Leah and Leonor (Women’s Captains)
Overall, Michaelmas 2018 was a successful term for Balliol women’s rowing. We recruited 2 full boats of keen novice rowers, who progressed quickly under the watch of our novice coach, Ella Morgan. We had a successful experience at New College Indoor Regatta, where both Balliol A and B teams made it to the final with some relay erging, and the A team losing out to Pembroke in a close finish. This was good preparation for the novice racing to come, where WA reached the quarter-finals of Nephthys regatta and made it to the third round of Christchurch regatta. WB, despite only having a full crew the week before Christchurch, did a stellar job, losing their first race by only one seat. We are keen to see how our novices progress when training with seniors for Torpids next term, starting with a winter training camp in Abingdon before Hilary term! Balliol seniors put in a solid term of training this Michaelmas, although unfortunately prior commitments prevented us from entering any external regattas with them. We are confident that their experience in the 4+ will help them in the run up to Torpids!
BCBC has had a great start to the year for both the seniors and novices showing huge potential for the year to come. For the novice squad the term began with a successful BBQ and taster rowing session along with a drinks event bringing in enough novices for 3 boats coached by our novice coach, Natalie. These, along with extra erg sessions coached by seniors, set out a perfect base leading into New College Indoor Regatta where our team beat a strong field from other colleges to win the relay event. Next was Nephthys Regatta which gave the novice crews a huge chance to practice starts and gain side by side racing experience ahead of Christchurch Regatta where we entered 2 crews. Here our A crew made the quarter finals losing by a seat while our B crew lost to a strong New College A boat in the first round. The following week brought Christchurch Regatta. Overall all crews showed a very strong performance with MA and MB making the 4th and 3rd rounds respectively with MA narrowly missing out on a spot in finals day while MC rowed admirably against Corpus A losing out on a place in the second round – huge congratulations to everyone who competed.
Ed (Men’s Captain)
Meanwhile the seniors trained in Abingdon in both an eight and a four with the four competing in Autumn Fours on the Isis against a number of colleges. After a tough number of races the four beat Corpus A by over a length to win the event. This along with a match race against St Edmund Hall has given the seniors who raced valuable experience and sets us in good stead for a promising Hilary term.
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