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 , 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 , 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. A huge effort saw us close to place (Anne's). Exeter's unfortunate scuppered by last-minute illness, the times within touching distance as we left the inability to row had denied us the chance from Dorney showed we would have had gut, but our cox's voice was not the only of one final crack at Lincoln and, a fantastic chance against crews from as thing worn out to the point of cracking. A ultimately left us with nobody to chase on far afield as Norway! row over was a decent result but we knew the final day. The improvement we could get more speed. throughout the week was outstanding, Boston marathon here we come! rowing off at a casual 46 saw us pull away James Yapp, Men’s Captain

W3 enjoy the lighter side of Rowing – and gain 2 places!

bump up two places, both before the gut, and would have risen further had not two of our races been klaxoned due to poor coxing from other colleges. No early mornings or ergs from us, but nonetheless some excellent rowing from all the women involved; thank you to Ben Ruddle, our cox, Ruth Jenkins, who stepped in to stroke the boat on the day of rowing on, Philippa Winstanley who agreed at the last moment to help make up our crew, Clarissa Mcmaster, Sarah Coombes, Sarah Clowry, Rosie Davies, Maddie Neil Smith, Livia Despite the fact that we had never all been out in the Thorpe, Arjette Karemaker who subbed in despite being extremely same boat at the same time before rowing on, JCBC W3 ill, and Chidi Onyeche for making up our crew for a number of had a fantastic 8s campaign. Starting near the bottom of training sessions. division 6 (with W2 in the same division) we managed to Olivia Upchurch, W3 Captain 3 Jesus College Oxford Summer 2011

Jesus Cox joins the Oxford Blues A Fond Farewell from Tom Baker finished a 4-year undergraduate masters in a JCBC Veteran Biochemistry at Jesus College in 2010, during which time he coxed Four years (and eight bumps weeks) at the Men’s 1st VIII. This year he returned to college to do a PGCE, Jesus College have offered me a and spent the year trialing with Oxford University Women’s vantage point from which to Lightweight Rowing Club. appreciate fully what makes JCBC so special. Highlights include: coming “After 4 years with JCBC, I felt ready to take the step up to trialing into the warm of breakfast after a for a university squad, and as this was likely to be my last year winter morning outing, knowing that wanted to take the opportunity in front of me. A typical weeks you had experienced a part of the day training consisted of gym sessions on Monday-Thursday evenings that everyone else had missed; overhearing a Division 1 coach in the OUBC gym, double outings on both Saturday and Sunday at tell one of his rowers that our M2 crew, totally spent after an Wallingford, with 2-3 additional morning cross-training sessions exhausting chase, was what one should look after finishing a on heavy weeks. I was always doing one of three things, work for race; and listening to the large crowd of supporters down at the the PGCE, rowing, or sleeping! The schedule was demanding, and boathouse cheering on W2 in Torpids 2011 qualifying. Each of on top of this I had to watch my weight in order to be able to these memories speaks to the important role that JCBC plays in reach 50kg on race day. the life of the College. As a rower and then as a coach, I After 22 weeks of trialing, I was named in the 2011 OUWLRC watched as mixed crews of undergraduates and graduates, of Blue Boat, and final preparations for the race at Henley started in people from different social groups, came together around a earnest. The race week was one of the best experiences of my life. shared love of athletic competition – a love some likely did not Highlights included paddling on the Henley stretch alongside know they had when they first arrived at Jesus. Anyone who has Leander I, and being given the thumbs up by Pete Reed from the ever attended Summer Eights will understand that rowing is at GB pair! On race morning I weighed in at 50.4kg, not a weight I the heart of what makes Oxford ‘Oxford’. For my part, I know ever want to repeat! The race itself saw Cambridge draw ahead of that my four years in Oxford and at Jesus would not have been the start, and despite a gutsy row we were never quite able to reel nearly as fulfilling without JCBC. them in, finishing a length and a half down. After 26 weeks of trialing, it was all over in a little over 6 minutes, but when I look Girls at the boathouse all look so fly, back on it I wouldn’t change a thing. The other colleges – they just wanna cry: And all along, the legend keeps growin’: I hope that going to one of the university squads would inspire Jesus girls and boys go crazy for rowin’. other members of JCBC to take the step up and trial, and bring the Cuz’ we got the fans, the plans, the lycra tans – benefits that training with a blues squads brings back to the You other crews: you’re also-rans! college. I was lucky in the opportunities that JCBC had provided me with that enabled me to make this step up, including the Rain or shine, sleet or hail: chance to race at events on the Tideway such as the Head of the Watchu playin’ at? – think you’re sniffing their tail? River Race. Trialing was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, It’s like instead of hands, they’re born with oars, and I hope that many more athletes from JCBC will go on to Engines for legs, and griddles for cores. represent the university.” You wanna race, just tell ’em when – But don’t look over your shoulder, or they’ll bump you Tom Baker again! They’ll do it with flair; they’ll give you a cheer; Then back on shore, they’ll wash you down with a beer. You’ll be finished so fast, your head will be spinning: Jesus College Boat Club – addicted to winning! Watch ’em streak by in their racing greens: Kings of the river; of , the queens.

Oren Margolis

In other news, M1 once again attended the Head of the River in London and finished an impressive 40 places higher than the previous year. W1 entered both an eight and a four in Worcester Regatta with both boats reaching the final of their event. W2 also deserve huge congratulations for not only qualifying for summer eights, but for finishing +3. We can now safely say that we have two serious competing women’s crews, and three serious men’s crews; a testament to the dedication and continued growth of JCBC. I hope that you have enjoyed reading our newsletter, and hope that it gives a sense of the incredible enthusiasm and enjoyment that JCBC brings to Jesus College and to Oxford. David McMullan, JCBC President 4