Here is are some pictures of crews that I've coxed -- or rowed in -- while an undergraduate at Churchill College Cambridge, from 1978 to 1981.
Most of these are from the Lents and Mays, which are `bumps'
races. For those of you who don't know what `bumps' races are... in summary:
several boats are started off at the same time, spaced rather closely together,
with the aim of actually making contact with the crew in front (i.e.
`bumping'), while not being bumped by the crew behind (repeat over four days,
swapping positions of any boats that had bumped the previous day). Being
Cambridge the terminology is rather confusing, as the Mays are actually
held in June!
The first crew I ever coxed... a Novice crew from Michaelmas term
1978. Wooden boats and blades of course at that time, although broad "spoon"
blades were not universal, as some crews still rowed with thin "pencil" blades.
The Men's 3rd boat in the 1979 Lents. We got one bump.
The Men's 2nd boat in the 1979 Mays. I'm not steering the best of
corners at this point, mostly because there is a boat right behind us, which I
was trying to keep away from (unsuccessfully as it turned out!). We were bumped
on 3 days out of 4!
Now, at last, lots of bumps. This is the Men's 5th boat in the 1980 Mays. Three bumps out of four, one of which you can see being set up above, and completed below (with the other cox's hand up in acknowledgement) a few strokes later.
And now, as they say, something completely different. In my last year as an undergraduate I decided to row for a term. Above is evidence of this, showing me rowing (at bow) in a Novice crew in the Fairbairns races in the Michaelmas term 1980 (November time). In those days the Novice crews rowed the old, long, full length Fairbairns course... I don't remember exactly how long it took us, but it was probably about 25 minutes... although at the time it seemed a lot longer, as we'd only be rowing for about 5 or 6 weeks! Below is further evidence that I rowed, this time in the Clare Novice knockout races held a few days after the Fairbairns (by which time the weather had changed a lot -- yes, that is snow on the bank). We won our first race in the Clare's, but lost the second (I caught an "over the head" crab, but our cox didn't stop the crew... as he said afterwards, "It didn't seem to slow us down at all!"... actually we were already well beaten by then).
The Women's 2nd IV in the 1981 Mays, when the women's crews in the
still raced in IVs. We got bumps on 3 days out of 4.
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