Welcome CCBC!

Merry belated Christmas and happy new year!

As this is my first newsletter i’d like to welcome the new freshers as well as those who’ve stepped up to senior level and the veterans who’ve come back for another year of rowing (seriously why are you still here?) and also Jon (who took a successful year out to work on his rig).

Naked Calendar!

So apparently we did a photo for the naked calendar!?! (Did I mention that?)
And we looked pretty damn good too (not you Callum).

So now i’ve got your attention…

Freshers

Mother nature hasn’t been on our side this term but it WILL GET BETTER!

Hopefully you’ve all been enjoying the socials (if not then get down to the next one to see what you’ve been missing out on), but yes we normally have more water sessions than socials.
From what i’ve seen at tank sessions and heard from your Novice Development Officers (Nuala Doyle for the women and Charlie Penny for the men), you’re getting on pretty well, especially given the circumstances.
Also congrats to the womens novice crew who won their first race at Novice Cup! The rest of the event should take place next term so I wish you all the best. There is still chance for the mens crew to redeem themselves after an unfortunate first round loss (we all catch crabs sometimes).

The novice womens and mens crews at Novice Cup

Seniors

In between all the flooding and general miserable weather the seniors have managed to have some session and even bag some excellent results!
The senior women won their category (IM3.4+) at Tees Small Boats Head out of 8 crews and the men won ‘fastest college IV’ at Durham Autumn Small Boats Head!

Senior mens and womens top IV’s

Socials

Thank you to outgoing social sec(s) Sophie Brown (and Neil Connell) FSISTPY (for some inspired socials this past year) and best of luck to incoming social secs Helena Winsey and Matthew Shackleton!
This year’s Durham Colleges and University Rowing Ball (DCURB) is being organised by our very own ex social secs Ellie Godden and Issie Pratt and will be one to remember so keep eyes peeled for more details on the facebook event here.

Nearly there…

Other news!

Myself and Jon Willetts were on Purple Radio last term. The link to the show can be found here (the show starts at 6.10).
We don’t just talk about rowing I promise!

Our new webmaster James Windscheffel has redesigned the CCBC webpage which can be found here

Social media

The clubs Facebook group can be found here. Join to keep up to date with events and news.
The clubs Facebook page can be found here,  ‘like’ for news updates.
You can also follow CCBC on twitter, @CCBC_Rowing
We have an Instagram which you can like or whatever
And we also have a YouTube channel

If that doesn’t present enough procrastination material for you all then god forbid, you might actually have to do some ergs!

Thanks for reading (and well done for getting this far!), if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!

Enjoy the rest of your hols and for those of you on Palatinalps, see you in VT!

Alex Hall

On 16th December Alex and Jon joined Purple Radio’s Sportsfeed team to talk about CCBC.

You can listen to the podcast here

It is with bitter sweet trepidation that the hoards of Durham Students descend for the final time in this academic year, back upon the historic city. With the imminence of exams looming and about fifty percent of the student population working far harder than is both advised or required for a series of 3 hour tests, social and sporty endeavours are placed on the back burner. If only the same could be said for CCBC.

A mini preseason showed a great turn out for both Men’s and Women’s squads. After the disappointment of HoRR 2012, the men’s squad is determined to put in a stirling effort over regatta season to compensate for the absence of the 7km marathon from their head season. Jemima, women’s captain, opened her women’s preseason up to freshers as well, and some keen beans got themselves out on the water, gaining valuable experience from the older, silver haired rowers in the senior squad.

On Saturday everything was put into practise in Tyne Regatta. Revision notes were left discarded at the backs of drawers, bags were filled with malt loaf and wellies donned to head off to win some races on the glorious, picturesque stretch of river near Tyne Rowing Club. Unfortunately both the Men’s and Women’s top Novice IVs were in divisions with beasty Newcastle and Northumbria University crews where the girls looked like men and the men looked like Gruffalos. Despite this, the girls narrowly missed out on a place in the final by half a boat length, whilst the men came 2nd overall in their category in a dramatic, three way conclusion to the day.

So massive congratulations to Ryan, Swede, Ed, Angus and Bevans, Hannah Rigby, Georgie, Erin and Hannah VR (and me for a coxing debut). It was a marvellous day out and a great start to the season!

I can’t work out whether my general happiness on any given day is proportional to the amount of rowing I do, or to the weather. Regardless of which my mood may rest upon, today was a good day. To be greeted at the boat club by a crisp, spring sunshine was a novelty to say the least, and heralded the opening to a lovely day.

Today was the day of J.B.B.C Head Race, a 1.8km race to give freshers a taste that rowing isn’t all about pleasant days out at regattas. Following in the footsteps of the seniors who took on the river Wear just two weeks ago, four fresher crews gave it their all in this intercollege championship.

Division One saw the turns of the boy’s (Reimeringer Willetts) boat, setting off the entire event as boat one. Women’s fresher crew (Harris) headed off the fresher women, with both crews looking fly across the finishing line upstream at D.A.R.C. I’m not sure whether it was with a smile or a grimace that they completed their maiden head race, but I’d like to think it was the former. Division Two again saw entrances from men’s (Hammond) and women’s (Voak) crews who again ploughed upstream, hot on the tails of other boats in their division.

We await results with either anticipation, but regardless of triumphs or tribulations when the times are released, the social tonight is sure to be the perfect end to the perfect day.

Having left Ed to do all the difficult and nerdy coding, I am now taking over when the fun bit kicks in with a bit of blogging and keeping the website up to date with all the fun and antics happening in CCBC. I have to say, I am very excited by the prospect of having something vaguely productive to do in lieu of trawling iPlayer for reputable films as a form of procrastination. And I also think the second best thing to actually rowing, could possibly be writing about it. I will confirm this statement a few more posts into my blogging career.

Races have been happening left right and centre. With the postponement of the Novice Cup, the freshers put in stirling performances with mens crews getting through to the semi-finals of the plate! Well done to the girls too who beat a selection of mainly Hatfield crews (haha!) making their way through the plate competition. Other crews felt a sinking feeling as Cyril suffered from a hull casualty from some rather questionable coxing which will remain unnamed. As predicted St John’s won everything, but we can live in the knowledge that we stuck on the right side of DCR rules to train up our freshers, even if it didn’t end in victory. So there!

Seniors have been consistently rowing in the run up to the Heads of the River Races. The women made their first 4km debut at Hayward Cup at the weekend. Since they didn’t lose the event was a very positive experience and are continuing confidently with training for the races to come, namely WEHoRR which is soon to be upon us! The men took a bit of photoshopping to look sharp, but still made it across the finishing line in Stockton with a strong performance. Both mens and women’s crews then went on to boss out brilliant performances in DSBH with the men’s IV bagging 2nd place out of college crews.

I personally am now super excited for Butler Head next Wednesday! Get your freshers out and training to put some more Bailey boats to shame.

A (few) days at the races

The new website is up and finished after a number of hours in full on nerd mode. Any comments or bugs let me know.

Cheers

Ed