Last Tuesday (10th November), Churchill enjoyed phenomenal success in the annual Queens' Ergs competition for novice rowers. It is a 8x500m relay race that takes place on rowing machines (ergometers or ergs), and every year over 100 crews take part, with around 12 crews racing against each other in several divisions.

Our novice M1 boat finished second in their division, comfortably securing a place in the final (something we're not sure has been done before) and went on to come 2nd overall in the final, beating Queen's, John's and other much more favoured colleges.

In the process, Matt Warner became Cambridge's Fastest Man on an erg, doing most of his first 500m at a ridiculous split of 1:17 and getting a record 1:21 split overall.

M3 also did fantastically, comfortably coming top of their division. Our novice M2 and two women's novice boats also did very well.

Congratulations must go to everyone involved - rowers, coaches and everyone who came to cheer us on. It's a great success for Churchill, and we even got mentioned in several newspapers (especially Matt). The full results can be found on the Queens' Ergs website.

Chris Campbell (Men's LBC)

The committee this year have made a big effort to recruit novices. To generate interest early on we decided to move the Freshers' BBQ from the boathouse on the Sunday after Freshers' Week to the Tuesday of Freshers' week itself - and to hold it actually in college. We even went to the effort of bringing our pink double (Julia) up for people to have a look at - a bright pink boat is a powerful advertisement!

Despite a slight hiccup with the food purchase, and slightly wet weather, the BBQ was a great success with around 50-60 people attending. We also made a big effort at the Freshers' Squash with our new "Why row for Churchill?" video (see our Youtube channel) playing on a laptop - and of course some free beer.

Most important though was our "Try Rowing Day", which was held on the Sunday after Freshers' Week. This was very popular - we had four boats out at the busiest point and barely enough senior rowers to go round. The quality of rowing was as mixed as ever, but at this early stage it was great just to see people interested.

A few weeks in and it's still a little early to say how many novices will be rowing come Fairbairns, but three men's and two women's boats is looking like an achievable target.

Last Thursday at the (postponed) AGM we elected the boat club committee for next year. As of today this lucky group of people are in charge of the boat club! The list below is the new committee, and full details including their email addresses and manfiestoes can be found on the committee page.

Overall Captain: Matt Grayson

Men's Captain: Will Hamilton

Women's Captain: Giulia Cirillo

Men's Vice Captain: Matt Morton

Women's Vice Captain: Aimee Campbell

Men's Lower Boats Captains: Chris Campbell and Mark Nixson

Women's Lower Boats Captains: Liz Coe and Olivia Corn

Secretary: Tom Charlton

Junior Treasurer: Chris Wilson

Coxing Rep: Steph Fursland

Equipment: James Davies

Webmaster: Chris Wilson