Lincoln College Boat Club

Eights was Lincoln’s most successful in years. Their 17 net bumps was easily the most of all colleges, and having not won any blades in 6 years, won three sets within three hours. The one caveat was scratching M4 mid-regatta.

W3, all of whom were racing in their first bumps regatta, were the first success, never having to row beyond the gut as they won blades in the middle of the 6th division. Their path was eased by having W2 start two in front of them, bumping each crew similarly quickly the day before. Having been drenched in champagne by an excitable captain on the saturday W2 went on to record a 5th bump as sandwich boat in the 5th division.

W1 weren’t quite as successful, staying level over the regatta in the middle of the 3rd division. Their disappointment with this reflects the success elsewhere, but hard work by the women’s captain this year has seen a huge growth in the women’s boat club and the structures put in place to translate lower boat success into 1st boat success in the coming years.

M2 were the bladewinners on the men’s side. After a powerful row on the first day to catch Jesus before they closed out on Merton they were remarkably composed and smooth as they rowed through four more crews within 300m of the start, finishing up 5 at 10th in the 4th division. Particular acclaim should go the 5man Chris Wallis who was winning his second set of blades having coxed W3 earlier in the day.

M1 were almost as successful – having been denied a bump on the first day by a slow Queen’s crew two in front of them they bumped by the exit of the gut on the three remaining days, dissappointingly not having the nerve to delay the bump on Jesus ’til boathouse island, (bumping Jesus outside the boathouse on the Saturday of Eights being the one true dream of any self-respecting Lincoln oarsman). This took them to 5th in the second division and within blades of div 1.

M3 added a little tragedy to the success Saturday, failing to bump Green-Templeton having had early overlap, before falling back at being bumped by some Hildabeasts. They finished level overall at the bottom of the 6th divsion.

Full results and photos can be found here.

Rowing on was a highly successful day for LCBC, qualifying all of its boats to create the joint largest fleet in Eights. The lower women’s boats (W2&3) came back from the disappointment of Torpids to record two of the fastest 8 times from 40 crews entered and will be looking for lots of bumps in the 6th division. Congratulations in paticular should go to Nicole who’s spent most of her term coaching both boats.

M3 qualified with a respectable middling time but will be hoping that bumps racing is more suited to their ‘fast not fit’ style at the bottom of the 6th division. The suprise of the day was perhaps M6, a scratch crew of ex-rowers, remnants of M4 (who we had to withdraw to unavailibilty of rowers), and a cox who is frequently bullied for his weight. Despite this, and some truly awful rowing, they qualified only one second slower than m3. They would be looking for blades in the 7th division were it not for the fact that half the crew can’t be bothered to turn up for the first three days. M5, a ‘beer boat’ of cool rugby ‘lads’, realising their day would most likely end in failure, didn’t turn up.

Please come down and join us for the regatta, running from Wednesday through to Saturday. We should have boats racing throughout the day but we’ll publish details when they’re finalised.

Apart from the occaisional injury, and many a case of ‘needing to man up’, the inaugural -1st training camp was very successful. Boats were rowed, coxes coxed, meat was barbecued. All in all a great week. We look forward to many future training camps of the same nature.

Torpids 2010 was a successful week for LCBC. While the start of the week suffered severe disruption due to inclement weather- meaning only M1 could row on the Wednesday, by the Saturday all crews were able to race.

And race they did.

M1 went up 1 place over the week, having suffered the indignity of being bumped twice on Friday.
M2 rowed over once and bumped twice- a good result from a solid crew
M3 were only allowed to race on 2 days, but got bumped once, and bumped once, staying level overall
W1 were hampered by klaxons, but doggedly chased down New on the Saturday to go up one place

Overall the Saturday saw the best performance for Lincoln, with all 4 crews bumping.

Having been unable to row so far all Hilary, LCBC finally got back on the Isis this weekend and were immediatly confronted with IWL D on the Sunday. W1 and M1 both rowed scrappily but their respective positions of 5th and 7th (excluding boats with repeated crewmembers) showed that there is at least power in the boat, boding well for Torpids.

However it was the lower boats which were the most encouraging. M2 rowed smoothly to the second quickest genuine 2nd boat time, beating a couple of 1st boats in the process. W2 were also the second quickest 2nd boat whilst M3, M4, and W3 were each the quickest of their type despite having not rowed since Michaelmas.

Going into the final event of the series Lincoln retains a precarious lead of the men’s category and lies 4th overall.

Full results can be found here
Please add any photos you come across.

On 30 January M1 took the empacher on it’s first trip to the Tideway in recent years, racing in the Quintin Head. The time was unspectacular but this was to be expected as some crew members had not rowed since November and the eight never together thanks to a swollen Isis.

However, the outing was enjoyable and will hopefully set a precedent for going to other external regattas as well as giving us some much needed water time.

Full results can be found here and photos here

Regrettably, there will be no more racing this term. IWL B will be rescheduled to early next term, and ChCh is cancelled.

The reasons for this, are viewable here and here

Here’s something to keep you entertained until Torpids.

Thursday Night Update:

“As the river is still red flag racing is suspended until further notice.

We hope, if the river goes down to amber, that we will be able to run a head race on Saturday.

We will send out a schedule for this tomorrow.”

From the organisers:

“Unfortunately due to the deteriorating conditions, tomorrow’s racing is cancelled. This means we will be unable to have the repechage round. However, we are optimistic racing will recommence on Friday.”

So, unfortunately no second chances for MNB, MNC, and WNC. However, do come out to support the 3 remaining crews at the following times on Friday:

14.39 MNA vs Jesus B
15.15 WNB vs Brasenose A
15.21 WNA vs Either Worcester B or Linacre B

Reports from today’s racing:

WNC vs Christ Church WND
Defeat at the hands of ChristChurch’s staff boat, but some solid performances, particularly from their stern 4.

MNC vs Keble MNA
Not content with losing to Keble, Mens Novice C’s proceded to ram the side wall in frustration, taking 4 feet off their boat in the process. You would think that with 4 coxes in the boat they would know how to spin, apparently the lack of any rowing experience for half the boat was more significant. Zoe was unquestionably the man of the match.

WNB vs Wolfson WNC
Suitably intimidated by Lincoln Ladies’ gunshow, Wolfson decided to save face by not even turning up – a comfortable row-over for WNB

MNA vs Linacre MNB
Despite attempted sabotage by boats in the transit lane, Mens A’s managed to seal their first win of term, against a strong Linacre crew.

MNB vs Jesus MNA
Lost. Don’t know anything more than that, sorry!

WNA vs Queens WNB
EPIC VICTORY. Despite spending several hours down at the river today, that’s all your captain has to say about your performance.

If anyone who actually saw the races wants to edit these, please go ahead.

Congratulations to all those who took part in Autumn fours. Particular mention must go to Kevin Smith who, after battling through a particularly strong group stage, went on to win the single category, beating Wadham in the final.

In the first round of IWL, Lincoln enjoyed success once more. In spite of rowing a strong race W1 just missed out on points, finishing 11th in the extremely competitive W8+ category. The men entered two senior boats; while M2 punched well above their weight, pulling a time as fast as many first boats, M1 seized all the points, rowing the course in the fastest time of the day, coming top of the M8+ category.

Also in IWL-A the novices made their racing debut. MNA finished the course in a quick time, putting them in the top 5 of  novice entries in this years IWL-A. The other novice boats performed equally well, overall a good omen for the Nepthys and Christ Church regattas over the coming weeks.