Following in the footsteps of Team Hodge, I spent the first 7 months of this season rowing for Oxford University, culminating in a Boat Race victory in March.
Competing in the Boat Race is something I have wanted to do since I started rowing back in 1999 and the whole experience has been fantastic, not only winning the race, but also in meeting some fantastic new people, working on my rowing in a different environment and having the chance to study at one of the best universities in the world.
My course (which doesn’t end until August) is in Management and I have found it a welcome distraction from thinking about rowing 24/7, which was a hazard of rowing full time for the last 3 years. With gym work early in the morning then rushing to a lecture before a lunch on the run and then an afternoon outing on the water, rowing for OUBC was hectic but great fun!
We made a bit of a slow start to the season with a huge mix of rowing talents to blend together. Having been hammered by Cambridge at the Four’s Head we carried on training hard and gradually started rowing more like the coaches wanted us to. By the time it came to our fixtures we had found some good speed, which a scratch Molesey 8 was a victim of in our final tune-up. From a personal point of view I was delighted after that race when Molesey Director of Rowing Tom Courtney told me I was rowing “less like a c*** than usual”.
The Boat Race was tough as we knew it would be but we had great confidence in our rhythm which I believe won us the race in the end.
My course is only for one year so I will be back rowing for Molesey next year and with the amount of the guys from the club training at Caversham right now, I’m confident we will be a force to be reckoned with come the Eights Head.
