I recall a careers talk given to my sixth form Maths class by David Miles, an alumnus of my school in Caerphilly, South Wales, who had recently studied Theoretical Physics followed by Part III Maths at Fitz, on the topic of death being treated as a discount factor. He was an actuary, a job none of us had heard of, so he was expertly suited to explaining discount factors (which I became extremely familiar with in my later career as a derivatives trader) and how they could aid in the modelling of mortality rates, essential for life insurance and pension analysis. I met David from time to time over the years (often rugby related) but only recently realised that as well as playing rugby he had also rowed while at College, having taken it up in his 4th year when he lived near the river. He sent me some photos from the 1976 Fitz 3rd May boat, which was called “Sludgegulpers”.
The crew was listed on the May Bumps Supper menu, though it is possible that S Crawford might have replaced N Jepps on some or all of the days.
Their results were perhaps not as they would have hoped but i’m sure a lot of fun was had by all.
Coincidentally, Peter Emery had written of his sadness on hearing of Adrian Tollett’s passing, and mentioned that Adrian “was mainly committed to a “gentlemen’s crew” called the Sludgegulpers”, and referenced Ken Olisa’s photo (Adrian Tollett – Billygoats Society) of the 1973 Lent 4th VIII.
I was intrigued by the name and I looked through Ken Drake’s archive at the crew lists from dinner menus. The 1973 Lent 4th VIII were not named on the menu, however, and had no members in common with later Sludgegulper crews, so I suspect Adrian was not in the Sludgegulpers. The Sludgegulpers are first named the next academic year, as the 2nd novice VIII in the 1973 Fairbairns, and became 4th boat in the 1974 Lents but by the 1974 Mays they had dropped to the position of 8th boat. They once more made up the 4th boat in the 1975 Mays, then 3rd boat in 1976 when David Miles joined. Many of these crews had a number of names in common: cox CJ Fish making 5 appearances, S French and P Frost making 4, and S Bagshaw, J Griffin, D Bygate and D Fisher making 3 each. None are currently Billygoats so i don’t know whether any of them will ever see this post. It would be interesting to hear from them about the crew, why it was so named, and how they kept it going for that 3 or 4 year period.
Often we remember 1st boats and their exploits, but we should also remember how rowing at Fitz was an inclusive sport which allowed many undergraduates to take part and enjoy the excitement of bumps racing. The Sludgegulpers are a great example of this, as indeed was Adrian himself, and the tales Ken Drake tells about the 1962 3rd Lent crew, the 1979 4th May crew etc.
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.
After spending a very enjoyable day as a guest of Richard Hooke (FCBC Captain 1986/7) at Henley and meeting some of the Billygoat living legends, I felt inspired to rifle through some of my old photos to see if I could locate any more of the disreputable outfits I’d rowed with.
Cross-referencing with Ken Drake’s excellent crew lists allowed me to refresh my memory. This first picture is of the 1985 1st Men’s Fairbairn’s Novices. I’m sure it’s only the perspective of the photo, but our cox Nick Pyke looks burlier than any of the rest of us! Perhaps the most subsequently notable oarsman, with a very determined expression on his face, is Brian Potterill at number 5, just in front of me, who went on to row for two victorious CUBC lightweight crews a few years later in 1988 and 1989.
This second photo, taken later that academic year at the 1986Lents, is of the 2nd Men’s VIII. Andy Tanton is at stroke again, with Richard Hooke at number 7. I’m sandwiched between Richard and Brian Potterill. So, do you think that Richard is early or Brian late? Richard looks slightly despairing (perhaps we were being caught?) and I look alarmed (perhaps we were likely to row over?).
The third photo is of the 2nd Men’s VIII at the 1987 Mays. It looks like a bit of a rocky ride, with the stroke side blades still in fresh air while bow side were finding the catch! Perhaps that’s why I only have it as a proof and never parted with money to buy it. We did seem to have a motley selection of blades. Perhaps they’d been mended from previous collisions? The dinner menu crew list is not quite correct, because stroke and number 2 have swapped places relative to the list. Richard’s other guest at Henley yesterday (see first photo above), John Driscoll, is at number 3. John and three other of that crew (Simon Pratt (7), Giles Foden (5) and Ben Mayes (4)), also rowed with me a year later in the 2nd Men’s VIII at the 1988 Mays.
During an idle moment last Sunday afternoon, I dipped into that definitive archive, the crew lists taken from the boat club dinner menus. (See Ken Drake Archive – Billygoats Society). It seems that in 1987 I had fallen into bad association with some of the rougher elements of the boat club. In the menu for the dinner celebrating the Lents I am listed in the 3rd Men’s as Donkeyboy Purdy, rowing at 7 between Crabber Clayton and Warp-spasm Everson. Crabber was not known for his particular skill with an oar, but he had an impressively large lung capacity, made even more surprising by his habit of lighting up as soon as we’d crossed any finish line. I can’t recall where he kept his tobacco pouch, perhaps he persuaded our long-suffering cox to have it at the ready? Warp-spasm and I shared an appreciation of fine literature and spent many pleasant evenings in Fitz bar discussing the corkscrew storylines of Rogue Trooper and Slaine Mac Roth. In fact, Warp-spasm was named (I hesitate to say christened) after Slaine’s ability to channel the powers of mother earth and transform himself into a monstrous warrior. He made it a habit to frighten freshers in Natural Sciences by spontaneously impersonating what he called a sea monster by making the blood vessels and sinews of his neck bulge terrifyingly.
On the surface of it, the 2nd Men’s of the 1988 Mays seems like a more respectable crew. However, our cox had her hands full as it was certainly one of the most argumentative crews I’ve had the pleasure of rowing with. In particular, there was a lot of backchat from Giles at bow, who would often question the necessity of another Power Ten, or a request to pull harder. I can’t blame him really, as in the Mays we ended up having to row over three times, which is enough to try anyone’s patience. In later years, Giles went on to write the excellent, “Last King of Scotland” and he became something of a celebrity, appearing on Masterchef as an epicurean judge. It rolled back the years when I watched him declare he’d rather, “barbecue his face” than eat one the offerings of a luckless sweat-drenched hopeful. Here’s a photo of us all doing our best.
Graeme Purdy, 1984
MEN’S 2nd MAY BOAT1988
Bow G Foden
2 K Abnet
3 A Larsson
4 B E Mayes
5 J Driscoll
6 P M Robbins
7 S Pratt
Str G Purdy
Cox J Eggleston
Coaches C Williams, B Potterill, P H Carroll, R Morgan
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.
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 Boat Club was contacted by someone from Ellesmere College who sent over some photos of an alumnus, E A Wilson, including a crew photo of the 1925 Fitzwilliam House May boat.
The blazers in the photo have diagonal stripes rather than the later vertical stripes we are familiar with. All you want to know about blazers is here:
The post-war record book in my possession contains reports from the Captains up until 1982, including crew lists and results. There are some gaps where nothing is written and some pages have been removed. The pre-war book often contains minutes of meetings rather than a Captain’s report and that is the case for 1924-25.
The records reveal that the Boat Club was in some flux in 1924-25. F. B. Priest (2 in the photo) had been Captain of the Boat Club in the previous year, and was re-elected for 1924-25 when the elected Captain resigned at the first meeting of the year and nominated Priest for the vacancy. G. W. Mantell (6) was Secretary and F. H. Garner ( stroke) was Treasurer – both also elected after the incumbents resigned.
Matters under discussion at Michaelmas meetings included a subscription to pay for repair of the “funny” (I don’t know what this was – maybe a tub or bank tub – can anyone shed some light?), and extensive discussion of uniforms and colours (“due cleanliness of uniform to be judged by the Captain”!). “The Captain declared that training for the Trial Eights Races would begin on Nov 17th and the Secretary made the necessary arrangements for the daily morning walk.” The Trial Eights Race was won by A crew by 3 lengths – maybe they walked quicker or longer each morning- and 23 members attended the Boat Club Dinner.
The last meeting of the Michaelmas term had decreed that members should return on the first day of Full Term so that Lent practice could begin early – what we now call a pre-Lent training camp. No Lent results are recorded, however, though it is noted that after an accident between FH 2nd Lent boat and JCBC 4th boat, following the advice of the coaches, FHBC accepted responsibility for the damage and authorised JCBC to send the bill to FHBC. An undated meeting (we do know it was held in the library at 7pm) revealed the “going down” of the Captain Priest and the election of Mantell. The only Easter term meeting was for the election of officers for 1925-26, and no results were recorded, though the photograph shows that FH bumped Kings 2 and Clare 2.
Other sources reveal that in the 1925 Lents in Division 3 Fitzwilliam were bumped by Caius 3, rowed over, bumped Pembroke 4, and bumped 1st trinity 4 to end 4th in Division 3. In the 1925 Mays, starting 4th in Division 3 (by coincidence, this was long after the Lents and Mays were split), FH rowed over, bumped Kings 2, rowed over, bumped Clare 2, to end 2nd in Division 3.
Many members will be aware that the Billygoats Society was founded in 1948, and this is recorded in the below article which appeared in the 1949 Journal. I was interested to see that one of the key activities of the newly founded society was to hold a dinner in London on Boat Race night. I wonder if current members would like to resurrect this idea?
John Adams provided the Journal entry and the following commentary.
Billygoats Society – formation and first set of Rules
The June 1948 issue of the Fitzwilliam Magazine, which was written and published by the students, included the following –
Billygoats Society
Oarsmen past and present, who have raced for Fitzwilliam House, are invited to join a new dining society now being formed to support and give continuity to the traditions of the Boat Club.
The social functions of the Society will be two dinners annually, one in London on Boat Race night, and the other in Cambridge on the night of the Fairbairn Cup race.
Further details may be had of the Joint Organizers, J Hunter and F J Willett at Fitzwilliam House.
In the Fitzwilliam Journal of December 1949 the formation of the Society and its activities in its first year were reported as follows.
The author failed to mention John Willett’s part in the formation of the Billygoats and as a result the omission has been repeated in John Cleaver’s history of Fitzwilliam.
As Walter Grave noted in his History of Fitzwilliam, in its first year the Society “treated its Rules with a cheerful disregard, for at its first meeting, in appointing Mr Wayper (a former member of St Catharine’s B.C.) to be its Secretary, it did not remember that candidates for the secretaryship had to be past members of F.H.B.C.”: Rule 4 was broken.
Further, the election of two Vice-Presidents at the first General Meeting created an anomaly. The Rules make no mention of the position of Vice-President. The committee membership (Rule 3) does not include Vice-Presidents – but Rule 6 states that the Boat Club President “shall be an honorary Vice-President” of the Society. (At the time the Club was, like CUBC, led by a President not a Captain – F.H.B.C. changed in 1955.)
The anomalous situation of Vice-Presidents remained unchanged for 15 years. The original Rules with only minor modifications (such as amending the reference to ‘the President of F.H.B.C.’ to ‘Captain of Boats’) remained in force until 1963 when rewritten by a sub-committee of the Society chaired by Bill Williams, then Billygoats President.
It might appear that the newly adopted Rule 5 was also ignored by that first meeting as the University Rep recorded in the Journal as being elected was ‘Mr E.F.R. Stearn, B.A.’. Clearly not an undergraduate! But it seems likely that Ted Stearn was indeed an undergraduate when elected, as he matriculated in 1946 and went down in 1949.
My final comment on the first year of the Billygoats is to draw attention to the involvement of four senior members of Fitzwilliam in a society established by two undergraduates – the Secretary (Leslie Wayper) was a Tutor and the Treasurer (Bill Williams) was Assistant Censor and Bursar, the Censor (Thatcher) and a Tutor (Norman Pounds) were Vice-Presidents,.
The second lockdown left David Knowles with no excuse not to clear the attic and he found a file of early Billygoats stuff including menu cards, a copy of the rather smart membership card for ’59 (he came up in Sept ’60, and cannot recall how he came by it), and the 1963 Constitution.
Tracey also found this 4 page guide to rowing technique and training dating back to Oct 1981, written by ‘NGB’. It seems to have been aimed at preparing the women’s fours for that term.
It references Norman Kirkby, who rowed in the 1981 1st May VIII and I believe was involved in coaching CUWBC, but I do not know who NGB is. A certain Geoffrey Norman Bindley was BC Treasurer in Oct 1981, but we must presume that he could spell his own initials. Other coaching Bs at that time include Beevor and Booth, but neither have the right initials, whatever order we take them in. There was an N. Bevan who rowed in the 1st boat in 1979-80 and a Nick Bevan rowed in the 1981 May 3rd VIII (an Arthur Cooke “Gentlemen’s Boat” so it could be the same man) – could he (or one of them) be our illustrious author?
Quiz:
1 Who is NGB?
2 Does the below still stand as a good guide to Technique, Water work, Land Training and Rigging?
As many will know, Ken Drake is making an archive ken-drake-archive and in the process he was looking for a 1979 BCD menu. Neil Gardner (1977) tried to help:
Apologies on taking so long to getting round to looking out my old boat club dinner menus. I knew I had religiously kept every menu over my college rowing career, and yesterday I unearthed them and dusted them down looking for the Lents 1979 edition. And guess what? It is the only one missing. This got me thinking and and after consulting Riyad Insanally and Roly Beevor, the Captain of Boats at the time, we have pieced together our collective memories of those times and I can exclusively reveal that there is no Lents 1979 dinner menu because the dinner never took place. But I do have the CUBC crew list and some photographs.
But for the record, the dinner could not take place because FCBC were punished and barred from holding the dinner in February 1979 due to some ungentlemanly behaviour during the preceding 1978 Fairbairns Dinner in college. Riyad has a clearer recollection than I do about the events that led to this unfortunate situation, but I understand that some of the members of one crew drank to excess, leading to laddish behaviour and material damage to a door on the main building. Not to mention some unpleasant issues related to regurgitation of the dinner in the wrong places by some individuals. Students never change.
So we could not hold that Lents dinner in college. New Hall BC next door (who shared our boat house at the time) took pity on us and invited us to join them for their dinner. If there was a menu, our crews were not listed on it!
But I can provide you with the below pictures and scans of the FCBC crew lists from the CUBC program. We are sure of the crew names of the 1st and 2nd boats due to the pictures, but I don’t have a picture of the 3rd boat yet to confirm. There were only 3 Fitz crews entered. Roly Beevor was Captain and I was Vice Captain.
Neil Gardner
FCBC 1st VIII Lents 1979
Bow: Simon Clephan, 2 Clive Woodman, 3 Steve Owen, 4 Andy Procter, 5 Onno Wieringa, 6 Roly Beevor, 7 Neil Gardner, Str Ben Booth, Cox Steve Lees
FCBC 2nd VIII Lents 1979
Bow: Chris Macdonnell, 2 Nick Bevan, 3 Paul Flood, 4 Simon Cole, 5 Nick Francis, 6 Trevor Still, 7 Mike Cowie, Str Neil Wharmby, Cox David Williams
FCBC 3rd VIII Lents 1979 (order to be confirmed if a photo appears)
Bow: Tim Ladbrooke, 2 G Price, 3 P Duquemin, 4 M Chālons-Browne, 5 Jerry Leary, 6 John Wells, 7 Pete Hale, Str Arthur Cooke, Cox Guy Thorpe-Beeston, Coach: Nick Tittle
