British University Championships (BUCS) 2010: ICBC have won 180 more BUCS points at the Championship Regatta in Nottingham bringing the total to 378 - that’s 97 ahead of the next sport, firmly placing ROWING as the top sport at Imperial. This comes at the beginning of a week where British Rowing officially announce that Imperial will join it’s High Performance Programme. The news is yet another turning point in a period of ICBC’s history that will no doubt be fondly referred to in years to come as “The Great Duffy Years”, erm... "The Great Trapmore Years"; a time of killing; a time of maiming; a time of destruction.
Over a wet and windy May bank holiday weekend, ICBC won 6 of the 22 championship events (four more than the next closest competitor), and scored 826 points in the Victor Ludorum challenge. This is the closest margin a university has had to challenge usual runaway winners Durham, who battled with IC to take 1011 points. It is also the best result IC has ever had winning gold in 7 events, silver in 6 events and bronze in 3 events with all of the students doubling, trebling, quadrupling and even quintupling (Adam “five times better than the average banana” Seward) in events with most concluding after the haul that their “leggies are ouchies.”
Northerner Jamie Kirkwood couldn’t get into Imperial as a student due to language difficulties (Yeeeer) but was nonetheless lovingly embraced by the ICBC rowing community. (Afterall one can’t be good at everything). Instead Roehampton University, via Kirkwood, had a 100% success rate at BUCS winning their only entered event: MCLwt1x in 7:09.88. Kirkwood was determined to defeat IC elite sculler Oli Mahony and even spent the days leading up to the event in Nottingham getting acclimatised to the altitude change. Mahony had to settle for second in 7:14.19. Kirkwood, who was later in the week awarded Roehampton “Sport’s Man of the Year” has since handed an IOU 12 BUCS points to Trapmore.
There was double gold for the women’s squad in the opening day of racing in the WC4x and WC2- events. The WC2- of Mel Wilson and Chloe Symmonds won a straight final in 7:41.19 ahead of Oxford in 7:42.81 and Cardiff in 7:43.43 in ten foot waves (exaggeration acknowledged). Meanwhile the WC4x was due to race their final and to save time the remaining quad members had the boat in the water ready for the WC2- to jump in. Unfortunately the WC2- final was delayed but the time-saving plan proved more ingenious than was hoped, as not only could Wilson and Symmonds jump straight in, but the two-manned 4x held up the entire dock behind which a giant and irate queue had formed. POD was horrified at the lack of IC love; “We’re all rowers, can’t we get along?” “IC TAKE YOUR BOAT OUT OF THE WATER NOW!” “It’s terrible weather isn’t it? Not great for the rowing at all.” “IC GET OUT OF THE WAY!”
The WC4x of Mathilde Pauls, Mel Wilson, Christina Duffy and Chloe Symmonds john dicked on the field in their opening heat but faced a “closer” battle in the final winning in 7:01.00. Durham were holding second place and with less than 250 metres to go the strokeside blade of the Durham’s bowgirl caught in a wave and snapped off completely. Now sculling with only three and fighting to hold their position, ICWC4x gave Durham a cheer (from beyond the finish line, obviously) and were glad to see the crew secure their deserved silver medals in 7:13.06. Because we are that kind of people.
The lightweight squad were winning events across the board and quickly becoming the apple (or these days the creamcake) of ex-lightweight international Stu’s eye. On Saturday there was gold for the MCLwt4- of Tom Pearson, Paddy Hudson, Alex Gillies and Gareth Brown, on Sunday there was gold for the MCLwt2- of Oli Mahony & Alex Gillies, gold for the MCLwt4x of Tom Pearson, Oli Mahony, Alex Gillies & Gareth Brown and on Monday there was silver in the MCLwt8+ and gold for the MCLwt2x of Tom Pearson & Gareth Brown. The MCLwt2x came from behind to win, with Adam Seward claiming credit for the move by shouting “Go, go now!” from the bank. Matt Lunt, Andy Gordon, Will Laughlin and Ergo Dave were called in for action in the Lwt8+ and Lunt, having missed training camp due to the volcano was losing sleep over making weight. On Saturday evening the rower had a total of six pasta shapes and a teaspoon of tomato sauce for dinner before heading off for a run, but was staying in good spirits: “I hate my life.”
Alex “THE BEEKEEPER” Gillies was stayin’ alive by fillin’ the hive with his usual eclectic mix of lightweight “food” and painkillers. Meanwhile, hotel staff were following a trail of raisin swirl crumbs in the hopes of recovering the mound of pastries which had suddenly disappeared from the breakfast area. Despite his knee hanging off, Gillies was offering dieting advice to anyone who would listen and was “really a gent” with newbie lightweight Chloe Symmonds at the weigh-in, increasing his ranking on the ICBC “genuinely nice guy” list. Tom Pearson currently takes poll position. Good man Tom, you’re officially a nice guy. Support for THE BEEKEEPER and his swarm came on Monday when Queen breeder Ben Anstiss made an appearance and was on hand to provide a pollination service, should the need arise. The legends of Team Weighing Scales won either gold or silver in all men’s lightweight events. Keep eating that lettuce!
The MC8+ racing on Saturday consisted of Henry Fieldman, S:Simon Steele, Rory Sullivan, Jonny Rankin, Henry Goodier, Mark Mearing-Smith, Leo Carrington, Danny Bellion & Alex Gillies. They had to go through the rep, and with 300 metres to go the blade from strokeman Simon Steele came flying out of the gate after crashing against a wave and had to be caught by ninja-hands cox Fieldman. With Newcastle gaining, seat seven Rory Sullivan, not entirely sure what just happened ("WTF?"), suddenly found himself stroking the boat. The magnificent seven put legs behind and secured their place in the final in 5:58.47, just ahead of Newcastle in 5:58.72. Rankin was having none of it: “Steele you have to stop doing things like that.” The crew unfortunately, even with eight rowers, did not medal in the final. Stern four raced in the MC4+ and after winning their heat by a five second margin took bronze in the final in 6:34.82 behind Newcastle (6:29.57) and Oxford (6:33.37).
Adam Seward and Richard Winchester were side-by-side for five events over the weekend: MInt8+, MInt2x, MInt4+, MInt2- and MInt4x. Originally it was Iain Palmer who was to compete in the MInt2- with Winny but after a brief outing it was decided that it just wasn’t worth the hassle. Palmer raced the MInt2- with Rodrigo Pearse instead and is reported to have spent most of the race telling Pearse to get his blade in, despite Pearse steering against himself and the boat veering one lane to strokeside. Palmer was already stressed out by being left with a defective mini-bus and decided to charge the battery in the hotel corridor rather than his room for fears of poisoning. At about 4am that night he awoke to what he claims were police outside the hotel; “No it’s not a bomb, it’s just a car battery.” It turned out not to be a flat battery problem and the bus was fixed by Stu whacking a spanner against the starting motor the following day.
The MInt4+A boat of Iain Palmer, Richard Winchester, Adam Seward and Paddy Hudson with cox Ed Hill secured a silver medal in the final behind Queens. No banter is reported.
Winchester raced the MInt2- with Seward and was commended for his latest steering technique; clipping the buoys all the way down the course to ensure they were still in their lane. The pair reached the semi-final but scratched in order to concentrate on the MInt4x with Danny Bellion and Leo Carrington. The quad won their heat qualifying to the semi-final where a swan was nearly decapitated at the start causing all of bow-side to catch crabs. They won the final in 6:30.08 ahead of Newcastle in 6:35.47. With over 500 metres to go and clear water between gold and silver the Newcastle coach could be heard screaming from the bank; “Get them back, get them back!” Ah Northerners; ya gotta love them. Seward was also entered in the Int1x which was raced by Hal Bradbury. Bradbury stormed through his heat and semi (winning both) and took silver in the final in 7:38.14 behind Bath in 7:30.16.
Competing in the WInt1x was POD, who having never raced a 1x in lanes was apprehensive and not overly thrilled by the response when collected from the hotel by boatman Paul; “So Paul, how’s the water?” “Special.” POD braced herself for the Atlantic swell and successfully employed the failsafe death-grip strategy as Trapmore pushed her off: "Remember: kill, maim, destroy!". As she made her way to the start line she was pleased that she could paddle past everyone in the head wind. She considered some backing-down practise on the way up but decided if she was going to fall in, it may as well be at the start. Marshal: “Scullers can I warn you to take into account a slight tail cross-wind, wash from the race launch, unexpected swirling and likely drifting past your lane when coming into attach.” “Great, I’ll draw on my years of attaching experience to fit those conditions.” Some special manoeuvres later, and clearly in no hurry, POD was actually attached. VICTORY! Sadly it was about the time when attention was called that POD realised her race plan pretty much ended at getting attached. Nevertheless she came second in her heat and qualified to the semi where she came fourth (1st three to final)... after a very special start involving a lot of aggression and effort but not so much blade in the water action. POD suffers from a severe imbalance of will and skill, but got over it by collecting her silver and bronze medals on Monday in the WC4+ (Mel Wilson/Mathilde Pauls/Christina Duffy/Selina Graham & Ed Hill) and WC4- (Mel Wilson/Christina Duffy/Selina Graham/Mathilde Pauls). Women’s captain and POD flatmate Mathilde Pauls raced in the WC1x event and battled hard to come second in the final via the rep in a time of 8:15.43 behind Glasgow in 8:08.34. Pauls just squeezed Bath into the bronze position (8:15.56) with a strong push in the last 250 metres.
After quickly becoming a hit at last year’s BUCS The Greater Goodier made a very welcome appearance offering an endless supply of burgers, sausages, chicken, baguettes, malt loaf and bananas. By the end of the weekend there was no barrier to what was gastronomically acceptable. Honorary mentions go for The Trapmore Special: custard creams with butter and jam, The Winchester Hot Cross Burger Bun & The Henry Fieldman Sausage Brioche Roll. The novices, having come to Nottingham with high expectations, found themselves eating their suppressed feelings after failing to qualify for the final of the MBeg8+ (Jess Johnson, S:Will Laughlin, Finlay McPhail, Luke Johnston, Tom Shaw, Tom Hansen, Indy Kanthasamy, Matt Edwards & Hugh Gledhill). Gledhill and Kanthasamy were more successful in the MBeg1x both of whom reached the final.
For more banter please see the Duffster as she is now tired of typing. She is sorry if you did not get a mention, either you didn’t win a medal or she doesn’t like you. Probably the latter.
Well done everybody!
Christina Duffy
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it