Author: admin

Billygoats Rowing late 2019 – Reunion, Fairbairns and Plum Puddings

Reunion Rowing

Brian Smith writes:

Unfortunately, several who planned to row had to drop out close to the day, so we were few in number this year. We were therefore grateful to the Boat Club captains, not only for their help, but organising rowers so we could have an outing in an eight. As ever, it was a real mix of men and women, from a wide range of years (and not just invited year alumni), bringing back a range of memories – but we do make sure it is fun and not too strenuous.

Glen Norcliffe (1962), who had come over from Canada, commented: “I expected that turning the clock back 50+ years and sitting once again in an eight would be a big challenge. But lo! These new boats are light as a feather, the spade oars correct the worst of strokes, the cox was brilliant – she kept the rating down to 20 and even lower – and the other seven rowers gave nothing but encouragement. The sun shone and we were soon speeding down the Cam. What i feared might be a challenge became the most enjoyable of experiences, one that I hope will be savoured by many more former boat club members in Fitz reunions to come.”

https://www.flickr.com/photos/181898184@N06/48808191122/in/album-72157711097060491/

Crew: Leila Harris Fahmy, Emily Lees, Hazel Walker, Emmet Cassidy, Brian Smith, Pete Howard, Glen Norcliffe, Lizzie Knight , Andre Neto-Bradley

https://www.flickr.com/photos/181898184@N06/48808190817/in/album-72157711097060491/

If you are interested in joining us, or if you wish to put a crew together from your year, please contact Brian Smith (brianpsmith1975@gmail.com) who co-ordinates arrangements on behalf of the Billygoats Society.

Fairbairn Cup – Women

Emily Lees writes:

To mark 40 years of women’s rowing at Fitzwilliam College, this year saw the advent of an alumnae boat for Fairbairns. Organised by Hazel Walker (2017) this year we were known as Fitz Past and Present, as we were lucky to be joined by a couple of present students, but we also saw the return of a number of Fitz rowers past, including Helen Fishwick and Rhiannon Philps (2014), Ilona Szabo, Jemima Gasson and Emily Young (2015), Emily Lees (2016), Jess Halliday (2011) and benefited from the able assistance of Emma Marron (2002) who temporarily transferred allegiance from Peterhouse for the day after injury in W1 depleted our crew.

We had a great row, coming very close to catching Peterhouse ahead of us until re-acquainting ourselves with the bank around grassy corner! Despite this, the crew put in an impressive time of 18:40 and hugely enjoyed our time back in the boat. We hope to return next year, and would welcome any other Billygoats who would like to join us.

 

Fairbairn Cup – Men

David Birtwhistle (1966) writes:

In his great enthusiasm to promote Billygoat rowing, rebuild the boathouse and upgrade the equipment and experience of rowing at Fitz, Jonathan Price persuaded me back to row with an alumni crew on the Cam.

Since then the annual return to compete in the Fairbairns has become an elaborate ritual, a process that begins with Adrian Tollett’s call-up in the midst of summer rowing and ends before dawn on the first Friday in December when the crew assemble at the riverside for a practise before the waterway is closed for the race at 08.30.

This year the usual suspects were fewer than they have been in previous years, there were even rumours that someone might have gone skiing instead.  As a result we had the benefit of a student sitting in with us, and one of Adrian’s clubmates from City of Cambridge.  Matt could not make the practise outing so we set out with Adam, a substitute substitute.  I realised that I, by far the most ancient member of the crew, am old enough to be their grandfather.

It always surprises me to find that the Cam is so narrow and twisting.  Since our days in the mid-sixties ( you see, I do remember some bits ) all these moored houseboats have appeared, making life difficult for our cox, Kathryn.   The choking smoke from their flues and their droning generators are a distraction from the business of concentration.  Actually the balance was not bad but we might have been a little short on umph.

This year we had been promoted into the dizzy heights of the Senior Men’s division.  Fitz has the most blessedly located boathouse which allows us to wait in comfort as all the crews are marshalled.  Then, still nice and warm, we can step into the boat, take ten strokes and start rowing the race.  This is just as well as our start was delayed by an hour as one of the above mentioned houseboats has, apparently, joined the race as a novelty crew.

Like life, our row improved as it went on.  The only other crew in sight swept past us the moment  they were able, which unsettled us, but they were soon forgotten when we were overtaken by the delights of the Long Reach.  Still lacking a little umph, we smartened up for the parade past all the other crews at the finish.  After we turned, a yell from Kathryn alerted us, two filthy houseboats, lashed together and on the wrong side of the river were steering towards us through a smokescreen of fumes.  Some very deft steering saw us through but only just.

Rather shaken and weary the row back was still a pleasure for this old competitor.

Crew: Kathryn Ogilvy, Alan Alcock, Andrew Goulden, Clive Woodman, Nick Francis, Matt von Lany (current student), David Birtwhistle, Phil Dickens (City of Cambridge), Adrian Tollet

Plum Puddings

 

A somewhat depleted Plum Puddings turnout meant a number of combinations were considered before we went for a traditional 8+ vs 2x race format, with Mateja and Eryk bravely being volunteered for the smaller boat. The 8+ paddled down doing a few exercises, some of which meant different things to different crew members and nothing at all to others, with a few 10s to round off the training program. We spun at the bottom of the Long Reach and waited for the 2x. Having forgotten to practice starts, we settled on a novel approach to the race – starting from backstops at light pressure, and taking it from there. The 2x led off the start, having cheated by starting with bows level at frontstops. As the 8+ got into its stride, stroke desperately trying to keep up with 6 and 5, we began to catch up. As the crews drew level the 2x went into the bank, much to the relief of some in the 8+.  To their great credit, and contrary to every similar event I have ever seen, the 2x did not claim that cox had cleverly moved over, subtly forcing them into the bank, but they will no doubt learn this time-honoured technique as their experience in the 2x grows. Mince pies and mulled wine completed the afternoon, and strengthened our resolve for the meetings and dinner ahead.

Crews:

Ray Kelly (8+) – Adam Morland, Dan George, David Birtwhistle, Morten Kals, Dan Riches, Mads Christensen, Francis Headley, Noah El Wafa, Jemima Gasson

Ron Walters (2x) – Mateja Soretic, Eryk Sokolowski

Billygoats 11th Rhine Marathon

Saturday October 5th was the day for this year’s Rhine Marathon, which is rowed from the RHTC Bayer Leverkusen club downstream over 26.2 miles of river to the Ruderclub Germania Düsseldorf 1904, located in the suburb of Hamm.  This was the 11th consecutive year the current “squad” of late 1970s vintage Billygoats has tackled the course, happily doing so this time in good conditions and with a decent if unspectacular performance – timed at 2 hours and 44 minutes.

We again rowed as a coxed quad in a class D river boat (the “Elbe”) provided by our host club, Germania Düsseldorf, with club member Wolfgang once again sitting at cox.  Wolfgang has surely qualified as an honorary Billygoat by now, with 10 years served as a crew member.  This year saw us scrambling to mobilize the usual squad, with age, health issues and family events conspiring to leave us short of two oarsmen late in the build-up.  In stepped two Aberdeen Boat Club veterans well known to Neil G (also an ABC member) to save the day, and thus we rowed as an Aberdeen BC/ Billygoats Cambridge composite crew for the first time.

    

Above: The crew outside Ruderclub Germania Düsseldorf – Ron (ABC), Neil (BG), Jim (ABC) and Clive (BG)

On Friday evening we enjoyed the dinner for visiting clubs hosted by Germania Düsseldorf, taking care not to overdose on the local delicacy of Schweinhaxe (Pork Knuckle) or the dark Alt beer.  Saturday we had an early start by virtue of being at the older end of the age categories, having to make the 7:00am bus down to the start in Leverkusen to rig our boat and prep it for the marathon ahead.

Above: the scene at RHTC Bayer Leverkusen before the start. 169 boats completed the course.

Above: The “Elbe” and her crew ready to get going!

Above: Time for at least one selfie!

With an hour or so to get ready down at the start, we rigged the boat, taped up the riggers to minimize wave in-spill, installed our battery bilge pump and a GoPro on a tripod behind the cox, loaded up with water, gels and energy bars, and set-off at an elegant 20+ spm down the river.  The water level on the Rhine is exceedingly low this year due to lack of rainfall, so the current was a little slower than usual and we expected a lot of rough water due to the narrower river and the ever present large barge traffic.

In the event we experienced less barge traffic than usual and made pretty good progress due to the better conditions, not losing as much time to the experienced Rhine crews who know how to deal with rough water better than those of us who see it once a year!  We stopped briefly on the water 3 or 4 times for water and energy replenishment and covered the course at a relatively even pace all the way to the finish.

No prizes won, we were 4th of 4 boats in our Masters G category, however 2 ½ minutes faster would have placed us in second position, so we were quite encouraged with this as a scratch crew with two members absolutely new to the Rhine.

Above: GoPro camera still from early in the race.

This year our weekend was brilliantly and almost fully documented in images by Ron Wallace, aka Snapper Ron, who gets the credit for all the pictures in this article (except the selfie) and who has posted the event online at the following address:

http://cofd.co.uk/images/Rhine%20Marathon%202019/Rhine2019.html

The GoPro footage has been edited down into a very amusing 2 ½ minutes movie which is well worth watching even if you have no rowing experience – look for the tile which identifies within its contents the GoPro footage and play it.  It starts with a stills slide show and then takes you into the race footage.  Enjoy it without the pain and the effort!

Once again a huge thanks to our German hosts for their warm hospitality and for their ability to organize such a great event so smoothly.  Health and fitness allowing we will keep the tradition going in 2020!

Neil Gardner (1977)

Billygoats Town Bumps 2019

The Billygoats again entered the Cambridge Town Bumps as Paul Wallace reports:

On Monday 15th July, a scratch Billygoats crew pushed off at 7:30pm and gingerly made our way to the start, entered as “City 8” starting in the lower half of M2 division. This year, the Bumps used the new division timings, with four days’ Bumps spread across five days – which made it easier for crews to fit around work commitments.

A strong start on the first day saw us pull away from Rob Roy 4, and move up slightly on the juniors in “City 7” before they caught XPress 2 at First Post Corner. With open water ahead, we kept a two length lead and finished with a solid rowover. On the second day, the crew put in another good start, and chased down the XPress 2 boat very quickly to collect the bump within 500m, an excellent result on another hot and humid day. Thursday’s crew repeated the game plan and overhauled St. Neots 2 in short order to score another quick bump, and set up the final day’s racing to chase “City 7” again.

There are some great photographs on the Cantabs Facebook page, with thanks to Bill Amos at Cantabs RC:
Thursday-1
Thursday-2
Thursday-3
Wednesday-1

On Friday, another big start saw us pull away from St Neots to a three-length lead. City 7 and Cantabs 6 had bumped ahead and blocked the river, so Sammi Tarling called for a hard stop to avoid a collision before First Post. At this point, with St Neots bearing down on us at full speed, our race looked over. But as the boats ahead shifted, Sammi called for an emergency restart, the crew responded, and we powered through the narrowest of gaps and into open water, allowing us to escape from the chasing boats.

Ahead of us, “City 6” had seen the other boats drop out of the race, and felt sure of a safe row-over – but before long, they could see us closing the gap. Sammi urged us on round Grassy and past the Plough, grazing the corners with the smallest of margins, and an overbump became a real possibility. City 6 responded to hold their lead at around two lengths as we chased down The Reach to the finish. If we had not been held up at First Post, then it would have been a very close race indeed, and that evening we speculated about the heavy fine that would have been levied by the CRA if the Billygoats, rowing as City 8, had overbumped the City 6 crew.

Full results: Two bumps, Two row-overs for the Billygoats
http://www.crarowing.co.uk/town-bumps/about-the-cra-town-bumps/results

With thanks to Robert Doe for organising the crews, and especially to Sammi Tarling for being the best cox on the river!

Dom Adair’s 90s

Following the partial reunion of the 1999 Mays blades crew at the 2019 May Bumps Supper, Dom Adair shared these rowing photographs spanning the period from 1992 to 1999. Dom has added a few comments – we extend an open invitation to anyone pictured in the photos or anyone who rowed in the 90s to contribute their own photos or memories, either to be added to this post or to make up another post.

1992 & 1993

Why “The Splitters” I wonder?

1994

A busy year for Dom:

The 1994 1st Lent crew won their oars

But no bumps for the May crew 1994

A very successful summer racing in coxed IVs at various regattas, winning at Oxford, Gloucester, St Neots, Stourport and York. The crew alternated as described in the rubric beneath the photo.

The summer pot-hunt was followed by further success for FCBC in winning the University IVs (coxed) in the autumn of 1994.

Dom also found time to coach the 1st Women’s Novice crew.

1996

A varied selection:

Bedford Head

Head of the River Race

1st May VIII (well 5 of them…)

May Bumps Supper

1997

Dom was Captain of Boats in 1996-7 having returned to college rowing following some time in the University Squad (as had Jack Lissaman). The Mens 1st VIII got their blades in the 1997 Lents.

1997 May Bumps Supper

1999

The Men’s 1st May VIII won their blades and left the College 9th on river.

The 1999 May Bumps Supper

 

 

Bumps 2019 and 50th Reunion Dinner

Early in the week we were worried about the weather, but in the event the Billygoats Bumps Party at Osier Holt proceeded without significant rain, though the skies threatened on occasion.

A full report on the term’s rowing is in the newsletter

2019 Mays Newsletter – Billygoats Society

and here are some of Tony Moule’s photos of the May Bumps:

W1 went up 2 ending up 11th in Division 1

M3 got their oars, giving Ken Drake’s flag its first official outing

50th Reunion of Head Crews

Around 50 Billygoats attended the May Bumps Supper to celebrate the 50th reunion of Billy going Head, including nearly all the surviving Head crew members. A good time was had by (nearly) all, here are some of the comments:

“everyone present had a great time.   For myself, it was very good to see several faces not seen for many years” – Chris Gill

“it was great to see everyone getting together, not just the Head crews, but the 60s guys that put them in position and also some of the 70s guys that had the experience of rowing at the top of the first division, where it was often a struggle just to stay level, never mind to go back up!” – Dan George

“Nearly all the crew members of the Headship days were there and we felt the years roll back as we reconnected.” – Susie Fraser

“A very good evening on Saturday”- Ian Mason

“It was great seeing so many past colleagues and reviving old memories.” – Charles Lowe

“I thoroughly enjoyed the day and I feel sure that all those of us from the ’69,’70 and ’71 crews did too.” – Charles Bennion

Tony also shared a photo of Tim Shaw’s two shields which are now mounted in the boathouse.

The eagle-eyed will notice that Fitzwilliam College won the Visitors Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta in 1970 – time for another 50th anniversary? The crew are in touch with HRR about rowing over the course at the 2020 regatta.

FCBC success at Nottingham Regatta with the Billygoats new gazebo

The Billygoats Society supported FCBC’s entry into Nottingham Regatta in May 2019. M1 won Open Band 2 8+ and a W1 4+ were narrowly second to Lady Margaret by 1 second in the W Band 2 4+.  Other crews raced gaining valuable experience ahead of this week’s May Bumps. The new Billygoats gazebo got its first outing.

 

Ian Hall’s 60s

Ian Hall has been reading the posts about the years leading up to the Head years (such as fhbc-in-the-mid-60s and before-the-headship) and welcomes bringing the lead up years into the celebration of the headship of 1969. He writes:

The advance of the first boat in the Mays started in 1960, and thenceforward day one in 1968 was the only occasion the crew was bumped until 1972. 47 days bumping or rowing over with only one day going down. The chart shows the progress through the decade, and though the years 1960 to 1964 were in the second division it must be remembered that the fastest crews can only go up four places in a year.

When I went up in 1964 the winning culture was already firmly established. The Captains over the previous years – Robin Mackness, David Knowles and Peter Little – had both created a fighting spirit and put together teams of coaches the equal of, if not better than, most other colleges. It was fascinating reading Rupert Ward’s report of the Fairbairn Cup crew of 1964 – this is the first time I’ve seen it. First I note that he was disappointed to come in 5th, at the time when we were 14th in the Mays, which gives an indication of the Club expectations. He speculates that this might be because two freshmen were rowing at stroke and 7. As the stroke in question I well remember the coaches looking for length and rhythm and the crew getting frustrated with the rating at 32 and that they weren’t being allowed to race. Eventually Denham Bayly-Jones said to us in the back of the boat, “OK, show them you can put the rating up.” That outing we were asked to row a four minute piece. Raymond Butt, at 7, used to count the strokes on every piece of work he ever rowed – his biggest disappointment was that he had lost count at the lock when winning the Boston Marathon with Edinburgh University. Anyway, at the conclusion our four minutes Raymond told me that we had rowed 164 strokes. Thereafter the frustrations seemed to dissipate.

It would also be worth adding a little to the report on the events of summer 1965. On the first day of the Mays Christs bumped Selwyn in front of us and we caught Magdalene. However, they had been impeded by bumps in front of them, and successfully appealed for a rerow. We therefore had to go down to the start again and start with six and a half lengths of clear water between us. We eventually bumped them as they were passing the finish post. The following day we duly bumped Downing, but on the Friday we had a bad row and failed to bump Trinity Hall, to remain 10th on the river. In the evening we had a crew meeting. I was the only member of the crew not leaving at the end of term, and someone pointed out that the miss meant that I would no longer be able to go Head during my three years. Peter Little said no, we would be going Head in centenary year, 1969. Here is the 1965 Mays programme which David Knowles passed to me a couple of years ago.

At Henley in 1965 we rented a house on Rod Eyot, upstream of the bridge and accessed by dinghy from Wargrave Road. The races in the 1960’s were being recorded for BBC television until 1969 when the cameras were diverted to cover the Investiture of the Prince of Wales, never to return. Commentaries came from a team on the umpires launch and were beamed up the course to a receiver at the finish. As Rod Eyot was in line with the course, Tom Boswell, an electronics and hifi enthusiast, was able to set up a receiver and record our race commentaries for us to listen to on our return from the course.

In the Ladies Plate we were drawn against St. Catharine’s to race before 9.00am on Wednesday morning. Desmond Hill, the Daily Telegraph Correspondent, wrote that the first few races would not be worth the missing of your bacon and eggs. In fact we had one of the closest races of the day and pushed Cats to within a second of the record in the fastest time recorded for the event. However, there was no commentary as the BBC presumably took Desmond Hill’s advice.

However we picked up commentaries for all of our Visitors’ races. We first rowed Jesus and then St. Catharine’s, with the majority of their crews being Blues or Goldie. We may have passed the winning post first, but we didn’t actually win the races according to the BBC, Jesus and St. Catharine’s lost them. “They’ve let them (Fitzwilliam) get away” was the oft repeated phrase. A fantastic motivator for the following day! In the final we were up against a powerful St. Edmund Hall (10kg pp heavier) crew who helped us off the start with poor steering, but rowed us down just short of the mile on the way to breaking the Visitors’ record. Here is a picture of our semi-final win.

Below are photos of the 1966 Lent Crew and the 1967 May Crew. At this time we were helped by going down to Kingston where Bill Clark, who was a Billygoat, was the Club captain and we could borrow a boat and train with Kingston crews. This experience on the Thames contributed to our results in the Reading HOR where we were 7th = with Leander I and London I, and 17th in the Tideway Head (where Leander were 15th and London 19th).

Not recorded photographically as far as I know was our test of nerves on day 2 of the 1967 Lents, though brief details are given in the records. As we turned for the start we hit an underwater stake and holed the bottom of the boat under the stern canvas. We had to land and take the boat out of the water to empty it, and my recollection is that George (boatman) was still trying to stick gaffer tape over the hole when the one minute gun went. We managed to boat and push off in time for the start, but the stern was gradually sinking. Passing the Plough the canvas was reported as under water with only the rudder cross-tree showing, and Emmanuel closed to a canvas. However they were then bumped by Christ’s, and we survived to row over and then bump Jesus and LMBC on the last two days.