The 8s head of the river is usually the climax of the head racing season. IC’s 5 men’s 8s rocked up on what appeared to be quite a calm and pleasant morning with just a light breeze for the pre-paddle. However, as the crews boated for the race, said light breeze changed to a screaming head wind. As the tide turned, things went from bad to worse, and the inevitable white horses started to appear and the river became like the North Sea. Fortunately, Brian Steele has recently returned to coach at IC again and so all crews were well prepared for the immense wash throughout the course and were not even phased unlike the vast majority of crews.

 Every year ICBC men’s squad (and occasionally the ladies when it doesn’t coincide with WeHORR) make a pilgrimage to Amsterdam to take on the Heineken Roeivierkamp. I have absolutely no idea what this actually means but the race is over 2 days and comprises a 2.5k and 250m race on day 1 and a 750m and 5k race on day 2. Each crew’s average 250m split is taken for each race and combined to give an overall score, and the crew with the lowest score crowned the winners. It has taken me four years to actually work all of that out (I have definitely worked this out after 4 years and did not just copy Rozza’s article from last year). This year was made all the more competitive with the presence of two 8s from local rivals UL to take on the 1st student and non-student 8s, as well as a Swiss national team 8 containing Switzerland’s Tom Daley equivalent and IC groupie, Barnabé Delarze.

After a long 8 hour journey in 3 separate buses, everyone settled in to the ever classy accommodation. Unfortunately, a blow was immediately dealt to the 1st 8 as big dog 3-time Henley winner Andy Halls wandered in to the room wandering what the best way to clean his vomit up out of the floor, toilet and sink was.

However, all was not lost as Dutch super sub Dutch breh Greenio* stepped up to fill big Andy’s big shoes. Racing kicked off with the 2.5k, with the 1st student 8 crushing UL 1 by 0.1 seconds and the non-student 8 tearing UL2 a new one by 9.6 seconds, placing them 7^th (07:31.0) and 4^th (07:42.0) in their respective categories. In the first of a series of unfortunate events for the 2^nd student 8, Sam Hewgill showed why he earned this year’s Golden Bucket award, catching a boat stopping crab putting them 12^th overall (08:11.5).

 ALLEZ LES BLEUS! Student 2nd 8 bring it home

Lily Beadle, Georgia Francis and chopper medic Jade Hubbard report on the ladies weekend

With the previous weeks of flooding and consequent ‘red flagged’ conditions on the Tideway, there was a lot of doubt about whether WEHoRR would actually take place this year. Yet, the women’s squad battled through, maximising our training advantage and it paid off…(It was also down to raw talent of course).

After winning Quintin and Hammersmith heads, expectations were high for the women’s 1^st 8 and they did not disappoint. They came out victorious, winning the Senior pennant in a new record time of 18:39.7 (23 seconds faster than 2^nd place). Overall they placed an epic 4^th, only beaten by a big deal GB composite, Leander and the French national team. As IC legend Bill Mason would say… ‘Not bad is it.’ The crew enjoyed setting of 1^st_, which allowed time after the race to celebrate Helen Wood’s birthday, eat bare amounts of cake and to be shown baby photos of Georgia Francis. Quote from the big-deal 7-tard: “Mum’s never allowed at any events ever, ever again”

SSSQQQUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZEEE!

IC1: Cox: Jess Terrell, S-B: Mel Wilson, Georgia Francis, Donna Etiebet, Helen Wood, Sophie Theodorou, Michelle Vezie, Georgie Phillips, Meghann Jackson

Photo courtesy of Mark Ruscoe

Stu brought up the idea to go to the Brugge boat race, but after JPD’s research on how to go there, Stu withdrew really quickly. After Trials being cancelled due to high waters and the ridiculous fast stream on the tideway the non student eight decided to enter Brugge and organise the transport on their own. Luckily we managed to get a place for our eight on the Molesey BC trailer so we wouldn’t have to tow a trailer for one boat.

There was one small problem though. Due to miscommunication we needed a sub for Matt Pointing. The students wouldn’t go out in an eight on the weekend of Brugge, so we tried to recruit ‘friend zone’ Andy Halls, sadly he wasn’t able to race because he was ill. But ‘Dildo’ Dave still had another sub from the club on the far end of the Embankment, Merlin.

We were keen to see what super-sub Merlin had up his sleeve and were not disappointed by his looseness or the absence of a large snatch at the front end. His lips were sealed about whether he'd be bringing his big box of tricks back to Imperial in the future.

The Brugge boat race is a 5k head race. What’s special is that you don’t just start behind each other like in a normal head, but that you race side by side on a small canal. Because of JP Diddys prediction of our finishing time (15:50) we were aloud to start off first, next to a boat from Bayer Leverkusen. According to Manfred, the mysterious organiser, they have won last year with 17min over the course.

IC starts against Leverkusen

For ICBC, the New Year brings one of the most brutal post-Christmas training camps imaginable, culminating in Quintin Head a couple of weeks after. IC have had a strong showing at this event over the past couple of years and this year was no exception, with fastest women’s crew of the day as well as being thoroughly robbed of the novice pennant.

The build up to the race for the men’s 8s had seen the standard rivalry that occurs every year between the student and non student crews. The nonstudents had appeared to have the edge during training with super-sub Helen Wood in the crew, so the heat was on ‘Dildo’ Dave Loveday to continue the trend in to the race. However, it wasn’t to be and the students edged out the nonstudents by 4 seconds, finishing 4^th (2^nd senior) and 5^th (3^rd elite) overall respectively. Rumours of Dave’s seat mysteriously vibrating throughout the race are yet to be confirmed. IC also fielded an IM1 8 with big Josh Butler coming out of retirement once again, finishing 20^th overall (4^th IM1).

Every year, just as it’s starting to get unpleasantly cold, GB rowing brighten everyone’s lives by holding their first and even more unpleasant trial in Boston (the one in Lincolnshire, not the one you’re thinking of). This all-weekend event consists of a 2k ergo test on the Saturday followed by a 5k head race in singles on Sunday. Despite the less than ideal location, weather and testing, all Imperial mans stepped up.

On a cold, wet, Saturday in November, ICBC ventured forth to extend the club’s domination to the wild North... Bedford. With wins in the Men’s and Women’s Intermediate four, Women’s Elite quad and Women’s Novice eight; no-one minded that the Novice Men were slower than their fairer counterparts.

In an event where some of the best rowers in the world will line up side by side with you it’s best to shift the goal posts slightly. Considering that every Imperial boat which competed showed good speed early in the season, and having two full Imperial College men’s eights both competitive with each other, and in the top twelve, it shows the depth across the whole squad.

Normally the reports focus on how many wins we achieve of a weekend, sadly this year we came away with no overall victories. Not even the lightweights could save us! But, luckily we have the big deal women to pick up a few medals; Zoe Lee and Helen Wood won a silver medal in a composite Women’s Four and were joined by Mel Wilson and Georgia Francis where they won a silver in a composite Women’s Eight. Mel also won a bronze in the Women’s double.