Category: FCBC Rowing

In 2012 Billygoats Society Secretary Emeritus and Vice President John Adams continued writing about selected entries from the Boat Club record books:

Across the Decades 2012 – from the Fitzwilliam Boat Club Record Books

Last year saw the sixtieth anniversary of a very successful year for the Club, the winning of the Michell Cup, four Bumps for the 1^st VIII in both Lents and Mays and the first entry by a Fitzwilliam crew to Henley Royal Regatta (though that crew unfortunately just failed to succeed in the pre-regatta qualifying race).

This year sees the fiftieth anniversary of what can be argued to be an even more successful year for the Club – with similar results on the Cam for the 1^st VIII, but these achieved more than 10 places higher on the river, the winning of the Michell Cup again, and the first appearance of a Fitzwilliam crew at Henley Royal Regatta (though that crew lost its first round heat in the Ladies’ Plate).

But the crew which made the headlines in The Times in 1962 was the record breaking 3^rd VIII – with a rise of 10 places on the first day of the Lents. Difficult for you to believe this was possible? You are not alone: Lord Brabazon of Tara had trouble persuading the fellow members of his club of the truth when he told them of the rise, and wrote to the Captain of Boats for the full details so he could convince the doubters. The details appear below and a summary of the results of the 1^st boats every ten years is in Annex 1.

Ninety years ago – 1922

“A meeting of the Boat Club was held on April 22nd 1922, the Captain in the chair. Not more than 6 members were present; and no business of paramount importance was transacted; but the possibilities of going to the Henley Royal Regatta were discussed, and authority given to the Captain to make inquiries, a fuller consideration to take place at a later meeting.” As is now known, it took forty years for the possibilities to be realised.

The coaches of the 1922 Lent Boat were “A D B Pearson (First) and R E Morrison (Third)”. (First & Third were not combined until 1940.)

Eighty years ago -1932

The records for the year show that the discussion over dress continued (see last year’s snapshots). Three pages of the Record Book are occupied with details of the blazers, vests, socks, wraps, sweaters and caps appropriate for the members of various crews. “A copy of these regulations was given to Messrs Ryder, Amies, the official outfitters of the Club.

Seventy years ago – 1942

No record – no Boat Club. Fitzwilliam had very few students during World War 2.

Sixty years ago – 1952

Like 2012, 1952 was an Olympic year – and in 1952 this had a significant effect on Fitzwilliam House Boat Club.

“During the Easter vacation it was announced by the Olympic Games Committee that Brian Lloyd, this year’s President of Leander and last year’s CUBC President, had been asked to select an VIII to go to Helsinki this summer. Consequently Cambridge is being used as the trial ground and many Old Blues are back in the Town. Before the beginning of term Skinner (the FHBC President, who had won a Trial Cap at the end of 1951 as a cox and had been thereupon been elected a member of Leander) had obtained promises to coach from several of those Olympic trial oars.”

The second VIII that term made do without a potential Olympian, being coached by “Mark Attlee (nephew of Her Majesty’s Leader of the Opposition) of Queens’ Boat Club”

 Fifty years ago – 1962

In the 1962 Lents, the 1^st VIII made 3 bumps in the first division. But the Times headlines were grabbed by the 3^rd VIII. On the Thursday of the Lents, under headlines reading “Gain of 10 places on first day. Unique achievement of Lents crew”, the Times rowing correspondent wrote, “The rowing achievement of Fitzwilliam House III overshadowed everything on the first day of the Lent races at Cambridge yesterday. First they overbumped their way from fourth in the fifth division to head of it, then, half an hour later as sandwich boat at the bottom of the fourth division , they bumped[1] Lady Margaret VI passing on the way six boats each pair of which had been involved in a bump. This was a net gain of 10 places in one afternoon’s racing, which is unique in the history of rowing.” (And in those days The Times was not given to sensationalism.) After that performance, the crew made a bump on each of the following three days. Their total rise – 13 places.

In the Mays, the 1^st VIII made four bumps, the 2^nd two, the 3^rd two, the 4^th an overbump followed by 5 bumps and the 5th (Rugger) boat went down twice.

Denham Bayly Jones (Oriel & OUBC Trial Cap), who was Trinity chaplain, first coached Fitzwilliam  after the Lent Bumps (for the Bedford, Reading and Tideway Heads) and then again after the Mays for Marlow and Henley. The crew improved significantly under his guidance and at Henley, on the Friday before the regatta “in favourable conditions, we rowed a 1min 55sec Barrier – one second inside the Ladies’ Plate record.

Forty years ago – 1972

The entry in the book under Henley 1972 includes

“As the Ladies’ Plate this year has been extended to allow 32 crews to participate in the regatta proper, no qualifying races were held. We were drawn against the holders, University of London. Going off the start at 44 we had a lead of a canvas by the end of the island but were unable to increase this lead. Both crews were still rating 40 at the quarter mile signal after which UL started slowly creeping back. We checked this momentarily at the Barrier where we led by 3 feet, but they spurted and went past to lead by a canvas. With the rating down to 35 we managed to increase the power output, and the crews were level at Fawley. UL spurted again at the three-quarter mile signal and we put the rating up to 37 to counter this. The rating kept at 36-37 until the mile and one-eighth signal, with UL leading by a mere 2 feet. Going past the General Enclosure, we rated 38 and took their lead away inch by inch. As we went past the Stewards’ Enclosure we raised the rating to 40 for our usual storming finish; UL had no answer to this, and we crept away to win by 1/3 length, in the best race of the day, a fitting introduction to Henley for the seven oarsmen and the cox who had not competed there before.”

The crew met the eventual winners, DSR Laga (Holland), in the nest round and lost to them in the fastest race of the day “Grand times not excluded”.

Thirty years ago – 1982

1981-82 is the last year for which anything appears in the book. The record for that year includes, “The women’s 1^st [Lent] VIII were very unlucky not to win their oars, being foiled by a good Darwin crew on the first and fourth days [when they rowed over].”

[1]  I would have said “treble-overbumped” and this was the first ever treble-overbump on the Cam.  The feat has been repeated, but not by a crew which had already bumped on the same day. The ten places in one day remains the record, In the 2001 Mays, Homerton achieved a net gain of 13 places, two bumps on the Wednesday, an overbump Thursday, a treble-overbump Friday and a bump on the Saturday.

Note the progress of the (men’s) 1^st VIII in the twenty years 1952 to 1972 – a rise of one division in both ten year periods.

In 2011 Billygoats Society Secretary Emeritus and Vice President John Adams wrote about selected entries from the Boat Club record books. In these times of lockdown and isolation I thought they might be of interest. John writes:

Across the Decades – from the Fitzwilliam Boat Club Record Books

That the Boat Club kept a record book in the forties, fifties and sixties is known to a number of Billygoats because when students they had contributed to each year’s record, written usually by the Club secretary. What was not known was that there had been a Record Book kept in the pre-WW2 years. The book recently came to light and is currently (with the post-war book) held by the Billygoats secretary (before going in due course into the College archives). (In fact the Billygoats Secretary still has the books, extracts of which appear in many of the historic posts on this very website).

The earlier book begins with a record from June 1921 – so it is now possible to publish a annual series of historical snapshots beginning in a period beyond the ken of any living Billygoat, starting with:

Ninety years ago – 1921

The records for 1921 are minutes of three meetings. Two were mainly concerned with the style of dress for members. The meeting in October 1921, after ruling on when subs should be paid, “Further decided to ask the Amalgamated Clubs [the forerunner of the JMA] for a new Eight and two new sets of oars, one racing, the other of second quality. The following order of Colours was fixed :-

1^st May Boat   Blazer (red or white or both) with crest & letters, Scarf, Zephir, Socks & Cap

2^nd May Boat  Red Blazer, with crest & letters, Zephir & Socks

1^st Lent Boat   Red Blazer, with crest only, Zephir & Socks

2^nd ditto           Red Blazer, with pocket only, Zephir & Socks

3^rd ditto           Red Blazer, without pocket, Zephir only

All other members wear white shorts, white zephir and dark coloured socks.”

No socks for 3^rd boat members!

Eighty years ago – 1931

The crew list for the 1^st May boat which bumped 1^st Trinity IV and Trinity Hall III includes at 3, weighing 10st 13lb, A L Sadd. After graduating Alfred Sadd went out to the Gilbert Islands with the London Missionary Society. He was martyred on Tarawa Island in August 1942.

Three crews were entered for the Fairbairn Cup Race in November. The 1^st VIII, which started 26^th and finished 14^th (ahead of 8 first boats), had A L Sadd at 2 and was coxed by F J Stratton (his first appearance in the records).  F J Stratton became Sir John Stratton. He was our first President and a major benefactor of the Billygoats (as well as Fitzwilliam Society, Fitzwilliam Society Trust Ltd and the College). In the 1960s when chairman of the Fatstock Marketing Corporation, he occupied a suite in the Dorchester during the week, returning to his estate in Sussex at the weekend.

Seventy years ago – 1941

No record – no Boat Club. Activities had been suspended at the beginning of the Michaelmas term in 1939.

Sixty years ago – 1951

In 1951 the Club was active and successful. In the 1951 Lents, the 1^st VIII made 4 bumps “although it was felt they took far too long to make their bumps” (at Grassy, First Post Corner, the Plough Reach and Ditton Corner). The 2^nd VIII made 3 bumps and the 3^rd VIII rowed over, went down, rowed over, then bumped the crew that caught them on day two.

Two crews rowed in the Tideway Head. Of 214 finishers, the 2^nd VIII finished 66^th but the 1^st VIII was 113^th as only six men rowed for most of the course. Six having broken his slide at Barnes Bridge, he and five “were passengers for four miles”. Cedric McCarthy, now living in Cumbria, was at bow in that boat. In the 2^nd VIII, Ian Mortimer, now in Spain, was at 7 and Ken Smith, Life Fellow of Fitzwilliam, was stroke.

For the Mays, Ian Mortimer and Ken Smith were promoted to the 1^st VIII and Cedric McCarthy went to 7 in the 2^nd VIII. The 1^st and 3^rd VIIIs both made four bumps and the 2^nd VIII two.

The Club won the Michell Cup by CUBC. Presented in 1923 in memory of Dr. R. W. Michell, the cup is awarded to the Boat Club with the best performance on the Cam during the academic year.

Following the Mays, the 1^st VIII won two rounds in Marlow Regatta before losing in the semi-final to Pembroke, the eventual winners of the Marlow Eights Challenge Cup.

The VIII was the first Fitzwilliam crew to enter Henley Royal Regatta. They were required to row in the elimination heats before the regatta proper. Sadly, they were beaten by King’s in 7min 15sec, the fastest Ladies Plate elimination heat. Their time was faster than any of the winners of the other eliminating heats. Now, of course, a different and fairer qualifying selection method is used – the time over the course.

Fifty years ago – 1961

In the 1961 Lents, the 1^st VIII made 5 bumps, the last from the bottom of the 1^st Division when King’s was caught at the gunsheds. At last a Fitz crew was in the first division!

The 2^nd VIII made two bumps but the 3^rd VIII was over-bumped and then bumped three times.

At Bedford Head, the 1^st VIII won the clinker pennant and the 2^nd VIII was third in the clinker division, beating Downing (in a clinker) and King’s (in a shell). Both crews rowed in the Reading Head – where the 1^st VIII came 2^nd in the clinker division with the 2^nd VIII fifth.

In the Mays, the 1^st and 3^rd VIIIs both rose 4 places and the 2^nd VIII made one bump.

The Michaelmas term began with “a dance in the Dorothy Café, to which guests from other College Boat Clubs were invited. Blazers were worn and it proved a colourful and enjoyable evening.” Four VIIIs rowed in the Fairbairn. One of those crews and three members of another were novices – another novice crew rowed “in the Clare Novice Race”.

Forty years ago – 1971

There are no records in the book for the Lents and Mays of 1971.

In the Michaelmas term, the Light IV of S G I Kerruish, R A Greatorex, T H Fowler, and J A Hart were beaten by Selwyn and the Clinker IV of P J Norton, P M Howard, S J Cutler and J Waite, coxed by G D Glover lost to Downing.

The two Fairbairn crews did not do well. “Bouts of illness and other incidents dogged this [1^st] crew, which never realised its potential.” The two novice crews had some success. The A crew lost in the first round to the eventual winners, Churchill, and “so found themselves relegated to the ‘Little Regatta’. Once here, however, they raced extremely well …” They won two rounds before losing in the final to Clare. This crew were awarded the crockpots.

Thirty years ago – 1981

There is no record in the book of the activities of women’s crews in 1980-81 and no records at all for the Club in the year 1979-80. So, though Fitz women have had boats on the river since the 1980 Lents, their second term of residence, the earliest record in the book of a woman crew member is that of Hilary Farnworth, cox of the 1981 3^rd Lent boat. The next is of her as cox of the 1981 2^nd May boat – both men’s boats but the record does not mention gender.

In the 1981 Lents, the 1^st VIII was bumped on the Wednesday after hitting the bank at Grassy. After that, they rowed over and then made two bumps to finish in 5^th place on the river. In the Mays the boat made two bumps, finishing in 11^th place on the river.

But the real triumph of the year was at Henley, where the writer reports “we improved dramatically under the expert guidance of Bob Winckless. The morning outing, for example, would consist of 200 hard strokes, no more than 15 at a time. In this way we moved the boat at higher speeds.” Entering the Ladies Plate, the crew was not required to qualify. They beat Nottingham University by 2 ¾ lengths in the first round, and Emmanuel by ⅓ length in the second round. They “lost easily to Trinity College, Hertford, USA on the Saturday. We rowed badly…. This was disappointing but there was some consolation in being the longest surviving Oxbridge college crew.”

1981-82 is the last year for which anything appears in the record book. In the Michaelmas term, for the first time in the Club’s history two Vice-Captains are elected. Chris Goldsack is Men’s Vice-Captain and Sally Howes is Women’s Vice-Captain (Doug Webb is Captain of Boats). Hilary Farnworth is now cox of the 1^st VIII. The others are men, but again no mention of gender for the boat: it is “the 1^st VIII” – unlike other boats which are recorded as being 1^st Women’s IV, 2^nd Women’s IV, 1^st Men’s Novices and 1^st Women’s Novices.

The two novice crews did well in the Clare Novices’ Regatta (the men reaching the third round, but in that race they hit the bank and so lost; the women lost in the first round of the Cup competition and so took part in the Plate event where they were the losing finalists). Both crews were then entered for the Reading University Novices’ Regatta where the “crews proved to be the second fastest crews in their respective events.” The men lost in the semi-final (presumably to the eventual winners in view of the view expressed in the preceding quotation) and the women lost in the final of the Cup competition.

The final record for 1981 reads “Women’s Trials    –      S van Kleef is in the Blue Boat”. A typical Fitzwilliam understated way of recording a major success.

There are no records in the book after 1982.

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

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.