Newsletterht11 V2

12 Jesus College Oxford jcbc.jesus.ox.ac.uk Summer 2011 The Three of Harts Newsletter of Jesus College Boat Club Bump after bump for the girls of JCBC The Boat Club has reached the end of another term and another year of rowing, in Oxford and beyond. Tom Baker joins the ranks of the Blues It was packed full of training and racing, losing and winning, laughter and smiles, blisters and tears, Oren Margolis looks back at his time at Jesus commitment, determination, and incredible support. Without all this, we wouldn’t be Jesus. Summer Eights W1 Bump to Blades 2011 AT A GLANCE M1 -2 M2 -1 M3 0 M4 Did not row on 0 M5 -1 After going up 4 places in Torpids, Wednesday of Eights dawned, and M6 Did not row on 0 breaking into Division II for the first time despite not having our best start, we got in 10 years, the women’s squad returned away cleanly. Off the back of our first +4 to Oxford for an intensive week-long push we made significant ground up on W1 training camp in the Easter holidays, Brasenose, however, Lincoln behind us determined to put in the hard work in were also beginning to eat into the gap. W2 +3 order to build on their previous success. Staying calm, we pushed off Lincoln and we began to put Brasenose under pressure, W3 +2 With only one change to the W1 crew getting overlap coming into the Gut, from Torpids (cox Dave McMullan) the before a well timed swipe from Megz at crew were able to get straight into bow made contact with the Brasenose JCBC total: +5 preparing for racing. With the guidance of stern canvas, with Lincoln still a good ¾ coach James Marsden, the crew continued of a length away. to rack up the miles on the river, including 3 x 2k pieces every Sunday, preparing us Continued on Page 2 for the dreaded row-over situation. JCBC is generously sponsored by Newton Investment Management 43 Jesus College Oxford Summer 2011 Cox Tom Baker tells the story of blade winning W1 Continued from page 1 Thursday saw us chasing Trinity. Our start After a victorious paddle back to the was much improved, and we settled well boathouse, pausing briefly to wish M1 onto our race pace. Coming out onto the good luck as they began their warm-up, the Greenbank, we closed to ½ a length down, celebrations began! It was an awesome and called our push. With the sudden effort all term from the girls, and we would increase in speed, we had overlap in 5 like to extend our thanks to James strokes, and a concession followed from Marsden, for yet again coaching a the Trinity cox. successful Jesus women’s crew, the Cadwallader Club for providing finance for What’s in a name? By Friday, the confidence from the the new Filippi ‘Three of Harts’, to Woody JCBC has recently acquired two new boats, a previous two days had translated into the the boatman for maintaining the boat and Swift Racing single scull (above) and a Filippi crew producing some of the best paddling poling us off so expertly, to Newton for racing women’s eight. These boats have yet. We gained on St Hugh’s off the start, their very generous sponsorship, and finally hugely enhanced the facilities for all members. and got the bump halfway through the gut. to the college for all their support, both Everyone has the chance to scull during their We had now bumped up to top of Div III, financially and in person at the boathouse! time at Jesus and it is becoming ever more popular, and the new women’s eight has and had another row at the bottom of Div brought an incredible bumps tally of +8 in II to secure our place there. However a Now that W1 has established themselves as two terms for the girls. To the Cadwallader good Mansfield crew bumped out on a Division II crew in both Torpids and Club and to the College – we can’t thank you Queen’s before Donnington Bridge, Eights, and with successful regattas for enough for your generous funding. leaving us with a long row to the finish and both W2 and W3, 2011/12 promises to be A new boat, of course, needs a new name. For nobody to chase. a year where gains are cemented and the the single scull, ‘Ddraig Goch’, Welsh for ‘Red Dragon’, and for the women’s eight, ‘Three of club continues to grow! Harts’. The significance of this name is found Saturday came, and with Boathouse Island in the Jesus College crest, which depicts three full of spectators, W1 pushed off knowing A breathtaking Thursday white harts, and has also been chosen as the that there was a long row-over in front of performance from M2 name for this, the first edition of the new them before they had the chance to go for JCBC newsletter. blades and a place in Division II. After our Ben Ruddle explains best ever start, we were just approaching Going into our Summer VIIIs our settle onto race rhythm when - klaxon! campaign, we knew it was a case This gave us a row-over for free, and of Do Oar Die. But such allowed us to save our legs for the fast start determination was not enough to that we were going to need to get Queen’s. evade the 8 Goliaths of Brasenose II, who made the early bump on An hour later, and a solid start taking us on the first day. On the Second advantage of the corner allowed us to close day we were being chased down a little on Queen’s as we rounded hard by Christ Church III, who Haystacks corner. As we hit their wash, we were barely a foot off our stern by became a little unsettled, but a strong first the time we reached the Gut. But push saw us continually grind away at the then, prompted by a Spartan-like roar from the bow seat, we came to our senses. We fought. We distance between the two crews. Coming pushed. We held them off through the Gut and thanks to some professional steering from the back of under Donnington Bridge the advantage the boat, started to pull away! But they weren’t giving up that easily. They crossed the river early, and was down to ¼ of a length, and we called clawed back the deficit until we were racing side by side past the boathouses. When we saw them crossing the river to try to finish the bump, we gave a Herculean burst of strength, and to our relief, the push to go for overlap, which once their bow missed our stern by only inches. We crossed the finished line, knowing we had just done the achieved was momentarily lost as we had to best piece of rowing of our lives. By comparison, the final two days were somewhat less dramatic. We steer around bumped out crews. Once held off Christ Church twice more, and finished our conquest down 1 place in the standings, now around the obstruction, we had the perfect sitting fifth in division V. For making such a great term possible, our thanks go to JCBC and its past angle and Queen’s had nowhere to go, and and present members, our coach Dick, our sponsors Newton, friends and supporters from Jesus with a final push, the Queen’s cox had no College and further afield. We’ll be back next year, and we hope you will too! option but to concede. 2 213 Jesus College Oxford Summer 2011 Fresh Crew and New Coach gives M1 a Solid Summer Performance Losing our most experienced and most Thursday saw us once again powerful rowers to the darkest recesses of giving chase to Lincoln, but the library presented some new blood this time Trinity, with world with the opportunity to write their names rowing gold medalist into the annals of history. The end of the Constantine Louloudis, lined JCBC - “Always the ice hockey season brought us the fitness up astern. One way or another busiest and loudest of Chris Shepherd, and he was making his it became apparent that we boathouse on the river” bumps debut alongside up and coming were not getting out of the gut! cox, Tom Rutland. The input of our new Once again we didn't have quite off the start. Little by little, coach was evident, improvements were enough. Despite the distance we however, the red blades drew made throughout the term until the fact gained on Lincoln, Stan managed to inexorably closer until we became the 4th that Oriel had 4 blues presented no bump us even though his request to row crew to fall to St Anne's. impediment: we had 8 greens! the race in a single had been rejected. It was a pleasing performance overall by a Buoyed by our pre-eights sparring we just Friday produced a comfortable row-over, crew who certainly became a great deal about took our position on the bungline LMH's futile attempts to escape the more than the sum of our parts. The great to begin our campaign on Wednesday. blades-hungry St Anne's caused us little sprit within the crew was also reflected in With Lincoln ahead we went off hard, consternation. Saturday, therefore, saw the 4s training for Marlow Regatta. knowing that our start was a match for us between a rock (Trinity) and a hard Though that campaign was ultimately anyone.

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