Welcome to the Churchill Boat Club alumni page. Hopefully we will soon be able to add some content focussing on news and events of interest to alumni, and also showing how alumni are supporting today's Boat Club, both financially and in other ways.
There are already some historical pictures in the Gallery and the History section of the site has some good stuff about Canon Duckworth and other notable Boat Club characters and events. But we need more, so please send your contributions (reminiscences, anecdotes, photographs) to the Boat Club
.
The alumni webmaster is the laddie holding the pennant (1970 Fairbairn Cup Highest Third Boat) with the Clare Novices' Regatta winners' trophy and Canon looking on benificently.
Historical photos reproduced by kind permission of Eden Lilley/ Stearns.
New CCBC Pink Blazers, Scarves, Caps and Old Vests.
With the rapid approach of the semi-centenary of CCBC, Trevor Cave has been investigating how to a new set of kit with which to show off our allegiance to the club and commemorate the greatest man in history for 1000 years. Let us paint Grassy pink each summer.
He has been talking with Clothiers of Pembroke St, who make blazers all the time.
The Minimum Order
The minimum bolt of new cloth is 44 yds, which can make either
20 Blazers at c.£185 with crest OR 30 Scarves in the original style at c £30 OR 40 Scarves in modern plain pink style at c£20 OR 20 “Wraps”, i.e. double scarves, at c £40
And probably enough proper caps from the off cuts at £35 each
Or an appropriate combination of each to use the 96 sq yds.
Perhaps the Old Lags, Pinksloshers, Shovellers, Non-Resident Members or Alumni/ae, might think of buying the 1st boat cox a real cap each year between us, to promote proper standards of headgear on the river for races!
Other Possibilities
Mr. Clothier also has a large number of early style pink-hooped, brown rowing singlets in cotton at only £5 for two. Some are small and might suit slim ladies or children. Trevor has bought several for himself, as they are cheaper than new cotton vests!
Mr. Clothier is also prepared to make the pink (probably flannel) cloth longer, so the club can retain the spare against future orders and save making a whole batch more in 20 years time.
Production Questions
We can have any colour pink we like and the original CCBC colour is not an official pink registered with the National Colour Council. The more recent CCBC scarves are in registered pink, like the college scarves, but paler than many of us regard as boat club pink. The latter was due to our dear, late Canon Duckworth finding a large quantity of cheap, rough, pink material from which the originals were made. Trevor wondered if this might be the time to revert to registered colours but has tended to agree with Jeremy Hudson (Capt 1973) that “Sloshing Pink” is much more vivid and desirable, so unless there are strong protests, we propose that the maker seeks to replicate the colour of the original scarf for all these items. It matches the first boat hulls now.
What do people feel about allowing other non-BC Churchillians to join in if we need to make up some numbers?
Decisions/Actions
So, with the approach of the 50th Anniversary Mays and Supper, how many of you who missed out on the original batch would like to be properly attired for the celebrations?
Please tell all your CCBC friends about this, as we do not know how many visit the site regularly.
Please contact Trevor (
) if you are interested in acquiring a brand new blazer, scarf etc.
And in the beginning..............................
1962 - First Lent Boat
Left to right in group photo: back row - No.4 J A Haines, No.2 D H Peregrine, No.3 G le Campbell, No.5 L B Schepens, No.6 M R Cooper, Bow M R Postgate; front row - No.7 G M Lindberg, Canon Duckworth (coach) , Stroke D K Mcrea, Brian W Cherry (coach), J S Butler (secretary); front - cox L J Sham.
Bumped: Pembroke V, Emmanuel IV
1963 - First May Boat
Left to right in group photo: back row - bow, R M Wilkinson, No.4 R D Taylor, No.7 P Stone, No.5 B Yates, front row - No.6 D E W King, Canon Duckworth, stroke J S Butler (captain) No.3 M R Cooper (secretary), No.2 E W Addicott; front - cox C J Cant .
Bumped: Fitzwilliam II, 1st & 3rd TrinityIII, Trinity Hall III
1964 - First May Boat
Left to right in group photo: back row - bow P Stone, No.7 G A Butlin, No.6 M A Upton, No.4 E R W Addicott; front row - No.2. R D Taylor, stroke J S Butler, Canon Duckworth, No.5 B Yates, No.3 M J Bomford; front - cox J R Ironside-Wood.
Call to oars, and occasional rudder lines - or - Return of the wiggle-waggler.
Calling all CCBC Old Lags!! If you still row or you'd like to try again, come and join us for the Head of the Cam on May Bank Holiday weekend or the Regatta during Alumni weekend in late September. If you'd just like to join in social events and cheer for the current crews, please contact the college Alumni Relations Manager/Alumni Webmaster James Adamcheski-Halson
Trevor Cave (U71) mailto:
writes:
Knowing that the old lags care really does encourage the crews considerably and enhances the feeling of heritage in this relatively young college. As Roddy Galbraith, my stroke in 1st Fairbairn 73 put it, "Churchill does not have alumni like American Universities, we are members of the college no longer in residence". I am keen, too, to trace a few active club or higher level coxes.
Permit me some brief, selective and relevant autobiography. Having coxed at Churchill 71-4, at Weybridge in '75, and then not at all for 26 years, I resumed coxing following the great 40th Anniversary Bumps Supper in 2001. Since then I have coxed mainly Novice to Senior 3 crews at Sons of the Thames in Hammersmith but also some CUBC Veterans at Crabtree. I coxed the 2005 Town Bumps with XPress and have won assorted trophies including on the Tideway. I have coxed several internationals too, including the G B Adaptive mixed IV who later won the World Championship. I am, nevertheless, basically a regular, club-level cox and have no pretensions to genius although I was quite chuffed to be helping CUBC coxes with safe navigation on the Championship Course recently.
To learn the Cam anew for my ”Sons" of the Thames women's crew in the Cambridge Head to Head (H2H) in 2004, I inveigled an outing with CCBC women early in Lent Term. This led to my coxing CCBC women's first boat, W1, in the Head of the Cam in May 2004. Vince Clay, their regular and fine cox, sportingly stood aside for me for a couple of days. This was, of course, very nostalgic for me but absolutely a racing performance by a current and experienced cox. With almost no practice, I messed up Grassy Corner but otherwise we went reasonably well and indeed quickly. I showed other coxes how to dress properly too, in blazer and white bags!
To train for my next H2H, I subbed into the CCBC training camp before Lent Term 05. I filled otherwise empty coxing or coaching slots for some 6 trips. I also learned some useful tips on coaching a higher status crew from the excellent M1 cox that year, Cecily Barber.
I have been made very welcome at CCBC and, I am told, such visits can be valuable. I think this is due overwhelmingly to factors common to active, experienced, club coxes. As most people only spend 4 years at college, typical college coxes have roughly two years experience, predominantly on the Cam and with lower status crews. Whilst the likes of Cec, Vince and those from rowing schools achieve a lot more, most college coxes can never offer a crew the benefit of 5 or 6 years of learning, in crews of many different types, on several different rivers. I like to emphasise too the Winston heritage and that of college heroes like Duckworth. The Captains tell me it makes a difference. Even if CCBC crews are not always the quickest or most stylish on the river, nor clearly from the oldest club, they will always be among the greatest because of whom we all commemorate.
I also subbed in M2 to train for the Fairbairn 05, in which I coxed the Cambridge Xpress crew, including Chris Lloyd the deputy boatman using a wooden shell named "Mountbatten of Burma". I expect the Canon would be pleased. This year, 2009, I coxed a "Shovellers" W crew for Sue Brown, current CCBC president and multiple world gold medallist in the Head of the Cam. On the way down the Long Reach, the Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane of the BBMF flew over us at about 100ft - quite an omen. We won our class.
Of course it would not be helpful for alumni to interrupt regular training too much. I shall not do a Head again for CCBC, at least for a decade or two, nor the alumni regatta if another can. I enjoyed that in 02. ( I rather fancy doing the 100th Fairbairn in 2028 though. I'll only be 76.) I do urge any regular active coxes, however, to sub occasionally with present crews. It is appreciated enormously by the whole club and is tremendous fun. I don't deserve all of it. I do not know if present club rowers would sub in usefully, we have not tried it yet to my knowledge.
To assist co-ordination, please contact the Alumni Officer, James Adamcheski-Halson in the first instance. He will pass all contacts to both myself and Graham Thomas (U61). Graham is acting as the overall Old Lag / Pinkslosher Captain and will lead the organisation of social events - e.g. Bumps Suppers. We do not aim to turn these events into sponsorship conferences; the Friends can handle that separately. I have tried the role of squad manager and am trying to find many more potential rowers and coxes for the alumni regatta each September with, I regret, almost no success. Currently I have a very patchy list, with several from 65-71 and a smattering of others. Can anyone find us more? A pipedream is to boat at least one crew of regular rowers, who might even train for an outing or two, and another of nostalgic old lags trying again on the day, despite hangovers from the Association Dinner. I do not seek to create a Churchill Alumni BC, like some other colleges. I believe rowers should move on from college and support their local clubs. I will also vector current, serious, coxes to the present captains to see if useful outings can be arranged.
As a footnote, thanks to Chris Lloyd, who subbed at 4, I had one Olympian outing with Giessen-Offenbach from Germany. We entered the Veterans Head of River in 04, borrowing M2's Canon Duckworth by kind permission of CCBC. The Tideway conditions that day were so dreadful that 8 boats sank, one broke in two and over 30 aborted the race. We began to flood at the start but just made shore nearby. The cox who let us jump the long queue to land turned out to be Janet Cansick (G72) and we did no damage. (Does anyone know her still? College has lost touch.) . Perhaps the Canon was watching......
I rather feel he still does and I encourage to present CCBC crews to act as if he haunts his boat.
Some pictures of Trevor in action coxing a Churchill Four (Roddy Galbraith, Dave Gillespie, John Brough and Ian Scott) at the St. Ives Regatta, summer 1973.
Last Updated ( May 20, 2010 at 12:47 PM )
View our privacy policy. Website created and maintained using Mambo. Mambo is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.
13°C
