Autumn fours: 22 October 2011

W1 rowed a good first race but unfortunately lost against GTC B. But all was not lost as there was a repechage. We then went on to win against Christ Church and Jesus, and sadly lost in the final by half a length to St Catz. It was a strong performance by the girls and a good start to the season.

IWL A: 15 November 2011

M1 rowed twice in IWL and finished with the 2nd and 3rd times of the day! Well done.
Official results available here.

On the 11th of September the Wolfson women left Oxford early in the morning for the last summer regatta this year. The IM3 4+ first raced the ladies of Broxbourne over the 600m course on the Cam. Verdict: Wolfson win by 1 3/4 lengths. They moved on to the final against Green Templeton. Wolfson, behind for the first half of the race, managed to come back with one of their fantastic "squat jump" pushes. They finally overtook Green not long before the line thanks to the brilliant coxing of Will Allen!


The girls and Will went to collect their shiny glass pots and were then joined by the 4 other girls of the eight. In the IM3 8+ event they went straight into the final against Champions of the Thames (who had won their semi-final against Broxbourne). Due to a problem in the wiring, bow four couldn't hear the wise words of Will, but that didn't prevent Wolfson to be in the lead all the way down the course and to cross the line first, winning their second pots of the day!
A great way to round off the summer, well done!

On the week-end of the 20th and 21th of August, Wolfson brought back home some silverware in a good Oxford City Royal Regatta campaign!
After a slightly disappointing start for the two men's IM3 fours, Wolfson won their first event at lunch time: the women's eight won the 350m sprint in an extremely close final against Oxford Academicals. The men's eight was also very good in the sprint, going all the way to the final where they lost to Oxford City.
On Saturday afternoon the women's IM3 eight sadly got disqualified in their first round against Llandaff when they clashed blades after a very good start. The men however won the IM3 eight event. They finished their final 1.25 lengths in front of Reading RC.
On Sunday morning, the women's four won their first round easily against Putney Town, and their semi-final in an very close race against Curlew RC. Sadly they lost their final a little bit behind the Linacre IV who was very impressive that week-end.

On the 30th of July, 3 Wolfson crews went to Henley for another summer regatta. First to go was the women's four. They won their semi-final in a good race against Barnes Bridge Ladies. Next was the men's four, who lost to Thames RC. Despite the result, it was a good experience for the boys and the first external regatta for 3 of them: "We rowed pretty well and I think we can be proud that we pushed them all the way. We've also now rowed under Wolfson colours, been (as far as I know) the first non first 8 crew to row in Weapon X and performed a tap turn at a regatta so a reasonable list of achievements."

The next race was the women's final in the four. Just after the start it became clear that there was a problem with the rudder. The girls had to race the whole 1000m with only one side putting some pressure down. They finished 3rd of their final just 2 lengths behind Maidenhead RC, fighting all the way to the line.

On the 9th of July the "Wolfpack" made the trip to Kingston for a bit of side by side racing experience. The men entered their "Rat and Honour" coxed four while 6 of our women were competing for Osiris and Tethys (the Oxford University openweight and lightweight clubs).
The men won their first heat against Auriol Kensington easily. For the semi-finals they were up against a Russian crew, English RC from St-Petersbourg, and Twickenham RC. They didn't have their best row and finished 4 lengths behind English RC but 4 lengths ahead of Twickenham. At first quite disappointed, they were slightly reassured when they discovered that the Russians had made it to the semi-finals of Henley Royal Regatta the week before.


While the results were quite disappointing for the girls racing with Tethys, Osiris had a great day and both of the Wolfson girls racing with them came back with a point and a pot, well done!

On Friday 24th June 2011 a Wolfson men coxed four went to Henley for the qualifying race of the The Prince Albert Challenge Cup. They faced very tough competition and didn't qualify, coming fourth of the non-qualifying crews with a time of 07:43.8.


Full results available here.
BigBlade photos available here.

The women entered a four in Oriel Regatta on the 18th of June and raced against Christ Church in their first round. They had a good start and held them off to the Boat Houses but Christ Church eventually beat them to the finish.

Men's report coming up soon.

The women went to Henley on the 17th of June for the qualifiers of Henley Women Regatta. They were competing against 21 academic crews. They rowed a clean race but sadly didn't qualify, with the fastest non qualifying time just one second too slow.



BigBlade photos available here.

11 bumps, 6 crews, 5 klaxons, 4th place in div 1 and a whole lot of great rowing. Find out more on the Summer Eights page.

On the 14th of May the men sent 2 crews to Bedford Regatta. M1 posted the fastest time in the first two rounds and made it through to the semi-finals before being forced to scratch. M2 lost in the first round to the University of East Anglia (eventual semi-finalists) but they were happy with their race and with the experience gained for Summer Eights.