Reflecting on his appointment as Head Coach, Ben commented:

"They say you can never cross the same river twice. But while personnel have changed, and boats that won headships now lie on the lower racks, the spirit of both college and students feels very familiar, and I’m looking forward to getting out on the water with the current crews."

Having completed his Social Sciences degree at the House, Ben has had a complicated route back to Christ Church: 

"Between 1998 and 2005, I coached OUWLRC (won seven out of eight boat races) and New College W1 (Headship Torpids 2005, and Eights 2004, 2005). 

I then became the Rowing Coach at St Paul’s School, 2005-2008.

Returning to Oxford, I coached lightweight women aiming for selection into the national team at Wallingford, while also coaching Christ Church M1 2008-2010 (Headship Torpids 2009, 2010 and Eights 2009, 2010) and then OULRC 2010-2012 (won 2011 boat race), alongside Pembroke W1 2011-2015 (Headship Eights 2012). Off the back of getting five athletes into the GB Senior team, I coached the lightweight women’s quad at the World Champs in 2011 (gold), 2015 (silver) and 2016 (gold).

In 2018 I started work for the World Class Start programme, running the centre at Reading, then moved into Talent ID for the Thames Valley.

It's now great to be back in Oxford – and I look forward to coaching at Christ Church!"