Downing College Boat Club

This page will soon contain the results for all the races DCBC has raced in for the past year, as well as a timeline of upcoming races. You can also get notifications for the Livestreams for any races by liking our Facebook page and subscribing to our YouTube channel. Please find the results of the previous season, the 2020-2021 season, here. You can look at the results for other previous seasons here. Any questions or wanting more information about the races, the race calendar, or live-streaming and reports for the races, can be directed to the Communications Officer.

Michaelmas Term 2021

Cambridge Autumn Regatta – 12th September

W1 VIII: 2nd place

M1 IV+: won

Downing Pair: lost

To kick off the new season of rowing, we had three crews enter in the Autumn Regatta.

We started of with Downing W1, (with the help of a sub from Hughes Hall) beating the Peterborough City, (Parker) crew by 4 lengths. They then went on to beat the Cantab’s crew by just under 2 lengths. In the final, they then had a strong performance but lost to the Peterborough City, (Darrington) crew by 2 1/2 lengths. A great showing from the crew nonetheless! Next up, entered under City of Cambridge, Downing Pair entered the Coxless Pairs race, but due to an unfortunate crash, lost their race to Sudbury RC. A good effort from the lads! We finished the day with Downing M1 winning their race by “easily” beating the Globe RC, (Kapur). Some great rowing from the men!

Overall, our crews had a brilliant day and a great start to the next year of rowing! For more results of the race, please check out the draw of the race.

You can also heck out the livestreams of the races over on our Facebook page.

Cambridge Autumn Head – 16th October

M1 IV+: 2nd Place

W1/2 VIII: 1st Place

M1/2 VIII: 2nd Place

(All in their respective categories)

We had three crews enter in the Autumn Head, with some strong showing from them all! The Autumn Head is a 2.6km race upstream.

We started off the day with the M1 IV+ putting on a strong row to come 2nd out of the college IVs – only narrowly losing to Queens’ by 7 seconds. This IV would go on to comprise the stern 4 of the M1 VIII just a couple hours later! A great performance from the men! Right after the IV raced, our W1/2 composite rowed to be the fastest college women’s eight on the river! They managed to beat Pembroke, Trinity’s, and Clare’s W1 crews! A terrific performance from them all! Finally, the (now very tired) M1 IV from earlier joined the 4 other men to come 2nd in the men’s college eights category, only losing to Caius M1 by a narrow margin. A very good performance from them all!

(A shout out to Toby Boyne who subbed into the City M3 boat, being asked 2 hours before the start of the race, and put on a great row!)

Overall, our crews had a brilliant day and a great start to the term! For more results of the race, please check out the draw of the race or visit the race website. You can also find the times for the race on webscorer, as well as the times for the individual categories, (W1/2, M1 IV, M1/2 VIII). You can also view the crews for the races for the men and women.

Finally, you can check out the livestreams of the races over on our Facebook page and YouTube channel.

University Fours – 1st to 5th November

We entered two IVs into the competition – a W1 IV and an M1 IV. More information about the race can be found on the CUCBC website. The race takes place with two crews, starting 120m apart, racing about 2km, from the motorway bridge to the railway bridge. The crew with the fastest time moves on to the next round in the competition.

Day 1:

W1 – Dead Heat against Selwyn W1

M1 – Won against Homerton M1

W1 ended up finishing with a 40ms difference in times with Selwyn, (a margin so small to be within the human margin of error). Wolfson W1 have scratched leading to both crews re-racing on Thursday to see who moves onto the semi-finals on Friday! M1 won their race against Homerton, beating them by 29 seconds! A great performance from both crews.

Day 2:

W1 – Lost their re-race against Selwyn W1

M1 – Lost to Magdalene M1

After ending in a dead heat on Day 1, W1 re-raced Selwyn on Thursday but narrowly lost to them in the end. The crew performed very well and should be proud of their racing! M1 moved on to race Magdalene on Friday. After a very strong start, the crew held their rivals for lots of the race but unfortunately just lost to them in the end. They had a very strong showing and had a great day of racing and should be proud of making it to the semi-finals!

Overall:

W1 – 6th Place

M1 – 4th Place

(Note lots of the times and margins on the results page are quite subject to “human interpretation” i.e. are not accurate by any sense).

A great performance from both crews, despite being afflicted with illness, and we look forward to Winter Head in two weeks time!

The full bracket for the races can be found on the CUCBC website, for both the women’s races and for the men’s races. Watch our livestreams of the races on the Facebook page, or go to our YouTube channel for some extra footage. Finally, you can find the crews for this competition for the men’s IV and the women’s IV on our crews’ page

QERGs – 7th November

Seniors: 4th Place

NM “Follen”: 14th Place

NW “Trevitt-Watson”: Last Place

Due to QERGs not running last year, there was a cateogry for seniors this year where a mixed senior squad, comprising of 4 men and 4 women, could be entered into the competition. Our senior squad came 4th, behind Queens’, Hughes Hall, and Sidney. Both our novice teams also performed very well and had a fun day at the competition!

Please take a look at the full results. More information about the event can be found on the QERGs website and Facebook page.

Please check out a small gallery of photos of our crews! Photo credit to Lucy Kirkwood, Chris Denham, and Nordin Ćatić.

Winter Head – 20th November

W1: 3rd Place

M1: 4th Place

W2: 5th Place

M2: 12th Place

(All in their respective categories)

Mixed Composites: Very well rowed!

In Winter Head, we entered our first and second men’s and women’s crews into the race. Everyone performed very well and should be proud of their results! We also entered two men’s and one women’s senior-novice composites which performed very well too!

M1 started the day coming out strong and finished in 4th place, 6 seconds behind Selwyn in third. M2 then raced to come in 12th with a time of just over 10 minutes! Both of the men’s crews show be proud of their results!

W2 then came out to have a really great row and come in 5th place, narrowly behind Pembroke and Queens’, (partly due to a crew not conceding the racing line when being overtaken, partly due to the author’s dodgy race lines). With a time of under sub 11 minutes, they should be very proud of their race! W1 finished the senior portion of the day to come in 3rd place, narrowly behind Caius in 2nd. They put on a strong showing and should be happy with the results.

Finally, we entered three senior-novice composites into the race, as an opportunity to give some novices a chance in their first race of the term to race with some of the seniors of the squad! They all put on really great performances and should be pleased with their first race!

Overall, our crews had a brilliant day which has set us all up do go out and smash Fairbairn’s in a couple weeks time! For more details of the race, please check out the draw of the race or visit the race website. You can also find the times for the race on rowclock. You can also view the crews for the races for the men and women.

Finally, you can check out the livestreams and other videos of the races over on our Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Emma Sprints Regatta – 21st November

NW “Robinson”: Reached the Quarter Final!

NM “Follen”: lost

Two of our novice crews raced in Emma Sprints and both had a lot of fun!

Our Novice Women managed to reach the quarter final after beating Pembroke NW1 in the first round but losing to ARU NW1, the eventual winners, in the second round. The Mario Kart themed crew raced very well!

Our Novice Men unfortunately lost to Emma NM1 in the first round, (who went on to be the winners of the division) as well as, after a restart of the race, being beat by Girton NM1 in the second round, but the Flight Crew performed well for it being their first race!

For more info on the race or the full results, please visit the race website. You can also look at the crew lists for the Robinson and Follen boats on our website.

Clare Novice Regatta – 27th November

Cancelled due to the severe windy conditions forecasted.

Fairbairn Cup, (Jesus) – 2nd & 3rd December

Thursday is the beginning of the race we’ve been training for all term – the Fairbairn Cup! Fairbairn’s is a head race taking place on the river Cam, with the crews being timed over how long it takes them to row a certain stretch of the river. You can look at the crew lists for the men’s crews and women’s crews here. More information about the race can be found on the Jesus College Boat Club website and Facebook Page. There is also a gallery of photos from the event that you can check out on our website! Also, please check out James Lee from Rock the Boat for some professional photographs! Finally, you can check out the livestreams and other videos of the races over on our Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Novices – 2nd Dec

We started the event off with our novices racing – they were timed on how long it took them to row 2.7km, from Jesus Boathouse down to the Railings on the Reach. For most of them, they had their first experience racing on the Cam! They all put on a strong row and we are proud of them all. They had a lot of fun on the river and we look forward to welcoming them into our senior squads next term! For the full results, you can find them here. For some professional photographs, please visit James Lee from Rock the Boat – photos from the day are on the website.

Seniors – 3rd Dec

M1: 4th Place

W1: 4th Place

M2: 14th Place

W2: 6th Place

M2.5 (IV+): 11th Place

“The Boat That Rocked” – Alumni Women (IV+): 1st Place

“Tribal” – Alumni Men (IV+): 3rd Place

(All in their respective categories)

On Friday, the culmination of this term’s training for our seniors was shown when they raced in Fairbairn’s! We entered five crews of our seniors, (and two alumni crews) into the race!

In the first division of the day, M1 started the day coming out strong and finished in 4th place, narrowly behind Caius in 3rd Place. M2 raced shortly afterwards, and, with some powerful pushes, raced to come in 14th, just a few seconds behind Churchill! In the next division, W1 was up and put the power down to finish 0.5 seconds behind Sidney Sussex in 3rd place! Finally, for the VIIIs, W2 came out to have a really great row and come in 6th place, close behind Trinity Hall. In the final division of the day, we entered three IVs+ into the competition. Starting with our M2.5 IV, having rowed in a IV twice before the race, the crew rowed well and came in 11th out of all the men’s IVs. Next, we had our Alumni Women IV, (consisting of our 2019 Headship crew!) who rowed to defeat the Jesus Alumni IV and claim victory once again! Finally, our Downing Alumni Men rowed strong and came in 3rd out of the Invitational Men IVs.

Overall, our crews had a brilliant day and all worked tirelessly throughout the term to achieve their performances in the race. It’s been a long term and so everyone should be proud of their results. The day has given us all a great footing for where to take our training next term as we start to prepare for our Lent Bumps Campaigns, and hopefully all earn a tremendous victory in little under 3 months time!

City Christmas Head – 4th December

Mixed VIII: 2nd Place

Mixed IV+: 2nd Place

Although we have been training 8 weeks this term to smash Fairbairn’s, we all know the true end of term race is Christmas Head. We entered two senior crews into the race. The draw for the race can be found here. 

The first race of the day was by “A Creswick’s Family Christmas”, a mixed IV+ consisting of three generations of a college family within the boat club. Despite coming 2nd to the other mixed IV+ in the competition, the Phineas and Ferb adorned crew had an immense amount of fun, (with the most laughter I’ve ever heard whilst doing a rolling start) and had a really enjoyable end to a term of rowing. The cox’s calls were on point, especially when requesting that “Candace, row like you’re about to bust your brothers” soon after which she exclaimed “MOOOOM Phineas and Ferb are rushing the slide again!!”. The crew couldn’t have had a more fun time out on the water. You can find the composition of the crew here.

The second race of the day was the “Magenta Massive” mixed VIII, composed of members from all five our our senior crews this term! Beginning the rolling start on Grassy Corner, 5 seat was concerned when asking “Why are we up to wind 10?” after which the cox quickly replied “Because Stroke hasn’t reached rate 40 yet”. After settling into the first straight, the crew were putting down the power and already began to close the large gap on the Churchill crew in front. Approaching Ditton corner, this cox requested all the power from 2 and 4 which brought the crew nicely around the corner, (excusing this author’s/cox’s fear of hugging the bank). Onto the reach, the crew were getting ever so closer to Churchill when a small crash from them in the distance prompted the cox to yell “They’ve crashed, let’s destroy them now” which prompted a push from our fine pair of German Men in the stern. Churchill managed to get away quickly and were now only a couple lengths in front of us. After rowing past race control, where the commentator pointed out how it was impressive to see the crew rowing today, (with it being the morning after BCD) the cox asked for the final pickup on the rate towards the finish. Calling for the rate to up by 2 from 32, the crew held it together well when Stroke caught a small crab, but recovered in a swift manner before settling into the final rate 37, (NB: 37 – 32 =/= 2). We were now right on the 99′ crew in front of us who did not move when the cox screamed at them to “concede the line”, (probably due to the fact he kept calling them city and not 99′). But our crew powered past them and stayed on Churchill for the remainder of the race, right up until the finish line. The crew gave what little energy they had left after Fairbairn’s day and should  be very proud of the 2nd place! (Though would be happy for a rematch against the Clare Boat Club Committee in 1st place anytime). You can find the composition of the crew here.

Even without considering this was the day after the crews had emptied all their energy rowing in Fairbairn’s, (some twice!) and after our Boat Club Dinner in the evening, both of the crews performed very well and, most importantly, had an incredible day of racing as the final competition of the calendar year. We all can’t wait until we are back together rowing in January!

The final results from the race can be found here on the City Rowing Club website, along with more information about the race. You can also look at the City Rowing Club Facebook page for some photos of the event. The race was also livestreamed and commentated – if you would like to watch the video, please go to the Facebook event for the race. Below are timestamps to both of our crews in the race.

Lent Term 2022

Winter Head to Head – 22nd January

Due to cases of COVID within college, and the boat club, DCBC decided to cancel training for the week leading up to, and including, the race.

Newnham Head – 5th February

Results:

M1 – 5th Place

W1 – 2nd Place(!)

M2 – 5th Place

W2 – 7th Place, (3rd fastest W2 overall!)

M3 – 20th Place, (11th fastest M3 overall)

Bedford Eights & Fours Head – 13th February

Results:

M1 – 3rd Place, (2nd Cambridge College)

W1 – 4th Place, (2nd Cambridge College)

We entered W1 and M1 crews into Bedford Head – you can find the crew compositions for M1 and W1 on our website!

This was the first off-cam race that the club has raced in for a few years now so both crews were very excited to make the trip to Bedford!

M1 raced to come third in their division, very close to the Star Club (Duffin) crew in the first place, and narrowly behind Jesus College, Cambridge in second – an excellent showing from them! W1 then raced to come fourth in their division, only 7 seconds behind Emmanuel College, Cambridge in first place. Another brilliant showing from the squad!

Both crews enjoyed their first off-cam race of the season, with hopefully many more to come! You can find the full results on their website. There are some professional photographs of the events available on AllMarkOne – check them out! (M1 were crew 302 and W1 crew 309)

You can also find some footage of W1 racing on our YouTube channel!

Pembroke Regatta – 19th February

Results:

W3 – Knocked out in First Round

W2 – Reached the Semi Final

M2 – Reached the Quarter Final

W3 – Knocked out in Second Round

M1 and W1 – Divisions were cancelled

M3 – Scratched

We originally entered all of our 6 senior crews into Pembroke Regatta! You can find the men’s and women’s crew compositions on our website. Everyone was excited for this final race before bumps to really get some good race practice in and enjoy the day! Unfortunately, however, Storm Eunice had other plans.

We started off the day with M3 unfortunately having to scratch due to some last minute commitments, but the crew are rearing to go at the Getting on Race later next week! Next, W3 took to the water! After getting a bye in the first round, they sadly lost to Caius W3 narrowly in their first race, but the crew rowed very well and should look optimistically to the Getting on Race this week!

It was at this point in the day though when the weather started to take a turn – the sun was no longer shining and the rain decided to unleash on our crews. W2 were next on the water and beat Murray Edwards W2 in their first round with a strong victory over them! However, they were next up against Peterhouse W2, who unfortunately had to scratch due to the cold weather seriously afflicting one of their crew members. This progressed Downing onto the Quarter Finals where their competition, Kings W2, also decided to scratch due to the weather. Although W2 had then secured themselves a place against Caius W2 in the semi finals, we made the decision not to progress any further with the race and row home as the weather was seriously affecting some of our crew members and the health and wellbeing of our crew is by far our top concern! However, in a practice race piece home, the crew rowed exceptionally and should be very excited for bumps coming up in little over a weeks time! (All members of the above mentioned crews are now in good health!)

Downing M2 were next on the river and, after battling the ever growing terrible conditions, defeated Kings M2 in their first round! Although reaching the quarter finals against Pembroke M2, it was at this point when M2 made a similar decision to row home and escape the elements in order to not further endanger the health of the crew.

The race organisers then finally decided to cancel the remaining divisions of the race, as the set backs in the earlier divisions, and the weather, meant it was deemed no longer safe to continue so our M1 and W1 crews sadly did not race. This cancellation also affected the M2 and W2 divisions, with most of the final races also cancelled due to the weather.

It was sad that the weather meant that the competition could not go ahead as everyone hoped, but, despite the awful conditions and the disorganisation leaving some crews out in the cold for hours, I think everyone overall did enjoy the day and saw DCBC coming together to help us all cope with the stresses that came upon us. We all celebrated the race in the evening and it brought us all some positivity in our final week of training before bumps!

You can find some photographs of the day on a small gallery page on the website. Please visit the Pembroke Regatta website for more information about the results from the day.

Lent Bumps – 1st to 5th March

Lent Bumps will soon be upon us! Follow the Facebook page for the most up to date results of the event, as well as live streams of lots of the races! You can find the list of the members of the men’s and women’s crews on our website. Please check out the Facebook page and Instagram for all of the posts from the week, and our YouTube channel with the exported footage from all of the races! Also check out the CUCBC page about Lent Bumps, as well as a Gallery on our website of photos from the week.

Getting on Race:

W3 – Did not qualify, (time 09:32)

M3 – Did not qualify, (time 08:46)

We entered our W3 and M3 crews into the getting on race! Unfortunately, neither M3 nor W3 managed to qualify for Lent Bumps, despite putting on a good showing today! They should be proud of all the training they’ve put in this term and look forward to what comes next on the rowing calendar! This means we have 4 crews participating in Lent Bumps!

Day 1:

M2 – Rowed over behind Magdalene M2

W2 – Bumped by Wolfson W1

Although not the result W2 were hoping for, both crews had a strong debut on the river!

Day 2:

M2 – Rowed over behind Magdalene M2

W1 – Rowed over at Head of the River

M1 – Rowed over behind First and Third M1

On the first day of racing for our first crews, all three crews rowed over, with our W1 retaining their headship! M2 almost tasted the bump onto Magdalene and will go out fighting the next day!

Day 3:

W2 – Bumped by Lady Margaret W2

W1 – Bumped by Newnham W1

M1 – Rowed over behind First and Third M1

The W2 cox, (the author of this post) screaming “I’m sorry” when conceding to a very speedy Lady Margaret crew summed up the day! Unfortunately W1 were bumped from the Headship position, and M1 narrowly missed out on the bump onto Fat, but FaT are now shaken with fear for what M1 will throw at them tomorrow!

Day 4:

M2 – Rowed Over

W2 – Bumped by Pembroke W2

W1 – Rowed Over

M1 – Bumped First and Third M1!!

M2 were close to finally getting the bump onto Magdalene, but they managed to first get the bump onto Queens’ M2, after they were knocked down into that division the day before by Clare M2, but the boys will go out fighting on the final day to get the bump onto Queens’. But the highlight of the day was M1 finally finishing the job and getting the decisive bump onto FaT. A tremendous showing from the lads!

Day 5:

W2 – Rowed over at top of Third Division Sandwich Boat

M2 – Bumped Queens’ M2!!

W1 – Rowed Over

M1 – Rowed Over

And the final day of bumps has drawn to a close. W2 denied themselves spoons by rowing over at the top of the Third Division and denying Wolfson the opportunity to bump them again; M2 got a strong bump onto Queens’ M2, (twice) and we are very proud of them for achieving it! W1 and M1 both rowed over on this day.

Women’s Head of the River Race, (WeHoRR) – 12th March

Result for W1:

> Time – 22:43.9

> 88th out of the 264 crews which raced!

> 11th in the Challenge Academic Category

For the first time in many years, Downing made their way to the Thames to race in the Women’s Head of the River Race! 

WeHoRR has now become the largest women’s rowing race in the world with around 2,880 women racing and up to 320 crews taking part. It is the only race in the UK where novices can compete in the same race as Olympic champions and as such attracts a wide range of rowers from clubs and universities. 

The crew performed exceptionally well, racing the 6.8km course in a time of 22 minutes and 43 seconds! This was the first time on the Tideway for all of the crew, who all had a fantastic time.

As expected from the crew, the start was very smooth and very powerful. They wound it up high coming under the start bridge and then a rhythm to a solid 33ish. “The first half flew by”, overtaking two boats, but after they came under Hammersmith Bridge into the headwind, the Tideway got choppy and it was “like rowing in a hurricane”. They overtook one more crew, deadlifting every stroke, but as it eased up, they managed to push on and take the rate up for the end, really hammering the last 500m and powering across the finish line.

Our Women’s Captain Emma recalls how “The weather was fantastic. It was a strong row from the whole crew, even when encountering the big waves from Hammersmith Bridge to the end of the course. There was great comradery seeing all the other Cambridge Boat Club crews on the river. Overall, it was a great time!”

A big thanks to the Sons of the Thames for letting our crew boat, to Jeremy to letting us stay at his, and feeding the crew, and to Ian for the coaching, support, and belief in every one of the crew!! The men will be racing The Head of the River Race in a couple of weeks time, so stay tuned for the results from then!

More information can be found on the WeHoRR website, including the full results from the race! Please check out a gallery page on our website for photos from the day!

Credit to Bed Rodford Photography for the photographs!

Talbott Cup – 15th March

Result:
Knocked out in the first round

On Tuesday, Downing W3 raced in the Talbott Cup!

Their first match of the day was against Newnham W4. After an interesting start involving a few blades and a bush on the bank, the crew settled into a good rhythm and really started to make up ground.

Flying along the reach, they certainly looked the better of the two crews and, despite going almost a whole length down after the start, had narrowed the distance to less than half a length by the time they arrived at the railway bridge.

Some confusion, in both boats, led to some thinking that the race had finished. Newnham were the quickest to realise that the race was still going and pulled ahead again until there was only a tiny amount of overlap.

To Downing’s credit, they started to pull it back once more and got back to within a couple of metres before the crews hit the finish line.

It was a very unfortunate race for W3 who certainly deserved the win and had shown really good commitment in the week running up to the race. They were rowing together, and in a good rhythm, but unfortunately, these things happen. They are all very eager to resume racing next term.

It’s been a very strong term for W3 and we look forward to what they can achieve in Easter Term!

Thank you to their coach, @callum.caldwell for writing this race report!

Head of the River Race, (HoRR) – 26th March

Result for M1:

> Time – 20:34.4

> 156th out of the 283 crews that raced

A week ago, Downing again made their way to the Thames, this time for the men to race in the Head of the River Race! Our Men’s Captain, Rian, gives his account of the day:

“Bolstered by a motivational speech from DCBC Leo Judd, the boys and Mireia set off onto the tideway feeling confident and prepared for their longest race so far. After some one-sided pre-race sparring with Leander, we paddled down to our marshalling position where Mireia realised she had forgotten her contact lenses. Naturally, this was a concern for the crew, but we kept our cool in the carnage that ensued as some crews decided that ‘marshalling’ meant sitting perpendicular to the stream.

After sitting in the sun for an hour, the crew was itching to get going and we found a very strong pace coming through Chiswick Bridge and the start. Quickly catching up with Van Mildert, we moved out wide for the overtake, wary of their steering after the infamous crash in 2019. Unfortunately, we were slightly too cautious and collided with one of the green buoys on strokeside before Barnes Bridge. We recovered quickly, and with a further push coming out of Barnes we stormed past them back in the stream. Overtaking a couple of further crews before Hammersmith, we focused on the task in hand with a big push under the bridge, resisting the urge to cool off with a cheeky dip in the river. With the stream on our side we held on from the bridge until Craven Cottage, where the last kilometre began and we could begin opening the taps. Pushing off Edinburgh Uni who were hot on our heels, we soon found ourselves in the middle of a bunch up with Imperial medics and Nottingham Uni along the line of boats for the final few hundred metres. Despite difficulty in locating the finish line, we avoided any serious clashes and emptied the tank for a big finish across the line.

Although we couldn’t quite replicate the success of  W1, it was a strong performance for a relatively inexperienced crew, finishing 156th out of 295 entries. Standout performances were from Friedrich Weberling, who took himself out of the running after Lents by breaking his tailbone, Callum for subbing into M1 at very short notice, and Harry for stepping up to the stroke seat despite his best efforts to avoid it.”

Thanks must of course go to Ian for transporting the boats, Leo Judd for his wide words of encouragement and support, @sonsofthethames rowing club for hosting us once more, and to the race organisers for putting on a smooth event for the first time in 3 years. A special thanks too to Bob’s parents, Rob and Sarah Sutherland, for housing and feeding the hungry rowers, and cox!

Easter Term 2022

23rd April – Head of the Cam & Segreant’s Day

Results:

W1 – 1st in Division, and Fastest Women’s crew on the river!

M1 – 3rd in Division

W2 – 8th in Division

M2 – 6th in Division

W3 – 5th in Division

AW1 – 1st in Division (2010s)

AW2 – 2nd in Division (2010/00s)

AW3 – 3rd in Division (1990s)

AW4 – 7th in Division (1980s)

AM1 – 1st in Division (2010s “Youth”)

AM2 – 2nd in Division (2010s “Experience”)

AM3 – 3rd in Division (1990s)

Last Saturday was the grand return of our Segreant’s Day, where we welcomed back so many of our Alumni to the club, and we entered 12 crews into the Head of the Cam!

Well done to our W1 who not only came 1st in their division but also were the fastest women’s crew on the day! All of our crews which raced had a great performance and a lot of fun. These give us a good foundation for the term of racing to come, and hopefully set us up well for a great Mays campaign! Later, we will be looking at our Alumni crews’ results!

Well done to both the first Alumni Men and Women’s crews which came first in their category! It was great to see so many of our Alumni return and race on the Cam again. These were a fantastic set of results from our Alumni crews and only continued the great energy of the day! Later, we will be looking at the celebrations from the rest of the day!

The day was a great success, with both students and alumni racing the Head of the Cam during the day and producing some impressive results, despite some injuries and last minute changes for our student crews. We’re grateful to everyone who come and made it such a special day and are already looking forward to next year!

After the racing in the morning, we had an afternoon of celebrations. We first presented the prizes won by our three winning crews of the day – our W1 and two alumni crews! We then went on to name our two sculling singles, newly acquired two years ago. “40 Years” signified the passing of 40 years we have had the pleasure of having women in Downing, and at DCBC. This was named by Elizabeth Nelson, a former CUWBC president at Downing. “Mike Tovell” commemorated a legend of DCBC, who joined the club back in 1990, and stroked the Lightweight Men’s Crew twice! He sadly passed away in February 2019. This was named by James Behrens, a former CUBC president at DCBC.

Although we weren’t able to burn a boat to celebrate our Women’s Headship from two years ago, we finished the evening with a brilliant boat club dinner, marking the wonderful spirit of DCBC, excited for the term and year ahead! At the dinner, some prizes were awarded to various members of the club. The Strowgler-Smart award for coxing excellence was awarded to Mireia Cabanes. The Barnard Cup for most promising rower was awarded to Toby Boyne, Madeline Curl, Toby Brady, and Holly Thompson. The Leo Judd award for long term dedication to DCBC was awarded to Imogen Shaw and Katherine Robinson.

Our Men’s Captain Rian remarked “It was absolutely fantastic to have several generations of our alumni return for the Sergeant’s day for the first time since 2019. The club is incredibly reliant on their support in many ways, and I’m sure this will help propel the club into a strong Easter term. It was equally brilliant to see several of the alumni race in the Head of the Cam, and our M1 were kind enough to let one of the men’s crews beat them.”

For more information about the results of the race, please look at the Chesterton Rowing Club page or the spreadsheet of the results. Please also have a look at the gallery on our website of a selection of photos from the day! You can also find our men’s and women’s crews on our website.

Smaller Boats Regatta – 25th to 27th April

Unfortunately, the small boats regatta was not able to go ahead this year.

Spring Head to Head – 30th April

Results:

W1 – 1st Place!

M1 – 5th Place

M2 – 7th Place

W2 IV – Time Only

We entered four crews into the Spring Head to Head! Our W2 IV were the only crew in their category in the race today so raced for time only. As the first time in a IV for most of the crew, they put on a very good row! We also had a W3 entered into the race but due to a last minute injury, they were unable to compete.

Our W1 were originally meant to be going to BUCS this weekend but, unfortunately, injury meant they unable to attend the event. A shame for the crew but they managed to take a victory today and so should be proud!

We have a couple of crews entered into City Sprints tomorrow so stay tuned for their results. Thanks to @cityrc for the race today! More details can be found about the race on their website, and the full results on rowclock. You can also view the men’s and women’s crews on our website.

City Sprints – 1st May

Results:

Rian Howe 1x: 1st Place!

Miramon/Brady 2-: Lost

We entered two crews into City Sprints! City Sprints is a 500m knockout competition.

Maximilian Miramon and Toby Brady took to the river as the next potential Downing Pair in their race against City’s Double U Club pair but an unfortunate divergence from their racing line meant they did not win the race. Still a good showing from the pair who have only been rowing in the pair for a short while!

Our men’s captain Rian Howe was reliving his sculling glory days, first racing off against King’s Jack Seville before then making it to the final and winning against City’s Dario Martino! Well done to Rian!

Thank you to @benchattell for the brilliant photograph of Rian, @jessica.pitch for the other photos/videos and motivating the lads through the race, and @cityrc for the great race and commentary!

Rian can also be seen in the City Livestream https://fb.watch/cKiFpjYA-r/ at 1:40:40 and 1:53:40!!

Radegund Mile 2022 – 8th May

W1 IV – 1st Place

M1 – 2nd Place

W2 – 5th Place

M2 – 6th Place

W3 IV – 2nd Place

Well done to our W1 IV who again take away the victory! A delay in the first division lead to W3 returning late, leading to the fastest pit stop of a boat seen before. Our W3 also beat the other W3 IV in the competition, so well done to them!

The other crews all made improvements over their times last week and enjoyed the race in the gorgeous weather. We look forward to seeing how the training gets on in the coming weeks as our crews start to come together for bumps!

Champs VIIIs Regatta – 15th May

M1 – 4th Place

W1 – 4th Place

M2 – 4th Place, (3rd fastest M2!!)

W2 – 10th Place

M3 – 8th Place

W3 – 4th Place

(All in their respective May Bumps categories)

It was the first showing of our set men’s crews, featuring our returning Blues, for the term and they all did a great job having not trained together for very long! Although the day started out very hot and sunny, the rain decided to unleash on M1 and M3 later in the day and they did well to brave the wet and chilly conditions.

You can catch the livestream of some of the crews racing this morning on the Facebook Page [LINK]!

Cambridge Nines Spring Regatta – 22nd May

M2 – 2nd Place, (Cup Event)

W3 – 2nd Place, (Plate Event)

Both of our crews ended up reaching the final, with M2 reaching the Cup Final for their devision, and W3 the Plate Final. A brilliant performance from them both!

M2’s race report was written by their stroke seat, Maximilian: “The first race was against Sidney Sussex M1. We were fairly nervous and wound up to a colossal r42. We never rhythmed down and held r36 for almost all the race. A classic fly and die just as we went under the railway bridge, but fortunately Sidney died off too and after the bridge we held them at about half a length until the finish. The second race was against Eddie’s M1. We learnt from our previous mistake and put in a measured masterclass at about r34 for the whole race. We had a strong start and held them at about a canvas from the beginning, until they too fell away about halfway through just as we upped the rate, so we stormed off and finished with a length of clear water between us. We now made it to the Cup Final against Corpus M1. We had a strong start but they got ahead after the first 5 strokes and we never reeled them back. I think they beat us by about a length by the end. It was a very good day and the first time we rowed as a whole crew, so lots of potential for bumps.”

W3’s race report was written by their cox, Max: “The first race was against Caius W4. It was essentially neck and neck the whole race. We were a few seats down, made it back up, but they had the inside line under the bridge and beat us by ~1/4 of a length. The second race was against Queens W4. They went off really strong and had clear water in front of us, but we built into the race and they fell apart under the railway bridge. We were going way faster up to the finish and beat them by a length with a late overtake. The third and final race was against Jesus W3 in the Plate Final! We were a few seats down the whole race, making a bit of a comeback up to the line. Their cox took some *interesting* lines and they just about beat us by about 2 or 3 seats again.”

Getting-on race – 10th June

W3: successful in getting on to Bumps!

M4 (Rugby Boat): did not get on

Congratulations to W3 who managed to get onto Bumps!!!! We’re so very proud of them and hopefully all of their hard work pays off in Bumps next week!

Their cox, Max, remarks: “A lot of our crew had narrowly missed out on taking part in lent bumps, so we decided that we were going to row hard off the start and give everything to make sure we didn’t miss out this time. With the help of support from the bank, we kept pushing hard all the way to the reach, where we had a bit of a second wind and pushed all the way to the line, finishing with a time that qualified us for bumps!”

Sadly, our M4 Rugby Boat did not manage to qualify for bumps. With a time of 08:26 for the 2k head course, they were the next fastest crew after those who qualified. Still well done to them for all of their time they’ve put into training this term!

May Bumps – 15th to 18th June