St Cross College, Oxford

Torpids 2011 was a most successful week for the Wolfson-St Cross team.  Read the latest report from St Cross representatives, Rebecca Schneider and Clifford Sofield. 

We are thrilled to report that the Men's First VIII won blades!  (That's the achievement of bumping at least once every day.)  After a string of bumps in the first two days, we were sure we were faster than Hertford going into the final race, but in bumps racing anything can happen.  Afterwards everyone admitted to being nervous, but when the cannon fired, we produced our best row yet, and with a long, loose, powerful rhythm we hunted down Hertford's crimson Stag like wolves.  The result: a bump on the Green Bank, our fifth in five races, moving up six places to eighth in Division I.

The Men's 2nd VIII had some bad luck on the first day of racing when a gate popped open at the start, but they rallied back on day 2 by bumping Regent's Park. Their final race has been called 'epic'.  Coming out of the Gut, St Catherine's II were a length off Wadham III and Wolfson M2 were a length off St Catz.  While holding Wolfson to a length, St Catz closed on Wadham and bumped them (for blades).  But Wolfson, now two lengths down on Wadham with 500m to go, rallied and bumped Wadham half a length from the finish line in a legendary race.  Wolfson M2 have moved up four places this Torpids, bumping three times, and getting bumped once. 

The Women's 1st VIII also had some bad luck on the first day, but came back with the drive to win. On the second day, they bumped St Hugh's in the first two minutes of racing. On Saturday they capped a good Torpids with a textbook victory.  Chasing Merton, the boat was about three-quarters of a length behind coming out of the Gut.  With relentless skill they reeled them in over the course of the Green Bank, bumping them immediately after crossing the stream below Boathouse Island.  That was Wolfson W1's third bump this Torpids; they've moved up two places overall, despite getting bumped on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, for the Women's 2nd VIII unlucky circumstances on day 1 made them hit the bank right off the start meaning that both Hertford II and Worcester II were able to bump them. Day 2 was also unlucky due to some technical problems, and they were bumped again. But the team rowed like stars, despite conceding bumps to Univ II at Donnington Bridge and Trinity III at the bottom of Boathouse Island.  Trinity impeded them, and they never had a chance to close the gap on Exeter II, who had started two places ahead of them.

Congratulations to all the St Cross rowers for their heroic efforts all week.

St Cross Torpids Team Members are:
W1: Rebecca Schneider (cox), Victoria Reuter, Dieuwertje Kooij & Gillian Langor

M1: Nanda Pirie (cox), Clifford Sofield, Chris Prosser & Philipp Becker

W2: Raffaella Facchini, Blandine Boeuf, Kathleen Buckingham, Katherine Henson & Esther Horowitz

M2: Greg Bangert & Morgan Dirodi

Photos courtesy of Rebecca Schneider and Esther Horowitz.