theatrics, the bronze medal was theirs. The Championship eight (cox: L Richards/ Whaley/ Sullivan/ Spencer-Jones/ Goodier/ Steele/ Hudson/ Kimberley/ Carrington) were confident in their own abilities and Whaley urged the boys to focus on their rowing and rhythm and see just what they could do. The crew looked solid down the last 750m, holding their form, and were praised and cheered on from the bank. All the effort paid off and the silver medal was theirs, behind the Cambridge Blue Boat, all of whom had not raced earlier in the day.

In one of the club’s most successful weekends, Imperial was the second university overall and every senior man walked away with a medal from each event he entered. At the start of the Head Race season, all wait with baited breath what ICBC can achieve next.