Thanks to one of our alumni, we now have a new website address - www.churchillboatclub.org.uk. The website is still hosted on the SRCF, but it can now be accessed through this much easier to remember URL.

There will also soon be a dedicated alumni section of the website. It will contain details of the club's steering committee, information about how the alumni actively support the boat club, details of upcoming events and a general appeal for anecdotes and photos from anyone who remembers their time "in the pink".

Last Friday the boat club had their termly Boat Club Dinner to celebrate the term's acheivements. This time we were in the Fellow's Dining Room rather than the dining hall, but this only added to the fun. Many of this year's novices were there as well as the seniors, and we hope the experience will encourage them to carry on rowing next term.

The menus were excellent as always, with reports from the various captains and a large selection of funny quotes from members of the club. A PDF copy of the menu is available in the Members Area.

For college rowers, Fairbairns Cup is the culmination of all our hard work over Michaelmas term. It is organised by Jesus College Boat Club, and the courses run downstream from their boathouse. The novice course finishes at the Railings on the Reach (2.7km), while the seniors have to carry on until the Little Bridge (just after the Motorway Bridge - 4.3km). Churchill entered 3 senior boats and 3 novice boats this year.

Our novice women approach the finish.

Full results can be found here, along with more detailed information about the competition. Well done to everyone who raced, especially to the novices who had to marshall in very difficult conditions.

* MNB were later disqualified for racing without a bow ball, as it got knocked off during marshalling.

Winter Head is a head race (a time trial) run by the Cantabrigian Rowing Club. The course is 2.5km, starting at the Motorway Bridge and finishing near the Penny Ferry pub. This year Churchill entered 4 boats: M1, M2, W1 and a women's novice boat - with M1 choosing to do the race twice.

Full results can be found here. There is more information about the event on the Cantabrigian Rowing Club website. 

Race reports:

Lots of firsts for W1. First race of the term in the VIII. First race ever for Izzy. First race for Lizzy on strokeside. First race for Lorna without a cox box (this one was definately not planned!). A good rhythm was set off the start, and it was satisfying to see that we were easily pulling away from Magdalene W1 who were behind us. A few wobbles on the reach in the wind, but each time we managed to bring it back together. Unfortunately a boat-stopping crab 200m before the finish added a fair few seconds to our time, 11:31, joint 8/20 in our category. Kari (W1)

M2 were very pleased with their Winter Head result. With only 6 senior rowers (2 novice subs), it was the first chance we'd had this term to row in all 8s, and it went a lot better than we expected. While the row was scrappy in places we pulled it together for several good pushes, although the last few hundred metres seemed to go on forever. Hopefully we'll be able to put in some more work before Fairbairns - if we're really lucky Grayson may even have broken up with his girlfriend. Anon (M2)

The Winter Head on Saturday saw the novice girls take to the water in their first ever race. Despite being told that racing was the best part of rowing everyone was slightly apprehensive having only just started rowing all 8s the very day before. Nevertheless everything came together remarkably well. We managed to get a good pace going and get ourselves back in time when needed. There were no crabs or other such disasters though the home straight did seem never-ending! All in all it was a great chance to put everything we'd done in training into practice. Bring on the next race! Puja (WNA)

This year Churchill only entered one crew into this competition, a W1 IV. Here's a report on the race from their cox Lorna.

"Having never had an outing with the line up we were racing in, when our division was delayed and the weather threatened not to hold out we contemplated turning round and heading back. Yet somehow we made it to the start line levelled up against the red blades of LMBC. Personally the call to go couldn't have come too soon as we sat drifting in the wind on the reach.

LMBC had a strong start and pulled out half a length in what seemed to be no time at all, but Cate set a solid rhythm, and we managed to stop their lead growing and held them at that for the length of the reach. Under the railway bridge we clawed back and were almost level as the LMBC cox seemed to forget what side of the river he was meant to be on, drifted left, got yelled at by our bank party and the marshals, and our blades overlapped. We fought neck and neck up to the corner favouring LMBC, where they found a last ounce of strength and pulled away a to lead of 7 seconds by the time our bow crossed the finish line.

Despite the loss, we gave 100% and I couldn't have asked for more from the crew. We also managed to beat Emma and Clare on time! Yay!"