Normal social in the form of a bar crawl plus end up in Loveshack!

Basic principle of ‘Pimp my Boat’ is that:

The four members of your boat turn up as a team.

The more original and uniform the outfit the better.

All four members will be attached using string/rope provided by social secs.

Throughout the night you need to ‘pimp’ your boat with various items from around town.NB. This is at your discretion, nothing illegal, dont get caught.

Free entry into Loveshack for the best pimped boat!

Inclusion of a cox will give you extra ‘pimp’ points!

Potential and example ideas for outfits:

• All in rowing lycra
• 118 118
• Scooby doo team
• Adams family
• etc etc. You come up with your own original ideas.

Examples for ‘pimping your boat out’:

• Beer mats
• Swapping item with people in the street
• Shrubbery
• Basically just be spontaneous.

Running with the rowing tradition bring some gaffa tape with you for attachment of items.

Any problems or questions email us at:
joshua.alleway-moger@durham.ac.uk
e.martin-davies@durham.ac.uk

Is this Tuesday (the 24th) in the bar at 7.45. Come dressed as a pair with someone else….

Dave
x

SATURDAY - Cup First Round

First up on Saturday morning were Clare Alexander, Leanne Clayton, Sophie Cusition and Naomi Flowers racing against a crew from Grey.
In a close race and despite Neil’s best coxing efforts, Grey managed to scrape the win, and send our first hopefulls into the Plate on Sunday.

Next was Mark Backhouse’s finely tuned rowing aces - Emily Scott, Olivia Kent, Callie Brown and Ruth Hurley. With his absence due to sickness (and the dire lack of membership fees) of usual cox Alan “reet” Sanders, Rachel Martin took over coxing duties, and, in a convincing display, eased them to a solid victory over their Aidan’s opposition.

Scheduled for an 11am start, at just after 12pm, mine and Rachel Martin’s crew of Emily Woods, Olivia Mercer, Caroline Henderson, and Jess Watson paddled up to the starting line to face off against a crew from University College. After the opposing cox took around 20 minutes to spin their boat… the marshall signalled attention, then GO!
After a massive crab in the race start, Collingwood dropped down to rowing with only stroke pair and fell behind. Once Jess had reclaimed her oar from the murky depths, we quickly stepped up to full power, and overtook the Castle five just before Hild Bede. Over the second half of the race, the gutsy Collingwood crew pulled away strongly to take a well-deserved victory with a few lengths to spare.

At 11:52 (1pm) it was time for Sarah Thompson, Charlotte Gatehouse, Emma Spedding and Lucy Partridge to step up and face off against one of Hatfield’s novice offerings.
In a performance that made their coach Robbie McFaul glow with pride, his crew powered away from the start.
Lifted by the admirable Collingwood support from the bank, they steadily built distance over the race and flew to a sound win.

SATURDAY - Cup Second Round

With three of the four CCBC women’s crews still in the competition and looking strong, the weather still unbelievably cold, and good old DCR a good few hours behind with the schedule, the controversial decision was made to postpone over a third of the second round races to Sunday morning, meaning only one CCBC women’s crew were able to race that day.

At 14:24 aka 16:45, it was time for Mark “Monster” Backhouse to watch his crew line up against hill college rivals St. Marys. With Rachel Martin once again at the helm, Collingwood looked strong but lost out at the death to strong opposition. Showing a lot of promise, one thing is for sure - these girls will be back for more!

SUNDAY - Cup Second Round and Plate First Round

With races now beginning drastically earlier than intended, several of Collingwoods finest were called upon at the ungodly hours of darkness to trek down to the river to begin races at 7:30am.

My crew, the BOOBS Crew, joined an ominous-looking Hild Bede crew at the starting line for the first Cup race of the day. After another shaky start, Woods, Mercer, Henderson and Watson fell behind initially, and a great race followed. Spurred on by my roars and each others’, the BOOBS fought to draw level just after their rival’s boathouse.
Neck and neck to the last strokes, the two crews battled on, and finally, with cries of “COLLINGWOOD, DO YOU WANT THIS??!!”, the BOOBS superior stamina and hunger for glory won out.

Next on the schedule, Thompson, Gatehouse, Spedding and Partridge were back for more, lining up against Hild Bede for their second race of the Cup.
Despite a masterclass in technique, the Collingwood quartet led by Elise couldn’t quite match the pace of the Hild Bede four.

In the first race of the Plate, it was time for Alexander, Clayton, Cush and Flowers to make the Aidans novices afraid…
However, in a questionable marshalling decision, Elise and the Collingwood four were not given time to line up properly before the race starting, resulting in their perfect race start propelling them bow-first into the bank. Despite their unfair exit from this competition, the girls should be proud of themselves and resolve to come back from this stronger than ever.

SUNDAY - Cup Last 16

After a much needed breakfast and nap in Lloyds, the BOOBS were back and perky as ever for their next race against Grey. In a surprisingly easy race, Collingwood powered past their hill neighbours and crossed the finishing line, whilst Grey wrestled with the Hild Bede landing stage. We were into the Quarter finals!

SUNDAY - Quarter Finals

It was time for the showdown between the BOOBS crew from Collingwood, and the decidedly more muscular Hild Bede crew who had put an end to Robbie’s crew’s Cup dreams earlier in the day.
With a few blade collisions at the start, both crews made good progress down the course. The smaller Collingwood girls found it hard to match the strength of the Hild Bede side, but with superior technique on our side we were holding our ground. Hild Bede caught a crab near our landing stage, allowing us to overtake.
As both crews approached the bridge, it was very tight with Hild Bede right behind us, but we held out to cross the line first.
Unfortunately, our victory was short-lived, as we discovered that we had been disqualified shortly after getting ashore.
My “aggressive coxing” had apparently impeded the Hild Bede boat, changing the outcome of the race… despite the fact that it didn’t cause collisions of boats or blades!

Feeling robbed of Cup glory, and with the rest of Collingwood also knocked out by this point, it was time for the long walk home.

The guys put up an impressive show in the Novice Cup. 1 of our crews (Joe Sumerfield, Rob Stack, Josh Alleway-Moger and the impressive emergency sub, Chris Brown, coxed by Elise Martin-Davies) got through to the quarter finals as well, only being knocked out by the Hilde Bede crew that eventually won! (and the margin they lost by was closer than in the final!). Not to put down the others at all, all 3 of the other crews looked very solid and avoided being the subject of the commentators persistent (and occasionally recycled and quite rubbish) jokes.

All in all a successful weekend. If you didn’t see the comedy that was certain college boat clubs (St ‘take it slow’ Aidans or Castle, with their incredible crew with a magnetic attraction to the bank) or just the crews that adopted novel tactics like having a blade in the water at all times and those that thought they’d try and spin mid-race, then you really missed out!

In any case, we have a novice mens squad to be proud of, and as long as we keep up the hard work on the training over the rest of the year, by Durham regatta there will be some talent thats gonna go on a pwning spree.

The first social of the year will be held next Monday (20th) meeting at 7.45pm in the bar. Theme is Golf Pros and Tennis Hos. Be there.

Welcome to the new look Collingwood College Boat Club website. There is a new boat booking form, and more pages will be added as the term goes on. If you would like to contribute please get in touch with your captain.