The Christ Church Boat Club Men’s First Eight claimed their 15th Torpids Headship

(Thanks to Ayman D'Souza, President)

The headline news, if you'll excuse the pun, is that M1 maintained their Day 1 bump won Headship of the river! 

The first glimpse of good news was when M3 cruised past Teddy M3 (63 --> 62) to secure their third and final bump of a well-fought campaign. It is often said that good crews go +3, lucky crews get blades. Although luck may not have been on M3's side, this impressive campaign is the foundation that sets the club up for future years of success. Overall, they finish 62nd on the river after starting 65th. 

W3 (58 --> 59) were bumped by a fast Peter's W2. Despite at last having an appeal-free race, everything was not so nice, nor so peaceful and quiet, as they fell victim to the air-powered race-stopping device. They end the week in 59th, having started in 53rd, and although it might not be the exact result W3 wanted were chasing, this crew has matured and improved throughout every race, and has proved that what might be left wanting in boat speed is more than made up for in bankside support for their fellow House rowers.

W2 (38 --> 39) were bumped by a blades-winning Worcester crew, meaning they end the week where they started it, in 39th place. While on the surface uneventful, the peak of 36th that they reached during this week was the highest ever place our W2 has ever achieved, the next best being 38th in 1996. I know that this crew, full of returners for next year, will be left hungry to hunt down future success.

M2 (31 --> 31), achieved a revenge bump on Wolfson M2, who decided to get somewhat cosy with the foliage of the Isis, but unfortunately were also caught by Wadham M2; who in fairness contained past Blues and went +7 over the week. Looking ahead to Summer Eights, M2 have the opportunity to crack into Men's Division 2, and have already started training hard to ensure they deliver a blades-worthy campaign. They end the week in 31st, having started 28th, and one behind M2 headship, now a position that Wadham hold. Time to get to work for the Summer!

The day ended with W1's race, which was unfortunately klaxoned before they could put in any real damage on Oriel. This video has some nice footage of the reason for said klaxon - it's very unfortunate for our women, who have had an excellent campaign (overall 6 --> 4), but they have done themselves proud and can enter the Summer ready to hunt down Headship.

The most exciting result from Saturday is, of course, M1 successfully winning Headship (our first in Torpids since 2011) after an epic showdown with a rapid Wolfson crew. It  came right down to the wire - Wolfson raced to fly and die, we raced to hold them off and to push through, claiming a smooth victory, in the end doing so with lengths of water between us. I hope anyone who was able to come down to the river would agree that the excitement and indeed nerves in the air were palpable. We'll circulate some footage of the race in due course, alongside some photos of the much deserved celebrations. This was certainly the most exciting run down the course I've ever had, and from the bottom of my heart I want to thank every reader, whether club member, coach, alum, or behind the scenes supporter, who has made this Headship possible.

A special thank you goes to James, our coach, Pauline, our senior member who has provided so much support, and to Simon, for everything he did for the club. As you can imagine there are many more people to thank; I'll not attempt to do so in this email alone, but please know that every person who was a part of this journey helped make our Headship happen.

We are very grateful to all for the messages of encouragement, to those of you who came down to cheer at the Boat House, and for your continued support of the Christ Church Boat Club. We hope to see many of you at our Boat Races event in London on Sunday 26th March and during Summer VIIIs, which will take place from 24th - 27th May.

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