In 2013 Billygoats Society Secretary Emeritus and Vice President John Adams continued writing about selected entries from the Boat Club record books:
Across the Decades 2013 – from the Fitzwilliam Boat Club Record Books
The Boat Club Record Books cover the years 1920 to 1982 but there are several gaps, most significantly the years 1973-80. This piece consists mainly of extracts from those books. A search of other records, covering the club’s earliest years, has revealed that 2013 is the hundred-and-thirtieth anniversary of a significant event in its history – the first resurrection of Fitzwilliam Boat Club.
Fitzwilliam students had first rowed in the bumps in 1875 at the bottom of the 3rd division, the lowest. In the period to 1879, they had mixed results, from four bumps in both Lents and Mays in 1876 to a fall of three places in both Lents and Mays in 1879. There was then no Fitzwilliam boat for several years, the Club having been wound up in the Michaelmas term 1879. In 1883 the Club was reformed and rowed once again in the Lents, starting at the bottom of the river (not under water!) and making one bump. But until 1912 there were periods when there was no Fitzwilliam Boat Club. In the 101 years since then, the only gaps in the life of the Club have been 1915-18 and 1940-45.
Ninety years ago – 1923
For the 1923 Lents the record includes “the second boat, all freshers except two, was very fast, and exhibited remarkable staying powers over the course.” In the five seat of that boat, weighing 11st 4lb, was one W. W. Williams.
The procedure for getting a place in the Bumps at this time was very different from that now used. In the May term, the record states that the second boat “endeavoured to ‘get on’ but were beaten by Peterhouse II by 1½ secs. The next day Pothouse were, in turn, beaten, and finally the ultimate winners of the G.O. Races failed to bump off the bottom boat.”
Eighty years ago – 1933
Starting second in the 3rd division of the 1933 Mays, the 1st VIII bumped three second VIIIs before catching Corpus I at Grassy on the Saturday. “The Club has never before been so high in the 2nd division, nor has any 1st May Boat even before gained its oars.” reads the record. Like a number of other entries in the books, this note is inaccurate regarding historic detail. In 1919 the boat had finished in the same position on the river (13th in Division 2, 28th overall) and fifty-seven years earlier the 1876 May Boat had also made 4 bumps. But the 1933 result was still a worthy achievement.
Seventy years ago – 1943
No record – no Boat Club. Fitzwilliam had very few students during the war and there was no Boat Club.
Sixty years ago – 1953
In the 1953 Lents, the 1st VIII made four bumps, two on the Thursday in moving from the 3rd Division to the 2nd, whilst the 2nd VIII went down three places and the 3rd VIII went down four. The Mays saw the 1st and 2nd VIIIs make two bumps.
The 1st VIII was the first bumps crew for which the Club had obtained the services of Alf Twinn, the CUBC boatman, as coach. (The President and 1st VIII cox at the time was Brian Skinner who had won a trial cap in 1951.) In the record book it states, “Alf reckoned our oar handles were red hot or ice cold.”
Fifty years ago – 1963
The 1962-3 winter was a cold one and the Cam froze. The spirit and drive within the Club at the time is exemplified by the steps taken to ensure training continued. The record for the term begins “The term presented a great problem initially – the Cam was frozen. Our one and only attempt at an outing was doomed to failure because an ice floe put a hole in the boat [a clinker]. As the first VIII was the only one that really had to get afloat, the captain took us to Earith which has tidal waters. However, after one outing there the river froze!! Finally the VIII went to St Neots where the river was ice free thanks to the Electricity Generating plant up river. All those searchings for water were essential as the VIII had to have water on which to train. There were some changes and it was necessary to let the boat settle down. We rowed for nearly four weeks at St Neots and on the afternoons that we did not go to the Ouse we were put through the rigours of circuit training and weight lifting at Fenners.”
The training bore fruit. Though the Lents were cancelled in the Head of the River Race they “started 43rd and passed four boats to finish 23rd overall.”
The crew showed their determination in another way. “The need for a shell VIII in these head races has grown imperative over the last few years – and finally the crew themselves purchased the 1956 CUBC shell. It was launched on 11th March by Mrs Grave and named Billygoat. It is the first shell the club has owned.”
In the May term, glandular fever removed the secretary from the seven seat in the 1st VIII until 10 days before the races. The boat was unsettled until he returned but improved thereafter and “had three bumps on the first three nights and on the third night rowed over as sandwich boat in the 1st Division. This position did not improve on the last night as they could not catch the Selwyn boat ahead.”
At Henley the VIII were beaten by Corpus in the eliminating heats but a last minute decision to enter a IV in the Visitors brought some success – the first ever win by a Fitzwilliam crew at the Regatta. “On the first day they drew and beat Downing easily in 8‑21 in spite of erratic steering. This was an extremely good effort since they had only been in the boat for less than a week, and general inexperience of light fours was prevalent in the crew. On Thursday they met a St Thomas’s Hospital four who beat Billy in 7-44, partly because of unfortunate steering before the booms.”
Forty years ago – 1973
In the 1973 Lents the 1st VIII bumped Downing and Queens’ to finish in 8th place in the 1st Division. “The second VIII consisted of a number of experienced oarsmen with one or two of the better novices and was coached intensively with about five outings a week. They started near the top of the third division. A combination of these facts lead to them getting five bumps (as sandwich boat on Thursday) and thus gaining their oars.”
The record for the Easter term is incomplete. It begins by reporting on the coaching that term and the second paragraph reports “Tim Shaw brought the crew back under control, also working on technique of the whole stroke. The crew settled down and put up some quite good times. Freddie Page coached us” And there the report of 1973 ends at the bottom of a page: the following two sheets have been torn from the book.
These are not the only pages to have been removed: three sheets between the records headed “Henley 1967” and “Year 1968 – 1969” have been cut from the book. Since two different removal methods have been used, the implication is surely that there have been two who decided to censor the content. One wonders who and why?
There are no more recent records in the Boat Club books but a summary of how the 1st boats have performed over the decades to date is included below.
| Fitzwilliam in the Mays | ||||||
| Snapshots over the decades | ||||||
| Men’s 1st Boat | Women’s 1st Boat | |||||
| Progress in year | Finishing position | Progress in year | Finishing position | |||
| Posn | Div | Posn | Div | |||
| 2013 | -3 | 13 | 1 | +2 | 4 | 2 |
| 2003 | +1 | 17 | 1 | +3 | 9 | 2 |
| 1993 | -1 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 2 |
| 1983 | 0 | 9 | 1 | +6 | 16* | 1 |
| 1973 | -3 | 7 | 1 | Fitz women first rowed in the Mays in 1980 | ||
| 1963 | +3 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 1953 | +2 | 2 | 3 | |||
| 1943 | No Mays boat | |||||
| 1933 | +4 | 2 | 13 | |||
| 1923 | +1 | 3 | 2 | |||
| 1913 | 0 | 16 | 2 | |||
| 1903 | No Mays boat | |||||
| 1893 | +1 | 15** | 2 | |||
| 1883 | No Mays boat | |||||
| * From 1974 until 1989, women’s Mays were rowed in IVs. In 1983 there were three divisions, each of 22 crews | ||||||
| ** Prior to 1887 the Lents and Mays were not held as separate events. There were three divisions: only the second and third divisions rowed in the Lents, only the first and second in the Mays.For several years from 1887, in the Mays there were two divisions of 16 boats. | ||||||