If Carlsberg made Boat Clubs...

In a highly successful weekend at Boston, ICBC laid claim to having the fastest 8, the fastest 4 and the fastest women’s quad, as well as medals left, right and centre in other categories. We also finished 2nd in the Victor Ludorum for BUCS points and medals, narrowly behind Newcastle. You cannot argue with that.

The BUCS men’s 8 has not been won by an IC crew since before anyone I asked from the Boat Club could remember (BUCS results archiving not the best!); and for the crew of Hal Bradbury, Sam Cottrell, Jonny Rankin, Ali Hudson, Ben Spencer-Jones, Henry Goodier, Wilf Kimberley and Tim Richards with cox Ellie Smith it was a day to remember. When Ali put head coach Don McLachlan on loudspeaker in the minibus on the way home to announce the result, you could cut the tension with a knife. Scenes of jubilation greeted the results, with tops immediately being removed and beats dropped.

The eight won the evenover Durham by 7 seconds, and finished 10 seconds ahead of Newcastle. It was the perfect way to top of a fantastic weekend for ICBC, which began on the Saturday with the Beginner men in their first race against other Unis. There was an excellent 8th (out of 33) for the beginners 4+ of Tom ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ Jones, Bastian Winklehake, Zhehou Cao and Nikola ‘David Guetta’ Spasojevic with cox Hena Begum. These lads were feeling the pain after racing earlier in the day (in the eight with Karl Steevens, Shaun Nicol, Will Joyce and Kevin Ng SiJie, who finished 17th of 41), and their faces show it in one of the best rowing photos I have seen in a long while (see our website)!

On the Sunday, the senior squad arrived in force at a cold but remarkably calm Boston RC. In the first division the IC lightweight men’s four were the fastest of the day, beating all of the heavyweight coxless and coxed fours (almost unheard of at BUCS head). It was the start of an incredible day for Richards and Kimberley in combination with Myles Holbrough and Paul Jones. IC’s third gold medal came from the women’s championship quad of Mel Wilson, Myriam Goudet, Georgie Phillips and Klara Weaver. They showed their class, winning by a phenomenal 35 seconds and bringing another 20 BUCS points to the table.

The next best result of the day must be the women’s lightweight quad. The crew of Josie Bowler, Jade Hubbard, Nadine Nalowe and Nicola Mason did brilliantly to take the silver, pushing Durham into 3rd place. Boom. Three of the girls later raced in the 4- with Nina Dalton in place of Nadine however the exertions from thefirst division showed and they were pushed back into 5th. These excellent results from the lightweight girls came despite a trauma filled day before, which included Sam Cottrell’s suspect driving of a mould filled minibus, dinner at a restaurant in Peterborough with Ali Hudson and first-hand experience of Captain Spencer-Jones’ ‘Goat’ (what would his parents say?!).

The morning division on the Sunday had seen further evidence of ICBC being the only boat club who have any fun. On the way to the start the IC heavy and lightweight fours met the champ quad (who eventually finished 6th) and decided that a ‘warm-up’ drag race was in order. Sprinting three abreast the wrong way down the Boston course was thoroughly frowned upon but was just the thing to get the fires burning on a chilly morning.

Following this huge expense of energy the heavyweight four of Rory Sullivan, Ben Spencer-Jones, Henry Goodier and Jonny Rankin found the headwind a little tiring, and Sullivan’s wildly inaccurate distance measurements of crews in front did not help. Calls after 2km of “we’ve halved Newcastle’s gap boys” were in fact entirely mistaken and Sullivan has been booked into a Specsavers appointment later this week. They eventually finished with a silver medal, in similar fashion to the women’s champ 4 of Caterina Buizza, Harriet Cross, Lily Beadle and Hannah Patterson. The girls cited a ‘firm but fair’ pre-race chat from the rested Sullivan before division 2 as the reason for their strong row, following IC’s only bronze of the day earlier in the morning as half of the 8. The other half of the 8 were formed from the women’s quad, and the secret to Olympian Mel Wilson’s success was spotted before division 2 in the form of considerable amounts of generic-bear-shaped-jelly-flavoured-sweets. Top tip for you there aspiring GB rowers!

A final mention should go to the Intermediate 8, who in-keeping with IC traditions caught an unfortunate crab in the run in to the line. I have searched long and hard for the video of the Matt Lunt classic which still brings a tear to my eye but unfortunately I think his lawyers have had it removed from the internet.

So, 2nd in the Victor Ludorum, 3 golds and 7 medals in total. All-in-all a thoroughly successful weekend in the ICBC camp and with both Heads of the River coming up soon (and of course #LadsOnTour in Amsterdam) it’s going to be an action packed few months for ICBC. The overall goal has to be to steal Durham’s self-appointed crown of most successful undergraduate rowing program in the UK and continue racking up the BUCS points. And with 125 points gained from BUCS head alone, it’s your move fencing!