There was another Reunion Row on the afternoon of Saturday 27th September preceding the the dinner for alumni from 1985, 86, 87 and 88. The participants are working on a report of the proceedings, meanwhile, here are some photos.
On April 5th 2025 a couple of alumni crews went out for a morning paddle to build up an appetite for the Reunion Dinner on April 5th 2025 for 1995-98 matriculants.
Here are some photos of the crews.
Two alumni crews graced the Fairbairn Cup this year, with a third (2010 women) sadly having to pull out at the last minute.
The Presidents VIII, though missing the current President, did boast a past President and a future President. Carole Burton Wright (President 2015-18) coxed, with David Wright (elected President Dec 2024) at stroke. Ian Clarke (President 2021-24) was going to join us to race in the Winter Head on Saturday 7th but that was cancelled due to the weather.
The perennial fear that someone would oversleep our traditional dawn practice outing proved unfounded (as always) and we had a paddle down to the bottom of the river to look at the race finish. We managed to find a decent rhythm, though there was some doubt about whether the race rating should start with a 3 or a 2. In the end we settled for a respectable 28 and got back to the boathouse in good time for some of the crew to rush back to their hotel for a quick breakfast.
Crew – Carole Burton, David Wright, Neil Gardner, Clive Woodman, Tom Watt, Dan George, Andrew Goulden, John Roberts, David Birtwhistle
Suitably refreshed we re-convened ready to slot in at position 255. We were a bit concerned to see an Oxford College crew behind us but luckily they left a large gap and, in the end, did not overtake us until grassy corner. Carole’s shouts of “you’re making them angry because they can’t pass you” drove us on (and hopefully upset them!) and in the end we finished in a creditable 17:42.7, beating 7 crews and a mere 4:07.2 behind the University crew that won it.
This was a G crew and it would have been interesting to race in the Winter Head against opposition of the same age but sadly it was not to be. Thanks to Ian Clarke, Piers Copham and Tom Swallow who were ready to step in for those who could not stay for the Saturday.
The Billygoats AGM and Dinner took place on Saturday 7th and a good time was had by all.
FCBC 1990s & 2020s
The idea of getting a 1990s Billygoats crew out for the Fairbairns arose a few months ago when Pete, Dom, and Rob (and a few other non-rowers from the 1990s) met up in London for a drink. Eventually, in September this started to become a reality as more 1990s Billygoats were recruited. Unfortunately, not quite a full boat was recruited, however there was also a 2020s Billygoats crew forming with a similar problem. So the two merged, and a boat (with a spare) was formed a few weeks before the race.
The evening before, some of us met up for a curry to begin fuelling up for the race. Rob (our cox) was called into work at the last moment, so would have to drop out. With lightning reaction speed, Aurora Barrera James (FCBC Captain of Boats) is able to recruit a replacement for Rob. Our pre-race preparation of a couple of drinks and curry done, we retire for the evening.
The crew meets up on race day for a 7am rig check and pre-race paddle. Aurora coxes this early morning row, and her excellent cox-seat coaching helped gel the crew into a smooth unit. The paddle goes well, we end up rowing all the way down to Baitsbite and with the builds and bursts we put in, it’s like we’ve never been away. After the paddle, many of us head over to Tishka’s café nearby for a welcome breakfast.
Come race time, we are placed towards the end of Division 2. We boat in Jonathan Price II with race cox Megan Tubb (current FCBC member). We set off with a strong (if a little rocky) start, and settle into a good pace. Drama then unfolds at the Gasworks where we catch up with a Crustaceans’ crew (Christ’s alumni). Oars clashed, words were exchanged (mainly coming from the Crustaceans), and then we followed them slowly just past the Green Dragon bridge where we could cleanly overtake. The remainder of the row was gutsy, and the finish was welcome!
The result: Officially, due to attempting to overtake before the Green Dragon bridge, we were Disqualified! The unofficial result was 16:42 (including ‘stoppage’ time), and even less official was our subjective estimate that the stoppage cost us at least 40 seconds. Ofcourse, the main result is that we enjoyed getting back into a Fitz boat, rowing the old course. We’ll be back, and next time will make sure there’s a larger gap in front before we set off.
Crew line up:
B: Mark Taylor (1990), 2: Jonathan Kerl (2020), 3: Peter Matthews (1991), 4: Babak Eftekhari (1990), 5: Clark Cossin (2022), 6: Peter Maynes (2011), 7: Dom Adair (1991), Str: Neil McCulloch (1990), Cox: Megan Tubb (sub for Rob Clemmitt (1991)), Spare: Gautham Venu (2014)
Simon Cole (1978) writes:
2024 marked the 15th year in which a Billygoats crew has taken part in the Rhine Marathon with a break only during lockdown.
The crew was similar in makeup to the previous year with Clive Woodman (1977), Neil Gardner (1977), our master analogist Roly Beevor (1977) (“imagine you are pushing back against a barn door” being the theme for 2024) and Simon Cole. Once again, we were expertly steered and corralled by our very own Billygoat on the Rhine, Wolfgang Wacke.
The conditions for the race could hardly have been better with clear, bright weather, what little wind there was blowing from the optimum quarter and a raging stream. Our boat this year was built more for comfort than for speed, the only slight speed-limiting factor.
We sculled steadily through the race. As always on the Rhine, a particular challenge is maintaining effective technique through the wash created by the commercial traffic on the river and in bouncy conditions our boat Albatros sometimes behaved more like a bucking bronco.
We were pleased with our finishing time of 2h 27m 30s for the 42 kilometre course which placed us 6th out of 8 in our Masters G group, 10th out of the 21 overseas crews taking part and 120th out of the total of 164 crews.
We had held our traditional training weekend per year in Cambridge shortly before the race. We were very grateful to Tony Moule for making the Adrian Tollett available to us for the weekend (a touching reminder for those of who had rowed with Adrian in the previous Fairbairns) and to Pok-man Ho for coxing us on a River Cam teeming with other users.”
Neil added:
And of further note, this year’s stern three were the same as sat in the 1980 May’s 1st Boat!
Billy Beef!
If only we had a photo!
1984 & more – Sat 2pm
Over the Reunion weekend of Sept 28/29 2024, an ecletic (electric?) mix of half an eight of 1984, two current/recent students, Sally (1979) and Glen (1962, all the way from Canada!), met at the stunning boathouse. It was the most glorious of Autumn days – the sun shines on the righteous?
The run up to the outing was taken seriously, with John putting in daily sessions on the ergo in his bedroom, Richard completing a punishing series of early morning runs (culminating in the Ealing half marathon the day after our outing), Graeme cycling up the Tourmalet for some high-altitude training, and Martin doubling up on his on-line Pilates. On the day, Carole Burton (1984), cox, briefed the crew and under her watch we gingerly manoeuvred the shell (we loved the sliders out of the rack) onto the water and in the necessary wellies popped her in the water. Unfortunately, Sally also popped into the water as the Cam was over the bank from recent floods and she forget to seek out the edge in her wellies. Sadly, we don’t have a photo. Graeme ambitiously applied copious tape to his hands, whilst many of us marvelled at the lightness of the blades and the comfort of the handles.
Under the watchful eye of adopted coach for the day, Ian Clarke (1984), the crew paddled upstream and conducted the first of our two turns. From there, with graduate student Rob stroking, the crew had a glorious row down back past the boathouse supporters, downstream to just short of the Plough. Carole and Ian’s measured and nicely put coaching was marvelous, and there were a few nirvanic pieces where the boat glided along.
On the return, we undertook one piece of ‘work’, but in the main Rob kept us focused on slow and smooth rating under 20, as Sally dried out slowly at Bow. The river, of course, had been developed since our day, particularly on the Chesterton bank. It seemed more magical than all those years ago. Glen explained that the secret to his long sporting career has been a daily open water swim in his local lake, so that’s something we need to consider in the run up to our next outing in 2034.
Glen said: I am still exhilarated by this row – 60 years on!! Heavy wooden oars and clinker boats have been replaced by featherweight oars, and boats that even seniors can toss up over their head. It took a long time to get the rhythm back, but the younger members of the boat were very patient!! Let’s do it again!
Str Rob (current student)
7 Richard Hooke (1984)
6 Kes (just graduated)
5 John Driscoll (1984)
4 Graeme Purdy (1984)
3 Glen Norcliffe (1962)
2 Martin Caldwell (1984)
Bow Sally Howes (1979)
Cox Carole Burton (1984)
The group owe their thanks to all who made this happen. This includes Carole, Dan, Ian, Tony and Melody at the Development Office.
2004 with a bit of 2014 – Sat 10.30am
On the morning after their reunion dinner on Friday evening the 2004 and 2014 vintages combined for an outing.
Helen writes:
As much as visits to watch bumps are wonderful for feeling back involved in the sport that took up so much of our lives at Fitzwilliam College, there is nothing quite comparable to being back in a boat ourselves; sat on the Cam with the familiar sounds of catches splashing and finishes clunking. The alumni of 2014 and 2004 had a blast coming together for our outing on Saturday morning. We were very fortunate that, for once, the sunshine joined us and aggressive swans did not. A few sat strokes, the calls of a cox who you’d think had only retired yesterday, and the reach to ourselves, gave us the perfect toe dipped back into the sport so dear to all our hearts and so greatly missed. It probably helped our enjoyment levels this outing was also a rare combination of not at 6am, nor in sub-zero temperatures, nor with overdue essays hanging over us. Thank you to all those who made it possible for us.
Cox Eleanor said “I hope we’d have had to pull blades in to avoid crashing rather less frequently if I had only retired yesterday!”
Crew list:
Eleanor Brown 2004
Helen Fishwick 2014
Megan Brook 2004
Alexandra Karavla-Webster 2004
Fiona Ball 2004
Sam Brown 2004
Maddy Iqbal 2004
Alexandra Lazou 2004
Thomas Franks-Moore 2014
Sam sent this vintage photo of the 2004 women’s novice crew, 5 of whom rowed at the reunion.
Little did we think when we sat down to the Billygoats Dinner with Adrian in December 2023 that this would be the last of the very many Billygoats events he attended. In April I had the sad duty of sharing the news of his passing. It was a shock – I understand Adrian went into hospital in February, was diagnosed with cancer in early March and died on the 25th.
As a regular attendee at College dinners, Osier Holt and Henley he was a well-known and well-liked member of the Billygoats Society. He had the role of Billygoats Rowing Coordinator for many years, organising members to row in the Fairbairn races each year at the end of the Michaelmas term, and other races (mostly Cambridge summer regattas) as and when a crew was available. I, for one, have a couple of masters pots I would not have if it wasn’t for Adrian’s organisational efforts. In December he completed his three year stint on our Committee during which (inter alia) he made a major contribution of time and effort at Osier Holt each June. He will be missed by all who knew him.
2019 Fairbairns crew
2023 Fairbairns crew
Following the news, tributes poured in from dozens of Billygoats who had known him and the Committee decided unanimously to name a boat after him. There was a boat naming ceremony on the morning of Saturday 15th June before the Billygoats Osier Holt bumps party and the new tub 4+ was named the Adrian Tollett, with Adrian’s son Matthew doing the honours.
The new boat was immediately taken out for its inaugural voyage.
The Billygoats Society was represented at Adrian’s funeral by David Curry (committee member and Adrian’s near-contemporary), me and my wife. Andrew Pocock and others from the Surrey branch of the Cambridge Alumni Society and a large contingent from Staines Boat Club attended as well as his family and friends. At the service we learned of his Christian faith, a little about his work (too secret for us to learn a lot!), and his love for the Goons (with “I’m walking backwards for Christmas” as exit music), but a major part of all the tributes from family and friends was his enduring love for rowing – Adrian was a Billygoat until the end.
Refreshments were provided at Staines Boat Club and afterwards we watched as Adrian got his second boat, when SBC named a 1x Adrian Tollett. This time, his sister Celia and daughter Hannah carried out the pouring duties. Not many of us can claim two boats named in our honour!
The racks at SBC contained another boat of interest, as Adrian had sponsored it and chosen an appropriate name:
To finish, here is a photo, sent me by Ken Olisa (cox), of Adrian in his prime, in his customary bow seat, in full flow in the 1973 Lent 4th VIII.
Rest in peace.
Dan George
2009
Billygoats on the Rhine
Each October, two German rowing clubs organise a race down the Rhine from Köln to Düsseldorf – some 43km. It is rowed in “Rhine Fours”, especially substantial and stable craft, and each crew must be steered by a local cox who has a “Rhine licence”.
In 2001, Richard Henning (1956) participated as a member of a Cambridge town club crew and ever since he had been keen to repeat the experience in a Billygoat crew, one that qualified for the “over 50” category. Over the years, when they met by the Cam for the Fairbairn, he had managed to infect Nick Tittle (1976) with a similar degree of enthusiasm for the event but it required a circular to all Billygoats in September 2008 to find volunteers for the other two seats for participation in 2009. Clive Woodman (1977), Captain of Boats in 1979-80 and Roly Beevor (1977), Captain of Boats in 1978-79 completed the crew
Goats cause trouble. Anyone who has read the SAS story Bravo Two-Zero knows that. So how much trouble did four Billygoats [Roly Beevor, Richard Henning, Nick Tittle and Clive Woodman] cause the Ruderclub Germania Düsseldorf, organisers of the Rhine Marathon on 3rd October 2009? Well, not very much actually. We said, “Do you know anywhere we can stay?” They said, “How about a hotel 5 minutes walk from our boat club and the finish line.” We said “What about a boat and a cox?” They said, “Yes, we’ll organise that for you. And if you need transport to the start 42km away in Köln we have arranged a bus to take you there. And please come to our boat house, eat pork knuckle and drink beer with us the night before the race.” What is there not to like about people like this? It wasn’t their fault the Rhine was running low because it hadn’t rained much for three months and the speed of the stream was significantly slower than normal. It wasn’t their fault a very strong headwind blew up mid-way down the course and again towards the end. It wasn’t their fault there are kilometre markings all the way along the river so that you know exactly where you are. Great to begin with, when we went from the start at 695km to our first drinks break at 718km, but much, much harder in the middle section and then so, so slowly into the finish at 738km. It wasn’t their fault the Rhine resembles the A1M but with enormous barges rather than lorries, somehow three abreast on the reduced width river. It wasn’t their fault the wash from the less restrained barge drivers was such we had to stop rowing, hold the blades on the surface and ride out the waves, watching as what looked like a tsunami passed up river behind us. And because none of this was their fault, and because they gave us a silver medal for coming second in our class and a decorated plate for entering the race for the first time, I think we should go back and I think lots more Goats should take part. I can’t speak highly enough of an event so well organised, so welcoming and so hugely friendly. Thanks to Angela for driving and taking memorable photographs, Christophe for seeing us safely over a challenging course and Stefan the rowing club ex-pat. living and working in Cambridge who was the vital link in the run-up to the event. Huge thanks also to Richard for sharing his enthusiasm of an event he rowed before and wanted to do again: well done.
Nick Tittle [1976]
2010
1030am Saturday 9th October 2010. So, here we are again, one year and one week after the last time we did it. Four Billygoats back on that most mighty of European rivers, the Rhine. We’re on the pontoon below the Bayer rowing club in the chemical town of Leverkusen, being pushed off into a fast running stream that will help our boat travel 42 kilometres down river to Hamm, a pretty garden suburb of Dusseldorf. We did it last year, so what’s changed and what hasn’t? This is the 39th running of the Rhein Marathon, meticulously organised as always by RC Germania Dusseldorf 1904 e.V. Again they have arranged our hotel rooms, boat, blades and a cox licensed to steer on the Rhine, this time it was Wolfgang Wacke. Again they have treated the foreign crews to a pre-race meal of pork knuckle and apparently limitless supplies of alt beer. The Irish are here again, but with even more from Fermoy Rowing Club, including juniors to race against an increased entry from the Swedish school. But we have changed. Neil Gardner stepped in when Richard Henning gracefully retired after last year’s race. We’re sculling, not rowing, because it must be more efficient and kinder on ageing bodies over this distance. A brave decision as Clive, Neil and I all came to sculling late in life. Actually, Clive only came to sculling this summer, for this event, so top marks for commitment. Fortunately Roly is a safe pair of hands, Eton long ago recognising the importance of sculling to a young man’s development. All we have to do is what he does. To ensure some chance of imitating the master we practised, not really in the spirit of good natured amateurism but increasingly common. We sculled over the Boat Race course from Putney to Mortlake and back on the Friday morning of Henley, coming up in the afternoon for the Billygoats dinner in Leander: a classic summer’s day with glorious sunshine and no hint of rain. In August Clive, Neil and Roly went out on both the North Tyne and the Tyne from Newburn into Newcastle City Centre. Two sessions we all repeated in September after Neil and I had also doubled on the Dee. What these sessions showed, apart from the fact we all live in different places, is how warm and welcoming the rowing community is. Aberdeen, Hexham, Thames and Tyne United Rowing Clubs kindly allowing us to use boats and coxes, even following us in a coaching launch [well, trust does have to be earned] So, after all the prep, how did we go? Coming off the water after 2 hours 39 minutes, the 1st and 2nd fastest crews in the whole race were in our category [Masters coxed quad, 50 to 55 years] as was the fastest foreign crew at that time, X-press, so we knew we were in a tough category. By the time the final results were posted we fell into the second half of the 143 boats that finished. But, but, but, if we can find 13 minutes, 30 seconds a mile, we climb up into the first half. The challenge is to scull through the waves of passing barges. Not so much head-on as the bows of the Rhine boats are designed for this and the experienced cox will steer into them. The problem is finding the water when the boat is corkscrewing as the waves of barges going in opposite directions come together. Can we go faster? Yes we can and next year is the 40th anniversary: see you there?
Roly says we can have 1 more beer before the race starts
Roly says they won’t see us if we come out of the sun
Roly says only another 32k to go
Roly says we can overtake the Invisible Men
2011
Three is a lucky number: Goats on the Tyne and Rhine 2011
One of the many differences between being employed and being in full-time education is how much harder it is to organise outings. When crew members live in Germany, London, Northumberland and Scotland it takes a lot of planning and some compromises, like not getting out as a full crew before crossing the start line of the race. The compensation is rowing on other rivers, which, during last year’s preparations for the Rhine Marathon, included the Dee, the Thames and the North Tyne. We also sculled on the Tyne a couple of times, from the ever-welcoming Tyne United Rowing Club at Newburn down to Newcastle Gateshead and back. Somebody else must have thought it was a good idea because this year British Rowing organised the Great Tyne Row on 24th July, part of the Explore Rowing Summer Series. It wasn’t a race but was an opportunity to row through Newcastle and out to Tynemouth through the Port which isn’t usually allowed, probably because of these quaysides.
It wasn’t a race but we did win the prize for the fastest time, which Roly subsequently drank, in just under 2 hours, ahead of Oxford Academicals who won the fastest women’s prize. .While they had their photographs in September’s Rowing and Regatta magazine [only fair as they are much better looking than us, although Roly’s head and shoulders do appear alongside some suitably complimentary comments about the event and the organisers], we had the immortal words “The first crew home – the Fitzwilliam College Cambridge Billygoats.”
A big thank you to Simon Cole for stepping in, literally in the picture below, for Neil Gardner at 3 and Steph Charlton for perfect steering on the day, despite challenging conditions caused by a very strong and very gusty wind. Thanks also to Tyne United Rowing Club for the boat, the sculls and letting us go faster than them on the day.
So, enough about preparation what about performance in the main event, our 3rd and their 40th Rhine Marathon on 8th October? This was a race and we completed the 42km course from Leverkusen to Hamm Dusseldorf in 2 hours 47 minutes, slower than last year [“oh dear, that’s not good”] but everyone was slower with the first crew 6 minutes down on last year’s winning time due to low water, a reduced stream and a head wind on much of the course [“ok, that’s not so bad”], that left us looking like this at the end
We finished 86, better than last year’s 117 [“good”] and out of 170 finishers rather than last year’s 143 [“very good”] The 3rd fastest overseas crew, behind X-Press in second, beating all the Irish crews from Fermoy Rowing Club [“good”] and 6th in our class, Masters 50-55 years, beaten only by German crews.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWAChRVN0l8 to see us catching and passing our second French crew on the finish line and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwachrvn0l8 for a typical Rhine barge and the weather conditions on race day.
Thank you to our great friend and overseas part-time Goat, Wolfgang Wacke, for his calm and confident steering, always appreciated when you’re at bow on a very busy working river. And, as always thanks to RC Germania Düsseldorf 1904 for organising the event, booking hotel rooms, the boat, blades and fuelling us up with Pork Knuckle and Alt Beer the evening before the race. Long may it continue, maybe we can win Masters 60-65 in 2021 when they run the 50th edition?
Crew – Roly Beevor, Neil Gardner, Clive Woodman, Nick Tittle
The Rhine Marathon is back in the calendar as a Billygoats fixture and 2023 saw a slight change in personnel. Neil Gardner and Clive Woodman were competing for the 12th and 11th times respectively, our President Ian Clarke for the second year and Simon Cole came in for Roly Beevor.
Our programme started with a weekend training session in Cambridge after which our preparations took a more idiosyncratic turn with Ian powering his coastal scull down the River Avon, Simon shoveling several tonnes of topsoil, Neil climbing a Munro and touring the Basque Country and Clive honing his sculling technique riding a motorbike 3,500km through northern India (pictured).
Wolfgang Wacke (surely now a de facto Billygoat) coxed us once again and we all feel profoundly grateful to have an expert at the helm to steer us safely through the Rhine’s commercial shipping.
Conditions were more benign than in 2022. The nature of the course means that crews are almost certain to face headwinds over at least some of the 42kms. 2023 was no exception but the fact that the wind freshened over the day was compensation for a very early wake-up call.
Clive Woodman took the stroke seat and settled us quickly into the now signature Billygoat Rhine Marathon rhythm. We have learned over the years how to negotiate the sometimes spectacular wake created by the Rhine barges – surfing skills would not go amiss – and persevered well through the more challenging parts of the race.
It says something about the scale of the challenge that the crew builds for the finish from 5 kms out. It was a well-judged effort and we all reckoned we had run the tank dry by the finish line.
We were satisfied with our 2h 40.47m time which placed us 82nd= out of a total field of 161 crews, 5th out 20 overseas crews and 6th out of 8 crews in our Masters F age category. We are still two rungs below the oldest age category and are all keen to see the next generation of Billygoats emerge for this unique event. The camaraderie of the competitors and the hospitality of the race organisers, Ruderclub Germania Düsseldorf 1904, make it an unforgettable experience.”
The Fairbairn Cup was graced with three entries from Billygoats and alumni this year.
1982 & Friends
| Cox | Carole Burton Wright (1984) |
| Stroke | Dan George (1979) |
| 7 | Ian Clarke (1984) |
| 6 | David Wright (1982) |
| 5 | Robert Doe (1981) |
| 4 | James Kelly (1981) |
| 3 | Richard Charrington (1981) |
| 2 | Chris Thomas (1980) |
| Bow | Constantin Kilcher (2018) |
| Coach | David Seddon |
It was, of course, the 40th anniversary of the only time Fitz ever won the senior race, back in 1982, as detailed in here early-1980s-with-dan-george-and-kathryn-ogilvy-spink/ , so we thought it was only fair to put the team back together. Sadly two of our number were “lost goats” (Hilary Farnworth and Geoff Bindley) and two were suffering the ravages of time (Ric Clayton and Martyn Easton) so we were only 5 and in need of some substitutes. As three of our number hadn’t rowed since the 30th anniversary (or since College in one case) we needed some supersubs to help us make it down the course. Luckily we were able to call upon current President Ian Clarke (3 Blues), past President Carole Burton Wright (Blue), past Captain of FCBC David Wright (University Lightweights, though not sure he’d make the weight these days) and, last but not least, recent graduate and current PhD student, Constantin Kilcher (no University rowing advantage but more than 3 decades of time advantage). With these on board surely we could shine, if we were perhaps unlikely to get a second win.
After the traditional 7am practice outing (I was pleasantly amazed everyone made it on time), Constantin took us to a nearby greasy spoon and gave us a taste of the sort of hearty breakfast the young people like.
Suitably and healthily fortified, we set off back to the boathouse where the last crews in the previous division, including the other Billygoat crew (see below), had still not left. Eventually we boated, and set off down towards the start, now moved to Jesus Boathouse, making it a really rather short race compared with back in our day.
David Seddon’s advice in 1982 was go “off as hard as you can and try to keep going until the end”. We were not convinced that this would work again given our greater age and girth, so we abandoned the “go off as hard as you can” bit but decided to at least try to “keep going until the end”.
During the race, cox Carole focused on one main theme: that the rating should be closer to 26 than 30, in order for us to make it to the bottom of the river. She was strongly supported in this by 7 but there was some dissent among the rest of the crew who preferred a slightly higher rating, in particular, on the slide. Thus we had about 10 or 12 calls of “down 2” with no “up”s and yet never quite reached the sunlit lowlands of 26 strokes per minute. After the race was safely over, stroke expressed the opinion that we might have gone a few seconds faster (about 12 seconds faster would have been nice!) if we had let it come up to 29 or 30 but cox was very clear that this would have been extremely unwise as we might not have made it to Baits Bite.
Our bank party took some nice videos in which the crew looked pretty good rowing together – a very creditable performance, especially by those who had not rowed for a while. Thanks to the subs for enabling us to race and helping us to race well, and to David Seddon for his energetic bank partying.
Sadly, I was unable to load these videos on WordPress (either due to not having paid for an upgrade or lack of competence, I am not sure which) but they are on the Billygoats Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/448152778608100
Not the 1982 Reunion Crew
| Cox | Carole Burton Wright (1984) |
| Stroke | Alan Alcock (1988) |
| 7 | Neil Gardner (1977) |
| 6 | Tom Watt |
| 5 | Simon Cole (1978) |
| 4 | Clive Woodman (1977) |
| 3 | David Birtwhistle (1966) |
| 2 | John Roberts (1966) |
| Bow | Adrian Tollett (1972) |
Adrian Tollett, Billygoats Rowing Coordinator, always organises a crew for the Fairbairns, and this year was no different, though he picked a different name. Simon Cole writes:
7 a.m. on a chilly December morning. The River Cam cloaked in a fog rolling in off the fens and bringing back memories of those early morning winter training outings before lectures (or, for those reading English, a return to bed).
The Billygoats mustered three alumni VIIIs for the 2022 Fairbairns Cup – one women’s crew and two men’s crews. A healthy internal rivalry was assured.
Both men’s crews repaired for breakfast after pragmatically brief training outings.
First off was Not the 1982 Reunion Crew, perhaps better identified from its tactical approach as Long & Languid, with possible overemphasis on the langour. Carol Burton skilfully coxed and coaxed L&L into maintaining a striking rate of 28 and L&L was relieved to reach the Little Bridge in a time of 18m 19s. The only disappointment was that unlike one of its peer alumni crews, it had omitted to lay in a bottle of port at the finish. Carol was back in action as cox of 1982 and Friends. Our 1982 heroes elected for a Short but Pugnacious strategy. S&P outperformed L&L on the day.
Alumnae
A women’s crew of recent graduates also took part.
| Cox | Emily Young (2015) |
| Stroke | Helen Fishwick (2014) |
| 7 | Maisie Matthews (2018) |
| 6 | Rhiannon Philps (2014) |
| 5 | Andrea Stefkova (2012) |
| 4 | Hilary Wong (2010) |
| 3 | Isabel Cocker (2015) |
| 2 | Sylwia Mankowska (2011) |
| Bow | Jemima Gasson (2015) |
| Coach | Emily Lees (2016) |
A collection of Fitzwilliam Women’s rowers spanning from those attending Fitz between 2011 up to graduates from 2022 met to form the 3rd annual alumnae boat for Fairbairns 2022. We were ably coxed by Emily Young (2015), who has taken to coxing on the tideway since her departure from Cambridge, and the crew consisted of: Rhiannon Philps (2014), Maisie Matthews (2019), Emily Lees (2016), Andrea Stefkova (2012), Hilary Wong (2010), Sylwia Makowska (2011) and Jemima Gasson (2015). We were very grateful to Octave, the current Captain of Boats for his support on the bank to the younger sister of one of our previous men’s captains, currently studying at St Catherine’s for stepping in at the last moment when one of our rowers was called into work!
We had a spirited row, finishing in a time of 18:15, ahead of 11 Oxbridge W1 crews! We enjoyed the winter sunshine on a smooth row home and are enthused to make a return to the river next year.
Results
| M1 | 15:37 |
| M2 | 17:43 |
| 1982 & Friends | 17:54 |
| W1 | 18:05 |
| Alumnae | 18:15 |
| Not 1982 | 18:19 |
Pudding Races
On Saturday, some of us returned to the river for Pudding Races. Two eights were formed, with Billygoats, students, men and women all mixed in together. We rowed down with a division of the Christmas Head, faffed around at the bottom of the river for a while, then raced back up the Long Reach.
I don’t have the crew lists but unfortunately whoever picked the crews put the young people in the stern, so the race rating was considerably higher than the day before, but luckily the race was a lot shorter. The crew that appears more often in the above photos won.
Saturday October 1st was the 51st running of the Rhine Marathon between Leverkusen and Dusseldorf, and the Billygoats were there again after a 2 year pandemic hiatus. We rowed as a Masters F coxed quad, this time with first timer Ian Clarke (aka The Pres) at 3. When asked to describe the experience for this article, Ian succinctly put it this way: “It was brutal”!
Our day started well with the organizational gods giving us a later than usual start time, allowing for a leisurely breakfast and a daylight bus departure up to the start instead of the pre-dawn routine we were used to. This photo shows the crew at the start: Ian Clarke, Clive Woodman, Roly Beevor, Wolfgang Wacke and Neil Gardner.
As we rigged our boat the weather was already making its intentions clear, with frequent squalls coming out of the west. We set off between showers and soon settled into cruise mode, with the Rhine giving us not too rough a ride until we got to about half-way where the river veers west. Cue headwinds and nasty choppy water. This was our first “brutal’ stretch which tested the crew and slowed down our progress.
Nevertheless we survived that and got moving quicker again until we reached the bridge about 5km from the finish. Straight into the wind again and with the bridge squeezing the airflow faster under it, we felt as though the boat were stopped and making no progress, just rocking around in the rough water! Proper brutal this time, but stroke Roly drove us out of there and then raised the rate to 25-spm to give us a smartish finish in 2hrs 47min (see picture below). We were 5th in our category out of 9 finishers, a performance we are pleased with as we beat some German crews!
Post Marathon festivities were then engaged in at our host club, Ruderclub Germania Dusseldorf, to whom we again owe a great debt of gratitude for their hospitality and support with equipment and the supply of our trusty cox Wolfgang.
Scribe: NG, October 2022
