First off, welcome to the Queens’ College Boat Club. The vast majority of those who row at Cambridge have never rowed before Uni – so don’t worry if you’ve never set foot in a boat before. With the six Lower Boats Captains (LBC’s); Harry Prance, Roger Poolman, Luke Chapman, Amy Francis, Abi Smitton, and Katie Hamilton you’ll be taught how to row, taken to hundreds of infamous boat club swaps (more on these below), and meet loads of people in the very sociable world of college rowing.
This definitely deserves a section to itself. The boaty swaps you’ll be going to this term will be, quite simply, awesome. The way it works is that the LBCs (that’s us) email other captains or rowing friends in other colleges and set up loads of swaps for our novices (that’s you guys). Or if we see a boat of lads/ladies who catch our fancy on the river who we’d like to see more of then that works too! These swaps can involve either a formal or a wild curry! Colleges have formal silver service dinners most nights, at which you have to wear a suit. The food is usually pretty good, three course meal etc… and then we usually head on to a club after. The curry... well let’s just say that can be a little less formal! It’s a terrific way to make friends in other colleges and you’ll look back at the end of this term on some very funny brilliant nights.
Hopefully at the squash you signed up for at least one tubbing session (if not please email one of the LBCs to arrange a time, contact details are at the end of this sheet). A ‘Tub’ is a small, slow and very stable two person boat which we’ll get you rowing in for 10 minutes with one of the LBCs coxing (steering) the boat. This’ll teach you the very basics of rowing and give you a chance to decide whether you want to carry on for the rest of the term. We will also give you a peek at our sleek and fast 60 foot “Eights” which we train and race in all year, just in case the exhilaration of the tubs is not quite enough to entice you.
The LBCs (Roger, Luke and Harry for the guys, Katie, Amy and Abi for the gals) then move on to dividing you all into different crews of 8 rowers and a Cox. Once we’ve got you properly into a team we can start teaching you how to row. The emphasis for this term is to learn to row, keep you active, make new friends, become a proper part of our wonderful boat club but above all HAVE FUN. There are a few competitions throughout the term, and although it’s always nice to win they don’t really matter. All we want to have at the end of the term is a lot of new enthusiastic members of QCBC, who know how to row well.
On 9th November there is an Ergo Competition held at Queens’ which every novice crew within the entire university will turn up for. A dozen or so Ergos (rowing machines) are set up in the Fitzpatrick Hall. The competition is a 500m sprint, where each member of the team does 500m as fast as possible, with 20 seconds between people to change over. Traditionally Queens’ does very well in this, and it’s a tradition we aim to keep up!
There are three races we’ll enter you guys into this term. These are: Emmanuel Sprint Regatta (21th Nov), Clare Novice Regatta (25nd – 27th Nov) and the Novice Fairbairn Cup (2nd Dec).
1. Emma Sprints is a fun regatta, fancy dress encouraged, only 500m and followed by an excellent cocktail party for all entrants.
2. Clare Novice Regatta you’re less likely to see a boat full of leprechauns rowing past, and it’s a chance for novice crews to get some more experience in racing, building up to….
3. The Novice Fairbairn Cup. This is the hotly contested race at the end of term between all the novice crews on the river. All the crews will have started from scratch, just like us, and normally the fastest boats are the ones that row well. The divisions are split into 1st boats, 2nd boats etc… and there’s no reason for Queens’ not to do seriously well across the whole competition at every level.
Fear not, the answer is NOT lycra (unless that takes your fancy). Basically just old trainers, shorts or tracksuit bottoms depending on the weather, and a long or short sleeved t-shirt (although bear in mind if it’s too baggy it might get in the way when rowing). Later in the term, once the teams are sorted, we’ll get some crew t-shirts printed to row and race in. Although not necessary for tubbing, a water bottle is also a good idea for proper outings in an ‘eight’. All other equipment is provided by the club.
We’ll try and keep a list up on the sports board of all the currently booked tubbing slots. We’ll email you too. Last year I remember it took a few weeks to get email sorted and to learn to check it regularly, so if you can’t email for the first few weeks we’ll try and keep all the info you need on the sports notice board outside the bar. If you can’t make a tubbing or outing slot please please let us know. We can always arrange another slot/time but it’s a real pain if people don’t turn up.
