When they saw the Early 80s post, David Stanley and Mike Blogg (who both coached in the early 80s) remembered their 1974 crews.
DS: We (the 1974 May crew) were quite good – got 3 bumps and a row over to go 4th I think. We bumped St Catharine’s first night, rowed over chasing Emmanuel on the second night and bumped them on the third night, and then 1st and 3rd on the last night.
The crew list included Donald Dumbell (Captain of Boats) at Bow, David Reddaway (now Sir) 2, (the late) Matthew Clark 3, Bob Greatorex 4, Chris Henderson 5, Doug Imeson 6, Michael Blogg 7 and David Kitchin at cox, who went on to steer the winning Blue Boat in ‘75 (and, oh yes, is now Lord Kitchin, Justice of the Supreme Court). I was at stroke.
MB: The Mays crew was based on a pretty decent Lent boat, which made two bumps (Emmanuel and Pembroke), moving to sixth in the first division. It included Steve Klingopulos and Dave Curry in the bows but missed Bob Greatorex (who was busy with medical studies, as well as being our finishing coach) and David Stanley, who was equally busy in Goldie, inflicting psychological damage on Isis (and the Cambridge Blue Boat) and doing teaching practice.
Lent 1974
The 1974 1st Lent boat won it’s oars. This photo was behind the Fitz JMA bar for several years. Crew: David Kitchin, Dave Reddaway, Mike Blogg, Doug Imeson, Chris Henderson, Matthew Clark, Donald Dumbell, Steve Klingopulos, Dave Curry. Matthew Clark and Dave Curry also coached in the early 80s.
MB: We also had a mixture of those who had rowed before and a few (Doug, Chris and I) who had learned at Fitz. Doug Imeson moved to St Edmund Hall after graduating in 1974 and rowed for Isis. Messrs Reddaway, Dumbell and Greatorex went on to row for the victorious CULRC crew in the very first lightweight Boat Race at Henley in 1975, but in 1974 they were still mere mortals! David Kitchin, of course, coxed Cambridge to victory in the 1975 Boat Race. I’m sure that Strongley is right about the bumps – he would certainly remember chasing and then catching Emma, as David Sprague, a Cambridge Blue who eventually rowed for GB and is a mate of his, was in that crew and bragging rights were at stake!
DS: Yes, I take the opportunity of asking Sprague at least once a year of who was stroking the college that bumped him on the third night of the ‘74 Mays. Bragging rights have a perpetual nature!
We also represented Cambridge University at the British Universities races at Holme Pierrepont. I think we were a couple of lengths up on University of London somewhere around 1600 metres on our way to gold when Mike crabbed and fell in, so we stopped, backed down and fished him out! [Mike, you must have a copy of that press coverage somewhere!]
MB: At BUSF, at Nottingham, we were winding it up against UCL (representing London) when I got caught in, thought that I could extract it and got ejected from the boat. It all seemed to happen in slow motion and then I was swimming. Fortunately, I only had my own rigger to dodge, as I was at 7. Doug, sitting behind me, said that there was no question of continuing as he was laughing too much. As a result of my disgrace, I was driven back to Cambridge by Tim Shaw in his red sports car!
This was written up by Jim Railton in the Times – he was their rowing correspondent, along with his other duties in Oxford. He knew that I was also captain of swimming as our paths had crossed on the Varsity Games committee earlier in the year, so of course that made it all ‘hysterically funny’.
DS: I think Doug said if he had realised you were going to leave the boat he’d have held on to you! I expect the oar might have done you some serious damage.
We also got to the semi-finals of the Ladies Plate at Henley. I think we beat Oriel Oxford in the quarter final and got a photo of us passing Stewards in Sunday’s Telegraph (I think) a length and a half up, looking splendid!
MB: I have a hard copy of that Sunday Telegraph photo of our ‘majestic’ race against Oriel, one of us against Durham (pretty crushing) and some of us in practice. My father may have taken some snaps of us during the bumps from the Plough, but I may be confusing the years.
At Henley we beat Durham University in our first race. They were living in tents at Henley and it poured every day during the week before the regatta – I suspect they were grateful to be able to leave, go home and get properly dry. Then we beat Oriel on Saturday, but lost in the semi-final later the same day to University College Dublin, who were pretty fast and went on to beat UL in the final on Sunday.
In the official Henley records, it says that “Fitzwilliam won their two races rather more easily than their one length verdict suggests. They led Durham by half a length at the quarter mile, and although Durham attacked incessantly Fitzwilliam never looked like being caught, and gradually increased their advantage to the mile. Against Oriel they gained more quickly and had a length and a half at the three quarter mile. They were then down to 32 and did not answer Oriel’s finishing spurt”. Another photo of this race, taken from the other side (the enclosures), gives a much stronger impression of our dominance.
I recall a bit of Henley colour: we stayed on an island in the middle of the river south of Henley bridge next to Wargrave Road – the house was originally Dame Clara Butt’s houseboat which had been hoisted up onto land – and spent many an hour in the launderette in town drying out our kit after being soaked by the weather in our first week of training. We also went looking for crews to race during our outings and put in an impressive piece against Leander’s cadet crew, holding them off, much to their surprise. Actually, we timed our effort perfectly and wound down just as they seemed likely to start gaining on us.
For what it’s worth, in 1975 we also lost to the eventual winners of the Ladies Plate (UL, coincidently stroked by Sprague), but we were still on an upward curve in terms of Cambridge college rowing and finished second behind LMBC in both the Lents and Mays.
Henley Royal Regatta Ladies’ Plate semi-final 1974 – FCBC v Oriel Oxford, from the back page of the Sunday Telegraph.
This photo (taken from the other side) makes it look even more convincing.
And in practice – heading Lady Margaret in a ‘dabble’.
For the summer, taking in the Mays and Henley, I recall that the crew was coached by David Christie (of Shrewsbury School), Alf Twinn (CUBC boatman), Billygoats and Cambridge Blues Charles Lowe and Chris Gill and finally Tim Shaw (Thames RC), although I would need to find my May Bumps Supper programme to be absolutely sure. This covered a range of coaching styles from traditional to fairly unconventional, but with bags of experience and a lot of hard work thrown in. We (especially Strongley) also fed our own ideas into the mix which probably helped with race planning and adapting to what was happening during races.